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To my surprise he easily pulled free, knocked the robot to its knees and positioned the shotgun at its neck pointing down into the torso. He then summarily blasted its insides to scrap in a blinding flash of sparks, flames and debris.

The man kicked it back over the barrier and batted at the part of his cloak which had caught fire. Enough of a distraction that the next robot to step over the barrier was able to snatch the shotgun from his hands.

I expected it to be over soon after that. For the military robot which now brandished the man’s shotgun to turn it on him and put an abrupt, bloody end to this firefight. Instead, something bizarre happened.

More robots closed in and pinned the man down by his arms and legs. The one on top of him removed his hood. I couldn’t see his face from this angle but he had to have been terrified. The shotgun now lay unattended to one side of the dogpile.

“They’re just gonna come for us next” I whispered to the other two as they tried to restrain me. Military robots are nothing if not thorough. They might assume the man was there to stand guard while his buddies looted what remained of the police station.

I took my chance and leapt for the shotgun. None of them so much as noticed me. In the excitement I forgot all about the mylar cape. I’ve never fired a shotgun before but I knew to expect a strong recoil; So I planted one foot behind me, the stock against my shoulder and unleashed Hell.

Each blast all but deafened me. I had only a split second between them to adjust my aim, as the unprepared robots all struggled to reach me before I could scrap ‘em. I felt as if overtaken by some sort of manic frenzy.

Still, they came. Even the ones I’d blasted the legs off of. They crawled, outer shell long since shredded, human shaped masses of chaotically sparking electronics pulling themselves towards me with single minded purpose.

Madeline stood up from behind the desk and gestured to me. I threw her the pistol, until now tucked into my waistband and she started picking them off from across the room. The caliber of the new gun proved more effective by far than her old 9mm, immolating the battery pack of the crawler nearest me in a single shot.

She grinned at the piece in her hand with newfound appreciation, then resumed shooting. Between the two of us the room was soon piled high with mangled robot scrap, much of it on fire. I stopped shooting, and a moment later so did Madeline.

Several minutes went by before my heartrate finally normalized. A gut wrenching silence permeated the room, save for the crackle of burning battery packs, as we waited for any sign of renewed assault. All told, my original estimate was pretty close to the truth. Thirty six robots lay in various stages of “unscheduled disassembly” both inside and just outside the station.

Madeline erupted into anxious laughter. In disbelief, just like me, that we’d actually done it. Lars then emerged from hiding, slapped Madeline on the back and joined in our laughter as if he’d done anything.

We only remembered the cloaked stranger when he stood up amid the wreckage and put up his hands. “Madeline!” I pointed, and she immediately fell silent. Raindrops struck the man’s cloak all over, running down its contours and dripping from the bottom fringe.

“Is anyone hurt?” A woman’s voice. Wasn’t expecting that. “What do you want from us?” Madeline demanded, still brandishing her gun despite the stranger’s raised hands. “I saw you enter the station” the stranger admitted. “Then those dreadful brutes began converging on it. I thought maybe you could use some...help.”

She dropped the robe, and our jaws dropped along with it. A robot. But like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Madeline got a shot off before I could get ahold of her. Missed, thankfully. “What are you doing!?” she shrieked. “It’s a robot! It’s a fucking robot, let me shoot it!”

Of course I couldn’t allow that. I suspected it when I heard her voice. But when I laid eyes on that design, I knew. “It’s me” the impossibly elegant gynoid called out. I finished wrestling the gun from Madeline, then turned back towards the slender thing.

“I know” I called back. Madeline stared at me dumbfounded. Then back at the gynoid, then at me again. Then she began laughing. “You didn’t. Did you?” I asked what she meant. “Don’t fucking play dumb. You made this, didn’t you? This is your...Your what? Sex bot? Your robo-girlfriend? I should have guessed you’d do something like this.”

When I realized her meaning, I protested my innocence. “I had nothing to do with this!” She looked about as skeptical as physically possible. “I swear! I didn’t design that thing. I don’t know where she got it either, She’s supposed to be back in the cave.”

Madeline only seemed more tickled. “You keep her in a cave? Jesus. How many registries and wanted lists are you on?” Helper cautiously inched forward. Madeline’s eyes returned to her at once and she backed away in momentary fear.

“How did you do this?” I demanded. “How can you be out here?” Helper explained that the virus disabled all of the security measures in the mountain complex. “I couldn’t get out by internet, there’s no outside connection. I still have no idea how the virus got in. But with security disabled I could communicate directly to the fabricator, so I used that to build myself this body. Then I simply walked out the front door with it.”

The fabricator! Of course. “Wait, you opened the front door?” She nodded. “After I finished wiping the system, isolating the virus and destroying it I set all new passwords so I could lock the door behind me. Then I set out searching for you.”

Just me? She made no mention of Madeline or Lars. Though with Madeline still backed into the far corner chuckling at me, I couldn’t feel too bothered. “Can’t believe you built yourself a sexbot” Lars jeered. Again I insisted I had nothing to do with it, that today was the first time I’d laid eyes on it and Helper must’ve engineered it on her own.

“Anyway there’s no time for this bullshit. I guarantee every robot in the city heard that firefight, we’ve got to get moving. If what Helper says is true, she’s the key we need to get inside the mountain complex. Remember? The original plan? That’s back on the table, but not if we wait around here like dipshits for the next wave of robots to arrive.”

I led Helper to the car, still stashed in an alley where we left it with Madeline and Lars snickering behind me all the way. “I like your cape” Helper chimed in. “It matches your mask.” The other two burst into laughter again. Fuck them, I thought it was sweet.

This time Madeline rode up front with Lars, which I expect pleased him to no end. Helper and I piled into the back, and once the car was in motion I took the chance to really get a good look at her. I could see why Madeline and Lars leapt to conclusions.

“This is amazing work” I confessed, “but did you really have to make it so…?” She stared at me in confusion. “Is...is something wrong with my body? You...don’t like it?” Her voice sounded hurt. I did my best to recover.

“No, no I said it’s amazing, and it really is. I’ve never seen a gynoid like this. It’s...you’re beautiful.” The light coming out of various parts of her body illuminated from within turned a deep magenta, in what I took for the robotic equivalent of blushing.

“I just don’t see why you needed to make it all...you know. Va-voom.” I poked at one of the two shapely, flexible silicone sacs of glowing purple gel protruding from her chest. “Va...voom?” She repeated, still perplexed.

“He means you look like a whore” Lars called back over his shoulder. This also mystified her as that word never appeared in any of her educational packets. “Whore? Is va-voom bad? I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. I made it like this because I thought...I thought you might like me better this way.”

Her voice wavered again. Decision time. Save face in front of Lars and Madeline, or protect Helper’s smile. Wasn’t difficult. “You’re beautiful. Don’t listen to them, you didn’t do this for them right? You did it for me, didn’t you?” She nodded somberly.

“Well I think you’re lovely. You just took our breath away, is all.” I made stern eye contact with Madeline via the rear view mirror more than once. She was kind enough to remain silent as I consoled the glowing, shapely feminine creature seated behind her.

“He’s right” Madeline unexpectedly fibbed. “I didn’t mean it before. Sorry about that, I just...I’ve been through a lot today. I didn’t know what to make of you. Humans tend to fear the unknown.” Helper’s eyes lit up as she enthusiastically confirmed that I’ve told her that many, many times.

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^{Stay Tuned for Part 30!}