Mini-Grand 5102 [Round 3: Rome, 2020]

Originally posted on MSPA by Pick Yer Poison.

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It took Janet a while to get bored with her new toys. It was only after she had managed to get three of them smashed to bits by their former allies that she began to lose interest in the game. The lack of an emotional atmosphere limited her powers severely, and she couldn't do much more than cause guns to fire on their own or make the bot brains a little crazy. Although it was very entertaining, she was growing weary of pulling what she knew were knee-slappingly hilarious tricks with no audience in sight that could actually appreciate them. In fact, the only emotional audience she had seen so far had been that fat woman from before. Where could she be?

Janet spun out of the robot she was in and flew off across the town, peeking through the walls of the houses in order to see who was in each. She had gotten an idea into her head, and spent some time scaring the few humans she found in order to build up her power.

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Rome fled from the band of hunters. It was rare he was chased by one who could match his speed, but these evil men managed to do so. Not only did they match it, but they exceeded it, and Rome whinnied fearfully. A harsh coil snagged itself around his neck in an effort to restrain him. He struggled against it in terror, snapping his neck around, his frenzied stampeding kicking up a cloud of dust, both red and regular, but failed to remove the bonds around his neck. Snorting in fury, he took a few sharp turns, back towards the settlement. The lasso held true, and the one vying to be his master found himself tumbling along the ground as he held tightly to the rope, which in turn held tightly to Rome.

A time passed, and distance along with it, before Rome reached the settlement again. A large crowd of capture-men stood in the center pathway, and rather than confront them Rome took his chances with the wooden structure next to him, crashing through the wall on one side of the saloon. The few people still inside - all human, as the robots had left to deal with Janet - jumped from the sudden noise, then proceeded to watch the horse drag a stoic robot with a poker face across the building, crashing through the wall on the other side after a few seconds. Several more crashing noises followed this as Rome continued to dash through the walls of the nearby buildings, until at last the red dust on the lasso managed to eat through the leather. It quietly snapped, sending the robot to a skidding halt on the ground, where the red dust Rome had left made short work of it. Rome himself continued to run through the buildings, unaware of the fact that he had just lost his pursuer.

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Mom was just about to begin the interrogation when she heard a knock on her door. She glanced at it, then looked back at the bound swordmonster. "Excuse me, dear, this'll only take a minute." She walked towards the wooden door as the knocking continued, louder and louder. "Whatever this is, it better be urgent!" she muttered.

Janet groaned. By the time she gets to the door my emotional charge will have drained! Better make a new one. She reached two arms, consisting of disabled robots, up to the ceiling, and pulled it off with a quick tug, throwing it back towards the settlement. "Yoo hoo, lady!" she spoke into the house, using all of the robot's mouths at once, giving the voice an eerie echoing quality. "I'm back!" A scream answered her greeting, and all the robots laughed as the golem kicked in the door.