kh_drabble | Challenge post

Challenge: [159] In Another Life
Title: Signals To Avoid, Thank You
Word count: 285
Spoilers: Not… really? For the apprentices, maybe?
Rating: G
Summary: With this much machinery around, someone was bound to wonder about mechanical hearts.
Notes: Apparently this kind of prompt makes me think 'kind-of-maybe-crackish crossovers'. Involves the Girl Genius ‘verse. Apologies to the Foglios.

They’d had a nice long break from anything like this happening- well, with the exception of certain explosions, but that had been entirely his own fault, all right?- and so Braig felt he could be excused for feeling a bit irate at the sound of delicate machinery being crushed under mechanical feet. He groaned, pushed his chair back and stood. “Right, whose damn robot is it this time?”

Even scowled at him. “I think we should all well be past that. If anything, I’d think-”

“Ah,” Elaeus said, raising a hand. “What about Xehanort?”

“What do you mean, what about Xehanort?” Even began, but most of the sentence was lost in part of the wall being knocked down. Braig presumed- or hoped, rather- it was the same robot that had presumably been knocking the rest of the Garden’s machinery about; it wasn’t unheard of for more than one to start up around the same time (it seemed like a disease, sometimes), but even one was a pain to clean up after.

“It works!” Xehanort crowed, perched on one of the robot’s shoulders. “Now, all we need is some fine-tuning and a better guidance system-”

“I did mention that artificial hearts haven’t worked out very well before,” Ienzo muttered, giving the robot a wide berth. “Not that it seems to have sunk in.”

“Just a matter of better guidance,” Xehanort said, in possibly the happiest tone Braig had ever heard him use. “And then, maybe-”

“Yeah, sure,” Braig agreed. “You’ll have to get off to tinker, though.”

None of the others looked too pleased at that, but Braig figured they could argue once they got Xehanort off the thing (and not destroying bits of the castle).