Machines Gone Wild!(open)

[tobias]

Tobias was running. Now, one usually ran in a corridor because they were late for something. For most, it was oversleeping and class was about a minute from starting. Maybe a date or some outing with a significant other. Or maybe something big was going down. However, one thing needed to be considered in the person running:

It was Tobias Falas.

How did this start with you running you may ask? Well, it started when he got sick of cleaning up after himself. It was such a waste of time to him. So what would a tinkerer of machines do? He'd build a robot to do it himself. That part went well. He had a nice little robot to do his dirty work and he could just play all happily and worry-free about making a mess.

The trouble, if it had to be placed somewhere, was probably when he was rummaging around and found parts to make a flamethrower. Most people wouldn't bother, and even if they made one, wouldn't do anything stupid. To Tobias? He saw a chance to make something beautiful: A cleaning robot with a built-in flamethrower in the chest. So he did. However, somehow he screwed up with his technomancy and it began shooting fire and began chasing him.

Which brings us to the present.

"KILLER ROBOT! MAD ROBOT SHOOTING FIRE IN THE CORRIDORS!" He yelled as he ran, narrowly avoiding getting his butt burnt by the built in flamethrower. Thing was fast, he had to admit. The turns were the only saving grace there, they slowed it a bit.

"MUST CLEAN ALL HUMANS!" The robot said in its robotic voice, shooting another bit of flame.

"SHUT UP TERMINATOR! FREAKY MATRIX PSYCHO ROBOT! RUN!" He said, giving warning to anyone near. Now, if he hadn't had if fully charged, it wouldn't be a problem. It would die in a few hours, he'd fix it, boom bam done. Problem? He had been the responsible person and plugged the robot in last night? Right now? It could go about 10 hours.

[Ϛ Jamie Matthews]

Jamie was sort of drifting along in life. He wasn't technically attending classes, yet he spent all of his time at the Academy, cleaning up and fixing and tutoring and such. It was like he'd taken on an unofficial job as teacher/handyman, and so far, he'd either been lucky enough or helpful enough that the Academy hadn't bothered to do anything about it. Which was good, because he had no idea what he would do otherwise.

However, until now, he hadn't been needed for much more than that. He would have protected the school if it needed protecting, but the opportunity had never presented itself (something Jamie was not unhappy to note).

Again, until now.

Jamie heard the panicked yelling, and something about killer robot, and figured he could probably help. He wasn't really afraid - after all, he'd been a vampire-hunter-in-training years younger than he now was - but he was definitely a little nervous. Robots were new. Did they even exist?

Finding his way to the commotion, he reasoned out a course of action. He figured he could either try to rust the robot, which would take a lot of energy, or hope it ran on a battery and wear that out. Either way, he felt like his Gift was a pretty good match for a robot.

That is, until he popped around a corner (only just avoiding being run over by a fleeing Tobias) and saw the flames the robot was spouting.

Jamie's eyes went wide and he froze in terror, staring at the fire and heat the robot was spewing. He'd been afraid of fire for years now, ever since a bully had set his hair on fire in the library, and recovering the memory of his mother being burned at the stake when he was younger had not helped with that.

All resolve, all logic, thrown out the window, Jamie stood like a green-haired deer in front of flame-spewing headlights.

[tobias]

Tobias ran past a green-haired kid and looked back. The kid wasn't running? Huh? Did he not know that fire plus person equals human well-done? Now his own creation was going to injure and possibly kill someone? Wouldn't that be something to explain to the folks. So far nobody had DIED from his robots or other inventions that had a nasty habit of going amok. It always happened because while he was good at getting his gift to work, it always worked out in the worst possible way, usually by doing this or by blowing up.

Skidding to a halt, he knew he had to get the green-haired boy out of there. After all, it was his fault this creature was going crazy, which meant anything it did was inadvertently his fault. He went back and grabbed the appearing frozen boy's arm. "Come on! Run!" He said, giving the boy a tug. If he was an adult, he might be able to grab this guy and run. However, he had two things going against that. First he was fifteen. Secondly he was not by any means strong.

Waving a hand in front of the stranger, he gave another tug as the robot approached. "Come on! It's going to burn you!" He said as the robot got closer, saying, "MUST CLEAN!" And shooting fire from the built-in flamethrower.

[Ϛ Jamie Matthews]

The arm Tobias grabbed moved, limply, like that of a marionette, and Jamie swayed from the force of the pull, but otherwise he did not budge. His mind was too busy playing scenes from his memories back to him in slow-motion; a Spaniard with an affinity for flames, testing out his newest ability on Jamie; his godfather trying to stop him from seeing his mother being burned alive, but failing to block out the sound... It would have been a surprise if Jamie could have even seen the advancing robot anymore.

The second round of waving and shouting and pulling seemed to get through to him, though, and his eyes focused as he snapped out of it - whatever 'it' had been, exactly. He noticed the heat of the flame approaching, and acting more out of instinct than any rational thought, he rolled across the ground and dove at the base of the robot, reaching a hand out to touch it. Concentration (and perhaps the heat of the nearby flamethrower) causing beads of sweat to appear on his brow, he went to work with his Gift.

The flame was dangerously close, and not getting any further away, but Jamie worked quickly. Circuits began shorting, batteries and napalm supplies running themselves dry, rust appearing in vulnerable areas, and before long at all, the robot had ceased. Jamie sighed, rolled onto his back, and looked Tobias in the eyes.

"Was that your robot?" he asked, sounding awfully chipper for someone in his position. But he didn't ask so he could get Tobias in trouble. In fact... "I'm sorry I ruined it, but he was gonna cook us." He hint of pink crept into his pale cheeks and he smiled an embarrassed sort of smile.

[tobias]

Tobias just stared as the kid went down at the robot. What on earth was he doing? He was going to become a crispy fry at that idea. It became abundantly clear once the robot stopped that the mysterious person had done something to the robot. If he had to guess? Gift. Possibly a trait. Maybe an aspect.

When the kid spoke, Tobias had already gone to take a look at the robot. Two reasons why. One was to figure out what went wrong. The other was to figure out what the other person had done to it. From there, he could deduce the gift or trait or aspect or whatever. "Yes, he's my robot. Sorry about him trying to cook us." Tobias said sheepishly. It always was awkward apologizing for such things. Then again, he had gotten used to it.

Taking a closer look at the robot, he noticed the rust first and foremost. What happened? He knew for a fact he didn't use things that were rusty. Although given his record with machines, maybe he should. "What did you do?" He asked inquisitively. Just a few seconds of it stopping and he was already trying to analyze everything. "Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Tobias. What's yours?" He asked the mysterious rust-making kid that had helped stop his robot.

[Ϛ Jamie Matthews]

"That's okay!" Jamie assured Tobias, scratching a curious itch on the back of his head. "But I don't think he knew what cleaning was! Next time you should tell him that fire is messy!" The comment wasn't meant as criticism; Jamie's tone suggested that he was merely pointing out something that would have been simple to miss, a mistake anyone could have made. In fact, Jamie was sure he would have done an even worse job; he knew next to nothing about robots, other than the fact that they were sometimes cute, sometimes scary.

"That's okay," Jamie said again, this time with a hint of a giggle in the words. "Sometimes I forget to introduce myself, too. I'm Jamie! Nice to meet you, Tobias." Jamie turned to the robot. "Not so nice to meet you, Mr. Barbecue," he said, as if scolding the machine for being a naughty child.

Remembering Tobias had asked what he had done, Jamie thought for a moment on how to explain it. "Well-llll... I didn't make him rust, and I didn't make his battery run out, but that's probably what happened." Jamie wasn't even aware of any other damage he might have caused. All he knew about the composition of robots was that there was metal and batteries. "All I did was make something that would have happened anyway happen faster."

Jamie took another good look at the rust, and felt bad again for wrecking the robot. Maybe the boy could have re-used the outside parts and put not-crazy inside parts in? "I'm sorry I got him all rusty. I should have just ran out the battery, but I didn't know where it was so I had to do all of him... Can you still fix him? I hope so!" His eyes widened just then, and his mouth let out an excited 'oooh!' noise. "I know! I can help you! I don't know much about robots, but I'm good at following instructions." Jamie beamed, apparently very proud of this idea, or just happy he could do another good deed for someone.

[tobias]

Huh? That was just a little bit on the confusing. He made it happen faster but he didn't make it happen in itself. Hmm, well, sounded a bit confusing but aw well. Unless he was some sort of time tampering person, it was beyond him. At least it, whatever it was, worked to stop it. That was all that mattered after all right?

"That would work. Let me see one second if any bit will still work." Tobias said, putting a hand on the robot and trying to feel through the machinery. Maybe it would tell him what parts didn't need to be replaced. After all, if he had some parts still worked it was less a thing he had to hunt for elsewhere.

What he hadn't factored in was the other thing that happened when he used his power. Usually there were one of two things with him: Either it tried to kill him or it blew up. A loud screeching noise was heard and the robot made a small explosion. Not enough to hit far or even decent distance, but enough so that Tobias got sent flying.

Tobias landed on the ground with a thud. A bit dizzy, he remained there a moment before lifting up his torso. "I think that thing didn't liked me too much. Suicide bomber robots are not a very friendly cleaning service." He said and looked around. "Uh....oops?" He said and got up. "At least it is easier to carry the pieces than a big robot right?" He asked optimistically.

[Ϛ Jamie Matthews]

"Okay," Jamie said with a nod, stepping away from the defunct robot to let Tobias do his thing. A move he grew to appreciate as the machine proceeded to explode; an act that caused Jamie to squeak and shield his head with his arms, peeking out only after the tinkling of metal parts on the floor had ceased.

"Are you okay?" Jamie asked, voice painted thick with concern as he saw that Tobias had been thrown from the robot. He hurried to the boy's side, trying to help him to his feet. Hearing him joke about the explosion, Jamie laughed with relief. "I don't think that robot liked anyone!"

When Tobias was finally standing again, Jamie looked around, surveying the mess the explosion (and the robot itself) had caused. He'd probably end up coming back later and cleaning it up; the poor janitor would have a heart-attack if he saw the chaos spread across the hall. But for now...

"Yeah!" Jamie agreed enthusiastically, and he started picking up said pieces, being careful not to grab anything that was still hot. "We'll probably have to make a couple trips," Jamie said while he worked. "Maybe you should build a robot to move he pieces for us."

He giggled quietly to himself over that one.

[tobias]

Tobias laughed a bit, feeling most disoriented at the moment. Plus he now had a paranoia of robots that would last a minute or so. Then odds are he would build a lifting robot. Knowing his luck though? The robot would likely lift him, go as high as it could go, and do a little defenestration of Tobias out of the farthest up window. For some evil reason machines, namely robots, seemed to want him dead. Bit weird for a technomancer, but still.

Still, something was off. It had been given a specific order: to clean. Why it would go off trying to burn him one he couldn't quite figure. Then he saw it: a small oil stain. Oops! His own carelessness had nearly caused the cafeteria lady to have a new special, barbecued technomancer with a side of oil. Probably wouldn't go over too well.

Although...Tobias had an idea! "Ooh! We can use the wheeliegig!" He said. Yes, it was a stupid name, no he did not care. It was a nifty little invention that could carry it. It actually had a light sensor that was built into it. How it worked was due to the base command of x shade of darkness meant follow. Then it had a couple small bumpers, if one hit, it would instruct the appropriate turn. Pretty neat toy, and it couldn't kill you!

"One second!" He said, going to his room and getting what appeared to be a bug-looking wheelbarrow with two cushioned poles for pincers and two eyes that glowed that were used for the light sensor. When he got down he beamed "Jamie, meet the wheeliegig! Wheeliegig, this is Jamie!" He said, then added, "Don't worry, I've had this one for months. It'll work....I think." He added, a sudden nervous thought entering his mind.

"All we got to do is walk close to it once it gets loaded up. The eyes are laser sensors and the little pincer-things are touch sensors. That way we walk, it does all the work for us!" Tobias said, patting the robot affectionately. Well, it was technically a robot in most extents. Not QUITE what people thought of, but hey, if it worked it was a success right? Picking a piece of the bad robot up, he set it on the good robot.

[Ϛ Jamie Matthews]

Jamie giggled at the name 'wheeliegig'. It sounded silly and fun, and not at all like it would try to hurt people. Much more like the sort of robots he liked. He hoped it would look as cute as it sounded, and maybe they could be friends!

Before he could ask Tobias anything about it, he ran away. Jamie guessed that he was going to get the 'wheeliegig', so he simply continued to gather up little pieces of the robot that had blown up, humming and smiling as he waited for the other boy to return.

When Tobias got back with the wheeliegig, Jamie beamed at it and patted it on the 'head' with his free hand. "Nice to meet you, wheeliegig! You're a nice robot, aren't you?" Jamie was happy to see that the new robot didn't look like it could cause much damage even if it wanted to, and then Tobias further reassured him. The "I think" didn't bother Jamie; he simply laughed it off as if Tobias had been joking in a very obvious manner.

"Sounds easy!" said Jamie, and he happily dumped the armful of pieces he already picked up onto the robot before gathering some more and repeating the process.