Smithy turned back and eyed the Repairman. “And WHAT would THAT be?”

Bowyetta tried to continue despite her “tears”. “It is being much priceless artifact! We are going far away to-”

Smithy gave Bowyetta one last shake, causing more of her possessions to drop from her hair. At this point she looked like she was about to faint. “Do you REALLY think I’m that stupid?! That thing has no value to us here!” And with that, Smithy turned away once more to carry Bowyetta off to the furnace.

“Bowyetta is feeling like is going to being sick…”

From the back of the room, there was another voice. “Hey now! I saw that! Smithy killed our brother AND made off with Bowyetta! And we’re not gonna stand for it!”

Several more of Bowyetta’s arrows gathered from the edges of the room, swarming around the group.

“W-whoa!” Beepsumu covered her screen.

“Chill out, Beepy! We’ve burned out now, and only Bowyetta can ignite our souls again! To most Bowyers, we’d be disposable, but she never threw us out!”

“Yeah, and we want revenge for what Smithy did to our brother too!”

The arrows seemed to be implying that they wanted to be carried with the group. The girls looked at each other before Beepsumu answered. “W-well, you can’t ride around inside MY head. I can’t afford to damage my circuits.”

When the arrows looked at Bonkakira, she replied with “Bonkakira doesn’t think all of you would fit in her hair.”

Jingletooth’s response was “I don’t even HAVE hair!”

Well, he should have expected that the paddleball wouldn’t have worked. But he was a Toon; he had to have tried it.

What he didn’t expect was an army of arrows to surround them, rallying to aid Bowyetta and avenge the squashed one.

“All right,” he sighed, “get in.”

As they clambered excitedly into his hammerspace, he heard something crunch. Apparently he was going to go and find another vinyl after all this.

Once all the arrows were there, he continued pursuing Smithy. Not like there was much else he could do to help.

And then he realized he had no idea where Smithy was.

Wait a minute…

The Repairman still knew where the house was (thanks to the breaks in the Wall). Didn’t someone say that that led to Smithy’s room?

He decided to take a total shot in the dark and rush that way. Hopefully, an arrow could correct him if this was wrong.

Beepsumu continued. “T-there was… A-a fire! In… One of the rooms…”

Bonkakira stepped in, tripping over Beepsumu and Jingletooth in the process. “But it totally wasn’t her fault. Uh-uh. She had nothing to do with it. At all.”

Even Jingletooth spoke up. “It was ALL ME! I was ATTEMPTING to UPLOAD myself to the INTERNET!”

Smithy didn’t even blink at Jingletooth’s answer. “Ho! So you think you’re one of MY workers, are you? You think I don’t know about this one? You think I don’t know that SHE’S been causing these fires, and that SHE came back just to trash the place?!”

He gave Bowyetta another hard shake, this time knocking several things out of her hair, including another arrow. This one, however, had something to say about all this. “Yo, Santa Claus! Quit shakin’ our master around! She’s not-”

Before it could finish its sentence, Smithy slammed his hammer on the ground, crushing the poor creature under it. The girls could only stare in stunned silence, except for Bowyetta, who screamed at the sight. “This one’s defective, that’s what she is! And defective products get send BACK TO THE FACTORY!” Smithy then turned away to carry Bowyetta off further into the factory.

The Repairman flinched as the poor arrow was crushed. He, too, said nothing, but noticed he could finally move. Must’ve been the jolt.

As Smithy was shuttling Bowyetta off, the inkblot went up to the pancake of an arrow. He picked it up carefully, then shook it like a rug. Within a second, it popped back into a more proper arrow shape. It still looked battered, and it wasn’t exactly conscious, but at least it wasn’t flat. He carefully put it into his hammerspace, then picked up his dropped items and started heading towards Smithy.

“Um, sir,” he called out, “aren’t you forgetting something?”

He waved the paddleball from before above his head as he rushed towards the mechanical monstrosity. Hopefully, by some miracle, this would work…

At this point, Bowyetta wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. “All of this is all being Bowyetta’s fault…” Her lip twitched slightly, and some sort of liquid began to fill up her eyes.

Beepsumu tried to approach her, but the dog arrow from before stopped her. “Excuse me, miss~! It isn’t a good idea to get near her right now~ She’s about to-”

Without another word, Bowyetta began rapidly firing arrows from herself. She meant to aim for the crowd of Bowyers, but being one herself her aim wasn’t exactly the best, sending flaming arrows in every direction except straight ahead.

Even Beepsumu was starting to get a bit panicked. “Whoa! Hey- Bowyetta- Just- Calm down- Uh-”

Bowyetta didn’t seem to be listening. She was too busy desperately trying to save her new friend- Too busy to even notice when a very large figure appeared behind her.

“What IS going on in here?!”

At the figure’s voice, all the Bowyers dispersed. All except Bowyetta, who continued shooting arrows. She didn’t even notice until she got grabbed.

“Eeek! Please to be putting Bowyetta down! Please be saving Bowyetta!”

As the Bowyers scattered, they forgot all about their prize, who fell to the floor and splattered onto his back.

He still couldn’t move, but he could see a giant metal king-like character with a beard that would flow if it wasn’t forged. This must be the “Smithy” Bowyetta was talking about. He certainly sounded the part, all booming and scary, and it was clear from his looks that he wasn’t about to offer anything nicer than a cold dungeon stay.

He watched in shock as Smithy grabbed Bowyetta. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do. He was now more of a mess than any form, but he still couldn’t move.

“Um…sir?” he tried. “I-I can explain, sir!”

After a moment, he added, “Sorry for not saluting, but there was a mix-up with the Bowyers, sir!”

Beepsumu reached out to stop the Repairman, but before she could get a word out, the room was filled with the shouts of the angry Bowyers, as they began chasing and firing arrows at the source of the noise.

Bowyetta, on the other hand, screamed and hit the deck as soon as she heard the siren. She nearly got herself trampled that way, but at least now she was easier to tell apart from the rest. The dog-arrows from before returned to her hair. “Oh, Bowyetta~! Fear not, we’ve returned to you~! But our new friend may be in trouble~!”

Bowyetta sat up and attempted to shout to the Repairman. “Wait! Do not be to provoking them! If one of those arrows is hitting you…” She stood up and attempted to stop them herself.

Beepsumu grabbed her and pulled her back. “Wait a minute! What’s going to happen to YOU if you get hit?”

“B-but… He is being in much danger…”

“It’s alright, we can go after him. But don’t try to handle it yourself.” Beepsumu stood up, leading the group out of hiding, and tried to chase after the rioting mechanical hoard themselves.

The Repairman, meanwhile, saw arrows fly past him and looked back as he fled. Thankfully, these guys appeared to be lousy shots, at least when running. The arrows that would have struck true were pretty easy for the inkblot to dodge. He only had to bend his body a certain way, then snap right back.

Still, he didn’t know how long his luck or his stamina would last (both were notably inconsistent). He turned into the nearest doorway and quickly muted his siren. Hopefully, if he could just cover up his siren, he could just wait for the Bowyers to run past…

No dice. Those guys could be fast.

The Repairman was paralyzed by surprise, and then paralyzed by an arrow. He could only shout “hey!" as his attacker picked him up and showed him to the others. He heard a few clatters; apparently they knocked his hammerspace loose. His few belongings fell to the floor, but the mechanical monstrosities didn’t seem to care. They were too excited about their new, dripping discovery, apparently. A chorus of "Nyas!” and various chatters flooded the area.

They went to carry him who-knows-where, while he just kept protesting, shouting things like “Lemme go!” and “What’re you doing!” the whole way. That seemed like the right thing to do. Heck, it seemed to be the only thing he could do. That and drip. Apparently these guys didn’t care about inkstains on them or their floor, either,

The dog arrow picked itself up out of Bonk’s hand. “Oh~! You found her~! Now, we just need a way to get to her~”

Beepsumu tried whispering to her. “Hey! Bowyetta, we’re over here!” Bowyetta didn’t seem to hear at first, so Beep tried again. “Bowyetta, it’s us! If you hear us, give us a signal or something.”

Bowyetta quickly perked up, her smile returning as she turned toward Beepp. She was about to call to her, but stopped herself when she saw Beep’s expression. She looked around in her hair-space, searching for something to signal the others with.

Beep’s face went from serious to shocked when she saw Bowyetta produce one of her dog arrows and load it into herself. She tried to stop her but-

Uh oh.

Despite all of Bowyetta’s paint, the arrow burst into flames as soon as it struck against her body. As it streaked towards the group, the dog-arrow shouted at the top of its voice. “Tallyho! Tallyho, Bowyetta, let’s burn the place down!” The arrow very nearly grazed Beepsumu’s head, almost giving away their location, and the room suddenly fell silent, save for the constant noises of machinery.

The dog arrow whispered to the group. “Now would be a good time to hide~ I do not know what the Bowyers will do if they see you~”

The Repairman let out a reflexive “yow!” as a searing arrow flew shouting above him.

Well then. So much for sneaking back out.

He turned to look at all the machines, as they all turned towards the one he recognized. Of course it couldn’t be that simple.

He seemed to realize something, as he motioned for the rest of the group to stay where they were.

“Meet ya back at the house,” he whispered.

And with that, he began moving more towards the outskirts of the crowd of robots.

He looked to his siren light, still blinking bright red. Without moving it, he opened a panel he wished he didn’t have to open again. Behind it was a knob, and several buttons.

He braced himself, and turned the dial all the way to the right.

WHEE-OOO! WHEE-OOO!

All the Bowyers jumped and turned to look at the Repairman. Without another word, he covered where his ears would be and fled the room, hoping they would give chase.