by M. E. Castle
But before they could celebrate their victory, the door behind them shook and rattled. The bots were charging the door. They heard wood splinter. One more hit like that and the door would be off its hinges.
“Hurry,” Fisher said to Alex. “Let me see that controller. We have destroy it and turn off those bots before they break in here, and into our house.”
“I don’t have it,” Alex said, with panic in his voice. “I thought you did.”
“And I thought …,” Fisher trailed off.
There was a delicate cough behind him.
With a sinking feeling, Fisher turned around.
Dr. X had the controller. And as the Fisher-bots burst in to surround them, his sickle-sharp smile told them his evil side was very much back.
Knock, knock … Nobody’s there, the knocking was just to distract you while I cut through the wall.…
You see? I am not entirely humorless.
—Three, Audio Log
“Hmm,” Dr. X said, examining the controller as Fisher-bots continued to flow into the room. “Interesting. An intuitive yet sophisticated control device. I recognize the signature of technologies I developed at TechX, but there are some modifications.” His smile was cold, and Fisher felt its coldness seep into the air around him. It took him right back to the moment he’d first seen Dr. X in person. That is, Dr. X as Dr. X. He’d seen him in person as Harold Granger nearly every day before that.
He often went back in his mind, searching through his memories to see if there was any way he could have known, if there were clues he’d missed. So far, all he’d come up with was the fact that Mr. Granger had been very quiet, absorbed in his work, and lacking friends. Qualities Fisher had shared.
It wasn’t a very reassuring thought.
“Hey, uh … Alex?” Fisher said, as the twenty or thirty Fisher-bots surrounded them, in response to Dr. X’s manipulations.
“Yeah,” Alex responded
“Did our clever secret plan include provisions for this?”
“Nope,” Alex mumbled.
“Thought so. Just checking,” Fisher said.
“You see, Fisher?” said Dr. X, holding the controller like it was a cup of tea. “You can never trust anyone. Not really. And you can never rely on anyone else to help you. There is only power, and opportunity.” He gestured at the room around them with his free hand.
“Just think about your time here at school. You created this … copy of yourself … because you were unliked and unlikeable, invisible to those you wished could see you and a bright red target to those you wished you could escape. Then your situation changed dramatically. But why? Ask yourself, truly, why?”
Fisher looked around at the others. Amanda, scowling. Veronica, frightened but resolute, her jaw set. Alex, trying to keep an eye on the restrained Three, who was just starting to wake up. And all those Fisher-bots, staring blankly at him as they awaited their orders.
“Suddenly, you gained influence. Prestige. Popularity. Why? Because you took advantage of an opportunity. You took control. You thwarted my defenses and my plans, and you sent TechX up in an ash cloud. Oh, yes, your clone here had attracted some attention by wearing an old hat. But it wasn’t until you unleashed great destruction, until you showed that you could destroy, that things truly turned around for you. Because when people saw what you could do, they began to respect you. Some of them even began to fear you.”
Fisher thought of Brody shrinking away from him in the gym.
“But what about friendship?” Dr. X went on in a mocking tone. “There are no friends, Fisher. Not really. There are only those who respect you, and those who don’t. They either value what you can do for them, or they fear what you can do to them.” He tapped a control, and the Fisher-bots lunged forward all at once. Fisher threw his arms up to protect himself, and the others all did the same, but another quick button push, and the bots stopped, stepping back into place.
“There, you see?” he said. “It’s all about what you can do. Power. And it’s about taking the chance to seize power. Opportunity.”
He held out the control device to Fisher.
“Take it.”
Fisher drew in a sharp breath.
“What?” he said, with a tremble in his voice.
“Take it,” said Dr. X. “These bots aren’t evil. They’re just tools. They won’t do anything that you don’t tell them to. And that is the real point here. With them at your command, you can do anything you want.”
Fisher waited for Dr. X to pull his hand back, to laugh and command the Fisher-bots to attack. But he didn’t. He extended the controller calmly to Fisher.
Fisher looked again at the bots. Was what Dr. X had said true? Was everything that had happened to him in the past month, all of the downs and ups, the defeats and the triumphs as simple as the shifting of power? Did people pay him attention only because he’d proven that he was dangerous?
He reached out and took the controller, and Dr. X let it go. Fisher looked down at its shining black surface, at its smooth inputs and soft-glowing displays. He thought of what he could do with such a force under his command. All of the wrongs he could right. What he could build.
What he would do.
Fisher raised his hand high above his head, and with a single, lightning-quick motion, hurled the controller against the hard tile floor, where it cracked, fell apart, and went dim.
“What … what did you do that for?!” Dr. X wailed, horrified. “What have you done?!” He threw himself to the floor, frantically trying to put the pieces of the controller back together.
The Fisher-bots powered off almost simultaneously. Their heads drooped to their chests. Wally and FP ran excitedly around the deactivated bots, head-butting them and knocking them one by one to the ground.
“It’s really very simple,” Fisher said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, feeling like a newly crowned boxing champion. “You left out the most important thing about power. How much you have is important, I won’t deny that. But what truly defines you isn’t how much power you have. It’s how you use it.” He looked over and saw the pride radiating from Veronica’s eyes. Any small doubts he’d had over whether he’d made the right choice were swept away. “That is why my friends care about me. Sure, lots of kids at Wompalog just think it’s cool that I blew something up. But the people who know me stuck with me because of why I did it. To save my brother’s life, and to keep you from taking over the world.”
“Fisher …,” Alex said quietly.
Fisher held up a hand to hush his brother. “I’m not finished,” he said, still staring at Dr. X. “My biggest mistake was thinking like you, Dr. X. I don’t regret making Alex, but I made him for the wrong reasons. I wasn’t solving any problems. I was running away from them. I tried to escape because I could. Because I had the power and the opportunity. I misused that power, and I’ve been paying for it ever since. We all have been.
“Before now I didn’t really understand friendship. I didn’t think anyone actually cared about me. Now that I know that the world is more than just a power struggle, this all makes sense.”
“Hey, Fisher?” Alex said again, more insistently.
“Hang on, I’ve got a little more to say,” Fisher said. “Yes, I could do a lot of good with an army of androids at my command. But I did nothing to earn that power. I didn’t create it, and I don’t really understand it. And frankly, it’s more power than any one person should hold.”
As he finished his speech, he could almost imagine the rumbling of swollen applause from an invisible crowd.
“Fisher!” Alex said a third time. “The floor is shaking.”
Fisher realized that the rumble was not in his head. He looked down and saw his shoelaces vibrating along with it.
“That controller must have been running all the traps and gadgets Three put around the school,” said Amanda.
“Well,” Fisher said, “in that case … let’s leave. Really, really fast.”
Amanda pu
lled the bound and groggy Three to his tied-up feet, put her shoulder into his stomach, and hoisted him into the air.
“You okay moving like that?” Alex said.
“We’ll take turns,” Amanda said, taking a deep breath. “Come on, let’s go!”
Dr. X was on his knees, still mumbling into the remains of the controller and sifting them through his fingers.
“Come on, Dr. X,” Fisher said. “We have to go!”
Dr. X kept on mumbling, oblivious to the way the floor was bucking underneath them.
“Leave him!” Amanda shouted.
It was tempting. But Fisher wanted to see Dr. X brought to justice.
“Come on,” Veronica said, sensing his hesitation. “You take one arm, I’ll take the other.”
Fisher was thankful Dr. X was such a scrawny man. Fisher and Veronica both hooked him under one arm and were able to pull him along easily, his heels dragging against the floor.
They dashed out of the science classroom and down the hall, ducking under another shower of extra-sharpened pencils. Amanda breathed heavily under the load she was carrying, stopping and starting as lockers blew open, sending textbooks as heavy as bricks flying through the air.
“Switch!” Alex said to the tiring Amanda, who put Three down just long enough for Alex to pick him up. Fisher waved everyone forward, nearly tripping over FP, who was scurrying along at his feet beside Einy and Berg. Then he realized Wally was gone.
“Where’s Wally?” he shouted over a series of loud pops.
“Don’t know!” Veronica said. “But there’s no time to find him! Come on!”
Dr. X had finally realized that the building was coming apart around their ears, and had regained his feet. They had almost reached Wompalog’s main hallway, the one that would lead them out of the danger zone, when hundreds of tiny red objects sprung down from the ceiling on thin wires, hanging menacingly in front of them.
“What are those?” said Amanda as they all skidded to a halt.
“Red pens,” Fisher said, horrified.
They moved forward, the fumes from the countless felt-tip pens nearly suffocating them. Gagging and choking, Alex and Amanda dragged Three behind them. Dr. X clawed himself along in miserable silence.
“Come on, come on!” Fisher said, taking Veronica’s arm when she stumbled. His head was swimming. As soon as they were clear of the pens, he took a deep breath and it began to clear. Amanda took her turn carrying Three again, and they made for the doors. Fisher’s eyes streamed from the pen fumes and his lungs burned from running.
They were almost there … just another twenty feet …
Then an immense thump filled the hall as three giant spheres crashed down right in front of the doors, and began to roll toward them.
“Gym balls,” Fisher said as another memory of Viking torture sprung up in his mind. These giant-sized gym balls had been outfitted with steel-reinforced outer layers, armed in spikes, studs, and sickle blades. They were rolling so fast, there was no way around them.
“In here, quick!” Alex shouted, kicking open the nearest classroom door. Fisher stood aside, letting Amanda carry Three in first as the deadly balls picked up speed, cutting up the floor in their path. Alex and Dr. X followed next, then Fisher made sure Veronica was in before picking up FP and diving into the room.
The door had hardly closed before one of the deadly spheres smashed into its frame. The booms and crashes outside subsided, and Fisher pushed against the door, which might as well have been a stone wall.
“Not budging,” he said. “We’d need a bulldozer to get out of here.” He was going to say more when a sharp, splintering sound cut him off.
“Look!” Alex said, pointing at the ceiling. Fisher looked. A long crack had formed in the ceiling. The walls started to shake.
“This place is about to come down,” Amanda said, eyes wide with panic. “We have to find another way out!”
Fisher immediately ran to the windows, but all of them had steel shutters locked in place over them. They must have been installed by Three’s minions when he was fortifying the place. Everyone searched the walls and floor for anything they could find—a vent, a trapdoor, even a weak spot in the wall. But they came up empty. Every second, a new crack developed in the ceiling until it looked like a spider’s web.
Alex and Fisher took turns slamming the metal shutters with chairs, trying to break through them. Fisher’s eyes stung with sweat, and his arms were exhausted. Suddenly, Veronica wrenched him backward, away from the windows.
“The wall,” she said, “it’s coming down!”
A loud buzzing sound filled the air, and a spray of dust hit the group as long lines appeared in the plaster beneath the windows.
Straight lines. Perfectly straight lines.
“It’s not breaking,” Fisher said excitedly. “It’s being cut!”
A neat four-foot square of wall fell away, revealing the outside world. A tall, strong-jawed man in a suit stood outside.
“Agent Mason!” Fisher cried out.
“Nice to see you, boys,” said FBI Special Agent Syd Mason as he and the two saw-wielding agents with him backed away from the school. “Now come on out of there before the whole place comes down.”
Fisher let Alex, who’d picked up Three, go first, Amanda by his side. Dr. X shuffled out next, with Einy and Berg at his feet, and Fisher helped Veronica through the hole before casting one last look at the crumbling school, taking FP under his arm, and following her out.
The room’s ceiling fell a few seconds later, and thick dust clouds puffed into the air as other parts of the school caved in, leaving Wompalog in ruins.
“Agggh!” Dr. X screamed, collapsing to his knees and watching the dust plume rise. “Can you do nothing but destroy?? Demolish? Every time I come close to my true destiny, you make it crumble into powder! It’s all gone.…” He keeled over into a fetal position, hugging his knees to his chest. “It’s all gone.”
“Agent Mason,” said Fisher, “allow me to present Mr. Harold Granger, also known as Dr. X.”
“Yes,” said Mason. “We’ve been pursuing him for quite some time. Certain things he let slip on Family Feudalism convinced us we had our man. I also heard that my inside man on the show uncovered some very unusual machinery hooked into the broadcast equipment. It’s been disabled.”
“Good,” Amanda said. “That’s what’s been making everyone crazy.”
“I figured as much,” said Mason.
“What about our parents?” said Alex, half terrified. “Are they okay?”
“They’re just fine,” said Mason. “I had one of my agents check your place while I headed here. Your home is fine.” He smiled. “You just might have some gridlock for a while. A hundred thirty-five robots are collapsed in the street. We’ve got major cleanup crews on the way, but even they may have their hands full.”
Fisher felt like his knees had turned to string cheese. Alex almost shook with relief.
“How’d you find us?” said Alex.
“Our little friend here,” Mason said, and Fisher realized that Wally was standing next to him, looking pleased with himself. “We had the whole neighborhood under surveillance. He came and found me and led us back to school. From there, we used high-power microphones to pick up your voices inside and pinpoint your positions.”
Dr. X was still mumbling to himself as the other agents cuffed him, dragged him to his feet, and led him away. Einy and Berg had scampered off in the direction of the baseball field once the agents had approached. Fisher figured they would be just fine fending for themselves.
“This,” said Alex, pointing at Three, who lay on the ground, blank faced and silent as a glacier, “is the one responsible for everything that’s gone wrong in the past few days.”
“I see,” said Mason, frowning. “Well … I’m not sure how he’ll be handled, legally. He’s not an adult, after all. And technically he doesn’t exist … but I’m sure we’ll find some punishment appropriate for him.”
For one second, his kind face flashed with grim determination. Fisher was glad he wasn’t on Agent Mason’s bad side.
Mason hauled Three to his feet.
“What do you have to say to that?” Fisher couldn’t help but gloating.
“Nothing,” Three said simply. “Talking is a waste of energy at this point. It will not increase my chance of escape. But I do have one final thing to say to you.”
Fisher forced himself to meet Three’s pitiless gaze. Veronica came to his side, putting an arm around his shoulders.
“When Dr. X modified your genetic sequence to create me, he did not have to add anything,” Three said, with a humorless smile. “He did not have to modify anything, either. All he had to do was remove a few things. A few emotional buffers, perhaps. Some moral codes.”
Fisher felt a shiver go up his spine as Three leaned in.
“Do you see, Fisher? Everything that I am is within you. We are the same.” His eyes were black as a tunnel. “You will carry me with you for the rest of your life, inches from the surface. You will go to sleep every night hoping that I won’t wake up inside of you by morning. Good-bye, Fisher.”
“That’s enough,” Agent Mason said gruffly. “You’ve had your say.” And he led Three to the car where the other agents were waiting with Dr. X.
“I’m sorry, Fisher,” Veronica said quietly. “Please don’t worry too much about what he said.”
“I won’t,” said Fisher. “What he said is true for everyone. We’ve all got a Three in us somewhere. We’re all capable of using our talents for selfish gains and destruction. The more power you have, the more responsibility you have to use it properly.”
“Why, Fisher,” Veronica said, “that’s exactly what I was about to say to you. You may have a better grasp on human interaction than you think.”
He laughed. “Maybe. My learning curve has just been a little … steeper,” he said, gesturing to the mostly destroyed middle school. “Let’s hope the rest of my education doesn’t involve so many robot armies. Colleges aren’t going to accept me if they expect their campus to turn into the apocalypse in the middle of my sophomore year.”