Advanced Robotics

CHAPTER 5

And so it begins. Joe follows his father into his destiny. The large,
wooden door had to be shoved violently open by Joe, and as the dust
settled, he looked around the building. The hallway was dark, musty,
ghastly, and appeared to be abandoned. He walked in onto the cheap
wooden floorboards, and he found his way to the broken, overused
stairway. The windows had yellow, aged newspaper covering them and
only a small amount of daylight managed to penetrate. They walked up
the stairwell to the third floor, room 364. The 3 was missing, but it
had left a dry spot on the weathered door. Joe looked to his father.
"Dad," whispered Joe, "are you sure we should be here? We didn't tell
him we were coming or anything."
"Hmm. You're absolutely right," pondered Lupin. He thought for a few
seconds, and then turned to the door.
"HELLOOOO!!!!!" shouted Lupin and he banged both of his fists on the
door. "Zaroff! Guess who? I'm HEEEERRREEE!!! OPEN UP! OPEN UP!!" Joe
stood shocked and confused. God, he was embarrassed. The lock jiggled,
and the door slowly opened a crack. The silhouette of a bent over
potato sack with scrawny arms and a pumpkin for a head carrying a
walker was seen in the room. It spoke.
"Whosajiggawha?" it said in a raspy voice. It was an old, bald,
crooked geezer who looked like he was on his deathbed. He sat up on
his bed with his walker in front of him. He creaked his neck to look
at Lupin; he then squinted and put on his glasses.
"Whassup, Zaroff, my good man?" said Lupin with his arms spread. Joe
looked on with confusion. Zaroff got a good look at Lupin, then smiled
a wide smile –he had no teeth- and jumped up for joy. He jumped and
started dancing around to Lupin. Joe stood amazed, as the old man was
dancing around like a freakin kid. Zaroff went to Lupin, grabbed his
hand and patted his back.
"What is up my good old homedog!" rejoiced Zaroff.
"Not much, bro, not much." Responded Lupin. "Oh, yeah, before I
forget, this is, um, I forget. Nah, I'm just playing wit ya! This is
my son, Joe, the one you wanted to see about." Zaroff looked at Joe,
then offered his hand to him. Joe shook it, then patted him on the
back like his dad and him did. A large snap was heard. Zaroff's eyes
opened wide. The room was silent. A few hours later, Zaroff was in the
hospital with a broken spine. He was breathing heavily and romanov
robot nurses checked his blood pressure and oxygen. Outside the room,
Lupin and Joe looked on as Zaroff slept.
"God dammit, why does this always happen!" said Joe to himself.
"Yep, son, it's all your fault. Now he doesn't have long to tell you
about your past. Don't blame yourself though, he was obviously going
to get himself hurt. I guess the author must've forgot he's like 100
years old and gave him some viagra to keep the story funny. But, we're
back to being serious now, so you really need to go apologize and
learn about what's going on." said Lupin.
"Grandpa!!" a young girl yelled. Lupin and Joe turned around to find
the young girl from the beach, her eyes welled with tears. "What
happened to grandpa, mister?" she asked Lupin.
"Joe did it. Blame him." said Lupin and he pointed to Joe.
"DAD!!! You just said it wasn't my fault!" yelled Joe.
"Yeah, but the look on her face completely changed me."
"Mister, what did you do to my grandpa?!" asked the girl.
"Uhh, well, I…" Joe didn't know how to answer this. He kept saying
goddamit to himself over and over. "…It was an accident." Joe said
shyly.
In the room, Zaroff started moving and talking in his sleep. The
Romanov nurses tried to sedate him, but he struggled and demanded to
speak to Joe. Joe heard and ran into the room. The Romanovs tried to
stop him. Joe knew better than to agree with them. He had just learned
how to create and program his own robots. He found their central
processor in their chests, and immediately pulled the negative and
positive wires out of the battery, completely shutting them down.
Lupin and the girl watched outside with amazement at his skill and
knowledge. Zaroff watched him from his bed.
"So, it's true," he muttered to himself, "he is the hero we have been
waiting for."
"Zaroff!" yelled Joe, "I need to ask you about my past!"
"Your past, it is the great tale of one man who would do whatever it
took to save the world. You are the key to reclaiming the land under
the power of the people. Fight, young Joseph Craninov, fight for the
glory of Dr. Robotnik!!"
"Grandpa!!" screamed the girl as she ran into the room and stood next
to Joe. "Grandpa! What's going on? Please don't go!"
"Ahh, it's good to see you again, Vikki, I thought you weren't going
to make it. Please, Vikki, help this young man in his quest to save
the world."
"What are you talking about? Who is this doctor? What's going on!?" asked Joe.
"Go, find the cure," said Zaroff in a short, raspy voice. "Save the
earth!" He let out his final breath as his eyes closed and the machine
next to him made a straight line. Vladimir Zaroff was dead. There was
nothing they could do. Joe walked away, holding Vikki close to him as
she sobbed into his chest. He walked over to Lupin.
"He was my comrade," said Lupin sadly, "I will not let his dreams be
left unfulfilled. Joe, there is something that you must see. I have
kept it secret for far too long. Wenry, you too must see this. We must
all go to Moscow."
"Moscow?! You mean that old Russian place? Why would we ever go there?"
"You will see…" said Lupin. They needed to find it. There is a chance
that it had been destroyed, but they needed to get some record of what
had happened at the Latveria Meeting.