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Chapter 22 One Short

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Crisis hears the hum of the engines as she looks outside of the private jet airplane. She leans back in the soft black leather cushioned seat as she sees Joshua looking back over here, nearby is Sasha who is dressed in a military dress uniform. The spacious jet’s cabin is split into a few sections with Crisis’ private compartment in the back. Standing at the door leading out of the compartment are two armed raptor security guards dressed in black.

“A six and a half hour flight and I am stuck here in the back,” grumbles Crisis.

“This summon to the Federation of Nations is quite sudden, and we are on a private jet, that isn’t too shabby” replies Joshua.

“I heard the other nations threatened military force against us if we didn’t comply,” Sasha adds..

“It’s not that.”

“What is it?” asks Joshua.

“General Raszer is in the other damn room and I can’t even speak with him! I’ve been sitting here for the past three hours and anytime I try to go to see him, those guards block my path,” she growls.

“Well we don’t want any trouble, and the general is busy with running the country and the war,” replies Joshua.

“I can’t stand it anymore, I’m going to go see him,” growls Crisis as she stands up and walks over to the doors.

“Sorry you can’t come in, the general is a very busy man,” states the first guard.

“I don’t care he is, I have a lot of questions for the general that only he can answer, and he will answer them, it’s the least he can do after all that I’ve done for him.”

“Sorry but orders are orders.”

“I’ll give you some orders alright...”

“Crisis...” mumbles Joshua.

“Let her in, if she wants to speak with me this badly it has to be important,” says General Raszer from the other side of the door.

“Yes sir,” replies the guards as they step aside.

“Better, you two got off easy,” remarks Crisis as she opens the door, revealing another set of guards as well an even more spacious flight cabin where only two black leather seats are visible on the right hand side.

“Come on in, I don’t have all day,” commands Raszer as Crisis walks up to reveal the black scaled raptor, his amber eyes look up at Crisis as he motions for her to sit down. The general eyes Crisis as he takes a sip of his coffee from his coffee mug.

“Thank you sir,” replies Crisis as she sits down in the chair across from him, Raszer takes another sip of his coffee mug as he notices it’s empty. He shows it to a nearby guard who quickly calls in a flight attendant to rush and bring him some more coffee.

“What is so urgent that you needed to speak to me?” he asks as he glances at Crisis.

“A couple of things, first off I want to know more about project Crisis.”

“Hmm how very odd you come to me to ask me that, the very product of the project asking me about itself and how it was created.”

“I want to know what was done with the pieces captured from Croc himself. I tried looking up more on my creation but a lot of the information is limited.”

“The pieces of Chaos Croc were studied extensively to craft and design your original body. Furthermore the technology we obtained in our raids, namely his roboticization technology we use to now to help create your army,” explains Raszer as he gets his coffee mug refilled. Raszer waits till the flight attended is gone before continuing, “You were built with the design idea to be exactly like him, with the exception of serving us and not him,” chuckles Raszer as he looks out the window, “It wasn’t an easy project to pull off by any means. A lot of time and effort was put into it. It took years of research, development, trial and error; keeping the bases we had the research at top secret from not only Croc, but from the world as a whole,” explains Raszer as he turns his attention for a moment back to Crisis.

“The former president wasn’t too keen on the project and tried multiple times to get it cancelled. He even placed a weak minded general in charge of the very military base you were built at. He figured having someone who wouldn’t let the project cross over to the final step would be just as good as cancelling it. In other words he tried to keep the project from ever reaching completion so he could avoid angering the military.”

“Parts that you control, I assume.”

“You catch on quick. You see our president was a weak man. He refused to let us unleash our full military force from the very beginning of this conflict. When we were under attack and the greater part of our nation was still under our control, he refused to increase the size of our military, refused to bolster or military budget. He’d rather bow down to a decades old treaty and keep the other nations happy rather than protect our people. I was amazed he got re-elected so many times during the war,” states Raszer as he looks into his coffee mug before taking another sip, “No matter, he got what was coming to him in the end. Croc’s forces managed to take him out. Who’d thought Croc would have done something beneficial to our side,” he chuckles.

“Quite, though it is problematic that he was able to in the first place.”

“Indeed, why I’ve been taking extra security precautions. Speaking of which, when we land in New Hope city… don’t expect a warm welcome. The Avians have never been a fan of our kind. They’ll probably have something ready to restrain you the moment we land.”

“Understood... though I will admit I was never programmed with much knowledge on the other nations. Why they hate us so much.”

“It wasn’t knowledge that we deemed necessary for you to know in your fight against Croc… but things change so might as well enlighten your programming.. Look out the window and tell me what you see.”

“Alright,” replies Crisis as she looks outside to see rows of tiny, tiny houses, streets, factories, a town here, a town there far in the distance, square formation crops growing on farms, “I don’t see anything special.”

“Look closer at the terrain.”

Crisis takes another look, studying the terrain as she starts to notice circular outlines in the terrain, creators, dozens of them worn down by time and the elements, “You referring to those creators?”

“I am, our nation has had a violent past, three major world wars to be exact. The Drakes have been our allies in all of them and are reviled just as much as we are. There are few other scaled nations that have backed us in the past, but the furred nations have always been out to get us, wanting to limit our power and growth at every turn, our last major war, which was about sixty years ago ended in a treaty that has done nothing but strangle our people. The only reason why we’re doing as good as we are now is because we’ve started to completely disregard the treaty. That is why we’re going to New Hope city.”

“An oddly named city, why is it called that?” asks Crisis.

“New Hope was original called something else but the city was renamed after our armies were defeated there and the tide of battle turned against us. It was a long five more years till we were defeated, but it all started there with the combined armies of ten different nations.”

“Ten nations? Against just us? That’s a lot.”

“It was more like forty against us and our allies, but I digress. The Avians made New Hope their new capital city after the war, and as I mentioned earlier where the Federation of Nations meetings are held.”

“Do you know what this summon to the city is about?” asks Crisis.

“Of course, it’s to talk about the recent transgressions about the treaty, the massive increase in our armies, building advance technological weapons, such as you, ect, ect.”

“And they wanted me to come along for this?”

“Yup, I don’t know what they are planning exactly, but it can’t be good. They are all anti-scales like you wouldn’t believe... but you’ll see that soon enough.”

“I guess I will,” replies Crisis as she leans back in the chair gazing back at the world down below and after a while Crisis returned to her original seat, the plane landing a couple of hours later. Crisis watched as the massive city below drew closer and bigger. The airport was absolutely massive, with hundreds of planes coming and going in a near endless stream but as the plane touched down and pulled off the tarmac towards a secluded section of the airport with an army of police officers and reporters waiting… along with some of the country’s own army in support. Raszer was the first off the plane with his body guards, before Crisis and her crew left.

Crisis took a good look these anthropomorphic birds who ranged in various ways some had wings, others did not, some would be more classified as a gryphon, being half bird half other kind of animal, while others were full bred birds. News reporters took snapshots and video film as a few large bald eagle military guards approached Crisis, one of them had a large black metallic collar in his claws.

“Relax , if you struggle it make things worse,” mumbles Raszer to Crisis who was standing at the base of the stairs. Crisis gave a nod as the two eagles placed the heavy metallic collar around your neck.

“It’s a pleasure to have you with us today Raszer,” announces a blue jay dressed in a business suit as he walks up to the group.

“Always a pleasure to see you again Chancellor,” replies Raszer, “Though may I inquire exactly what you’ve placed on my equipment that you yourself request to be here?”

“Oh just a little precaution, we’ve heard plenty of stories what your dear robot can do...” he explains as he looks over at Crisis, “It’s an EMP device designed to wipe out its systems and the collar is packed with just enough conical explosives that it can easily pop that things head off with minimal shrapnel to nearby people,” continues the Chancellor in a relaxed tone of voice.

“ __I am not a thing..._ ”_ thinks Crisis as she does as she is told and stands there as the device is put onto her, listening to all the derogatory comments made about her.

“I see your trust in us hasn’t changed at all,” comments Raszer.

“After all your past and recent transgressions, be thankful I have any at all,” he remarks as the group moves forward, police keeping the reporters at bay while the soldiers surround the group, “The meeting has already begun so we’ll be heading there immediately.”

“Already? So eager to prosecute us?” remarks Raszer.

“And here I thought I was doing you a favor by sparing you the opening formalities,” he renarks as a nearby limo sits waiting for Raszer and the Chancellor the two entering the car as it drives off.

“What about us?” asks Crisis as a military truck pulls up as the two large birds that put the collar on Crisis remain nearby, they motion to the truck in silence, “Figures,” sighs Crisis as the three are loaded into the back of the truck.

“Why do I feel like a prisoner,” comments Sasha under her breath as the group is hurdled into the back of the truck, with a set of armed guards on either side of them.

“Because we are,” whispers Crisis. Sasha just looks over the guards as she remains silent, Joshua on the other end as he looks nervously over at the avians that tower over them in pure size and muscle he says.

“They picked the largest for this mission, didn’t they?” Joshua looks at them as the eagles say nothing but give Joshua a glare. “Not very talkative are you?” Again Joshua is met with nothing but a cold hard look, but not as cold and hard as they looked as looked at Crisis. Crisis just sits back and looking back at them with her glowing blue eyes.

“Don’t say anything to them, they’ll only looking for a reason to set off that collar around your neck,” mumbles Sasha to Crisis.

“I know,” replies Crisis as the trucks eventually come to a stop. The back opens up and Crisis and the others are hurried out to be greeted by more military personnel and reporters. Ahead of them Crisis can see general Raszer with the chancellor walking on ahead. Raszer brushes away reporters as he moves.

“Are you really the only survivor from the project that created that thing?” asks one reporter to Joshua who fumbles with his words as he his hurried along.

“Is it true your job is to destroy your creation if it goes haywire?” asks another reporter to Sasha who remains quite and collected, no questions are directed directly at Crisis as she too is forced up the walkway path towards the massive building complex of steel and glass.

Crisis watches the building awe, though the constant questions from the news reporters to Joshua and Sasha makes Crisis’ hand claws twitch, “ __They act like I am not even here,_ ”_ she thinks as she enters the building with the group, the news reporters unable to get past the first of several lines of security. Joshua and Sasha walk through a set of metal detectors before Crisis does the same. The sensor immediately goes off, lights blinking red as Crisis is quickly taken to the side by the two largest Eagle soldiers.

“Really? What did you expect?” remarks Crisis as the eagles push her to the side more.

“Inspect her for any weapons, we don’t want anything to happen,” commands another avian, this time a black bird.

“Yes sir,” says the eagle as he pulls out a small handheld metal detector and scanner, all of which goes off the moment it gets near her body.

“I’m made of metal...” states Crisis with a soft sigh.

“What are these?” asks the eagle as he looks at Crisis’ large sickle claws on her inner toe.

“It’s my toe, all raptors have that.”

“Easy to use weapon, more like it, and why am I talking to you, you,” states the eagle as he turns around towards Joshua, “you’re the one that created it right?” asks the Eagle.

“I am one of the scientists yes,” responds Joshua.

“Then come over here, you’ll answer any questions I have about your robot.”

“Alright, and we designed her after our species, what would you expect? They pose no greater threat than my own natural claws and I did brush up on my international law and...”

“Yes, yes but that’s to people, this is not a person.”

“ __Oh they really want to anger me..._ ”_ thinks Crisis as her hands twitch, the Eagle quickly moving to grab Crisis’ hands.

“No fast movements.”

“Of course not,” replies Crisis.

“What are these?” he asks as he points to the small glass circles on the palm of Crisis’ hands.

“These are cameras we’ve installed in her. Used for recon and information gathering.”

“Cameras? They’re quite big to be spy cameras.”

“There is a reason for that. You see several of Croc’s machines we’ve captured had these circles on their hands. For what purpose, we don’t know, but since they were there, it’s easy to hide the cameras in plain sight. Of course Crisis isn’t here to spy on anything. Everything here is public.”

“Or so you say.”

“What other use could they be used for?” asks Joshua.

“I don’t know, some kind of new hidden weapon?”

“I have an explosive EMP device attached to my neck, if you aren’t concerned about that, what could I possibly bring that would be worth worrying about?” asks Crisis as she looks at the guard who scowls back at her.

“She does have a point,” comments Joshua.

“Shut up,” he remarks.

“That’s enough!” commands the eagle guard as he looks over Crisis once more, “With that device it should be okay, move along,” states the guard as Crisis and her group move towards the open lobby. Inside the lobby dozens of flags hang from the ceiling of the dozens of nations, in the center of the lobby depicted on the tiled floor is the image of the planet being held up by two feral avians with their wings outstretched so their wings surround each to support and protect the planet. Crisis’ claws tap against the tiled floor as they make their way towards the meeting chambers. A large amphitheater room, several seats placed at several levels in half circles around the center at a podium is an anthropomorphic Mako shark.

“The Dolphia forces have broken a half a dozen international treaties; the most egregious of these have been attacking of supply and medical ships on route to support the Dromaeosa in their war, and the use of nuclear weaponry.”

“How dare you accuse us of such atrocious acts! We have abided by the anti-nuclear treaty like everyone else,” exclaims a bottlenose anthropomorphic dolphin.

“Then how do you explain these nuclear explosions at key strategic military instillation.”

“Those are all lies; we have used no such weapons.”

“Do you accuse us of creating and then using illegal nuclear weaponry upon our own military forces in such a manner that it would weaken our position in this six year long war against you? That’s absolutely insane. Do you really think that all of us here be that naive?!” exclaims the shark.

Crisis is led down a small pathway off to the side where the Dromaeosa nation’s booth is. It’ only three rows from the inner most ring of seats. Crisis can hear soft whispers amongst various diplomats of the fifty some nations that occupy the room.

“What’s going on here?” asks Crisis as she sits down.

“Shh, just remain quite we’ll be next after this little spat ends,” remarks Raszer.

“These accusations are indeed serious to make and we can’t shrug them off as if they were nothing. We’ll be sending teams to investigate these claims,” replies the Chancellor.

“ __Odd how they are having a war amongst themselves while we_ ’ re at war with Croc, ”_ thinks Crisis.

“Investigate these claims? You’re honestly believe after all that we’ve done, after the aggression these sharks have shown to us, that you’d take their word over our own?” asks the dolphin.

“We aren’t taking anyone’s word over another. We are going to send an independent investigation team to verify any validity or lack thereof these claims.”

“You’d even patronize these sharks by sending teams? How can your ‘teams’ tell what’s truth and what’s false when you can’t tell before your very eyes here today?” yells the Dolphin.

“Quite we aren’t here to spout insults.”

“No we’re here to entertain the idea that their lies even have the remote possibility of having any truth in them. This is as bad as believing that the Dromaeosa’s war against this Chaos Croc is an actual war, and not something they started to bolster their military forces past treaty levels,” he groans as the Dolphin slams his stack of papers to the table and storms off.

“ __How do they still debate the existence of Chaos Croc? How do they debate that this war isn_ ’ t true? Has the suffering of the people of my nation been enough? ”_ thinks Crisis.

“Dolphinians, are never able to take the pressure,” remarks the shark.

“That’s enough, return to your seat, the next order of business is coming up,” state the Chancellor as he looks over at General Raszer who is staring at him, his arms crossed before he leans over to Crisis and whispers.

“Whatever you do remain calm, we don’t want to add fuel to the fire. Don’t speak unless spoken to, you understand? No matter what happens, don’t do anything that could undermine everything we’ve done so far.”

“I understand,” replies Crisis with a nod.

“Don’t worry sir, Crisis knows how to handle herself,” remarks Joshua.

“I’m not so sure about that, but you’re the only one left from her creation, so I have no other choice,” remarks Raszer.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had all fifty-six nations come to these chambers. Today we aren’t here to debate the validity of this robotic war.”

“How do you still need to debate this war? Thirteen nations have fallen to this monster, my nation including, yet you still talk about this war as if it’s not true? What more evidence do you really need?” asks a wolf representative.

“There is a war that is obvious, no one is debating that, but who is actually behind this war, some mythical robotic monster from another world, or a home bound creation, maybe something that got out of hand or… something that’s been planned by a nation that clearly has demonstrated the capabilities of creating such things,” declares a female blue and black scaled anthropomorphic cobra snake, from her spot on the other side of the room.

“Silence, I will have no more outbursts in these chambers. We aren’t here to about the war; we are here to debate the constant and repeated offenses against the treaty that was laid down by the very first Federation of Nations council over sixty years ago. We are here to discuss if the nation of Dromaeosa has gone too far with their creation over there” states the Chancellor as he points to Crisis.

Crisis looks over at the chancellor as her claws twitch, she looks over at Raszer for a moment who doesn’t even bat an eye, as Joshua leans over to Crisis and whispers, and “I don’t like the sound of this.”

“Excuse me Chancellor but how does the validity of war not relate to this discussion?” asks the snake girl.

“At this moment we have no way to determine if the nation of Dromaeosa and her allies created Chaos Croc, but we do know, and they’ve openly admitted to the creation of that machine over there. And now we will decide what to do about this clear violation of the treaty.”

“In other words chancellor you want to debate if you want destroy our creation or not. To destroy not only our project but all the work that has been done up to and including those that joined Crisis in fighting the monster that’s not only bent on destroying my people, my country, but everyone here,” replies Raszer.

“ __They want to do what?! Is that why I am here? Just to sit here and take it as they discuss if I should be destroyed or not?_ ”_ thinks Crisis.

“Tell me chancellor, if this is a debate to decide the very fate of my country, why did you call Crisis here?”

“Evidence. I want this to be a fair and just, what the federation stands for. You will get your chance to speak to prove what you’ve done breaks the treaty or not.”

“It sounds like you’ve already made up your minds, but we the people of Dromaeosa appreciation the offer to defend ourselves before the other great nations of the world here today,” replies Raszer as he leans back in his chair as the debates about Crisis begin. Needless to say they aren’t going well, many already show clear intent that Crisis should be destroyed along with all those that Crisis turned into machines. Others debate on Crisis being destroyed but not those that she has ‘tricked’ to become machines.

“ __I_ ’ m not sure how much longer I can hear them speak of me as an object, a mere thing, and their desire to destroy me. If they destroying me, they’d deny me my purpose to destroy Croc... my purpose to destroy Croc... is that all am I for? ”_

“I would...” exclaims Raszer as he then mumbles, “as much as I hate to do this,” before speaking out loud once again, “to bring Joshua to the stand. He is the only surviving scientist that was directly responsible for the creation of Crisis.”

“And what would be the purpose of calling him to the stand?”

“He’s not a soldier, he’s not a politician, you can see how nervous he is just being here, his claws twitching as he fidgets in his seat, he’s not someone trained to handle speaking to all of you.”

“Your point Raszer?” asks the Chancellor with a sigh.

“My point is, you won’t believe anything I have to say. You probably won’t believe what he has to say either, but you stated you wanted this to be a fair and just meeting. Wouldn’t one who helped build and monitoring Crisis’ be the best witness for you all?”

“I can’t see the harm in this, he may proceed.”

“Gee thanks for building me up like that,” mumbles Joshua as he had a small microphone attached to his shirt and after a quick test to see if it was working he began to speak.

“I’m really not sure where to begin or what I could really say. I am the last surviving scientist that help build Crisis. I was there the day she was activated, when Croc’s forces attacked. She saved not only my life and the lives of others. She’s done nothing but help people, she’s risked herself several times. She’s even put herself in danger to save the lives of others. We programmed her just to defeat Chaos Croc and nothing more than that. We made no effort to program her to do harm to anyone else.”

“So you say, but what would stop you from programming her to do something else? What about this army of hers after this ‘war’ passes? What about that? You say you programmed her to help others, to defeat Croc, but it all seems to be in the interest of your nation and yours alone. What would happen when that interest turns from preservation to conquest? Are you simply going to destroy her at the end of the war?” asks the snake.

“Well, we never really...” replies Joshua as Crisis interrupts.

“I like to say something.”

“You? Say something? Really now, what could you say? You’re programmed to do anything you’re told. We have no reason to take your word of a machine,” states the Chancellor.

“Then what harm is there in me speaking my mind?”

“Plenty,” remarks Raszer as he glares over at her.

“Chancellor let the machine speak, this would be most interesting,” replies the snake. The chancellor looks over at the snake and the other representatives spend a moment amongst themselves. He watches their reaction to the idea before he sighs softly.

“Alright speak.”

“Thank you Chancellor. I want to say Joshua is right, I am programmed with one goal in mind to defeat Croc, to save the people of my nation from destruction, but it’s more than that. I want to put an end to the war, save everyone. Do I take enjoyment in anything I do? I’m a machine I don’t take enjoyment in anything. And you’re right, there is little guarantee that I’ll just stop once Croc is defeated,” says Crisis as she looks over the crowd who talk more amongst themselves before she continues.

“My purpose is to defeat Croc and to do it without endangering more lives than I have to. I want to save lives not cost them. My morality is hard coded into my systems and I have to question myself if what I am doing is right. The biggest of these questions is turning others into machines like myself,” she states as the chatter increases.

“I wouldn’t dream of turning anyone into something like me. I merely offered it to people who wanted to help fight a war that has already taken millions of lives, and destroyed thirteen nations and up till now working to destroy five more. I can’t figure why you still don’t believe this war is real, but that’s not my place, you haven’t seen what I’ve seen. Is it self preservation to say please don’t destroy me? Yes it is, I won’t deny that, but it’s self preservation to the point that I have a duty to do. To stop a monster that’s been so vicious and vile that I had to be built to stop him,” states Crisis as she continues.

“After I did that, do what you wish. You called me here and I came without a fuss. You can easily destroy me now you can just as easily do it later. The only difference in waiting is that there is still a crazed machine out there that will stop at nothing but to enslave not only the people who created me but all of you,” declares Crisis as she looks around at everyone before saying.

“But you can at least let me stop him, after that you can destroy me, once my purpose is done.”

“And what guarantee do you have that you’d come willingly to your own destruction?” asks the Chancellor.

“I can’t give you any, not any that you believe anyway, but you’ve brought me here once, how hard would it be to do it again?”

“Harder than you make it out to be, and I think we’ve all heard enough, it’s time to take a vote on the matter. If the motion passes you and all of Dromaeosa technology will be confiscated and destroyed, and if you or anyone resists General Raszer, we’ll take it as declaration of war, do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” replies Raszer as he leans back.

“How many votes do they need to pass?” asks Crisis.

“A two thirds majority,” replies Raszer as the votes are tallied electronically, the whole process taking only a few minutes to complete.

“Not spending much time on deliberation I see.”

“Not much to discuss their minds were made up before we got here, we’re just here for the show,” replies Raszer as the Chancellor looks at the votes.

“The votes are in, and I think it’ll be more fun if we work our way from the bottom up to see if the nation passes. Votes against Dromaeosa breaking of the treaty fifteen. Four undecided votes,” declares the Chancellor as Crisis quickly does the math and thinks the chancellor taking a brief pause.

“ __That_ ’ s 19 out of 56 votes not for my destruction... that ’ s only 33.9 percent. They only need 66% to pass... They are going to destroy me right here... ”_

“And votes for Dromaeosa violation of the treaty... thirty six,” states the Chancellor as he looks over the numbers again... “The notion... does not pass,” he finishes as the chambers break into an uproar of complaints and demands of a recount, calls of foul play quickly filling the room.

“We did it Crisis!” exclaims Joshua as he hugs her.

“Yes... but how, I was certain that...” mumbles Crisis.

“Chancellor how does the notion not pass?” asks the snake.

“We have one absent vote, the one from Dolphia, their representative was not here during the vote and therefore according to our rules their vote won’t be counted.”

“You can’t be serious; everyone knows Dolphia is against this thing that sits over there.”

“What people say they know and what happened are two different things. If we don’t follow the rules...”

“Rules? Look at what the rules have given us. They have allowed that thing to continue to exist. Surely if you do the math out of fifty-five it’ll show we have a clear majority.”

“The math is done out of fifty-five. I’d be more than happy to tell you that thirty-six out of fifty-five is only 65.4 percent,” replies the Chancellor as he begins to argue with the snake.

“Oh thank god, I was really worried there for a moment,” sigh Joshua.

“Me too,” remarks Crisis as he looks at Raszer who looks over the chaotic scene before him, his arms across his chest as he has a big toothy grin on his face.