This was the strangest day of Susie's life.
Not only did Robes, the grotesque amalgamation of flesh, wires, and machinery that claimed to have crash-landed from another world, screech at the machine that she had tried and failed to activate for years and succeed, but after staring at the machine for slightly more a second she swore and promptly collapsed into two extremely high quality extendo-arms that she never knew it had.
All in all, she supposed it could have been worse. Though she should probably check up on Robes. The crash was still quite recent, and the witch wasn't able to get a read on the condition of her mechanical bits. There was probably some damage that they missed.
As she approached the machine, who had by now lowered Robes to the floor, its ocular suddenly snapped towards her, making her flinch. Before she could start walking again, it spoke.
"Please do not approach the unconscious cyborg." It droned. "The presence of too many sapients around her may cause her to panic. Maintain a minimum distance of 3 feet until she is restored to an acceptable norm."
She blinked. This was new. Automatons usually weren't this talkative right after activating. Nor did they not trust their own creators to be around damaged mechanisms.
"Right, but I'm the best roboticist within 50 miles, and my compatriots are not far behind." She said. "If she is suffering from a mechanical malfunction, I'm one of the best people to have around her."
"Improbable." The A.I. retorted. "Fully developed organics are more experienced and skilled than juvenile ones, nor should they be allowed to handle delicate medical procedures and power tools."
She narrowed her eyes. Automatons were not supposed to blatantly insult their creators like that, especially if it was completely uncalled for. She wasn't a child, dammit! And gremlins were supposed to be this small. Hel, she was actually quite developed for her kind!
"Look. I'm gonna go with my better judgement here and be civil about this. That was a low blow, and completely uncalled for. I am your creator, and while I don't demand obedience, I expect at least a little respect, since I created you and all that. I am a full grown adult, as are the rest of my peers, and We'd appreciate you leave the insults for a time when somebody isn't passed out on the floor."
"Your concerns are noted." It responded. Almost as soon as it had finished that sentence, it removed its ocular from Susie and snapped towards the gyobo-danuki. "Greetings, organic. What is your designation?"
"Call me Ms. Jia." It responded, slightly bewildered by the machine's behavior.
"Understood. Ms. Jia, I have a question for you: Are you the legal guardian of one or more of these children?" It responded.
"WHAT?! Are you crazy?! No!" She replied with indignity. "How the Hel would these gremlins be my kids?!"
"You'd think that our salaries would have given that away." Muttered another gremlin.
Before the danuki could deliver a scathing retort, the man of iron interjected. "Understood. Please watch over the cyborg while the safety of the children is ensured."
"Oh, su—wait, what? What children?"
"The ones within this room." Directing its attention toward the gremlins, it snapped its ocular toward Susie as she started speaking.
"What did I say about calling us children, automaton?" She warned. The noise was making her hangover worse, and her own creation just completely ignored her and continued to insult her to her face. It was getting extremely hard to keep herself under control.
"Irrelevant." It said, rising to its full height of nine feet, nearly touching the ceiling. "Individuals lacking fully-developed primary processing cores should not be handling state-of-the-art Federation weaponry or power tools without adequate supervision. Come with me, we shall locate your progenitors."
Susie was aghast. Did it actually go so far as to demand she let it take her to her parents?! She was not a child to be disciplined, she was a certified archaeo-engineer, and a skilled one at that! Hungover, sleep-deprived, and insulted so thoroughly by her greatest work yet, she flew into a frothing rage. This slight was one that would not go unanswered.
Against her better judgement, she charged the machine. Dodging its first and second extendo-arms, she nearly reached the main body, but was unable to dodge the hand equal in size to her torso that closed around her.
Lifted into the air and held at an arm's length, she squirmed in the machine's vice-like grip, using what extendo-arms not caught in its grip to swipe at its ocular, while letting off a litany of curses vile enough to curdle milk.
One of the machine's extendo-arms the reached for her back, while the machine's grip loosened slightly. Too distracted by the drop in pressure, Susie was too busy trying to pry the fist open to notice the extendo-arm's goal until it was far too late.
She could only watch as it precisely lifted the backpack containing her extendo arms off her back and laid it gently down on a nearby workbench.
"Hey! Give 'em back, you piece of shit! I turn you from a barely-functioning heap of scrap to a functioning mechanism and this is how you repay me?"
The machine did not respond, instead using the same extendo arm that had removed her own apparatus to grab her by the back of her shirt and lift her behind it.
As the fist loosened around her, she took the opportunity to start struggling, the opportunity for freedom restarting the flow of profanity. She hoped that she could shift her weight enough to tear her shirt off and escape that way.
This elicited a reaction from the machine. "Please, do not struggle." It intoned. "Struggling and other similar reactions will force me to enact disciplinary measures and transport you in a less comfortable manner."
"Really, bolt-bucket? You call this comfortable?" She snapped back.
Unfortunately, this got no response from the machine. Maybe if she struggled a bit more it would make it let her go?
As she readied to give a more vitrolic remark, the machine spoke once more. "Children, voluntary compliance will result in you not sharing your comrade's transportation method."
Before any of them could respond, Susie yelled for help. "The fuck are you waiting for, get me down from here and get it under control!" She could only hope that the machine had let its guard down while asking for their surrender.
Her plea for help seemed to have worked. The rest of the gremlins grabbed whatever dangerous-looking items they could get their hands on and assumed fighting stances.
"Alright, Betty, Carrie, and Marie take left, '-zzy' gang take right." One of the gremlins ordered. Not waiting for a sign that she was heard, she continued to give orders. "Ada, get the automatons in here; Petra, get Susie down while the rest distract them." She paused. "Rosie and Diane, on me. We take the front."
A chorus of acknowledgement was their response.
"Alright, BREAK!" She shouted, and the gremlins charged.
The sight of her comrades fearlessly charging the machine that had humiliated her so easily filled her with vigor once more. She struggled with a previously absent fervor, intent on getting free from the machine's grip. While she couldn't directly participate in the fight, she could draw its attention, and considering there were 11 combatants with more on the way, a single lapse could be the deciding factor.
She just hoped the machine couldn't keep track of them all.