"Now," Aiden dangled a miscellaneous piece of hardware in front of M's face, "I need more stuff like this. Wires, chips, lenses, etcetera etcetera. Can you do that for me?" They took out a few more pieces and displayed them to the larger drone.
M cocked his head to the side with a trill, staring at the hardware. Cautiously, he pawed at one, perking at the way it glinted in the moonlight.
Aiden frowned at the lack of response. They settled for animatedly gesturing between them and the items, "I like these kinds of things. You are able to go down and get them. Un-der-stand?"
M chirped out something akin to a laugh, seeming amused at the worker drone's miffed actions.
Chad sighed, finally no longer entertained by the other two's antics, and got up to intervene.
"Lemme try."
Aiden huffed, "Fine." They flopped onto their back with crossed arms, earning a puzzled look from M.
Chad crouched in front of the larger drone, "Hey man, can you get some more of these?" He pointed at the parts, then out the entrance, more towards the ground, "They're usually down there."
M took a few moments to process, before he perked up. Finally, he took off through the hole, leaving behind a very smug Chad and a baffled Aiden.
"I hate you with every atom of my being."
"Love ya too, bro."
"CHAD VALENTINO WILSON, WHERE THE DIGITAL HELL ARE YOU!?!"
Isabella was definitely not getting frustrated.
Even through the accumulating snow and the suspicious glints of yellow in the corners of her vision that always fled the second she looked towards them, she was not about to lose her temper.
That was what Mom did. That was what Dad did.
She wasn't like her parents. She was watching over Liam, keeping him safe, unlike them. And she was looking for her older brother, who they didn't even notice was gone.
Hesitantly, she wrapped her arms around Liam, the oversized paws of her onesie successfully covering his little body. She had to be the responsible one this time.
She noticed the yellow speck creep a little closer than before, but she ignored it. She didn't care for old caution tape blowing in the wind. She needed to find her brother.
The yellow disappeared.
Isabella tried to ignore the sense of dread building up in her core as things suddenly became too quiet. Liam whimpered slightly in his usual baby talk, seeming to sense it too.
Before Isabella could whisper something to comfort the untrained neural network, something swooshed from above.
She stopped dead in her tracks, whipping upwards just in time to see a terrifying shape blot out the moon. A large yellow X glowed at the thing's face, accompanied by a large maw of sharp teeth that made Isabella's legs go weak with fear.
She needs to run.
Run! she shouted at herself, internal voice sounding suspiciously like her brother's, Go, Isabella! RUN!!
But she couldn't. Her legs were fused to the ground as the thing dropped down from the air, crawling up to her on all fours. Its wings were spread menacing, tail with a matching yellow syringe at the end swishing behind it.
She whimpered as it stood up on pointed legs, staring down from almost twice her height. Its claws twitched, as if it was restraining itself from immediately pouncing on her.
Oh.
Wait.
It's not restraining itself at all.
Isabella yelped as it picked her up by the hood of her onesie, snapping back to reality and finally finding the strength to fight back. Keeping one arm securely around her brother, she screamed and kicked and tried her absolute hardest to get it to let her go.
Her attempts were futile though, as it held her at twice her own arm's length. She watched in horror as it grabbed her wrists, holding them to the side and it pushed its face much too close to hers.
"Oh, you really are adorable!" the thing cooed in a feminine, sickeningly sweet voice that reminded Isabella of her mother. "Such a cute little bunny!"
Moving to hold her up by her arms, she tipped Isabella's chin up with a massive claw, forcing her to make eye contact. The X in her visor glowed just like radiation.
Why did this have to happen while she had Liam with her? He was only a few months old, coding barely processed at all. In hindsight, she really shouldn't have brought him in the first place.
She cursed everything out there when the thing noticed her brother.
(Then thanked her parents for indirectly teaching her so many curse words.)
Surprisingly, the X on the thing's visor turned into a pair of eyes, though no less radioactive as before.
"What's that thing?" she poked Liam with the joint of her claw, earning a soft indignant baby noise.
"He's my brother!" Isabella finally managed to cry, "And don't touch him!"
She tried to kick at the thing, only to be held farther from it again.
The larger drone snickered, "Such a feisty little pet, aren't you?"
"Pet?" Isabella echoed in between her struggles, "I'm not a pet!"
She huffed at her, "You are now, little worker drone, and I suggest you stop fighting or else you and your tiny—.. 'bro-ther' ...are gonna die a very gruesome death, understand?" Her tone didn't match her words, like a poison apple dipped in caramel.
Isabella didn't respond, simply whimpering as the massive drone stared straight into her eyes.
She then yelped as she was maneuvered into being held at the drone's waist, wrists bound together by her stringy but surprisingly strong tail. She just barely noted how she tried not to crush the baby drone held to Isabella's chest as she started walking in a random direction.
"What's your name, pet?"
Isabella flinched, "W-Wha..?"
"Your name," it repeated, "unless you want me or X to name. I was actually thinking of something like Fluffy!"
I think I like my name, thank you very much.
"I-It's Isabella..." she finally stuttered out, "Isabella Wilson.."
"Oh, that's pretty!" the drone exclaimed, "Though I think Fluffy fits you a little better. Or maybe Peanut... Depends on what X thinks, though, since you're gonna be his therapy dog and all. Or bunny. Therapy bunny. Has a nice ring to it, y'know?"
"Therapy"? What was she talking about? Isabella couldn't be considered a therapist, especially when she needed one herself!
"Anyways, what's that brother thing?" she gestured toward the baby still strapped to Isabella's chest, blissfully unaware of everything going on now that he'd fallen asleep, "Is it some kind of pet? Sentient toy? Not-so-sentient toy?"
"Liam?" Isabella looked up at her, confused, "He's... my brother."
"And what exactly is that?" she asked, "It's so small and has such an inconvenient form."
"That's 'cause... he's a baby?"
Isabella couldn't help but snicker at the uncharacteristically innocent tilt of the massive drone's head.
"That too, what's that?"
Isabella thought about it for a few seconds, "Well, a baby's like... a mini, uncoded drone, I guess? They stay in this form, learning about the basics of, y'know, life, until both the parents' personalities fuse properly, so it doesn't hurt itself while everything processes."
The bigger drone hummed curiously, "That sounds cool. Weird. But cool. Explains why there's always so many worker drones."
Isabella shrugged, "Yeah, it is a little weird. But it gives us more.. I dunno, individuality? Which is ironic, 'cause my big brother's friend says we're just mimicking humans, so there's basically no point in trying to seem different."
"'Big' brother?" the drone echoed with a lull of amusement, "Do you guys rank by size or something?"
"Nope," Isabella said with a pop, "I mean kinda, but I call Chad my big brother 'cause he's the oldest, and Liam here my little brother 'cause he's the youngest!"
"And what about you?" the drone asked curiously, "What does that make you?"
"Ummm..." Isabella thought about it for a few more seconds, not noticing the amount of limbs that they had started passing, "Well, I'm Chad's younger sister, and Liam's older sister!"
"But what about those 'oldest' and 'youngest' titles? Why don't you get one?"
"I, uh..."
Huh. She didn't actually know why.
"Beeeecaaaaauuuse... I'm the middle child?" she guessed.
"So it's kinda like being second no matter what?"
Oof.
That kinda stung.
But… was she wrong, though?
"I guess?"