FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 26 The Gateway to Victory Opens

---

“Croc’s forces have been getting stronger and stronger despite our victories. Even with combined organic and robotic armies from our allies we’ve only managed to gain only small victories over the past few weeks. At this rate we’ll be in a full-blown statement within a month or two if not worse,” explains Phillip as he looks over the massive tactical map with small military markers and tokens to designate the armies of Dromaeosa and her allies against the estimated forces of Chaos Croc.

“The areas still under Croc’s control are major industrial sectors of our country, we can’t let him keep them in a stalemate,” replies Raszer as he speaks from a video screen. Crisis looks over the tactical map, pacing back and forth as Francis looks up at the screen.

“This can be a result of the slowed advances in other areas. With our new military bases, we’ve been able to bolster the size of our army in areas that Croc has seen constant advances. With those areas slowing down, Croc could increase his defensive stance till he can find a way break someone’s lines, but it’s hard to be sure, we haven’t had good Intel within Croc’s forces for some time,” explains Crisis.

“We cannot let Croc continue to hold some of our most precious assets. The capture of Veloci was only a moral victory for us, now we need a strategic one. We’ve managed this well with makeshift factories and rebuilding ones stripped down from the previous war, but in order to be at our full prowess we need to recapture our industrial heartland.”

“Crisis and I do have a possible proposal to crack Croc’s line,” states Phillip.

“Send the proposal over, me and the other generals will look over it to see if it has promise, but speaking about promising ventures, how goes your research?”

“It’s going well enough. I feel we are close to figuring out what we need to get it working again. There are just a few minor hurdles to get past to get it working again,” replies Crisis.

“Why don’t you motivate your people on that, Francis and I will work on that proposal you two want to submit,” replies Raszer.

“As you wish sir,” says Crisis as she looks at Raszer for a moment before turning to leave, she exits the room to be greeted by Ruby to her left and Sasha on her right. The doors closing behind her as the three walk away, leaving Phillip and Raszer alone.

“What do you think of their research?” asks Raszer.

“What do you mean sir?”

“I want to know if she’s delaying or anything of the sort. She’s been acting strangely as of late.”

“No sir, nothing like that. She’s often focused on getting her team to figure out every last detail of how Croc’s technology works. I think they’re down to two last problems.”

“What problems are those?”

“Having it turned on, and the one can’t be solved till that happens, making sure it leads to Croc’s capital city.”

“Well we can’t rely on what if they’ll get it working or not, we need to relieve the pressure on our front and I think I know of a way...”

“Excellent sir, what is it if I may ask?”

“Above your pay grade.”

“Understood sir, I hope our proposal meets to your high standards sir.”

“We’ll see, just keep an eye on their progress inform me immediately if anything changes,” orders the General as the video screen cuts out.

“Yes sir...” replies Francis with a sigh as he looks into the blank screen, “Why do I have the feeling I was just brushed off...” he mumbles as he leaves the conference room.

“So what do you think of their proposal general?” asks Francis as he stands off to the side, away from the camera.

“They don’t know enough about the complexities of this war to propose a good plan. Inform the troops on the opposite boarder from us to weaken and let a break through happen. If Croc’s lines get longer, the amount of troops on our boarder will lessen, making a breakthrough on our side all the more likely to happen, we can always we capture their land later,” orders Raszer.

“Understood sir,” replies Francis with a nod.

Meanwhile Crisis makes attempts to make headway on her project....

“Any new progress on the gate?” asks Crisis in a soured tone as she enters the research and development room where the massive gate is kept. The building inside was gutted and expanded in order to accommodate the gate in its entirety while standing upright.

Two large doors on the far side of the research facility lead to the outside which are heavily secured and guarded by Crisis’ troops and an electromagnetic locking mechanism.

Crisis enters a smaller research room connected to the main room that contains the gate. This research room is placed above the gate as it gives a bird’s eye view of the place and the massive wires connected to the gate as all the information is pumped into this room where Crisis’ research time is working around the clock.

Several of the research members are part of Crisis’ original research team that built her along with a few select members that were scientists in their younger days that Crisis roboticized. Of course there are several new members that were assigned to her by Raszer. Many of these members were on the main floor working on the gate doing all they can to crack the enigma of the gate.

“Did the meeting go that well?” asks Shasi as she walks over to Crisis, just as Ruby and Sasha walk in right behind Crisis.

“It feels the more we accomplish the less Raszer takes my views and my plans seriously,” growls Crisis as she shortly thereafter gives a sigh.

“Don’t worry on it Crisis, as long as we are winning the war, and the defeat of Croc is in sight, isn’t that what really matters?” comforts Joshua.

“True, it will be nice to be done with that pest, speaking of which, how’s the research coming along?”

“Sadly... slow,” answers Joshua.

“Well you are an organic you need to take those breaks to eat and what have you,” remarks Shasi.

“Come on, do you always have to be like that to me? Haven’t I done enough already?”

“What about that little lunch in that you’re going to have soon? Isn’t that going to distract you from what you should be doing?”

“I promised Maria this lunch a week ago, I can’t just break it off, and asides the break from this would be good for me to come back and look at this with fresh eyes,” replies Joshua with a sigh, “This be so much easier if Karrie was here.”

“Karrie?” asks Crisis as Joshua jumps.

“Well I... what I mean is... that....”

“I’ve just about given up searching for her. I haven’t found a single clue of where she could be, no one has seen her since my activation, and so far none of my theories about what happened to her have panned out. Even my investigation at Croc’s facilities has failed to yield any results. I figured if she was captured, one of the most important people in my creation would have had something of note, but nope. I can only assume she is hiding out somewhere.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me, Karrie was always a bit on the impulsive side but she’d tend to chicken out right before fully committing to anything… save for joining the project that created you Crisis,” remarks Shasi as she goes over to look at a nearby computer panel, “I worked for that girl for years and she was always like that.”

“Really now?” asks Crisis.

“Yup, she didn’t have the courage to do something too daring. Impulsive? Yes. Brave? Hell no.”

“Give her some credit Shasi, she was very committed to the Crisis project,” says Arissa.

“Yeah she was laser beamed focus on that project,” adds Joshua before giving off a soft sigh, “When it came to machines, and computer programming it was something that she couldn’t just stop dabbling in. I met her because someone told me she could fix my computer problem. She told me to leave it with her overnight and she not only fixed the problem but basically rebuilt my computer because she thought the original design was too inefficient.”

“How did that work out for you?” asks Crisis.

“Great, was the smoothest running computer I ever owned... I think I should head off to that luncheon,” replies Joshua as he walks over to Crisis, “I’ll be back soon, sadly I have nothing new to report on what is bogging down our progress.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll have one of the guards here escort you out,” says Crisis as Crisis motions one of the robotic female guards. Crisis spends a half a moment to watch them leave, Crisis’ eyes drift to the back side of the female before she turns her attention back to the issue before her, “So theories as to what could be stalling us?”

“The power usage on this thing seems to be absolutely insane. To keep the thing running would drain the entire city if not entire surrounding area even if we manage to get it running, and even then it may not be enough to keep it going long enough for what we desire. In fact according to my calculations it won’t be even possible unless we turn it off between uses but that adds a whole new layer of complications to deal with,” reports Shasi.

“Another issue is we still don’t have any way of knowing where the gate will lead. They have to have some kind of code that allows the gates to communicate with each other. We don’t know if it needs to be done on both sides to work or just the one. If it needs us to control both sides at once from the get go, that gate there is nothing more than just a giant paperweight,” comments Arissa.

“This is true, and none of the people from Croc’s forces that we’ve captured have shown any in depth knowledge of these gates and how they function,” remarks Crisis as she strokes her chin.

“I actually know a little bit about the gates,” chimes up Ruby.

“What? You do? Why haven’t you said so before?!” exclaims Crisis.

“I don’t know all the mechanics behind these gates. I am not a scientist, astronomer, astrologist, what have you, I’m a fighter, but I was curious one day and asked one the operators of the gates a few basics about the machine.”

“The way Sasha describes the gates is correct. You can’t have them on all the time because they are such a power drain.”

“My name is Shasi,” remarks Shasi.

“I’m Sasha,” states Sasha who is standing right next to Ruby.

“Forgive me if I screw up you two’s names. Not my fault they are so similar.”

“Though as a machine, you shouldn’t make such mistakes,” retorts Shasi.

“It’s alright, please continue tell us more,” says Crisis.

“The gates have two active states. One is standby the other when it’s turned on and actively teleporting something. That reflective glow you saw Crisis when the gate is on. That glow isn’t the actual portal from one world to the next, but merely a detection screen to tell the computer something is coming through and to make the needed adjustments to have it pass from one world to the next.”

“And how do we tell what world are we connected to, if connected to any at all? I don’t want to send my forces out into the middle of space or the center of some distant sun.”

“If there is no connection made, asides from the warning that there is no connection, if you try to walk through you’ll just walk right through the gate and nothing will happen. As for the other problem, it is merely knowing the address of the location you are going to. Once entered it will communicate with the next available gate on the other side, and establish the connection. Sometimes that can take a while if you aren’t at a portal hub like Neo Robia. I had to wait an hour one time to get the connection established. That is also when I learned so much about these portal gate things,” explains Ruby.

“Would it be pushing my luck if I were to ask if you happen to know Neo Robia’s address?”

“As a matter of fact I do,”

“Excellent!” exclaims Crisis, “Now with his knowledge we can...”

“Can’t do anything yet,” comments Arissa.

“Why not?”

“We need to establish how to get the gate working in the first place, how this standby mode works and if going from standby to active will drain our power reserves too fast.”

“We could start charging part of the gate’s capacitors and do a systems check. If there is an issue we can discharge the capacitors or move them over to another set of capacitors without putting anyone at risk. And that way when we solve the problem we can quickly test the gate,” suggests Shasi.

“That can work, let’s try that and see if we can get some results. Joshua is going to have some catching up to do when he gets back,” remarks Crisis with a smirk.

“See this is why organics slow us down,” remarks Shasi.

“They’re not too bad, we were them once too,” replies Arissa.

“Please don’t remind me.”

“Crisis, if you don’t mind I like to speak with you in private for a moment,” whispers Ruby.

“What’s this about?” she asks.

“Something I have to tell you about Croc.”

“Then why can’t you tell me here?”

“It’s something that I can only tell you.”

“If you insist, there’s an empty room nearby where we can chat in private, Sasha make sure no one disturbs us till we’re done, I like to give my people the attention they deserve,” commands Crisis.

“As you wish Crisis,” replies Sasha as the trio leave and walk down the hallway and stop at a small unused office. A light layer of dust is visible on the nearby chair and desk as the lights flicker on.

“So what is this about?” asks Crisis as she locks the door behind them, “I feel this is bigger than what you’re letting on.”

“What’s the best way to put this?” asks Ruby to herself.

“Let’s just say I know how you operate quite well, being the one who made you who you are today... literally. So just say it.”

“This is sort of difficult to say, hard to phrase it well without it just sounding bad,” replies Ruby with a sigh as she looks around, she takes her whip that is hung on the side of her hip and places it on the nearby desk, then she opens her hidden leg compartment and takes out her gun and places it off on top of that before walking away from it, “I think that should help a bit...”

“Help with what?”

“Help showing my sincerity that I want to help you.”

“Sincerity of wanting to help me? But you’ve been nothing but helpful to me over the past year, ever since you joined my ranks. You’ve been an excellent model that others strive for.”

“I’m sure you don’t want them to model themselves after me, because... I’m a...double agent,” explains Ruby quickly saying the last part of her sentence.

“Did you just say a double agent?” asks Crisis as she keeps her demeanor, while taking a step back and warming up her systems to quickly activating the systems that will allow her to pull out her electro-blades at a moment’s notice.

“Yes, even after you turned me into a machine, I’ve still been serving Master Croc.”

“This doesn’t sound like a double agent more like a spy for one side,” comments Crisis with a stern look.

“Ah, true, but what I mean is I want to work for your side now, in earnest.”

“Do you now?” ask Crisis as she paces back and forth in the room, making sure her back is never turned towards Ruby, “Why this sudden change of heart?”

“It was anything but sudden. Look I am not the biggest follower of Chaos Croc. I served him for a long time yes, but if you beat him I am not going to be all torn up about it, and when I saw you risk yourself for Sasha when that helicopter went down, I started to think, well maybe your side is the side I really should be on.”

“Those events happened almost a year ago, again why tell me now?”

“Because this is the first time I see any chance of you actually winning the war.”

“So even though you wanted to support me, but you wouldn’t jump ship unless it had a chance of sinking is that it?”

“Yeah, I’m not stupid. Why let him know I wanted to betray him if you had no hope of succeeding, especially considering how close Croc is to ending the war in his favor.”

“Ending the war in his favor? Tell me what do you mean by that?” asks Crisis as she moves a bit closer, Crisis’ claws twitching as she does so, “We’ve defeated his armies countless times, we pushed them back and reclaimed a majority of our country. His defenses are getting stronger and we have yet to move to liberate any of the fallen nations, but it’s just a matter of time at this point, we’ve been getting stronger and stronger.”

“You think that, but Croc is just shoring up his defenses. He wants to stall you now, so he can initiate his plan.”

“And what plan is this?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I have a constant stream of information on what he’s doing, but I know he’s close to finishing his preparations for his plan and initiating it, but how close I can’t say. It could be tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, three months from now for all that I know.”

“This is troubling... very troubling.”

“Yeah I know right? I’d like you to win the war,” says Ruby.

“Do you now? That’s part of the trouble. It’s rather or not I can trust you, and even on top of that what parts you speak of are true or not. If I trust you and take your word for all that you’ve said, we could try our best to get our plan going and underway, but if you’re deceiving me... this whole Croc is about to win could be a charade, a ploy to get me to use the gate to quickly be used against me, get myself captured and Croc have an easy way to invade the heartland of my country.”

“I know it is difficult to trust me, but you have to believe me when I say I am speaking the truth. If I was really out to get you, wouldn’t I have had plenty of opportunities to do so? Plenty of times to mull your plans, but have not? Yes I have fed some Croc information but never enough to be truly viable. I made up some excuse that I wasn’t able to get too close to you after the attack on the Empress.”

“You did help me on killing the Empress,” comments Crisis as she rubs her chin in thought.

“Eh... to be honest, Croc wasn’t a fan of the Empress either. He felt she was too outdated for him but he couldn’t directly do anything about it. You solved that problem for him.”

“What?! Damn that robotic lizard!”

“On the bright side, I think her death put a lot of Croc’s higher ups on edge, and caused a fair bit of dissent in his realm, so it’s not like what was done was for nothing.”

“So are you saying that my plan to kill the Empress was all part of Croc’s ploy to have me get rid of her for him?!”

“Partially but he didn’t really think you could do it. He was betting on you failing and getting captured with a remote possibility of you pulling it off and getting captured and not what you did with capturing her and escaping mostly unscathed,” explains Ruby.

“That’s good to hear, but that doesn’t make this situation any less complicated.”

“This isn’t the first time you had someone who was formally one of Croc’s spies working for you. Sasha was one wasn’t she?”

“Sasha was also assigned to me to blow my head off if I went rogue... wait how did you know she was a spy for me?’

“You think we didn’t talk to each other while you aren’t around? By the way, she gives high praises to you for saving her from Croc’s grasp.”

“This is true... but... but I roboticized you. Me, with these two hands, I didn’t mess with your personality per se but I did ensure loyalty to me.”

“You know you’re... ah never mind, but if you’re asking how I didn’t fall under your programming from the transformation? I honestly can’t tell you. I’m not privy to that kind of information.”

“This is even more disconcerting... how can I really tell if I converted someone to bend to my will or not?”

“I can assure you at the very least it’s not something that’s easily done. I think it’s because I worked with him so closely that he did whatever he did to protect me from what you’d do to me, but I wasn’t exactly conscious of it. I woke up the day before my mission and Croc approached me and told me that every precaution was now taken care of. I asked him what he meant about that he remained vague. I guess it’s a secret operation that he did while I was asleep. God knows what that perverted robot did to me while I slept...” explains Ruby as she shivers. “Creeps me out just thinking about it.”

“Croc is a perverted one isn’t he?”

“And how.”

“Regardless of that, this still makes the whole situation... difficult.”

“I am not sure what else I could do to prove I am trustworthy. I disarmed myself before hand to show you that I mean you no harm.”

“This is true, but again this could be all part of some kind of ploy... but I just can’t risk what you are saying about Croc’s plan to win the war as some kind of distraction...,” states Crisis as she starts to pace back and forth in the room.

“What to do, what to do, what can I do? I could hack and reprogram her directly like I did before but Croc could have planned for that. But what if she is telling the truth? Could I just betray her like that? Like Croc did to her that allowed her to be converted by me all for his plans?” thinks Crisis as she sighs, “I will probably regret this later... but I’m going to go with I believe you, but we must not let anyone else know about this, I don’t want to cause any dissent or paranoia spreading in my ranks.”

“Understood Mistress Crisis.”

“Let’s get back to the others, I don’t want to be gone too long,” says Crisis as she steps outside.

“Yes Mistress Crisis,” replies Ruby as she follows, the two of them see Sasha as she gives a smirk.

“You heard—” says Crisis as Sasha interrupts her.

“Nothing about Ruby being a double agent like I used to be? Got it.”

“You were listening weren’t you?”

“More like you weren’t quite enough to not be heard.”

“Oops...,” remarks Crisis as Ruby gives her a look.

“Don’t worry no one else was around to hear it.”

“Anyway... let’s get going,” comments Crisis as the three head out, all the while Joshua was having his lunch with Maria.

Maria picked out a simple café for her and Joshua to eat at. The café was a few miles away from the center of the city and farther still from the military base and research facility. Far away from Crisis’ influences where most of the citizens in this part of town are organic and if it wasn’t for a few random machines walking about, you couldn’t even tell that this city was controlled by Crisis.

“I can’t believe you’re still wearing your lab coat,” sighs Maria, the black scaled raptor as she sits in her chair. Maria is wearing a pair of blue jean shorts and a white top as her yellow eyes watch as Joshua enter the Café.

“Sorry I was running a bit late and I kind of rushed,” chuckles Joshua.

“You never change, do you?” replies Maria.

“What do you mean by that?” asks Joshua.

“You always get so engrossed with your projects that you miss everything else that is going on around you.”

“That’s not true at all,” he replies.

“Is it now? Have you done anything fun since you joined this project or even before with your other projects?”

“I’ve had plenty of fun with those projects; they are quite challenging and have led me to places I didn’t think I’d even go to.”

“That really doesn’t answer my question dear. I meant when was the last time you had any kind of fun outside of work.”

“Does this and the other few times we went out count?”

“No they don’t, as fun as those times were, they don’t count.”

“Damn... um... ah...”

“Say no more, I think I can see where this is going,” she sighs before saying, “I think I know how you feel now with Karrie.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before you were drafted into whatever projects you were pulled into for the military, you told me about all the troubles about getting Karrie to notice you. How she was so focused on her own little world to notice anything else, including you. Remember that little chat we had?”

“I do vaguely recall that conversation...” replies Joshua as he tries to look away from Maria.

“Yeah I’m sure you do... do you even know the current state of our nation is in?” she asks.

“What a silly question of course I do! We’re coming back from the brink of defeat. Areas or our country is being revitalized like this city.”

“Yes, but have you noticed that even though it’s been over a year since the president’s death that we have yet to hold another election? General Raszer has held onto the power given to himself via martial law, despite an ease in the urgency of our situation?”

“Well we aren’t in the clear yet it is to be expected.”

“Have you noticed that ever since my great grandfather got his second lease on life that things have been going downhill for this country?”

“Downhill?”

“Fewer freedoms, we’re getting closer to a military dictatorship. Our country has a long history of such things that many of us would not like to repeat and other nations have yet to forgive us for/ The other countries see that we’re returning to our old ways and the other countries fear that. And I just know my great-grandfather is just helping this change become a reality.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is my Great Grandfather isn’t all that great or grand, but you can’t help being related to a demon.”

“Oh he can’t be that bad.”

“He is worse than that. I did some digging and he’s one of the last surviving—,” says Maria as she’s cut off by the waiter asking if they’d like to order, “Another minute please,” asks Maria as the waiter walks off, she sighs, “We’ll talk about it later, let’s just enjoy what little time we have this afternoon together, maybe we could meet again later today for dinner? How does that sound?”

“Uh... sure what time?”

“Knowing you’re going to be working late again... so why not say around eight o’clock?”

“That sounds great,” replies Joshua with a nod.

“You sure you’re going to be there now?”

“Yes, I’m sure, I’ll be there.”

“Though if something comes up give me a call, at least tell me if something important happens.”

“I will, I won’t screw up like last time.”

“Or the time before that?”

“That too,” replies Joshua as he lifts up his menu to hide his face, “Oh what do we have here... this looks good.”

“Oh Joshua sometimes it’s a good thing you haven’t changed,” chuckles Maria as she looks at her menu.

“So... how are things?” asks Joshua as he peers over his menu.

“With what?” she asks with a soft inquisitive purr.

“With stuff?”

“Stuff? Hmm well some of my stuff is okay, my current job with tech support is always so much fun,” she sarcastically replies, “It’s funny to see a machine asking for computer help, you’d think they’d give these people the knowledge upon being turned into a robot.”

“From what I know which is rather extensive, the process doesn’t change the person mentally, its merely a physical change, it’s more of you’re still you, just a robot.”

“Tell me is it possible for them to change such things about a person? Like personality, memories, and so forth?”

“Well I guess it is possible, but Crisis wouldn’t do anything like that,” he replies as he thinks, “Not majorly at least...”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

“I am part of the team that designed her; I think I should know if something like that was going on.”

“And what about the times she went to cities controlled by Croc? Or all the visits with General Raszer, maybe he has done something to her.”

“No that’s impossible, if she started to act weird I’d know.”

“And how are you so sure?”

“I am the last surviving member of the project, she is my project, and as you said I get lost in the little details of my projects don’t I? If something like that happened, I’d be sure to find out.”

“That doesn’t spark much confidence in me, especially when you say you’re the last surviving. Seems a bit odd to me that you are, don’t you think?”

“Well... maybe, but you weren’t there when the attack happened.”

“This is true, but still the whole situation makes me worry even more.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, I’ll be fine,” he replies with a smile.

“I certainly hope so,” she says as she looks back at her menu. The two raptors order a hefty meat based meal.

“What’s on your mind?” asks Maria?

“Huh? Oh… nothing, thinking about work.”

“Thinking about work? Why don’t you think about something else? All work and no play make Robert a dull raptor,” she chuckles.

“Sorry, just… work has been a tad frustrating and the some of those I work with don’t respect me at all.”

“Sorry to hear that, is it Crisis?”

“Crisis? No, another girl robotic girl. She was one of the project members that got transformed in the attack. She’s the exact same as before, just without the need for sleep, which is much worse mind you. She’s never liked me.”

“Oh does she now? Maybe she is just showing you her way that she cares about you.”

“What? No, no, no, oh no, not her.”

“Relax! It was just a joke,” laughs Maria.

“Oh… gotcha, funny,” chuckles Joshua.

“So you said tech support? I thought you were a reporter.”

“Am a reporter, but I only get so much even with exclusive rights on Crisis. I had to pick up a second job to help makes ends meet. It’s part time.”

“Maybe I can ask Crisis to put you onto the pay roll?”

“I appreciate the offer but no, that would cause a conflict of interest and I am an honest reporter… which is one reason why I need a second job,” she grumbles.

“Sorry to hear that. I am sure things will turn around for you.”

“Would be nice, but life isn’t so easy or kind, that’s one thing I’ve learned over my years of reporting.”

“Well when life gives you lemons…”

“You cut the lemons squirt it into life’s eye and rob them blind, serves life right for giving me lemons,” chuckles Maria.

“I was thinking lemonade but that works too,” replies Joshua as the rest of their lunch being rather uneventful. The two raptors part ways with Maria reminding Joshua of their date later tonight.

When he returned to work he was surprised at what he saw. Everything was a hustle and a bustle. Crisis moved with a spring in her step as Joshua watches her walk by.

“What’s going on?” asks Joshua.

“We’ve just had a breakthrough in how the gate works no thanks to you,” says Shasi as she gives Joshua a steel cold robotic glare.

“I had lunch, can’t fault me on that,” defends Joshua.

“Sure, sure, make excuses.”

“Enough, we are on the cusp of a break through, I just can feel it. I will have no more conflict from you two. Just because Joshua doesn’t mean the fact he has to eat and sleep is a reason to put him down,” states Crisis.

“Sorry Mistress,” replies Shasi as she lowers her head.

“Sorry too… I should try to catch up, every little bit helps,” says Joshua.

“That’s the spirit, I can just feel it. We’re going to get it,” replies Crisis with a smile and as the hours rolled by, Crisis’ enthusiasm didn’t waiver, and neither did anyone else’s. Joshua is swept in the rush of what is going on. It was half past eight at night when Crisis stood by the main computers that connected to the gate. The machine hums to life as energy flows into the gate. A crowd of organic and robotic scientists have gathered as they stand eagerly, growing silent as Crisis asks Shasi who is standing by one of the computer monitors.

“How are the capacitors?”

“They’re at fifteen percent, should be enough for the trial run,” replies Shasi.

“How are the standby systems?”

“Operational and running smoothly Crisis,” answers Joshua as he stands at a different computer monitor.

“Enter the coordinates.”

“Entering them now,” replies Arissa as she types in the information on the computer next to Crisis, “Done.”

“Start up the warp gate sequence, and once we’re connected, I shall confirm if it’s the right city.”

“Why do you have to do it? Could we send in some kind of drone to do it for you? Not as risky, especially since this is the first test to see if the gate even works.” suggests Joshua.

“I was there; I am the only one who could check quickly and confirm if it’s the city, turn on the gate,” commands Crisis.

“Roger,” replies Arissa as the gate boots up and a silver metallic film seems to shimmer over the gate entrance.

“This looks like what I saw before,” comments Crisis as the machine hums as she slowly approaches the gate, her metallic footsteps echo through the building as she gets closer.

“That isn’t the connection but merely a detection system to inform the two gates something is about to pass through and to make the connection,” explains Ruby.

“And curious what if the gate is busy, unavailable or destroyed?”

“You’d walk right through and nothing will happen. Normally the gate keeper would make sure the connection is good, and there is no wait,” replies Ruby as Crisis stands a mere inch away from the gate.

“ __Okay Crisis... just one step in and then quickly back out,_ ”_ she thinks as she takes a step forward the gate gently tugs at her body, suddenly Crisis finds herself on the other side, greeted by the skyline of Neo Robia once again. She quickly looks around and sees Croc’s forces moving through other nearby gates, as a guard stands watch over the current gate. The sounds of the busy port echo through the area. Crisis looks at the guard before jumping back into the gate yelling the moment she crosses back, “Turn off the gate!”

“What happened? Anything wrong?” asks Joshua as the gate turns off. The gate on Croc’s end shuts down in kind, the guard turns around just moments after the gate shuts down as he shrugs and returns to his original position.

“It’s Croc’s city alright. I wanted the gate shut down before they noticed that we’d made a connection,” explains Crisis as she walks away from the gate. “Inform the General that we’ve opened the gate to Croc’s city. Soon we’ll get to see how Croc fairs fighting on his home territory,” chuckles Crisis with a triumphant grin as the entire place bursts into a massive cheer and celebration. People congratulate themselves on their hard work and success. Meanwhile Joshua takes a sigh of relief that he too can now ‘relax’ a moment and that Crisis has returned safely from the gate test, it was at this moment that Joshua noted the time.

“Crap! It’s that late already?!” he thinks as he makes his way through the crowd towards the nearest exit.

“Joshua where are you going?” asks Crisis.

“I forgot something important, I’ll be back!” he exclaims as he bolts out of the door towards the security check point where he left his phone. Meanwhile Maria waits outside for him to arrive...

“I knew this was going to happen, I just knew it. Leaves me waiting here and doesn’t even bother to call. Would a call been too much to ask?” she growls to herself as she paces back and forth, “I don’t even know why I try with him, there are so many others out there...” she mumbles to herself as her phone begins to ring, she digs into her pocket and looks at the name and sees it’s Joshua.

“Finally... he better have something import—,” grumbles Maria as her words are cut off as a rag is held over her muzzle, the phone drops to the ground with a thud as she is quickly dragged off into a van that quickly drives by to pick them up. As the van disappears Maria’s phone picked up by a pair of metallic claws.

“Voice mail... she must be really mad.... I’ll call again in a bit,” softly sighs Joshua, as he hands his phone back to the security guard and returns to the celebrations. Joshua sees all the people enjoying their ‘victorious’ moment. People who had a bottle of champagne ready for this moment are popping the corks as organic and machine alike join in these festivities. Joshua though moves through the crowd towards the nearest unoccupied chair and takes a seat. A little time passes before Sasha catches Joshua sitting by himself. The female raptor pulls up a chair placing her sniper rifle between her legs barrel up in the air.

“What’s on your mind?” she asks.

“Hmm? Nothing, just a tad overwhelmed at the moment,” replies Joshua.

“You had a date with Maria tonight and you forgot, didn’t you?”

“What me? No, of course not...”

“You can’t fool me; I’m a trained sniper now.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“How about I’m a girl and I can tell, how about that as an explanation?”

“Well I wouldn’t call it a date.”

“I’m glad to see you get away from the metal and back into some real women.”

“Hey I told you it’s not like that,” remarks Joshua.

“So what happened?”

“Had a dinner da... scheduled with her, and if something came up that was big... like this that I should call her.”

“Did you call her?”

“I did once I realized the time but she didn’t answer.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Not long after we got the gate working, so half an hour?”

“Call her again.”

“Why?”

“Just do it,” commands Sasha, “Or else,” she warns with an evil grin.

“Alright, alright I’ll call again,” replies Joshua as he walks off.

“What was that about?” asks Crisis as she walks up to Sasha.

“Nothing to worry about, Joshua was just having a little woman troubles.”

“Oh? And?”

“I gave him some needed advice he should be fine,” replies Sasha.

“Good to hear,” says Crisis as she watches Joshua leave again.

Maria steadily regains consciousness, her vision blurred as dim lights barely illuminate her surroundings as she feels her back on a smooth glass surface. Slowly she stands up and takes a step forward as she runs right into a glass wall. Her eyes widen as her claws scratch along the inside of a roboticization tube.

“Hey, let me out of here!” she exclaims as she bangs against the glass, her yellow eyes look around for anyone to help when they focus on a familiar face stepping out of the shadows with her cell phone in his hand.

“Great grandfather? What are you doing here?” she exclaims as she hits against the glass even harder, “Let me out of here!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that my grandchild. You see you happen to know a bit too much about me, and we can’t have you spreading rumors that we’re trying to rebuild our glorious past in such a dark and tainted light now can we?” states Francis as he stares down at Maria.

“You can’t do this to me, I’m your own flesh and blood!” she exclaims as tears start to roll down her face.

“I don’t have flesh and blood anymore so that really doesn’t apply to me.”

“Please don’t, please!”

“I did all that I could to keep you off the list, but there is only so much I can do when you’re such a risk to our nation,” he explains as he looks her straight in the eye, “Say goodbye to your old self and hello to a whole new you.”

“No this can’t be goodbye... please anything but this... anything,” she pleads with a whimper as the phone begins to ring, Francis looks at the phone and sees who’s calling as a big smile forms across his metallic face.

“Ah a loose end to tie, how convenient.”

“Hello,” says Francis in Maria’s voice.

“Hey Maria... I just wanted to say—,” says Joshua as he’s cut off.

“Please don’t, you can’t do this to me,” replies Francis in Maria’s teary voice.

“Joshua! Don’t listen to him that’s not me!” screams Maria as her voices is in reality muffled by the glass and only a system of speakers allowed her and Francis to speak.

“But I...”

“Don’t, please.”

“Can you just let me explain?”

“No. This is goodbye,” replies Francis as he hangs up the phone.

“Joshua...” whimpers Maria as Francis motions to turn on the machine as the roboticization energy flows into the tube, Maria claws at the inner part of the tube her claws barely making a scratch in the specialized glass.

Maria glares at Francis with anger and fear in her eyes. She lets out a scream as the energy flows through her. She feels the creep of the energy moving up her legs, her feet already turned into cold hard metal as they no longer obey her organic half of her body. More of her body is lost to the machine as she continues to try to plead for her Great grandfather to stop.

Francis watches his great granddaughter show less and less emotion to the point of a mindless automaton. Her cute outfit black and blue outfit she wore to tease Joshua is also turned into hard metallic metal, becoming part of her whole body. Her scaly hide turned inevitable into hard segmented metal, her struggling soon ends as she stands there at attention, her eyes giving a soft blue glow as she awaits for the tube to be lifted.

“I hope we are feeling better? Are you my great granddaughter?” he asks once the tube is completely lifted.

“Yes grandfather, I am.” she replies as she steps off of the platform her feet hitting the ground with a metallic click.

“I’ll get you assigned to do some tech work behind the lines, I’m not evil now. I can’t put my loyal granddaughter who wants to do anything to restore our country back to its original glory in harm’s way, now can I?”

“Of course not grandfather. I will work hard to make our nation great again. I will work hard to repay the gift you have given me and helping me see the error of my ways.”

“Good, that’s what I like to hear,” replies Francis with a sinister smile.

Francis looks at his phone as he hears Maria hang up on him, “I am such an idiot... But it’s not like I can tell her...” remarks Joshua with a sigh as he thinks, “That I still have feelings for Karrie and that she is Crisis... That never work, and now I blew my chances with the only girl who likes me who’s not a machine,” thinks Joshua as he heads back to the celebration, defeated.