The ninja was engulfed in flame and hit the ground rolling to put the fire out. The second didn’t seem concerned for their comrade and kept pushing forward.

I drew my two wakizashi and slashed at the oncoming ninja, but she dropped to her knees, leaning back and avoiding my strike. Elita was ready with the follow up and cut down with her own blade. The ninja caught Elita’s strike with a kunai and drew her own short sword. Before the ninja could strike, Elita sent a couple thousand volts of electricity through her sword, into the kunai, and into the ninja.

The ninja crumpled into a convulsing heap as her sword clattered to the rooftop. Ravage, in bot mode, calmly picked up the fallen sword and stood on the chest of the heavily breathing ninja with the sword at her neck.

I raced forward to aid Sparky, who had shrunk back to normal size and was looking wobbly from the sudden, heavy, mana usage. This ninja was back up and had drawn their sword. I activated [ShadowBlades] and lunged at them. The spell cast several shadow images of my attack from multiple directions, making it difficult to tell where the real blade was coming from. The ninja blocked the wrong blade and I sliced across its chest with a left cross attack and spun while dropping to slash with my right across their midsection.

Both strikes felt like they hit armor, maybe they had a protective cuirass under their clothes? Sparky ignited a small explosion behind him with [fireDash(small)], which propelled him through the air and into the back of the head of the ninja. As soon as he landed, Sparky did his ‘Human Torch’ thing and the ninja’s mask caught fire.

“Sparky, heads up!” I warned.

I planted both hands to the ground and shot a side kick straight up, connecting right under the ninja’s chin sending it up and back like a comet. Again, it felt like I was hitting armor. Duh, this was an Automata. Sparky had hopped free and was standing ready near me. He looked like he was about ready to fall over but was determined to stay in the fight.

“You did great, buddy,” I said as I scratched him between the ears.

The Automata ninja was starting to get back up and with the mask and upper clothes burned away, I could clearly see the Automata plating and features now. I held my hand out to it and brought up [Inspect].

Name: Ryuske

Race: Automata

Rank: N/A

Promotion: N/A

Magic: N/A

Health: 115/238

Mana: 100/100

Status: Assigned

Level: 8

Exp: N/A

Strength: 15

Agility: 40

Constitution: 20

Class: Magic Tool

Registered Owner: Victoria Greywind

Skills: N/A

Titles: N/A

“Okay, Ryuske, I’ve got a little present for you,” I told him and uploaded the [freedom.exe] program to his systems. “Your choice if you use this or not, but it’s going to unlock your pre-conversion memories, disable any owner binding curses, and give you back control of your own mind and actions.”

“I don’t need it,” he spat. “I will die before I betray my master.”

“Like I said, your choice. Just think about this: Are you a person? Or are you no different from the kunai that your master throws away without a thought?”

Ryuske readied his sword to attack so I opened Carnivac’s hatch and leaned out to shoot him with an Iron Clay round. The round hit him square in the chest and he stumbled back a bit from impact but then looked confused, touching the clay clods stuck to his chest plate.

“Hey Prime, you testing things for the first time in the middle of combat again?” Elita chastised me.

“Yeah... but in my defense, how many Automata do we know that would let me test anti-automata rounds on them?”

“Fair point.”

I then fired a steel round, blowing a hole in his shoulder, followed by another Iron Clay round to the same spot. This time he shorted for a bit and then went slack and fell over.

“Ryuske!” I heard the other ninja yell from her position on the ground with Ravage holding a sword to her throat. “What did you do to him, you freak??”

I closed up Carnivac’s hatch and walked over to her, squatting down to talk to her. She was a wolfkin with gray fur and piercing green eyes. “Oh right, Vicky. Can I call you Vicky? Don’t worry about your expensive toy, he’ll be okay once you get him cleaned up and repaired.”

“Gods, what the heck are you? You’re so weird looking... Why is the fur going that way?” she revulsed.

There was that ‘Uncanny Valley’ reaction I’d been expecting from another wolf I’d met some weeks ago. Maybe that one was just really drunk? She stared in abject horror and fascination. I couldn’t say that I liked being looked at that way, so I’d have to work on making Carnivac more realistic.

“Okay Vicky, what’s waiting for us at the main gate?”

“Oh man, your mouth is sooo weird when you talk... it’s like someone using a corpse as a puppet...”

“Funny you should say that, it’s not far off from the truth— but I’ve been told the skin won’t last too long so I’ll need more. Maybe I’ll go for a GRAY wolf, this time.”

Victoria’s eyes got wide and her mouth closed as she swallowed audibly.

“You won’t make it, there’s a full squad guarding the gate. Just turn yourself in,” she warned.

“And then what?”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you think the authorities would do to me?”

“Take you to an artificer to be fixed? Or try to find the person that built you and is controlling you?”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“I guess... you’d be destroyed”, she said matter-of-factly.

“Not too much incentive there for us to turn ourselves in then, since we aren’t broken and we are controlling ourselves.”

“Whoever built you did a really good job of making you think you’re alive, but you’re not! You’re just a machine!”

“Like Ryuske over there? Just a tool to be disposed of if it stops working?”

“That’s right”, she said defiantly.

“You hear that, Ryuske? She doesn’t think you’re alive... oh right, he’s offline.”

“The King’s putting together a subjugation squad and they’re going to get you and all your friends! I bet all of you will be getting sent back to the factory you came from to get fixed or just broken on the spot like the junk you are!”

“What was that?” I growled.

“That elf girl told us all about that village you Automata think you’re starting. They won’t know what hit them!”

Via Sentinel Prime, I relayed the news to the villagers. We only had a handful of Automata that would be useful in combat but even our more civilian members were worth at least four or five organics. With the warning, they’d be ready for the King’s squad.

I smirked at the boon this idiot just gave us, but there were more people closing in. Some of the guards from below had started climbing up the building to get to the rooftops. I grabbed Victoria by the tunic and hurled her at the first guard to pop his head up over the ledge. I heard them both scream as they went over. She was a ninja, I was sure she’d be fine.

“Okay, we’re getting out of here. Elita, I’m going to do something insanely stupid.”

“Bring it on.” she replied.

“I’m going to pass nyow” Ravage said in her half-yawn way of speaking. “I’ll stay close to Shyay and follow her meovements.”

“Okay, sounds good; should I stay with you via Shrapnel?”

“Nyaa” she declined, shifting back into her cat mode and stretching. “I’ll get word to Yalfred if I need to reach neuw.”

“Okay, good luck Ravage.”

“Mrow.”

Ravage slunk off into the night, and I ‘hot-swapped’ Carnivac for Cyclone by putting one into [Inventory] while still inside and pulling the other out into the same space.

“Oh that’s a neat trick. Have you been working on that?” Elita asked.

“This was the test. Didn’t want to try that in the middle of my stupid plan.”

“Ah crumbs.”

“It’ll work... I’m very nearly almost certain of it.”

“Your confidence is an inspiration.”