Droid Hunter - Part 7.1

[ButchyBoy]

It was now 11:30 in the morning. Ninety minutes had passed since this ‘game’ of Droid Hunter had begun for Cricket and her companions. They were moving along the trail once more, making conversation with each other. Cricket wondered how long it would be before the next challenge by “Sparkling” Stan Sterling was thrown their way. She didn’t have to wonder long.

An incredibly fake looking parrot had dropped from a tree above hanging by a wire, which was attached to the bird in a very obvious manor. The parrot seemed to be made of Paper Mache, and was flapping back and forth, with a note in its claws. The faux bird also had a small speaker in its beak. Out of that speaker came a rather taunting speech.

“Squawk! Turn back losers! Turn back! Never make it! Hugo’s gonna get ya! Hugo’s gonna get ya! Turn back dumb-bots! Turn back! Squa----“

Gia yanked the parrot off it’s wire, crushing and silencing it both at once. She pulled the paper it had in its claws, and then tossed the bird aside.

“Thank you” Cricket said with a sigh of relief.

“Don’t mention it” Gia said. She then unrolled the paper the bird was carrying, and read it out loud for the others.

“I see now my hornets were much too simple a challenge, even for useless throwaways such as you.”

Cricket just shook her head. “He never lets up, does he? What else does he have to say?” she asked. Gia continued reading the note.

“So let’s see if any of you are smart enough to choose the correct path out of the three directly in front of you. One path may take you in circles, another may lead to certain doom, and only one may lead you closer to the exit. And consider this; if your so called ‘leader’ picks the wrong one, you will all suffer. If you break up now, one of you may win the game and freedom before Hugo even shows up for work today. Signed, Stan Sterling.”

The girls started to mummer to themselves, and pointed to the three distinctly marked paths each going down a different direction. Cricket stepped in front of the other robotic girls to address them.

“Look everyone. Sterling is determined to have us all separated by the time this Hugo enters the picture. Now I truly believe that each one of you is strong enough, and smart enough to win the game on your own.” At that point, Gia cleared her throat to get Cricket’s attention, and tilted her head toward the twins, who were less then quietly giggling at each other for no apparent reason.

“Yes Gia, even the twins” Cricket said. The identical looking girls beamed hearing this.

“We’re always good at games” said Mel.

“And we’re programmed to win perfectly” said Kel, giving her sister a high-five.

“Then help us win this one. I say we’re stronger together, and we can win together. Who’s with me?” Cricket asked.

When the day started, Gia would have dismissed the robot girl detective’s words as just mindless chatter. Now she was the first to defend her.

“I’m with Cricket. It was her quick thinking that got us past those hornets, and she’s the one who’s gotten us this far together. I see that now. On our own, running who knows where. That makes it easy for this Droid Hunter to track us and take us out one by one; but the eight of us? Sticking together? I think that scares the hell out of Mr. Stan Sterling. What do you all say? Together?”

“Yes, together!” the six of them answered in cheerful unison.

“Ok, Gia, which path do we take?” Cricket asked.

“That’s easy. I’ll just scan each path to see which one goes in a circle, and which one is most dangerous, and the one left is the one we take.”

The tall android woman began her scanning, a confidant smile on her face. As she looked each path over, however, that confidence began to fade quickly. Cricket noticed Gia’s head and face began to twitch in a rather un-natural way, and she kept looking at each path, over and over and over.

“Gia, what’s wrong?”

As she pointed to each path, the taller fembot struggled to answer Cricket.

“This…..this path…..bends in a circle…….and sensors…….cannot indicate what is beyond that bend. The path in the middle……..bends in a circle……sensors unable to penetrate beyond…..that…..bend. The path on the far….far right…..bends….sensors…unable to…….first path….”

Gia was beginning to move more stiffly, she raised and lowered her right arm in a jerking motion. Cricket could hear buzzing come from within her abdomen. She noticed Sammie had also been scanning the paths, using her logical mind to find the best one. The tutor droid’s head was moving in a very stiff motion. It snapped to the left, then to the right, and back to the center again. Cricket could hear Sammie buzz as she endeavored to speak.

“Danger…..danger…..each path…….identical……unable….unable….”

Cricket knew what was happening. This was a trap devised to at the very least severely damage the smarter ones in the group, if not eliminate them outright. She knew if she didn’t do something fast, both of them would overheat beyond any hope of repair.

“Gia! Sammie! Stop your scans! Stop them right now and look at me!” Cricket cried in the most commanding voice she could muster. Fortunately for both of them, the force of her voice was strong enough to stop what they were doing and look at Cricket. The little robotic girl’s voice was still in a command mode, but it softened somewhat when she spoke next.

“Both of you clear your thoughts. Relax and let your cooling fans do their work.”

The buzzing had stopped, and both Gia and Sammie seemed to be returning to normal. Gia still looked very confused, however.

“I…….I don’t understand. We’re supposed to take a path but….” Before she could get worked up again, Cricket reached up right hand up and placed it gently on Gia’s shoulder, and gave a comforting answer to her confused state.

“It’s right in the clue he left us. One path may go in a circle, one path may lead to doom and destruction, and one path may be the right one. All three of them may lead to one big hole in the ground. That bastard had no intention of giving us any kind of advantage.”

“What can we do Cricket?” Sammie asked. “We certainly cannot go back to where we came from, and wait for the Droid Hunter, can we?”

“No Sammie. We’re just going to have to pick one path, and…….see where we end up.”

“Yes, but which path Cricket?” Gia asked. “How to we pick it?”

“We’ll use the random factor.” Cricket answered. Gia just raised an eyebrow.

“The random factor?”

“Yes. The random factor.” Cricket spun around to face the paths, and used her “random factor”.

“Ennie, Meenie, Mineie, Moe, catch a villian by the toe, if he hollers every day, hit him low, Ennie, Meenie, Minie, Moe. My Harry told me to pick the very best way and this is it!” As she spoke each word, her finger pointed to each path next to the other, moving her finger left to right and back again. When she got to the word “it”, her finger pointed to the path on their far left.

“The winner is path number one. Everyone follow me.”

The girls smiled as they went down the path Cricket had chosen. Cricket had the biggest smile of all as she spotted another hidden camera. She held up two fingers, and mouthed the words, “That’s two.”

Watching the monitors from his office, Stan Sterling sat there rather dumbstruck.

“Ennie…..Meenie…..Mineie……Moe” he said, repeating the words Cricket chanted in choosing a path. From another monitor in Sterling’s office came the sound of laughter. That source of that sound was Harry Lang, who’d been able to watch how his robotic wife had been fairing this entire time. Sterling looked up at his captive.

“Well, what’s on your small mind chuckles?” Sterling quizzed, puffing on his cigar. Harry walked right up to the camera in his isolation cell. He was healing, but still looking very much roughed up.

“Face it pal” Harry said, “She’s ten times smarter than you could ever hope to be. And just as clever” On hearing this, the rather calm and cool Stan Sterling suddenly got very angry.

“That’s impossible!” he shouted. “I have you two quite separated. You’re nowhere near her. You can’t pull your little doll’s strings now!”

“You don’t get it do you? She’s my partner, not my toy. She thinks for herself. Yes, I’ve taught her things; how to be a really good detective, how to look for details in every clue she finds. But she chooses her own path; she solves problems in her own way. She never stops impressing or amazing me. And that’s why she’s going to win your stupid game; why they’re ALL going to win.”

That little speech of Harry’s only seemed to fuel the game show emcee’s rage.

“No machine, now matter how advanced can ever outsmart me, a living, breathing human being!”

“Cricket outsmarts guys like you every day of the week” Harry retorted. “As for you being human? Well, that’s certainly debatable.”

“Enough!” Sterling quickly composed himself and even smiled again, sting as his desk once more.

“We’ll just see how good your….partner does from this point on. Oh and one more thing; once Hugo has permanently short-circuited your dear Cricket….you’re a dead man.”
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Next: The rest of Chapter 7

[DollSpace]

Eh... I suppose it's slow here tonight! I was hoping someone else would reply to this too, but I'll go first ^_^ This is a really sweet story so far, and I'm enjoying reading it lots. It does go slow in parts but I think there's enough of a mystery here to keep reading, and, promise of some nice malfunction scenes (if you're, errm, into that sorta thing...*blush*)... Of course, I have to admit having a soft spot for Sammie...she's so much like me! *giggle*

*hugs*
Rynnie