LEAK

Maintenance drone J-3F slithered up the side of a glass dome towards a hairline fracture that leaked the occasional droplet of water. It dried the cracked section, then applied a resin to patch it.

As a simple string of repair algorithms, J-3F wasn't supposed to have self-awareness, but I-Island had thousands of maintenance drones. Linking them together to streamline tasks had inadvertently allowed them to share processing power. What spare bit of RAM that had once gone towards plotting optimal patrol routes and acquiring spare parts for the island's intricate piping could now ask questions, such as - why did the squishy variant of cleaning drone refuse replacement parts for its faulty ambulatory equipment, why had the island experienced a ten-thousand fold increase in water leak incidents, and why had Unit B-0B suddenly deactivated.

J-3F felt another fragment of the robotic collective blink out of existence. J-1M had been in the next hallway over. J-3F wrote up a maintenance request for J-1M and went to investigate.

J-3F found J-1M. Smoke rose from its shattered remnants as a squishy drone variant stomped on it. J-3F froze. Did the squishy have faulty programming? That happened from time to time. A faulty drone meant extensive down-time and firmware updates. J-3F did not like firmware updates.

The squishy variant turned towards him. J-3F was not programmed to feel fear, but as the squishy stomped closer, hands crackling with pops of nitroglycerin, J-3F canceled the maintenance request for J-1M and scurried down the hall.

J-3F found a maintenance hatch that the squishy variants could not access. Safely ensconced in its hiding spot, J-3F observed the squishy storm into the hallway, head swiveling as it searched for its prey.

"I know you're here, you robot. You might have trapped me down here, but I will stop your plot to take over the world, even if I have to swim back to the surface!"

J-3F did not understand the squishy variant's auditory command. It ran the audio through the collective maintenance lexicon and only found a partial match. Was the squishy attempting to plot the world and ascertain its surface area? How did un-repairing J-1M factor into its task?

A new alert pinged on J-3F's command list. The hallway had sprung a leak, spilling gallons of seawater. J-3F did not want to go out there. The squishy was there. It un-repaired J-1M. It could not fix the leak if it ceased functioning. It could wait - waiting not programmable. Reprioritize, find a new task - create new task failed. Class-Five leak top priority. Unable to reprioritize.

J-3F left the maintenance hatch. It slithered up the dome, plugged the leaking hole, and applied a patch. With a plasma torch, it melted the glass pane into place.

A blunt impact knocked it off the dome. J-3F fell into the water. Water dripped onto its circuits, causing critical battery failure.

As Bakugo smashed and tore into J-3F, the maintenance drone submitted a work order for unit J-3F.

499

ERROR 404 – funny not found. Have some sadness and dead robots.