“4,000? You see that, Johnny? That’s more than-oh.”

Attie was impressed. He’s getting a lot better at those illusions.

“Perfect, perfect. We’ll take it from here. “

The Chief never knew Problemsolvers was such a good service. Fights, excitement. This was a dream come true: now she could outsource the law enforcement and focus on what she really loved: watching the whole thing go down from a distance. She clicked a button on her arm to mark the job completed and left her rating.

“Brilliant, T! Bad Guys: DEFEATED.”

This was the life, thought Attie. Big fights, giant robots, throwing around piles of rubble. She was proud, proud of Johnny, proud of Titanzer. Even if the robot was a bit wimpy, it at least had the good sense to obliterate a building when you asked politely.

“Whatever.”

Another hope, crushed. Maybe, thought Johnny, this was what he deserved. Perhaps he unknowingly got cursed by some website he signed up for. Maybe this was one of those puzzles you can’t solve unless you give up trying. No, that can’t be it.

“Uh, sorry.”

Why did they make it do that? Titanzer hated being forced to punch things. It was bad enough that it had to stand here among all the police cars (what if he stepped on something?). But now it had to think about what it’d done. And it did exactly that, until he realized it didn’t have to because they used the manual over ride. See? Laziness wins again.

Attie heaved the debris apart with gusto. Wow, she’s gonna have to blog about this one. I wonder what her problemsolver score is now? Johnny, however, felt exactly the opposite.

The police took tactical positions, zooming in with wide angle lenses to scope the scene. It was nothing but rubble. And no sight of the Problemsolvers.