Mat-Tree tuned into “Good Morning Ultra City” expecting everything to go as planned. Antag would have exploded upon his entrance, vaporizing the entire building, AL Co would be blamed as it would have been revealed to have been a faulty heart circuit transplant (inserted by KVXIV) obtained through their medical facilities; their stock would drop allowing Next-Gen to sweep in and buy the company, instead it was to her shock and dismay when Antag introduced KVXIV not only as his long lost sister but the new head of the company. Within seconds, eight NX-10’s crashed into Mat-Tree’s office all pointing their plasma berretta’s directly at her.
SWARM OF NX 10
This is KVXIV, I have remote controlled these units, surrender peacefully and you will not be harmed.
Mat-Ree slid backwards out of her wheel harness revealing the upgraded legs she installed, she leapt onto an NX-10, snapping its neck off its body. Magnetic heels allowed her to run across the walls, taking down one NX-10 drone after the other diving out of the glass window of her office after the last one was finished.
Tumbling through the air Mat-Ree landed on her feet at the valet entrance to Next-Gen, she started to run with a self-satisfied grin when she was hit by a 10,000-watt surge that came from a volt gun being held by Pat-Ree, Syd-Kik was behind the driver’s wheel of the black van. Pat-Ree picked up his unconscious ex-wife throwing her in the back of the van next to K0B01T’s burnt out husk.
KVXIV looked out through the office window at the skyline of Ultra City the air filled with the mid-day traffic of sky cars. It had been over five hours since her drones’ strike went terribly wrong; the random Black Sky Van that had abducted Mat-Ree was nowhere to be found, despite a complete scouring of the City. Antag was also nowhere in sight, he never arrived for his space shuttle to the Moon which set KVXIV all the more on the edge.
The algorithm generator chimed, her scan of lead lined floor panels of AL Co properties yielded two results, the Marketing building and a tax right off parking lot. KVXIV reasoned that Mat-Ree had to be held captive in a seemingly undetectable location, the lead lined floors would make it difficult for any x-ray scans to be made allowing any clandestine operations to go unseen.
The Marketing building was her first choice, nearest to headquarters and usually unoccupied When KVXIV arrived Le-Thario was directing a Roll-bot and a Top-bot as they carried his furniture into the offices from a moving van.
LE-THARIO
Easy guys, I’m not paying you to break my stuff.
He caught her gaze.
LE-THARIO
Hey you, get over here!
She glided over to him and was welcomed with a handshake.
LE-THARIO
How ya doin, names Le-Thario, apparently you’re my out of wedlock sister which is all kinds of crazy, but I don’t judge, welcome to the fam!
KVXIV quickly moved back getting in a fighting stance. Le-Thario put up his hands.
LE-THARIO
Respect!
KVXIV
What are you doing here?
LE-THARIO
I got tired of being late so I decided, why not live at the office? Home is work, work is home, no way I could be late ever again.
KVXIV
You sold your domicile to pay for your gambling debts instead of furthering your embezzlement of corporate funds.
LE-THARIO
You totally inherited whatever Antag has.
KVXIV
Do you know anything about the structure hidden underneath the East Wing?
LE-THARIO
There’s a hidden structure underneath the East Wing?
KVXIV
Follow me.
LE-THARIO
Yes Ma’am.
KVXIV
Its Miss!
LE-THARIO
Whatever you say.
They took the East Wing Elevator to the bottom floor when it stopped, a piercing alarm sounded while a Voice boomed from the speakers.
SECURITY VOICE
AUTHENTICATE, AUTHENTICATE, AUTHENTICATE, AUTHENTICATE,
AUTHENTICATE, AUTHENTICATE, AUTHENTICATE!!!
Le-Thario remained calm, putting out his right hand, his palm extended flipping around revealing a hexagon with an A in the center, a scanner beamed over the emblem, the alarm died, the lights went back to fluorescent white and the elevator began its further descent.
LE-THARIO
Archy family crest, anyone from the Archy tree can display it, except Protag cause it was damaged after he was born or something.
KVXIV
I have read all of this in the corporate dossier.
LE-THARIO
Just trying to make small talk, settle down okay? No offense, but you’re kind of frightening.
KVXIV
I will take that as a compliment.
LE-THARIO
You would.
The elevator reached its final destination; the doors opened revealing a hidden laboratory surrounded by walls of hard stone. To the right was a small pool, eight feet long and three feet deep with a pink gel like substance, beyond that rows of metal counter tops with heart monitors, one could follow these tables leading to the cryogenic chamber at the far left in the room.
Le-Thar10 and KVXIV paced slowly to the cryo-chamber each using their hands to move the piled up condensation to see a something they couldn’t believe, a live human, waiting to awaken from his five hundred year slumber.
Mat-Ree’s eyes went into focus on a sight she’d hope to never see, Pat-Ree and his lackey cowering over her. Mat-Ree struggled but the titanium bonds placed around her wrist held her arms behind her back.
PAT-REE
Nice to have you with us.
Mat-Ree’s digital face displayed images of various teeth grinding.
PAT-REE
You’re so pretty when you’re angry.
MAT-REE
Get on with it.
PAT-REE
Your attempt to infect me with the ticking clock virus and supplant me with my twin brother has failed!
There was a silence then…
MAT-REE
And?
PAT-REE
You’re not going to even let me have this moment?
MAT-REE
You have got to be kidding me.
PAT-REE
I uncovered your plot, I was shot at, had to watch my own brother die after surviving an eighty thousand foot free-fall.
MAT-REE
You should’ve lead with that.
PAT-REE
I was building towards it!
MAT-REE
This is why our marriage fell apart.
PAT-REE
Everything to you is why our marriage fell apart!
MAT-REE
For once we agree on something, release me!
PAT-REE
I’m going to do just that, right into the hands of the law.
MAT-REE
That would be our mutually destroyed destruction, I would bargain with all the incriminating evidence I have against you, infecting someone with the ticking clock virus is nothing next to the bot who created it.
PAT-REE
And discovered the cure, you can bet I’ll lead with that one. Any claims you have against me will be seen as the bitter crazed ravings of an old crone.
MAT-REE
The time I just gave you to finish that monologue is the last courtesy I will ever pay you!
PAT-REE
MUCH ABLIGED!!!!
SYD-KIK
Sir, Madame you are better than thizzz…
PAT-REE/MAT-REE
Shut up Syd!
Mat-Ree’s geographic sensor kicked in.
MAT-REE
Why are we at Antag’s apartment?
PAT-REE
He’s the one with the cure; I need to get to one hundred percent if I hope to run my empire for another millennium.
MAT-REE
From a jail cell.
PAT-REE
I’m going to erase your mind of any knowledge of the creation of ticking clock before I hand you over to the authorities. You had to know that.
SYD-KIK
That zeemed like a given to me.
MAT-REE
Syd, are you really going to stand back and let him get away with this injustice?
SYD-KIK
You are both terrible; I want this over so that I can take a nap.
PAT-REE
I’ll take that as an endorsement.
The three got off the elevator with Mat-Re in the front being guided by Pat-Ree. They reached the apartment right after Protag had stomped his brother’s head in the ground.
MAT-REE
What have you done!?
PAT-REE
You better hope that cure is in his office!
Pat-Ree stomped through the remains of his least favorite but most accomplished son heading into the office. He used his x-ray vision to locate the USB stick containing the anti-virus behind the center wall, broke through it, grabbed the stick and inserted it into the port on his neck. Pat-Ree’s lenses flared as the ticking clock virus was eradicated from his body.
He strutted into Antag’s living room whistling as he tossed Syd-Kik the USB containing the anti-virus.
PAT-REE
Get that to our lab, have them make duplicates and send those to the hospitals everywhere.
SYD-KIK
How much do you want to charge?
PAT-REE
Nothing, we’re giving it out for free, Archy Corp being the first to a cure for the ticking clock virus should have us in good standing regardless.
Syd-Kik rolled out of the foyer to the living room where he could use a phone. Pat-Ree focused on his ex-wife and son.
PAT-REE
Family, were going to have to band together in a good old-fashioned cover up, any ideas?
PROTAG
Maybe we say that he tripped?
PAT-REE
Put yourself into a corner or something, I just can’t with you right now.
Syd-Kik rolled into the room, phone in hand I think you all zhould zee this
The press conference unfolded before their mechanical eyes. KVXIV stood at the podium, Le-Thario to her right and in the center none other than a human being. He had long black hair with a thick beard, his eyes were penetrating but his voice was soft and slightly charismatic given the shock he was in.
HUMAN
I am Doctor Hugh Mann, a scientist who cryogenically froze himself as part of an experiment. It was meant to be a thirty-minute nap; I guess it went longer than that huh?
Laughter in many different tones erupted from the audience of robot reporters startling Doctor Hugh Mann.
D.R. HUGH MANN
Woah.
NG-XL REPORTER
KVXIV, how does Archy Co. plan to help this man?
KVXIV
Since he was discovered at our facility we feel a great responsibility in acclimating Dr. Mann to our modern world.
FLYING-CAM REPORTER
Kirby-Whirly for Pie in the Sky News, what are the rest of the Archy family’s opinions on this matter?
KVXIV
None could be reached for comment.
LE-THARIO
But hey, if any of you are watching, how crazy is this!?
Syd-Kik shut off the TV.
PROTAG
Wow, a human discovered at one of our sites, what are the odds-
PAT-REE
This is bad, this is really bad.
MAT-REE
How much do you think he’s told them?
PAT-REE
Probably not much, but who cares, once he finds out what happened to the human race.
MAT-REE
And that you locked him in that chryo-chamber.
PROTAG
You know this guy?
PAT-REE
He’s our creator.
Protag’s moog-organ pacemaker hit a hard C’ note of shock.
PAT-REE
All apologies Matty.
MAT-REE
For wha-
Pat-Ree swiftly took the EMP pistol from his pocket and shot Mat-Ree, another moog C’ note was jettisoned.
PAT-REE
Protag you grab the top, Syd you grab the bottom.
PROTAG
What are we doing?
PAT-REE
<Sigh> We’re going to frame your Mother for your brothers murder, then we’re going to have her confess to the total genocide of the human race, but first I need to copy and delete all of those memories from my hard drive, rewrite new false memories then transfer them into your mothers central computer. What else does this look like?
Archy Corp’s announced their cure for the ticking clock virus with Pat-Ree as the first successful recipient then moments later they announced that Mat-Ree had Antag blown up after her escape from Next Gen.
After recovering from her EMP coma in a police hospital, Mat-Ree was sentenced to fifteen years in Mega-Max prison. While she acknowledged and admitted to every crime she had been accused of she couldn’t escape the feeling that she had been set up.
KVXIV met with Protag, reviewing his long loyal history with AL Co allowed him to stay with the company as Vice president.
Le-Thario and Doctor Hugh Mann became fast friends with the former helping the ladder on a new line of Energy drinks that are slated for the fall…as soon as they pass FDA standards.
Syd-Kik took his nap.
Epilogue
Four months later, on a rainy afternoon, a lithe yet dingy copper colored Mk: 23 exited a taxi in front of Archy Manor, he was 5’11 wore a ragged blue scarf around his neck with a hooded yellow trench coat that covered the rest of his body excluding his exposed scratched up metal feet.
The Wraith ran to the gate surveying the area using his infra red vision, he turned around then performed an impressive back flip over the gate on to Anarchy property, speeding forward, zig sagging left and right to stay out of the laser security’s line of sight.
The Wraith reached the front door and knocked, waiting no longer than a half minute when it creaked open slowly. Syd-Kik stuck his head out sideways befuddled at the stranger who had made it so easily to the front door.
SYD-KIK
Good evening?
THE WRAITH
My name T8-Stantz but I think I’m the real Protag-O-Nist-Archy.
T8 held up his right hand, his palm swung open as lightning cracked revealing his icy blue eyes, revealing the Archy crest of the hexagon with the A in the center.
The Drewniverse 44 