ELDT - Chapter 13 - Turn for the worse

Later  near the repair room, it was 16:34 pm and almost all of the robots got fixed from their minor injuries. Crashman's armor got an update to make sure it can still withstand exploision, while Quickman's boomerangs got sliced up a bit, making them smoother and sharper. The others were being checked from the inside and outside. The professors looked for scratches, a wire that may be replaced, but none of them had something serious. However, they were still waiting for Elecman who took a little longer since his circuitry and design from the inside was very different than the others. This was normal, but there was still tension as they waited, for they were worried about his memory loss. They were sitting next to each other waiting for him to come out.

"So, how long is it going to take?" Said Crashman, breaking the silence.

"He's been in there for about an hour, so I think we don't have to wait any longer. Besides, it's be a challange to see something strange in his circuitry; even for this guy." Quickman replied, looking at the door that was next to him.

Inside, Elec  was laying on a special bed with wires attatched to his head and back. The wires connected to a giant computer, who looked more than a big millitary panel than a computer. He was offline and the professor turned him on again. The  eyes of the robot opened and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"And?" He asked the professor.

"You have nothing to worry about my boy." He replied. "The last few times you were checked these years didn't quite last long as they had to. Plus, you've been working hard and perhaps the panicing about these new robots may have caused a glitch in your memory unit. That and I believe you needed a cleaning up and a special upgrade since technology keeps moving forward and evolves over time. And you can't expect to live on with the old software, don't you?"

After his explination, Elec was silent for a moment, thinking if he should believe the professors' words. "I guess so."

"Trust me, you're a very special robot and so far nothing bad or severe has happened that might've endangered your life. Being a robot like you it makes sense to have special needs. But you've survived and there's nothing to worry about." He assured, putting away his paper work.

"I see. Thank you." Elec replied, giving him a handshake.

"Good luck with the investigation."

"I will, have a good day." The robot put on his jacket and walked out of the room, looking towards his friends as they stood up.

"And? What was it?" Alisa asked.

"I have good news." Said Elec.

"You're getting retired!" Crash interupted; they all looked at him with irritation while he giggled.

"No, that's not it."

"You had a lack of Yaranaika~" He teased. Alisa painfully pinched his cheeck, telling him to stop it.

"Owowwow ok just say it! Just say it!"

"Thanks. I just needed an update. Lots of cleaning and checking, that's about it."

They all sighed in relief. "For a moment there I thought you were going to get amnesia." Said Quickman as all of them were heading for the entrance of the building.

"That'll only happend if I hit my head really hard."

"Let's hope that'll never happen." Suddenly, the two looked around to see if no one was looking.

"You know I need to scout with the oter robots in the theme park tomorrow and I'll be having a break at 15:00. What are your plans on that time period?"

"Why?"

"Because if something crazy happens, you can offer that information to me since most of the detectives arn't there." He explained.

"Right. I will...see what I have to do for tomorrow." But no one noticed the dread on Elec's face. Despite the results of his condition, he was still terrified of what might happen.

The following the day, the detective was sitting on the couch, playing a smooth, relaxing song on his electric guitar. Crashman was keeping Emily busy upstairs. Then Alisa walked into the room, looking down towards her husband.

"You're still playing?" She asked, sitting next to him.

"Yes."

"You've been playing for about two hours. Is something bothering you?"

A short pause came between the two as the robot stopped touching the strings, laying his crossed arms on the side of the instrument.

"It's just that...I need some time to process all of this. Just a few days ago, I was the hero of the city. But now...it feels as if everything is working against me." His wife noticed the fear and even a little sadness in his eyes.

"I know these days have been crazy and that they took a lot out of you. Even I feel drained from these events." She replied. Elec didn't anwser and continued to stare ahead. She lay her hand on his left shoulder, comforting him.

"And It's ok that you worry. Knowing that you would do anyhting in order to protect me and your friends, determent on completing your investigation and bring a smile on my face everyday...I would not hesitate to do the same thing for you. And that's why we're going to get through this."She said. Elec sighed softly and looked down.

"I know that. But never before have I felt so confused and distressed in my life. I mean, first this weird park comes right out of nowhere, the detective agenty didn't recieve any news about it's debute, it didn't take long before the others got brainwashed, Cossack suddenly appears out of the blue and I've been getting strange memory losses eversince Shademan showed up. It can't be that he has nothing to do with it."

"I understand that and I'm on your side. But you have faced the worst before. You know how to prevent it. You can defeat them. And I'll be with you when that time arrives."

The robot turned towards her, looking into her powder blue eyes as she moved closer to him. Then, she gently kissed his cheek. The warm feeling of her affection made him feel better, almost putting a smile on his face. Almost.

"Thanks sweetheart." He said as they looked into each others  eyes.

"By the way, have they called yet?"

"They called 20 minutes ago and told me that Shadowman got the documents."

The detective looked at his clock, noticing that their friend has been gone for a while.

"An hour and 55 minutes have already passed. What's taking him so long?"

"Maybe the traffic is working against him? It is saturday after all."

But then, they heard a knocking sound on the door of the cellar.

"I'm on it!" Said Crashman upstairs and ran towards the door with Emily walking down the stairs. The robot stopped infront of the door.

"Who's there?"

"It's me you idiot." A voice replied.

"And who is 'me?' "

"The one that got the order of getting the secret documents of Dr.Cossack. Now open up."

"I'm not letting you in until I know who 'me' is."

"BUTTPLUG."

"I'm STILL not convinced." He said, putting on a cocky attiude.

"It's Shadowman, open the door!" Elec shouted.

"Emily, give me the keys." He asked. The girl ran towards the drawer and grabbed the keys. She ran back and gave it to him. He grabbed the key with his special grabber. it wasn't a hand, but it was able to hold some objects. The locking noises didn't stop there as he opened the other 2 locks open. He then took a quck fighting stance when the door opened. The ninja was clearly irritated by his behaviour and walked inside.

" I think you need to go back and see the doctor. Your ears clearly couldn't remember the sound of the OBVIOUS."

"Well my ears tell me that SOME robots could be imposters and imidate the voices of our friends." he claimed, following Shadowman as he entered the room where Elec and Alisa waited for him.

"let's just get this over with." He replied, putting a bag on the table he got from the office who gave him the documents of Cossack. Emily joined the group and stood around the table along with Crashman. They looked at the papers as Elec carefully opened them.

"Alight, let's start from the beginning." He said.

"Does this mean we're going to look through ALL of those 100 pages?" Crash asked.

"No, we only need to look at some events of his life that lead to his interest of his theme park." The group gathered as they stood around the table, Elec began to read out loud.

"Dr.Cossack also known as: Dc.Mikhail Sergeyevich Cossack. He was born in 1898, birth place is Russia and is a robotic engineer."

he turned the next page, skipping to his teenage years.

"At the age of 15 he left with his dad to work at as construction worker. But after a few months, Cossack discovered that he could do more with the talent he had. Building smaller and simple machienes to help human kind. Later when he turned 17 he managed to work at Stravinsky Science Academy and impress many professors over the years. In his spare time he enjoyed traveling around Russia to expand his knowlage, learn about egyptian history, watching ballet and spending time in a...theme park along with his friends."

The last part of the sentence made the others look at each other; knowing that this may lead to something near the end of the story. The detective skipped more pages as he stopped at the chapter of the doctrs' early adulthood years.

"In 1941 he got married to a woman named Vera and she gave birth to her daughter named Kalinka. Sadly his wife died in a terrible accident 2 years later. Vera died in the mountains as her car slipped from the road in a soft snowstorm. Since then Cossack became more distant and didn't show up at work for over a year and a half."

"Aw, that's so sad." Said Emily. Crashman gently supported her back as she leaned against him.

Finally, the detective decided to skip towards the recent page.

"Over the past years he has been creating new inventions to help human kind and make everyday life tasks simpler. After the tough times of dealing with the loss of his wife, he decided to spread happyness to all people who had to go through similar events like he did. He also made this desicion for his daughter as he felt that work was getting in the way with them not being able to spend more time together. But he promised to begin on his next big project...Mega world....theme park. He left on a buisiness trip and had enough time to prepare new robots so they could keep order and make people happy unless his other job got in the way."

A moment of silence passed before Elec lay the documents back on the table and sighed. Supporting his tired head with his hand. Alisa tried to comfort him, gently storking his shoulder.

"And here I thought that my protective behaviour wasn't for nothing. Guess I was wrong."

"And you might be wrong again." Said Shadowman. Elec looked up towards the ninja, confused to what he just said.

"Why?"

"because this is the copy." He then pulled out another document out of the bag and it looked much older than the other one.

"THIS...is the original." He gave the papers to Elec. The robot opened both documents at the same page to see if it was true. The others watched in awe as they saw the differences.

"Wonder why it took me so long? The ones you just read almost look brand new. Not really what you would expect from a document from 1998 that's been growing while living his life. I got this one from Cossack's house located in a secret place behind one of his book shelves."

 As he explained, Elec began to see what he ment. The copy seemed fresh and the paper was more white and less shredded than the origonal. Also the recent page didn't mention ANYTHING about Cossack planning to build a theme park. Nor did it say anything about his new robots.

"Wait a minute, does that mean we've been reading a newer version of the origonal?" Crashman asked. Elec stood up and the group saw that his worry faded into a serious expression.

"No. This means Cossack himself is the bad guy."

"What!? Why?"

"We're going to find out right now. Shadow, you stay here with Emily. Crash, you're coming with us." He commanded, walking towards the door, putting on his jacket.

"Wait, hold on a sec what are we going to do?"

"We're going to confront him about this and show the documents."

"Wait! Mister Elecman I want to come too!" Emily shouted.

"Emily, you can't. You have to stay here." Alisa stated.

"But Missus Alisa, I-"

"Please, if it's true that Cossack is the one responsible he might be ready to defend himself and cause harm to all of us. I don't want you getting hurt."

"But if it's true, then I need to know if Kalinka is involved in this! Please! I need to come with you! I'll stay at a safe distance I promise!"

Elec thought for a moment; thinking of what he should do.

"I could stay with her in the car until you guys are in trouble and I step in to join the battle? While she stays put and maybe gets to talk to Kalinka afterwards?"

"Alright. You're allowed to come. But stay close to Crashman and listen to him." Alisa stated, being very serious towards her.

"I promise. I won't do anything dangerous!" She replied and the group left the house.

A few minutes later, Elec was driving through traffic, ignoring some stop signs and going as fast as he could to reach their destination.

"Wait...hit the breaks, hit the breaks hit the breaks! Hit the breaaaaaaks!" Crash shouted as they took a heavy turn to the right. The gravity pushed the robot to the side of the door and as the turn ended his face fell forward.

"If you want to get tons of tickets than keep driving like a maniac!"

"Elec, we you can't drive this fast you never know if you're gonna collide with a car on the next bend." Said Alisa, being a bit angry about his driving behaviour. However, Elec seemed to be very serious and his sharp eyes focused on the road.

"I won't make an accident like those underaged drunk teenage drivers. I'm just trying to get there as fast as possible. I need to end this case." He said, before making another sharp turn. Crash yelled a bit out of panic while Emily seemed pretty calm about it.

They finally arrived at the outskirts of the city and Alisa recognized the streets.

"We're close. His house should be around here."

"Crash, keep an eye out."

"Alright."The robot looked around as Elec kept his speed up. Still keeping his eyes on the road.

"So what should we do when we arrive?"

We should make the first move. But we can't confront him right away. We should be carefull when he tries to lure us in and talk about it. You never know if we'll fall into a trap."

Then, they suddenly saw red flashing lights near another house they were approaching.

"What's going on over there?" Crash asked. Alisa's eyes widened in shock as she saw 2 police cars and an ambulance standing near the house.

"That's Cossack's house." She replied with a tone of dread in her voice. Elec hit the breaks, creating a screaming noise with the tires as Crashman fell forward again. They stepped out of the car and ran towards the scene.

"Kalinka!" Emily shouted.

Elec and Alisa entered first. "Don't worry! We're detectives!' Crashman stated towards the police officers, standing outside. The detective rushed inside and heard crying noise from above. The other two soon followed as they ran upstairs. Elec stopped and stared in shock near the entrence of the room as he saw the doctor  laying on the floor with some big drops of blood next to him. He tried not to groan in pain while his daughter was crying next to him. The ambulance assistence had put a bandige around his chest and prepared to bring him downstairs on a ferno. As the other two robots arrived, their eyes widened in shock.

"Kalinka!' Emily shouted as she ran towards her friend. Hugging her as they both cried. "What happened!? Who did this!?"She asked.

"I don't know! I suddenly found him here laying on the floor..." She replied, crying on her shoulder. The people began to escort the doctor downstairs on the ferno. The robots tepped aside as they watched the injured human. They were speechless and had nothing to say. Because this...was not what they expected.

But before the doctor was brought into the ambulance, Elec wanted to talk to him.

"Cossack?"

"nggn....E-...Elecman?" He said. The doctor could berly speak.

"How did you...get here?"

"...Emily wanted to see if she could Visit your daughter again but...I didn't know that this happened. But, if it's still possible and...I hope I don't sound rude by asking you this...were you able to identify the one who attacked you?"

"Hnghg...hmff...I couldn't...I-I....I didn't even see him. I only f-felt a draft behind me and...as I looked back...he sliced a part of my chest...after that...he just left with no trace..." After his explination, Elec went silent for a moment.

"Sir, we really need to go." The ambulance assistence interupted.

"I know, that's all I wanted to ask him."

He watched the injured doctor get into the ambulance. The people gave him a little more treatment before leaving as Elec looked towards the officers who were talking to Kalinka; supported by his wife and friends. But then, he saw Shademan flying over. He landed next to the other police car and saw the other officers approaching him who were scouting the area, insearch of the suspect. Elec angerly walked towards the vampire as he had a feeling that he had something to do with it.

"You." He said. The robot turned his head, surprised to see him at the scene.

"Elecman? What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking that question.."

"Why would you ask that?"

"Because I have a strong feeling who is responsible for this."

Before he anwsered his question, he gave a sign to the officer to leave them alone and talk privately.

"Do you mean that the mysterious robot who attacked the theme park is the one?"

"Oh for the love of...will you drop it!?"

"Drop what?"

"Drop the act. I'm getting sick and tired of your cover ups and your fake gentlemen behaviour. You were the one who attacked him!"

"I wha-...how...DARE you...how...DARE you even THINK of that! I recieved a phone call from the officers, telling me that my master had been attacked by some maniac who probably wants to give Mega world a bad name!"

"Ooooh so that's what you're trying to do. Playing the victim and acussing me of false evidence."

"That's not what I'm trying to do!"

"You know darn well what you're trying to do. Let's just say we've discovered some highly confidential evidence that proves your master has something far bigger planned!"

"The only thing he's planning is to have a talk with me and discuss how we should deal with the situation before Sunday is upon us! Which will be a very special day for both robots and humans. And it has NOTHING to do with sinister plans!"

"Listen up, you crazy, batwinged purple freak...either your master is willing to put his life on the line to make his plans work...or...you are not his creation and part of something far bigger. I will find out what it is and show the entire world what kind of sinister shadow is hidding behind that armor."

For a moment, Shademan didn't anwser and began to look very disapointed towards Elec.

"You know what? I will not respond to this."

His friends watched nervously as they hoped this was going to end well.

"I do not feel anger, nor hatred towards you. I'm tired of wasting my energy towards your pathetic existence. Your sickening distrust and dispicable claims. I feel nothing but contempt for you."

This didn't change the angry expression of Elec as he glared towardsthe vampire with his eyes that almost seemed to shine. The robot turned around and followed the ambulance as it left. Standing there for a bit, Elec quickly turned and walked towards his friends.

"What was he doing here?" Crash asked.

"I'll explain when we leave."

"What do you mean?"

"Alisa, you along with Emily go to the hospital with Kalinka. Crash and I will go to the office. I will give you the house keys because this is going to take a while." he said, giving her the keys as Kalinka sniffed. Still shocked about the event.

"What are we going to do?" Crash asked, following his friend towards the car. "And what was up with Shademan?"

Later that day, around 15:23 PM they arrived at the company. Elec remembered Quickman's words about him being avalible around this time; but the robot was very busy at the moment, picking up the phone after phone.

"Hello you're speaking with one of the robotic detectives I can not be avalible at the moment so please be patient. Hello this is the detective agenty I will call you right back. Hi, I heard you had a problem with-...NO! We don't do that! Good day sir! Hello you're speaking with the detective agenty how can I help you? Ok,just hold on a sec. Alright, what were you saying about that accident?"

Suddenly, he saw his friends walking into the room. "Sorry miss you will be put on hold." he said and hung up the phone. "Oh, thank goodness you guys are here! I thought patrolling through the park ressisting the sweet temptation of the attractions were bad enough but now I'm treated like a machiene!"

"But you are a machiene." Said Crash, while Elec stared at Quick with angry eyes.

"An overworking machiene! I get phone call, after phone call after prank call and because the others are still out there patrolling without me, I may be the quickest of all but this is just rediculous!  I'm stuck here doing their work! Urgh...But, since you guys showed up I suppose something happened?"

"Dr.Cossack isin the hospital after an undentified suspect attacked him." Crash replied.

"What? How did that happen?"

"Because the documents we recieved was a copy." Said Elec, throwing the copy and the origonal on the desk. Quickman took a closer look at both of them.

"Shadowman was in charge of picking them up from the other office. But it seems the doc is trying to rewrite his history just to get away with his plans."

"Are you suggesting he's evil?"

"I had a suspicion he was before we arrived. But I'm not sure why he would do this just to cover himself up." he explained, putting his hand underneeth his chin while walking around a bit.

"Perhaps he knew the origonal document went missing and convinced his daughter to act like it was an attack." Crashman suggested.

"If so, we should confront him right now. The dude is powerless at the moment. And all the other robots are at the themepark." Said Quickman. Another phone went off right next to him and picked it up. "hello you're speaking with one of the robotic detectives how can I help you? ...FOR THE LOVE OF MY QUICK BOOMERANG will you stop doing these prank calls!?" He shouted, angerly hanging up the phone.

"We can't do that right now." Elec replied. "Shademan will probably guard his master since he wanted to discuss about the crises. Besides, Alisa is there right now and I know she will notice anything suspicious when she hears it."

"...Well, atleast we got proof that this theme park wasn't build for his own pleasure. But if the robots manipulated him than who would be there master?" Quickman asked.

"Could it be Whily?"

"Not a chance. Every corner of his secret lab has been checked. They didn't find any hint of trace of an underground chaimber that held those robots. Nor did Whily have any conections with Cossack."

"Listen, I'd love to have a detective talk about this, but can you PLEASE assist me with this? We'll tell our boss when we're done, alright?"  Quickman asked, refering to the many phone calls that continued to disturb the silence.

"Ok." The detectives began to sit down and do their job, since that was the only ting they could do at the moment.