Family of Steel [Exemplary]

[Proto Man]

With the Dataverse a few days behind him, Proto Man found himself attempting to direct his energies elsewhere, lest he dwell too much on his feelings toward Coruscant and Judge Dredd. He found such plans easier than he would have thought due to the interesting parcels of information he was able to obtain from recent news.

The reports were disheartening at best. There were several news stories about the humanoid robots leaving his hotel. Those were followed by a string of sightings and at least one armed conflict at a transit station. Since the robots’ armaments didn’t match the murder weapon, the police had rule them out as suspects in the original homicide. Most of their energy was now towards something called the ‘Liberation Front,’ which apparently was behind a few other terrorist acts, although nothing on the scale of the attempted Dataverse takeover.

Since his apartment was down the hall from the scene of a crime, Proto Man decided not to return to ‘El Presidente.’ His other reason was to avoid any unwanted attention from Dredd. While the two were on half-decent terms following Proto Man’s actions in the Dataverse, the android wanted to avoid being on the Judge’s radar as much as he could.

With that in mind, the Robot Master found himself in an upscale cafe-slash-Dataverse hotspot. He figured his Dataverse connection could easily be tapped or at least watched, so he went with the low-tech solution. The news reports were little more than sixth-page tidbits given the recent activities in other verses. Thus far, he could verify that Crash Man, Magnet Man, and Guts Man were in Coruscant. Of those, only Crash Man had performed anything outside the confines of the law, when he flushed out an elevator on the other side of the city. Were these Robot Masters all working together? Nothing in the articles seemed to imply that, but why would Crash Man essentially hold up an elevator and wreck all the cameras?

He’s got to be covering for allies...but who?

Crash and Magnet had never met, and Guts Man had been functioning within parameters on Proto Man’s visit to Dr. Light’s laboratory/house.

With a scowl, Proto Man closed the display and stood up from the chair. If the Robot masters had fled to a lower tier than he had to do so as well. The last thing he needed on his conscience was a bunch of chaotic brothers .

And a sister? The initial report had mentioned a blonde girl in red. Where would a machine go to hide…

“You’re pretty easy to find, you know.”

A gasp escaped Proto Man’s mouth as he turned to see the cloaked inspector standing behind him.

“Security Guard Gashon,” the robot muttered as the pale man grinned.

“Please, I am off duty, it’s just Gashon. How are you doing, Proto Man? I saw all the news reports about your little adventure in the Dataverse. That’s a shame what happened to those Copper Eye lads. Does Dredd have you on his payroll?”

“I’m not on anyone’s payroll.” Proto Man glared behind his visor, despite knowing the other man couldn’t see his eyes. “Are you stalking me, Gashon?” Try as he could, Proto Man couldn’t bring himself to have a neutral opinion of the pale, cloaked guard. Something about Gashon’s eyes were off-putting--like he was an eagle patiently watching its prey scurry about.

“No, no… I just thought I’d follow up with you about the investigation.”

“The police already linked it to some terror cell.”

“I wasn’t talking about the murder. I was referring to the mystery robots with the somewhat cartoonish proportions and specific themes that were seen fleeing from your hotel. Like the bomb-armed android who held up that elevator.”

“What do you know?” Proto Man asked, his tone intensifying as he took a step closer to the cloaked man.

Gashon, sensing that he’d struck a nerve by bringing up the topic, smiled and held up his hands. During the motion, his cloak slid away, revealing a strange sidearm attached to his belt. The inspector was quick to fix his heavy garment before opening his mouth to speak again. “Some of my contacts on Tier Four have information that several androids slipped down through utility pipes that connect to Tier Six. He also has some reports from his contact on Tier Two that some robots took a freight lift down to Tier Six as well.”

“What’s on Tier Six?”

The guardsman shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing… it’s the furthest down you can go and still see the trappings of an actual culture. It’s a bunch of ghettos and industrial parks. It’s not a place civilized people or even Imperial soldiers like to go. Just a bunch of roving mobs and Motorball clubs.”

“So then it’d be a great place to hide?”

Gashon nodded his head. “Most of the people down there are hiding from one thing or another. There are few better options. Five is nicer and has a few functioning guard stations. You’d like Five… it’s a lot like a pre-FTL urban setting.”

“I don’t care about Five.” The robot interrupted, his mouth twisting up into a scowl that ensured the man stayed silent for the moment. “Tell me how to get to Six.”

“There aren’t many direct routes from here, with the exception of some telepads the Imperials might use. You ain’t getting to one of those, so your best bet to remain under the scope is to take a utility line from Three. Unfortunately, you’re going to attract attention wherever you wind up, kid…especially from Copper Eye sympathizers.”

“I’ll make due,” the android shot back. “Where are the lines on Three?”

“If you take Elevator Tri-Beta, you can access a utility conduit in an adjacent building. It’ll be the big one with the yellow trim on the windows, so it’d be pretty hard to miss. It’s not exactly a public structure, though.”

Without replying to that statement, Proto Man left the cafe in a hurry.