“Not that I know of.” Penny said. She looked back in the direction of
the light. “But for some reason, I don’t think whoever’s here is up to
any good.”
She paused for a moment, then decided what to do.
“I’m going to investigate.” she stated. “You have two choices. Stay right there or follow me.”
“…Well, then,” the Repairman replied, looking uncertainly at the light. Granted, he had a job to do, and she was apparently a plucky girl genius, but then, the job could wait, and neither one of them had any idea what was over there.
“…Let’s see what it is…”
Quickly, he tucked his tool cart into his hammerspace. He would have tiptoed towards the light, but seeing how he lacked legs, it looked more like he was shuffling and stopping to a cartoonishly sneaky rhythm.
“Okay, here goes nothing.” Penny gulped, tiptoeing towards the light source.
She sneakily peeked her body in the doorway and from the corner of her eye saw…
“Mike?!”
The karaoke robot turned to face Penny. His eyes flashed a bright red.
“Hey! What are you doing here?” He asked.
“I was going to ask you the same thing! Aren’t you supposed to be helping grandpa with his new project?” Penny shouted.
“What does that matter? You shouldn’t be here at this time! You’re fourteen!”
“You’re younger than me!”
Penny and Mike stared at each other.
“I’ll… keep this a secret if you will.” Mike said sheepishly.
“Okay, but what were you doing?” Penny questioned, looking very irritated.
“I was downloading Melody’s background music.” Mike confessed.
“–!” the Repairman exclaimed, spotting a tall, red-eyed robot. How much security did a game company NEED?! Or was this some kind of front, or…?
Wait, why was Penny bickering with him like he was a relative…? Oh, “grandpa”? That explains that…
He wasn’t sure if he was seen yet. This Mike character seemed more interested in Penny staying up late than a small, inky intruder.
He cleared his throat.
“…A-actually,” he began, “She was just making sure I didn’t do anything…Sorry ‘bout all this…”
“What? Lemme see that,” replied Bedlam. Falcon had barely looked back down at the Toon before Bedlam took it from Falcon’s grasp, squeezing their sides a bit. “Huh. You’re right. It is squishy. That’s weird. What kind of man-made phlebotinum you think they made this with?”
Falcon decided to stay silent, watching as his friend took it out of his grasp. He thought he had barely heard a snicker, but he didn’t comment on it. After all, it couldn’t have been the decoration laughing…right?
Okay, he was being handed off, maybe this one would–
WHY?
This creature was almost as ticklish as the other. The Repairman had no idea how long he would last. Experience told him he would only crack at the worst time. Clearly, the worst has yet to come. He hoped he could leave before then.
C’mon, the Repairman thought, desperately trying to will his way out of this, I’m just a different prop, nothing to see here put me down put me down put me…
Siblings-a-Fixin' 