Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Robo Kitties Space Force ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Note: Okay, I changed a whole lot from the original. I'm pretty sure it's going to be going in a completely different direction (after all, I wrote the original when I was, like, twelve, so...yeah, it sucked). Also, if I make a typo that omits the letter "G" it's because my "G" is broken. Yeah. I have to press down really hard on it for it to work at all.


Number Two found that it was remarkably easy to sleep in her room, despite the color. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept that well; then again, she couldn't remember the last time she had slept at all. She couldn't remember anything before she had awoken the previous morning, but she assumed she must have had some sort of existance before.

Sitting up in her bed, Number Two looked at her surroundings. The bed was simple: a thin mattress with a pink sheet supported by a white metal frame. There was a chair in the corner. It was pink, of course. The walls were pink, and so was the carpet. There were no windows, but there was a single mirror in the corner of the room opposite the chair. Number Two walked toward it, inspecting herself.

She touched her face with a metal paw. Her face was made of flesh, and she wondered vaguely if this was the same face she had had before she had become an anthropomorphic robotic cat. Her face was distinctly human, despite the cat-like features, such as flase whiskers, that had been implanted. She reached up to touch her ears, which made a small "clang" sound as they connected with her paws. Looking down, she inspected her boots, which were also metallic, with a rubber sole. She had tried removing them the night before. They didn't budge. Neither did the metallic suit she was wearing. She concluded that they must be part of her body.

She approached her door to leave the room just as it opened. Ria, the female scientist who had shown her the room the night before, was standing there. "Oh, good, you're awake," she said. "Dr. Tanaka needs you to report to the Training Room for conditioning."

Number Two nodded, noticing Number One emerging from his own room out of the corner of her eye. He waved at her when he saw her, and Number Two rolled her eyes. Landon, the other scientist from the night before, was apparently trying to tell Number Two something, but he wasn't paying attention.

"I'll take you to the Training Room now," Ria said, leading Number Two down a hallway. "You'll be spending a great deal of your time here, building up your strength."

"If I'm a robot, shouldn't I be programmed as you need me, already?"

"You're not exactly a robot," Ria said, opening a door, "And you haven't exactly been programmed, either."

Number Two wanted to ask her what she meant, but then she looked at the room. It was huge, filled with all types of equipment. Number Two had no idea what any of it was for, but she wondered if she would be expected to use all of it.

Landon entered the room from another door, followed a second later by Number One. They immediately walked up to Ria. "Dr. Tanaka sent me a message. Apparently, he's busy with the other subjects, and wants us to go ahead with the training ourselves. This one," he said, pointing to Number One, "Is to work on physical training today. The other one is assigned to technical training and foreign relations. Tomorrow, they will switch, and the next day, they will work together on both. He said to continue in this manner until we are sure that they are ready for their mission. When that time comes, we are to let him know and he will decide for himself if they are ready."

Ria raised an eyebrow. "So he isn't going to be involved in any part of the training?"

"Not until it is finished, no. He's very busy." He looked at her. "So I think that I should take over the technical training, while you take over the physical training."

"And why do you think that?" she asked.

"Because Dr. Tanaka left me in charge," he said. "Now I will take Number Two over to the technical station, and you can work with Number One over here."

Ria sighed, turning to Number One as Landon and Number Two walked away. Number One looked at her expectantly.

"You're just going to stand there and let him walk all over you?" he asked.

"He's in charge," she said, shrugging.

"He's also a jerk," Number One said. "He treats us like objects."

Ria looked away from him. "Come on. We have work to do." The conversation was making her uncomfortable. Dr. Tanaka had told them that the subjects would be completely pliable, with no will of their own. Obviously, this was not the case, if Number One was already taking offense to being treated like a thing, and not a person. She considered mentioning it to Dr. Tanaka, but for some reason, decided against it. If she told him, she'd probably shut both Number One and Number Two down, and Ria wasn't comfortable with the idea of killing two children, even if they weren't "normal."

"Step on the treadmill," she told Number One, who dutifully obeyed. "This is mainly to test how fast you can run. I'm going to set it at the lowest setting first, and gradually work my way up to the fastest setting, which is beyond what any human is physically capable of. Hopefully, you will be able to get to that setting today. Just let me know if it gets too intense for you."

Number One nodded, and Ria flipped the switch. He started walking at a slow, relaxed pace for a minute, until Ria turned a knob. Now he was walking at a bricker pace. Another twist, and he was jogging slowly. She turned the knob aain, and he was now running, but he knew he hadn't come close to his limit yet. Ria turned the knob two more times, and Number One felt as though he were flying. He concentrated solely on running, barely hearing Ria's voice as she asked him questions. He didn't hear her until she shouted, literally in his face, "You can slow down now!"

Number One looked at her. Apparently she had lowered the setting to the point that it was now turned off. He stopped running. "Did I do well?"

"Yes, but..." She frowned. "You concentrated solely on the running, and you were unable to focus on anything else around you. That won't be good when you're on your missions. We'll have to work on that."

"What is the mission?"

"I can't discuss that with you, right now. Now we just have to work on training some more. I think we need to work on your multi-tasking next. You get focused on one thing too easily. We need to make sure you can keep track of multiple activities at the same time."

Number One followed Ria, glancing over at Number Two, who seemed to be having a much easier time, despite being with Landon, who Number One had immediately disliked.

"I'm in," Number Two said, pointing at a computer screen. Landon pressed a button on his stopwatch. "Two minutes, thirty-seven seconds. That's not bad, but it's not very good, either."

"Should I try again?"

"Yes," he said, as Number Two prepared to hack into the website of another foreign government. "Go."

He watched as she sped throuh the procedure. He didn't want to admit it, but she was actually doing remarkably well. She was already faster than he was, and was probably even better than Ria was.

He was shocked when, a moment later, Number Two announced, "Done."

He stopped the clock and gazed at it in surprise. "Well done, Number Two," he said. "On your second attempt, you did it in one minute and twenty seconds."

"That was good, right?"

"Absolutely," he said. "Better than expected. We can continue this later. Right now, we can move on to foreign languages."

By the end of the session, both Number One and Number Two were exhausted. They went to their separate rooms, crawled into bed, and went to sleep, unaware of what was going on elsewhere in the lab.

"I don't know why you're getting so attached," Landon said, walking beside Ria on their way to see Dr. Tanaka. "You know wat they're destined for."

Ria sighed. "Well, excuse me for having a conscience. You know they're kids, right? Children."

"No. They were teenagers, who decided to kill themselves. It was fortunate that someone was able to save their brains, so that we could use them."

Ria did not respond. They entered a room, where Dr. Tanaka sat at a desk. Behind him were twenty six empty robotic suits, each identical except for color. She looked questioningly at the suits before sitting in front of Dr. Tanaka.

He noted the look of confusion on her face. "Yes, those are for the new subjects."

"I thought we decided that two were enough," Ria said.

"These will be an insurance policy. I'm in the process of completing the project. I'm just lacking a key element."

"Children's brains?" Ria said.

"It sounds morbid when you put it that way," Dr. Tanaka said, "But yes, obviously. The suits can't move themselves, and children adapt and learn much more quickly than adults do."

"You need twenty-six insurance policies?"

"I don't need them, no, but when twenty-six orphans happened to die at the same time, and all of their organs managed to be saved..."

Ria frowned, afraid to ask exactly how the orphans had died. "So how are you going to get these organs?"

Dr. Tanaka laughed. "They're already on their way. By the end of the week, we will be installing them, and soon enough, we will have a fleet of robotic soldiers."

"A Robo Kitties Space Force," Ria mumbled, quoting Number One from the night before. A strong feeling of worry welled up inside her as she wondered why she had decided to work here in the first place.