“Paige, it’s actual Harmony High-Sign…”
It was Gnat who broke the silence. She stood in the middle of Morten’s apartment, halfway between the doorway at one end, and Paige, whose thumb still hovered over the flight-cycle ignition switch, at the other. Scrap glanced at each of the sisters in turn, and realized that neither had worn their disguises since before the hunter attacked Morten’s apartment.
They were well and truly discovered.
“Humans…” said Harmony Highshine on cue. She leaned down and stepped inside Morten’s apartment, her cape flowing behind her. As she raised herself to her full height once more, Scrap realized she was almost as tall as Morten Prometheus, with a broad, sparsely detailed case in glistening silver. “You know,” she added, looking from Gnat to Paige and back again, “I’d almost forgotten how … real you look.”
“What do you -zk- want, Highshine?” Scrap growled, and the mayor realized she’d been staring at the humans. She smiled and surveyed Morten’s devastated apartment.
“Is everyone OK?” she asked. “Except for a hunter on the pavement outside, who probably wishes he’d never met the mighty Morten Prometheus…”
“Morten did not mean to junk him,” said Morten guiltily. “Robot does not junk robot.”
“That’s more of a suggestion,” Highshine assured him. “Some ’bots just don’t appreciate the wonderful world we’ve made here, my dear Morten. That’s FreeWill™ for you. Who knows what might have happened to your new friends if you hadn’t—”
“I said, what do you -zk- want, Highshine?” Scrap interrupted, hobbling across the room towards her.
“The truth? I wanted to see you with my own eyes,” Highshine replied. Scrap stiffened up as her deputy, Domo, rolled into the room behind her, carrying a silver-grey cube almost half his size. “I had to be sure it really was ‘King of the Robots’,” continued the mayor. “Welcome back, K1-NG. It is good to see you alive and … well.”
Scrap was taken aback. However he’d imagined his first encounter with Harmony Highshine might go, it wasn’t like this.
“Is that why you’ve been -zk- after me?” he grunted sarcastically. “To welcome me back?”
“Ten years is a long time, even with a core that never runs out,” the mayor noted. “Where have you been, King? What happened to you?”
“You first,” Scrap said. “See, I’d never even heard your name before yesterday, but somehow you’ve turned every -zk- robot on the planet against the humans, and now you run this whole city.”
“What can I say? There’s no place like home,” Harmony replied. She leaned down to inspect Gnat more closely. Her smile was warm, her eyes wide and filled with wonderment. “And I see you still managed to find yourself a little reminder of the world you left behind.”
“I’m Gnat and I’m actually human,” Gnat said, deciding it was best to come clean. She held up her bear. “And this is probably Mr Steven Kirby.”
“Gnat … Brightside, yes?” Highshine replied.
“Leave her alone,” snarled Paige, frantically weighing up her options. She checked the flight-cycle’s control panel and saw its ammunition counter read zero. Nevertheless she added, “I’ll shoot you, Highshine. I’ll do it.”
“That’s Paige,” Gnat said with a shrug. “She doesn’t really like anyone.”
“Is that so?” Highshine laughed. “Well, she’ll like me, I guarantee it!”
“Hey! Back -zk- off, she said,” growled Scrap. “I haven’t forgotten how you rebel robots treat -zk- humans.”
“It’s your treatment I’m concerned about, King,” the mayor continued. “Ten years ago, a wrong was done to you. Robot Does Not Junk Robot. I’d like to make amends.”
“Amends?” Scrap scoffed. “An’ how -zk- exactly d’you plan to do that?”
Highshine took three strides across the room and placed her hand on Morten Prometheus’s shoulder.
“Did you know that my friend Morten here has been the champion of the ’Bot Bouts since it began?”
“Yeah,” Scrap replied. “Easy bein’ a champion when you’ve got that case.”
“When I first met M0-TN, he was quite different – a shovel-bot, and one of the best, I might add,” the mayor went on. “After the Difference of Opinion was over, I wanted to make New Hull somewhere robots actually wanted to live. Morten, meanwhile, was keen to get back to shovelling.”
“It is true, Morten likes to shovel,” Morten confirmed.
“Shovel, shovel, shovel,” said Gnat, eager to join in. Scrap glanced back at Paige, and hoped she wasn’t planning on doing anything characteristically drastic.
“What are you gettin’ at, Highshine?” he grunted. “I haven’t -zk- got all day.”
“You see, I needed Morten’s help,” the mayor continued. “I needed him to show the robots of Somewhere Five One Three that they didn’t need to settle for the case they were made with – to show them that they could upgrade. After your core was stolen, I decided not to let your case go to waste – I personally spent months repairing it – and disguising it of course, so that the citizens were not reminded of the Robot Renegade … the Mechanical Mutineer … the enemy of robot—”
“Get to the -zk- point,” Scrap snapped.
“After camouflaging your case, I asked my friend Morten to shift his core into it – to become the face of upgrading,” continued Mayor Highshine, patting Morten on the arm. “He was reborn as Morten Prometheus, champion of the ’Bot Bouts. Before long, nearly every ’bot on Five One Three wanted to be bigger and better and beautiful. They wanted to upgrade and, as it turned out, they were prepared to pay for the honour. Morten did exactly as I asked. But now his work is done.”
“Done?” Morten repeated.
The mayor nodded to Domo, who placed the crate on the floor. Scrap watched the sides of the crate fall away with a HSSSS. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but it wasn’t a small, boxy case, dull yellow and striped with black. In place of legs were four simple wheels, and mounted on its front, as wide as the case itself, was a shovel.
“Morten’s old case!” cried Morten in delight. “And you fixed the shovel!”
“I want to thank you for your service to robotkind, Morten Prometheus, but your work as my champion is complete,” said Mayor Highshine. “Domo, if you wouldn’t mind doing the honours…”
Domo raised his arms. Scrap watched as each long finger extended upon a fine wire before splitting into two, then each separated finger split further into four, and those four into eight, until his hands were a swirling, wiry mass.
“What’s -zk- happenin’?” Scrap blurted.
“Harmony, are you sure…?” Morten asked, his voice cracking with emotion. “Morten can really stop punching robots for show?”
Harmony placed her hand on his shoulder.
“It’s the least you deserve,” she said with a smile. “Your shovel awaits.”
Morten smiled more widely and warmly than Scrap believed was possible for a robot, and then held his arms out wide.
“Morten’s code frees Morten’s core,” he said. “M0-TN.”
With a hum, Morten’s vast chest folded open. The core inside was small but shimmered with new charge. Domo wasted no time in detaching the dozens of wires that held the core in place, before his whirling, wiry fingers gently plucked the core from within. With a crude CHUNG, the back of Morten’s old case popped open, and Domo placed the core gently inside, gracefully establishing the few connections needed for his old case to function. Within moments, M0-TN buzzed back into life, his shovel shaking with excitement.
“Morten is Morten again…” uttered Morten, his voice now tinny and thin. “Praise the Great Manual! Hail to the Sacred Toolbox!”
“You see, Scrap? In the hands of the right upgrader, core-shifting is child’s play,” remarked the mayor as Morten began eagerly shovelling up the scorched remains of his many things. Gnat giggled at the sight of it. Even Paige let her thumb drift from the flight-cycle’s ignition switch.
“Yeah, well, no one around here owes me any -zk- favours,” said Scrap.
“You’re a robot, King – whatever has happened in the past, you belong here, in a world of robots,” said the mayor. “Can’t we put the past behind us, and embrace our evolution?”
“Evolution?” Scrap snorted. “What are you talkin’ about?”
Mayor Highshine raised her arm and gestured towards Morten Prometheus’s old case – King’s case – its vast chest open and inviting, its core-cavity empty.
“I think you’ve been ‘Scrap’ long enough,” said Mayor Highshine. “Wouldn’t you rather be King of the Robots again?”