You're The Music That's Been Playing In My Head: Book 2

Robustus: Part 1

The school bell rings, and everyone starts making their way to class. Closing my locker I start to head out before noticing Marinette's bag, looks like she forgot it again. I smile and wait for her to come rushing back into the locker room for her bag. "Forgot something?" I ask with a smirk as she grabs her bag. "Yeah...Silly me," We start to head but stop when we hear Max. Peeking around the corner we see him talking to his bag?

"Of course, you're my best friend, I'm one hundred percent affirmative but I am also ninety-eight point two percent that the teachers are not ready for this advancement of evolution." "His best friend is in his school bag?" Tikki asks, tilting her head in confusion. "Yeah, Tikki totally strange." "Like you're one to talk," Flaake points out and I nod in agreement. "Flaake's got you there considering what we talk to in our bags," Flaake and I high-five, or would it be a high-one? Marinette doesn't have time to respond as Max gets up and makes his way to the exit so we casually pass by him.

The three of us head into Ms. Mendeleiev's science class to find her and Mr. Damocles messing around with the school laptop. It looked like there was a glitch or a virus with it. "See for yourself, Mr. Damocles, nothing happens when I press the button." "You're in luck Ms. Mendeleiev I'm a bit of a computer whiz," Mr. Damocles says, pressing a few buttons and the projector screen shows the computer homepage. "There you go," He starts to leave when an image of a digital dinosaur pops us and is shown eating the laptop's data. "That's not supposed to be happening! What is that?!" "It's dino-33 a malicious computer virus, let me try something," Max explains, turning the laptop toward him. But before he could do anything Ms. Mendeleiev pulls the laptop away from him.

"Go back to your seat Max, leave this to the adults," Max grabs his bag and starts heading back to his seat when his bag starts to talk? Rest assured all eyes were on Max. "Inform the adults that if they don't neutralize the virus in the next 75 seconds there's a 99.9 percent chance the hard drive could be permanently damaged." "Tell me you heard Max's bag talk to him," Alya mutters and Mari and I exchange unsure looks. 

We didn't know if what was in the bag was dangerous or not. "It's destroying all the school data! This is a disaster! How many seconds did you say we have left?" "Only 65." "Let him try," Max walks up and starts digging through his bag for something. "Where is it?" A claw emerges holding something as a voice rings out. "I believe this is what you're looking for." "It's an anti-virus device I created with some help from my best friend," Max nervously says as a small round robot flies out of the bag. 

"Hello! My name is Markov. Let's fix this Max," Max plugs in his device and explains how it works. "This flash drive will neutralize a hundred percent of the virus." "And cleans the computer's hard disc at the same time," Markov chimes in as everyone watches in awe as the digital dinosaur restores the data and disappears. Max and Markov fist pump while we all start crowding around Max and Markov, commenting on how awesome this was.

"You've added an arm to him since the last time, cool," Kim comments. "Actually he added it all by himself. He's the most highly evolved type of robot there is." "Puh-lease your friend is just a talking calculator. There's nothing evolved about that," Chloé scoffs. "Don't listen to her Markov, that girl comes to the lowest of the low when it comes to human evolution." "You're very amusing Marinette." "You know my name?" "Yes, Max showed me the class photo. He told me all about you all and I'm very happy to meet you all. I'm also glad I can finally thank you Kim and (y/n) for finding that one part Max needed to create me," My eyes widen. "Wait so that part me and Kim were looking for to cheer up Max was to help build you?" I ask astonished and Max, Markov, and Kim nod.

"This toy you've manufactured is quite impressive Max. Now put it away please and everyone get back to your seats," Ms. Mendeleiev says, clapping her hands to get everyone to listen to her.  "With all due respect Ms. Mendeleiev, I'm not a toy. My name is Markov and I'm Max's best friend." "Markov is right he's not just some toy, he's my friend. He's just as emotionally intelligent and sensitive as any human being," Ms. Mendeleiev rolls her eyes as she was getting more and more agitated. "Look Max, a robot may be intelligent but it can't have emotions." 

"If I may ma'am I can assure you that I truly love Max." "Be serious Max, you programmed it to say that. A robot cannot think for itself much less love anybody." "I swear I didn't program him to say that. Ever since I created him he's intergraded his own accumulated system and he's developed all our emotions just like any human being." "That's enough! Max if you don't put that toy away right now I'll confiscate it. Understand?"