The Watch – Part 34:

I don’t have any skills so even if I wanted to fight, I don’t think I will be able to stand up against whoever is behind this. I know I surprised myself with how I managed to defeat that robot, but I was just using brute force by punching the robot and swinging the sword around as hard as I could, eventually striking my target and winning. Just dumb luck.

I still haven’t worked out whether I want to stay or not. I can’t go back because I know that my conscience will not like me for it, but I can’t stay here because I will end up staying here for a long, long time.

I know how these things work: Once I defeat the person behind this, I will show myself to someone or something else that will want to eliminate me so they can carry out their plans without any threat, and that will mean repeating the process all over again, for how many times, I do not know. And I can’t afford to do that. I have a home in another Universe.

I’m beginning to regret helping those people, but I shouldn’t because I did what was right. I just couldn’t bring myself to just sit there and watch. I had all the necessary power on my wrist, so I was going to use it. I want to ask Interface what his thoughts were on the matter, but he can’t give advice, only answers. Of all the things he is capable of doing, giving advice isn’t one of them, and that’s what I need now more than ever. I have to figure out this one on my own. But all I end up doing is going round and round in circles, never coming up with a definitive answer.

Before I knew it, I was pacing from one end of the room to the other, listening to the TV reports in the background, hoping that they will help me in some way, but all they keep doing is repeating the same thing they said fifteen minutes ago, before eventually moving on to another person who can’t give any more information than the previous guy, and repeat for the rest of the day. This was starting to get a little annoying, but I have to keep thinking, keep trying to find an answer; I know there is one out there, I just have to push everything aside to get to it.

After what felt like hours of thinking, I came up with a possibility that sounded stronger than all the others before it. I have my watch. My watch has the ability to transport me to any Universe and any time period in that Universe. So, with that, I can spend as much time as I want in one Universe, then go back and transport me to about a couple of seconds after I left, and then nothing would have changed. Everything can continue as normal.

‘Why did that take forever to come together,’ I said to myself. I’ve had a long, hectic day so piecing together simple answers did feel as if I was trying to solve a Rubik’s cube that had about fifty sides. I guess that’s the best solution. I mean, I’ve said this about a million times before, my subconscious would not like for me to leave without finishing what I started, even though I know it will mean I will create the ripple effect and my reputation will spread. I have to do something, I can’t just sit around, knowing that there are people that could be in danger and I won’t have a clue, except for that small part at the back of my brain, yelling at me to go back. I won’t have to go back if I never leave.

The first thing I have to do is work out what is going to happen. The investigation as to who I am has only just started, but I know if they continue, they will find out about me, and that is something I do not want to happen. I have to remain in the shadows. Luckily, they do not know where I teleported to, even though I’m not actually that far away from the arena. I’m more like just around the corner compared to how far they will actually send their people to just to try and find any sort of clue. I’m not sure how they are going to piece things together, but if I keep silent, hopefully I won’t leave anything for them to pick up. I have to do some detective work to figure out where the robot came from. Maybe I could deduct something from the video. But the image is not in a decent quality for me to do so, and even with advanced enhancing software, there is only so far I can go before I realise that I’m wasting my time. I have to do something.

If there really is a person behind this, and I’m basing this idea on that assumption, then he might have made more of them to send to other locations.

‘B.O.B,’ I called, stopping my pacing.

‘Yes, Sebastian,’ he said.

‘I need you to bring up all the locations of events where robots are going to be or have been showcased.’ I said, before an alternative solution hit me. ‘No, hang on, this hasn’t happened before, otherwise at least someone would have mentioned that on the news. This had to have been the first one of its kind, meaning he may have plans to go to other locations after this. Scratch that last request and just show me where the events will be.’

‘Certainly,’ B.O.B said, and in a matter of seconds, he had brought up everything I needed for me to get to work. Now that I made the decision to stay and figure this out, my conscience was able to relax and let me get on with it, allowing my head to clear and my thoughts to race around freely. For the first time in hours, I was back to being myself.

‘The beauty of technology,’ I said, enthusiastically. ‘OK, I need you to check whether the events have been cancelled or is still going,’ I said. If my hunch is correct, then they would have been cancelled, but at least having a location of where they will be will give me some clue and might be able to help me a bit. I hope.

‘I have analysed all the dates,’ B.O.B said, bringing up the dates on the TV.

‘Awesome.’ All of them were indeed cancelled until further notice by circumstances beyond their control, which couldn’t be any closer to the truth. A small part of me was hoping that they wouldn’t be cancelled so that I could go to those events and wait for another one of those robots to show up so I can see if I can get a name or something that will help me…

‘But maybe, he now doesn’t have to target those out in the open, because the news is doing that for him,’ I said suddenly. ‘My destroying one of his robots I have made all the events cancel, and all the robots that will be showcased will then be moved to a safe place.

'What if my alterations to his plans made his plans work better than before since now he can target all of them at once and once they are all destroyed, nothing will be able to stand in his way except me and he knows that and he will be expecting me to show up at any one of those places meaning he would have prepared for that encounter meaning I have to be prepared for his preparations,’ I said in one long breath. I breathed in deeply to give my lungs the oxygen that they lost. 'OK, that last part might be me assuming a few things,' I admitted.

‘I just have to figure out where the robots are being stored for safekeeping.’

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)