----
Max glanced around.
It had been an entire day since he'd woken in his new body, and he'd
never felt better, but for some odd reason, things seemed worse than
before. Babe was walking by right then,
so he stopped him. "Babe, you did your best.
None of us had any idea that the anthro had been a robot. Stop being so hard on
yourself." Babe averted
his gaze before he spoke. "Do you honestly believe that? The humans have some of our super metal, and
they know how to build Mitchel's version of the robot. The only thing we have now that they don't is
a tank. If they manage to get the
blueprints for one of those, they'll be able to stop us with their superior
numbers! How can you say I did my best
when I couldn't even catch him?!!!! I
should have been able to go faster!!!!"
"Babe, stop. You HAVE to
stop blaming yourself for something you couldn't stop. We'll cope with it. After all, we DO still have the
tank." "But
Max... The tanks took one shot to
destroy a normal robot. We have no idea
how many shots it'll take to stop them now!
Plus, we can't use Mitchel's bombs
anymore. They'll be just as protected
against them as we are!" Chris
walked up. "Babe, listen to Max. We
aren't out yet. We still have a chance
so long as we have the tanks and they don't.
It's gonna be alright."
"SHUT UP!!!! HOW CAN IT BE
ALRIGHT?!!!!!!! WHAT
POSSIBLE BRIGHT SIDE IS THERE?!!!!!!!!!" Neither were able to
answer. Babe scowled and stomped off,
leaving them alone. Max turned to
Chris. "How should we help him?"
"We can't. This is something
he's taken to heart. I wish we knew more
about him..."
"Chris!"
"What? It WOULD help. He needs some kind of comfort, but what kind
can we give him? I mean, think about
it. He's lived for so long, with doubts
that have probably haunted him for all the years he's been alive, that we can't
BEGIN to understand what's happening to him." "Who made you the expert all of a
sudden?" "No
one. It's as plain as day if you
look for it. More doubts will just make
things worse. He probably blamed himself
for when we were all trapped inside that city.
For when you 'died'. All we can do is give him time to accept that
he can't stop every bad thing from happening, which will be hard for him,
considering his past." "What's
his past got to do with it?"
"He WAS the Protector, wasn't he?
Do you remember the stories about him?" "He was there to protect everyone from
crooks. He always seemed to be there
whenever he was needed, no matter where the victim was..." "Exactly. He has a reputation to keep. He was there for EVERYONE, until now. He hasn't been able to stop us from getting
changed, or from losing others. He took
Anthony harder than the mother, from what I heard. How do you help someone who isn't supposed to
need it? How do you give aid to a
hero? He's probably more conscious of
this fact than anyone in the world. He
can't live with failure, not when he used to be perfect in the eyes of everyone
else. It's hard to cope
with..." "Chris, how would you
know this?" "When I was a kid,
after I lost my family, I forced myself to be perfect. I wanted the ridicule to stop, so I made them
respect me by doing everything I did better than everyone else. Not only is it hard, but it's harder to keep
going like that. I've felt something
similar to what he feels right now. I
blame myself for my family's death, because if I had done one thing
differently, they might still be alive right now." "What happened to them?" "I lost my family to robots, but only
because I had been stupid enough to think I could handle them. I stood up by myself, taking out robots while
we drove away. I was a nearly perfect
shot. I could even aim at the one area
where the robot would self-destruct! I
was trying to do just that while we drove away.
I only missed one of them... That
was all it took."
"Chris... I'm sorry." "No, no." Chris wiped away a tear, then
started walking. "C'mon. Jesse wants to see
us." They walked off to the
look-out tower, where Jesse was now sitting.
He'd been given the wheel chair that Dana had used, and was in much
better spirits because of it. Soon he'd
be allowed some crutches, then the next step would be
to take the bandages off. Max noticed as
they walked up the stairs that his feathers were starting to grow back. Some scabs had fallen off, giving room for
tiny feathers to start up. THAT fact was
also making him much happier. Max
returned the smile as they reached the top step. "So
Jesse, how is being the leader work for you?" Jesse looked to the ground. "I
haven't been any help. No one has come
to me for advice, or any questions of anything.
I feel useless around here."
"Jesse, all they need is time to get used to you. I can't exactly take the job back." "But you HAVE to! They listen to you!" "I'm robotic now. Who's going to listen to me?" "But Max, they--" "They don't trust me anymore. It isn't easy for them to trust a robot since
they've been fighting them their entire lives.
Don't worry, Jesse. Sooner or
later they'll trust you." Jesse
held up some binoculars. "Hey, since you're here, what do you
make of this?" He offered them
the binoculars and pointed in the direction he'd been watching. "There's
ahuge dust cloud over there, but I can't make out
what's causing it. Any
ideas?" Max didn't need
the binoculars. He used his own enhanced
vision to see what it was. As he
watched, he could sometimes see the glint of metal, but it was never the color
of a robot. Once, the cloud of dust
cleared just enough for him to make out one thing. "Jesse,
you aren't gonna believe this..."
"What is it?" He
looked through the binoculars again. Max
turned to him. "That's the army from the battle at Yann city. Look." He pointed almost directly up. The small shape of a helecopter
could be seen. "Our army... We've just gotten over half the restistance!!!!! MITCHEL!!!!!!!!"
Mitchel came running up. "What
is it?" "Mitch, do you still
think you can make more tanks?"
"Yeah, but I don't have many parts.
There isn't much metal in this village for me to use." "Mitch, instead of
building them from scratch, why don't you just modify those?!!!!!" Mitchel scanned the
horizon, watching for what Max pointed to.
When he saw it, he smiled.
The robot downloaded every bit of information onto
the main computer, and handed over the piece of metal.
----