Out of This World Gaming [~ read description]

Chapter 9: Acceptance

"You two are quite a hoot!" Zander commented. "I mean, seriously, a catfish came by and stole your lunch?" He considered herself lucky to have enough time before he slipped back into the seemingly endless pit of laughter. At one point, he even lost the ability to make any sound. "And what's more, Clover's actually some sort of robotic video game console from another planet? You two are funny."

"But it's all true," By now, Iris was consumed by a confusion she couldn't shake off. The confusion, however, was more of the result of asking herself why they'd say something a human might not believe. "The catfish is over there," she pointed towards a sink where the catfish swam in circles. "And I'm really a robot. There is nothing from Earth that could change someone into a robot. Not yet, I think."

All the while, Iris's focus was more on her hot plate of food giving off enough steam to fog the circular screen on her bulky choker. She had maneuvered her fork in a way that pierced a morsel of meat before she poked the air as subtly as possible like the utensil was a miniature sword. "There has to be a way I can prove it to you, Zander. You have to believe me, you just have to." 

"I honestly don't care what you are," Zander stared at her, but there was a warmth in a pair of eyes that seemed almost as cold as her abilities. "You could be a human, a cat, a ghost - I don't care. You're Iris, and if being with us while we look for your friends is all you need from us, we can do that." 

Iris sniffled, trying to resist the urge to cry. She had half expected Zander to throw her out of the house for telling the truth, or dismiss her, but to outright accept her came as the biggest shock. "Besides, it's not every day that I have an extra gaming buddy. We can play some Cola Runner after dinner if you want." 

"I'd like that, thank you," it was all she could think to say. 

"We've got a problem. It's about that spider from earlier," Clover briskly walked into the room, extending one of her hands and dumping its contents on the table. "Doesn't this look off to you?"

Zander picked it up to look; Iris craned for a good look herself. "Yeah, it's got wires coming out of it."

 Iris gently touched it, reeling back and putting her finger tip in her mouth. "Not to mention that it pokes!" 

"I have a feeling that somebody might be watching us, Clove. What should we do?" Zander eyed his sister just as Iris's eyes glowed blue, like she was about to go on the defensive. 

"I suppose completely sealing this house would be a good idea. Maybe it would be a good idea to lay low. That means you too, Iris," the blue light disappeared when Clover gently warned her as she joined the two for dinner. Her steak was a little cool, but she never liked her meat too hot anyhow. 

*    *    *     *

"Damn," a female's voice cursed from a shrub next to Clover's house.

Ken slammed her binoculars on what she thought was the ground until she heard it yelp in surprise. "Watch where you're flailing that thing!" Stephanie rubbed her scalp. "So, they found out our Spyder.  What do we do now?" 

"Your guess is as good as mine." Ken crossed her arms and pouted. 

"Oh, do we build another one that captures our projects in their sleep and erases the residents' memories of ever meeting them?" Stephanie clasped her hands together with eyes widened to convey anticipation for praise for her ingenious plan.

"That's got to be the dumbest plan I've ever heard," Stephanie's face fell. "Erasing memories never truly work since they'll always think there's something missing. We're here to take back our experiments, not psychologically torture the inhabitants of another universe. Our mission is to work in the background, remember?" 

"But we're already torturing our projects back home, aren't we?"

 "Yeah, Stephanie, but they're not real people like us," Ken admitted, gazing coldly into Stephanie's eyes. "No matter how lifelike they appear and how lifelike they function, they're just robots stuffed into synthetic flesh. Get it together. Besides, we're both going to die if we don't accomplish our goal for the boss. Do you want that?" 

Stephanie looked down at the ground and sighed with discontent. "No, Ken."

"Good girl," Ken patted her partner's head. "Now act like one and do as I tell you." 

With a nod, she responded. "Yes, Ken."

A few minutes passed by in silence filled with crickets singing their nightly, midnight choir. The shrubbery did nothing to muffle the sound as Ken kept her binoculars set on the house. She'd stay up all night waiting for all the lights to turn off if she had to. 

"Hey, Ken?"

 "What now?"

 "I'm hungry."

Ken looked at her partner with a scowl while her hungry partner she gave her a sheepish smile. "Go to sleep." 

"Yes, Ken."