The Tale of a Dog Hero

A Robot From the Past

Oscar roamed around the town for a good resuraunt to collect his thoughts. He watched people enjoy meals outside, kids playing kickball in an alley, a few business men walking across the street. People started to notice Oscar and began to cheer and thank him for protecting the city. "Hey, you don't have to do that everyone. Treat me the same as anyone else." During the ruckus, a burglar took the opportunity to steal a women's purse. She let out a cry for help as the stranger took off down the road. Oscar ran forward and stopped him dead in his tracks. Oscar held the man by the nape of the neck and dragged him toward the lady. "Here's your purse, ma'am." Oscar tossed the purse to her as he picked the burglar. "Now, what do you say?" "I'm sorry. Just let me go." Oscar dropped the man and he ran off. "I don't really have the strength to deal with this right now..." The now formed crowd around Oscar began clapping and cheering. Oscar stood deathly still, and his eyes began to shake. The clapping has warped into something crunching and breaking away. He felt himself sitting on the ground in the woods. The tree he was looking at exploded and he saw Pollux there. Staring at him. His mouth moved, yet no sound could be heard. Just the sound of trees giving away to its own weight. Every tree around Oscar began to sag and droop toward him. Pollux became more distorted until Oscar was snapped back to reality when someone patted his back. "Are you okay, sir? You look flushed." Oscar swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke up. "I don't like sir. Call me, like, Hero or something. But I'm alright. I just need to get some air." Oscar began to jog away before anything else happened. He found a restaurant that does take out, got a water, and kept moving. If he stopped, he feared that he may begin to see things again. It didn't matter. The water shifted into a warped version of Tippy's arm when he was running from Zuko. He felt the pain in his hand during his first punch, the soreness of his legs after running too hard. The shock in his shoulder after slamming into a building. Oscar dropped his half finished drink in order to snap himself out of it. He took a look around and realized he was walking away from home. He quickly headed back towards his home. Whispers rang through Oscar's ears as he began sprinting home. As he weaved between cars, and lept over streets, the clouds began to drop from the sky. Oscar hopped towards a building and sprinted along the wall while the streets started cracking. Cars turned to mutated abominations he once fought when he was younger. Pedestrians turned into deceased victims. Oscar's ears rang as whispers spoke into his head. "You can't save them all. You will watch them die as you struggle to cling onto your sanity..." An explosion blasted away a building that Oscar couldn't see. As he bounced off the sides of buildings, the floor continued to crack and chip. Chunks that broke off would float into the air. When Oscar made it to the now burning building, he saw Pollux in his cloak standing on the edge. In a fit of anger and confusion, Oscar jumped off a grocery store towards Pollux. The force of the kick off, put cracks in the brickwork. Pollux turned toward Oscar right as he tackled him into the air. "Damn it, Oscar. Calm down!" Oscar refused to open his eyes while he bear hugged Pollux to prevent him escaping. "Oscar! Open your eyes, you fool! We are gonna hit a wall!" "I don't care! I'm getting rid of you before you can do anything else." Together, they slammed into the wall of a business building, and Oscar finally opened his eyes while he put all his effort into jumping into the air. The resulting jump caused the wall they were on to cave inward, leaving a large hole. "Hey! Look at me, damn it! It's Zuko!" Zuko began punching Oscar in the face to get his attention. He snapped his neck towards Zuko before realizing who it was. "What the... I thought you were Pollux." He glanced around to see the city was completely fine. The street wasn't broken, there was no burning building, and Pollux was replaced with Zuko. "Nobody has seen him. Are you alright? You didn't come downstairs to see Nexus, so I went to look for you." "I'll be fine once we get back home." Zuko looked around and realized they started falling. "Hey, the ground is coming up pretty quick, so could you brace for it?" Oscar kicked his feet out and put Zuko on his back. As Oscar hit the ground, he braced himself into a crouch and slid a few feet. He directed the forward momentum into pushing up again. Oscar kicked off the ground again, before Zuko asked a question. "Hey, Oscar. Have you been working on changing your fate still?" Oscar looked down at himself and thought. "Yeah. I can't let myself die that way." "Maybe it's for the best. What will happen when you are successful and we all die instead?" His eyebrows burrowed into themselves as he spoke. "That's not gonna happen either. I know what I'm doing, and you don't have to support me. Just be there when I need you, and you will know." Oscar and Zuko made it back home and headed inside. Before they could even close the door, a racket could be heard downstairs. Yelling and thumping sounded out louder as Zuko and Oscar quickly made their way downstairs. Tippy is in the observation room, while Zane is fighting Nexus in the training room. Tippy spun around and made her way to Oscar and Zuko. "Oh thank God you found him. Oscar. We need you to hold Nexus still. Zane didn't reupload her memory in time, so she thinks she is still in a war." Oscar let out a huffy breath and made his way into the training room, while Zuko talked with Tippy. "Hey. Oscar is becoming more unstable. I think he is starting to hallucinate Pollux. He mistook me for him and tried to attack. I think he needs your supervision. We can't have another breakout like before. We are lucky Kyler excused it with only a warning." Tippy slowly nodded. "And with him being dead for so long, he must still be upset that he can't bounce back as quick as the other times... Im just worried for him." "Me too." They sat in silence as Oscar rushed toward Zane. "Hey! What's going on with her?" Zane quickly made a steel barrier before Nexus could reach either of them. "I was going to download her memories after I got her operating again, but before I could link her in, she woke up and freaked out. I don't know how she got up so fast, but we need to calm her down before she figures out what the mods I put in her do." "Okaaaay. I can try to pin her down. You get ready with the link." Zane ran towards the Observation room to get ready while Oscar waited for the wall to drop. The moment it fell, Nexus jumped toward Oscar and tried to land a kick to the head. He quickly ducked and took a step back. "NX-562. You need to calm down. The war is already over." "The hell it is! In just a few minutes, my sisters will come and fuck you up!" She charged towards Oscar again. He jumped in the air to dodge, but she grabbed his ankle and yanked him back down. As she threw a series of punches, Oscar redirected them away and continued to try and reason with her. "Your name is Nexus. The war ended hundreds of years ago. Surely your age is still in your data. Just listen to us for a moment." Her attacks grew in speed and power as she became more angry. "IT'S NOT! You will fall, just like my enemies!" "Hey, you and I met when I was in the hospital. You were just supposed to protect me while I recovered, and you decided to work with us." Oscar tried to move between her attacks in an attempt to grab her. Zane rushed back in with a large cord. "Oscar. Get ready to hold her still." Nexus turned and rushed toward Zane. Oscar took the opportunity to tackle her to the floor. She failed and struggled to free herself until a charging ring sounded out. "Zane. What's this sound." "Get off her. Preferably NOW!" Oscar jumped off and backed up right as Nexus' exoskeleton chest broke open on all four sides and released a burst of firy steam. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Oscar toward Zane and Zane toward Oscar. "That would be one of the many mods I installed. It's for self defence in case she gets piled on or grabbed. In this case, you." Zane and Oscar pressed their backs against each other. "I've also been thinking of some upgrades for everyone on the team. I finished something for Zuko, and have a prototype for you already in the works." Nexus' outer shell closed as steam continues to seep out from between the plates "Nice, but we should work on stopping Nexus first." Nexus stood up and ran towards the duo. Zane turned his head to Oscar while keeping eye contact with the raging robot. "Tag team like we practiced?" "It's been a while, so I'm rusty." "I trust you... GO!" Oscar and Zane broke off in two different directions before Nexus could reach them. As Oscar ran to her right, Zane headed to her diagonal left. She chose to chase Oscar, which resulted in Zane warping the floor around her to sink in. Before she could submerge enough to get stuck, she dived forward. Mid-air, two small boosters shot out of her shoulder blades and exhaust fans opened at the side of her ribcage. With a small boost forward, she reached Oscar. Zane got up and ran toward them while Oscar did his best to avoid being hit. Zane grabbed onto her back and Oscar tried to sweep her off her feet. Before he could, Nexus drilled her foot into the ground, and Oscar slammed his foot to no effect. Before Oscar could recover, she reached around to grab Zane and threw him towards Oscar. He put his hands forward to catch him, but Zane formed plastic loop that spun and dropped him on his feet. "Alright. Oscar. Time to get serious." Nexus lowered herself as Oscar walked forward. "Bring it!" A smile grew on her face while Oscar's turned to a frown. "If you don't stop, I'm going to break your legs." Zane butted in to interject. "No, he wont." "You can fix her again Zane. This... thing, is starting to piss me off. This isn't Nexus until we get that link in her." Nexus had grown her smile even more and stared at Oscar with mallace. "Well, I just found something fun." Zanes eyes widened. "Oscar. Watch her hands. She found the modification that speeds up her arms." "SO! There are more? How about in my legs?" Zane drooped his shoulders. "Shit." Nexus powered up her limbs until the light under the plates of her new body shined pink. In a burst of light, she moved toward Oscar. He burrowed his eyebrows and focused until everything seemed to move slowly. Nexus had her hand outstretched to Oscar's face. He quickly realised he couldnt move out of the way im time, so he had to watch as a fist slowly slammed into his face. In retaliation, Oscar also moved to attack. Her eyes widened as he moved his hand to the back off her neck and dragged her head downward. Everything sped back up to its normal speed. To everyone else's eyes, it appeared as if Nexus disappeared a few yards from Oscar, then reappeared on her face beside him. Zane, Zuko, and Tippy all let out a small "wow". Oscar turned to face Nexus and started to pick her up. He wispered to her as Zane grabbed the data cord. "You may be fast, but you aren't as strong as me, I can assure you that. You got lucky with that punch but you won't do it again." Zuko opened the back of her neck and plugged the cord into her neck, which caused her to instantly shut off. Oscar put her down and started towards upstairs. As he made his way through the observation room Tippy gave him a hug. "Im glad you are okay Oscar. Zuko told me about what happened while you were in the city. I think we should talk. I feel like it's been forever since we got to. Just us." As she let go and looked at him, his nose started bleeding and he looked dead. "Thanks, but I'm going to go lay down for a bit." He turned and walked up the stairs, leaving everyone to finish helping Nexus. "Oscar?" Tippy spoke out as he closed the door behind him. Oscar walked in his bedroom to see Leif in his crib, crying. He picked him up and bobbed him on his knee to help him calm down. After a moment Leif stopped crying and Oscar put him back in his crib before laying down himself. Before he could drift off to sleep, he heard his door open and close. Felt the bed shift as someone laid upon it. Felt someone put their arm around him and hug tightly.