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Chapter 3:
Getting Our Jobs
As I continued to make the license plates, the others had made it into the building. Even though the idea was to go undercover, it wasn’t really going undercover, because Harvey had already known it was the Cat of Steel and his friends. But it was a way for them to be able to do an investigation as to why people were dying or losing their jobs rapidly. It was also a way to attempt to figure out why Stanley wanted human workforces to become redundant, or if the system was just making it seem that way.
Harvey actually has three siblings: Stanley, Allison, and Gary. I mention this because Stanley had the job Harvey usually has, and Harvey agreed to start from the bottom again so he could clear his way back to the top. Allison served as head of HR, while Gary worked as one of the supervisors. Thus, Allison met everybody at the desk. Not everybody was going to get hired, but she agreed that the ones who weren’t doing anything were allowed to do some detective work.
Chris Thorndyke went ahead and filled out a proper job application because he was actually looking for work, since he was no longer working as a jammer, or a blocker (a jammer is the skater in roller derby that scores the points). “Vicious game, isn’t it?” Allison asked him when she looked at his resume.
“It is,” said Chris, “but I don’t think I ever had a major injury. Besides, Danger Dawg didn’t want any wrestling-style scripted bouts. It was natural gameplay. That’s all behind me now, and I need a job now.”
Further conversations between everybody led the company to hire Chris (although they weren’t ready to do it permanently just yet because of the issues going on), and later, everybody went on a tour of the place. “The biggest chunk of the place is the production floor,” Allison commented, “where we make all the signs. Each type of sign is divided into a different section, so we do the license plates here, and the street signs over there. I don’t remember anybody making a sign that says ‘EMERGENCY!’ and ‘HELP ME!’, though; that must have been the system. It is his old AI reprogrammed, after all.” She motioned towards me, and I gave a slight wave.
“Do you think Stanley may have tried to program it back?” Amy Rose asked.
“That we don’t know, but he does have a degree in computer programming; yet he’s had a tendency to use it for evil.” She made sure it was safe, and then she said, “Between you and me, I think CNG has been getting to him.”
“Why do you say that?” Super C asked.
“He was always a mean and hateful type, but not to this degree. Only recently has he gotten meaner and meaner, filled with hate, and as a result, he had the incident when he said he vowed to kill all of you.”
“Has he always thought superheroes like us are just more groups of terrorists?” Cripto spoke up. “Our job is putting an end to crime sprees, not starting them!”
“Sadly, yes. Even without the CNG, he always thought superheroes are lawbreakers. Where would our world be without you, though? It wouldn’t.”
“We’re glad you agree we’re the good guys, then,” Leo nodded. “Anyways, what’s next?”
“The next part is the new part Stanley himself asked all the robots here to add; it’s fully automated, and it is impossible to go down there.” The group walked over to the section. “As you can see, the factory is designed so that all the sections point the same direction. Once the sign or product has been made, it gets put in one of these cardboard boxes, alongside the packing slips that are printed out, and it goes down the hatch to dispatch.” She moved the protective covers to the side so the worker could put the cardboard box in and drop it down the hatch. “From there, hundreds of conveyor belts send the parcels to the delivery bots, who then load them into the trucks to be delivered.”
Allison cleared her throat, and then said, “Sorry. Bit of a cold I got rid of earlier. Rule number one, though: all hair, body parts, watches, phones, and everything you can think of has to be off the belts at all times, and never...ever...lean on the belt; anyone who does faces immediate termination. I’m not happy about the termination part, but that’s the way Stanley wants it.”
After the tour was complete, everybody was assigned their jobs based on the scan results of a special machine (again, Stanley’s idea), and to represent it, special ankle bracelets were placed on everybody’s right leg. “Are we under house arrest?” Knuckles asked, given his gullible tendency.
“No; these are color-coded to represent what jobs you’re going to do. The robots will lead you to that; I have to get back to my job now.”
“Well, thanks for the info, and we’ll keep in touch if we find anything new,” Silver replied.
“You’re welcome, and welcome to GLO!” Allison smiled as she walked back to her position at the front desk, although stopping to get a bottled water from a vending machine along the way. She didn’t usually talk as much as she did on this occasion, and she was thirsty.
“Hold still a minute, Leo,” T2 called as he used one of his gadgets to switch colors with Leo on the ankle bracelet.
“What are you doing?”
“In case it wasn’t the AI itself who made that street sign, it would have come from that section of the place,” Super C spoke up. “That’s where I want him to be.”
“Fair enough, but where does that leave me?”
“Hello, new workers, and welcome to GLO,” one of the robots began. “The colors you wear on your ankle bracelets represent the jobs you are about to embark on. For those of you with no bracelets, you do not get to work the production jobs, but your presence as supervisors is welcome so long as you abide by all rules and regulations. Simon Corrineson, Tom DeCarlo, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Miles “Tails” Prower...what a great name...you’ll be working with division one of the street signs. Come with me.” (Tails tried not to blush when the robot said, “What a great name.”)
“Okay,” Super C said.
“Jennifer McCartney, Amy Rose, Blaze the Cat, Rouge the Bat, and Cream the Rabbit, not forgetting your other friend there....” (The robot was referring to Cream’s pet Chao, Cheese, who wore a red bowtie to distinguish him from other Chao.) “The lot of you are in division two of the signs, and you’ll be introduced to it by my colleague to the left.”
“Hello, team!” said another robot.
“Is it just me, or are they really creepy?” Blaze whispered to D.W.
“It’s not you!” D.W. replied.
“Chris Thorndyke, you’re in division three,” the robots continued. “Your mentor will be the great Alfred Coats Bendraqi.”
“So where does that leave us, then?” Leo asked. Super C shrugged his shoulders, not really knowing what the result was, but the robot would deliver the answer.
“Leo Zanicchi, Knuckles the Echidna, you’ll be introduced to your tasks by the colleague on my right,” said the robot as he handed the lion a mop. “For you specifically, Leo, as an additional number to the everlasting punishments bestowed upon you from all the bellowing you have done. A very warm welcome to your new job as a premium maintenance lion!”
“We’re just janitors?” Knuckles exclaimed softly. Super C winced upon seeing what he had done.
“Not a word, Commander!” Leo replied sternly, not wanting any jokes, laughter, or any other possible kinds of remarks.
After everybody left to do their jobs, the robots then had one last announcement.
“Nathan Knight, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Espio the Chameleon, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Silver the Hedgehog, you have no ankle bracelets. You have no jobs in that regard, but as we previously stated, your presence as supervisors is welcome so long as you abide by all rules and regulations. You are dismissed.”
The robots left, and my friends took another walk around. “I hope when this is all over, I don’t see another robot for a very long time,” Vector winced to himself. “We deal with enough robots as it is when Eggman attacks us.”
“Just try to not be robophobic, okay?” Cripto replied. “Some of T2’s best friends are also robots.” (Cripto said this to make Vector sorry he made the comment.)
“He’ll feel right at home, then,” said Silver.
Soon everybody was in position and was doing their jobs. Chris, as promised, was working the license plates with me, and so he said, “So this is what they had you do in prison?”
“Yes,” I said, “but it was slightly different than this. One word of warning, though; the robots can hear everything you say if they so desire.”
“Everything?”
“Constant random monitoring. No such thing as privacy here since Stanley took over the company.”
“Why would he take over the company?”
“The rumor going around is that he wants to steal the family fortune for himself,” Harvey put in, since according to Stanley’s direction, he was also working the license plates.
“When our parents died, the will they left us indicated that we were to divide everything evenly, but being of sound mind, they left Stanley absolutely nothing.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s what he gets for being so mean and hateful.”
“Oh.” Chris shrugged his shoulders and continued working on the plates.
It seemed everybody was adapting to the jobs quite well for the first day. Leo wasn’t happy with being a janitor, but he and Knuckles soon decided to go along with it since, because they were janitors, they had virtually unrestricted access to every part of the building. They discussed this as they worked on the windows outside the front door; they had things to always check, but otherwise, they only went where they were beeped to go to when they were beeped.
“Not the first time I’ve done this,” Leo lamented, “but I’m not complaining. Instead, I hope you and I can find some information out since we can go all over the building.”
“Good idea,” Knuckles nodded.
“Hello; sorry to interrupt,” one of the robots suddenly announced, “but we forgot one detail. Your mentor for your maintenance jobs is Vinnie.” Another young man stepped outside. “The team is now complete. Happy maintaining!” The robot walked back inside.
“I guess you’ve already got the hang of it, though,” Vinnie commented.
“The briefing the robots gave us went through all the details,” Leo replied, “but that nearly lasted half my lifetime, and I’m thousands of years old!”
“Really?”
“That’s a joke, son. That’s a joke.”
“Anyway, he’s Leo, and I’m Knuckles,” Knuckles added. “It’s nice to meet another real person.”
“I can say the same thing. I’m also glad you’ve got the hang of it, but let me tell you this: the robots are constantly checking our progress. There’s strict timelines to be met, and we can’t waste time going to any messes.”
“So even though much of what is happening here is automated, there’s still an idiot boss?”
“You could say that.”
It was hard to my friends to work on solving the mystery, because the robots wouldn’t leave us alone, and Stanley himself was giving stern remarks each time he felt one of us were slacking. But I promise you that we would find a way.
TO BE CONTINUED
-----------------------------------------
Chapter 3:
Getting Our Jobs
As I continued to make the license plates, the others had made it into the building. Even though the idea was to go undercover, it wasn’t really going undercover, because Harvey had already known it was the Cat of Steel and his friends. But it was a way for them to be able to do an investigation as to why people were dying or losing their jobs rapidly. It was also a way to attempt to figure out why Stanley wanted human workforces to become redundant, or if the system was just making it seem that way.
Harvey actually has three siblings: Stanley, Allison, and Gary. I mention this because Stanley had the job Harvey usually has, and Harvey agreed to start from the bottom again so he could clear his way back to the top. Allison served as head of HR, while Gary worked as one of the supervisors. Thus, Allison met everybody at the desk. Not everybody was going to get hired, but she agreed that the ones who weren’t doing anything were allowed to do some detective work.
Chris Thorndyke went ahead and filled out a proper job application because he was actually looking for work, since he was no longer working as a jammer, or a blocker (a jammer is the skater in roller derby that scores the points). “Vicious game, isn’t it?” Allison asked him when she looked at his resume.
“It is,” said Chris, “but I don’t think I ever had a major injury. Besides, Danger Dawg didn’t want any wrestling-style scripted bouts. It was natural gameplay. That’s all behind me now, and I need a job now.”
Further conversations between everybody led the company to hire Chris (although they weren’t ready to do it permanently just yet because of the issues going on), and later, everybody went on a tour of the place. “The biggest chunk of the place is the production floor,” Allison commented, “where we make all the signs. Each type of sign is divided into a different section, so we do the license plates here, and the street signs over there. I don’t remember anybody making a sign that says ‘EMERGENCY!’ and ‘HELP ME!’, though; that must have been the system. It is his old AI reprogrammed, after all.” She motioned towards me, and I gave a slight wave.
“Do you think Stanley may have tried to program it back?” Amy Rose asked.
“That we don’t know, but he does have a degree in computer programming; yet he’s had a tendency to use it for evil.” She made sure it was safe, and then she said, “Between you and me, I think CNG has been getting to him.”
“Why do you say that?” Super C asked.
“He was always a mean and hateful type, but not to this degree. Only recently has he gotten meaner and meaner, filled with hate, and as a result, he had the incident when he said he vowed to kill all of you.”
“Has he always thought superheroes like us are just more groups of terrorists?” Cripto spoke up. “Our job is putting an end to crime sprees, not starting them!”
“Sadly, yes. Even without the CNG, he always thought superheroes are lawbreakers. Where would our world be without you, though? It wouldn’t.”
“We’re glad you agree we’re the good guys, then,” Leo nodded. “Anyways, what’s next?”
“The next part is the new part Stanley himself asked all the robots here to add; it’s fully automated, and it is impossible to go down there.” The group walked over to the section. “As you can see, the factory is designed so that all the sections point the same direction. Once the sign or product has been made, it gets put in one of these cardboard boxes, alongside the packing slips that are printed out, and it goes down the hatch to dispatch.” She moved the protective covers to the side so the worker could put the cardboard box in and drop it down the hatch. “From there, hundreds of conveyor belts send the parcels to the delivery bots, who then load them into the trucks to be delivered.”
Allison cleared her throat, and then said, “Sorry. Bit of a cold I got rid of earlier. Rule number one, though: all hair, body parts, watches, phones, and everything you can think of has to be off the belts at all times, and never...ever...lean on the belt; anyone who does faces immediate termination. I’m not happy about the termination part, but that’s the way Stanley wants it.”
After the tour was complete, everybody was assigned their jobs based on the scan results of a special machine (again, Stanley’s idea), and to represent it, special ankle bracelets were placed on everybody’s right leg. “Are we under house arrest?” Knuckles asked, given his gullible tendency.
“No; these are color-coded to represent what jobs you’re going to do. The robots will lead you to that; I have to get back to my job now.”
“Well, thanks for the info, and we’ll keep in touch if we find anything new,” Silver replied.
“You’re welcome, and welcome to GLO!” Allison smiled as she walked back to her position at the front desk, although stopping to get a bottled water from a vending machine along the way. She didn’t usually talk as much as she did on this occasion, and she was thirsty.
“Hold still a minute, Leo,” T2 called as he used one of his gadgets to switch colors with Leo on the ankle bracelet.
“What are you doing?”
“In case it wasn’t the AI itself who made that street sign, it would have come from that section of the place,” Super C spoke up. “That’s where I want him to be.”
“Fair enough, but where does that leave me?”
“Hello, new workers, and welcome to GLO,” one of the robots began. “The colors you wear on your ankle bracelets represent the jobs you are about to embark on. For those of you with no bracelets, you do not get to work the production jobs, but your presence as supervisors is welcome so long as you abide by all rules and regulations. Simon Corrineson, Tom DeCarlo, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Miles “Tails” Prower...what a great name...you’ll be working with division one of the street signs. Come with me.” (Tails tried not to blush when the robot said, “What a great name.”)
“Okay,” Super C said.
“Jennifer McCartney, Amy Rose, Blaze the Cat, Rouge the Bat, and Cream the Rabbit, not forgetting your other friend there....” (The robot was referring to Cream’s pet Chao, Cheese, who wore a red bowtie to distinguish him from other Chao.) “The lot of you are in division two of the signs, and you’ll be introduced to it by my colleague to the left.”
“Hello, team!” said another robot.
“Is it just me, or are they really creepy?” Blaze whispered to D.W.
“It’s not you!” D.W. replied.
“Chris Thorndyke, you’re in division three,” the robots continued. “Your mentor will be the great Alfred Coats Bendraqi.”
“So where does that leave us, then?” Leo asked. Super C shrugged his shoulders, not really knowing what the result was, but the robot would deliver the answer.
“Leo Zanicchi, Knuckles the Echidna, you’ll be introduced to your tasks by the colleague on my right,” said the robot as he handed the lion a mop. “For you specifically, Leo, as an additional number to the everlasting punishments bestowed upon you from all the bellowing you have done. A very warm welcome to your new job as a premium maintenance lion!”
“We’re just janitors?” Knuckles exclaimed softly. Super C winced upon seeing what he had done.
“Not a word, Commander!” Leo replied sternly, not wanting any jokes, laughter, or any other possible kinds of remarks.
After everybody left to do their jobs, the robots then had one last announcement.
“Nathan Knight, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Espio the Chameleon, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Silver the Hedgehog, you have no ankle bracelets. You have no jobs in that regard, but as we previously stated, your presence as supervisors is welcome so long as you abide by all rules and regulations. You are dismissed.”
The robots left, and my friends took another walk around. “I hope when this is all over, I don’t see another robot for a very long time,” Vector winced to himself. “We deal with enough robots as it is when Eggman attacks us.”
“Just try to not be robophobic, okay?” Cripto replied. “Some of T2’s best friends are also robots.” (Cripto said this to make Vector sorry he made the comment.)
“He’ll feel right at home, then,” said Silver.
Soon everybody was in position and was doing their jobs. Chris, as promised, was working the license plates with me, and so he said, “So this is what they had you do in prison?”
“Yes,” I said, “but it was slightly different than this. One word of warning, though; the robots can hear everything you say if they so desire.”
“Everything?”
“Constant random monitoring. No such thing as privacy here since Stanley took over the company.”
“Why would he take over the company?”
“The rumor going around is that he wants to steal the family fortune for himself,” Harvey put in, since according to Stanley’s direction, he was also working the license plates.
“When our parents died, the will they left us indicated that we were to divide everything evenly, but being of sound mind, they left Stanley absolutely nothing.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s what he gets for being so mean and hateful.”
“Oh.” Chris shrugged his shoulders and continued working on the plates.
It seemed everybody was adapting to the jobs quite well for the first day. Leo wasn’t happy with being a janitor, but he and Knuckles soon decided to go along with it since, because they were janitors, they had virtually unrestricted access to every part of the building. They discussed this as they worked on the windows outside the front door; they had things to always check, but otherwise, they only went where they were beeped to go to when they were beeped.
“Not the first time I’ve done this,” Leo lamented, “but I’m not complaining. Instead, I hope you and I can find some information out since we can go all over the building.”
“Good idea,” Knuckles nodded.
“Hello; sorry to interrupt,” one of the robots suddenly announced, “but we forgot one detail. Your mentor for your maintenance jobs is Vinnie.” Another young man stepped outside. “The team is now complete. Happy maintaining!” The robot walked back inside.
“I guess you’ve already got the hang of it, though,” Vinnie commented.
“The briefing the robots gave us went through all the details,” Leo replied, “but that nearly lasted half my lifetime, and I’m thousands of years old!”
“Really?”
“That’s a joke, son. That’s a joke.”
“Anyway, he’s Leo, and I’m Knuckles,” Knuckles added. “It’s nice to meet another real person.”
“I can say the same thing. I’m also glad you’ve got the hang of it, but let me tell you this: the robots are constantly checking our progress. There’s strict timelines to be met, and we can’t waste time going to any messes.”
“So even though much of what is happening here is automated, there’s still an idiot boss?”
“You could say that.”
It was hard to my friends to work on solving the mystery, because the robots wouldn’t leave us alone, and Stanley himself was giving stern remarks each time he felt one of us were slacking. But I promise you that we would find a way.
TO BE CONTINUED
Cripto's Army: Green Light Operations (Chapter 3)
Chapter 3.
Bendraqi and G-52s © me and me alone
Sonic the Hedgehog © SEGA
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Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
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