Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-27800590-20170625015822/@comment-28718853-20170629175826

Everyone stumbles backwards, surprised at the Automaton's awakening. One of the men in the expedition group, an archaeologist named Howard, trips and falls on his rear. He can only look up in fear at the Automaton as she repeats her request, "Release me...please."

Everybody exchanges glances with each other, unsure of what to do. Our gremlin member, Pinky, steps up to the robotic girl and rubs her chest. "This is amazing!" she gasps. "Pinky, get away from her!" Tony, the head of the team scolds, waving for the gremlin to come back. Pinky turns to Tony with a smile and says, "It's okay Tony, I can sense her demonic energy. She's not going to destroy us."

Tony doesn't appear to be convinced. The Automaton shifts in her restraints and mutters, "Destroy...not destroy you."

"You hear that Tony?" quips Pinky, who shakes one of the chains holding the Automaton. "Threat to destroy...a monster of chaos," said the Automaton. This time, many people in the group, including Tony and myself, gave the restrained robot a variety of curious looks.

Pinky strokes the chin of the Automaton and asks, "Could you describe this monster of chaos for us please?"

The Automaton's eyes scan the entire group. Then she begins, "It was a writhing mass of black with multiple eyes, it caused the minds of the people my kind were supposed to protect to break down into unstable madness. This creature...slaughtered us like rats."

"Hey!" whined the Large Mouse in the group who took offense.

Pinky rubs her chin thoughtfully and mutters, "Black mass...multiple eyes...ah, it must have been a Shoggoth."

She cheerfully pats the Automaton on her leg and says, "The Shoggoth that attacked you hundreds of years ago must have been a massive putrid mass of pure terror, but now she has to be a sweet and caring mamono, a monster girl if you will."

"Mmmonster...girls?" wondered the Automaton. "Yup, monster girls!" Pinky beams as she points to herself, "I'm one, and she's one!" she points to the Large Mouse, who smiles at the Automaton. I look to Tony and ask, "You think we should cut her loose? She seems like she can be trusted."

Tony shakes his head and says, "No no no, not yet, how do we know she won't turn on us?"

"Tony, she's got demonic energy all over her. I highly doubt that murdering us is the first thing on her mind," says Pinky. Tony sighs and gives everyone a long hard look. Then he says, "Alright, how about we have a vote? Either we free her or we keep her chained up.  Deal?"

Most of the group nod their heads. "Okay, those for keeping her restrained?" two people raised their hands. "Setting her free?" seven hands go up, including mine.

Tony sighs and smacks his hand against his face. "Get those restraints off," he moans. Pinky cheers and presses a button on her wristband. A tiny pair of buzzsaws pop out and they get right to work on cutting off the Automaton's chains. About half a minute in, all of the restraints are cut off and the Automaton falls free. Several members of the group run over and help her to her feet.

The Automaton stares at her legs and attempts to move them. The left leg moves freely, but her right leg seems stiffened. "My right leg is almost locked up," she says. "No worries ma'am, I have something just for that!" Pinky says as she reaches into her bag and pulls out a lubricant. She drips some oil along the robot's leg, and pretty soon she can move it easily, all of the stiffness gone.

"Thank you," she mutters to the gremlin. "My pleasure!" Pinky replies with a thumbs up. The Automaton scans the crowd some more before she settles on Howard. "You," she says bluntly, raising a finger in his direction. Howard points to himself and asks, "Me?"

"State your name," the Automaton orders softly. "H...Howard Sheffield," Howard replies, "What's yours?"

"I do not have one," the Automaton answers with a methodical shake of her head. "Well uhhh...you have a..."

"Give me one," the Automaton cuts off to Howard. Howard froze, definitely caught off by the actions toward him thus far. Finally, he speaks up, "Wh...what about Claudia?"

"Name accepted, my name is now Claudia," says the Automaton. "This is so weird," I whisper to several other men who nod their heads in agreement. Howard taps his fingers together and says, "Well I'm...happy that you have a name now."

Suddenly, Claudia gets into a combat stance, her lance poised in the air. "Wait, I sense...the monster!" she says, her head turning in the direction of a dark corridor. "Is this monster the Shoggoth?" I ask, taking a few steps toward her. "It is the monster that had brought our civilization to it's end!" Claudia explains as she jogs toward the corridor.

Howard starts after her and says, "Wait, maybe we can discuss this!"

"Negative, this great threat must be destroyed, assist me if you wish, Howard!" Claudia says as she disappears through the corridor. "Claudia, stop!" Howard shouts as he runs through the corridor after her. "I better go after them too!" Pinky says as she also gives chase. I look to everyone and shout, "Come on everyone, it's all or none!"

Everyone except Tony runs through the corridor, who shouts, "Wait, where are you going you idiots!? There could be other mamono down there!"

The chase takes us down a long, winding staircase. When we reached the bottom, we found ourselves in a massive circular room surrounded by staircases. Claudia was at the top of the staircase, her lance aimed at a couple in the center, a man in raggedy clothing, and a Shoggoth mamono. Claudia had a fierce look in her eyes, but her body seemed to be...trembling.

The Shoggoth smiles and waves to us with a friendly, "Hello there!"

The man has stood in front of the Shoggoth looking frantic and frightened. He shouted, "You're not going to hurt her!"

"I...I don't understand...the monster is standing right there but...for some reason my...programming isn't allowing me to attack her," Claudia uttered. Howard gently held onto Claudia and whispered, "Claudia, Claudia, it's okay, she's not going to hurt anyone anymore!"

"Yeah Claudia, look at her, she's a maid now," says Pinky. "No...no..." Claudia mumbled as she dropped to one knee, "She was the reason for my failure to protect our people!"

"That was back when monsters actually killed people. Look at her now, she doesn't look like that same monster anymore," I say, motioning toward the Shoggoth. That's when I notice...tears streaming down her cheeks. So robots can cry, that's news to me.

I see the Shoggoth's smile disappear, and a look of concern replaces it. She starts toward us, and the man calls after her, "Lea, where are you going!?"

Lea looks to the man and says, "It's okay Gus, I'm not going to get hurt."

Gus silently, but fearfully watches as the Shoggoth moves up the stairs and is standing right in front of Claudia, who looks up at her with a tear-stained face. Lea lowers toward Claudia, and pulls her into a hug. I can hear her say, "I'm aware of what I did all those centuries ago, and not a day goes by that I don't become haunted by those memories of the sins committed by my former self. I ask that you hear me out here.  My husband there knows what I did, and I made a promise to him, one that I am going to make to you now: no one else will be hurt by me for as long as I live."

Lea gives Claudia a smooch on her face and stands. Howard hugs Claudia and gently rocks her back and forth. "It's okay...it's okay, you heard her. She won't be doing it anymore," he mutters. "But...my people..." Claudia starts, but Pinky cuts her off, "Don't let your past weigh you down, instead, focus on how you can improve in the future."

"Yes, what happened back then can't be undone now, and I doubt you could have done anything to stop her anyway," Howard whispers. "I truly am sorry," Lea says as she lowers her head with a sorrowful expression.

Claudia slowly stands, and pulls Howard into a tight hug, "You...are right."

She turns to Lea and bows her head. "I apologize for threatening you," she says. "You don't need to apologize, I know why you did what you did," Lea says as she rejoins Gus.

Claudia silently leaves for the spiral staircase, followed by Howard. One of the men look around the room and asks, "So uhh...is it just you two in here or uhhh...?

Lea smiles and says, "Oh no, these ruins are populated by a vast number of mamono, many of them single."

"Uhhhh...guys," one of the other men utters. We look up and gasp, spotting multiple Arachne crawling along the ceiling. "I'd run if I were you," advises Gus.

We make for the staircase, but two of the men get nabbed by Arachne before they even reach it. Pinky shoots out a large white net from her wristband, which captures several Arachne and allows the others some breathing room. We advance up the staircase, and a Will-o-the-Wisp appears, snatching up another man.

"Crap!" I scream as I see another male member of the group get grabbed and reeled in by a Tentacle girl who we never noticed before.

We get to the top of the staircase, just in time to see Tony screaming and begging for help as he's dragged into a different room. The door slides shut and prevents him from getting any. The remainder of the expedition race through the maze, desperately trying to find the exit.

Men were getting picked off left and right until it was down to just me. I dodge a tail swipe from a Lamia and up ahead I can see it. The rectangle of beautiful white light, the exit. I pick up my speed toward it, the escape from this hellhole within my grasp. Closer, closer aaannnnd FWOOMP!!!

The door slides shut, causing me to skid to a stop. My heart just sank as maniacal laughter erupted behind me. I turned and saw an Apophis approaching me. "You weren't expecting that were you sweetie? You were all like 'Yes, I'm gonna make it' then BOOM!" she laughed as she wrapped me up in her tail. "Hey look, can we talk about this?" I mutter, knowing full well what the answer was going to be. "Nope, now I'm gonna have some fun!" the Apophis beams as she sinks her teeth into my shoulder.

About an hour later, all of the men in the expeditionary force were gathered in the colossal room with their new wives. There was dinner being had and both Lea and Gus were happily handing out food. "Oh come on guys, it can't be all that bad!" says Pinky, getting several laughs from the other mamono.

I watch Claudia and Howard enjoying themselves from my constricted position with Ira, the Apophis who caught me. Claudia leans over to Pinky and says, "I am more than happy to accept those upgrades."

This leads to Pinky leaping into the air shouting, "Yes!"

Oh well, guess I should thank my lucky stars that Lea wasn't the Shoggoth from hundreds of years ago, otherwise we'd really be in trouble. At the same time, I was happy that both Claudia and Lea managed to get things squared away and were now on good terms with each other.