Wednesday, August 10, 2005

   Chapter 3
In the darkness of Luke’s new armor, Luke was paralyzed with fear. Not understanding what had just happened, Luke didn’t move, hoping that somehow, that the robot would give up hope and let go. After about a minute, a monitor flickered to life directly in front of Luke’s face. REBOOTING it read as a small box showing percent signs…20%......50%.......95%......100%...... After which a face appeared on screen.
“Hello,” said the face with a cheerful smile, “I am Armor-bot #117. I am happy to be your armor today.”
“What?” said Luke after realizing that the face was waiting a response, “I don’t need any armor.”
“Well….that is certainly a problem…” Said the face, now frowning.
“Why did you….How did you…What are you?” said Luke
“As I have said before, I am Armor-bot #117, but you can call me Computer. I see I will have to introduce you to the new concept of battle armor,” said Computer, “ok, let us begin…” But before Computer could continue, another face appeared on screen moving Computer’s face to the left.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME HUMAN!” Screamed the new face. “HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!” The new face stared at Computer blankly. “Who are you?”
“I am Armor-bot #117, but you can call me-”
“I don’t care what your name is, I want to know what you’re doing in my body!” Screamed the new face.
“Your body! I’ll have you know that I was occupying this body long before you, and that I am the newest upgrade in the Armor-bot series!” said Computer.
“Hey Hey! Shut up you two!” Yelled Luke, trying to make sense of what was going on, “I’m in control of this body currently, and I want some answers!”
“I am Armo-” started Computer,
“Computer, I know who you are already, but you,” said Luke looking at the other face occupying the screen, “Who are you?”
“Why should I answer to you human?” said Canti.
“Because I’m in control, and if you don’t want to get your body back, I’d suggest you shut up and tell me who you are.” Replied Luke with just a hint of smugness in his voice.
“Fine…My name is Canti, or at least that’s what I’m told. I woke up no more than 6 hours ago in a tube-“
“Chryogenic sleep chamber” Chimed in Computer.
“Thank you Computer, but I need to hear…Canti was it?...I need to hear Canti’s side of the story…” Computer didn’t talk for a while.
“Anyway, I woke up in this tube in some sort of lab place in this robot body. I broke out of it and ran around for a few minutes before I encountered a bunch of guards. I some how shot missles out of my body without doing anything. I was able to get some information out of one guard though. He said that I used to be a great alien warrior and-”
“Wait a sec,” said Luke, “so you’re an Alien?”
“Well, that’s what he said, but…”
“So you’re one of the bastards that attacked our planet two years ago! Killing millions of innocent people?”
“Now wait, I would never kill innocent humans, it just doesn’t seem right! Anyway, the guard said that they captured me. Since my body was damaged beyond repair, the guard was put in charge of making me into a weapon for the humans, but when it didn’t work, he was demoted and I was scheduled for termination. He also said that the only way to retrieve my body was to go back to the aliens to see if they could re-create my body, as well as my memories. Then I escaped and hid in this alley…Then YOU started messing with my circuits!” explained Canti.
“uh…yea….sorry about that..” said Luke, “Computer, what about you, what was that you said about inhabiting Canti’s body before him?”
“Yes, When I was first booted up, I was designed to be the perfect human armor robot, My original programming was to form armor around the wearer on his command. I was the top of the line, missiles, pistols, Rocket launchers, every weapon on the market was upgraded to my systems. The newest feature was that I automatically adjusted to the wearers needs. Like when Canti was being blocked by those guards, the armor automatically adjusted to his needs and cleared him a path.”
“So then you’ve been with me this whole time?” asked Canti, “Why didn’t you said anything before?”
“Actually I wasn’t with you at all when the transferred your mind into my body, I must’ve shut down. My basic programming must’ve recognized you as the wearer of the armor and the armor itself, so in other words, you reacted to your own needs subconsciously.” Said Computer.
“Oh…” said Canti, clearly not understanding. “What about you human, who are you?”
“Well, my name is Luke Johnson, I’m 14 years old, I have two younger brothers, and live with my parents. Today was my first day of high school, and it was the worst day of my life.” Luke said, “I’m basically an average human. Now that I have this new armor though, I can do all sorts of stuff! There’s always someone trying to steal things from our house, I’ll be able to….”
“NO!” Yelled Canti and Computer at the same time.
“Huh?”
“You can’t go around exposing to everyone that you have this new armor!” said Canti.
“For once, I agree with you.” Said Computer, “If you go around telling everyone you have the militaries new armor, not only will the Military be after you, but so will the aliens. The military will be after me, and the aliens will be after Canti.”
“So I can’t even tell my family?” asked Luke.
“Especially not your family.” Canti said. “No one can be trusted with this information.”
“…fine…” groaned Luke, “so, like, how do I move?
“Oh… I’m sorry.” Said Computer, and immediately the screen changed, as Canti and Computer’s faces shrank to the bottom left corner of the screen, the alley way slowly came into view in the rest of the screen.
“Just move like you normally do, I’d suggest moving around a bit so as to get a feel for it…” said Computer.
“Good idea.” Luke said taking a few wobbly steps forward. After a few minutes of walking around in circles, Luke saw a fire escape leading to the roof of the building. “It’d be easier to move around up there…” he thought.
“Yes that’s a good idea.” Said Canti.
“What’s a good idea?” Luke questioned.
“Going up on the roof to move around more.”
“Wait, how’d you know that?”
“Another useful feature, I can automatically translates the wearers brain waves so that I can help and give advice when needed.” Computer said, his face appearing on the bottom right corner of the screen this time. “You shouldn’t climb up the ladder though, the armor gives the user the unique ability to jump extremely high, give it a try.”
“If you say so” said Luke, getting ready to make a small hop. Instead of jumping a few inches in the air though, Luke jumped two feet unintentionally… “Whoa!” he said as he flailed his arms and fell on his back.
“I told you that you can jump high!” said Computer.
“Amazing!” thought Luke. This time he pushed off the ground harder, and went just high enough to grab onto the ledge of the roof of the five story building “AAH! Too high!” he thought as he pulled himself up to the roof. Tired from all this new information, he thought “Let’s go home.” And set off in the direction of his house.

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