Waring Sisters
It was the mid 80s. Arcade games like, Pac-man, Galaga, Balloon Fighter, and many others were exploding into people’s lives all over the world. In the town of Arcadia, Ohio the arcade was a very popular place. At the local high school there were two rival gangs of nerds. One, called, The Omegas, lead by Timmy Kendriz. While the other, The Solars, was lead by Colen Micheals. Both gangs competed with one another at the arcades, it was considered their battleground. One day after a crushing defeat at Pac-man by Timmy Kendriz, Colen Micheals sat reading a “Green Lamp post” comic. He sighed as he turned the page. There he saw the advertisement that would change his life.
The advertisement was very hard to read and, surprisingly because Colen had just bought the comic yesterday. It was almost like a watermark or like it wasn’t supposed to be in the comic. Colen managed to make out the words, “Get your very own programmable humanoid robot today! Just send $3.00 to this address 66619, Parody St., New Zealand. Colen thought to himself “Why not?”
After a few weeks of battling Timmy Kendriz and The Omegas at the arcade, Colen had nearly forgotten about his order when, his mother called him down from his room. “Colen, there’s a man at the door who wants to see you!” Colen came down the stairs and met the man at the door. Colen was shocked by the man’s appearance. He was dressed in long and torn cloth with strange pendants around his neck. Outside he saw what must be the man’s ride, a gypsy like caravan with two yaks tied to the reigns. The man spoke in a deep raspy voice, “You ordered one of our robots?” Colen could hardly speak, “Y-Yes I did” managed to blurt out. “Well, here she is.” The man said indifferently. Colen saw a long brown paper sack wrapped with rope on each end. It was taller than he was. The man started to walk away and prepare his yaks for movement again when Colen said, “Wait, what do I do?” the man just smiled and said, “What ever you want.” And yelled “mush” and the yaks went thundering out of Colen’s sight.
Colen’s mom hadn’t been present for the conversation between the man and her son so she didn’t know what the huge brown bag was. So she asked, “what’s the bag for Colen?” “O-oh it’s for….a…it’s for school!” he said. Colen had a very hard time hauling the bag up the stairs he thought it felt like he was almost hauling another person. He got up to his room, locked the door, and unwrapped the bag. There standing perfectly still, and emotionless, was his robot. Colen jumped back at first for it looked exactly like a young woman. Maybe early 20’s fair skin, brunette and athletically built. Colen noticed her eyes were closed, so he gently lifted one up she appeared to have strange dark yellow eyes. Colen measured her. She was 5 feet and 7 inches tall. She was wearing a plain short-sleeve T-shirt that said Parody St. Creations on it and slightly worn blue jeans. Colen knew he had stumbled upon something huge.
It took a few minutes for Colen to get over the robot's appearance until the thought, “Ok. Now what?” finally slipped into his mind. After a little bit he found a circle on the back of her neck you could hardly even see, he pressed it. It went in and came back out and the robot’s eyes opened wide. Colen didn’t know what to do. The robot’s eyes changed from dark yellow to a greenish-blue and she spoke aloud, “Hi. My name is Sophie.” in an overly perky voice. Colen was startled and tried to speak but he couldn’t get any words out. “Sophie” just stood there and looked at him, a slight pleasant smile on her face. Colen finally spoke, “Who are you?” Sophie replied, “I am Sophie. Model Number 217300. Didn’t you order me?” Colen then said, “Well yes but….but you just are so…” “Real?” Sophie interrupted. “Well what do you do?” Colen asked. “Anything you want me to do’’ replied Sophie. “Well what would be really nice is if you beat Timmy Kendriz at the arcades” said Colen sarcastically. “I can do that.” Sophie said “Just take me to this “arcade” and I will do my best to complete my task.” Colen was about to speak but stopped he knew Timmy would still be there but how would he explain Sophie to his mother? He had an idea, “Sophie, could I get you to go back into that bag?” “Sure.” Said Sophie sweetly. He successfully dragged her down the stairs and told his mother he was going to go to the park instead of the arcade to work on his science project.
When Colen’s house was out of sight he removed the bag covering Sophie. She just smiled as she followed him to the arcade, which, was only a few blocks a way (that’s why they were walking). When Colen and Sophie entered the arcade everyone froze and started at Sophie. She was the most beautiful thing ever to walk into an arcade full of rejects. The clerk running the place who was a young woman right out of high school was used to being the center of attention when the people weren’t playing games, she looked as if she had just been slapped in the face, like some one had illegally entered her territory. Sophia said, “So where’s this arcade?” “Your standing in it” Colen said slightly amused.
Colen lead her over to an old “Pong” system to see if she had any skill or not. Colen said instructively, “Now watch me play, then you can try.” Sophie watched quietly and intensively as Colen played his game of Pong. Once Colen had lost he said, “Alright your turn.” Sophie said, “Ok. Let me get connected.” A small snake-like wire slid out of the back of her shirt and plugged in somewhere in the back of the pong machine. Sophie then said in a more robotic voice, “Downloading Pong system drive……Download complete.” Sophie started playing and to Colen’s surprise she was even better than the computer! Out of 10 games she won all of them.
Colen then marched her around to all the other arcade machines and Sophia would download them and demonstrate she had mastery of them. By Now everyone’s attention was on Colen and this mysterious vixen who could beat all the games. Then Timmy Kendriz walked in. He looked around arrogantly although he did look impressive with The Omegas behind him and his girlfriend, Jodi Croft at his side. Timmy immediately walked over to the crowd, which parted for him to see Colen playing a game of Xenophobe with Sophie. He said to Colen, “I just got back from an Orange Julius and guess what? I’m going to beat you!…again!” He then put on a fake laugh and the rest of the gang laughed with him until he snapped his fingers.” “So Colen, where’s the rest of the Solars? You can’t expect to beat me and the Omegas with just yourself.” “I don’t need them, or me” said Colen “You can face my new friend here Sophia.” “Her? She doesn’t even have an official win/lose record card from the arcade!” said Timmy. “But I’ll tell ya what, I’ll play her anyway just to make you run out of here like you did a few hours ago!”
The game was Dig-Dug. It was a test to see which person could last the longest. Timmy went first and boasted at his time of 49 seconds. Then Sophia went she had cleared the whole field of dirt when she turned her back to ask Colen, “Now what?” when she died. Her time was an astounding 5 min. 42 seconds. Timmy looked shattered. He quickly and quietly left the arcade with the Omegas and his girlfriend, Jodi Croft, all scratching their heads. The small crowd surrounding Sophie went crazy. All the people told the manager, an older man who loved games, what happened and he seemed ecstatic, “Oh thank you so very much mam! It’s been an embarrassment for this arcade to have that jerk as our champion. Here’s your official score card and I here by declare you our new Arcade Champion!”
Timmy and his gang left the arcade and headed for the comic store. When they got there Timmy noticed a very odd man standing in the corner. He wore lots of really weird medallions and his clothes were torn. (It was the same guy with the Yaks.) Timmy went over to the man to make fun of him so he go feel better about himself . Before he said anything the man spoke, “I saw what happened to you at the arcade….” “How do you know about?” snapped Timmy “I know because I built that woman that was with Colen.” “Built? What do you mean built? And how do you know about Colen?!?” “Nevermind about that.” said the man “I didn’t like how he but you against my machine. It wasn’t fair. So I’ve decieded to build you a robot too.” the man quickly left the store as soon as he was finished. “Wait! What?”, said Timmy slightly irritated, slightly confused. “Who was that?” asked Jodi “I don’t know, some old creep. Let’s go.” answered Timmy.
After three weeks of failing to beat “Sophie” at a single game at the arcades, Timmy was sadder than ever before. The good thing was Timmy thought, Jodi was at his house and his parents were out of town for two whole weeks! Jodi and Timmy were about to kiss when the doorbell rang. Timmy looked enraged as he swung open the door, “What is it?!?!?” On the door step that oddly dressed man stood with a tall brown paper bag. “ I finished your robot, and she’s already programmed with all the arcade machines.” said the man. “You again?!? How did you find out I live here!?” “That’s my secret. But look at your robot.” the man said as tore away the bag. There stood a young woman in her early 20’s with red hair that grazed her shoulders. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed her middrift and short-shorts that stopped well above the knee. Timmy was speechless at the sight of her. “Now do you believe me?” asked the man. Jodi came rushing to door and at the sight of the robot said angered, “Oh I see how it is. Timmy were over!” Jodi ran out of the house crying.
After Timmy got over the loss of his girlfriend, The man showed Timmy all the features of his new robot before turning it on. After that Timmy turned the red-head on. Her eyes opened. At first they were a dark yellow but then changed to a reddish-brown. She looked at Timmy and said in a hypnotizing voice, “Hi. My name is Heldia” Timmy said weakly, “Hi.” “Well what do you think?” the man said, proud of his work. “Now let’s figure out a plan for the arcade.” said Timmy sinisterly.
Now Sophie had been hard for Colen to hide from his Mom since she was asking how long this “science project” of his was going to last and when is due and stuff like that. Colen had gotten to know Sophie better by asking her questions like where she came from or how was she built. He got these answers, she came from an underground factory in New Zealand which, is secretly run by the long lost people of the contintent called Atlantis. Sophie told him that they build robots like her to use as spies before they attempt to take control of earth, Sophie promised her that anyone who bought a robot would not be harmed. She went on to explain how was built. She said that the atlantians have “power crystals” that power any machine for years to come. That was all she would say, even when Colen said, “Sophie, I command you to tell me more.” Sophie would always reply, “I’m sorry my memory banks seem to be having trouble.”
Colen toke her out to the arcade were she had a title defensive against Randal Slavage, the second in commond for the Omegas. She beat him easily and then kissed Colen. (Something Colen had told her to do after every win. Sophie and Colen had been posing as a couple in public.) Then in walked Timmy Kendriz and Heldia, his robot. Sophie instantly turned her head and looked at Heldia. Timmy said to Colen “I know that your Sophie you love so much is a robot and now I have my own.” Heldia said to Sophie in an amused voice, “Your so outdated. It’ll be easy beating you .” Sophie didn’t reply but then Heldia continued, “Sophie I challenge you for your title.” “Ok, a friendly game of Dig-Dug?” said Sophie in her perky voice. “Who said anything about friendly?” answered Heldia.
There were two Dig-Dug machines right next to each other. The match started out fine, both robots dodging the computers moves with ease. The match raged on for three hours. Smoke was gushing out of both Heldia and Sophie’s ears, when finally the both froze up and fell flat on there backs. Colen was the first to notice he rushed to the arcade machine and countined playing were Sophie left off. Timmy realized what he was doing but it was to late Heldia’s progress was suddenly stopped by a stray enemy who slammed into her character. The match was over and the manager came over but he looked confused at the sight of the two beautiful woman on there backs frozen in a game-playing position with smoke bellowing form there ears. The manager said well I guess if Sophie is unable to except her title, it should go to Colen!
Colen felt happiness and sadness at the same time. He saw that odd man with the medallions rush up to examine Sophie and Heldia but it was all a blur. Everything was going black.
Colen suddenly sat-up in his bed…….it was all a dream.