"Things Change" Part Five





The Snug-Tite Packing Company hub in Dullard's Corners had been abandoned months ago, delivered to obsolescence by a rapidly changing and growing mail order market. Unfit for the global economy as it now stands, others had come to find use for the two story building and its vast, empty interiors.



Fleabot shrunk himself down to enter the padlock that held shut one of the complex's bay doors. He manipulated the tumblers until it snapped open, then hopped outside. His companion smiled.



"You know, I could have handled that," said the Idiom.



The mechanized parasite willed himself large enough so the genius inventor could see him shrug, "No doubt. I just wanted the practice."



Letitia Gahagan smiled and grabbed hold of the corrugated steel door with her gauntlets. She raised the portcullis, wrinkling her pug nose at the rush of stale air. Pressing several buttons on her right glove, she noted, "I'm getting some EM readings on the kitty corner to us, that's where the tech is being stowed."



Her small compatriot nodded. The Legion had started sifting through a backlog of intel once the Parody War was over, and one such entry was the possible location of technology developed by the Idiom prior to her reformation, back when she committed "performance crimes" against the state and status quo. The mechanical had contacted the scientist, and both were now here to make sure her inventions had not fallen into the wrong hands.



"Here's the catch, though: no way this stuff is mine. Signature is all wrong. I'm afraid we've been hoodwinked, pal of mine."



"It's a trap!" Fleabot's antenna picked up the oncoming pair of projectiles high and from their right. The missiles, two gleaming black arrows, shattered against the Idiom's personal force-field.



"Yep," Letitia flicked another toggle on her gauntlet. Long, silvery strands of an adhesive polymer snaked their way from the palm of her glove to the tower of boxes that concealed their assailant. A figure tried, and failed, to vault free from the snare.



"Artemis," the Idiom observed the struggling vigilante as she hung suspended from the stack, "I'd ask you who taught you to shoot first and ask questions later, but we both know the answer to that."



The identification of their attacker only served to heighten Fleabot's concern, "What's your problem, kid? Idiom's on our side. OK, maybe not exactly your side, given you seem to be picking up where Messenger left off, but-"



"Hold that thought," the Idiom spun around in time to see the blur of dust and grey that heralded the arrival of Glory the Dog Dynamo. Another flip of another switch led to the young Border collie to be bathed in a bright energy field. She slowed, stumbled and fell, and then just as quickly rose. Looking confused and frightened, the animal shied away from the tableau set before her.



"It's OK, Glory, its OK," Letitia said soothingly.



"What did you do?!" Fleabot asked the inventor from his perch on her shoulder.



The Idiom removed her right gauntlet and continued trying to coax the Mutt of Might closer, "Took her powers away, of course. One of the first things I built since becoming Science Chief in Badripoor was an Anti-Epitome Ray, which doubles nicely as an Anti-Glory Ray."



"Gahagan!" Artemis finally got enough of her face and neck free from her bonds to speak, "We know you're the one who took away Epitome's memories!"



"I figured," the Idiom snarked as she reached out to tentatively stroke Glory between the ears, "The $64,000 question is, who else knows?"



"I don't think that matters, Letitia," Fleabot interjected, "I think its over."



"The cat may be out of the bag, but its not over," the Idiom stopped petting Glory and rose from her crouch. When finished she held a large, elaborate looking rifle which she aimed at Artemis.



"Aw no," Fleabot said as he recognized the Modification/Erasure of Long Term Stored Engrams Ray. He hopped onto the barrel and grew so his mass forced Idiom to lower the weapon, "Tish, just wait. Think this through."



"I have. I've done nothing but. It's one of the curses of being smart," she twisted a knob on her gauntlet and suddenly Fleabot was encased in a sphere of force energy, which floated like a soap bubble towards the building's skylights. She raised the gun again....



There was the smell of ozone and a crackle of electricity as a bolt of green lightning arced across from where the Idiom had detected machinery earlier. It slammed into the Idiom, sending her sprawling.



The energy coalesced into a glowing green woman in a white vectored unitard. She stamped her foot down on the M/ELTSER, discharging more electricity to reduce it to a pile of twisted, scorched metal.



Hallie glared at the Idiom, "How could you?" she seethed, instinctively balling her hands into fists.



"That hurt," was Letitia's equally piqued reply. She did a quick diagnostic on her gauntlet, which had also been shorted out.



"You erased Dominic's memories! That's-, that's- where do you get the right?!" the artificial intelligence snarled.



"I'm a futurist," the Idiom scrambled over to where her second gauntlet, the one she had earlier removed to comfort the now cowering Glory, and slipped it on. She pressed a button and fired a plasma spike into Hallie's holographic form, which briefly fragmented. Before the Legionnaire could resume control of her form she found herself caught inside a magnetic field.



Letitia wobbled to her feet and tried to straighten her hair, "No, seriously. I saw what was going to happen. Not that it was hard: you don't have to be weatherman to tell which way the wind blows," she smiled at Hallie, "Dominic was going to go after the Legion eventually. And the way he operated, who knows how many people were going to get hurt? Killed? So I gave him a second chance."



"By taking away his right to choose," Hallie bit back, internally trying to get a broadcast signal back to Lair Mansion. When she had observed Artemis and Glory uploading false information into her database and swiping some leftover Technopolis instrumentation from storage, tagging along to investigate seemed like sound strategy. She had had no idea that those actions would lead to this.



"I really don't understand why you're getting your knickers in a twist, Hallie: you came to me looking for ways to stop the big guy," the Idiom opened a slot on her non-functioning gauntlet and began to tinker with it, small, delicate tools whirring from where they were housed in her gloved fingers.



"No one ever asked you to take away fifteen years of the man's life!" the computerized intelligence countered.



"Aren't you all better off because I did? Sure, it was a tough call, but I made it. And Dominic became a better man because of my actions. And yours. And Glory's. And Kat's. So forgive me if I don't see the problem. There we go," she tested her second gauntlet, "Right as rain."



"Hallie, please tell me you didn't come without back up?" Fleabot inquired as he bobbed overhead in his opaque prison.



"Why, is that what you did?" Hallie glared up to her fellow robotic life form, "How much are you involved in this mess?"



"Up to his neck," Letitia assured the hologram as she prepped her remote viral program for launch, "But he's like you: he thought I went too far. He stuck by me, though. Tried to be my very own Jimminy Cricket. Though his rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star leaves a lot to the imagination. Now, Hallie, I'm going to have to download a virus into your memory to figure out exactly who knows what, then purge your files. I don't anticipate any pain, but there is a slight risk of disaffectation (still not sure how your emotive subroutines work), so its in your best interest not to resist."



The AI blanched as she heard the Idiom's cavalier description of what was to Hallie her worst nightmare. Then her face hardened with resolve, "So your advice is "just lie back and think of England"? No thanks."



The quip, and the analogy it made, stung the inventor, yet she tried to hide it, "Let's not be too melodramatic, shall we?"



"You're the one who started this morality play, not us."



"Right," Fleabot agreed, "And you know as soon as you're done torturing Hallie I'm going to have to be next."



"And me as well," Artemis agreed, "And Glory too."



"Which won't be easy to do since Hallie fried the M/ELTSER," Fleabot pointed out.



"Don't worry, Idiom, I'm sure you'll figure out something," Hallie added with some venom, "Maybe there's a spare ice pick lying around you can lobotomize the girls with."



Letitia Gahagan looked into the hologram's determined eyes for several moments before relenting, "You're right. There's a smarter way to win this."



Then she disappeared.



*****



The security measures in the Idiom's Badripoor lab recognized the energy signature of the scientist's transdimensional teleportation technology. The automated control system clicked to respond to its creator's return.



Results of Experiments 10020 and 10023 have been tabulated. Report is pending. You also have eleven messages waiting review.



"Cancel the reports. Delete messages. In fact, delete all files with the exception of standard lab operating controls, on my mark: AZY873HG56."



Order accepted and completed.



Letitia sighed and began disassembling her gauntlets, "Activate forge and remote operating units. Eliminate all instrumentation on my mark: 64WR2F11QJ."



Order accepted and proceeding.



The small army of personal worker drones the Idiom had at her disposal began to do just that: retrieving the various projects, completed and otherwise, and moving them to the part of the lab where the enormous nuclear powered foundry ignited, its volcanic heat held back by a powerful anti-thermal field. As this happened Leitita made some notes on her flip pad and pocketed it.



"Unit 38, disengage and report," the Idiom told one of the wheeled automatons as it rolled by with its cargo. The machine dutifully complied. The inventor took the weapon it carrried and made some adjustments before returning it, "Unit 38 override noncombat protocol on my mark: FDG6T9JBN6."



Order accepted and completed.



The Idiom pulled over a chair and sat so she would not be facing her fate, "Unit 38: fire weapon at creator."



Order accepted and completed.



Letitia didn't remember anything after that.





Next: The aftermath of Idiom's decision has long lasting repercussions for the cast.