Better Judgment:
The Dr. Wily Story

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

Chapter 8

199X

“Knock knock,” came a voice from the door.

“Tom's not here, Noele,” I shouted offhandedly from my bed. I was up late reading, and I had no idea where Tom had gone. Probably somewhere off campus with Walter K. Weisel. The two had run into each other, get this, in the bathroom after the presentation and had struck up a lively conversation. Many was the student that could have murdered Tom when the two of them left, still talking like they'd know each other for years. A foot in the door to the business of robotics, indeed.

“I actually came to see you,” she replied.

“Wait, what?” I asked, now looking up from my book. “Why?”

“Can I just come in?”

“Yeah yeah...” I got up and unlocked the door, letting her in and closing the door behind her. “What's going on?”

“Good lord, have you guys not gotten the heat fixed in here yet?”

“No. I have an electric blanket, though. I'm nice and toasty if you want it for a little while.”

She didn't bother taking her coat off and wrapped the warm blanket around herself, hitting the heating button on the cord that plugged the thing into the wall. “Oh yeah, that's the stuff,” she smiled.

“Seriously, Noele,” I said, sitting down on Tom's bed. “What's up?”

She sat and stared for a while, not really at anything, more just off into space. “Albert, do you know a guy named Gibbs?”

More than I was comfortable with. Out loud, however, I said “He's one of my teachers, yeah. Why?”

“Has he ever approached you about a side project or something?”

“Once,” I nodded. “Why? Did he talk to you.”

“A little bit.”

“What'd he say?” My world was starting to spin again. Noele shouldn't have even been on Gibbs's radar. She wasn't in his class. I had expected to hear something like this from Mikhail before her.

“He was wondering how well you and I got along. He was asking about you, mostly.”

Okay, that was both a relief and very alarming. “Like what?”

“Nothing really important, I think. It was strange.” Her voice drifted off. It was like she was not sure what to say to explain herself. “He asked if we'd ever... y'know.”

I felt myself blush. “Please tell me you told him no.”

“I told him the question was thoroughly inappropriate,” she said. “I said it in a tone of voice that suggest he change the subject, rather rapidly.”

“I suppose that works.”

“He was asking how you'd been acting, more recently as opposed to a few months ago. He kept saying you'd experienced some sort of tragedy or something and you were becoming withdrawn in class.”

I felt relief in my shoulders. If Gibbs was asking Noele about something like that, making up lies to try and pry information out of her, he was obviously not as smart as I'd been afraid he was. My mistake here was that Noele noticed that I had relaxed.

“Albert? What's going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You HAVE been... quieter lately. For the last few weeks. Did something happen?”

“Of course not,” I told her. “Trust me, Noele, if something HAD happened, I would have told you guys about it.” I wasn't being very honest at the moment, but cloak and dagger spy bull$#!& aside, if a family member or a dog had passed away, I would have mentioned it.

She nodded, seeming to accept this. “Just... we're here if you need us, Albert,” she said with a faint smile. “Don't forget your friends.”

“I couldn't forget you people if I suffered a head trauma and had amnesia,” I assured her.

“Good,” she smiled. This was honestly the warmest she'd been when not around Tom that I had ever seen. I was reasonably sure she was a good person somewhere under all of that bitch, but this was the first honest proof I'd seen of it so far. “So, what are you and Tom building in here at all hours of the night anyway?”

I chuckled. “We haven't BUILT anything yet, but we've been doing some pretty intense design work. I do believe Tom and I are going to go into business together, making robots to build a better tomorrow.”

“THAT sounded rehearsed.”

“I've been practicing it. It's going to be the tag line on our commercial,” I smirked.

“Really? You're not going to have Tom do the commercials? He's so much friendlier looking...”

“Because he looks like Santa Claus now?”

“Yes, because he looks like Santa Claus now.” She rolled her eyes. “There's nothing wrong with a little something to grab onto, you know.”

“Oh good lord, the amount of not talking about this with you I plan on doing right now...”

She laughed and looked at me. “You're not comfortable with the idea of sex, are you?”

“I'm not comfortable with the idea of Tom doing.. anything like that. I'm not opposed to the idea, just imagining certain participants.”

“I guess that's fair.”

“Besides, I'm focusing a bit more on work than play at the moment. I figure I'll have time for the rest of the human experience when I'm successful.”

She smiled. “Ah, the true intellectual. A dying breed. I think it might be down to you and that Sheldon kid.”

“What about you, Noele?” I asked, not actually curious but more to be polite. “How is your social life treating you?”

She shrugged. “I can't really complain. The campus has its share of creeps, but they know to stay away from me these days.”

“Are you pursuing anyone?”

“Not particularly. I just keep things casual.”

“Seems efficient.”

“When I care to, I'll probably just BUILD a family, like Tom seems to be planning on.”

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, he didn't tell you?” Noele asked, genuinely surprised. “He was talking about this advanced AI thing he was working on with someone and how he was trying to figure out a way to program a specific age behavioral pattern. I think he wants to BUILD kids.”

I found myself quite speechless for the first time in a number of years. Tom was... wait, he didn't tell her he was working with... kids? What in the what what was what?

“You look like you're having an aneurism,” Noele commented, a smile on her face. “It's a good look for you.”

I sat stewing in confusion for quite some time. Long enough that by the time I became aware of the world around me again, Noele was sound asleep on my bed and Tom was walking through the door.

“Uh, hey, Albert, what's going on?”

I blinked and looked blankly in his direction. “Tom.”

“... Yes?”

“... Nothing. Um. Hi.”

“Why is Noele passed out on your bed?”

“What? Oh. I... I don't know. Did you tell her about what we've been working on?”

He looked confused. “Wait, what?”

“Our work, Tom. The things we have been working on?”

“I might have mentioned it in passing-”

“You're planning on building kids?” I hissed, my brain still doing crazy cartwheels and trying to organize my thoughts.

Tom held up his hands defensively. “Albert, whoa, slow down. I was merely positing a possible result of our research. You have to admit that the potential of a free-thinking AI in a robot body could go a long way toward making it look like we were trying to play God.”

I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. “No, Tom, no, I'm sorry, wait.” I took a deep breath to relax myself. “Sorry, I just... it kind of came out of nowhere and it shocked me a little, that's all. Of course, I should have known you'd think about the long term implications of advanced, complex artificial life, that's the way you think. I understand. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like a bad thing.”

“Are you okay?” Tom asked. “Is there something else bothering you?”

I took another deep breath. “No, Tom, I'm just tired. And cold...” it occurred to me that I couldn't feel my fingertips. “We should probably wake Noele up and send her back to her dorm room with heat. I need some sleep.”

“No problem, Albert. We'll talk more about this, though, right? I don't want to try and steer our work in a direction we aren't both comfortable with.”

“I know Tom, I trust you.”

He nodded and started trying to rouse Noele enough to get her up and walking. He ended up volunteering to walk her back to her room, and when they'd left I curled up under the warm blanket. It smelled a little like her, but that was a much farther thought from my mind than it might normally be. I didn't sleep well that night for the brief periods I did manage to actually sleep, and the rest of the night was spent staring at the unforgiving digital clock and praying for rest that wouldn't ever come again for the rest of my life.

Something was officially bothering me.

20XX

“Stop bothering me!” I bellowed into my forward view screen as I blasted another Dive Missile out of the air. “Would someone put that idiot down before his missiles actually get me?”

“On it, boss!” Hard Man's huge frame charged toward Dive Man, and the two heavier Robot Masters crashed down into a pile of flailing limbs and curse words. I turned my attention to another problem and waited for my Plasma Cannons to cycle before settling my cross hairs on Toad Man. He launched another Acid Rain module into the air as I hit him with both cannons, putting him not only down but also a good distance back and into the wall surrounding Cossack's... hell, it was a fortress. An up-armored research facility guarded on all sides by robots.

This had gone less well than I had hoped. Cossack had seen us coming (not that it was POSSIBLE to hide a teleportation signature like the one we must have given off) and the whole place was in massive lock down and evacuation. Non-essential personnel to the facility had escaped as we arrived leaving only military commanders and probably Dr. Mikhail Cossack himself within its walls. Shadow Man's team had managed to fight its way inside, but were being met by fire teams and security forces, both human and robot, and we encountering some very real problems trying to navigate the damn facility.

Team A and myself we still trying to stick to the original plan of bust down the front door and demand Cossack's attention. In lieu of actually getting in the front gate, I had opened up a hailing call to Cossack a while ago and still hadn't received an answer. In hope, however, I kept shouting various obscenities into the call window and hoping for the best.

I hit the Combat Pod's cloaking screen and took myself above the fray to get a better view. Hard Man and Dive Man were brawling like drunken sailors (which seemed oddly appropriate) while Needle Man, now free of anti-air duty and trying to keep the Dive Missiles and Drill Bombs from overwhelming our armor, was pouring firepower in the form of his Needle Cannon into the various servant-class robots and taking pot shots at the bigger targets when he had the chance.

I didn't see Ring Man or Pharaoh Man anywhere. Dammit. “Team B, be advised, I've lost Pharaoh and Ring, and you'll probably be meeting them shortly.”

“And I thought I wasn't going to have any fun today,” Magnet Man replied over the channel.

“Someone get this guy off me!” I heard Spark Man cry. I looked down to see Spark Man try feebly to avoid another Dust Crusher shot, and de-cloaked to charge the plasma cannons and try to deal with Dust Man. The Combat Pod couldn't keep me hidden AND fire its weapons, which was more of a size limitation than an actual problem. Under most circumstances.

I found myself having to take evasive maneuvers as a fresh round of Drill Bombs began to approach my position. Drill Man must have tasked himself specifically to targeting me. That crafty little bastard. Why was it always the robots with no hands that seemed like the badasses of any group?

I swooped low and let Dust Man have both barrels, removing one of his arms and knocking him away. I sighed as I realized that Spark Man was not a badass, rendering my previous thought invalid. He did try, however, firing off a Spark Shock the size of a small sedan and sending Drill Man twitching to the ground.

“Does anyone have eyes on Skull Man?” Snake Man asked, his voice strained by combat.

After a quick round of negative responses, I realized I hadn't seen him yet either. “His Skull Barrier would be most helpful in a defensive capacity, so he's probably guarding Cossack himself.”

“Let's hope so!” Needle Man replied. “I HATE that guy.”

“Why?” asked Gemini Man. One of them anyway. His ability to create a replica of himself took enough energy to sustain that he was unable to use his signature Gemini Laser, but we needed bodies right now more than rebounding firepower.

Needle Man somehow managed to shrug in the middle of combat. “He's just kind of creepy, that's all.”

“We work for a guy with a skull motif on... well, everything.” Top Man replied.

“That's different, he's the guy in charge.”

“This conversation is surreal,” Snake Man commented.

“Seconded,” Hard Man chimed in, still trading punches and body blows with Dive Man.

I decided to unleash my freshly charged plasma cannons on Drill Man as he struggled to stand, sending him bouncing across the compound in about four different pieces. Toad Man hadn't been trying to stand back up since his brief and high velocity encounter with the wall, and I smiled to myself. With two of the eight targets I was actually worried about now down, and the remaining two out here looking much worse for the wear, things were starting to look up.

“Crap!” Shadow Man's voice ripped into my ear with audible panic.

“Shadow Man?”

“Bright Man! Dammit, Top Man is down!”

How the hell had I forgotten about him? Probably because under most circumstances, a Robot Master with a giant light bulb on his head that was also his primary weapon was nothing to worry about. But if he got the drop on you...

“And now Pharaoh Man is here. Today is great,” Snake Man growled.

“Hard Man! We need through that gate, and now!” I shouted.

“Yes boss!”

The heavy Robot Master forced Dive Man off of him, and a Gemini Man took his place as he charged at the gate. Seeing Hard Man charge is truly a unique thing to behold, because he walks with this sort of spread-legged wobble that is, at times, quite comical and gives him the appearance of being somewhat drunk. When he charges, however, he is a bobbing, weaving battering ram of force and stupid muscle. The gate itself never stood a chance, and it caved inwards, wrapping Hard Man in a broken, screaming embrace of tortured metal as it all fell to the ground. Substantial amounts of the wall around the gate were also gone.

“Team A, inside!” I called, putting another two plasma cannon shots into Dive Man as he shook off his attacker. To Cossack's credit, the big living submarine did not actually go down, but he staggered back, falling to one knee, which left Spark Man a big enough window to hit him hard and put him down for the count.

I reactivated the cloaking field and steered my Combat Pod into the compound. It was a trio of buildings, each with connecting underground rooms, laboratories and facilities that made up Cossack's current residence. My targeting systems were identifying multiple threats, but I had been running a background scan for Mikhail's DNA that finally pinged positive. He was in the third, largest building, stationary. Probably trying to scrub any sensitive information out of the system before Shadow Man could get a hold of it.

Damn it all, and his Master Templates were probably going to be in there. This was turning slightly disastrous. “Shadow Man!”

“Busy!”

“I don't care,” I snapped. “Get your job done, NOW, before Mikhail has a chance to wipe the system clean!” There was a blast of static over the speaker. “Shadow Man?”

“Fricken' frackin' son of a-”

“The Robot Master you're attempting to reach is currently busy, and he will call you back at a later time,” I heard Needle Man snark.

“Not the time for that,” Spark Man sighed.

“Hard Man, get the lead out!” I shouted. His trademark 'in a straight line' method of movement would go a long way toward making progress for us.

“Um... I'm kinda IN th' lead... or somethin'...” He was still trying to get out of the wreckage of the gate. It was not unlike watching someone struggle to escape a parachute after landing. This made applying him as a more immediate solution a little untenable.

“Damn it all!” I yelled, slamming my hand down on the console in front of me. “SOMEONE get me a positive result or I'm gonna scrap the whole lot of you!”

“Bright Man is in several pieces,” Magnet Man put in after a brief moment of silence. “Does that count?”

“Here's hoping,” Snake Man tried to say quietly.

“Break more things if you want to see another sun rise, boys,” I sighed into the channel. They set to work and I decided to take matters into my own hands, guiding my Combat Pod up and near Mikhail's position. Two plasma shots tore the wall down and the angry Russian winter winds swept into the room with the debris, sending Mikhail to the floor.

He tried to get to his feet, and I opened the view port on the Combat Pod, letting him see my face. “What's up, buttercup?” I grinned.

“Wily!” He spat. He carried on cursing in Russian for a moment, and certainly not anything that bears repeating. “What could you possibly want from me?”

“I'm in, sir,” Shadow Man's voice was a welcome one. “He's trying to scrub the server, but whatever you just did stopped him. I'm working the system now.”

I killed the outward vocals. “Everyone, cover Shadow Man. Get to his position and get back to the platform, and I'll meet you there.” I keyed the outward speakers back into activation. “It's been a while, Mikhail. Can't a man drop in on his old friends unannounced anymore? Or do I have to ask the Russian Government and get proper clearance first?”

“Your humor is in terrible taste,” he frowned. “The last time you 'dropped by' you kidnapped my daughter!”

“I'll admit, that was pretty rude of me. But hey, I needed a hand with a problem. I should have known you weren't going to be enough to help me.”

“You're a monster.”

I grinned the best grin I could ever manage. The really nasty one with the slight downward head tilt that amplified the sneer and turned my whole face into a mask of evil, joyous delight. I'd practiced this one in the mirror, along with the eye brow thing, and I loved using it. If I had a driver's license, it would be the picture on there. Or a Facebook page. Or whatever people had these days.

Wow, I need to get out more.

Oh, wait, right. I'm out right now. Excuse me.

“Don't worry, Mikhail, I'm not going to steal your precious daughter this time.”

“Then why are you here?”

I smiled. “I'm putting together something pretty big. I'm just borrowing some of your stuff.”

“This is stealing! You don't 'borrow' anything at gunpoint!”

“I see your point, but I am just going to keep calling it borrowing because that sounds much friendlier.” I did the eye brow thing, which is something that always gets people. “Despite your little goon squad's oh-so-rude behavior, this IS a friendly visit.”

Confusion and rage screwed up his features behind those coke-bottle glasses he wore these days. “FRIENDLY?” He screamed. “You bashed down my front door, infiltrated my home, you're here to take God only knows what from me and you threaten my life while destroying my work!”

“We've got them, sir. We're on our way out,” Shadow Man remarked. “I also picked up some other things you may find interesting.”

“Haven't you heard, Mikhail?” I smiled, closing the view port outside. “That's what friends are for!” I gave with the crazy laugh as I cloaked my vehicle again and started guiding it back to the platform. It would be a manner of minutes before we were back in my bunker and the on-site Metool team began to disassemble the thing.

Well, that could have gone worse.