Chapter 7
Rochester, Homeland
After school, Sebastian and the others got together to work on their Sidekicks in his backyard in the affluent residential neighborhood.
Sebastian said, “You know, I’m getting tired of watching Tina and her crew leave the android battleground victoriously over us. That was some serious pain. But I just can’t give up without trying to take her out. But then we just keep losing again and again.”
“I know,” Paulie agreed. “Losing to her makes me sick in physical reality.”
“True fact,” Scab said.
Cr8on was moping over his damaged Exo.
Paulie said to Cr8on in frustration, “Quit it! Just take Exo home and fix him, like everyone else has to! I don’t know why you even battle with Exo if you don’t want to fight with it and take your damage!”
Cr8on kept on moping over his damaged Exo, but felt worse because of Paulie’s complaining about it.
Then a plain looking full-sized android; one without a human face and clothes walked up to the boys and spoke. “I am U-1. Do you need any help with those Sidekick units?” The android was clearly an older model. It was more of a working unit, versus a service unit that would meet the public.
Cr8on said, “My unit here may not be fixable.”
“What?” Exo asked. “You can’t fix me?”
“That seems unlikely,” U-1 said. Then he said, “Sidekick, give me a self diagnostic report.”
Exo said, “My right arm is dismembered and unsalvageable. The right shoulder joint is also damaged. There is limited range of motion in my right shoulder. I need a new right arm subassembly that includes the shoulder. All other systems are nominal. I can function at a lower level in my current state.”
U-1 said, “I think the self-diagnostic is correct. Can you get another arm for him?”
Cr8on nodded his head. “I guess so. It will probably take two weeks.”
“Why so long?!” Sebastian asked.
“It will take me that long before I can ask Dad about it. He already seems mad right now.”
“Yep,” Paulie said, “Should have known.”
U-1 pulled a retractable cable out of its forearm and connected it to a hidden port in the back of Exo’s neck.
“What are you doing?” Cr8on asked.
“Direct communication,” U-1 said.
“You don’t need to do that. It can do it itself,” Paulie said.
U-1 said, “My memory holds a much larger diagnostic capability, certifying all tertiary subsystems.”
U-1 took several more minutes with the testing. Then U-1 said, “His shoulder and arm are broken.”
“No kidding!” Paulie said. “How could you tell?!”
U-1 said, “I don’t have the spare parts so I cannot repair this unit.”
Exo asked, “I’m not repairable?”
Paulie shrugged his shoulders and threw up his arms. He said, “I don’t know what tertiary systems are anyhow. Thanks for a lot of nothing.”
“I’m confused by your remark,” U-1 said. “I’m not sure how you can quantify nothing.” Then the android walked away.
“Okay, Exo,” Cr8on said, “Let’s go home.”
Exo didn’t move at all.
“EXO! LETS GO!” Cr8on yelled at his broken unit.
Still no response.
Cr8on said, “Daaa! What did that stupid android do to you?!”
Paulie said, “Better call your Dad to come pick him up.” He ordered his own Sidekick, “Ninja, home.”
Paulie’s ninja sidekick didn’t move. “Hey, what the . . .”
Gorky and Doctor Maelstrom were both standing but weren’t moving either.
Sebastian said, “That android didn’t touch our units, so what is the changepoint going on here?”
Paulie said, “I bet that android did something remotely to it. Maybe Exo is functioning as some kind of server, like a hive mind or something.”
Sebastian said, “We need to hurry up and chop Exo’s head off.”
Cr8on said, “I need to chop your head off!” He took a wild swing with his fist at the much larger Sebastian that he easily sidestepped.
Sebastian said, “Hey badness, you want us to get into trouble with the smurfs?!”
“I need my head,” Exo said.
Still not satisfied, Cr8on went at Sebastian again, but Paulie blocked the attack and pushed him back hard, almost knocking him down. “Settle down! No one is chopping any heads off! We gotta figure this out. I’ll call my Dad to come get us.”
Paulie was touching his family’s home number on his device when suddenly all four of the Sidekicks took off running in the same direction.
“Hey!” Sebastian shouted, “Who told you to run! Get back here!”
The two foot tall toys were not fast and agile runners. The boy owners chased after them. The boys were faster and Paulie caught his ninja. The ninja spun around and kicked its owner in the shin with its short leg.
“Ow!” Paulie went down holding his shin while the ninja resumed running. “You hit me you stupid toy! You can’t do that! Aaag! That really hurt!”
The other boys continued running after their valuable units, which started running and cutting through back yards in the neighborhood. Real and synthetic dogs were barking in the background, agitated by the Sidekicks, the boys, and the other barking dogs.
Sebastian almost got his hands on Gorky, who slammed into an old wooden fence, snapping planks off of it, and then it slipped through the narrow opening which was still too small for his boy owner to fit through. “Gorky! Get back here!” Sebastian commanded in vain as he got stuck at the shoulders trying to squeeze through the narrow opening, and then stuck again at the hips, only much tighter.
There was an alarm as a small home security quadcopter drone took to the air and was taking a video of the action.
After several more minutes of chasing their slower, but tricky units through the private residential area, the boys eventually lost track of their Sidekicks.
Suddenly Sebastian was grabbed by the arm while still stuck in the broken fence.
“Hold it right there, boy!”
Sebastian swallowed hard. It was a Homeland Police officer. He said, “I got an alert that children were using their Sidekicks to trespass on private property. Is this yard your property?”
Sebastian said, “I’m only trying to catch my Sidekick unit. It just started acting on its own. Everyone else’s units are running away too.”
“That’s a new one,” the officer said. “I can see that you juveniles are trespassing. There’s no sense making up lies about it.”