Grissom sat at the dining table of their small Melbourne hotel room, nursing a beer. Phil was leaning nervously against the kitchen counter, while Brute Force was sitting on the couch. Robo Squirrel was cradled in Brute Force's lap, the super strong Vanguardian running his hands delicately over the dents in Robo Squirrel's armour caused by Robo Moose.
"Aw, little buddy, are you okay?" Brute Force asked.
"Robo Squirrel is operating at seventy-eight percent maximum efficiency. Self-repairs are underway. Estimated time before full efficiency is regained: seven hours."
"That's the spirit, buddy," Brute Force said, picking up Robo Squirrel to look him square in the cute little robo-eye.
"So what do we know?" Grissom asked.
"Little to nothing," Phil replied.
"Damn."
At that precise moment, Grissom's phone rang.
"Hello?" He said, picking it up.
"Griss? It's Brianna."
"You guys found anything?" Grissom asked, cutting straight to business but somewhat comforted to hear her voice.
"Kind of. Actually, I need to talk to Phil."
Grissom tossed the phone across the kitchen to Phil, who held it still in front of his face telekinetically. He carefully reached up and grabbed it.
"Yeah?"
"Phil?"
"Brianna!"
"Yeah."
"How can I help you?"
"Are you able to read the mind of someone in a coma?" Brianna asked.
"If there's still brain activity, I should be able to. If he's a vegetable, though, no dice," Phil replied.
"Oh, he's alive. There's definitely brain function. He's just unconscious. We found him in an abandoned warehouse, he hadn't eaten or drank anything in days," Brianna explained.
"Who?"
"Galileo Sharpe."
"Bullshit!" Phil said. This caught the attention of Grissom, who began to pay closer attention to the conversation.
Phil continued. "The guy who invented Robo Squirrel?"
Grissom raised his brow and slammed his beer down in surprise. "Damn," He said softly.
"Well, the name matches," Brianna said. "We weren't able to get any more info out of him before he passed out."
"Okay, I should be able to do it," Phil said into the phone.
"Really?" Brianna asked, sounding slightly surprised. "We weren't sure if your powers would work over this much distance."
"It'll work if I use a conduit," Phil began. "Send a signal from myself to someone nearer to Sharpe."
"...right..." Brianna said. "...and I suppose you'll want...?"
"Yeah, I need to ask a favour, Bri," Phil said.
"Fine," Brianna conceded. "Whatever it takes to get what we need. But don't you have the same distance problem with me?"
"Not if I go through someone close to you," Phil said.
"Close? But then-"
"I didn't mean geographically close. I meant close. I'm hanging up now," Phil said, shutting the phone off. "Grissom!"
"Yup," Grissom nodded, finishing his beer. Phil said down opposite him.
"I need your brain for a moment," Phil said.
"Why?"
"To get to Brianna's."
"Why?"
"To interrogate Sharpe. He's unconscious."
"...I see."
"I'm not digging up memories. I'm not reading either of your minds. I just need a conduit to boost the signal, for lack of a less clumsy metaphor."
Grissom sighed. "Fine."
"Great."
Phil closed his eyes, extended his thoughts out to Grissom, and made contact. Phil felt around in Grissom's awareness for what he needed, and soon found it; Brianna.
Next to a hospital bed in Zerich, Brianna's eyes snapped open, Phil's conscious mind present in her.
"...this is weird..." She whispered. "Yes," Phil answered to herself in her voice.
Placing Brianna's hand on Galileo Sharpe's, Phil thought out to him.
After a moment of jumbled thoughts and confused images, Phil found himself sitting in a cramped yet interestingly decorated office. Lab equipment stretched across one wall, while diplomas and souvenirs adorned another.
The door opened, and Galileo Sharpe entered.
"Right... this is where you feel comfortable," Phil thought to himself.
"So... how can I help you?" Sharpe said, sitting down in the chair opposite Phil.
In the hospital room, Leslie was staring out the window with worry. A dark shape had appeared on the horizon and was rapidly getting closer.
"I think we have company," Leslie said, turning to Tiberius. Tiberius followed her gaze out the window, to see a robotic pelican quickly moving through the sky towards them.
"But how?" Tiberius said.
"Maybe the warehouse was being monitored. Maybe we were followed back here," Leslie speculated.
In the corner of the hospital room, unnoticed, a robotic mouse was sitting perfectly still.
"Damn! Busted!" Robo Mouse said, very, very quietly, and ran across the room to a robotic mousehole.
Tiberius grabbed the window and slid it upwards, then crouched on the windowsill. He stayed there for a moment, waiting for Robo Pelican to get close enough. When he was confident that it was, he jumped.
Tiberius cut a wide arc through the air, covering at least forty metres. At the apex of his leap, Robo Pelican's mouth opened to reveal a gun that extended itself and pointed at Tiberius.
Leslie noticed this and lowered her gun at it through the open window, and fired.
As Robo Pelican fired at Tiberius, Leslie's shot found its mark, and disabled the gun in the pelican's mouth.
Tiberius connected, landing on the back of the pelican and sending it downwards into an uncontrolled nosedive.
"Professor Sharpe..." Phil began, in the mental office. "I have a couple of questions for you."
"I shall do my best to answer them," Sharpe replied, glancing around his office as he did so. "Say... this isn't my real office, is it? It looks like it is, but something's off..."
"No, it's not," Phil answered. "We're in your mind right now."
"Eerie."
"Yes. You're actually unconscious at the moment, in a Zerich hospital room."
"Ah, yes. I remember my last conscious thought being 'damn, I'm thirsty'. How can I help you, mister...?"
"Smith. Phil Smith."
"Mister Smith! How can I be of service?"
"Something was stolen from a bank in Melbourne, Australia last night. We need to know what it was," Phil said.
Sharpe seemed somewhat shocked. "A small item from a safety deposit box at the First National Bank of Melbourne?"
"Yes."
"Oh, no. Oh, oh, dear me no..." Sharpe said.
"What?"
"You're familiar with my robotic designs?"
"Yes."
"In that box was a disc holding the plans for something far greater and more dangerous than anything you would previously have seen. A robotic creature that should never be..." Sharpe said, his voice trailing off into panicked territory.
"What is it?" Phil asked.
"It's big."
Outside the hotel, Tiberius was bearing down on the pelican with all his weight, driving them both towards the ground.
"Nooooo! Robo Pelican never got to truly taste adventure!" Robo Pelican cried in despair in the second before it hit the ground, Tiberius placing his palm flat against the robot's back and pushing away to throw himself free as the impact occurred and the ground shook.
Only then, looking upwards, did Tiberius notice the flying robotic ape bearing down on him from above. The ape threw its huge arms out and grabbed Tiberius by the shoulder, then flew back up towards the hospital room.
Leslie, looking out the window, took aim at the ape and fired. The bullet's bounced harmlessly off Robo Ape's hide.
"Shit," She muttered, and reloaded. "Phil and Brianna, hurry up..."
Phil heard Leslie's urgency through Brianna's ears.
"How did you come to know of my work?" Sharpe asked Phil.
"Robo Squirrel," Phil replied.
"Robo Squirrel?"
"Yeah. Robotic squirrel. Yay big." Phil was holding his hands about three feet apart. "Annoying in this lovable comic relief kind of way."
"Ah, yes... Robo Squirrel," Sharpe said, a spark of recognition igniting in his eyes. "Some of my finest work. I have to admit, at first it sounded like a weird request when I got it from the UN."
"The UN? How do you mean?" Phil asked.
"The United Nations. Their security council commissioned Robo Squirrel."
The ape crashed through the hospital room's window, Leslie diving out of the way as it did so. Shards of glass and chunks of the wall flew everywhere as Robo Ape pushed its way into the room and flung Tiberius across the floor.
Mxy entered the room, holding a tray.
"Hey guys, I got coffee and chocolate and a teddy bear holding a heart!"
Robo Ape ran forward and threw itself at Mxy, who became invulnerable just for a second. Robo Ape managed nothing more than toppling the coffee cups from the tray, and sending the brown liquid all over Mxy.
"My coat! My beautiful coat! You've ruined it! THIS COAT WAS ONE DAY AWAY FROM RETIREMENT!" Mxy yelled, waving his vengeful fist at Robo Ape.
"YOU ARE A FIG NOW!"
And, sure enough, Robo Ape was transformed into an ordinary fig which sat there on the floor, being hugely less threatening than the ape was.
"I squash the fig."
Mxy squashed the fig.
Phil was shocked at Galileo Sharpe's last statement. "I don't understand... you're saying Robo Squirrel is the UN's creation?"
"Technically my creation, but they paid for it," Sharpe replied. "The UN security council wanted a device which would monitor and, if need be, contain a group of metahuman terrorists on some island nation in the Pacific. At least, that's what they told me... hey, you're not one of them, are you?!"
"...Robo Squirrel's a spy?" Phil said.
"You didn't know?"
"No."
"Oh."
"I have to go," Phil said. "I'll be back soon. We need to find out who took your and your designs. But rest assured, we're doing everything we can to get you well again."
"Oh, take your time," Sharpe said. "I'm quite comfortable in here. I can catch up on my reading."
Brianna snapped back to consciousness, somewhat surprised to find the wall of the hotel room ruined, and Leslie and Tiberius sitting against the wall catching their breath.
Grissom snapped back to consciousness, then stood up to get another beer.
Phil's eyes opened and he stared across the hotel room towards the couch.
"Hey, guys!" Brute Force yelled."Robo Squirrel's gonna be okay! He reckons he'll be fine by morning!"
"Estimated time until completion of self repair: six hours. Beep," Robo Squirrel said.
"He's such a little trooper!"
Phil's eyes narrowed. "Get that thing out of here."
