Chapter 5

Beatrice was intrigued and a bit frightened. The Spixans kept surprising everyone since they made themselves known.

“This is incredible! Did they make a copy of a car and build it into a sci-fi robot, or did they abduct a car?” she asked herself. “Wait, the first one makes more sense since they would have to be on Earth to abduct a car.”

Delacacie was doing handstands while watching her master’s excitement. “Master, why am I not needed for this Spixan attack?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘not needed’ but more like on standby. In case things get ugly”.

Delacacie smiled slightly, “I wish to use that slang someday”.

“Dellie, you can use it whenever you want. Depending on the situation”, Beatrice said as she stood up, “Let’s head to the training room”.

As they walked, Sergeant Collin came out of nowhere. “I hope you aren’t sending your bot on another action-hero stunt”.

“No, I’m just taking Delacacie to the training room”.

“I suppose you won’t mind if I joined you. Just to make sure”.

Beatrice frowned, ‘He doesn’t like nor trust me’, she thought with a sigh. “Okay, sure”.

As they walked, Delacacie glanced at Sergeant and wondered if Sergeant would be a possible threat to her master. The sergeant glanced back at her, wondering why her eyes were designed to be pitch black as if she was a person with no soul.

Once they were inside, Beatrice watched from the control booth. “Okay, Delacacie. Today’s lesson is quick thinking. Try to stop the bot from hitting the innocent civilians' cutout boards.”

The bot started shooting and Delacacie swiftly picked up half of the cutouts. All while trying to be agile enough to dodge the laser beams.

Collin hummed, “She’s quick but not on an intellectual level”.

“I know but she catches on in academics”, Beatrice stated as she filled out results on her clipboard.

“I don’t think it should have high intelligence. Machines with too much knowledge start thinking with free will”.

Beatrice wanted to tell him to stop watching so many Sci-Fi movies about robots taking over the world. She did but she needed to focus on her creation who didn’t fit the stereotype.

“Ok Dellie, let’s try virtual natural disasters”.

The doll nodded and started to face off against a tornado. As she was in it, she spun around, so fast that she was creating air that disrupted the tornado. It dispersed, and after that, the doll landed down gracefully.

“Okay, that’s everything for today”.

As Delacacie walked out of the room, Beatrice followed and felt her stomach grumble. She needed to eat, and there was a burger in the cafeteria with her name on it.

As the scientist ate in the cafeteria, a few soldiers came to join her, which Beatrice did not expect. They were all still in their advanced tech uniforms with helmets on.

“Hey Dr. Butters” one cooed.

“It’s Butteroil”.

The soldiers snickered at her correction. One soldier cleared his throat and began talking. “So…how are you?”

“Oh um…fine?” Beatrice squeaked.

“We never get to talk to you and I thought ‘Hey let’s be friends’, if you’re interested”.

Beatrice swallowed a piece of her burger. She should’ve paused her munching, but the burger was just too delicious to put down. She did want to befriend some people in the base, but they all seemed intimidating—well, except Kenji.

“So, there is going to be a celebration next week and you’re invited”.

Beatrice had finished eating and sat up straight. “You’re having a party? Where?”

“At the old storage room”, The female soldier answered, “Nobody ever ‘stores’ stuff in there so it’s the perfect place for get-togethers”.

“I thought it was going to get demolished?”

“It is but only in TWO weeks. The party will be in one week from now”.

Beatrice smiled with glee, “Okay, I’ll be there”.

“Great, we will have a lot of fun”, The soldiers chuckled then sat up and walked out of the cafeteria room.

Beatrice smiled to herself. That was the first time she was invited to a party and the first time soldiers spoke to her. This was a nice change of things, she was sure she wasn’t special before the Spixans made themselves known to humanity.

Walking out of the cafeteria room she had the unwanted thought of how Hamdon was handling the situation. He said they had it covered despite the threat being an eight-foot-tall car armored robot. Maybe this time Hamdon was prepared for such a threat. Maybe the threat was also remote-controlled like the previous monster. Beatrice will have to stay put and not make Area 53 look bad again.

“It’s just one monster, I’m sure they’ve already handled it”, she said to herself with hope. It lasted a few seconds before she heard something from the janitor's closet.

“They don’t stand a chance without Dr. Butteroil’s robot! Send her in!” She heard the old man yelling.

She shouldn’t eavesdrop but she still ran into the closet to see the news. “Is the agency ok?” She asked with extreme concern. Only to find the janitor was eating popcorn while watching a commercial. “Wait…you’re not watching the news?”

The janitor just stared back, looking like a deer in front of car headlights. “…Uh…no.”

“Then…what are you watching?”

“I was watching a soap opera but then there was a commercial about toys that looked like your robot”, he explained.

Beatrice snatched the remote and increased the volume to watch the advertisement.

“Hey, what do you know? Dolls in dresses can bring more action than boy-targeted cartoons! Introducing our newest Delicatie action doll figures, fully articulated so you can copy the real hero’s kick butt moves. Only…an amount I won’t say on TV but already available in Toy R Us!” The host advertised miniature toy copies of Beatrice’s creation.

“Are you kidding me? Her name is Delacacie! I never liked the name Katie!” Beatrice said irritably.

“Hey, look on the Brightside. Your robot is a celebrity now” " the janitor said to cheer her up. Beatrice then realized something.

“Where did you get this TV?”

“My apartment?”

“…Uh-huh”. Beatrice then sat with the janitor. “You must really miss the outside world Mr. Lennings”.

“How do you know my name?” He asked.

“Your badge”, Beatrice pointed out. “So, let’s watch the soap opera—”

“Breaking news!” The news channel interrupted. “In a city in Arizona, yet another non-human entity has been reported terrorizing citizens”, the news revealed a recording of a robotic large entity crushing cars and people screaming in fear. Soldiers were firing their laser guns at it which only resulted in making the entity fight back.

“…I think now would be the perfect time for Delacacie to get back into action”, Mr. Lennings suggested.

“Not this time, unless the General calls me and gives permission”.

“Is that smart? Don’t be a teacher’s pet. The General isn’t always right”.

Beatrice looked down. “He’s still the commander—”

“A commander with a big ego”, Mr. Lenning stated.

“…I’ll phone him and ask if I should bring Delacacie in”.

Mr. Lenning sighed, “You were here because you were smart, not a pushover but okay, do that”.

Beatrice walked out and went to the base landline phone. As she picked it up, she phoned. “Sir, is the situation okay? Can I send in—”

Beatrice flinched from General saying something on the other end but then nodded, ended the call, and ran back to her chambers.

Delacacie was there and Beatrice quickly played a music box which was a musical recharge.

“It’s time for action”.