text: Title: A Troubled Invention (Part 2) Author: Haripriya Authors Note: Hello everyone! Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a happy Monday! Just a quick note, this story is part 2 of the story I wrote yesterday. So if you have not read yesterday's story, I suggest you start with that one and then read this one. If you have already read yesterday's story, you're right on track! I hope you enjoy the second part as much as you liked the first one! Under the dome, everyone was doing fine. Ok, maybe not everyone since that is a bit of a stretch. Except for Warring and Harris, everyone else was having their normal, happy days. If you might be wondering if Warring ever got to present his robot, then no. Sadly, that day the entire show featuring these techy inventions was canceled and will only be rescheduled next year. That is a very long time for Warring, maybe even too long. He wanted to present his non-emotional robot much sooner. He couldn't bear anyone's prickly words until then. He needed to show what a genius he was sooner. After all, the sooner the better, right? Everyone needed to praise him quicker, so he plotted with another plan, a hard one though. "Let me see, if they are not going to schedule this show any time sooner, then I am still not safe. Harris will be watching me from the extremely strong microscope he built, meaning I need to keep my little one safe. Harris will be waiting for a chance to steal it so that I won't get famous. Harris is filled with jealousy, and I need to stop that somehow." he plotted. He thought hard about all the possibilities he could do to keep the robot safe. He needed to consider all these options very carefully because his robot means the world to him. Warring thinks that he is the only smart one in this entire world. Warring thought that Harris was the overconfident, proud one. But Warring didn't take long enough to examine himself. He was the one who was too confident about everything he did. It just took a little bit of Harris's smart plan for Warring to figure that out. ⋆⋆⋆ One day, Warring was growing tired and even more restless than before. He kept pacing back and forth in his little basement, trying to figure out how to fix his robot. He still needed to make some tweaks to finally call it a finished product. Every time he tried to control the robot, it would do the opposite thing. For example, if he ordered the robot to go left, it would go right. When Warring gave the robot a task to fulfill, (to hold some books) they dropped it. Warring still couldn't figure out what he needed to do to fix that little malfunction. It was bugging him. Those sleepless days, making his brain fuse out because he kept on thinking out what he was missing. Usually, when Harris was his brother, they would always work on an invention together. They would always brainstorm all their invention plans and processes with the help of their teamwork. That is how all their inventions got made so quickly. It was because they cooperated, they worked together. But now Warring was alone, and he couldn't get the help of someone else because they stormed at each other last week. But no way was Warring ever going to go back to where Harris was. No way he could accept his defeat so easily. He couldn't even imagine doing that! Warring would only apologize if Harris came first, and until that day came, Warring was going to do what he wanted to do alone. Nothing was going to change. He had already made up his mind about it and he is deadly serious about his decisions. Warring still didn't understand why Harris would stop him from clearing their name. He thought that his decision would have benefited both, him and Harris. Why did he say no to him? Did he always want to be called morons, and weirdos? Warring wasn't harming anyone, just trying to do something good to them, so that everyone would change their minds about them. While Warring was pondering about that, he noticed the time. On his holographic clock/watch, he noticed that it was getting pretty late. When he turned to his small, wooden, rusty window pane he also noticed that the "sky" was getting dark. He decided to think and worry about all these things later. All he wanted to do then was just rest, and at least try to get some sleep, unlike the night before. So, as he sighed, he switched off his holographic clock/watch and closed the blinds on his window, getting ready to sleep. When he was in bed, his mind still kept wandering about miscellaneous thoughts, even though he tried really hard to shut his brain. He closed his eyes, tightly, but still kept thinking about horrible memories of his brother walking out on him like that. He remembered his brother saying, " I didn't want this conversation to come to this brother, but I'm afraid it has. I'm sorry, I tried to warn you. Since you're not listening to me, I must take leave. " For each word he recollected, his eyes stung, as if these words were poking each eye one by one. Tears rolled down his cheek as he kept thinking about that conversation. But, it wasn't all Harris's fault. Warring had also said some things he regretted too, and as he kept on thinking about them, the more pain, desperation, and regret he carried in his heart. " You really think your puny woes could ever stop me? " he remembered him yelling at his little brother , that is if he can legally call him that. He started hating himself even more as all these feelings circled him, never leaving his brain. These terrible, horrible feelings always bothered him, preventing him to think straight. ⋆⋆⋆ The next morning, after his terrible slumber, he got an idea of what he could do to his robot, accidentally. "So this is what I was missing the entire time! I... I can't believe I never even took a second to think about this! Oh, how much time I have wasted for this missing piece!" he yelled in glory and excitement. What had happened was as his alarm had rung suddenly, and woke him up so abruptly, he tripped on a little screw. Though it hurt him a lot, and his thigh bones have probably broke, his head sprung with joy. Now all he had to do was fit this screw to the robot so that he could finally get the robot to follow his instructions. He quickly did his morning routine, and finally got to his workspace. While he sipped on his latte, he made sure to gather all of his tools for fitting in the screw really tightly this time. As he got all his materials, he made sure to double-check around the space for any missing nuts or other little parts to make sure he has everything he needs. He took a little sip every other minute while at the same time he pushed the screw inside the missing little area and made sure it fit tight and nicely. It took him a couple of minutes to check if the screw was all good and nice. Though it may look nice, there was still one more step to be done, and that is to conduct his final tests on the robot. Before, the robot only did the opposite of whatever it was told. But now that the screw has fit and Warring revised his code on the robot's program, he was sure that it was going to work. He crossed his fingers and took a breath. He ordered the robot to do the same thing it failed at, picking up books. Warring placed a couple of books on the desk and controlled the robot, now hoping that he would find different results. As he coded, he looked up to take a glimpse. His smile widened as he saw the robot moving its limbs in the correct way he told it to. He saw the robot taking the books one by one, and making sure to not make it fall, or make it trip. The robot carefully placed each book on the other end of the same desk. " Finally... " he thought but was too excited to even finish it. The robot was working just as he wanted it to. Even if he ordered the robot to do anything he wanted, the robot wouldn't get offended by it, because Warring cleverly programmed it to have no feelings of anger and sadness. In fact, the robot doesn't even have good feelings, such as happiness and excitement. All it is programmed to do is perform any tasks and duties the owner tells it to do. That's all! ⋆⋆⋆ But now is where is the other hard part comes in. Warring was smart enough to know that Harris would spy on him through his advanced technologies, so Harris would most likely try to steal the robot. He did have a security mode installed inside the robot so that Warring would always know if something ever happened to it. But, if he installs the security mode 24/7, then his robot was going to lose its power. Every time he would have to fix his robot until the parts would heat, and burn up. Obviously, he didn't want to take that risk because as you can see, he worked his heart and soul into this robot building project. He couldn't even imagine seeing his robot getting burned up. But how was he going to protect his robot while he was away? He can't carry it outside, because people will arrest him, thinking that he smuggled the robot from anywhere across the world. Even worse, he can't even explain he made the robot just like that. He would get into more trouble. Poor Warring didn't know what to do. He also hesitated in the thought of going to his brother's place to convince him to not take the robot. Warring would only talk to him if Harris talked first. All these thoughts started to worry him more than before. Without even thinking twice about his decision, he decided to not activate the safety mode. Warring couldn't stand a chance of one of his most prestigious inventions getting burned because he did something wrong knowingly. He decided to take the risky route and not activate any security mode on the robot. But, he did hide it somewhere safe and secretive and made sure to lock it when he was going out that night. Warring locked his house and stepped outside. He prayed that nothing would ever happen to his little robot and that he would stay safe during the time he is outside. Looking down, Warring started to walk away from his little basement still worrying about his robot being all alone in there. Half of Warring's brain was trying to convince the other half that nothing would happen because he did lock it in a secret place. So that Harris (if he was even coming) wouldn't know where it is. Even if he tried to use his microscope, he still wouldn't be able to find it. ⋆⋆⋆ Just as Warring expected, Harris did take a little visit to his basement to try and talk him out of this entire robot thing. But when Harris knocked on the door, no one opened it. He thought Warring didn't want to see him because he was still mad about last time, so he thought of using his magnifying glass to look into the door. " Weird," he thought. "Usually he has to be home, what happened to him? Maybe he went somewhere. Wherever he is, I need to destroy that robot. Warring probably doesn't know that security check-in is going to come in today to check for any suspicious items. I can't keep this robot in my house because I'll risk the chances of anyone seeing it. I'm sorry brother, wherever you are, but I have to destroy this." he mumbled to himself. He tried to pick the lock, and it worked. Harris tried to use his magnifying glass to spot that robot. He couldn't see it on his working desk, or in his bedroom. "It must be in one of the shelves..." Harris figured. Using his magnifying glass, he tried to look into the shelves, as soon as he was going to give up, he found it on the last one. "Aha! There it is. Now all I have to do is destroy it and burn the invention before Warring comes in." Harris said, and he did exactly as he said. He burnt the pieces and they decomposed themselves, so no one would find any clues of anything burning. ⋆⋆⋆ As Warring came home, the first place he looked was in that cupboard. Unfortunately, it wasn't there. Warring knew Harris had come inside the place. He immediately became frustrated and mad. "I can't believe I used to be his older brother! I hate him. He knew I worked on that, he knew it! He did this on purpose! Ahhhh!" he groaned and yelled in rage. If only Warring had enabled on the security system or even went to Harris's place to apologize, none of this would have happened. Warring's indecision was the reason his robot got ruined. ~ The End ~