Advanced Robotics

CHAPTER 9

Meanwhile, our heroes flew over Asia at top speed. They were flying
over south China and Tibet where there were no Romanovs to spot them.
They would be in former Moscow in a matter of hours. Joe and Jen
piloted the plane as Vikki and Lupin prepared the mission.
"So, Lupin, what exactly is it we're looking for?" Vikki asked.
"A videotape diary from my old mentor, Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Surveillance
cameras watched him the entire time in Latveria, so he simply used one
of them to keep record of what happened those days. After the fatal
accident, though, Zaroff and I sent the tape to Moscow to be hidden
away in the archives in the Kremlin until we needed it again. The
heads of the state were very grateful to learn about what happened to
Dr. Robotnik and kept it under severe lock and key. No chechnyan has
ever found it."
"So where is this tape?"
"I'm not sure."
"What?!!!" Vikki yelled, "How the hell do you suppose we find it then?!!!"
"We have our own personal detector right now."
"Cool! Can I see it?!"
"Sure. And it's not an it, it's a he. He's driving the plane."
"Joe knows where it is?"
"No, not really, look it's complicated."
"Hmm…" she looked at the cockpit and was silent for a moment. "So what
exactly happened to Dr. Robotnik?"
"You'll all find that out in good time."
"Attention passengers," came Jen's voice on the intercom, "We are
approaching the shithole of the universe, the Chechen republic! Please
fasten your seatbelts, make sure your tray tables are secure and your
seats are in upright position."
Vikki opened up her window, expecting a big city. It was nothing like
that. Dark gray clouds covered the skies. A light snow fell upon the
barren dirt wasteland and the ruins of aincent apartments and shops.
There was no life to be found, except in the distance there was a tall
tower spewing black smoke. The ship landed in the middle of a former
street that had been abandoned years ago. When the door opened, the
depressed feeling of the cold air swept into Vikki's face, and she was
heartbroken. She almost fainted, but Lupin caught her. He stared into
the disheartening ruins that was once Moscow.
"Welcome home."
The four walked away from the plane and towards what was once the head
of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin palace. The once beautiful towers are
now smoldering ruins, crumbling off in places, the walls had been
blasted away and the interior had been raided of all objects of value.
They walked towards it. Suddenly, Jen stopped.
"Hmm?" Lupin looked at her as she looked up at the sky.
"Everybody!" she screamed, "Take shelter!! Run!!" She scattered under
some ruins.
The loud low rumble of a jet engine was heard coming towards them and
grew louder by the second. They spread out under piles of rubble and
watched the sky. A huge shadow came out of the clouds, thundering past
them.
"Oh, shit," Joe thought, "that was one of the new Romanov recon
bombers. I forgot that this area is heavily guarded. It's a good thing
Vikki turned on the ship's cloaking device!" He looked back at the
plane, which was in plain sight with no cover.
"Oh, man, Vikki!!" he thought as the recon bomber got a visual on the
ship and analyzed the data, when it was not found, the bomber's hull
opened up and a guided missile fired out and completely obliterated
the only way home. The bomber then scanned the surrounding area for
survivors, but found nothing. It drifted back into the clouds and
disappeared. Joe ran over to Vikki. "Dammit Vikki!! Why didn't you
turn the cloaking device on?!! I told you to before we even landed!!!"
"Oh, sorry," Vikki embarrassedly pleaded, "I guess I forgot. My
mistake." She smiled and laughed sheepishly.
"Your mistake?! Your MISTAKE?!!!" Lupin shouted, "You freakin screwed
us all!! You blondes are all alike."
"Ahem…" started an obviously furious blonde Jen.
"Oh! Except you, honey! You know I didn't mean it!"
"Whatever, let's just go." The four walked into the inner walls of the
Kremlin archives, which had been severely bombed and raided. Vikki
smashed the door in with her hammer, and the inside was just as
depressing as the outside. Books and files lay scattered all over the
floor and shelves. No intelligent life had been there for more than 30
years and the hallways were covered in cobwebs and dust. Lupin led the
way from his own memory, always keeping a constant look at Joe. They
went down into the basement, which was worse than a haunted house. Jen
stood close to Lupin and Vikki clung to Joe. The flashlight in Lupin's
hand started to sputter and dim. It ran out of batteries.
"Uh oh…" Lupin started. The lights completely went out. Vikki
screamed. A sudden white glow emitted light into the room, coming from
Joe! He was glowing like a white neon light!
"Whoa," Joe was speechless for a few seconds, looking at his hands in
sheer amazement, "How did I do that?"
"All shall be answered soon, son. From now in, you're our guide.
You'll grow brighter as you approach the item, you'll grow dimmer as
you get farther away. Let's go." Lupin responded. Now they all
followed Joe, and every time he got dimmer, they headed in the
opposite direction. He was a guiding light on the path to find the
lost diary of Dr. Robotnik.
Meanwhile, in the headquarters of the New Chechnyan Army, a soldier
was checking the review of the Romanov bomber's recon mission. He took
notice when he saw Joe's ship being blown up. From the light that
emitted from the exploding ship, the soldier could easily spot Lupin
hiding on film. He called over his superior officer, who took one look
at it and immediately ran for the phone. He was panting and sweating
all over.
"Yes, hello, commander general? I have important news." He said
excitedly. A crackly, deep voice came from the other line.
"This had better be good for you to disturb me." It threatened the officer.
"Sir, one of our recon videos picked up the sight of criminal 0018
right here in the Chechnayn republic Moscow division!!"
"WHAT?!!! You had better be serious!!"
"We're absolutely sure, general. It's him, and he's brought others with him."
"Ahh, just as Lord Luther Romanov had predicted."
"Commander general, sir, what do you want me to do?"
"Don't worry, officer. I shall take him on myself. I hadn't got any
exercise like from him in the last 30 years. I'll kill him, you can be
sure of that." He hung up on the officer. A sudden rumbling shook the
building, and the gates opened to release a giant metal vehicle. It
started rolling towards Moscow.
Back in the archives, Joe was almost too bright to see. They had
arrived. A wall stood in front of them. They searched everywhere
around them for a door.
"Man, what a total bust!" Jen complained, "I mean, we come all this
way expecting some sort of vault and we get nothing! Zilcho! Nada! I'm
getting out of this damn basement." She started walking off and
accidentally stepped on a stone sticking out of the ground. Part of
the wall opened up in a small circle and a robotic eye turned on and
scanned the four. It turned red and went back into the wall. The wall
behind them slammed shut before they could escape. Spikes came from
both of the sidewalls and started to close in on the four. They were
screwed. Big time.
"Oh no, what are we gonna do?!!" Vikki screamed in horror, "Help me!
Somebody!" The walls kept getting closer by the second. They were
almost touching the spikes. They weren't going to make it! This is the
end! Joe was unusually calm and glowed even brighter. His eyes became
bright white, his hair stood up and became white, and his clothes and
skin glowed a bright white glow. Suddenly from his bright white face
came a giant long moustache. It became even bigger and slammed into
the sidewalls, which fought and eventually broke to the might of Joe's
moustache. He pushed the walls back with the power of his moustache.
The red robotic eye came back and took one look at Joe. "Subject:
Robotnik. Welcome." It went back into the wall and lifted the front
and back wall back up into the ceiling, where a dark room stood alone,
the entry brightened by the light emitting from Joe and his huge
moustache. Suddenly, the glow died down and the moustache faded away.
Joe stopped glowing entirely and came back to his normal self. He fell
on the ground, exhausted. Vikki bent down to help him up. Lupin and
Jen looked at each other and smiled. A single electric light shone in
the middle of the room and was pointed down at a single stand with a
TV, VCR and videotape on it.
"Yes! This is it! Oh, boy! The video diary of Dr. Ivo Robotnik! Now
you all can know exactly what happened back there in the hallway."
Lupin explained with excitement as he turned on the TV and put the
videotape in the VCR and pressed play. They were about to learn all
the knowledge of Joe's past, the incident in Latveria, and how to save
the fate of the world. This was the moment they had all been waiting
for.
"HOLD ON, GUYS!!!" Lupin yelled, "I GOTTA PEE!!!!" He ran off into a
corner for five minutes, and then walked back. He pressed play again.
This is what they saw.