The Grand Battle [Game Over!]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Simmons sighed as he walked down the aisles. Usually, this was a slow time of year - the big holiday sale was only a week away, so most people held off on shopping until then. Unless they desperately needed a new washing machine, of course.

And Simmons liked it that way. He had time to relax on the job. But the broken door needed to be investigated, and poor Simmons had been told to search the store to see if the culprit was inside.

That seemed unlikely. The door was most likely an act of vandalism, nothing more - if a thief had been interested, why draw attention by breaking the door? And any thief would probably only be interested in the cash register, anyways. They didn't sell much that could be easily carried out. The vacuum cleaners, perhaps, but those would still be very conspicuous.

As if on cue, as he headed down the next aisle, a strange-looking vacuum cleaner zoomed past him on its own.

"What on earth? We don't sell any automated models..." Before he could finish that thought, two more vacuum cleaners zoomed past.

He considered going back and reporting this, but they'd think he was crazy. The vacuum cleaner aisle wasn't far - clearly, whatever prankster was behind this would be there. He'd just have to apprehend the troublemaker before this got out of hand.

As Simmons approached the aisle, he carefully hid himself behind the side of a shelf and peeked out to get a good look at whatever amateur tinker was messing with the vacuum cleaners.

He wasn't expecting it to be another vacuum cleaner. Stranger still, this one had skeletal arms. It was using them, and unrecognizable tools, to modify the vacuums on display. Another one zipped past Simmons, completely ignoring him.

Simmons considered yelling at the strange machine and demanding that it stop, but he wasn't sure what the best words for this situation were. Or if the bizarre device was hostile.

He decided he'd tell his boss. Sure, he'd probably be fired, but that would just mean the weird vacuum-monster and its mechanical army would no longer be his problem. He headed back, as Eximo completed work on VC Unit 57.