Jenny screamed until something metal and cold grabbed her leg before her face touched the floor. When she looked up, she saw a saucer probe pulling her up. Sure the machine saved her life, but only to bring her back to Cluster. And he planned to do worse things to her if he gets his claws on her.

Jenny reached for the metal tentacle around her ankle, but her arms were too short. While hanging upside down, she could feel the blood rushing into her skull.

"Jenny, hold on!" Huntar sprinted across the conveyor belt until he jumped off and landed on the probe.

The machine stopped and raised its other tentacle toward the lion man. He banged on the machine with his sword, and then the probe dropped Jenny.

She fell, screaming again, but she landed on a moving conveyor belt. Her back arched in pain, although she could still get up.

After she rubbed her back, a metal arm brought down a saucer shell above her. She immediately leaped to the side, dodging the shell. Next, another arm placed a metal sphere into the hole inside the center of the saucer. Then four arms lowered down, welding the sphere to stay inside the saucer. Jenny shielded her eyes from the sparks.

After the robotic arms finished, Jenny stared at the fully built probe. She kicked it to make sure it wasn’t alive. Since it was just built, the probe didn’t flinch.

Jenny sighed until she noticed the moving track was reaching the end of the belt, where the other finished probes fell into a pipe, standing from the floor.

“Oh, no!” Before she reached the end, Huntar’s arms caught her as he flew over the belt. He was swinging while holding onto a metal tentacle beneath a probe with a smashed top.

After he let go, Jenny and he landed on a giant platform, floating at the center of the factory. Conveyor belts moved around them like snakes making mechanic noises.

"Are you alright?" Huntar asked. "My most humble apology for dropping you.”

Jenny smiled. "I'm fine. There are plenty of robots here who want me."

Huntar raised an eyebrow. "Want you?"

Before Jenny opened her mouth, hundreds of saucer probes rose around the platform. There were so many, they looked like a metal wall, trapping Huntar and Jenny.

Jenny placed her back against Huntar’s, facing the machines. "Any plans?"

Huntar growled. "We fight until we die! "

"Hey! I don't want to die!"

“Better than running!”

Jenny rubbed her face. "Sometimes you are too overdramatic."

"You have a better plan?"

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Jenny glanced around, but all she could see were the robots circling the platform. If they attack, Huntar will not last in one second. Fighting was his thing, but dying in a battle was pointless. What would be the point of fighting if you die instantly? Fighting was about survival, not throwing your life away. Maybe Jenny could reason with Cluster without losing her friend. Better to try than let her foolish friend die.

Jenny sprinted to Huntar’s front and waved her arms up. "Hey! We surrender!"

"What are you doing?" The lion asked.

"Drop your sword!" Jenny whispered. "You can trust me!"

Huntar shrugged and dropped his sword.

Jenny continued, waving her arms out. "We surrender! We surrender!"

*****

Cluster watched his runway human specimen waved to him behind his screen.

"We surrender!" the human girl cried.

Cluster laughed.

It seemed the female realized it was inevitable for her to escape from his base. And her primitive companion realized that too. If the animal tried to attack, his probes would vaporize him without giving him the chance to fight back.

Victory to me! Cluster pushed his pincer on a button below the screen. "Fall back, but watch them!"

His probes hovered back while still aiming their red lights at the intruder. If the human wanted to surrender, she needed to face him first.

Cluster turned around and crawled toward the back door. First, he needed to put his suit on in case the female's animal tried to do something funn

*****

Jenny sighed while watching the probes levitated back without attacking. Her plan worked.

"Now what? " Huntar asked with his arms up.

"We wait," Jenny whispered, while keeping her hands up.

"Wait?"

"Those things will not let us go still. I think they are waiting for Cluster."

“Who is this Cluster?”

"He is an alien, controlling this place."

"What's an alien?"

Jenny sighed. "He's from another world. Not here."

"Oooooooh!"

At the top, a figure hovered down, growing bigger and bigger until Jenny released it as a giant robot.

The machine landed in front of Huntar and Jenny, about 20 feet tall. Humanoid in a bulky form with a jet pack on its back, coated in purple and silver thick armor, and it has a green bubble glass dome head on top.

Jenny gulped.

A thing that big could tear down a building with a dozen punches. Surrendering to the alien was probably a bad decision.

"You surrender?" A loud electronic voice shouted from the robot's speaker on its board chest.

Jenny beamed her eyes at the machine. "Cluster?"

The bubble head opened, revealing the alien crab sitting in a small control cockpit. His pincers hold on to two joysticks, sticking up from the control panel below him. "This is my bodysuit. We Krawls use them to conquer whatever we can conquer. It makes us mighty and strong!"

"I can see that," Jenny replied.

"Krawl? I thought he is an alien," Huntar whispered.

"Same thing."

Cluster closed the bubblehead and crossed his gigantic metal arms. "So you surrender, correct?"

"Yes!" Jenny shouted.

"On what terms?"

"Let my friend go and I will do whatever you say."

Huntar stared at her in shock. "What?"

"Trust me!" Jenny whispered.

The giant robot suit glanced around. "I see nothing that can stop me from killing your animal. Click click click! Both of you are in my mercy now."

Jenny gulped again. I knew surrendering is a bad idea!