//------------------------------// // Part 15 Pinkamena Vs. Dan*: Chapter 140 The Doctor Vs. Androids // Story: The Wheel and the Butterfly A Dan X Pinkie Pie Saga // by Justice3442 //------------------------------// The Wheel and the Butterfly A Dan X Pinkie Pie saga Part 15 Pinkamena Vs. Dan* Chapter 140 The Doctor Vs. Androids -oooooo- Dan let his body hang limply from his confines as he simply stared glumly out at the warehouse in front of him. Dan’s would be torturer stood in front of him and monologued about Dan’s predicament and assured that the worse was yet to come.   Who knew that being kidnapped would be so… Dan stared out with a listless expression as he watched Dr. Pullum. The chemicals in Dan’s system made focusing on much of anything difficult which made getting angry or upset about his situation difficult. As a result he could not do much in the way of escape, complaining about his situation, or even really suffer from it either. …boring. Dan made a mental note to downgrade Dr. Pullum from ‘would-be torturer’ to ‘irritator’ as the supervillain worked himself up into the climax of his speech.  “…and with your friends scattered and being attacked on all sides, it’s just a matter of time until your little girlfriend is brought here and executed before your very eyes!” Dr. Pullum threw his hands up and began to laugh maniacally. “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Dan sighed as he continued to hang from metal shackles. He glanced downward. “Is this his only job? To be obnoxious to me while Mr. Unbearably Smug tries and likely fails to give my friends and girlfriend the runaround?” “Yeah, pretty much…” Sunset Shimmer said without bothering to look up. She sat on a chair next to Dan and continued to run a nail file over her fingernails. She nodded at Dr. Pullum. “Though, I think he has robots or something for when people show up.”   Dan rolled his eyes. “Uhg… His stupid dentobots? Chris and I took out a bunch of them with a metal pipe and a power drill…” Dan paused for a moment and thought about this. “As a matter of fact, I think most robots I’ve run into could be dispatched with a few blows from a metal pipe… You’d think people would start building robots that could at least stand up to that much.” Sunset paused from her nail-filing to look up at Dan. “Dental bots?” “Dentobots,” Dan corrected. “They have like… hooks instead of hands… And wrap you up in this stuff called ‘dental floss’… That’s about it.” Sunset paused for a beat. “… That’s moronic.” Dan shrugged as best he could in his restrains. “I know, but I mean… I guess when your only gimmick is being a dentist…” Sunset sighed, shook her head, and motioned out to Dr. Pullum. “At least he could have given the robots drills, or… or high powered hoses!” “I know, right?!” Dan said. “He has one stupid theme, and he’s not even using it to its full potential!” “… HAHAHAHAHA… ” Dr. Pullum paused and turned to face Dan and Sunset. He leveled an accusatory finger at Sunset. “Stop fraternizing with the prisoner!” Sunset stood up and motioned to Dan. “I’m not fraternizing with him! But it’s just so boring waiting around here!” Dr. Pullum rested his fists on either side of his waist. “Well, try gloating! It’s how I pass the time!” Sunset stared up at the ceiling and shrugged. “I’m not even that mad at him! It’s his girlfriend I’m really after!” “What?!” Dr. Pullum cried. “He tried to kill you!” “With good reason!” Dan said as he raised an index finger into the air. Sunset nodded. “Yeah! I helped kidnap him and delivered a bomb to his apartment!” Sunset pointed an index finger up at to herself. “I’d try to kill me, too!” “Finally!” Dan exclaimed. “One of you at least has some semblance of intelligence.” Sunset turned and folded her arms across her chest. “Hey! Watch it bucko! You’re still chained and drugged up.” “Speaking of which…” Dr. Pullum walked up to Dan and leaned down. He came back up with a clear nose and face mask that was attached to a hose. “Oh, come on!” Dan whined. “Sorry Danny, you’re sounding a bit too lucid… ” Dr. Pullum placed the mask over Dan’s face and turned a knob on a canisters attached to the hose. With a quiet hissing sound, Dan’s eyelids began to drift downward. “Don’t call me… hehehe… call me… heheHAHAHAHA… Danny…. hehehe…” Sunset sighed as she placed her hands on her hips. “Did you have to do that? He’s by far the most interesting out of you all to converse with!” “Hey!” Helen protested from her chair a few feet away. “What am I, chopped liver?!” “All you talk about is getting Pinkie! That’s it!” Helen frowned. “Yeah but… but you’re after her too! I mean… she ruined your life!” Sunset pulled one side of her lips up and glanced to her side, pulling her face into what looked like a contemplative sneer. “That’s a tad extreme viewpoint… I mean… she probably helped my boyfriend decide to dump and leave me to catch hypothermia and she did beat me at figure skating… But it’s not like I lost my job or apartment or anything…” “What the heck?!” Helen cried. “You’ve whined about that day like crazy since I met you!” Sunset shrugged. “Yeah, but then I hear your stories about what she’s done to you repeated ad nauseum and then I realized just how whiney it must all sound! Sure I’m ticked and even walked into her workplace just to suplex the girl, but I can’t let one bad day take over my entire life!” “I can’t believe I’m hearing this!” Helen exclaimed. “What?” Sunset protested. “I’ve had a lot of time to think over the past few weeks! Aside from getting back at someone way beyond what they did to me, I’m not getting a whole lot out of all this.” Dr. Pullum narrowed his eyes and took a few menacing steps closer to Sunset. “You’re not thinking of setting him free, are you?” Sunset held up her hands. “Hey! It’s not like I have any reason to help the guy here. I’m just… you know… I’ve got a life outside wanting to beat up that pink-haired girl.” “She made being a waitress unbearable!” Helen cried. Dr. Pullum motioned to Dan. “And Danny here ruined my life’s work!” “I get it!” Sunset said as she flung her hands out to her sides. “You guys totally have legitimate reasons for wanting revenge on these two! But I mean… If I wanted to be squarezies with this girl, I’d just try entering a baking contest she’s in or something and win it… and not even an important baking competition.” Dr. Pullum narrowed his eyes at Sunset. “What about this ex-boyfriend of yours? Don’t you want to wreck the pink-haired girl’s relationship in retribution?” “Because of Flash?” Sunset held her palm up and stared at the ceiling briefly. “I’m mean… sure I’m upset about how that went down, but I don’t think I’d try to rescue him if we were still dating and he was kidnapped.” “Geez!” Helen exclaimed. “It’s like you don’t even want revenge at all!” Dr. Pullum nodded in agreement. Sunset turned and looked at Dan, who continued to dangle limply from his constraints with a goofy, distant expression on his face as his eyes slowly drifted about the warehouse. “I kind of got it already…” Sunset said. “I mean... the whole kidnapping and bomb thing was plenty for what she did to me.” “So what then?” Dr. Pullum asked. “Are you just calling it quits?” “Well… no…” Sunset said. “I mean… I’ve come this far… I guess… I guess I can at least assault her a bit when I see her.” “That’s it?” Helen asked. “Yes, ‘that’s it’!” Sunset cried indignantly. “Sorry I don’t wring my hands together and glare at nothing every time someone says the name ‘Pinkie’ like you do!” Helen wrung her hands together and glared off into open space as she uttered a sinister sounding “Pinkie…” “See?!” Sunset said as she pointed at Helen. “You just did it again! Look, I got other stuff going for me, alright? As interesting as it’s been planning the systematic downfall of these two has been, I’m kinda looking forward to concentrating on my ice-skating again! I mean… what are you going to do?!” Helen frowned and shrugged. “Uh… Go back to being a waitress… I guess…” “That’s it?!” Sunset cried. “Come on! You’ve got to have some ambition or goals!” “I’m going to try taking over the world again!” Dr. Pullum said. Sunset motioned out to Dr. Pullum. “See! At least the supervillain has something going for him!” Helen sighed heavily. “Okay… I guess you have a point… I guess when Pinkie’s dead I’ll have to figure out something else for my life to be about… Maybe work my way up to assistant manager… or something.” “Well… it’s a start…” Sunset said. “Or you can just find someone else to hate!” Dr. Pullum suggested. Helen’s eyes lit up. “Hey, yeah!” Sunset raised both her palms up to her face. “Oh Lord…” Helen turned and grinned deviously at Sunset, she stood and took a few steps forward. “So Sunset… do you have a special someone who hates you in your life?” Sunset placed her hands over her ears. “Not having this conversation!” Helen took another step. “You know… Someone to watch you from the shadows! Curse your name with their every breath… Collect your hair from the garbage for voodoo dolls or what-have-you.” Sunset began to ‘sing’ loudly as she walked away. “La la la… Can’t hear you! La la la…” “Come on!” Helen said as she began to follow Sunset. “There’s no need to be shy…” Dr. Pullum watched the two women and simply sighed as he shook his head. Dan chuckled. “Hehehe… You guys are alright…” -oooooo- The humming of the old van’s engine ceased as the Doctor turned off the ignition. He and the other three occupants quickly undid their seatbelts. Dinky leaned forward and looked down at the floor. She retrieved a small, blue backpack. Crunchy similarly leaned forward and looked down, coming back up with the E.D.G. that rattled slightly in his hand. D.H. frowned as she heard the sound coming from her device. “Here!” she said. “Let me see that…” Crunchy handed D.H. the E.D.G. “Do you think we lost them, dudes?” he asked. The Doctor took a quick glance at the rearview and side mirrors. “Well, that would be incredibly fortunate, but I doubt we managed to elude so many—” ‘CRSSSHHH!’ A pale, muscular arm suddenly broke through the van’s side door window and reached into the vehicle. “AAAAH!” Crunchy cried out in alarm as fingers latched onto his arm with vice-like strength. “OUT THE FRONT! OUT THE FRONT!” The Doctor cried as he quickly reached for Dinky and ushered her to the front of the van. D.H. quickly threw open the passenger side door and grabbed hold of her daughter. ‘CRSSSHHH!’ As D.H. and Dinky fled out the front, the android thrust its smoothly-shaved face through more of the glass window and fixed its cold gaze on Crunchy. “Hold on, Crunchy!” The Doctor cried as he leaned down and began searching the floor. “Can you ask him to not hold on, brah?!” Crunchy cried as he pulled against the android’s grip. The Doctor came back up with the metal bar he used previously on the Chris-android. He lifted it as high as he could in the confined space of the van and brought it down on the android’s arm. ‘CLANG!’ The arm twitched slightly on impact, but clutched onto Crunchy’s arm tightly as Crunchy continued to struggle. The Doctor raised the pipe and brought it down again… ‘CLANG!’ … and again. ‘CLANG!’ ‘Rrrrrrip!’ The arm of Crunchy’s suit jacket suddenly ripped as he slipped free of the android’s twitching fingers and they clamped around fabric. Crunchy fell back onto the seat as the android let the torn piece of clothing drop from his grip as it attempted to pull itself up into the van. “Come on!” the Doctor cried. “This way!” Crunchy rolled off the van seat and onto his feet, ducking past the Doctor and out the front door. The Doctor shifted his weight back and held the metal pipe pointed out in front of him. He thrust his weight and the metal pipe forward into the face of the android. With a loud ‘CRUNCH’! the pipe pushed through fake flesh and bent metal beneath it. The android suddenly fell backwards out of the window. ‘CLANK!’ The Doctor wasted no time in turning and heading out the front of the van after Crunchy. The two quickly fled out the front of the van and made their way towards railroad tracks and train cars, lit only by streetlights near the station and the full moon that continued to climb into the sky. “I don’t see your family, brah!” Crunchy cried. The Doctor scanned the area in front of him. He and Crunchy were rapidly making their way through what seemed like usually an inviting waiting area of benches and trees. In front of them was a chain-link fence; past that were railroad tracks and dozens of train cars lit mostly by the light of the full moon. “They’ve both dealt with worse than this!” the Doctor said. “I’m sure they’ll be fine…” he said as much to assure himself as his unexpected running companion. “Can we… huff… puff… stop soon?” Crunchy asked as he forced his burning muscles to propel him forward. “I’m feeling like a gazelle that’s been given the runaround by a bunch of lions, brah!”   The Doctor took a quick glance behind him. Though stunned and sporting a damaged and exposed mechanical eye, the android he had hit was getting back to its feet, and more of the muscled-men look-alikes were quickly coming up behind it. He shook his head. “Hang in there, Crunchy… It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” >ooo< Unsure of what dangers may or may not be right behind them, D.H. and Dinky made their way through an opening in the chain-link fence and onto the train tracks. “This way!” D.H. cried as she pointed towards a collection of railroad cars. She and Dinky sprinted down the tracks. “WHAH!” D.H. cried as a foot fell a bit early and she caught her toes on a one of the planks of wood below, falling forward. ‘Thump!’ “OOOFFF!” D.H. exclaimed as she fell to the tracks below. The E.D.G. went tumbling out of her hands, spinning front over backend a couple times before coming to a stop a few yards away. Dinky quickly turned, ran up to her mother, and helped her back up to her feet. D.H. sighed heavily and rubbed her bruised body. “You’d think I’d get used to running at some point.” “It’s alright, momma… I’ll help you,” Dinky assured. D.H. gave out a heavy sigh. “It’s supposed to be the other way around…” she uttered quietly to herself. She trudged over to the E.D.G. and picked it up. The rattling from inside the device had only worsened since Crunchy handed her the device. “Great… just great!” she cried. “If it wasn’t broken before, it sure is now!” “Can you fix it?” Dinky asked. D.H. shook her head and sighed. “Not without help…” Dinky smiled wide. “I can help!” “Thanks Dinkums, but unless you have a set of tools with you, I’m afraid we’ll just have to leave this for now.” Dinky giggled and turned, then shimmied in place, allowing her blue backpack to jiggle back and forth. D.H. rolled her eyes. “Why am I not surprised?” D.H. scanned the train cars. “We’ll need to find a place to hide… There’s still quite a few of those androids… We don’t want them to catch us unarmed.” Dinky went silent for a beat. D.H. squinted through the darkness at her daughter, who had just gone unusually quiet. “Diiiiinkuuuums?” she said in a warning tone. “What did you do?!” “So when you say unarmed…” “Dinkums!” D.H. said in a stern tone. “Hey! Shouldn’t we be hiding, momma?” “Okay, but we’re talking about this later…” D.H. said. Dinky sighed. “Alright…” The two quickly and quietly made their way to the train cars. The pair quickly darted from car to car as they nervously scanned their surroundings. Each one tugged at a set of train car doors and moved onto the next car as door after door held fast. “Wha!” D.H. gave out a cry of alarm as a door suddenly slid open. She lost her footing and fell to the gravel below. ‘Thump!’ Dinky tensed, turned, and looked down both sides of the long line of train cars. She cautiously walked up to her mom and helped her back up to her feet. D.H. smiled sheepishly at her daughter, then slowly pushed open the railroad car just enough that both she and her daughter could get in. Once the door was open enough to slip through, D.H. picked up her daughter and slowly raised her up to the opening. Dinky quickly climbed inside then turned as D.H. handed her the rattling E.D.G. Dinky then helped her mother up before D.H. closed the door behind them. With the door closed, the inside of the railroad car was pitch-black. There was a brief bit of rustling followed by the sound of a zipper being pulled. With a ‘click’ and a brief hum, light flooded the metal enclosure. D.H. let her eyes adjust as she noticed her daughter had pulled out a large silver flashlight/lamp/radio combination device. The handle was currently disconnected at the front and set upright as two tube-shaped fluorescent bulbs provided light. Dinky pressed a large button on front of the device and the large halogen bulb on the front suddenly lit up as well. D.H. chuckled. “Have enough light there, Dinkums?” “I also have my phone!” Dinky said cheerfully as she unzipped the small, front compartment on her backpack and pulled out a rectangular smartphone. She pressed a button on the side and the screen on the phone flashed to life. “Open up the text messaging,” D.H. said. Dinky nodded and pressed the screen a few times. “Okay, what now?” “You’re going to text all my friends. Maybe one or more of them isn’t too busy being attacked themselves to help…” Dinky frowned. “But I don’t have all your friend’s numbers!” D.H. shook her head. “That’s okay, I have them all memorized.” Dinky giggled. “Really?” D.H. nodded. “Sure! A few sets of three and four digits each is hardly a big deal… Heck! I remember back when people didn’t even carry cell-phones and they had to carry around little books or memorize the numbers.” Dinky laughed. “Hahaha… Really?! Geez, that must have been like forever ago!” One of D.H.’s eyes twitched slightly. “Diiiinkuuuums…”she uttered in a low, warning growl. Dinky giggled slightly. “Sorry mom…” she stared down at her phone. D.H. nodded and began listing off numbers. <-ooo-> “Bollocks…” the Doctor uttered as he poked his head out from behind a large black tanker car. “These androids certainly are persistent.” Crunchy sat on the ground next to the Doctor and desperately tried to catch his breath. “Huff… We… puff… runnin’… wheeze… again?” The Doctor sighed and examined his metal pipe that seemed to be getting increasingly bent out of shape every time he so much as glanced at it. “Well, yelling in alarm every time we bump into one and swinging this pipe isn’t getting us very far.” The Doctor quickly scanned his surroundings. “Hmmmmmm…” The Doctor smiled. “Crunchy, would you mind walking that way a bit?” the Doctor asked as he pointed down a line of tanker cars. Crunchy slowly rose to his feet and began walking. “Sure… huff… brah… What… cough… cough… for?” The Doctor began walking away from the tanker. “I’m afraid I’m using you as a bit of a distraction.”  Crunchy simply continued walking. “Oh… wheeze… s’all good… huff… brah.” “You there! Halt!” Crunchy jumped slightly and turned as a light-skinned and an olive-skinned android, both devoid of any hair, advanced on him. Part of the light-skinned android’s face was ripped, exposing the metal underneath and a cracked eye. Crunchy desperately tried to quicken his pace into a sprint, but found his body was capable of little more than a clumsy, quickened gait. The android quickly began to close the distance. ‘VRRRRRRM!’ The androids paused turned just as a forklift came barreling towards them, its long and dangerous-looking metal forks positioned at chest level. They both leapt out of its path, but the Doctor jerked the wheel and the vehicle swung after them. ‘SHHHHEEEEKREEEEECHCHCH!’ With the loud sound of metal scraping against metal, one of the forklift’s forks easily pierced the torso of the olive-skinned android and pinned it to the black metal tanker behind it. The Doctor leapt from the vehicle as it surged forward, pushing itself further into the black tanker. The android flailed briefly as a clear liquid sprayed out around the massive metal fork. The android slumped forward as its inner workings were suddenly flooded with fluid. The smell of gasoline filled the warm night air. The Doctor quickly rose to his feet, dusted himself off, and met up with Crunchy.  “Are you alright?” the Doctor asked he grabbed Crunchy’s jacketless arm and placed it over his shoulders. The Doctor picked up his pace, allowing Crunchy to lean some of his weight on him. “Oh… cough… I’m hanging… wheeze… in there, brah…” “Sorry to rush you, but there’s a chance the tanker behind us may explode…” “Is that… wheeze… good or bad… huff… puff… brah?” ‘Crunch.’ The Doctor and Crunchy heard the sound gravel being trodden on behind them. They turned to see the light-skinned android rapidly approaching them, gasoline dripping off its body. The Doctor frowned. “I’ll let you know if we survive this.” “The pipe?” Crunchy asked. The Doctor shook his head as the android continued its approach. “Dropped it when I jumped from the forklift I’m afraid. I guess we’re running again…” Crunchy reached into his coat. “Kinda feel like... huff takin’ it easy… puff  a bit… wheeze… brah…” As the android approached, Crunchy pulled out a zippo lighter with a red, a yellow, and a green stripe on it with the words ‘ONE LOVE’ printed in bold black letters. In what seemed like one swift movement, Crunchy flipped the lighter open, sparked the flame, and flicked the lighter into the gas-soaked android, lighting it instantly. ‘FOWSH!’ The android’s body jerked slightly as the flames consumed its body. It wordlessly flailed its arms for a bit before collapsing to the ground in a writhing fire mass. The Doctor shook his head. “Brilliant… bloody brilliant…” he said with a smile. “I aim… cough… cough… to please, brah…” “We better get a move on,” the Doctor said as he leaned down and placed Crunchy’s arm over his shoulder again. “I’m guessing all the noise and fire won’t go unnoticed…” Crunchy simply nodded as the two moved in a gingerly pace past the tanker cars and towards the cargo cars. After a bit of gingerly jogging, the Doctor suddenly spoke up, “Good.” “What’s that?” Crunchy asked. The Doctor chuckled. “I told you that I’d let you know if it was ‘good or bad’ that the tanker didn’t explode. Turns out it was good.” “Why’s that… cough… brah?” “We were still very close,” the Doctor said. His face turned serious. “Blast waves and fiery explosions are things best to experience from a distance.” Crunchy chuckled. “I hear ya… huff… Talk about… puff… buzz kill, dude…”