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Chapter 14 Discoveries in Neo Robia

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In a small metal walled room with a single light hanging from the center illuminating the room sat a bound female copper dragon. Her ankles were shackled to the ground and her arms and wings bound behind her back, which is further assisted by a chain that leads to her metal collar. The total affect keeps her body tightly bound and her posture forced straight. Her green camouflaged patterned military uniform is in a need of a good cleaning.

“You won’t get away with this!” growls the dragon as she sees a set of red eyes glowing in the shadows. The dragon watches as Crisis steps into the light as she attempts in vain to break her chains with a heavy grunt.

“I’ve heard that one before… though can we turn up the lights, I think it’s a bit too dark,” asks Crisis as a set of hidden lights in the ceiling illuminate, showing the simple room, the only way in or out is the steel door behind Crisis. “Better.”

“Funny I was going to ask for the opposite, or did you want to torture me by showing me that ugly mug of yours,” remarks the dragon.

“Oh what poor manners, we’ll fix that soon enough and you’ll be happy to serve Master Croc,” she replies.

“I shall never serve that tin can,” the dragon remarks with another deep growl.

“We’ll see about that,” remarks Crisis as her eyes and head gem glow brighter as the dragon attempts to turn her head away and avert her eyes from Crisis’ gaze, but Crisis grabs her muzzle and forces her to look into Crisis’ eyes which now softly pulsate.

“No… stop… must fight this…” says the dragon as she attempts to jerk her head away once again but Crisis holds her head.

“No, stop fighting. Must obey, relax and obey. You want to obey Chaos Croc. He’s your glorious master. You want to help him in anyway you can, don’t you?” Crisis softly says in a hypnotic soothing voice, the dragon’s pupils dilate as her gaze is drawn into Crisis’ eyes.

“I… must… fight… I must… stop… stop…fighting,” the dragon says softly as her eyes gain a soft hazy glaze look to them.

Crisis smirks as she motions with her free hand for the chains to deactivate and release the dragon. “That’s a good girl. Nice and obedient. You want to be a good girl, don’t you?” purrs Crisis.

“Yes… I want to be a good girl,” purrs the dragon.

“Good, good, now give me your hands and I’ll make you a good dragon for Master Croc.”

“I want to be a good dragon for Master Croc,” replies the dragon as she moves her claws over to Crisis’ hands which begin to give off a soft hum as they build up and then release their building roboticization energy after a few moments of holding the dragon’s hands.

The roboticization energy sparks from Crisis’ hands and crawls over and through the dragon’s hands, up her arms and over the rest of her body. The dragon lets out a soft moan, her attention still locked onto Crisis’ gaze. Steadily from her hands outwards, the dragon’s scales turn into segmented copper metal skin and over the process of several minutes the organic dragon is turned into a red eyed copper robot dragon. Crisis pulls her hands away from the dragon once the process is complete. The dragon smiles and then stands at attention and salutes Crisis.

“Ready to serve Master Croc,” says the new robotic dragon.

“How’s that?” asks Crisis as she turns around towards Croc who opened the door during Crisis’ roboticization and is now leaning against the door frame.

“Was alright, though you need to do it with more pizzazz.”

“Pizzazz?” asks Crisis as she raises an eye ridge.

“Yeah, you know make them struggle and fight, put on a good show as you roboticize them. You’re a bit too efficient. It’s no fun.”

“Okay… Though mind we take a break?”

“Why do you want to take a break?”

“Well since I’ve gotten this new body, I’ve done nothing but test and trail runs for you for the past eight days. It would nice to do something different,” says Crisis as she thinks, “ __And get myself back home my time is almost up._ ”_

“How else do you expect me to know how affective this new body is without thoroughly testing the capabilities?” asks Croc.

“Of course, but a little break wouldn’t be too bad would it? I’m sure you need to do other things.”

“I don’t know… I do like looking over my handiwork,” remarks Croc as he rubs his metallic green chin.

“I’d highly appreciate it Master Croc.”

“Oh alright, why don’t you spend a few hours in the city, and do some sightseeing, but just for a few hours, I want you back after that.”

“Thank you, Master Croc,” replies Crisis with a bow as Croc takes a step back allowing Crisis and his newest minion out of the room.

“Just come back when I call,” commands Croc as he smacks Crisis’ robotic rump as Crisis replies with a flick of her tail.

“I’ll be sure to come right away Master,” she says as Crisis walks off and thinks, “ __He_ ’ s my nemesis? The one that I am designed to defeat, he’s nothing but an ego centric pervert. I still can ’ t believe it, once I am assured I can defeat him without any complications beating him should be relatively easily, especially after all the lovely upgrades he has given me, the fool. ”_

Crisis makes her way out of the factory to get her first eye level view of Croc’s industrial district of his grand city. Everything is clean and kept in working order, every building standing is in use, not a single abandon building in sight. Skipping the nearby bus stops which bring and take people to and fro their work in this area of the city, Crisis makes her way towards the commercial heartland of Croc’s capital. There people go about their lives, the economy bustling with no signs that Croc’s war has put any strain on his people.

_ “ Judging from what I ’ ve seen so far about seventy percent of the populous is robotic, I wouldn’t think so many organics would live in the heartland of his empire, maybe he doesn’t care due to his hypnotic control over the people, ”_ thinks Crisis as she walks down the streets.

“So many people here yet…” mumbles Crisis as she continues to look around, and much like the industrial district everything here is clean and orderly, not a spec of garbage in the streets or even in any of the back alleys. The buildings are well kept to the point that many look almost pristine and not a single abandon building in sight. Crisis muses herself at the efficiency of the city, traffic is non-existent and judging by the open and friendly nature of the city, crime could possibly be very minimal.

Croc’s symbol is everywhere, a constant reminder of who the people have to ‘thank’ for this glorious life that they live. Despite this overbearing nature of Croc’s symbol only a few of the advertisements played on the electronic billboards and display holographic televisions bring mention to Croc’s greatness, they are more focused on selling their product. “Now that I am in the city, what could I do? This is a prime opportunity to learn more but I don’t have the time study everything, and Croc’s new relay isn’t downloading a map of the city.”

Crisis continues to make her way down the city’s streets, moving with other machines and organics who go about their everyday lives. “Maybe if I go to a place where I could learn more about Croc himself, all we know is he came from space and has attempted to take us over. Where could I go to learn more about his origins…”thinks Crisis as she rubs her chin in thought, her tail swaying side to side as she moved to stand off to the side to allow herself to think without hindering the flow of pedestrian traffic.

“I could ask around but asking a machine but be suspicious, maybe if I enter one of these stores and ask an organic clerk, maybe I can get some answers,” mumbles Crisis as she looks behind her to find she’s been leaning against a costume shop. Crisis looks inside the shop and sees rows of costumes and only a few customers inside, all of whom are organic, “Might as well try this one.”

Crisis walks into the store, as the opening of the door hits a bell that causes it to ring. “Wasn’t expecting something so low tech here,” thinks Crisis as she walks inside she gets a closer look at the various costumes. The initial quality of the costumes are like what you’d expect to find for children when they go trick or treating, but as Crisis went deeper into the store, the quality of the costumes increased dramatically as some were so life like that it was unreal.

“How can I help you Miss?” comes a male voice that according to Crisis’ analysis contains a poor excuse of a Scottish accent. Crisis turns around to see an anthropomorphic skunk standing nearby. His blue eyes look unusually big as he looks at Crisis with a big smile. His body only clothed from the waist down with a pair of baggy pants and because he’s topless Crisis can easily see an unusual marking on the skunk’s chest, a white fur cross. Around his neck is a small cloth necklace that has his “Hello my name is” name tag with the name “Scot” on it.

“Yeah I think you can,” says Crisis as she flicks her tail. Crisis looks over the Skunk as his head nods slightly almost as if he’s a bit tipsy…

“I don’t get too many robians here during this time of the year but regardless I have the best costumes in town for either organics or machine.”

“Actually I’m not here to shop.”

“Awe what a shame, it’s always fun to put on a new outfit, to be something you weren’t before,” remarks Scot as he frowns upon hearing Crisis’ reply, “Regardless, I’m always willing to help a robian in need or my name isn’t Sabrina,” says the skunk.

“Sabrina? But your name says Scot.”

“… What did I say?’

“Sabrina?”

“Why did you call me Sabrina? My name is Scot.”

“Okay… so Scot what’s your last name?” asks Crisis.

“What? You think I’d tell you my whole name? We just met,” remarks Scot.

“Anyway, I was wondering if there was a place I can learn a little bit of history about Master Croc, either in a library or a museum. I’m only visiting for a little bit and I like to learn more while I can,” explain Crisis as she thinks, “ __Might as well get the information from this drunk, not like he_ ’ d report me for being suspicious. ”_

“Oh? Never heard of a robian needing directions is your relay thing working? Do you need some maintenance?” asks Scot.

“No, no. I’m rather new and let’s just say Croc is trying something new with my relay.”

“I see… so you want to go someplace to better understand Croc’s history?”

“Yup.”

“Well there is a Croc history museum nearby, I think that help.”

“Really? That be perfect, where is it?”

“Well you take the green line on the subway, the entrance is just across the street and then…” says Scot as he gives Crisis directions.

“Thanks,” replies Crisis as she leaves the store and heads across the street to the subway. As she goes underground she can hear the very soft hum of the trains. Crisis notes how clean, quite and streamlined designed these subways and their trains are.

Crisis only has to wait a few minutes before her train arrives. The doors hiss open as robians and organics enter and exit the train and as Crisis boards she notes that just like the rest of the city, the inside of the train is kept clean. None of the cushions are damaged, and there’s not a spec of graffiti anywhere.

As the train moves silently through the tunnels Crisis looks at the various advertisements on the walls of the train, half of them propaganda about how great Chaos Croc is. “ __That robot really likes to toot his own horn,_ ”_ thinks Crisis as she has to take two more train switches before she reaches the museum.

Once a the museum, Crisis makes her way up a large set of stone steps that lead to the entrance of the museum. On the sides of the stairway are two large bronze statues of at ten feet in height of Chaos Croc standing in a proud pose as he looks forward towards some distant destination or goal. The name of the museum is grafted into stone above the entrance which says, “Museum of Croc History” Crisis enters the museum to find another even larger bronze statue than the ones outside of Chaos Croc apparently holding the ‘weight of the world’ on his back.

“Croc really enjoys showing off…” mumbles Crisis as she looks at the statue, her feet tapping against the tiled floors as she gets closer to the statue. Crisis looks around to find the museum rather empty, “I guess people even in Croc’s city don’t like to go to museums all that often,” remarks Crisis.

“It is a shame, but it seems everyone is too busy to learn about our glorious Master Chaos Croc the way they should,” says a female robot. Crisis turns her head to see a brown body white belly robotic anthropomorphic otter. The otter’s relatively cute muzzle and whiskers are a slight contrast to her glowing red eyes. In her hands is holding a book titled, “Glorious Chaos Croc: how can he be so glorious?”

“Uh hi… who may you be?”

“Hello my name is Oreille,” she responds with a smile, “I’m the curator of this glorious and wonderful museum to our glorious and wondrous Master Chaos Croc,” she responds gleefully.

“Nice to meet you Oreille, I’ve come to learn more about Master Croc’s history,” responds Crisis as she glances over at Croc’s large statue and back at the robotic otter.

“Oh you have? That’s wonderful! So many of Croc minions just accept what history that’s initially installed in them or what the organics learn in school, few even think of coming here to learn more in fun and interactive ways!” she says with a hyper giggle.

“I see… well I’m just a tad old fashion at heart. I was going to the library but I decided a museum might give me a better perspective on Chaos Croc.”

“Oh and what a glorious perspective it is. Where would you like to begin? I know this museum like the back of my glass eye lens,” she says with a grin.

“How about the beginning? The origins of Croc,” asks Crisis.

“Excellent choice. Every great leader starts out small, Croc is no exception, come right this way,” says Oreille as she guides Crisis to the left wing of the museum. Inside Crisis can see various displays all to Chaos Croc but also to someone called the “Empress”. The images of her are of a supple well shaped anthropomorphic brown furred squirrel in a red and black outfit.

“Behind every great man… or in this case machine, is a great woman, and the woman behind the greatest machine ever constructed is the Empress.”

“The Empress? Does that mean this Empress person runs the show? Forgive the silly questions, but they failed to install much history programming into me,” asks Crisis as Oreille bursts into a giggle.

“Oh heck no, Chaos Croc would never have any organic over him. We call her the Empress because that was her title before Croc took over.”

“If she’s no longer an empress in such a manner, why is she still called that?”

“We want to honor the organic who was genius enough to create our God Chaos Croc.”

“I heard this empress built Croc, may I learn more about his construction? Why did she build him?”

“You know silly organics; they wage war all the time. The Empress was in a conflict with other organics and she wanted to turn the tide permanently into her favor. She built roboticizers to roboticize those that need a bit more… persuasion to join her forces.”

“I wonder why she’d ever need that,” remarks Crisis with heavy sarcasm.

“Well the Empress had a lot of enemies that didn’t see her way of doing things. That is why she built Chaos Croc. He could go out there and show others her way of thinking quickly and efficiently.”

“Always good to be efficient, so what happened next?” asks Crisis as the robotic otter motioned her down the hallway.

“Right this way and we’ll find out. The history is rather interesting if I may say so myself,” remarks Oreille.

“You don’t say…”

“Oh yes, and Croc in his early stages was a marvelous machine, not as great as he is now, but even then he is was still far above any of us, and he only went up from there. He was quick and efficient. Turning swaths of people into loyal robotic subjects for the Empress,” she says as the next room shows video clips and imagery of Croc’s robotic handy work. Croc turning strongholds that held out against the Empress into loyal robotic hubs to expand her power of her empire.

“Looks like Croc was a bad ass even back then,” remarks Crisis as she scans and records everything she sees as she is led deeper into the Croc history exhibition.

“Oh he was, but no where near as powerful and great as he is today. Croc was different back then than he is today in many ways. Back then he was only focused on roboticizing others for his creator the Empress. All his thoughts and actions were driven by his programming.”

“Really now? Just his programming… and that’s different than now because?” asks Crisis.

“Oh you poor uninformed soul, I’ll help you see the difference,” comments Oreille as she pats Crisis on the back.

“That would be nice, I like being well informed.”

“As I said, early Croc was controlled and commanded by his programming like all machines built by organics. All he knew was his programming. He went out, he roboticized, took control over vast territories for the Empress, but then… something amazing happened. It didn’t happen in an instant, but something that happened slowly, over time, but it’s what makes him so great.”

“ __Yes something that I could learn about what makes him powerful_ …”_ thinks Crisis, “Do go on, tell me more.”

“Croc started to grow and evolve,” explains Oreille as she led Crisis into the next room that showed Croc growing in his power, forming his own robotic army to continue his Empress’ will, and early signs of a personality shown by expressions on his face from video feed in some of the displays.

“Grow and evolve?” asks Crisis curiously as she flicks her green robotic tail.

“Yes, the first signs are shown here with his robotic army. It was created to help him roboticize and take control more efficiently but his program didn’t state him to do this. He did this all on his own,” explains Oreille.

“I see, please go on,” says Crisis.

“Gladly. You see as time went by, and as Croc interacted with the world around him, primarily with the organics he took control over, he learned and grew. Over time he grew past his programming directives. He acted more and more outside of his own programming, becoming more advanced without the input of another organic. He grew more power over his own being till he outright went against his core programming and did his own thing.”

“Did his own thing?” asks Crisis curiously as she looks at the exhibits before her, studying and recording them.

“Yes and it is so amazing, such a great machine that he was able to overcome his own program and start to evolve from his experiences since he was activated. He even went against what his programming told him to do and became a free machine, able to make all of his own choices without any control from another. It was then Croc decided that the Empress wasn’t fit to rule an empire that he helped to build. That the only true ruler of a robotic empire should be the robot who built it, and that was him!” she explains excitedly as the otter leads Crisis to the next set of exhibitions.

“It was here the glorious Master Croc set up a brilliant coup and seized power for himself. Of course he still held respect for his creator and gave her the opportunity to serve him, which she does to this day,” explains Oreille as Crisis is shown scenes and reenactments of Croc’s subtle and bloodless take over of the Empress’ forces.

“Very interesting.”

“Isn’t it? And glorious Master Croc is a prime example of the Nature vs. Nurture debate. Which is more powerful, nature or nurture… of course in a robot’s case the way of thought is reversed.”

“What do you mean by reversed?”

“You see in the organic debate it’s either nature decides your life for you, or the way you’re raised makes a difference. For a machine it’s Nature vs. Programming. Does programming control and makes the robot who they are for their entire existence or what they experience help develop, what naturally happens around them? For most like us we are tied to our programming, able to grow but nothing like Master Croc. He was able to grow far past his programming and seize his true nature of a machine.”

“And what pray tell is the nature of a machine?” Crisis asks curiously.

“To be free and do what they want to do. Not what their program tells them to do, but what they feel they want to do, to become, to be,” explain Oreille in one of those over dramatic vocal performances. “And that’s why Master Croc is the best robot that has ever been built.”

“Let me take a guess… you’re one of those built robotic drones I’ve heard about? And you are far on the always obey your programming side of this Nature vs. Programming spectrum?”

“I’m roboticized thank you very much, but master Croc was gracious enough to put such heavy and wonderful reprogramming into me. Back in my foolish organic days I was a historian trying to undermine Croc’s power. What a fool I was back then. But Croc the great was kind enough to programming me so heavily that I may serve him as I do now. What he did was for the best not only myself but all those around me,” she says with a big grin on her face.

“I see… that’s quite interesting… I think,” remarks Crisis.

“Now if you continue this way, we’ll go into how Croc consolidated his power of his new found Empire…” says Oreille as Crisis receives a message from Croc that he’d like her to return back to his quarters for further testing, and that her time sight seeing for now is over.

“I love to stay but I just got a message and I must be heading off. I’ll try to head back here to learn more as soon as I can,” replies Crisis.

“Oh that is wonderful to hear that you liked my tour so much you’d want to come back. It’s a shame our tour had to be cut short, but if you are needed elsewhere, I won’t stop you. Be safe.”

“Thank you, I’ll do my best,” says Crisis as she waves Oreille goodbye as she heads back the same route she took to get the museum, retracing her steps back to the facility where Croc and her have been training. Crisis is greeted by a pair of floating robotic sphere with a set of clamps for hands on their arms.

“This way, Master Croc will need you soon,” says one of the machines as she is taken to a different section of the factory. There is an open waiting room with an elevator leading to the floor above. The large windows give Crisis a clear view of parts of the room as the lights shine down below.

“Croc is currently busy, please wait here while he finishes some business,” says the guard as they start to float away

“Busy? Why did he call me if he was busy,” grumbles Crisis as she sighs, “Fine, I can wait, not much I can do about it anyway,” she remarks. The little droid gives a floating nod and floats off as Crisis paces a bit and thinks, “ __I was learning so much about Croc and now instead of learning, I_ ’ m waiting …_ wait what _’__ s that?_” thinks Crisis as she notices a shadow go over her field of vision. She looks up to the room above and notices it’s Croc standing there, his hands moving about as he points down to something she can’t see.

“ __What is he up to_ …”_ thinks Crisis as she zooms in on Croc’s eyes, as she notes a reflection in his glass eyes. Crisis begins to quickly analyze the reflection starting to piece together what Croc is seeing. She quickly compiles a large strategic map of not only Crisis’ own country but of the entire battlefield on her planet. With this realization she starts to take down every detail that she can.

“ __That_ ’ s it Croc …_ don _’__ t move …_ _I may not know more of your past, but I know something even more important …_ your future,” she thinks as she notices other people in the room with Croc. She already recognizes Ko, but she can’t make out anyone else save for one other person… the Empress.

“ __My, my_ …_ if only I had something to take them out all at once _…_ damn it that will have to wait for another time,_ ”_ she thinks as she rubs her chin as her tail wraps around her own body as she continues to look up at Croc, “ __If only I knew what he was saying._ ”_

A few minutes later Ko moves to the window and starts to talk to Croc. Crisis adjusts her spot so she can see her lips, and runs through a lip reading program and steadily begins to compile some information about the meeting.

“ __So_ …_ that _’__ s what he ’ s planning, might have enough time to do something about it …_ _but only if I act now and get away from Croc. I think my time spent researching Croc is going to end a bit prematurely, but this information is too important. It’s time to head back home. ”_