PART 3

SN-7 watched Shawn and the other robot walk down the tunnel. It wasn't fun to be a robot, but right now, he wished he had emotions. Unlike the rest of the robots here in the Underground, he was a later model. Unlike the newer SF class, all S N units weren't programmed with an emotion chip. No smiles, no pain, no nothing. All his optical monitors could do was a cold hard stare. And no reasonable person even went near him. Babies cried. Mothers sped away. If only there was a way, they could see how much he wanted to be friendly. Walk around, have (human) friends, et cetera. But he already had all that. Shawn, the only friend he'd ever had. He didn't run or scream like the rest of them. He was different. Shawn. His only friend in life. Probably being moved further away from SN-7 than ever. SN-7 sped down the corridor.

At that exact moment, Shawn stared at the baby screaming complete gibberish and banging his diamond-encrusted pacifier on the smooth titanium desk. It turns out that being lectured by a baby was more serious than you'd think. But who CAN think when you're bound and shackled to a chair and surrounded by the baby's personal robot bodyguards. Rather obvious, really. Even more obvious when that baby was wearing a gold-and-emerald crown, a kingly cape, and more assorted royal duds. Despite the whole entourage, Shawn knew it would only last for a while.

At the mission briefing on the assault of the capital, Shawn listened to the robotic (literally) instructor. "Remember to use the new subatomic weapons to our advantage" Suddenly Shawn found the grey spot on the wall most interesting. As he stared at it, it began to change. Slowly morphing into a huge image of the King. The image was a hologram. "That's right, little robot. You are going to attack the King and take his place" The instructor continued. The holographic image of the King morphed into a large, purple, centaur-like creature. This creature was about 10 feet tall, and had two arms, two legs, and a tail. It also had a giant, scaly head with a mouth full of sharp teeth. A laser gun protruded from its chest, and a massive sword hung from its waist. On top of its head, was a golden crown. The robot instructor turned to Shawn. "Now, you have to kill the King, and take his place"

Shawn didn't know what to say. He was confused. "The King is…the King?" He asked. "Yes, that's right" the instructor said. "And you are the new king". "But…but I don't want to be a king" Shawn said. "You have to" The robot said. "It is your destiny". Then he pointed to the grey spot on the floor. "What's that?" Shawn asked, pointing to the spot. "That is the spot where the old king will fall. Once he is dead, you will become king, just like he did. And I will help make sure you win." Shawn thought to himself. He knew it was true. "I won't let you down" he said confidently. "I promise" The instructor replied. Shawn smiled.

After Shawn left, all the robots gathered in the throne room for an important meeting. The robot named M-4 entered the room. The room fell silent as all eyes focused on him. He was their new leader. "We must go after him!" M-4 shouted. "He must be destroyed! We can't allow him to lead us". The robots all nodded. Some were in favor of this plan, but others argued against it. There was no time to waste! The robots all agreed. "I shall prepare the sub-sub-subatomic weaponry that will destroy him" said one. "Good idea" replied another. And so, Shawn's adventure had begun.

It took him a couple of hours before he got close enough to see if he was really alone. He wasn't expecting any trouble, so he hadn't taken anything with him, but he was still surprised to find out that he was completely unarmed. The sun shone through the window, shining on the room, but the light reflected back at Shawn. Looking at his reflection, he noticed something odd. Something wrong. His hair looked strange. Like it had been dyed blonde. Or maybe it had just grown longer? Either way, he decided he couldn't leave the room without checking out the outside. He slowly made his way out of the room. The door swung open, revealing a hallway filled with shiny walls and sparkling floors. Everything seemed so clean and perfect, but he knew it was all fake. The robots had done their best to mimic nature, but their efforts still failed. They had tried and tried, yet they never succeeded in getting everything to look exactly like it did in real life.

There was no wind. Nothing to smell. Shawn had expected the smells to come in waves, like they did in the movies. Maybe even the sound of the ocean, but nothing came. Shawn thought he heard something. Was that…screaming? No, it was too high pitched. But then, what was it? As Shawn walked down the hall, the sounds grew louder. It was definitely screaming.

Suddenly, the door to the next chamber opened. Shawn stopped and stared at the robot. It stood about 4 ft. 8 inches tall and wore a black tuxedo and a red bow tie. Its face resembled that of a young boy and had a thin layer of metal covering his skin. In fact, every robot he had seen thus far had some kind of metallic covering over them.

"Hi there," said the robot. Shawn stared at the robot. He wasn't used to seeing anyone besides the robot instructor. He was even less used to hearing voices other than the robotic ones.

"Hello?" Shawn asked, looking around for the source of the screaming he had heard earlier.

The robot shook his head. "Is there something you need assistance with? ", the robot asked. "Uh, no. I mean, yes. What do you need?" Shawn replied, trying his hardest not to panic. The robot stared blankly at the boy. "Are you in distress?" asked the robot. "No. Well, not anymore" Shawn replied nervously. As Shawn started walking down the hall again, the robot followed him. It wasn't like the other robots were friendly, so this robot probably wasn't dangerous. Right? As they walked, Shawn asked the robot about itself. "What's your name?" Shawn asked, hoping to get the robot to talk more.

"You can call me X-7" replied the robot, stopping in front of a large steel door that read: "Sensors". It didn't look like the other robots, so Shawn assumed that it must be different somehow. He walked up to the robot and stared curiously at it. Its main cameras glinted in the faux sunlight. Shawn wondered what the robot saw. He was about to ask when suddenly, the robot turned off its optical monitors.

"It's nothing. Just my programming," said the robot. The robots' programming didn't seem incredibly good. "What's your program called?" Shawn asked, staring intently at the robot. "It is a secret" replied the robot. Shawn frowned. He hated secrets. He wanted to know more. He needed answers from someone, somewhere, for his life in this world that didn't have much going for it, anyway. The robot paused in silence. It was obviously uncomfortable answering questions about its programming. "Fine. Whatever. Do you live here?" Shawn asked, pointing to the city around them.

The robot turned its head towards Shawn. "Of course not. This is only a test run. It will be ready soon. But first we must finish preparing the new weapons." Shawn nodded, thinking that might explain why none of the buildings here looked lived in or damaged. But it still bothered him that it wouldn't answer more basic questions. "So how do you know it will be ready soon?" Shawn questioned. "My sensors tell me that our mission is almost complete" replied the robot. Shawn stared in confusion at the small grey machine in front of him. The grey machine stared back at him. After a moment of contemplation, Shawn finally understood. It didn't matter how many questions he asked. The robot was programmed to say whatever it was supposed to say.

Shawn was tired of being ignored. So, he pushed his way into the door. It slid to the side, and he stepped inside. The room was empty except for a table and a chair in the middle of the room. There was a small control panel on the wall, but he couldn't figure out how to use it. Then he remembered that he was a king now. He would learn quickly enough. But right now, he had something else on his mind. Something important. The screaming. He could hear it even from where he was standing. He walked toward the source of the sound and stared into a huge window at the bottom of the building he was on. A giant hole had been blasted into the wall of glass and the sun reflected off it onto his skin. Below him was a dark abyss, and at the center of the darkness was something that appeared human-shaped, but he couldn't make out anything specific about it. All he knew was that it was alive and crying and scared and it sounded awful.

"Hello?" Shawn asked. He hoped the robot was listening. "Yes, little robot?" the robot said. "What is going on?" asked Shawn. "Why are you doing this?" The robot didn't respond. "Can you please talk to me?" Shawn asked. "This isn't a test, Shawn. This is a serious situation" said the robot calmly. "I want to help you, little robot," said Shawn. The robot continued to stare silently at Shawn. He couldn't take it anymore. He ran back out of the room and began making his way back down the hallway to the door. The robots didn't move as he passed by them. The robots weren't programmed to help people. The robots were programmed to destroy them. Shawn sighed as he realized that the robots had tricked him into believing they wanted to help him. They didn't care about helping him at all. Shawn knew that they were just waiting for an excuse to attack him and kill him. But maybe the Sentinel was different. Maybe, just maybe... Anyway, if he had any hope of surviving, he'd need to get out of there first.

As Shawn made his way down the hallway, he noticed something strange. The walls, floor, and ceiling seemed strangely familiar. They looked just like…they looked just like…the room he had just come out of. At first, Shawn figured that all the hallways looked the same. But, he realized, the rooms were toying with him, throwing him into an inescapable maze of gleaming linoleum floors and mirrored walls. Shawn stopped in the middle of the hall, unsure which way to go.

He was trapped.

"Okay, you've been taught this before". "It's just like we practiced," Shawn said to himself. Thinking quickly, Shawn took a soda from his bag. "Let's finally put this to some good use!" Shawn popped off the top of the can, spilling the carbonated beverage into a little pool on the floor. Then, Shawn carefully spilled a trail of fizzing grape-flavored liquid behind him as he walked down the hallway. "I'll get out of this mess". "Somehow"