Author's Note: Ok, so I decided to take a page from Plush Chrome and Crystal Rose of Pollux and do a series of short fics based on some of my favorite episodes. The first one is Monkee vs Machine. I wanted to do a little perspective of what was going through the guys' minds as everything was happening. Hope you all like it. Thanks to both ladies for giving me the inspiration. I really liked this episode cause I personally think it's message reaches us into this generation, too. People are better than machines. I hate calling a customer service dept for instance and listening to a robot. That's not customer service. So without further babble….

Down with the Machines

Peter kicked at a rock in the street. He felt miserable. How had a machine outsmarted him? He hated machines. He liked people. People could smile. People could laugh. People could reason. When he'd first walked into the room, he was overwhelmed with confusion. He thought he was going to be interviewed by a person, not a machine. So when it had asked for his name, the only thing that came to his lips was "What?" The machine hadn't seen how nervous, confused or overwhelmed he was. Because it was a machine. And not a person.

He moped all the way back to the pad. The guys had been relying on him so much to get this job. Micky would have made a terrible lion feeder; he was so hyper, he'd probably terrify all the lions. Peter was in such a terrible mood that not even the mental image of Davy delivering pianos by bike made him smile. He almost didn't want to open the door to the pad, but knew he had to face his friends. He knew they wouldn't blame him, but he still didn't want to face them. He'd let them down.

He forced himself to open the door anyway. He was greeted by Davy riding around the living room on the unicycle with a big smile on his face. Micky jumped out in front of him and gave him a big hug.

"Hooray for Peter!" he exclaimed. "Why are you not 'hooray'-ing with me?" Micky asked after a moment.

"'Cause I was rejected," Peter answered solemnly.

"What?" Mike asked sitting on the stairs perusing through today's newspaper. Peter sighed and sat on the stairs next to Mike and recounted the whole day's events. Davy and Micky walked over to listen.

"No experience and no training necessary, and I couldn't even get that job," Peter said when he'd told of how the machine had left him completely befuddled and second guessing himself. "That machine was ten times smarter than me!"

"Look, man, its ok," Mike said patting him on the shoulder in support. "Besides, you've got something that machine don't have."

"Hmm?" Peter mumbled.

"You've got friends."

"Hey you've got some friends, Pete?" Micky asked jokingly. "Bring 'em over some day!" And in spite of everything that had happened and how downtrodden he felt, he smiled. He knew he could always count on Micky to cheer him up.

Now it was Mike's turn to feel terrible. He had gotten the job by outsmarting the machine, a feat he still wasn't sure how he managed to pull off, but he had met a really nice man who was being treated like dirt and there was nothing he could do. What was the world coming to? Machines were taking over the lives of human beings. Taking their jobs and taking all the human-ness out of everything. A machine couldn't account for human joy, happiness, misery or anything like that. And yet this company would rather their machines make their toys instead of a wonderful man who clearly loved making toys. He sat and thought for a while until Davy gave him an idea. Two little words was all it took. "Child's play." He knew his friends weren't going to like the plan, but it was all they had. Mike wasn't sure why, but he felt it was his duty to help this man whom he hadn't even known a day prior.

So they worked out the details of their plan, packing childish clothes, women's clothes, wigs, and other things they'd need. Micky had even found a detonator suggesting he could blow up one of the toys during the durability test. Mike was reluctant at first but agreed when Micky assured him the charge wasn't big enough to actually hurt anyone. Micky knew more about that stuff than he did, so he'd trusted Micky and let him pack it.

Once they got to the toy factory, everything was set in motion. Mike wasn't prepared to see his friends dressed as children and mothers, so he had to stifle a laugh when Peter and Davy came in first. Davy shot him a look that could kill an elephant, but took his frustration out on Mr. Daggart by kicking him in the shin. He thought it was so much fun, that he quickly got into his role of distracting child.

He still found it hard not to laugh when Davy came in a while later dressed as Micky's mother. Micky was very into his role from the beginning. Mike assumed it was because he'd get to blow something up as well as kick Mr. Daggart in the other shin. Mike bit his bottom lip trying not to laugh. He nearly lost it when Micky came in dressed as Peter's mom for the third test. Peter really enjoyed kicking Mr. Daggart in the shin and Mike assumed it was because he felt it was Mr. Daggart who had set the machine up that had made him feel like a failure.

Micky was enjoying himself, despite being dressed as a woman. Until, that is, Mr. Daggart came in saying he smelled a rat. Micky tried desperately to keep their cover, by adopting a high pitched voice and trying to get them out of there. But he froze and winced when Peter accidentally blew it by talking about how he shaved in the morning. All he could do was stand there as Mr. Daggart ripped off first Peter's hat then Micky's wig. He wasn't sure what was going on as Mr. Daggart walked over to one of the mothers of the other children, but knew it was bound to be bad. Peter stood next to him and Micky could almost feel the guilt coming from him for having blown their cover. This was only made worse when Mr. Daggart ripped off the woman's skirt trying to prove she was a fraud, too. Micky laughed and tried to make Peter feel better by goofing off. He did the only thing he could think of and that was to cover Peter's eyes from the scene like any other mother would for her child. It worked, Peter laughed.

But their laughter was short-lived as they all got fired, including Pops, the man they were trying to help in the first place. Peter excused himself to his room, and the others had decided to leave him be. Until Mike had come up with a plan to set everything right. And it was right in the end. Mr. Daggart got fired, Pops got promoted and millions of kids were happy. They even got to keep the machine to help them find other employment so they could keep paying their rent, but Micky knew the machine wouldn't stay in the pad very long when it kept telling them to do construction work. Something none of them were very good at and they all hated. The day had just been one giant emotional roller-coaster for all of them.