Author: Jadedragon

Rating: FRT

Summary: Medelle and Header lie about manufacturing Henry Bots

Ripperslover reread the messages she had received over the last several days. There had been sightings of Henry bots and she needed to discover where the bots were coming from. She had not manufactured any, nor would she…Henry Hutton was not a nice character and she had a reputation to uphold by manufacturing only the very best bots. She would never produce a bot that had a preference for underage girls.

She decided to send out Oliver and Peter to see if they could find any information on who would be producing such bots and where they could be approached. Peter had found information that Medelle had been sighted with a Henry bot several times near her home, and Oliver discovered that Header had also been spotted with one. Ripperslover knew that they could usually be seen at the Tweedy club and decided to try to talk with them and make some sort of arrangement to inspect the bots rather than just to destroy them on sight. She wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

A Couple of days later

Ripperslover and Jadedragon were playing trivia at the Tweedy Club. They had been playing for about an hour when Medelle and Header joined the game. Header got angry that she wasn’t fast enough to answer and when Ripperslover won another question and was dancing with Tweedy, Header knocked them over.

"Maybe I should recall your bots," Ripperslover glared at Header for the unprovoked attack, as Jade helped her and Tweedy to their feet.

"Sorry, it was like I had no will of my own," Header said in a sarcastic voice.

"Why are you recalling bots?" Medelle asked as she returned with fresh drinks for herself and Header.

"Header knocked me and Tweedy over," Ripperslover said as she sat back down between Tweedy and Jade.

"Hey, way to go Header!" Medelle told her friend.

"You better be careful, I have information that the two of you have the Rogue Henry bots." Ripperslover said, angered at the unprovoked attack on her and her bot.

Medelle felt very confident and didn’t feel threatened by Ripperslover. Her bots were carefully hidden by the WGB she had just stolen, which she had altered the programming on, and her lab would never be found. She planned to corner the market on bots that Ripperslover was too timid to manufacture.

"Henry’s hiding, you’ll never find him," she confidently said.

"So you admit that you have the rogue Henry bots." Ripperslover attempted to verify.

"What if I do? What will you do about it?" Medelle taunted.

"I’ll have them found and destroyed."

"But they haven’t done anything!" Header started.

"I have exclusive rights to the manufacturing of bots and I have not examined those bots."

"They don’t need examining, they are fine," Medelle tried to assure her.

"So just how many do you have?" Ripperslover asked.

"It’s none of your business!" Header said.

Jade could see the situation was quickly going to get out of hand and could cause a scene so she stepped in and guided them to a back room where they could continue their discussion in private.

"Is it alright with you if I try to mediate this situation?" Jade asked the three women sitting around the table.

Ripperslover nodded her head, hoping that Jade could possibly help them to come to some kind of a mutual agreement for a quick resolution of the situation. Medelle, after several minutes of quietly talking with Header in a corner of the room agreed for Jade to make the attempt.

"Ripperslover, what do you want to happen?" Jade asked

"I want to examine the rogue bots and if they are found defective, they will need to be destroyed. I would be willing to manufacture a special edition Henry Bot each, for Medelle and Header."

"Ok, that sounds reasonable," she said as she turned to Medelle, who seemed to be the leader. "What do you want?"

"We want immunity and to test the next bot that Ripperslover manufactures." Medelle replied.

"Immunity from what?" Jade asked.

"Immunity if our bots do anything wrong," Medelle said

"But that’s the chance every bot owner takes," Jade told her.

"You each will get a special edition of Henry and I won’t come after them, but no immunity."

"We’ll settle for full immunity and the testing of a new bot," Medelle insisted.

"Ripperslover, what about partial immunity?" Jade suggested.

"No, I have stated what I will do. Now I want to test those bots!" Ripperslover replied.

"How about you let us keep our Henry bots and you promise not to take our other bots?" Medelle offered.

"I still would have to examine your bots to be assured that they are functioning properly and no I would not promise not to take them away." Ripperslover told them, beginning to get upset with the two.

"No! No examination, but we promise to limit ourselves to approved bots from here on out." Medelle offered.

"Oh, could you have like a limited edition Henry for us?" Header asked, finally joining the discussion.

Jade began to wonder why they didn’t want the bots examined. She realized that Ripperslover must know something about the bots. "Why don’t you want your bots examined? Are you trying to hide something? Your bot must be examined to ensure that they are safe for the public!"

"These bots must be examined to determine if they are in fact safe, if not they will be destroyed. However, I am offering a special edition Henry bot for each of you," Ripperslover again tried to reason with Medelle and Header.

"What could I possibly be trying to hide?" Header asked, as Medelle glared at her.

"That’s what I’d like to know." Ripperslover told them.

"Henry is harmless," Medelle assured them.

"If he is safe, then why not have him examined by an expert?" Jade asked.

Medelle looked at Jade, not able to say anything else before she continued.

"I suggest that we choose a neutral place for the examination, you bring the Henry Bots and be present at the examination. If the bots are faulty and have to be destroyed, Ripperslover will supply each of you with an approved Henry bot. Are these terms agreeable?" Jade asked each side. Ripperslover quickly nodded while Medelle and Header went back to the corner to discuss it.

"Shall I draw up a contract?" Jade asked the group.

"We’re still discussing it." Medelle called from the corner where she was conferring with Header.

Several minutes later they agreed to bring their bots back to the room in an hour when Jade would the contracts ready for all signatures. Medelle and Header then left to get their bots.

"Jade, I don’t trust them,"

"I realize that."

"I’m going to call my Ollie, Peter and WGB to be here when I examine their bots."

"I’ll be here drawing up the contracts," Jade told her as Ripperslover left the room.

An hour later

Jade, Ripperslover, Ollie, Peter and WGB were waiting for Medelle and Header when they entered the room. The Henry Bots seemed edgy.

"The Henrys are shy and nervous, can I give them a drink?" Medelle asked.

"I have no problem with that," Ripperslover told her. "Do you have the contracts ready, Jade?"

"Yes," Jade replied as she handed the contracts to each of the parties. The contracts were quickly signed while Ollie, Peter and WGB took up defensive positions around the room. The Henry bots still looked anxious.

"Can I give the Henry bots some aspirin? They have headaches." Medelle asked.

"How can bots have headaches?" Jade inquired with a strange expression on her face.

"It’s just simple Advil!" Medelle assured them.

"Chuck the bloody Advil and get on with it." Ripperslover replied, motioning to WGB when she got a close look at the rogue bots.

"The wires get hot," Header informed them.

"Aspirin, Advil, what is it really?" Jade asked wanting to know just what they were trying to pull, and then she noticed the crease was on the wrong side of the forehead on the Henry bots.

"Wires getting hot, then you have not designed them properly," Ripperslover said as she nodded to WGB, who threw fireballs at each of the Henry Bots utterly destroying them, leaving only smoldering and fizzing metal.

"Those were only fake Henry’s, we still have the real Henrys!" Medelle cried in surprise.

"I knew you couldn’t be trusted!" Ripperslover exclaimed "How many Henrys have you manufactured?"

"Our Henrys weren’t destroyed." Header said in relief.

"I’ll let you examine our Henrys if you promise not to destroy them." Medelle again tried.

"All bets are off. If I find the Henry bots they will be destroyed!!" Ripperslover shouted, totally losing her cool at this last outrage.

"You have voided the contracts I negotiated by bringing fake bots. The contracts are now null and void." Jade told Header and Medelle.

"You didn’t give us a fair chance!" Medelle pouted.

"You signed a contract that you agreed to and then broke the terms of that contract." Jade reminded her. "I can do no more."

"Well, those were the real Henrys." Medelle tried to change her story.

"Don’t lie to me. Those were fake bots, not the real Henrys!" Ripperslover informed Medelle and Header. "You can’t be trusted!"

"Even I noticed the crease on the wrong side of the forehead, " Jade told them. "Those were mirror image bots, cheap imitations of the real ones."

"I will find the real Henrys and your factory and nothing will be left of either when I’m through."

"Factory, what factory?" Header asked.

"I have heard what Medelle has been saying here at the club. I know you have a factory and plan on manufacturing Bots that I am too ‘timid’ to manufacture." Ripperslover informed the two.

Medelle looked at Ripperslover and realized that she could do nothing else so she and Header left the room. Medelle had plans to make and a weapon she wanted to test. She would continue to manufacture her bots, regardless of what Ripperslover said or did.

"Jade, she’s up to something. I have to leave and have Ollie, Peter and Ripper start searching for her lab and the rogue Henry bots."

"Do you need my WGB and Morphy to help you?"

"Morphy? Oh yes the proto-type morphing bot Jac gave you to test. Not at the moment but maybe later. I’ll keep in touch with you. I have to also post a notice to all my bot owners to be on the look out for the Rogue Henry Bots."

Ripperslover left the Tweedy Club to start the hunt for the Rogue Henry bots, never realizing just what was in store for everyone before the Bots were found and Medelle’s secret factory destroyed.

Ripperslover had been back at her lab only a few minutes when she got a frantic call from DonnaL.

"He’s gone! I can’t find him! What happened?" she sobbed.

"DonnaL?" Ripperslover asked barely recognizing her friend’s voice. DonnaL was a new co-manager at the Tweedy club.

"My WGB, he vanished saying that he was going to his new mistress!" DonnaL sobbed harder.

"Let me speak to your Ollie," Ripperslover demanded of the sobbing woman.

"This is Oliver," the bot responded.

"Ollie, this is Ripperslover, what happened? And I need details." She told the bot.

"Tweedy, James, Wizard and I were watching a movie with DonnaL when Wizard started acting strange. He grabbed his head screaming then quickly stood up and moved to the middle of the room. Then he looked at DonnaL and said ‘I am called to my new Mistress and I am now going to her.’ He then vanished. This happened over five hours ago. Peter and I have been searching and Donna has been beside herself. We have only now persuaded her to call." Ollie bot concluded.

"Was there any indication of where he went?"

"Not that I could ascertain," he told her.

"Are Tweedy and James with Donna?"

"Yes, they are trying to comfort her. What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"I’m sending my Wizard over immediately and Jadedragon and I will follow. I think I know who has taken her Wizard but I need to investigate. Ollie secure the area and have Peter to start a search for any power resonances. We’ll be there as soon as possible." Ripperslover said as she hung up to call Jade and ask her help.

"Tweedy Club," Jade answered the phone, her shift almost over, Numbat was already there to take the next shift.

"Jade, DonnaL’s Wizard has been botnapped. I think it was Medelle and Header. Neither has a Wizard and they would need one to help hide her factory/lab."

"How is Donna?" Jade asked concerned for her friend and coworker.

"At the moment, not well, Tweedy and James are comforting her while Ollie, Peter and my Wizard start the search. Will you go with me and bring your bots?"

"I’ll be glad to. Where should I meet you?"

"I’m close. I’ll pick you up in a few minutes. Tell Numbat what has happened and tell her to call DonnaL’s Ollie for the details. I want her to put out an alert on the Henry bots."

"Should she post an alert about the botnapping?"

"Not yet, I want to try and gather more information. I don’t want bot owners to panic."

"Ok, I’ll be waiting."

Jade explained the situation with the Henry bots to Numbat who immediately started writing the alert to send to all the bot owners. Jade was ready and waiting with her WGB and Morphy, who was in his Ollie guise, when Ripperslover arrived to take them to DonnaL’s place.

Medelle looked at the Wizard bot that had materialized at her lab. Her new weapon, timed to function while she had been with Ripperslover and Jadedragon, had disabled and realigned the loyalty chip. She quickly put the new Wizard bot to work finding a new place for her lab. Medelle knew that she had to move quickly before Ripperslover tracked her down. She assigned her new WBG to locate a cavern deep underground or carve one from the bedrock somewhere far from her home. Using his magicks, he quickly found an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which had been formed by volcanoes, which were now extinct. While he was searching, she used her new weapon again and napped another WGB to help. Within two hours, Medelle and Header, with the help of the two Wizard bots, had moved the bulk of her lab to the new location. They then instructed the Wizard bots to disguise the power signatures to further hide the new laboratory.

Numbat took the call from an extremely angry Cat, who was hissing and spiting with every other word. As soon as she got off the phone, she called Ripperslover on her cell.

"Hello," Tweedy answered his mistress’ phone.

"This is Numbat. Tweedy, I need to speak to Ripperslover immediately."

"One moment, please," he responded as he went to interrupt his mistress from her discussion with DonnaL’s Ollie, Peter and Ripper who had already started the search for the missing WGB.

"Numbat what is it," she answered, distracted by what Peter was trying to tell her.

"Cat’s Wizard has been taken. I just got off the phone with her and she will be here as soon she can get McKela or ASHadmirR’s Wizard to teleport her."

"What? When did this happen?" Ripperslover immediately asked, giving all her attention to Numbat.

"Cat said it happened about ten minutes ago."

"Numbat send the Club’s Wizard to Cat immediately to see if there are any magickal resonances there we might follow. Tell Cat I’ll teleport to her house in a few minutes with my Wizard," she informed her. "Now let me get back to Peter and get the information here before we teleport to Texas. And Numbat, put out an Alert out to the Wizard bot owners immediately."

Ripperslover quickly finished gathering the information and was on her way to face an enraged Cat. Before she left, she instructed Jade to continue to help DonnaL’s bots. She suggested that Jade take DonnaL and all of her bots to the Bot Lab to continue the research while she investigated the disappearance of Cat’s Wizard.

Peter had found a slight magickal resonance from the teleportation of the WGB. He took the measurements and the other data he had discovered and stored it in his laptop to take with them to Ripperslover’s lab. Once Peter had gathered all the pertinent information that could be found at DonnaL’s, Jade got everyone to Ripperslover’s lab quickly. Peter bot informed Jade that once they had the information from Cat’s Wizard’s napping they would be able to triangulate a position to locate the lab. They had been at the lab only ten minutes when Numbat called.

"Jade, I have a problem,"

‘Nummy, what’s wrong?"

"My Ollie, he just collapsed!"

"What? Bots don’t do that!"

"I know, is Ripperslover back from Cat’s?"

"No, I don’t know how long she will be."

"She may be a while. I’ve never heard Cat so angry. She was hissing and spitting every other word when she called here to find Ripperslover."

As she talked with Nummy, Jade started watching the two Ollies in the room, DonnaL’s and a spare that hadn’t been adopted yet that Ripperslover had left to help them. Suddenly both collapsed. "Nummy, it’s happened here. Do you have Ripperslover’s cell number?"

But before she could get the number Ripperslover, Cat, and all the bots that had been with them materialized in the lab. Two Ollie bots being held by the other bots and were being taken to examining tables. Jade’s Morphy, who had been in his Ollie guise, had automatically morphed into it’s Peter guise. Jade watched in amazement as her bot morphed without the use of the morphing wand. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

While Ripperslover and Cat examined the collapsed Ollies, Jade took PeterMorph to one side to see if she could determine why he had changed without the morphing chip being activated by the wand.

"What happened?" he asked in confusion. "Why did I change so quickly?"

"I don’t know, Peter. Do you remember anything?" Jade asked. One of the problems she had noticed with the prototype bot was that when it morphed into a different personality, it remembered being the previous personality and what had happened before the change occurred. She had mentioned this to Jac, who had designed the morphing chip, and she was looking into this defect.

"I was helping Donna’s Ollie and Peter when there was a flash and her Ollie collapsed. Once he went down, I felt the morphing chip activate and I changed into Peter." He told his mistress.

Ripperslover came over to Jade. "Did you activate his morphing chip?" she asked when she realized that Morphy was now in the Peter guise.

"No, that’s just what I was asking him. He changed automatically when the other Ollies collapsed," Jade informed her.

Before they could discuss the unusual occurrence, DonnaL’s and Cat’s Peters called out.

"We’ve found them!" both bots called at the same time.

The four women gathered around the laptop to see a map with a blinking dot near Boston. The dot showed the location of the rogue lab.

"How soon can we leave?" Cat asked, impatient to retrieve her Wizard.

"As soon as I can gather a force of bots for protection." Ripperslover informed the riled bot owner. She called the Club to see which bot owners and bots were there and within fifteen minutes had a small force of Peters, Rippers, and Wizards to add to the force already at her lab. Quickly the plans were made and they were on their way to the lab in Boston.

Medelle looked at the computer screen, which showed the deactivation of all the Ollie bots except for the ones that were in her new lab. The Nullifier worked. Medelle then set to work changing the settings to nullify the Peter bots. It would take several hours to change all the settings on the bulky contraption, but once done, all spy/protector bots would be turned off until she reanimated them. Then she would only have to nullify the Ripper bots to have all the main protector bots out of action. Medelle would take out the bots that had the best chances of finding her and her lab. She went back to work on the settings for the Peter bots.

As the small army of bots and their owners led by Ripperslover approached the location indicated on Peter’s laptop, she motioned for everyone to be quiet and watch where they were going. She wanted to make a silent assault on the outside chance that they might still be in the laboratory. There was an explosion off to her right and a Ripper bot went flying through the air, having set off a land mine. Ripperslover had the Wizard bots scan the area for any more booby traps and they were marked with glowing red x’s. Slowly the group made it’s way to the hidden opening. As the Peter bots slowly entered the underground hideout, Ripperslover, Cat and Jadedragon followed. Soon they were in the laboratory where evidence of recent bot manufacture was found.

"Spread out and search the premises," Ripperslover commanded of the Peter and Ripper bots. Her Tweedy stayed by her side to help with searching what appeared to be Medelle’s office.

"Where is she and where is my Wizard?" Cat hissed.

"That’s what we’re here to find out," Ripperslover assured the still angry Cat. Her Wizard and Jade’s cast spells to discover any hidden information in the room. Plans for the Henry bots were found which Ripperslover immediately started looking over.

"Ripperslover, I think I found something else," Jade called to her as she pulled more plans from another hiding place under the floor. She handed plans for a Norman Pitlock bot to the bot designer.

As she looked at the second set of plans, she got even angrier. Medelle was planning on making yet another inferior bot to hoist off onto the public, making them think that they were official ASHblf bots. She now had enough evidence to take her to court for manufacturing faulty bots and trying to corrupt her patents. As Ripperslover continued to study the plans for the rogue bots her cell phone rang.

"Hello," her Tweedy answered her phone for her.

"Tweedy, I need to speak to Ripperslover," Numbat told the bot.

"Mistress, it’s Numbat. I think there’s a problem." Tweedy informed his mistress as he handed the phone to her.

"Ripperslover, we are being inundated with calls about the Ollie bots collapsing. What do I tell them? Some have even come to the club in panic!"

"Tell them we are working on the problem and hope to have it fixed shortly."

"Do you know how this happened?" Numbat asked.

"I believe Medelle has somehow managed to find the exact frequency of the cerebral memory chip that gives the Ollie bot his personality. Without the personality chip functioning, the bot is lifeless. This is the only explanation that I have until we can further research the situation. At the moment, I am more concerned with finding her and quickly, before she takes out any other bots." She explained to her friend. "I’m sorry that you have to take care of damage control."

"That’s ok, I understand. It’s just freaky, seeing my Ollie just sitting there with no life."

"I totally understand. I’ll let you know what we find." She said as she hung up the phone.

The area was totally searched and scanned by all the bots and their owners. The Wizard bots found only a very faint trace of power resonances, which the Peter bots immediately started trying to trace. DonnaL’s Peter watched as Ripperslover’s Peter tried to trace the scant resonances when he sensed something. He pulled out a bug detector and again went over the area of the office, but this time he found something. He caught Ripperslover’s eye and motioned her, Cat and Jadedragon back into the office to show them what he had discovered.

It was a very sophisticated listening device, which used magick as a power source. Normal devices didn’t detect them, but the special device that DonnaL’s Wizard and Peter had developed had found the bug by the strange magickal/mechanical resonances it emitted.

Donna’s Peter alerted the other Peter bot to the new bug and they were trying to use it to triangulate a position for the new location when the Peters started collapsing. The first one to collapse was DonnaL’s then Ripperslover’s. They didn’t know who was next but within three minutes, not a Peter bot was standing, and Jade’s Morphy had changed into his Ripper guise, again without the use of the morphing wand.

Ripperslover looked over at the Morphing bot and saw that it had again changed without the wand. This time it was Ripper bot. She came to a realization as she watched the bot that had changed instead of collapsing. Ripper bots…they would be the next to be attacked. Somehow the morphing bot was changing into the next bot that would be attacked, she didn’t know how, but it made sense. Medelle had taken out the two spy/protector bots and now would take out Ripper who was also a protection bot. Peter bots had been the best of the computer bots that they had. James, he had computer knowledge, not as complete as Peter’s but he was the best option at the moment.

Ripperslover took in the confusion before her: owners bending over their prone Peter bots. She made her way to Jadedragon and Cat, who was again fuming at the idea that Medelle had again attacked her bot family.

"Jade, can you morph him into James?"

"Yes," Jade replied as she took the morphing wand out of her pocket. She adjusted the controls and pointed it at her bot. In an instant, Ripper became James.

Ripperslover directed the changed morphing bot to take the place of her Peter at the computer and continue trying to trace the new hideout Medelle had moved to. While Ripperslover and Morphy James bot continued the search, Jade and Cat tried to calm down the other Peter bot owners and started sending them back home or to the club. All wanted to stay but saw the wisdom of leaving the smaller core group to continue the search. James felt that he was very close to getting the location, when Cat’s Ripper rushed into the room.

"I found a bomb which is set to go off in three minutes," he informed the group

They quickly gathered what they could and evacuated the hideout. They had just transported when the explosion happened and they caught the tail of it. They materialized at the club a bit the worse for wear, the explosion causing minor damages to them.

"She expected us to be there. She set bombs for us," Cat ranted as she dusted the cinders from her clothing.

"We’re all ok," Ripperslover assured Cat as she accounted for all the bots and people that had been at the hideout when the bomb exploded. "I’m sure that she did. Cat, she’s not stupid. She was covering her tracks. James, honey, did you get a location?"

"Not an exact one. She is somewhere in the South Pacific. The explosion destroyed the resonances I was following," he sadly told the bot designer. "But I have an idea. The cerebral memory chips, don’t they have a specific frequency? Could we track her by that when she disables the next set of bots?"

"Oh you precious darling! That’s a great idea. We’ll gather all the other bots and relocate to New Zealand to wait for her to disable the Rippers then we will have the location." Ripperslover hugged the James bot as she coordinated the mass exodus to the southern hemisphere with the Tweedys, James, Trannies, Tuxes, Trainings, Wizards, one lone Morphing bot and all the owners that were at the club. Knowing that it would be two to three hours before the next attack, they quickly set up camp at Kiwikat’s home.

This was going better than Medelle had ever dreamed. Header had just brought the news that Ripperslover, Cat and Jadedragon had been caught in the explosion and were assumed to have perished.

"Are you sure they’re dead?" Medelle questioned her cohort.

"Yes, they were caught in the explosion," Header assured her.

"Then I can truly capture the market for Bots! I will be able to make any bot I want to! Ripperslover can’t stop me now!" Medelle exclaimed. "Now to disable the Ripper bots, just to be sure."

"But why continue to disable bots?"

"Because if they want their bots back they’ll have to come to me. I’ll reanimate them, for a price and insert my own chips into them. Then whenever I need something done, I can override the owners instructions and have the bots do my bidding," she explained. "I will have ultimate power over all the bots!" She said with a gleam in her eye as she turned to her Nullifier to reset its controls to the Ripper bot frequencies.

As soon as they arrived at Kiwikat’s home, Morph James bot set up the computer and other equipment to scan for the frequencies, which would deactivate the Ripper bots. Ripperslover helped with the set up as she knew the exact frequencies and guarded that information very carefully. She was the only person who had access to the information and she wanted to find out just how Medelle had gotten it. Medelle had a lot to pay for.

‘Ripperslover, can I ask you a question?" Jade asked the designer once the equipment was set up.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Why didn’t she disable the Wizard bots? Surely they would pose the most threat to her?" she asked.

"The Wizard bots memory chip is much more complicated than the others. The magick portion of the chip was very difficult to program and therefore the memory chip is harder to compromise than the others."

"But she botnapped DonnaL’s and Cat’s?" Jade questioned, not totally understanding.

"Yes, but she tapped into the loyalty chip to do it, not the memory chip. Of all the chips, that one is the last to be programmed and is simpler than the rest. It would be easier to overcome. I see that I have to do some reprogramming once we catch Medelle so this won’t happen again. Jade, I must get back to your James to help him once the signal goes out to disable the Rippers." Ripperslover explained as she turned back to the computer where Morphy James was sitting, scanning the frequencies of the Rippers and Ripperslover’s Tweedy stood with his sword in hand to protect his mistress once they had teleported to the island hideout of Medelle.

Jade went to help with the planned assault, which would happen once the location was found. The Trannies were upset that they were forced to wear tennis shoes and jeans because of the rough terrain that was expected. They had compromised by keeping their fishnets to use as slingshots. The Tuxes were also upset that they had to dress in common jeans and t-shirts but had borrowed the Trannies idea and were going to use their cummerbunds for slingshots. The Tweedys and Trainings readied other more common weapons, while the James helped with organization and the Wizards prepared to teleport everyone once they had a destination.

And they waited for the Rippers to fall before they could start the final assault.

Kiwi served drinks to the bot owners as they waited for the attack on the Ripper bots, which would give the location of the lab where Medelle and Header were manufacturing the rogue bots. It had been four hours since the Peters had been deactivated and seven since the Ollies had first suffered the same fate.

Ripperslover stood behind Morphy James as he watched for the frequencies, which would signal the deactivation of the Rippers. Ripperslover’s cell rang and her Tweedy answered it.

"Hello."

"Tweedy, Numbat. I need to talk to Ripperslover, immediately," she told the bot in a very anxious voice.

"Mistress, Numbat needs to speak with you."

"Can’t you handle it?" she replied in agitation, wondering how much longer they would have to wait.

"No, Mistress. I believe there is another problem," he told her as he handed the cell phone to her.

"Yes, Numbat," she said crossly.

"A Norm Pitlock bot attacked BeGiled in her home."

"What? Is she alright?" Ripperslover asked in shock.

"She’s fine, she blew him away with several blasts from a shotgun. But the Norm bot was trying to do something to her deactivated Ollie. She brought the remains here and I’ve placed them in the back room under the guard of three Training bots."

"I’m glad she’s ok. I’ll examine the remains when I get back, but I think we know where it came from. Put out an alert about the Norm bots. Medelle must be totally crazy to actually manufacture such a bot. I don’t understand her," Ripperslover told her friend.

"I don’t either. I have two Trainings on guard duty at the door, most of the bot owners not with you are here, so there aren’t many to notify."

"That’s good to know. I don’t want anyone else attacked by these rogue bots. Nummy, I have to go, the Rippers are starting to deactivate. I’ll call you back as soon as I know more." Ripperslover said as she quickly hung up the phone as the first Ripper collapsed beside DonnaL.

Ripperslover watched as Morphy James bot triangulated the coordinates of the lab. This took several minutes and then he transferred the information onto a map of the South Pacific with it’s hundreds of islands, many of them volcanic. Finally they had a location. It was an island formed by a volcano, long extinct, about 500 miles northeast of New Zealand. Ripperslover immediately took the map and went to discuss the next step with Jadedragon and the WGBs who would be teleporting the army of bots and owners to the island. Jade had been organizing the bots while Ripperslover helped Morphy James to get the location of the secret lab.

A single WGB was sent to the island to scan for any traps and/or spells protecting it. He was pleasantly surprised that the only spells in evidence were to mask the location of the secret lab and shield it from attack. He quickly teleported back to his mistress and then informed her of the circumstances that he had discovered. The lab was located in the underground tunnels that had been formed by the volcano during its active life. The tunnels didn’t seem very stable and would be hard to reach. The lab itself was shielded and would have to be approached on foot.

Medelle watched as the screen indicated that all the Ripper bots were now deactivated. She was ecstatic. This was going so smoothly, she knew her partner would be very pleased. She would arrive later in the day as she had a Norm Pitlock Bot to test. The Norm bots were just as devious as Medelle had thought they would be. But at the moment there were more Ethan Bots to finish programming. They would be a good line of defense, besides being a good product for those wanting Ethan bots.

Quickly the Wizard bots consulted and started teleporting the owners and other bots to the island where Medelle’s lab was located. It took over an hour to get everyone moved and organized once they were all on the island. The Trainings took point as the Tweedys, Trannies, Tuxes and Wizards followed the path they had cut into the jungle leading the way slowly toward the opening the Wizards had found into the depths of the extinct volcano. Ripperslover led the owners with Jade and Cat acting as her seconds.

The long trek through the hot steamy jungle was wearing on bots and owners. The Trannies had cut off their jeans and everyone had rolled up sleeves, trying to capture any breeze, no matter how slight.

"How much further?" Jade asked Ripperslover in a tired, weary voice.

"According to what Wizard found, we should almost be there. Once we get into the tunnels, it will be much cooler," she assured her friend.

"How deep is the lab?" Cat asked.

"According to what Wizard and James were able to discern, it’s about 150 feet below the surface. Once in the tunnels we’ll be following a signal that James has discovered which seems to originate from the lab.

About ten minutes later they were all stopped and the Wizards went to the front of the group where they had reached what appeared to be the hidden opening, which should lead to Medelle’s bot lab. Ripperslover with her Tweedy, Cat and Jade joined the Wizards at what appeared to be an opening in the mountainside. The opening was heavily warded and if opened would set off an alarm. After discussing the situation, they decided to try and find another opening. Ripperslover called for a rest and had her Tweedy organize refreshments for the owners while the Trainings worked with Morphy James to try and find another opening into the rogue bot lab.

Half an hour later the group was led to an opening that had been found not far from where the group had found the first opening. Slowly they entered the tunnels, the Wizards lighting the way with floating orbs of light. The Trainings again leading the way deep into the heart of the extinct volcano toward the lab where Medelle was producing her rogue bots. They had been traveling for over an hour when they met the first resistance.

"Mistress, the perimeter has been violated," her napped Wizard told Medelle, indicating the screen which showed a group of Training Bots cautiously approaching the tunnels which led to her lab.

"Send out the Norms and the Ethans to attack," Medelle told her wizard. "What spells can you cast to help them?"

"I am programmed not to attack other bots."

"I’m your mistress, I command you to attack! You must destroy them!" she ranted.

"I can not. It is contrary to my programming," the Wizard told her as he started smoking. The conflicting orders, of his prime programming and his Mistress, causing him great distress.

"You must kill those bots!" she continued not caring that the Wizard was in danger of collapse.

"I caaaaaannnnnooootttt," he groaned as he collapsed to the floor, smoking heavily as his circuitry melted from not being able to resolve the conflicting orders.

"Damn!" She said as she watched the Wizard collapse, smoke pouring out of his mouth and ears.

Ripperslover was talking with Cat and Jade when they heard the sounds of fighting. Quickly they ran to the front line where 5 Norm Pitlock Bots and 3 Ethan Rayne Bots were fighting the Training, Tweedys, Tuxes, Trannies and Wizards. When one of the Norm Bots turned and headed toward the three humans, Tweedy stepped in front of his Mistress with his sword held in readiness to repel any attack directed at her. The fighting was fast and furious, the Army of Bots organized by Ripperslover rapidly gaining victory over the inferior bots.

Realizing that they were close, they reorganized the troops and forged ahead expecting to meet more resistance before they found the lab. Ten minutes later they reached the area where the lab was located. The Tunnels were narrow here so Ripperslover, Cat and Jade chose 5 Training and 3 Wizards to go point with them. Ripperslover tried to leave her Tweedy but he insisted on following the group. He was determined to protect his mistress.

It wasn’t long before they came to the main area of the lab where Medelle was standing over a smoking Wizard bot.

"What did you do to that bot?" Ripperslover asked in anger, seeing DonnaL’s Wizard in such distress.

"He refused an order and then collapsed smoking!"

"Let me guess, you told him to kill another bot?"

"What if I did? I have to defend myself! I have a right to make bots for others!"

"Not if those bots are faulty and attack humans!" Cat told her in a threatening voice. "BeGiled was attacked by your Norm Pitlock Bot!"

"I didn’t do it. I swear!"

"Oh, I guess you’ll try to make Header take the blame for this?" Ripperslover confronted her.

"No, I didn’t. Tag did! She took the Norm bot for testing!"

"Tag?" Ripperslover, Cat and Jade all asked at the same time, shocked at this revelation. Ripperslover had tried to reach Tag when all of this had started and had been unable to.

"Are you saying that Tag is working with you?" Ripperslover demanded.

"No, I’m saying that she thought up the whole scheme. She wanted an Ethan Bot and we designed him. Then we decided to design other bots that you refused to carry," Medelle admitted to them.

While she was admitting her scheming with Tag, they didn’t notice the Ethan bot that had approached from another entrance followed by his mistress. When she realized what had happened, Tag and Ethan started to leave only to be confronted by Ripperslover’s Tweedy.

"You are not leaving! Mistress, the one you want is here!" he called out to his mistress.

Ripperslover was just turning around when the Ethan bot threw a bolt of lighting into the Tweedy’s chest causing sparks to fly, knocking the bot to the ground as he and his mistress tried to run from the scene. They were quickly surrounded by the other bots and a Wizard put a binding spell on the Ethan bots. Cat took command of Tag and Medelle while the other bots searched for Header.

Ripperslover sat beside her fallen Tweedy, tears flowing from her eyes. He couldn’t be gone. He was her first bot, her favorite. The tears were obscuring her vision and she felt rather than saw him move slightly. She called her for Wizard and had him teleport them back to her lab, so she could try and save Tweedy.

Cat and Jade watched as Ripperslover teleported back to her lab with the injured Tweedy and her Wizard. Cat took charge of Medelle and Tag while Jade got Morphy James to start going through the computers to find out how Medelle had been able to deactivate the Ollie, Peter and Ripper bots.

As James started working, he looked at Medelle and Tag who were both tied up. Something wasn’t quite right there. He took a scanner from the table where he was working on Medelle’s computers and went to scan her and Tag. When he scanned Medelle, there was no reaction; she was human. But when he scanned Tag, it beeped.

"Mistress," he called to Jade.

"James, what is it?" she asked as she turned to her bot.

"This is not your friend. This is a bot built to resemble her."

"What!" Cat turned back from where she had been standing talking with the Trainings who were looking for Header.

"James, you are sure?" Jade asked, wondering what else they would find in this lab.

"Yes, Mistress. This is a scanner to determine if we are functioning properly. As you can see when I pass it along myself, it beeps," he explained as he ran the scanner over his body. "If I scan you or Cat, nothing happens," he related as he scanned first his mistress then Cat. "But when I scan Tag, " as he scanned Tag it beeped several times, "It beeps indicating that everything is functioning."

"James, you’re saying that she created a bot that resembles Tag?"

"Yes, Mistress she has."

"I must call Ripperslover and let her know that this isn’t Tag," Jade said as she reached for a cell phone. When it wouldn’t work she decided to get her Wizard and teleport to Ripperslover’s lab to let her know.

When she told Cat of her plans, Cat said she would take charge and continue the search for Header and oversee James’s search for information on how to reverse the deactivation of the Ollie, Peter and Ripper bots. Jade had left within ten minutes of discovering the Tag bot.

Ripperslover worked frantically to repair the damage to Tweedy. Most of his mobility circuits had been blown, but his memory was still intact. She had her Wizard pull an unadopted Tweedy out of storage and was transferring the needed parts to the injured bot, trying to repair the damage rather than transfer his memories to a new bot. His entire electrical system had been overloaded when the Ethan Bot had thrown the fireball at Tweedy. Ripperslover didn’t have to worry about that bot ever again. As soon as Tweedy had hit the floor the three Wizard bots that had accompanied them into the lab had all attacked the Ethan bot and he was now just a smoldering pile of melted circuits.

While she anxiously worked on her bot, Jade appeared with her Wizard. Ripperslover noticed but didn’t acknowledge them, continuing the work to repair her damaged bot. It took several hours before the work was completed and she left the bot to regenerate the connections and recharge. It would be several hours before she would know whether or not she was able to repair the damage in time.

While Ripperslover had feverously had worked on her bot, Jade informed Numbat of what had happened and to be on the lookout for more bots that resembled any of their friends. Numbat had also spoken with Cat and Header had been found and was being held with Medelle. Morphy James was still working on trying to revive the deactivated bots and felt that he was making progress. He had discovered a device, which Medelle called a Nullifier. This Nullifier was what had been used to disable the bots. James was studying it to discover how to operate it to reactivate the disabled bots.

"Jade, what have you discovered?" Ripperslover asked as she finished working on her Tweedy.

"That wasn’t Tag! It was a bot made to resemble her."

"Medelle made a Tag bot? Who discovered it?" Ripperslover asked in shock. She would have realized if she hadn’t been so concerned with Tweedy.

"My James did. He sensed something was wrong and scanned her."

"I need to tell Nummy…."

"I already did. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Send your Wizard back to bring DonnaL’s and Cat’s Wizards and I will reprogram the loyalty chips. That should fix Cat’s. I have to examine DonnaL’s to see just what sort of damage was caused to his circuits, but I don’t think that the damage was as major as Tweedy’s."

"Hey, will he be alright?" Jade asked her friend, as her Wizard left to get the damaged bots.

"I won’t know. I’ve repaired the damage and as far as I can tell his memory is still intact. I have to wait for him to regenerate and recharge which will take several hours. Now, I’ll go gather what I’ll need to repair those loyalty chips."

"How long will that take?"

"Simple reprogramming of the loyalty chip will take about fifteen minutes. It’s the other damage on DonnaL’s that I’m worried about. If circuits just need to be replaced, it will take an hour or so. But there could be more extensive damage, I won’t know until I can examine it."

"Like what?"

"I’d rather not discuss it. I’ll just wait and examine him." Ripperslover said as Jade’s Wizard materialized with the two bots to be repaired and with DonnaL, who would not leave her injured Wizard bot’s side.

James had been working on understanding the Nullifier for the past several hours while Cat and the other bots and owners, who had now joined the hunt, searched for any other plans, weapons, or anything else of interest in the no longer secret lair.

James had finally deciphered the coding sequences in the Nullifier and put the code of the Ollie bots in to the device. The device immediately started humming and a circular ray was emitted. A screen appeared which showed the Ollies were now reactivated.

Numbat was serving coffee to the bot owners when suddenly the deactivated Ollie Bots started sitting up asking what had happened? The owners all rushed to their bots, realizing that Morphy James had found the codes he needed to reverse the damage that Medelle had done. This called for a celebration and Numbat broke out the Champagne. Within the hour the Peters and Rippers had been restored and the real party began.

Jade sat with DonnaL while Ripperslover worked on her Wizard trying to repair the damage done when his circuits were overloaded by conflicting orders. The damage had been extremely severe and again Ripperslover had pulled an unadopted bot out of storage for parts to replace those that had been damaged. She knew just how much the bot meant to DonnaL and she was doing everything she could to save it. She finally finished the work and now came the waiting. He had to regenerate and recharge before she would know if she was able to repair all the damage.

Jade and Ripperslover finally were able to persuade DonnaL to accompany them to the Tweedy club where the owners were meeting to question Medelle and Header and to decide what to do with them.

As they entered the club, they saw Medelle and Header being held by four Ollie bots on the small stage where the Singing and Trannies usually performed for the members. The trio made their way to the stage and Jade and DonnaL sat to one side while Ripperslover continued to the stage to question Medelle and Header.

"I told you I’d catch you and your rogue bots!"

"You would never have found me if not for the freak Morphing bot! And you call Henry a freak!" Medelle ranted at the bot maker.

"I’m very thankful to Jac for her development of the Morphing bot, he was most helpful in tracking you down. The only freak bots that I know about were the Henrys, Norms and Ethans that you designed. Thanks to your Nullifier I will be able to deactivate any bots that you have manufactured and track them to their owners, who I might add will pay a hefty fine if they don’t turn them in within the next 7 days. After that we will be tracking them down for destruction." This last she said to the room at large. She would give anyone who had a rogue bot the chance to come forward before she started her search. "But Medelle, what I really want to know is why did you try to get Tag blamed for the manufacturing of the Rogue bots?"

"I thought that I would confuse you long enough to get away. And I would have if that damn Tweedy hadn’t called attention to her when he did!" Medelle ranted.

"You bitch!" Ripperslover replied in anger. She closed her eyes to get herself together before she pronounced sentence on the Rogue Bot makers. "I understand that your lab has been destroyed and all the information from your computers is with Morphing James. You are never to go anywhere near a bot again. All your bots are now confiscated as are yours, Header. You will be constantly under surveillance for any infractions of this ruling. You’re lucky that no one was injured or killed by the Rogue Bots. Now, get out of my sight!" she told them as she left the stage and walked to the table where Jade, Cat, DonnaL, Numbat and Jac were sitting. They all sat and quietly talked as they waited to go back to the lab and see if the bots had recovered. Several hours later they all returned to Ripperslover’s lab.

Tweedy was awake and greeted his Mistress with her favorite, the Tweedy Shuffle. While his movements were a little stiff, he was fine otherwise and Ripperslover was delighted to have her favorite bot back.

DonnaL went to the table where her Wizard was lying very still. Tears dripped from her eyes and fell on the bot.

"Mistress, I’m here, I just can’t move."

Hearing this, Ripperslover went to examine the bot and found a small burned out chip that had been overlooked. Within ten minutes the Wizard bot was up comforting his owner.

DonnaL and her Wizard were soon on their way home as were Cat, and Jade and their Wizards. Soon Ripperslover was alone in the lab with her Tweedy, and they shuffled the night away.