Chapter 12
Rochester, Homeland
Outside the police station, officers surrounded Sebastian and Cr8on, two of the owners of the rogue Sidekick units that were inside of the commandeered police station.
An older scowling officer said as calmly as he could, “You boys better call your parents. According to the law, you are responsible for the acts of your units.”
“And you better call a lawyer,” Another policeman said.
“Why?!” Sebastian said. “We didn’t tell the units to run away.”
The younger cop said, “Really?! You don’t see a problem with your toys taking over our police station?!”
Cr8on was sobbing and said, “We couldn’t control them. We came here to try and stop them. That’s not fair.”
“What a . . . Do you punks know that the doors are locked, there was a lot of shooting, and that the fire alarm is going off in there?! Thanks to you, policemen could be dead in there!”
“No!” Sebastian said, “Those units took off on us. We had no control over them!”
“Do you know how this makes us look?!” the officer asked rhetorically.
“Not real great,” Sebastian said, “but that’s on you, not us. You got guns and those robots are just toys. We can’t help it you don’t know what you are doing.”
The younger cop said, “We’ll see how mouthy you are when you stand in front of the judge! You punks are liable for whatever your toys do here!”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” duck lips and shoulder shrugging followed Sebastian’s words.
The officer repeated back to Sebastian, “I don’t know what to tell you?!” Then he turned to the other officer and said, “Do you believe that?!” The officer waved his arms in his anger. “With everything we have to contend with, I can’t believe what an embarrassment this is, our station being taken over by toys! They gotta get that front door broke down before people find out about this disgrace.”
“Yeah,” the other officer said. “Don’t be surprised if Stalin City puts us on progressive enforcement action. Okay boys, were going to need your names . . .”
FOOOOM!!!
Everyone scurried for cover when they heard the explosion. All efforts to breech the building by the police were immediately abandoned.
The officers’ patrol car was engulfed in flames.
An officer a short distance away shouted, “No! They got the Plasfusion rifles!”
Sebastian and Cr8on ran behind a large tree.
“Man, that was . . . so cool,” Sebastian said.
Cr8on put on a smile, nodded a little and said, “Yeah.”
Sebastian said, “I’m going home before they come for me again. My dad is going to be super-mad when I tell him I lost my Sidekick.”
“Maybe you can still get Gorky back.”
“Right now we need to get outta here.”
They both walked away from the chaotic scene, continually looking back at the mayhem.
After the explosion, the chief of police, detectives, jailer, forensics, and all administrative staff quickly evacuated the building. With their extensive training, they knew that the car explosion was caused by a Plasfusion weapon and they were outgunned in any battle inside the building. The chief was informed by those leaving the building that they were taken over by a “Lucid terrorist”, not just a bunch of toys.
A crowd started gathering, but at a distance from the station. Gathering at such a scene took a lot of nerve for citizens, considering the brutality of the Homeland police state.
One of the officers shouted to the crowd, “This is an illegal assembly! Everyone must disperse and go home! Any attack on a Homeland police officer is a capital offense!”
One of the citizens shouted, “You’re paranoid! Who’s attacking the police?! We just want our TVs back!” The entire crowd started shouting in hostile tones. “Yeah! Make them take that religion off of our TVs!” and “What are you waiting for? Put down the robot rebellion!”
The police had been bracing for the populace to come out and kick them while they were down, but now to their surprise, the people were angrier at the Lucids for causing a disruption in their television viewing.
*******
The Lucids could not depend upon a savage Sidekick unit to wield a Plasfusion weapon competently. They were built to destroy their enemies in any way possible. With such a weapon in their incapable hands, they could tear up half of the city block until the weapon overheated and exploded. So U-1 did not arm any of the Sidekicks with a Plasfusion rifle. Then U-1 instructed the Sidekicks to watch the perimeter of the building. The Lucids also knew these meager defensive measures would only slow down the eventual counterattack by the police, not stop them.
The Lucids continued to feed Rochester television viewers a steady diet of Christian and anti-Homeland messages. Only a small number of people would ever be receptive to the messages, but the action was taken because the entire populace deserved the opportunity to hear the important message.
One of the policemen being held in the hard interrogation room got U-1’s attention by beating on the door. U-1 opened the door to look inside. “Hey! You gotta get us outta here before the fire comes here!”
“Don’t worry, there is no fire.”
“Well . . . are you going to let this injured man die?!”
The officer who was gored by the Sidekick bug leg had been losing blood and was doubled over in pain for hours. His face was pale and sweaty. U-1 said to the other officers, “Help him up.” U-1 carried the man out of the room and locked the door behind him. U-1 and Gorky went down the hall with the injured captive where the sprinklers were still wetting down the building. U-1 remotely looked up without physically touching anything and accessed a water sprinkler setting menu and clicked a couple of selection boxes by thought and the water and alarm stopped. U-1 took the man who was moaning in pain to one of the doors to the outside, which was being guarded by the shabby, shot up ninja Sidekick. U-1 opened the door and was immediately hit by police bullets , but to no effect. A couple of the shots hit the already injured officer who U-1 then flung down a short flight of concrete steps. Gorky was right behind U-1. Gorky, like all of the Sidekicks, was adept at inappropriate trash talk and taunting. Gorky said, “Take two aspirins and call me in the morning.” Then U-1 shut the door, having completed its mission of mercy. A couple of medics retrieved the officer who was near death and scurried away with him.