Robot Rescue (MST3K)

Part 5: Obligatory Action Sequence!

A/N: Torgo's music and the other "Manos" music should all be on YouTube if you are not familiar with them.

Fixing the truck proved to be an interesting challenge for Joel, as it seemed that no part of the truck was actually broken. He found, however, with the help of a couple of bypasses and little gizmos of his own design. By the time he was done, he'd redesigned the engine to run, not on fuel, but on table scraps like in Back to the Future, programmed an auto-pilot system, and installed a personality for it. He didn't have the stuff to make a voice chip on him, so for now the truck would have to make do with engine noises, blinkers, and other car attachments for self-expression, "But," he murmured to it, "I promise I'll get you one just as soon as I can, OK honey?"

            The truck didn't say anything, because Joel hadn't tried starting it yet. He climbed into the driver's seat, glancing back at the house. Hours had passed, but Mike never had emerged. Hopefully he was OK.

            "Alright, here we go," he said, turning the key.

            The engine coughed a few times, gagging, from the sound of it, on its new food, before roaring to life.

            "Yes!" Joel shouted, "Good job!" he patted the dashboard, "Now we can get out of here,"

            As soon as the words left his mouth, he heard Torgo, or rather, Torgo's music, approaching.

            "Hey Torgo," Joel said, "Have you decided about coming with us? I think it'd be real swell if you did," Joel purposefully chose very childish, cheesy sounding terms, in the hope that they would sound more familiar and comforting to Torgo.

            "ThE mAster would nOt aPprOVe," Torgo said, refusing to meet Joel's eyes. But even as he said it he threw his staff, the staff that ended with a hand on it, to the ground. Suddenly, he looked directly at Joel, his eyes flashing with panic, "iT wIll be dArk soOn,"

            "Surely not Torgo, it's only..." But Joel looked out the windshield to find the sun sinking fast behind the hill. He looked back at Torgo, "We need to find Mike, fast,"

            Joel clambered out of the truck, leaving the engine running. His redesign meant the truck could move on its own and also decide when it needed to power down. And besides, it would be safer to leave it running in case the mysterious "Manos" power made it cut out again.

            "ThE mAster would nOt aPprOVe," Torgo muttered again.

            "Torgo," Joel said, "Do you know where Mike is?"

            Slowly, Torgo nodded.

            "Can you show me?"

            Torgo didn't say anything, though for a moment it sounded almost like his theme music became faster, more frantic, before returning to its usual pace and sound. Then he turned around and started waddling out into the desert.

            Joel followed, though Torgo's pace was agonizingly slow. Soon enough, however, he recognized where they were. They were heading toward the place where the Master and his wives lay in their death/sleep/comatose state, along a path that almost blended in with the desert beyond. And just ahead lay that one lonesome fence post where the husband in the story was tied. In fact, Joel realized as they approached the pole, someone was tied to it right now.

            "Mike?" Joel called, but he didn't move. He ran down the rest of the path to the pole as the first stars began peeping out in the sky behind him. Mike's head lolled to the side, a lump almost like a cartoon poking out the back of his head, surrounded by sticky blood traces. "Torgo," Joel turned back to him, "Did you do this?"