#whereIsBoots?
Dr. Mike yawned and rubbed his eyes as he sat up in his king sized bed. He clapped his hands twice, causing the lights and all other systems in the room to hum to life. He reached out for the laptop sitting on the shelf next to him. The shelf was attached to a metal arm that connected to the wall above the bed. It allowed Dr. Mike to adjust where the laptop sat around him. He pulled it in close so he could check his various platforms.
Social Media - nothing new or interesting.
World News - meh.
Darknet Email - spam and… wait what’s this? A message from Za? One of the coolest FC mods to ever live??
Dr. Mike leaned in to read the email. It looks like Za was summoning BloodyBoots but the fluffy could not deliver the parchment due to lack of signature, and Dr. Mike and his colleagues, Dr. Greg and Dr. Gina, were CCed on the email.
But there had been no reply. The email was almost 10 hours old now. This was bad. Why hadn’t Boots responded? He normally replied back quickly…
Sure enough Dr. Mike checked his darkweb messages and he had several missed calls from Za.
“Crap.” Dr. Mike said nervously.
As if on queue, Dr. Mike’s phone app on his computer started ringing. It was Za calling again. Mike hesitated for a moment as a drop of sweat dripped down his neck. He swallowed hard and accepted the call.
“Well good morning, sleepy head.” Za said sarcastically. “Where is your master? Why hasn’t he answered my summons??”
“I don’t know.” Mike replied. “We haven’t seen him for a few days now. We just assumed he was working.”
“Well he’s not answering no matter how I tried to reach him.” Za explained. “And do you know what that means?”
Dr. Mike slowly shook his head.
“It means that this is your problem now.” Za snapped. “Get that idiot roommate of yours and go find this rogue fluffy. It needs to be terminated yesterday! You will find the information you need in the email I sent.”
“Ok, no problem, Master Za!” Mike said with a salute.
“Oh and Dr. Mike?” Za said sweetly.
“Yes, sir?” Mike replied.
“DO NOT. FAIL ME.” Za growled as his pizza head bubbled with anger. He then ended the call.
“Shit shit shit shit!” Mike said over again as he put on his clothes and lab equipment before running out of the room, down the hall, and barged into Dr. Greg’s bedroom, startling his colleague out of a sound sleep.
“Get up!” Dr. Mike said urgently as he grabbed clean clothes and threw them at Dr. Greg. “We have a mission from Za.”
“Za?” Greg asked as he put on his clothes. “As in Master Za from the FC council of mods??”
“Yes.” Mike nodded. “BloodyBoots has gone missing so now we get his mission.”
“BB is mia?” Greg worried. “That’s not good. Who’s going to draw our 200th strip special edition comic? Or any comic for that matter??”
“I dunno.” Mike said as they both headed for the door. “But right now we have a different problem. Za wants us to find a fluffy prototype whose AI has gone rogue. They want it destroyed.”
“Ok…” Greg said, still half asleep. “That shouldn’t be too hard.”
They both exited from Greg’s room, fixing their hair as they straightened out their labcoats and trademark gas masks. They entered the lab to see Dr. Gina working at the master computer, surrounded by adoring fluffies. She was up bright and early as usual.
“Move it, intern.” Mike said with a grumpy tone. “We need the master machine.”
“But I’m running a DNA sequence through my biometric scanner. It’ll be a few minutes…” Gina tried to explain but it was too late. Mike bumped her with his hip as he bullied his way into the desk chair. He cancelled Gina’s program and opened his own.
“Hey!” Gina protested.
“We got a mission from FC high command.” Greg explained as Mike started furiously typing. “We need to track down a fluffy that’s on the run with a rogue AI program.”
“Doesn’t Boots work for FC? Why do we care?” Gina asked, dusting herself off as she picked herself up off the floor.
“Boots is missing. No one can reach him.” Greg said with a sigh.
Gina looked over at a box full of papers labeled ‘comic ideas’.
“Well that’s not good.” She said bluntly.
“I think I’ve got something.” Mike said as he ran his query through their own AI program. Several news articles and map trackers popped up on the screen. Greg and Gina leaned in on each side of mike to watch.
“The fluffy was last seen here.” Mike started as he pointed at thew news article on screen. The headline read ‘Hundreds Of Brony Fur Fags Die In Hilarious Club Fire.’
“What news source is that?” Gina asked with a confused tone.
“lulznewz.com” Greg and Mike said at the same time.
Mike then continued. “A regular dumb fluffy would have just hid around the area and have been found already. Hasbio probably has drones scouring the area looking for them. But we need to think like an AI program would. Which means it probably went this way.” He pointed his pocket laser at the causeway just a block away from the club. He then trailed the laser pointed down the causeway to the nearby river where it ended on the outskirts of LA.
“A perfect escape route that would hide their tracks.” Greg nodded.
Mike zoomed into the area on the outskirts. It was a small village called El Sofo. Mike looked around at the shops near the end of the causeway. “Hmm.” He pondered.
“Check for Wifi.” Gina suggested.
Mike turned and looked at her for further explanation.
“If I was AI, I’d want an internet connection.” She said with a shrug.
“Fluffies don’t have SAT connections.” Greg added. “It would need at least a wireless connection.”
Mike typed a new query to scan the area for wifi signals. Only two were available in the small area at the end of the causeway, a donut shop and a dentist’s office. Mike zoomed in on the donut shop. Sure enough there were dumpsters behind it.
“Where there’s dumpsters, there’s fluffies.” He said as he leaned back in his chair and circled the area with his laser pointer. “We should start here.”
“I’ll warm up the sub.” Greg said with a nod before jogging off.
“What should I do?” Gina asked, petting a fluffy in her arms.
“Stay here and protect the lab.” Mike replied as he stood up and straightened his coat. “We’ll be back before supper.”