Kincaid

With the robot schematics tucked safely into his jacket pocket, Cyrus stared lazily out the sea-tram's window as it zoomed across the water towards Dollyland. Only an hour earlier he had murdered some pirates, been held at gun point and then stolen schematics from an insane robot who was currently the shadow ruler of the very island he was headed towards. He had lost the remaining pirate cronies in the crowd when he had disembarked the ferry, madness sewn throughout the passengers thanks to Cyrus's mention of a bomb being planted somewhere on the ferry. In the ensuing chaos it had been easy enough to simply disappear and make his way towards the tram, which would carry him onwards to Dollyland.

Now he sat on that very tram, confident he had lost his pursuers though skeptical that he was out of the woods. In fact, he believed very strongly that he was walking right into the lion's den. With three of those pirates alive, two of which free and the third incarcerated by the Marines thanks to Cyrus's silver tongue and quick thinking, there was little doubt in his mind word wouldn't quickly travel to Toy King Momo and his cronies on Dollyland.

Cyrus's only solace was the fact that he had already been up and down the cars of the tram and seen no sign of the two remaining pirates. Obviously they had waited around Ringworld to hunt down Cyrus and retrieve those blueprints, which gave the Revolutionary a small head start before his description would surely be released to all of the killer robots and murderous pirates on Dollyland. What a fun Tuesday afternoon this was turning out to be.

As the tram slowed down to a crawl, wheezing its way into the station, Cyrus stood and made for the doors. He did not rush, but knew time was of the essence and made certain he was one of the first passengers off the train. He had never been to Dollyland before and almost immediately he wondered if he had made a mistake. Toy King Momo had supposedly hacked into William's robots, turning them into killing machines. He had massacred the people of island five, and the World Government was doing everything in its power to keep that little secret under wraps. So when Cyrus stepped off the tram and found an entire theme park dedicated to looking after children as a sort of fun daycare, Cyrus's stomach dropped. What was Toy King Momo planning in a place like this?

As he exited the station, he found an entrance to the park where parents and families were signing their kids in for the day. Friendly robots painted in myriads of bright, cheerful colors were wheeling about, greeting children and escorting them to various locations within the park. Some were handing out balloons, others taking funny pictures with the children. It was all...picturesque and yet Cyrus wondered what would happen if they only knew.

Approaching one of the entrances, Cyrus walked up to the window and was surprised to find a robotic face on the other side ready to greet him.
Good Afternoon Sir or Madam and welcome to Dollyland. How can we be of assistance to you today? The robot asked cheerfully.
I need entrance to the park. Cyrus said simply, wondering how this interaction would go down.
Certainly sir, will you be dropping off a child today or picking one up?

Seeing as Cyrus didn't have a child or anything to act as a stand in for a child he really only had the one option.
Er, picking my kid up.
Certainly sir, if I could just see the receipt ticket you were given, I will scan it and your child will be summoned momentarily.

Receipt ticket? What the hell, they gave receipts in exchange for children?
Er, yeah that's the problem you see, I sort of lost my receipt ticket.
Not a problem sir, it happens to many of our guests. Next spring we will be implementing a bracelet function that should work better. If you provide me the name of your child I will summon him or her immediately for your convenience.

Shit. This was a problem, he didn't have a name to give because he didn't have a kid.
Um, here's the deal. It's my kid's first day in there, I just dropped him off this morning really and the wife and I were planning to leave him for the next three nights. The missus is a little nervous about not seeing him for so long so she sent me to just check up on him, make sure he's doing okay. Thing is, we don't want him to see me, you know? If he's having a great time I'll see it in action and if not I'll just take him with us to the rest of the parks. So, is there any way that could be possible?

The robot buzzed and whirred for a moment, clearly processing the entirety of Cyrus's speech. He could feel his hands sweating onto the counter and quickly moved them before they left a noticeable mark.
Ah, yes sir that is completely understandable. If you will simply attach this visitor's badge to your jacket pocket, it must be displayed at all times you are within the park so we are aware of your status as a valid visitor here. Please enjoy your day. The robot concluded as a sticker was printed from behind the glass and slid to him. Cyrus thanked the robot and attached the sticker as instructed.

Passing through the turnstile, Cyrus stepped into Dollyland and immediately started moving towards the center of the park. He passed rides, vendors of sweet treats and delicious smelling snacks that any kid would openly demand. From everything he saw it seemed to be a child's paradise. So why here? Why take over this island out of all of William's theme parks? One of them was a safari for crying out loud, surely Momo would have loved some robotic killer animals.

As he walked the streets of Dollyland, Cyrus kept his eyes peeled for any sign of an employee only section, but oddly enough he hadn't seen a single human worker. The only humans, or really living organic creatures he passed were the child guests. Any worker of Dollyland was entirely automated and robotic. It made sense really, robots didn't need lunch breaks, they didn't get tired, and they didn't get angry with the particularly annoying children. In fact, other than being incapable of expressing love they were the perfect babysitter.

As he passed through an area that seemed to be decorated as a forest or park, the glint of reflective metal caught his eye as a robot wheeled itself down a concrete sidewalk. It stopped, pausing to press a button that lowered a metal spiked fence and allowed it to pass onto the main sidewalk with the guests and other workers. The gate then raised back up and into place, appearing simply as a pretty show piece for an old timey park, masking its true intention as the gatekeeper to something behind the scenes.

Bingo. Cyrus said as he walked over towards the gate. He turned and looked about, the street wasn't particularly crowded. This area was meant to be a more relaxing, leisurely place to hang out and unwind for the day, possibly before nap time. As a result, he knew he only risked one or two people seeing him and odds were they would be children who simply assumed he was part of the park.

Stepping to the gate he launched a string of his Ito Ito no Mi up at the top, attaching it before retracting, pulling himself up towards the top of the gate and over with the momentum. On the other side he quickly jumped off the path, blocked by the brick wall and out of view of the space between the iron bars. Moving through the fake grass and dodging between various trees, Cyrus made his way towards a building in the back. It was large and industrial looking, but so well hidden that it would never take away from the magical illusion of the park as no child would ever see it through the densely packed trees of the forest park.

Walking along its large walls, he performed a similar trick as to the gate, once again using his Cloud Walk ability to simply pull himself up to the roof above.
You know, I might not be able to swim but this fruit Calico accidentally gave me certainly has its perks. Cyrus muttered to himself as he moved across the metal roof as quietly as possible, hunched down and out of sight.

The roof was lined with several skylights. Being that the building was tucked away in such a densely packed forest, the only natural light would come from above the building. As Cyrus moved about the roof, peeking in through skylights, he found this building acted as a sort of servicing center for the robots that patrolled the streets of Dollyland. One area had what looked like a workshop, used for minor repairs and upgrades to the robots as they wore down over time. Obviously the one that he had seen strolling out of the park path had been just one of those.

However, as he moved on to the fourth skylight, Cyrus found what he had been looking for. Heaps of scrap metal, robot parts and even entire bots lay strewn across what looked like the floor of a storage room. This was where they kept the junkers, the ones unfit to return to the streets of Dollyland for one reason or another. Rust covered much of them, age and time having taken a merciless toll on the machines.

Cyrus raised his finger to the glass, allowing a small string to stretch from his tip. He then carefully but quickly drew a circle on the glass, cutting out an arm sized hole from the window pain. He reached in and silently opened the latch of the skylight, carefully placing the disk of glass on the roof so as not to shatter and give him away. He then lowered himself into the skylight, attaching strings from his fingers to the ceiling of the room and slowly lowering himself down to the ground like a repel system.

Once on the ground, Cyrus located the doors in the room and quickly locked them. If someone came along he'd at least have a few seconds buffer time to hide or get out of there.
Okay, now let's see what in the hell Momo did to you guys to take over and more importantly, what he's been doing to "upgrade" you all. Cyrus said to no one in particular, cracking his fingers before getting to work on the piles of scrap.

He sifted through robotic arms, eyes, innerworkings, chests, even an entire body sans the legs at some point. Cyrus would pull them down, slice them open with his strings and begin studying the parts. He pulled out the schematics he had stolen from the ferry but found that although there were many different blueprints for many different robot builds, none of them matched these bots. Apparently these schematics were for robots Momo was planning to build, not recommission from William.

Tucking them back into his pocket, he continued his work on the robots. After opening one of about a dozen chests, Cyrus found a surprise he hadn't been expecting. All the other chests had simply had gears and an empty slot where this one now had a Den Den Mushi.
Now what in the hell does Momo do with Den Den Mushi in his robots? Cyrus asked himself, racking his brain for anything that might make sense. They weren't used to speak to the children, that would take someone else on the other line to carry out hundreds, if not thousands of conversations simultaneously with children no less. Not to mention all of the bots Cyrus had passed or interacted with today had clearly been programmed with pre-recorded, automatic script.

He then remembered what the entrance attendant had said about summoning his kid for him. These Den Den Mushi were meant to act as a communications network amongst the robots. Perhaps to locate a child or even for parents to talk with their child without having to enter the park. The attendant had taken so long to process and respond to his request to enter the park earlier because parents never actually did that. They took the lazy way out and literally phoned it in.
Honestly people, why even bother to be a parent if you can't even try. Cyrus said, shaking his head in disgust.

He plucked the Den Den Mushi from the chest of the destroyed robot, waking the little snail up from its slumber. It stared at him lazily as he fidgeted with some of the dials on its shell. Static played through as he switched from channel to channel before finally locating some chatter. It came in like a police radio, a living creature's voice reporting and dolling out instructions to various robots across the park.
Child committed on the Vomit Comet in sector 3.
Go figure. Cyrus muttered.
We have a code 4 tantrum in sector 12, sent balloon bots immediately.
Downed ice cream cone by cart 226, clean up crew en route.

While this was useless information, the capabilities of this Den Den Mushi were only just now dawning on Cyrus. He had a backdoor into the entire communications network of this park and with a little ingenuity, he may just be able to find a way to pick up any transmission throughout the park, regardless if this snail was designed to hear it. As he stared at the snail, smiling at his lucky discovery, a scrap heap behind him rustled and shifted.

Turning quickly on his heels, Cyrus already had strings at the ready to slice whoever or whatever came out. To his surprise, a fully built, albeit rusty and less than new-looking robot sat up, holding its head in its hands like a human with a headache.
Owwww. It groaned.
Cyrus stared at it, prepared for any form of hostility as the robot looked up from its hands and stared at Cyrus. There was a long minute of silence between the two as they simply stared at one another.
Hi there.
Hello.
Who the fuck are you?

Cyrus simply stared at the robot, he didn't seem angry or hostile in any way. In fact, the expletive seemed forced, as if he was trying it out for the first time.
Cyrus. He responded, curious where this would go.


The robot shifted on the scrap heap before standing and gingerly, but awkwardly walking down the shifting metal. He walked up to Cyrus, stopped maybe two feet away before looking him up and down. Cyrus noticed springs and gears were not only exposed, but protruding from this robot in various places. Then, surprisingly, he stuck his hand out towards Cyrus for a shake,
Well hiya there pardner, my name here is Phil.

Cyrus shook his hand, confused by the sudden change in tone and adaption of a very bad accent.
Hrm no, that didn't sound quite right. Phil said before banging his hand on his head rather violently.
Herro sir, misa name Phil. He tried again.
Whoa whoa whoa, no. That's not it at all. Hmm, this we'll try this. Phil said, nodding to himself.

Um, Phil?
Yes, Cyrus?
What exactly are you? You're...more lifelike than any of these other robots.
Well, yeah obviously. They're all dead! Phil exclaimed with what sounded like laughter, but that couldn't be right.
No, as in the other robots in the park.

Relax Mr. Scary scrap shifting, trash diggin man, I know what you meant. I used to be like these guys, well...not dead, but boring so dead on the inside. Then I went insane.
What?
I went crazy, bonkers, nuts, I LOST MY MIND! They called it "becoming human" or "awakening" but honestly I think I'm just a bit loopdy doo. Happened when that Momo guy uploaded his code to all us robots. Everyone else fell right in line with the new boss, totally forgot about Mr. William. Not me though, that code didn't quite mesh right, you know? Well I think that's what they said, I don't know, I'm crazy remember? Just know the things they said to each other in front of me. Phil said, speaking as he dug through the scrap pile behind Cyrus. He pulled out an old arm and moved it up and down, causing the fingers to slam against the thumb a way a child might show someone talking.

Anyway, the code came in, tried to rewrite over Mr. William's code. Worked for most of them, but you know us robots always an odd one out here and there. Glitch or something they said, instead of rewriting Mr. William's code in my ole brain, it sort of just...bonded with it. Made something new and here I am today, standing like a right ole walking talking huMAN, ya know? Although I haven't quite figured out how to speak like ya'll yet, sometimes misa ransition tween all them different drialects. See? Just now, it happened a-

Phil?

Cyrus?

Shut up for a second.

Phil pulled an imaginary zipper across his mouth and tossed away what he probably intended to be a key before giving Cyrus a thumbs up. Meanwhile Cyrus's brain was racing, so Momo had sent out some sort of code, uploading it to the bots in both the fifth island and then again here in Dollyland. Perhaps the fifth island had been a mistake, something went wrong and the bots had turned hostile. Maybe Momo's intention all along was never to harm the guests but...something else. So, why children? That still left a question to be answered.

Phil?
Yep?
I'm going to need your head.
Nope.
I'll take you out of here.

Phil paused and seemed to be considering this for a moment before nodding,
Heck yeah man, now I can see all of the totally tubular babes, bro. He then raised his hands to his head before giving it a violent twist and pulling his head free of his body. The body then handed the head out towards Cyrus, still perfectly functional and operational even though the main power unit and control function was no longer wired to it but instead in its hands.
How did you-
Glitch, man.
Yeah, but there's no power, that doesn't even make s-
Gliiiiiiiitch. Don't question it, just take my head and let's g-g-get the fuck out of here brosef.

Cyrus took Phil's head in his hands, watching the body turn around and head back to the scrap heap Phil had originally rose from. It jumped in, full swan dive and all before disappearing beneath the scrap.
Oh sure, I have to go out into the big bad world but you get to just cuddle up and snooze, senpai is not pleased, senpai will punish you later Hina-chan.
We're going to need to fix that dialogue bug.
Nah, that one was on purpose. The workers listen to some weird shit while they're in here, picked up a few things. Phil said nonchalantly.

Alrighty then. Cyrus said before walking over to a trash can used to discard the human mechanics' lunches. He dropped Phil in and seized the sides of the bag, beginning to tie them together before Phil said,
Hey man what the hell? It smells in here.
You can't even smell.
True, but I've overheard the humans saying this shit smells nasty so quite frankly, we're already off to a bad start.
And we'll be off to a worse start if you don't shut your mechanical trap while we walk through the park, because if we're found out and captured, we'll both be scrapped so zip it.
Aye, aye cap'n. Phil said as Cyrus finished tying the ends of the bag together.

Cyrus would then pull himself back up through the skylight he had entered with the use of his fruit's abilities. From there it was a simply trek through the forest back to the park and then out of the entirety of Dollyland itself. Cyrus would head back to the mainland of Jaya, intent on opening Phil up and figuring out just what in the hell this code Momo used. Perhaps it could help William and convince the old man to truly join the Revolution. All in all though, not a bad day.