You're The Music That's Been Playing In My Head: Book 2

Robustus: Part 1

The school bell rings, and everyone starts making their way to class. Closing my locker, I start to head out before noticing Marinette's bag. Looks like she forgot it again. I smile and wait for her to come rushing back into the locker room for her bag. 

"Forgot something?" I ask with a smirk as she grabs her bag. 

"Yeah...Silly me." 

We start to head out, but stop when we hear Max. Peeking around the corner, we see him talking to...

His bag?

"Of course, you're my best friend. I'm one hundred percent affirmative, but I am also ninety-eight point two percent that the teachers are not ready for this advancement of evolution." 

"His best friend is in his school bag?" Tikki asks, tilting her head in confusion. 

"Yeah, Tikki, totally strange." 

"Like you're one to talk," Flaake points out, and I nod in agreement. 

"Flaake's got you there, considering what we talk to in our bags." 

Flaake and I high-five, or would it be a high-one? 

Marinette doesn't have time to respond as Max gets up and makes his way to the exit, so we casually pass by him. The three of us head into Ms. Mendeleiev's science class to find her and Mr. Damocles messing around with the school laptop. It looked like there was a glitch or a virus with it. 

"See for yourself, Mr. Damocles, nothing happens when I press the button." 

"You're in luck, Ms. Mendeleiev. I'm a bit of a computer whiz," Mr. Damocles says, pressing a few buttons, and the projector screen shows the computer homepage. "There you go." 

He starts to leave when an image of a digital dinosaur pops up and is shown eating the laptop's data. 

"That's not supposed to be happening! What is that?!" 

"It's dino-33, a malicious computer virus. Let me try something," Max explains, turning the laptop toward him. 

But before he could do anything, Ms. Mendeleiev pulled the laptop away from him. "Go back to your seat, Max. Leave this to the adults." 

Max grabs his bag and starts heading back to his seat when his bag starts to talk. Rest assured, all eyes were on Max. 

"Inform the adults that if they don't neutralize the virus in the next seventy-five seconds, there's a ninety-nine point nine percent chance the hard drive could be permanently damaged." 

"Tell me you heard Max's bag talk to him," Alya mutters, and Mari and I exchange unsure looks. 

We didn't know if what was in the bag was dangerous or not. 

"It's destroying all the school data! This is a disaster! How many seconds did you say we have left?" 

"Only sixty-five." 

"Let him try." 

Max walks up and starts digging through his bag for something. "Where is it?" 

A claw emerges, holding something, as a voice rings out. "I believe this is what you're looking for." 

"It's an anti-virus device I created with some help from my best friend," Max nervously explained as a small, round robot flew out of the bag. 

"Hello! My name is Markov. Let's fix this, Max." 

Max plugs in his device and explains how it works. 

"This flash drive will neutralize a hundred percent of the virus." 

"It also cleans the computer's hard disc at the same time," Markov chimes in as everyone watches in awe as the digital dinosaur restores the data and disappears. 

Max and Markov fist pump while we all start crowding around Max and Markov, commenting on how awesome this was.

"You've added an arm to him since the last time, cool," Kim comments. 

"Actually, he added it all by himself. He's the most highly evolved type of robot there is." 

"Puh-lease, your friend is just a talking calculator. There's nothing evolved about that," Chloé scoffs. 

"Don't listen to her, Markov; that girl comes to the lowest of the low when it comes to human evolution." 

"You're very amusing, Marinette." 

"You know my name?" 

"Yes, Max showed me the class photo. He told me all about you all, and I'm very happy to meet you all. I'm also glad I can finally thank you, Kim, and (y/n) for finding that one part Max needed to create me." 

My eyes widen. 

"Wait, so that part Kim and I were looking for to cheer up Max was to help build you?" I ask, astonished, and Max, Markov, and Kim nod.

"This toy you've manufactured is quite impressive, Max. Now put it away, please, and everyone get back to your seats," Ms. Mendeleiev says, clapping her hands to get everyone to listen to her.  

"With all due respect, Ms. Mendeleiev, I'm not a toy. My name is Markov, and I'm Max's best friend." 

"Markov is right, he's not just some toy, he's my friend. He's just as emotionally intelligent and sensitive as any human being." 

Ms. Mendeleiev rolled her eyes as she was getting more and more agitated, and the three started to argue.

"Look, Max, a robot may be intelligent, but it can't have emotions." 

"If I may, ma'am, I can assure you that I truly love Max." 

"Be serious, Max, you programmed it to say that. A robot cannot think for itself, much less love anybody." 

"I swear I didn't program him to say that. Ever since I created him, he's integrated his own accumulated system, and he's developed all our emotions just like any human being." 

"That's enough! Max, if you don't put that toy away right now, I'll confiscate it. Understand?"

Last Edit - July 19th, 2022

Revised - December 2nd, 2025