Droid Hunter - Part 5

[ButchyBoy]

Six robotic girls were suddenly looking at Cricket, and each other, with mummers of, “Criminal? …What’s he talking about? …I wonder what she’s done.” On the floating screen above them, Stan Sterling just smiled.

“That’s right…..girls” he said with a smirk. “And I use that term loosely, by the way. Say hello to the star attraction of the day, and the reason all of you are here. Daddy’s Girl model 2QXR3, alias Mrs. Cricket Lang.” Sterling pressed a button on his desk, and the screen switched to an image of Harry. He seemed a bit more composed then when Cricket had seen him last, and some of his wounds had begun to heal. It was still a very angry looking Harry, however.

“And this is her partner in crime, Mr. Harry Lang of Old Chicago. Together, these two wanted felons run a rogue operation known as the “New Hope Detective Agency”. They’re wanted for various crimes against the corporation, including grand theft, espionage, and most of all, trying to prevent a benevolent company, GlobalCon from doing business and making a fair profit.” Cricket couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that last, absurd statement. The image of Harry went away, and was replaced by Sterling who just stared coldly back, as if he failed to share the joke.

You can’t be serious” Cricket said, still chuckling. “Well, girls, I’m afraid what he says is true. Harry and I are desperate criminals. We’ve done the most horrible things. We stopped GlobalCon from taking control of Old Chicago, and practically throwing everybody out of their homes. We showed pop star Electra Storm that she could make it on her own, without having to slave under GolbalCon’s thumb. And we prevented the assassination of the Governor of the Illinois/Indiana/Ohio territory, which by the way, was ordered by The Chairman himself.”

“Hey, hey, now you can’t make that charge stick there missy” Sterling said rather defensively. The other robot girls were ignoring him, however, and once more chattering among themselves. “That doesn’t sound like a criminal to me…..yeah, seems more like a real hero……she sure doesn’t act like any Daddy’s Girl I’ve known.”

“It doesn’t matter what you mindless bimbots think!” Sterling cried, shouting them all down and pointing right at Cricket. “She’s a wanted criminal, and you’re all obsolete models ready to be melted down, and THAT’S what our audience is going to see tonight!” While Sterling was throwing his tantrum, Cricket thought she saw something a bit out of place. It looked like a glitch, not from the screen, but from Sterling himself. Could there be something wrong with her optics, Cricket thought to herself. Before she could dwell on it however, the game show host quickly composed himself, looked at his watch, and addressed the fembots once more.

“It is now precisely two minutes before ten a.m. In exactly two minutes, the game of Droid Hunter will begin. The eight of you have exactly a ten hour head start, not a minute more or less. Ten hours to find the way off this little island we’ve set you on. There is one and only one true exit, lots of fake ones, ones that will even lead to certain doom, but only one true exit. That exit will open the door to the walkway which leads to where out studio audience sits. There in the center of the room, is a button. Make it here, hit that button, the game is over, and you’ve won freedom for yourself, but only for yourself. After ten hours have passed, Hugo, our Droid Hunter, will be unleashed, tracking you down one by one, live for everyone in every dome city to see. If by some miracle, any of you survive the entire twelve hours, you will be brought here before our studio audience, and be declared a winner. It’s only fair to warn you, however, that to date, Hugo has never lost. Well girls, the game is now about to begin. Good luck, and have a happy meltdown.” And with that, the screen went blank, and floated off. The same pleasant sounding disembodied female voice the girls heard earlier, spoke once more.

“The game begins now. Ten hours is on the clock for heard start time” the voice said.

This entire time, the eighth member of the group, the one with the plain grey dress, had been quietly sobbing to herself. Cricket gently made her way over to the girl. “I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself before, my name is Cricket” she said with a genuine smile. The other girls all smiled, waved, and introduced themselves.

“I’m Jenny”

“I’m Lilly”

“I’m Melanie”

“I’m Kelsey”

“I’m Sammie”

The tall bodyguard droid didn’t smile but introduced herself rather coldly anyway.

“I’m Gia”

The girl in grey weakly smiled back, tears still in her eyes, “My…my name is Wendy. It’s…it’s nice to meet you all I suppose.” Cricket looked rather surprised with she identified what type of android Wendy was.

“Why, you’re a Daddy’s Girl too” she exclaimed. Wendy just looked down, kicking her feet a little at nothing in particular, and not really making eye contact with Cricket or the others.

“Yes, I’m a Daddy’s Girl model. I’m…I was mostly a babysitter for a nice family, and then one day, they simply told me they didn’t need me anymore, and I ended up in some auction, and someone from GCTV bought me and here I am.” Cricket put her hand on the sister droid’s shoulder to let her things were going to be ok

“Fascinating story, well, see you later losers” Gia said as she waved and turned.

“Gia, wait a minute” Cricket said, looking up at her. Gia turned but kept walking slowly backwards as she spoke.

“Wait for what? Watch you play nursemaid to miss Raggedy Ann reject sitting there?’ Gia said, pointing down at Wendy. The bodyguard droid then did an about face, striding off down a path. Cricket, however, wasn’t about to let her get away, especially after that last insult. The robot girl detective marched right after her, finding herself using a word she had only heard Harry utter more than a few times.

“I said wait, goddamnit!” On hearing this, Gia stopped cold in her tracks, and looked over her shoulder at Cricket with a look of mild shock. This one certainly wasn’t like any “Daddy’s Girl” she had ever heard of, Gia thought. For her part, Cricket was very glad to have the taller android’s attention. Her mood quickly softened as she spoke.

“Look, right now, I’m guessing that from all the hidden cameras around us recording everything, that each one of us is supposed to scatter and scamper about for the next ten hours, trying to find this one true exit. And then, once the Droid Hunter is released, he’ll shoot us, or melt us or both, one by one, for all to see and maybe, just maybe one will survive and win the game, have I got that right?”

“Yeah” Gia answered. “Exactly, what is your point?”

“My point, exactly, is this” began Cricket’s answer. “What if we didn’t play the game like Stan Sterling wants us to? What if the eight of us, stuck together? Worked together as a team to find the exit? What if we kept things so damn boring, they’d have to put a re-run on? And you’ll be the one to lead this team. Come on Gia, what do you say?”

The others looked expectantly at the cybernetic bodyguard. And she looked back at all of them. “All right, I’ll lead” Gia said simply. The others all gave a collective “Yes”. “But” Gia added, looking right at Cricket, “anyone who falls behind is your problem to deal with, not mine. Now let’s go!” Cricket seemed con tent with her role.

“All right, girls, you heard our leader, let’s move out.”

The eight android girls all followed Gia and Cricket down a pretty clearly marked path. As they walked, Jenny and Lilly began chatting with each other, as did the twins, Mel and Kel. Sammie kept close to the others, but walked by herself, taking note of the various plants and trees, all of which seemed to contain very small cameras. Windy walked alongside Cricket, silently at first, but as time passed, she seemed to work up the courage to speak to her newfound friend.

“Do you really think we’ll all get out of here……together, I mean?” she asked rather nervously. Cricket gently put her arm around her ‘sister’ and smiled.

“You bet we will” she said with much confidence in her voice. “This is going to be the most boring game ever.” Wendy smiled back on hearing that. The happy was quickly broken when Cricket felt something smack her bottom hard

“YOWTCH” she yelped. Cricket spun around to see just who or what did the smacking. At first she saw Mel and Kel standing there with the palm of their hands out, but the twins quickly pointed to a tree next to them. That tree had a swinging branch which seemed to have a mind of its own. Stuck to the end of the branch was a rolled up paper bearing Cricket’s name across it. The little robot, who was still rubbing her bottom form the swat she had taken, took the note off the branch and read it out loud for the others.

“Congratulations on getting your little group this far Mrs. Lang. But this is a game show, not a Girl Scout hike. So let’s make things more interesting shall we? Tell me Mrs. Lang, what is it that’s black and yellow and metal, and just mad all over? And mind you, they sting far worse than the one you just got.”

Just as Cricket and the others were beginning to guess the answer to the riddle written on the note, a buzzing could be heard above them. As the buzzing got louder, the girls looked up to see holes appearing in the sky. Out of the holes came what appeared to be few several hundred back and yellow metal hornets, all with flashing red eyes. As if on some unheard cue, those hornets retracted their stingers outward, aiming them right at the eight androids below. And each stinger had an electrical charge!


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Next: But Which Path?

[DollSpace]

Very very nice - please write more soon, kay? Catie-Cat misses reading Cricket stories!

Cat-Cat