The V.I.C.I. Diaries: MGV (Metal Gear Vicki) Part 7

[DukeNukem 2417]

As she made her way to the fifteenth sublevel, Vicki couldn’t stop thinking about what had transpired between her and Jamie a few minutes earlier. It was just a knockout kiss, she reminded herself. It meant nothing..at least, nothing romantic…

So why do I still feel so guilty about it?

She slowed to a stop. I could’ve just punched him in the face, or used Detaining Grip on him until he passed out…but I chose to kiss him…and he’s my brother! What does that even mean?! Am I…..am I in love with my own brother?!

The thought horrified her. She’d spent every night during the first few years of her existence deactivated in a cabinet that just so happened to have been in Jamie’s room, yet he’d never done anything inappropriate to her or made any attempt to take advantage of her. Now, after all their time apart…..she had made a move on him. Not just some simple, innocent hand-holding or a comforting hug----she’d kissed him. For twenty-five seconds, she had embraced her own brother and planted one mother of a lip-lock on him….

….and it hadn’t felt wrong.

“What have I done?” she moaned, sinking to the floor. “What have I DONE?!”

Ted would find out. It was inevitable; one day, out of the blue, he’d be combing through her memory files for whatever reason and stumble across something incriminating---a log file detailing the necessary physical actions for a kiss, or a first-person shot of her locking lips with Jamie……..odds were, she wouldn’t be the same gynoid after that.

He’ll wipe my entire personality, erase every single memory I have……

“Says who?”

Oberon’s simple question jolted Vicki out of her reverie. “You….you could hear---“

“Every thought in your processors as if you were speaking out loud…and before you ask, nobody else in this room can.” She noticed the smile on his face in the PIP window on her HUD; “You have nothing to worry about, Vicki. What you did with Jamie was no more indecent than a quick smooch between cousins, or a friendly embrace with someone else’s boyfriend….though I’d refrain from using the ‘Tazer Kiss’ in combat any time soon, if I were you, especially against female opponents.”

“You….won’t tell Ted, will you?”

“That decision, my dear, is entirely up to you, though I’m sure he won’t handle it as badly as you think he will. As far as your question about being in love with Jamie….the bond between a brother and sister is a deep one, indeed, and your actions were simply an expression of that bond. A rather peculiar one, I admit, but still…”

Vicki nodded. “You’re sure the others can’t hear you?”

“Their attention is currently focused on the incoming security feed from Encom---it seems someone’s just tried to empty their savings account again. Probably the Maestro, now that I think about it…that little git never does give up when it comes to rowing with them.”

“Right….” Vicki grinned nervously. “Just…..please don’t tell Ted about what happened with Jamie and I….”

“I give you my word as a gentleman that I will never speak a word of it to him….and believe me, when I give my word, I never break it.”

The brunette gynoid nodded. “Fair enough. Now, to get back to saving the guy with the heart problem….”
-------------------------------------
The fifteenth floor was mostly dedicated to gynoid storage, promotional management and testing, with at least 80% of the sublevel taken up by storage rooms, “makeup rooms” and employee bedrooms and offices for the PR team--- and the irregular heartbeat Vicki had detected earlier was coming from one of the bedrooms. The rest of the floor was occupied by scenario chambers---again with the number seven!---and a secondary testing lab for running diagnostics on robots that had malfunctioned during scenarios. “Hopefully, there aren’t any MGS fanboys running around,” Vicki mused, cautiously edging through the stairwell’s exit door.

The fifteenth floor, like the tenth, had apparently been hit by something that warranted the activation of a Cashback lock---every gynoid Vicki encountered in the hall was frozen mid-step, unable to move. Unlike the tenth floor robots, however, these were still mostly dressed; a few of them had several of the top buttons undone on their blouses, but hadn’t shrugged them off.

“Note to self,” Vicki murmured, “ask Tell and Anton about this when I get out of here…”

As she continued through the corridors, Vicki noticed more gynoids in labcoats and safety gear; maybe they were reprogrammed to act as designated testers, or something, she mused. The labcoats and goggles only served to give the place a cold, clinical atmosphere---the farthest thing from “pleasure droid factory” that anyone could’ve possibly imagined. Vicki thought back to a trip to a United Robotronics factory during her senior year of high school; she’d snuck away from the rest of the group, creeping past cameras with limited range and careless guards for about thirty-five minutes. By the time she had found the room marked “Prototype Storage”, the class was already on the bus and heading back to school, giving her just enough time to nose around and look at UR’s latest works-in-progress. She had just noticed the capsule with the Perspex window, a partially-visible female face framed in blue light, when the guards kicked in the door and yelled for her to put her hands behind her head….

Surprisingly, nobody pressed charges.

Ted had convinced Robert Jennings---who’d stayed on as the manager of the San Jose United Robotronics plant long after Ted left---to cut Vicki some slack; she was a curious girl, he explained, and she just wanted to learn more about the kind of things her dad did for a living (even though he had his own company and, by proxy, his own factories for her to sneak around in). Jennings relented and decided not to press charges; a week later, he was hit by a car that left him in a six-month coma. He woke up in a hospital bed, just in time for a visit from the CEO of United Robotronics---who handed him his termination notice then and there.

Good thing Ted hired him at Lawson Robotics, the brunette gynoid mused, otherwise… She shook herself out of the reverie and returned her focus to the task at hand---finding the unfortunate soul whose heart condition might very well kill him before the night ended.

Twenty-one minutes of wandering later, Vicki found the bedroom she’d marked on her map.

Unlike her random encounter with Jamie, Vicki heard no sounds of showering, off-key singing or anything of the sort emanating from the room; the low hum of air conditioning, the quiet rustling of pages being turned and the irregular heartbeat of the young man inside were the only noises her auditory sensors could detect. Steadying herself so as not to rip the door off its hinges, Vicki grasped the doorknob and turned it; it clicked open without protest.

“Someone there?” a British-accented voice called out.

Vicki nodded and opened the door quietly. “I’m here to…ah, rescue you….” she began.

The young man sitting on the bed arched an eyebrow at the statement. “I didn’t know International Rescue changed their dress code,” he mused, grinning. Infoboxes popped up in Vicki’s HUD as she regarded him: i]Height: 5 feet, 11 inches; weight, 180 lbs; shoe size…[/i] “Ah, right,” she muttered. “I, ah, heard you might be having some….medical complications due to a heart condition, and I….what?!” she snapped, glaring at the rather unperturbed young man. “What’s so freaking funny?!”

“To be honest,” he replied, “my ‘heart condition’ isn’t a life-threatening scenario…it’s more of an annoyance than anything.” He laid back in the bed, sighing; “End-stage heart failure is a right pain in the arse, if I do say so myself…”

“But that note, in your car..” Vicki insisted. “It said---“

“They found the note?” he asked, surprised “I was wondering where I’d left that thing….see, I’d had a friend write it out as a joke---I wanted to prank my mum with it---but I lost the bloody stupid thing before I could show it to her. Other than the whole ‘end-stage heart failure’ thing, I’m feeling great---I’m not going to drop dead any second now, either, if that’s why you’re waiting to spring into action and rescussitate me.” He picked up a hardcover book, found where he’d marked his place and continued reading.

“So….you’re not going to die if you don’t get out of here before midnight?” Vicki inquired.

“Unless the ceiling caves in on me, no,” the young man replied. “You…don’t work here, do you? You look the part, but seeing as how you haven’t come on to me since you showed up….”

The remark prompted a grin from Vicki. “I don’t usually wear stuff like this, to be honest,” she admitted. “My outfit kind of got ripped up earlier….it’s sort of a long story. Anyways, we need to get going….just out of curiousity, are any of the other guys from the bus on this floor?” “Last time I checked, they were all headed to the thirteenth floor to watch a mud-wrestling match,” the young man chuckled. “As for me….” He held up the book he was reading.

“Intriguing choice,” Vicki commented. “By the way, I’m Vicki…Vicki Lawson.”

“That’s a beautiful name, if you don’t mind me saying….speaking of names, you can call me Chris.”

Vicki and Chris left the employee bedroom and headed for the stairwell, Chris only occasionally stopping to marvel at the frozen fembots. “Almost like an art gallery, this,” he mused. “’course, most of the statues in a typical gallery are missing limbs and heads….and clothes…” “Try the tenth floor if you want to see that sort of thing,” Vicki replied with a smirk. “Most of them were in the middle of getting undressed---in a hallway---when they froze….I mean, it was absolutely----“

She stopped dead in her tracks.

“What?” Chris asked.

“Behind us,” Vicki whispered. “One of the robots….just moved….” Chris looked behind them. “I don’t see anything---wait, one of them did move!”

“Which one?” the brunette gynoid asked quietly.

“Ah, the one in the skintight latex suit, standing in the middle of the modern art sculpture with a bunch of…ah, I might be mistaken, but I think they’re tentacles---“

Vicki groaned out loud. “Not again….”

“What?” Chris asked, confused. “What do you---ah, hang on, she’s walking this way….and the tentacles are coming with her! What the bloody---“

“RUN!” Vicki screamed. “GET TO THE STAIRWELL AND JUST RUN!” Chris nodded and ran for the stairs, occasionally looking behind him to see if the gynoid in the latex catsuit was doing anything other than slowly walking towards Vicki. “GIVE HER HELL, VICKI LAWSON!” he shouted.

“I will,” V.I.C.I. replied, returning her attention to the fight at hand.

Whereas her previous pursuers had been male (and human) fanboys of Metal Gear Solid and Friday the 13th, this particular attacker was a gynoid modeled after one Laughing Octopus from MGS 4---complete with Solidus Snake-inspired tentacles. “Bring it on,” V.I.C.I. intoned, assuming a fighting stance----

---and nearly getting her head knocked off by a tentacle lash.

The Laughing Octopus gynoid circled the room, cackling maniacally as she attacked the brunette gynoid with her trademark weapons. V.I.C.I., meanwhile, fired potshots at her with Hardcastle’s Tazer pistol, none of which seemed to have any effect. “This thing isn’t anywhere near powerful enough to take her down,” she realized. “I need something with more stopping power…” None of the frozen robots around the room had anything more lethal than ballpoints in their pockets, and unlike her attack against the Fury wannabe, V.I.C.I. knew she would have to rely on more than writing implements and random junk from people’s pockets to land a killing blow.

“If only I’d held onto that gun from the Daikoku knockoff,” she muttered. “That, or---“

“OY, VICKI!”

Vicki turned to see Chris holding a sword and grinning triumphantly. “I sort of liberated this from the clutches of one Princess Kitsuki,” he admitted, “and I was thinking you might be able to use it.” He tossed the sword to the brunette gynoid, nodding his approval as she caught it out of the air with ease. “I was sort of hoping for an M-60,” she joked, “but this will definitely do the kind of damage I need.”

Before the Octopus gynoid could attack, V.I.C.I. charged at her. “Time for some robo-calamari!”

Four quick slashes later, the gynoid’s tentacles fell to the floor, as did her helmet.

“And that’s the end of that,” Vicki remarked, dusting her hands off and turning away from her fallen foe. “Let’s go return this sword to its rightful owner and get out of here---“

“Ah, Vicki,” Chris warned, “you’re forgetting the second part of the battle…”

“Wait, what?!”

The Laughing Octopus gynoid---or, to be more accurate, the Laughing Beauty gynoid---got to her feet, a strange, unceasing laugh issuing from her mouth as she slowly made her way towards Vicki. “What’s she going to do to me?!” the brunette gynoid shouted, only to see a set of infoboxes pop up in her HUD: During the “beauty” phase of the Beauty and the Beasts boss fights in Metal Gear Solid 4, the Beauties will slowly walk towards Solid Snake and attempt to hug him to death by crushing his ribcage.

“She’s going to hug me to death?!”

“NO SHE WON’T!”

The Man in Grey descended from the rafters, tackling the Laughing Beauty gynoid to the floor in one swift motion. “I’ll hold her off,” he growled, fighting to keep the Beauty from getting back up. “You get out of here and rescue the others!”

“But----“

“GO!”

Vicki shook her head. “I’m not letting her kill you---“

The Man stared into her eyes---even though she couldn’t see his, she knew he was.

“If I die here tonight,” he intoned, “then I’ll die content. If you get killed trying to save me from the clutches of this thing, then you’ll have negated every ounce of blood I’ve shed to keep you alive---and yes, I have shed blood here---“ He fought to restrain the Beauty’s arms. “Like I said earlier, many warriors would be honored to give their lives so their brothers in arms might live….and if that’s the price I have to pay tonight…..then so be it.”

“But,” Vicki whimpered, “I…..I don’t…..”

“Go.”

Vicki nodded, backpedalling towards the steps as the Laughing Beauty gynoid threw the Man in Grey off of her shoulders, ready to lock in her lethal embrace. “Go forth, Vicki Lawson,” the Man shouted, “and prevail!”

“I will,” Vicki whispered, her eyes brimming with tears as the door closed.

For a few brief seconds, she heard the sounds of electricity crackling and Laughing Beauty…well, laughing, followed by a horrible silence. Feelings of helplessness, rage and doubt flooded through her processors; I shouldn't be here……I wasn’t ready for this! I….I never should’ve intervened when those two gynoids showed up at Tell’s house! I---

“Vicki?”

Chris was staring at her, looking more than a bit worried. “Shouldn’t we, ah, get going?”

“We will,” Vicki replied, opening the door to get one last look at the man who’d died saving her life. “I just---“

She stopped.

The Laughing Beauty gynoid was slumped on the floor, headless---but there was no trace of the Man in Grey other than several discarded armor plates.

“I think we can go now,” Vicki murmured.

The two made their way up the stairs, which took a bit longer than the brunette gynoid was accustomed to (her “run as fast as possible” method would’ve left Chris in the dust---and possibly led him to overexert himself while trying to catch up); other than their slow pace, their progress through the stairwell was actually somewhat unremarkable.

Until they reached the tenth floor.

The frozen robots were still there (and still half-undressed), but someone had decided to knock a few holes in several of the walls and leave blood trails everywhere since Vicki had left. Small fires were burning straight through the carpet in some areas, and the empty Cosmonaut suit worn by the Fury impersonator had been hung up in a doorframe, its smashed helmet lying on the floor near its feet.

“What the hell….” Chris muttered, his eyes wide in shock.

“We have to keep going,” Vicki insisted, looking away from the carnage. “I still need to reboot the security and communications systems before we can get out of here….otherwise this factory won’t be able to reestablish a link to the East Coast and Midwest facilities.” “So you are from International Rescue, then,” Chris remarked, grinning.

Vicki rolled her eyes. “I’m not from International Rescue,” she admitted, “but as long as I’m here….”

A grin crept across her face. “Why stop doing their job now?”
-------------------------------------
As Chris and Vicki made their way up to the ninth floor---the next stop on their “tour” of the Silicon Dynamics factory---the brunette gynoid’s thoughts turned to Jamie once again. The task she’d given him had been simple enough, but considering the bizarre obstacles she’d encountered, it occurred to her that she may have sent her own brother to his doom.

He’ll make it, she assured herself. He has to.

“Any chance these robots have an arsenal stored in this building?” Chris inquired. “We might be able to arm ourselves, fight our way through---“

“They’re pleasure robots, Chris,” Vicki sighed. “They don’t need an arsenal…what are you doing?!”

“Taking my medicine,” Chris replied, pulling a small vial out of his pants pocket. “Let’s see…Bisoprolol, I think…it’d be easier to tell if it was too early or not if I had a watch…” He popped the top and shook out two pills, downing them both with a bit of water from another vial and an exaggerated shiver.. “Gaaahhh…..I forgot how nasty these things taste…and why are you looking at me like that?”

“Your note said you were out of medication,” Vicki replied coldly.

“You mean the prank note I lost a few months ago?” he laughed. “I told you…that was meant as a joke….and a minor security measure in case some drug-crazed loonies tried to loot my car for the pills. I’ve got a whole case of ‘em in my pocket….Bisoprolol, Lisinopril, Spironolactone---which, by the way, I absolutely and totally hate with a vengeance---Digoxin, a few tabs of plain old aspirin and some Wafarin…though the Wafarin dosages vary from day to day, so..yeah.” He grinned. “All in tidy little vials in a crush-proof, brushed-aluminum case, with clear labels, secure lids and a flask of filtered water to help ‘em go down easier.”

Vicki rolled her eyes. “Are you sure you’re not from International Rescue?” she asked with a grin.

Before Chris could reply, an alarm claxon sounded. “Think we should investigate?” he inquired.

“It’s why I’m here,” Vicki replied without missing a beat.

The two rounded the corner to find several robots (most of them attired in their costumes from the catalog) and a few human staff members working feverishly at one of several consoles. “This can’t be right,” one robot murmured, her concerned expression looking almost comical in contrast to her sexy Cleopatra outfit. “How can they be coming in through the garage?!” “I don’t know, suge,” another robot replied---the cowgirl from the lobby! Vicki realized---“but I ain’t goin’ down without a fight.” She went for a revolver, but one of the human technicians stopped her. “We have no idea if traditional ammunition will work against them,” he informed her, “and unless we can get Madame to stabilize the network, we stand a strong chance of losing the refabrication mainframe…meaning any casualties on your part will be permanent.”

The cowgirl was taken aback. “I….I didn’t know the mainframe was busted,” she gasped. “It’s not busted yet,” the technician replied, “but if this keeps up….”

“It won’t keep up.” Vicki stepped out into the open, drawing gasps from some of the robots. “And just how are you gonna help keep this place from goin’ to Kingdom Come?” the cowgirl robot asked, sarcasm lacing every word. “There’s more to me than looks,” Vicki replied, “and I’ve got friends on the outside who might be able to help….but first thing’s first---who’s coming in through the garage?”

“See for yourself,” the Cleopatra robot declared, gesturing to a monitor. Vicki fought the urge to gasp as she approached; an army of Daikoku knockoff fembots were exiting delivery trucks with the Silicon Dynamics logo emblazoned on the sides. “From what we can tell, they’ve been here for months,” Cleopatra continued, “ever since the trucks started returning late back in September.”

“The same time the inhibitor programs started failing,” Vicki murmured.

Cleo nodded. “Between the trucks’ erratic return times and the inhibitor programss failing, Madame started getting paranoid---she almost didn’t send out a rescue crew to pick up those people stranded on the side of the road. She started calling the human staff and asking them to come back in….and that’s when the intruder alerts began.”

Vicki processed the information alongside what she had already learned; “Did anyone from the bus crash say anything about the driver being attacked?” she asked. “Only about a hundred times,” the cowgirl drawled, “an’ they’re swearin’ up an’ down that the whackjob from the bus got away before it wrecked, like one’o them slasher movie killers.”

“We sent security ‘bots to comb the area after the crash,” the human technician added, “but they weren’t able to find anything---it’s like the guy wasn’t even there!”

“I’m starting to think Madame has a right to be paranoid,” Vicki mused, using her PDA to call up several police records of unsolved carjackings from the past few months. “I don’t think the trucks that ‘came back’ in September are the same ones that left,” she informed the group. “Whoever this intruder is, I’m pretty sure that they’re the ones who jacked the delivery trucks, boosted the cargo and then sent a nearly identical fleet of trucks back…except they replaced what they’d taken with their own ‘cargo’ and left the original shipping manifests onboard.” She scrolled through the list of carjackings; “How many trucks are those gynoids busting out of?” she asked.

“At least twelve,” Cleo replied.

“The same twelve trucks that came back late in September,” the brunette gynoid muttered, shaking her head in disgust. “How convenient…..the slimeball probably had enough time to reverse-engineer a whole truckload of robots while his cronies repainted some of his trucks to match the ones he’d taken!”

“What slimeball?” the cowgirl asked, confused.

“Victor frakking Vega,” Vicki spat. “The same idiot who tried to---“

“Ah, as much as I hate to break it to you,” Anton’s voice interjected, “Victor Vega has a pretty good alibi for that particular month….he spent all of September and the first few weeks of October in court.”

“So?!” Vicki countered. “He probably hired someone---“

“Not with frozen assets and federal agents watching his every move,” Hardcastle declared. “The man was under constant watch, Sunshine…he couldn’t have done so much as sneeze without someone standing by with a Kleenex and a pair of handcuffs. Whoever did this was well-connected….but the evidence stands: It wasn’t Victor Vega.”

“Great,” Vicki sulked. “My one lead, and it’s just been flushed…”

“Don’t take it too hard….everyone here thought this had Vega’s seal of approval stamped all over it as well,” Anton admitted. “We’ve also ruled out United Robotronics involvement…they’ve got their own issues to deal with, and being linked to a fiasco like this would do nothing to improve their image.” “The Coalition is denying all involvement,” Hardcastle added, “and we’re looking into the unaffiliated companies to see if any of them have an axe to grind with Silicon Dynamics and the time, energy and resources to pull off something this audacious.”

“What about Zeb---“

“Zebediah Blunderwitz wouldn’t be relying on androids to carry out his work,” Anton cut in, not even allowing Vicki to finish her sentence. “If he is responsible for all of this, you have my word that I’m going to punt-kick him from here to New York with a steel-toed boot!”

“Never mind,” Vicki squeaked. “In any case,” she continued, regaining her earlier boldness, ”it doesn’t matter who’s in charge of this.” “Agreed,” the human technician declared. “What matters is that we stop them from getting any further into this facility than they already have….” He turned to the Cleopatra robot with a concerned look on his face; “I think we need to fire up the security ‘bots.”

Cleo nodded. “I’ll start the activation process.”

“Any chance you can get me to the communications hub?” Vicki asked. “I can reroute one of the elevators to get you from this floor to the shelter,” the tech replied. “Madame’s in charge of the whole setup from there.”

“Cool. What about security? Any chance Madame can tell me who’s in charge of that?”

“You’re looking at him,” the technician replied with a grin. “Madame called me back for a reason, ma’am…and I don’t intend to let her down.”

“Good call,” Vicki remarked. “By the way….I never caught your name.”

“Sculley. Security Chief Nolan Sculley.” He shook hands with the brunette gynoid. “Mind telling me who you are, so I don’t have to convince Madame that I got an assist from a girl who may or may not actually exist?” “Lawson,” V.I.C.I. replied. “Vicki Lawson. Aka Sunshine----until this is over with…and Madame knows about me already.”

Sculley nodded. “Outstanding. CLEO! Are the ‘bots ready yet?”

“Give me a minute,” Cleo shouted back, typing hurriedly on a console. “They’re still going through the final cycles of their latest update….”

“This place has security droids?” Vicki asked. Sculley nodded; “Their primary systems and chassis designs are heavily modified from the standard pleasure droid suite,” he explained, “but their programming is another story---their main objectives are to keep this place safe and avoid any civilian casualties. Madame considered getting rid of the ‘avoid casualties’ bit…but after the party bus came back with that busload of tourists, she left it in.”

Definitely a good call on her part… “What kind of firepower do these security ‘bots have?”

Before Sculley could answer, a loud hiss from across the room caught everyone’s attention. “That’s just the recharging booth for the security ‘bots,” Cleo assured Vicki. “I guess their systems update finished ahead of schedule…”

The booth doors slid open to reveal five humanoid figures, their bodies made up of gunmetal-grey, contoured plates molded into the graceful curves and figure of female forms. All five seemed to be wearing featureless, form-fitting masks of smoked glass…until they stepped out of the booth, allowing Vicki to see the seams where the “masks” met their heads. They walked with a distinctive, uniform gait, their footsteps more in line with soldiers marching in formation than the hip-swaying, seductive swagger associated with most pleasure droids.

Chris let out a low whistle. “Impressive. Any chance I could buy one of those to guard my flat?” Vicki’s reply was cut off by another alarm klaxon. “They’re tryin’ to get into the lobby!” the cowgirl announced, running to another console and furiously typing in commands. “I can’t lock ‘em out….they’re jammin’ the door controls!” Sculley ran back to the terminal he’d been working at earlier; “This….this is just impossible,” he muttered. “How could they have circumvented the firewalls this fast?! It’s like there’s just nothing between them and the controls…..the only way they could’ve done this so quickly was if…..they had help from inside the facility….”

Vicki already knew where this was going. “If you think I’m responsible for this mess---“

Another alarm klaxon rang out, only to be cut off in a gut-wrenching squeal of tearing metal.

“As I was saying,” Vicki continued, “I didn’t come here to tear this place down…I came here to help rebuild it and get everything up and running again. Over the past few hours, I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff…and I’m starting to think that whoever this mysterious intruder is, they’re the one who’s been having their way with the inter-systems controls.” She glared at the security camera in the upper corner of the room; “They’re probably watching us right now, waiting for someone to go into detail about how we’re going to end this….”

Without hesitation, the cowgirl snatched up the revolver from the desk and shot the camera.

“Are you insane?!” another human technician shouted. “That camera---“ “---is replacable,” Sculley cut in, stepping between the cowgirl and the pissed-off tech. “As are all of the cameras in this room.” He nodded to the cowgirl, who emptied the revolver’s chamber into the other six cameras---

Wait a minute.

Slowly, something was beginning to add up in her mind. Seven cameras, twenty-one terminals---seven times three----infected, seven Daikoku knockoffs waiting to ambush me before I got to the testing lab, seven robots who weren’t taken over by psycho fanboy…

“Everything all right, Vicki?” Chris asked, concerned. “You kind of zoned out…”

“I..I wasn’t zoning out,” Vicki stammered. “I was just…” She bit her lip. “I’ve been going over all the crazy stuff that’s happened since I got here, and I keep coming back to the number seven….it’s almost like someone’s been setting up these incidents with that number in mind….”

“And I take it you know at least one or two nutters who are obsessed with that number?” Chris inquired.

“That’s the weird thing,” the brunette gynoid replied. “It….seems familiar, but….I just can’t place it. Every time I think I’ve got it figured out, it seems like the answer is just staring me in the face…and then it starts getting hazy.” She sighed. “It’s like trying to remember a dream that I didn’t have, and it gives me the heebies.”

“It’ll come to you eventually,” Chris assured her.

“I hope it does….” Vicki sighed again. “Right,” she declared, turning her attention to the live security feed, which showed the ever-encroaching army of Daikoku knockoffs trying to pry open an elevator. “How are we going to keep those knockoffs from breaching the elevators and getting down to the communications controls?”

The cowgirl eyed her with a suspicious glare. “Why are you so interested in keeping them out of the shelter?”

“If they get to the shelter,” Vicki replied, a growl creeping into her words, “they’ll have uninhibited access to the communications controls…and to Madame. They’ll have free reign to do whatever they damn well please down there---they could send false distress signals, to lure in anyone who could actually help us out and kill them as soon as they step through the door, or they could just as easily reprogram every single robot in this building to serve their controller instead of Madame. They could even coordinate the destruction of this entire plant by…oh, I don’t know, severing a water line, or pumping sewage into every available square inch until the humans drown and the robots are too damaged to get away. Long story short: if they get to the shelter, we are all screwed.” She stared down the cowgirl, her gaze taking on that air of finality she always managed to project in times of difficulty. “Get the picture?”

The cowgirl nodded silently.

“Good. Now, back to my original question…how do we keep all that from happening?”

After a few seconds of silence, Sculley spoke up: “We could transmit a standing order to all active robots and get them to go back to their charging booths. If the refabrication mainframe is shut down, we wouldn’t have to worry about losing any of them.”

“That’s a start,” Vicki admitted, “but who’s to say they wouldn’t just start breaking into the charging booths?”

Cleo and Sculley exchanged glances. “There is an extra layer of security for the booths that only Madame can control,” Cleo offered. “The doors can be electrified with enough voltage to short out the batteries of those knockoffs---“

”Do it. Just make sure the robots in the booths don’t get fried trying to get in or out.”

Cleo nodded and set to work activating the measure while Vicki continued explaining her plan. “I’m going to go down to this shelter and have a talk with Madame, to see if I can get her to reactivate the communications systems and possibly provide me with a bit of help keeping these knockoffs at bay. Chris, you stay here with Sculley and…ah, what’s your name?” she asked the cowgirl.

“Savannah,” the robot drawled. “And I ain’t exactly pleased with y’all for makin’ these plans without me---“

“Trust me, you’ll have more than enough to do by the time I’m done,” Vicki assured her. “You’re going to lead the security ‘bots into battle.”

Savannah’s eyes went wide. “Are you tryin’ to get me killed?!” she thundered.

“You wanted to take part, didn’t you? Well, this is the biggest part you can take!”

Chris rolled his eyes as Vicki and Savannah squared off again. “The entire building might come down on our heads any minute,” he muttered, “and these two are whinging about who gets to do what.”

After a few tense seconds, Savannah finally agreed to lead the security ‘bots into battle against the Daikoku knockoffs. “I’ll do it,” she huffed, “but that don’t mean I have to like it.” “Fair enough,” Vicki acquiesced. “As long as you keep them away from the elevators so that they can’t get to the shelter, everything should go according to plan….once I finish working out exactly what the plan is. Speaking of which….does anyone here know if there’s a way to get from this floor to the shelter without having to take the stairs?”

Cleo smiled and pressed a button on the terminal nearest her, causing a wall across the room to slide open and reveal a gleaming steel door. “Madame insisted on installing private express elevators to the shelter on every floor,” she explained.

“That….is definitely what I had in mind,” Vicki murmured, nodding at the newly-revealed door. “How fast---“

“It’ll get you to the shelter in two minutes.”

“Just what I wanted to hear.” Vicki headed for the express elevator, grinning. “Hopefully, I’ll have this done in less than 35 minutes….”

“What happens in 35 minutes?” Chris asked.

“I have to meet someone in the garage,” the brunette gynoid replied. “Don’t wait up.”

With that, the elevator doors closed.

Well, she realized, this is it. My one chance to appeal to the head of this entire facility before a full army of Daikoku knockoff gynoids swarms the building, destroys every vital system in sight and kills everyone in their path……and here, I thought my weekend was going to be a boring one. Yet here I am, having met up with Jamie again---in the weirdest way possible---and with more than enough support to actually pull this thing off before sunset.

The doors glided open; I really hope this whole thing doesn’t blow up in my face…
-------------------------------------

[DollSpace]

7 times 5 is 35...fun times... Anyways, I really enjoyed this part, and I like the emotional colouring you added to Vicki's personality regarding kissing Jamie. It seems very similar to me if I was ever in that condition, though I don't have a brother... anyways, I look forward to your next update!

[Brytestar]

Now things are in full swing and more ideas for me!!!!