Droid Hunter Part 8

[ButchyBoy]

The most unusual party of eight robotic girls of different shapes and sizes continued to make their way down the path Cricket had chosen, using her ‘random factor’. Or at least seven of them were walking together. Cricket now noticed the missing person in their little group.

“Hey, where did Wendy get to?” Cricket asked the much taller bodyguard droid, Gia.

“You mean miss little eager beaver?” Gia answered with a bit of a chuckle. “She insisted on scouting ahead, and just zipped right off before I could stop her.” Cricket began to ponder how different her sister ‘Daddy’s Girl’ seemed now than when this adventure began.

“Gee, first helping rescue the others from those hornets, and now this. It looks like shy little Wendy’s gone from wallflower to cruise director in one easy lesson” Cricket quipped.

“It does seem most unusual for a robot of her type to display such of difference of personality in so short a time, but then as I understand it, the ‘Daddy’s Girl’ type android can be very versatile when need be” observed Sammie in a rather flat matter-of fact tone.

“That’s very true Sammie’ Cricket said with more than a bit of a smile. Just then, a cry came from up ahead. The missing Wendy had re-appeared far ahead of them, waving her arms to get the attention of the others.

“Hey!!! Everybody!!! Up here!!! This way!!! I’ve found clues!!! Lots of them!!!” she shouted, jumping up and down as if she discovered the world’s richest treasure. Cricket and the others quickly ran up to join the much excited Wendy. Just as they did, the girls suddenly froze right in their tracks, each of them staring straight out into space, and then blinking several times. Then, only a moment later, they all resumed their natural movements as if nothing had happened at all.

“What have you found Wendy?” Cricket asked.
“It’s just like I said Cricket. See? There are all these little cards sticking up from the ground. And they all have the word, ‘CLUE’ written on them in big letters. Look Cricket, they’re everywhere.” Wendy was pointing to the ground what she saw; or at least to Cricket, what Wendy thought she saw? The robot girl detective herself couldn’t see any cards marked ‘CLUE’ or otherwise. She was about to point this fact out when Gia suddenly and very franticly grabbed the pig-tailed blonde.

“Cricket, don’t move!” Gia cried. “Can’t you see? There are land mines everywhere! Step on one, and we’ll all be blown to bits!” Gia’s grip on Cricket was getting tighter as she struggled to break free of it.

“Gia!! Have you gone crazy?? Let me go!”

“I’m trying to save you Cricket! Can’t you see those things? They’re everywhere!” Cricket looked right up at the taller android.

“That’s just it, Gia. I don’t see any….” Cricket was interrupted by Lilly.

“Goodness” gasped Lilly. “Look at all these toys scattered all over this field. It looks like some naughty children left them behind.” Just as Lilly was making her way to clean up the mees of toys she saw, Jenny spoke up.

“Those aren’t toys Lilly” she said. “Anyone can see those are cans and boxes of food scattered everywhere. They need to be re-stacked neatly.”

“Clearly, you are all suffering some sort of visual malfunction” said Sammie. “Those things out there are not notes, nor land mines, nor toys, nor are they canned or boxed food items.”

“So, what do you say is out there Sammie?” Cricket asked.

“Clearly, those are books; books that are in desperate need of being re-shelved as neatly as possible” Sammie said, very sure of herself. By now both Cricket and Gia were giving each other very confused looks. There were only two left Cricket hadn’t heard from, and as she looks to ask them, the ‘Party Girl’ twins it seemed hadn’t been paying much attention to what had been happening the last several minutes. They were just both giggling and pointing out the fake scenery to each other.

“Uhhhhh…Mel and Kel?”

The twins were still giggling away when they realized Cricket was addressing them.

“Oh gee Cricket, were you talking to us?” asked Mel. Cricket just smiled and nodded.

“Sorry. We get distracted way too..” Kel suddenly gasped and clutched her sister droid in pure excitement.

“Party Favors!!!!!” they both squealed. And before anyone could stop them, the twins raced past the others onto what Gia was still seeing as a field full of land mines; to Lilly’s eyes the two were stepping all over some left-behind children’s toys. Wendy saw them kicking them clues everywhere, Sammie saw books, and Jenny saw cans and boxes of food either being stepped on or stepped over. All of them cried out to the twins in either horror or disgust. All except Cricket who for some reason could only see an empty field, with a single black circular object in the middle.

But there was something about that near empty field that didn’t sit right with the robotic girl. Then she saw it, beneath the layer of fake grass. It was some sort of electromagnetic field. Harmless to walk on, but if touched….and Kelsey was about to do just that, reaching down to pick up what she though was a party hat to put on.

“Kel, no! Don’t touch it!” cried Cricket. ZAP!!! It was too late. The-green haired droid stood very erect, her eyes wide open at first, then fluttering and blinking very rapidly. Her hair was sticking out in several places as well. The pink-haired Mel giggled at first.

“Gee Kel, you sure look silly. You ok sis?” Kel looked at her twin, or actually, she looked right through her.

“I’m perfect! Let’s party……party……party…..party…party.” Her head twitched to the left then right every time she repeated the word ‘party’. Mel stopped giggling, and began to genuinely worry for her twin.

“C’mon Kels, quit fooling around. You’re starting freak me out, k?” Kel gave her sister an eerie smile, and then started to dance, singing “Superfreak, I’m a superfreak”. She danced, she bent down to pick up what she though was different party favors, and everytime she did…..ZAP…..ZAP….ZAP ZAP. With every “ZAP” Kel’s circuits would overload more and more. She began to overheat as well. She went from dancing to just waking stiffly back and forth, her arms stiff and bent.

“Super……duper……party….party…..I’m sexy…..let’s party….I’m perfect…..perfect parrrrrrty…….I’m Kel….Kel……Kel….Kelllllll….Kel….party….love to….party….party……party” Her tone was still very upbeat and she even giggled in between words, but her movements were stiff and very jerky. Smoke was beginning to stream from her ears and nose. Mel was in a total panic by now.

“Kel…..KELSEY!!!” She tried touching her sister, but got a shock herself.

“Cricket! Gia! Somebody help her please!!” Mel cried in tears now.

“Mel, walk slowly back toward us” Cricket said as calmly as possible. “I’ll try and help Kel, but have to get out of that field right now.” Mel nodded and did as Cricket told her.

“Oh please Cricket, you have to help her!” Mel cried. Cricket though quickly.

“Gia, you’re trained to handle explosive devices?”

Gia nodded in the affirmative.

“I know you see what you think are a whole bunch of land mines. But if I’m right, they’re all illusions. All except one. It’s the one right in the center, and it’s not a mine, it’s a small field generator. That’s what’s causing those shocks she’s getting. Destroy that, and you kill the field, got it?” Gid nodded.

“Good. Take care of that and I’ll try and rescue Kel.”

Cricket took one of the nets she saved from the hornet encounter, hoping it was insulated enough to keep her from getting shocked. She quickly ran up and wrapped it around the malfunctioning Party Girl droid and yanked her to safety. Meanwhile Gia found the troublesome device right where Cricket guessed it had been. She carefully picked it up and crushed it in her hands. The field wasn’t shocking to the touch anymore, and everything the girls had seen a moment ago; the mines, the toys, the food, and the books; all of them vanished as if they had never been there in the first place. And Kel wasn’t faring so well.

Her body twitched, her eyes crossed and uncrossed, the words were coming out of her mouth at hyper speed. And then with a very loud bang, she fell to the ground, motors and servos giving out and shutting down. She managed to open her eyes to look at her sister and give a faint smile.

“Melanie….sis…..thanks Mel….it….was……fuuunn.”

“Kelsey….Kel” Mel said, kneeling at her sister’s side, shaking her, but she would no longer move. She reached behind her left ear and clicked her reset button…..and clicked it……and clicked it. Kelsey just lay there, eyes closed, getting colder by the moment.

“No……no…..Oh no!!!!”
And for the first time since they all met each other, the ever tough Gia showed a softer side to her programming, holding and comforting the devastated Mel.

And Cricket got angry. Angrier then she even thought was possible. And all that anger was aimed at one individual. And that individual was watching it all on the different cameras.

“One for my side”

Next: A mole in the midst.

[DollSpace]

Sweet! I loved this installment, if only for the emotional content; very moving, in a way...can't wait to see where things go from here ^^ So hurry up with Part 9 already!

By the way, this is my 1,000th post on this board! Granted, a lot of my posts came from archiving the stories here, but still...that's a lot of posts! ^_^ Hopefully I'll be able to celebrate it by posting a story of my own soon, but I haven't, umm, really started anything yet... ^^; So wish me luck; I'll need it!

And you! You there! Keep writing!
*(hugs)*
Catie