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Chapter 8: Control Freak
Dr. Slate chewed lightly on her lip as she held the X-Ray sheets up to the light to compare them. One had been taken a month ago after Dwayne had been "rescued" from Number 7. The other was more current, having been taken after the incident with the mysterious four armed robot.
Sighing, Ericka laid the pictures down on her desk again. So far, she had been unable to find any differences between the two. While on the one hand, she was quite happy to have her suspicions contradicted, it left her worrying about the Lieutenant's mental state instead. //I'm sure he was just tired... But I want to be _absolutely_ sure...//
Plucking another sheet from her desk top, Dr. Slate inspected the rough schematic Poindexter had sent her of Dwayne's neural implant. He had warned that it was far from complete since he hadn't been able to actually deconstruct the device, but both scientists had agreed that it was better than nothing. She had been much relieved when Dr. Poindexter had volunteered to come in person. Evidently, he too felt that the potential threat outweighed the inconvenience.
The implant was a strange looking device, almost organic in form. Molding itself to the base of the skull, slender "feelers" extended outwards and embedded themselves into the brain stem. While she could only guess at all of the properties, the primary function was a portable life support system. The implant subverted the body's normal ability to maintain automatic functions, regulating them on its own. At the moment, it seemed to be working perfectly, but there was always the potential for future malfunctions.
"What 'cha got there, sugarpop?"
Dr. Slate gasped and spun around only to be faced with a much-too-happy Dr. Donovan "Good lord! You startled me!" she accused, quickly hiding the paper behind her back. The _last_ thing she needed was Donovan messing around in her work.
"Looks like a blue-print to me," Jenny chimed in, "And ya know anything you invent while you're here..."
"It's nothing!" Ericka _did_ know all too well that her work was the property of Quarks. The thought of what Donovan might do with such highly advanced and dangerous technology made her feel queasy, "I was just looking over something Dr. Poindexter sent me." //Maybe the truth will be enough...//
Donovan's beady eyes lit up with glee, "Oh really? Are you planning on... collaborating on a new project?"
"No!" Dr. Slate shuffled around to stay facing the persistent man who was surreptitiously attempting to gain a glimpse at the schematic, "He just wanted an... opinion! No help... I'm not helping..." The scientist desperately fumbled for words while trying to keep the two intruders squarely in front of her.
"Too bad," Jenny suddenly leapt on to the desktop and triumphantly picked up one of the X-Ray sheets, "Looks pretty interesting."
"It's nothing," Dr. Slate grabbed for the sheet but was beaten by Donovan.
"Well, well, well..." the eager CEO studied the image carefully, an unpleasant smile curving his lips, "Now this _is_ interesting. You know, Quark's medical research division would _love_ to see this. We haven't gotten into cybernetic prosthetics much..."
While she was mildly surprised that Donovan had been able to figure out what he was looking at, Ericka was afraid of what he would do with it. Rapidly gathering up the other images, she protested, "It's not mine!"
Her declaration did little to deter the man, "I'm sure Dr. Poindexter would be willing to negotiate... Don't you agree, Jenny?"
"Am I interrupting something?" Roland Poindexter paused just inside the door to the lab. He took in the scene with a calculated gaze and quickly surmised that Dr. Slate was far from happy with whatever situation she now found herself in.
"No!" quickly snatching the sheet from the distracted CEO's hand, Ericka moved over to greet the other scientist, "I was just looking over what you sent me..."
"Dr. Poindexter!" Donovan neatly nudged Dr. Slate aside and took the other man's hand in a vigorous hand shake, "What a pleasure to have you visit us again!"
Startled by the friendly assault, Poindexter sought an appropriate response, "Uh... yes, well... I can't stay too long..." He deftly extricated his hand from Donovan's grip and offered a bland smile, "I'm afraid Dr. Slate and I have much to discuss - military matters... I'm sure you understand."
"Ur, yes, of course!" recovering easily from the rather blunt dismissal, Dr. Donovan moved towards the door, "I insist that you let me buy you lunch!" He paused, allowing Jenny to scamper back up to his shoulder.
"Perhaps some other time..." Poindexter waited until the man had vacated the room before turning to Dr. Slate, "You really have to put up with that man?"
She smiled faintly, "Afraid so. I don't have a choice, really. Quark owns the only facilities with the capabilities to construct the components I needed for Rusty."
"Ah, I see," Poindexter said knowingly, "Sometimes you need to make compromises for your work..."
"I thought you'd understand." Spreading the X-Ray images out on her desktop, Ericka sighed, "But, we're not here to discuss _my_ problems..."
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Skidding slightly on the freshly cleaned floor, Dwayne ran into the control room. The sound of the Big Guy signal rang through the corridors, "What've we got?"
"Something big, tall, and ugly," Garth pointed to one of the monitors which displayed the image of a gigantic creature tearing a hole in a building.
"What the hell is that?" shaking her head, Jo leaned forward to study the image.
"A one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple-people eater?" Mack suggested sarcastically.
Jo rolled her eyes and straightened as she stepped away from the screen to allow Dwayne a better look, "Cute. Very cute."
"What ever it is, that thing's tearing up downtown... Looks like it's show time," Dwayne grinned, eager to be back in control of the BGY-11. The familiar sensation of adrenaline in his blood stream came as he slid into the cockpit. The hatch snapped shut behind him as he set his hands on the controls. Flickering to life, the three screens in front of him offered a panoramic view of the hanger with the pit crew all smiling.
Mack gave him the all clear sign along with a smirk, "Hey, don't over do it. Remember. Aliens are people too."
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"The Big Guy signal!" Rusty raced from his room towards the hatch that he used to get outside.
"Rusty!" Dr. Slate called. The Boy Robot came to a halt and turned to look curiously at his creator, "Be careful, okay?"
"Sure as shootin'!" was his carefree reply as he sped up through the piping.
"And tell Big Guy to be careful too!" she shouted, not even certain he would hear her.
Dr. Poindexter laid a hand on her shoulder, "I don't think you need to be concerned. I'm sure they'll both be fine."
Still unconvinced, Dr. Slate let out a resigned sigh, "I hope so..."
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"Wow... This thing is really making a mess," Dwayne commented to no one in particular. He scanned the area in search of his target, easily following the trail of destruction, "Come out, come out where ever you are..."
The site had mostly been evacuated as was standard procedure. New Tronic's citizens had become accustomed to attacks by various strange beings. "Getting out of the way" was a very valuable survival trait in the city.
"Hello... What do we have here...?" Hunched over a toppled skyscraper, the scaly beast was gnawing at the steel frame, "Not too bright, are you...?" Dwayne pressed the switch that connected his voice to Big Guy's amplified speakers, "Excuse me, but I hope you weren't intending to dine and dash. We tend to frown on that sort of thing here." The creature blinked its enormous eye twice before turning around to face the new sound, " But I can see you're from out of town, so you might not be familiar with the local etiquette."
The monster sniffed the air curiously, obviously wondering if this noise-making object might be a source of food. "Ugh... You're an ugly one..." Dwayne murmured as he got a full frontal view of the alien. Covered in matte black scales, it stood more than five stories tall. One large, bloodshot eye was centered in what Dwayne could only assume was its head with two smaller orbs flanking it. The body was roughly that of a quadruped with tentacles branching from its forward shoulders. Its enormous, gaping maw displayed three consecutive rows of very sharp teeth, "Why can't these things ever be vegetarians...?"
Watching Big Guy cautiously, the creature lashed out a tentacle that was intended more to threaten than to injure. The flailing limb, however, struck a steel and concrete sky bridge that typically ferried pedestrians from one side to the other high above the street. Metal shrieked in protest as the steel reinforcing bars in the concrete were ripped apart. The structure plunged towards the ground and the people beneath.
Dwayne sent Big Guy leaping, barely managing to catch the falling object with one hand before it crushed the innocents down below. Even then, the massive robot staggered forward as the Lieutenant fought to maintain its equilibrium. Judging that he had moved the bridge far enough from where the people had been standing, Dwayne let go to reestablish his balance. Saving people from being killed by a bridge only to squash them with a giant robot wasn't exactly a good trade-off.
A group of tourists gawked from below as their guide frantically tried to herd them to safety. Big Guy waved awkwardly, "Welcome to New Tronic City, folks. Enjoy your stay, but please don't feed the monsters." The crowd seemed highly excited to see the titanic defender that everyone spoke of. As the group scampered out of range, Dwayne caught a relieved glance from the guide. //Now there's a _fun_ job... I wonder if they make people take out traveler's insurance...//
"Oof!" Dwayne was rattled as Big Guy hit the ground. The sounds from outside the cockpit told him that the monster had decided to body-slam the robot while it was distracted, "One point for you..."
"Big Guy!" Rusty shouted as he arrived at the scene, "Are you okay?"
Dwayne couldn't help but smile. Sometimes Rusty DID have excellent timing, "Sure thing, son. Just need to get this alien off my back..."
A deafening grinding sound set the titanium hull ringing. "What the hell is that...?" Dwayne cringed, effectively blind as long as Big Guy was face down.
"Hey! You can't eat Big Guy!" Rusty chastised the creature, "You don't know where he's been! Dr. Slate always says, 'Don't put anything in your mouth...'" The red headed robot was abruptly cut off as he was swatted by a tentacle. The creature was quickly attracted by the brightly colored boy robot and chased him as he bounced off the ground.
Finding himself freed, Big Guy pushed himself up and glanced around to take in the situation. Rusty was currently being gnawed on by the scaly alien who seem perplexed by the difficult it was having in piercing it's meal's "skin." Kicking his feet wildly, the boy robot cried out in protest, "Hey! You don't know where I've been either! Eww... Alien spit!"
"EERrrw...?" the creature replied as it removed the robot from its jaws. Confusion turned to anger, or perhaps disgust, as it flung Rusty aside. Slowly waddling off in search of a suitable and digestible food, the alien completely turned its back on the two machines.
"Gross!" Rusty exclaimed as he attempted to brush the rather goo-y saliva off himself. The strange liquid hiss and fizzled as it came in contact with the ground, rapidly eating a hole in the pavement.
Dwayne sighed, "Great. Not just alien spit, but ACID spit." Big Guy bent down to be closer to the boy robot, "You okay, son?"
Rusty nodded dejectedly, "Yeah, but I wasn't much help, was I?"
"Of course you were. You got that monster off of me, didn't you?" Big Guy responded matter-of-factly, "Distraction can be an important battle tactic. Don't forget that."
Brightening considerably, Rusty jumped up to hover closer to the other robot's head, "Sure as shootin'!"
"Good. Now let's go get that alien."
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"These are the x-rays taken when he was admitted to the hospital before they were going to remove the implants... and these were taken after the incident with the four-armed robot..." Dr. Slate placed the images she was referring to on the light table.
Inspecting them closely, Dr. Poindexter rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, "Hmm... These aren't terribly helpful... But I suppose MRI scans would be completely useless because of the metal... No. The X-Rays should do."
"I've only noticed a few minor discrepancies between the two," Ericka pointed to several places she had marked in red, "I wasn't sure if they were really significant or not."
"That's interesting..." picking up the magnifier that had been made available, Poindexter held it over one of the crimson circled areas, "It looks as though the main cerebral implant was punctured here. But over here..." The scientist moved to a second drawing from the set, "It's been repaired... You said both of these were taken after the robot attack?"
Nodding affirmatively, Dr. Slate sighed, "Yes... I'm not sure what it means, though. Its possible that these implants have the capability to reconstruct themselves... I'm not sure what else could account for that."
"True... It's hard to know exactly what modifications the Legion might have made to my original designs..."
"And then there's _this_," Dr. Slate offered him the disconnected hand from the mysterious robot, "There's some very unusual circuitry in this one that wasn't in any of the others. I'm not sure, but it looks like there was a power supply that only had a very limited charge. It appears to have burned out immediately after attacking Lieutenant Hunter."
Poindexter's gray brows rose in surprise, "That _is_ strange."
Frustration made itself known on Dr. Slate's face, "That's not all. I'm not sure what this cylinder was for, but it looks almost like a tracking device. But if so... what was it tracking? It's range could only have been a few feet!"
Studying the deconstructed components, Dr. Poindexter prodded one of the loose pieces of casing aside, "You have a good point. There must have been a specific and predetermined signal that it was to locate, and there must have been an assumption that whatever target it they were after was going to come in close contact with the robot."
"If all these things are what I think they are, then the power supply was designed to activate only when the target signal was detected." Dr. Slate paced slowly, "However, like you said, there must have been some assumptions made. And why would anyone go to all that trouble..." Ericka came to a dead stop. She felt a chilled knot form in her stomach as the pieces clicked into place. Grabbing one of the X-Ray sheets, she scanned it quickly.
"What? What's wrong?" Dr. Poindexter asked with great concern over the other scientist's sudden flurry of activity.
"The robot... It only activated when Dwayne... when Lieutenant Hunter got close to it... Why didn't I remember that...?" Intently pouring over the images, Dr. Slate tapped one of the red circles with her finger tip, "There! Look! It's not a puncture... it's an interface port!"
Shocked by her proclamation, Poindexter rapidly processed the information, "Good Lord! You're right! But then... Oh dear..."
Stricken, Dr. Slate looked up at him, feeling an irrational hope that he might come to some conclusion other than the one she had found, "The port wasn't there before... and it disappeared soon after..."
Poindexter's eyes were wide, "The robot... must have been activated by a signal from the implant... which must have produced the interface in reaction to the proximity of the robot... which..."
Ericka's heart was pounding as she fought off the panic which threatened to swamp her, "... which must have transferred... something to the implant! But what...?" Laying her hand across her chest, she forced herself to take a deep breath. //Panicking won't do anyone any good...//
Gently setting down the mechanical hand, Dr. Poindexter spoke calmly as he moved towards the door, "I do think we need to call Lieutenant Hunter... _now._"
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Meanwhile:
[A/N: heh... always wanted to do that...]
"Looks like we've got some company," Big Guy rumbled as General Thorton ordered troops in to position. The tanks moved to block the alien's path towards the residential section of the city, unloading several rounds of fire. While the shells merely bounced off the creature's scaly hide, they did produce the intended effect. The monster roared in irritation and changed direction.
Peering through his binoculars, Thorton smiled grimly, "Looks like he's all yours, Hunter."
Dwayne pulled back on the arm controls, ready to take a swing at the monster, "Maybe you'd like to try on... huh?" Big Guy's hand completely missed the creature, instead punching a hole in a nearby building. Jerking the controls in a belated attempt to correct his error, Dwayne set the robot staggering backwards to counteract its forward momentum.
Rusty paused and watched in confusion, "Big Guy...?"
"Er... Just a momentary malfunction..." Dwayne distractedly said through the speakers. Cautiously, he tested the controls again and found no delay or difficulty in their response. "Huh... That's weird..."
"Rrrroowwrrr!" Taking advantage of the robot's difficulty, the scaly monster pounced. Dwayne reacted almost instinctively, sending Big Guy down on his back and using the alien's own momentum (along with a hefty push from the robot's titanium soles) to send it sailing past down the street. Somehow, though, the toss was miscalculated, sending the creature into a building.
"Damn!" Dwayne worked Big Guy back to his feet, angry at his careless mistake.
The monster pushed itself out of the rubble, snarling in fury. Spying its metallic opponent, the creature charged forward.
Dwayne quickly moved the controls to the left, neatly sidestepping the attack. The monster slid to a stop by digging its claws into the pavement. Not waiting for it to turn around, Big Guy threw a punch at it. The blow missed by a large margin along with a stray discharge from the forearm laser, "What...? I didn't mean to fire that!" Blinking in confusion at the disoriented robot, the alien backed away.
"Hunter, this better be some ingenious tactic to confuse the enemy, 'cause you're doing a _lot_ of property damage!" Thorton's visage appeared on the monitor.
"I don't know what's going on!" Dwayne snarled, more in frustration than in anger, "Come on..." The Lieutenant struggled to move the right hand controls. Suddenly, his own arm jerked to the left, sending the machine careening into a high rise department store, "NO!..."
"Big Guy...?" Uncertain, Rusty hovered nearby but out of arms reach.
Desperation took hold as Dwayne fought to hold his hands still. His arms trembled with the effort, "What's... happening...?"
"Lieutenant! What's your status?!" Thorton barked over the cockpit speakers.
"Dwayne! What the hell's happening?!" Garth's concerned face flickered on to another screen. Behind him Mack and Jo were working the controls of the VTOL.
"Don't... know!" Dwayne attempted to force his hands to release the levers, but couldn't even relax his fingers, "I think... I need some help..."
Glancing at the other two pit crew members, Garth made a decision, "Dwayne, can you switch on the emergency remote over-ride?"
"Uh... No..." came the strained reply.
"Never mind then... Mack!" Turning his back to the screen, Garth addressed the grizzled mechanic who was already busily flipping switches on the primary command panel. Mack raised his hand in acknowledgment. Dwayne was greatly relieved when the cockpit's over ride lights went on indicating that he was no longer in control.
Big Guy pulled himself up straight, readying for a renewed fight. Still shaking slightly, Dwayne cautiously attempted to open his hand again. The muscles in his arm finally relaxed, and he slowly blew out a breath. His head hurt and his vision blurred slightly. Exhausted, he closed his eyes.
Rusty beamed as he saw his partner rise, "Big Guy!"
The titanium titan's head swiveled in his direction, "Sorry 'bout that... Just had some technical difficulties." Big Guy offered a thumbs up.
"Rrrr..." The alien shuffled sideways as it considered what to do next. It no longer seemed to be interested in trying to digest the robots.
"Look, big, tall, and scaly, I really have other things I need to be doing, so why don't you just play nice and cooperate?" Garth spoke for Big Guy as he directed the robot to circle the monster.
Hunching down, it retreated, still contemplating a course of action, "Mrrr..."
Rusty frowned, "He doesn't seem to want to fight anymore." Tapping a metal finger against his chin, the robot thoughtfully watched the alien.
"Good," was Big Guy's only reply.
"Hey! I've got an idea..." opening a small hatch near his belt, Rusty produced a small, round object which he tossed towards the creature.
"What're you...?" Big Guy watched the monster open its massive jaws and swallow the item. It purred. "Uh... what did you just feed it?"
"Candy!" Rusty beamed, "I think he's just hungry. That's why he tried to eat everything." Taking out another piece, he threw it into the monster's mouth. Approaching cautiously, the small robot gently patted the creature's head.
Garth rubbed his forehead, "That figures..." He stared at the screen in amazement as the alien happily accepted Rusty's touch, "General, maybe we can find this thing some more sweets or something...?"
Thorton called the orders into his radio before adressing the two robots, "Rusty, why don't you lead... your friend here out towards the airbase so we can...feed him..."
"Sure thing!"
Nodding, the General quietly turned back to his radio, "As for Big Guy, let's get him some help."
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