5.18 – Looming threats
“I trust you, Aurora.” Mocha said softly. “But what will I do? If I don’t… I’m not even who I thought I was. Can I go back to school? Another school year to reset it until I run out of schools?”
“That’s what we have the Society for.” Aurora grinned. “We can make things work for you together. And there may be other options than going to school after a few years. You never know. I’m willing to accept you as you are, though. You can graduate with me.”
Mocha shook her head. “I’m… I’m just losing faith that it’s worth the effort. To see my enemies… and my friend… working so hard to save something that isn’t even alive… My father always taught me that machines were not alive, only expendable creations. They are expendable because…” She looked at her hand and dangerously flexed it. “... because another can be built.”
“Don’t give up!” Redline said firmly, grabbing her hand. “Aurora supports you so, so say we all.”
“I’m not giving up, even if I’m not alive. I don’t want to give up whatever I have, but I’m just saying I don’t know if I can go back to that, or even if I should,” Mocha said.
Aurora sighed and said, “Mocha. Anyone can die. Anyone can mate and make a baby. If that’s all a life is worth, then what about artificial life? There are only two robots who can claim they’re alive on this planet as far as I know.” Aurora crossed her arms. “It’s up to everyone to decide for themselves how they’ll spend their lives, what motivates them, what they want to do with their time on Earth. If school is what you want, you should do that until you’re satisfied.”
Aurora shook her head, reaching towards Mocha’s face. “You don’t seem to understand that you’re truly unique, Mocha. NO matter what the man’s motivation was when he made you, you’ve been given a special gift, the one that everyone has. I’m going to guess that having a soul makes you alive regardless of what you’re made from.”
“I guess.” Mocha relented, sighing.
“There are other things you can look at,” Dynamech said. “For the future, I mean. You can always join us at the Tesla-Light Institute, use your smarts to help mankind make a better future by furthering science. You can even become a teacher. Heck, I used to be a quarterback and look at me today. I’m awesome and I even know some tech stuff these days. I’m not just a pretty face, you know.” Not that anyone could see his face.
The Avenger walked over to Mocha and crouched down to seriously say, “You should stop feeling sorry for yourself. Like Aurora said, you should realize what a great gift you’ve been given. You are alive, in the truest sense of the word. Aurora believes it with her whole heart. Trust her. If you don’t trust yourself anymore, or else, this is all for nothing.”
Aurora smiled, nodding. She gave Mocha another warm hug. “That’s how we all feel about you. You’re totally outvoted here. My vote is that you should smile and recognize that you have friends. I know it’s a little easier to say than demonstrate, but who else but friends would go so far for you?”
Mocha grouched. “It could be some kind of manipulation.”
“Don’tbesilly,” Redline reverted to her rapid-fire mode.
“We’reheroesandwealwaysfightforwhat’sright!”
“Hold your horses there, motormouth,” Dynamech joked. “Remember, Mocha here thinks heroes are villains, after all.”
“No, she doesn’t think that,” the Midnight Avenger replied, looking at Mocha. “She doesnt’ think we’re heroes because of her father’s teaching.”
Mocha nodded. “You’re right. Heroes killed a noble man who wanted to better the world… no… so-called Heroes did… but… heroes seem to help their enemy who is in need, I suppose.”
Aurora smiled, wryly. “Its a start. Mocha, I felt you came with me because you decided you wanted a chance to change your life… to consider the possibility that the things you were taught weren’t necessarily true. You were willing to be convinced of that. But every time, you hold to it, clutching at your father’s rhetoric like a doll for comfort.” Aurora shook her head.
“You made the jump already, a leap of faith that led you here. Continuing to treat everyone here as an enemy will only MAKE you enemies. Real ones. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t you get it? If you push people away, no one is going to come to you after a certain point. Sooner or later, they stop trying, and everything ends tragically. People won’t wait until you feel like gamble’s worth it. They give up and stop gambling themselves. Please don’t nurse these grudges forever. I’m really happy that you’ve been able to see good in me despite what you were taught, but it makes me sad that you can’t see the same good in my role models, the people that made me who I am today.”
Mocha sat on the floor and pulled her legs up to hug them close. “It’s all a lot to think about.”
The Avenger nodded and pulled Aurora to the side and put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s right. We should stop trying to convince her--- for now,” his usually gruff voice had softened.
Redline Racer sighed and gently took hold of Mocha’s head and she planted herself on the floor beside her. “We’re all of us heroes today,” she said quietly. “Even you, because you have the hardest fight of all… don’t be so uncertain… trust us, trust yourself… we won’t hurt you.”
“Well, I might.” Dynamech said. Everyone looked at him together and glared. He shrugged. “I’m a heartbreaker, I can’t help it. But I’ll try to keep it all in the suit for now.” He chuckled.
Aurora laughed after the tension faded. “Alright, that brings us back to the subject of how we can relax a little. I’m very anxious about Sarah on the inside on top of everything else. I’ve been looking over her for a long time. Her going off the grid like this… I’m deathly afraid that she’ll do something she’ll regret for the rest of her life while under the influence of chemicals.” Aurora chewed her lip. She wanted to relax, but her reflex was to focus on her other problem. As soon as she put Mocha’s problem away from her mind, Sarah’s filled it.
The Midnight Avenger pulled Aurora to near the bathroom to whisper more privately than before. “Here’s what’s going to happen next… and I do think we should address Mocha’s issue first, so I’ll start with that. Assuming we are able to prove that Mocha’s a living being, we’re already poised to make sure that she’s placed with a family. The old man didn’t want to presume on you, so we don’t actually have everything quite in place. There’s some things your Aunt will have to sign, assuming she assumes the guardianship of Mocha. Once that’s done, though, you will have adopted the orphan, Mocha Smith, and there’s papers that will additionally allow her to legally change her name to your family’s name if you both agree.”
He paused. “As far as Sarah goes, things aren’t looking good. I haven’t looked at Dynamech’s footage, but we may have to actually bring her in, depending on if you can talk her down. We’re all willing to give you some leeway on this one as well. I’ve already briefed Vanguard on the issues surrounding her, but we don’t know what abilities she’s gained, so we’ll have to be careful and we may have to figure out a way to lure her out.”
The Avenger patted Aurora on her shoulder. “There’s something else you need to know. Our recent mission was an attempt to stave off an alien invasion. I still don’t know if things will develop in the way we’re hoping, but we may be suddenly very busy by the end of the year. We’re going to be holding a meeting about this soonish. We were going to do it this weekend, but things got a little complicated, thanks to Mocha back there. We’ll be monitoring things in combination with the UN’s space station.”
Aurora gaped. “An alien invasion? They must be a pretty serious threat if they broke both of Bombshell’s arms,” she said with a dry mouth. “I'll do everything I can to help,” she murmured.
This was extremely serious news. Despite how grim, Aurora couldn’t help feeling a little excited. How long will this feeling of excitement last if things get serious and people get hurt or worse!?
Turning her thoughts back to the more immediate concern, Sarah, Aurora asked, “Is there any way we can track down the energy Sarah may give off? Can you think of anything I can do?”
“She’s literally missing,” the Avenger said. “Like I said, we may have to try and draw her out somehow. The agents involved are alright and the police who were escorting her are being treated for burns. Apparently they have some significant nerve trauma. It’s nothing that can’t be excused yet, but depending on what she does from this point on, it could get serious. So as soon as we’re done with Mocha’s situation, I think we should come up with a plan to find Sarah.”
Aurora nodded her head in agreement. “Things are worse than I thought. The officers were as kind as they could be with her. They escorted her with dignity and care. It’s awful to know that she hurt them. I don’t understand why we can’t just flush this stuff out of their systems before it becomes a problem to start with!” Aurora clenched her fists.
“They’re all ticking bombs! I know only that it isn’t an option. At this point, Sarah thinks I betrayed her when I didn’t rescue her from being taken into their custody because of the attack on the bridge. When we find her, she won’t be rational. I’ll have to fight her. I wanted to avoid that.” Aurora’s eyes filled with tears, but brushed them away quickly.
“I will do what I need to do, no matter. Now that it’s come to this, the people have to be protected.”
The Avenger took her hand and squeezed it gently. “If this is going to be difficult for you, maybe we should take over. You can sit this one out. Let us contain her.”
Aurora shook her head. It was her responsibility to take care of Sarah.