The Perils of Online Dating

Chapter 5

Early the next morning, Robotnik woke up to Sleet bringing him his breakfast as always but he ignored the tray as he dressed. He knew trying to disguise himself would be pointless and hoped that the princess would have the foresight to do so.

"Sleet, I meant to tell you, cancel all projects for the time being." He ordered. "I'm taking a new approach to the war. Until I call you again, you and Dingo are off duty." He waved the wolf away. "But don't go far."

Sleet nodded. "Yes, sire. If I may sire, what strategy are you trying?" He asked curiously. "So I can be ready if you do need me."

Robotnik ate his large breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, toast laden with butter, pancakes with chocolate chips and topped with strawberries, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. "I am going to win this war on public opinion. And I'm going to impress Aneela. Aleena will never know what hit her. And I'm going to steal her daughter's loyalty at the same time."

Sleet nodded and stomped out of the room, perplexing the man. Surely, Sleet should be happy that he was giving them leave. Robotnik had realized in talking with Aneela that even if he captured and roboticized Aleena, unless he had the people on his side, he would never truly be the victor.

He met Bartleby in the town square as planned. The mink was smiling at him. "Uncle, I don't know if I can say how happy I am that we're doing this today." He said with a bounce in his stance.

Robotnik put a finger to his lips. "Bartleby, be careful. It may be too early for anyone around here to see us but we don't know that yet." No one could know Bartleby's connection to him lest he get a target tagged to his back. "She should be here soon. Thank you for introducing me to this website, Bartleby. It's been eye-opening."

Bartleby nodded. "I hoped it would be. You're a great man and I want everyone to see what I see." He said, hoping he wasn't stepping out of line.

The old man seemed to stand up a little straighter at Bartleby's words. He looked around for the young woman. He saw Bartleby was having trouble getting a clear breath in the smoggy square. "Why is it so filthy here?" Robotnik asked. "Please, tell me you brought your inhaler."

Bartleby shook his head as he coughed. "I didn't think things were this bad."

He sighed with exasperation as he sought out the spare. "You're lucky that I always have one on hand." He offered it to the boy and he gratefully took a puff.

"Bartleby!" A small cry caught their attention as a cloaked figure ran over. "I shouldn't have told you the square. Come with me, we'll go to a public house nearby that the aristocracy often frequent. We'll be safe there and their air is cleaner."

For a brief time, they were united in getting the young mink to the cleaner establishment. At least if someone recognized her here, they wouldn't tell anyone else. That she needed to worry about.

Once they were seated and she was at the right angle to avoid notice, he demanded. "Why is that square so filthy?"

"Your factories! You built them too close together and you forgot to build air scrubbers to mitigate the damage." She challenged him.

Robotnik considered her words while Bartleby nodded. "I'm sorry Uncle. I think you always meant to but the resistance doesn't make it easy on you. You built those first in Dresden. And you only built one factory and one power plant." He pointed out the clear differences.

"That and people aren't exactly incentivized to keep things clean and tidy when you can't make sure they even have clean air to breathe." Sonia said harshly. She saw him getting angry. "Hey! This was your idea! I'm not going to be nice about it because you need to understand what you're committing to. Because I'm not going to start this if there is even any chance that you're going to renege in the end. That's a zero sum game for me." Robotnik didn't understand kind words, he understood what it meant to come from a school of hard knocks. She would get nowhere if she coddled him. He was an adult, at least thirty-five years her senior, he needed to act like it.