6 Chapter 5

The room has been left quiet for a while. Almost 4 hours have passed since the mysterious attack. The contents of the boxes were still scattered around the floor. Old panels, screens, wires, and papers. Lots of papers. The floor was almost white seeing the number of papers sewn on the ground. One of the contents was M's screen. Before the attack, SRD had placed the screen inside one of the boxes. Now that everything was on the floor, M was also on the floor. The screen version of him, at least.

The monitor had sprouted its four legs. The screen booted up, and M's simplistic character appeared.

"What happened here...?" The monitor questioned, seemingly confused.

He had trodden over to SRD. "His brain functions were ripped apart. This is severe..." Two holes opened up from the sides of his monitor. Two grey metallic arms sprouted out from the holes. "I'll need a lot of replacing here..."

M used his legs to scout the room. He gathered the panels, wires, and anything that was still working. With his arms, he broke pieces of the panels, replacing them with what's been broken. While they certainly weren't better, they were enough to make SRD function.

M took several wires, removing parts from inside of SRD and adding the wires in place.

A few hours have passed. M had let out a sigh. "Finally, it's all done." The screen displayed a check mark. M took a piece of cardboard from the box, covering the wires with it. "Now... boot up?" He muttered, pressing a small button near the chest of SRD. He walked back to the exact place he fell in. His arms and legs folded back inside.

SRD's eyes lit up with a blue color.

"Initiating...."

"Activated. Weapons: Active. Communication systems: Error Xe28bbxf. Vision processes: Active. SRD is ready."

SRD got up, using his arms for support. "Where... where did they go?! Where's M?" SRD said.

M had spoken up. "Oh? You miss me already? Come here and explain to me what happened."

SRD had turned over to the monitor. "You're still working?"

"Yes. Now, what the hell happened?!"

"What do you mean? You were here."

M let out a sigh. "No. That was the human me. Since no memory transfer took place, I've no idea what happened after the human me got released. Now please, explain."

SRD stared at M. This was the only expression he could give. Staring. He was limited when it came to expressions. "Okay. You told me about the people on Mars. We came down here and you showed me this device. Then you told me how the people on Mars are coming now. We hid and waited. Then you got knocked out and my wires got ripped apart... Wait... How did you fix them?"

"Ooh. I see." M's screen displayed a bigger mouth, trying to indicate a grin. "Trade secret. Now lift me up, we're going to go looking for me. Since the martians are here, they probably want to take Earth as thei-"

"As their own? Yes, you already told me."

"Oh... Anyways, we should take one of their spaceships. If we can ge-"

"If we can get to their planet and steal the vital parts of the sphere device we can remake the world? Yes, you told me so already."

"Goddammit! Okay. We have to find where they landed. Then we can get to see where they kidnapped me."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"They're... probably near the manufacturing factory. Or in the manufacturing factory. You have an endless supply of metals and weapons there, they must have went there."

"Good place to start searching. Now, sprout your legs and follow me, I can lead you there." SRD suddenly freezes, falling to the ground.

"Sprout your legs? What kind of joke is this? Come here and lift me up, or you know the punishment."

SRD stands up again. "Okay... okay." He walked over to M, his arms expanding a little, before he lift up M. "Seriously, what do you keep in there? Don't you think this is too much for just a few legs?"

"Stop complaining and get us the the factory!"

"Yeah... okay."

SRD walked up the stairs with M. They made it to the top, and SRD looked up at the whole he made. "How are we supposed to get out? I can't fly."

"Pile up the boxes and get up. If I'm too heavy, throw me up there and I'll wait for you."

SRD nodded. "You asked for it."

Multiple holes opened across the two of his arms. Small thrusters made their way out of the holes. They activated, giving SRD energy to finally throw M. M goes sky rocketing up the hole, falling a few meters ahead of it. The thrusters came to a stop, and then folded back inside of SRD. The holes closed up, and SRD's arm went back to its normal size.

"Now. I will start to pile." SRD walked over to the boxes, placing them together in the shape of a stairway. He wasn't sure if it can hold him, but he could only hope. As SRD took a step up the cardboard stairs, it crumbled. His leg went through the box.

"It's not working, M." SRD had informed.

He didn't get any replies.

"M?"

Still no response.

The walls behind SRD began unfolding themselves like a piece of paper, revealing a staircase to the top. M was walking down the stairs with his legs.

"Found the exit. Now get here." His legs shrunk back inside.

"Why didn't you do this from the beginning?"

"I couldn't find the exit. But now I did. Now, we can't waste any time."

"Okay..." SRD walked over to M, with the boxes still stuck to his left leg. He didn't seem to care. His arms grew in size, and he lifted up M. "You're the worst."

"I'm aware. How far is the factory from here?"

SRD walked up the stairs, nodding a little. "16 kilometers or so. Approximately 3 hours of walking. 1 hour by ground vehicles. 20 minutes by flying vehicles. A few seconds by our wrapping system. But I think that's destroyed."

"Oh... this'll be painful. Okay then. Go on, walk."

"How can it be painful? You're a screen and I'm a robot. We can't really feel pain."

"I... I didn't mean physical pain- SRD, please walk."

"Okay."

SRD took a few steps forward, and so, the three-hour journey began.

After approximately two and a half hours, they could see civilization far from where they stood. They were close, but that's not what they cared about.

"Wait... so you're saying that 350 years ago, things known as 'memes' existed?"

"Mhm. They were the top comedy back then."

"Really? What are they? Are they games or something?"

"No, no. It's like several images with different captions that have different meanings. I used to be a 'meme' back then."

"How is that funny? Why were you being made fun of?"

"I guess because I wanted to send people to Mars. Most people didn't believe it when I sent a plane there."

"A plane? Why did you send a plane?"

"So that we can fly around when we reach Mars, obviously. It sadly missed the window and now, it's still flying through space. I wonder how well it's holding together."

"You sure were crazy back then."

"Yup! So, what entertainment do you get?"

"Oh. We have things like 'memes', too. Watch this one." A hologram was displayed through SRD's eyes. It displayed a blue triangle. Just a blue triangle, nothing special about it. "Ha ha ha ha."

M looked at the triangle in bewilderment "How is that... Funny?"

"Ha ha- Oh. The joke here is that we made a triangular robot. It failed terribly."

"Okay... yeah... nice. Where's the joke... though?"

"It failed. Robots aren't supposed to fail. Ha ha ha."

"Do you have any other jokes?"

"Yes. But I'm afraid you old people won't understand our humor."

"Oh... I'm actually offended by this... Whatever, we're almost near the factory. Watch out, they might be hidden there."

"Yes. They won't get me again." SRD muttered.

In front of them, a dark figure appears. "You really fell. We'll kill you again."

As the phrase was uttered by the man, several more figures appear, surrounding SRD and M.

"Oh... Listen, friends, we come in peace. Right, SRD?"

"No. No, we don't." SRD placed M down. "We can't let them take over our Earth. Not when the Superior Robotic Destroyer is here."

"That's what SRD stands for? Nice. Show us how you'll kill us all, Superior Robotic Destroyer." M had said, clearly not trusting SRD.

SRD's eyes switched from the bright blue color to a bright, red one. Multiple thrusters were popping out of his legs. Specifically the back of his legs. The fingers of his right hand were starting to merge together, appearing as a sort of blade. The sides of his arms had straightened, making his whole arm appear as a sword of some sort. "Killer mode: Activated."