WARNING: Concussive impact to—
It hurts, I know!Milo thought wildly, but at least it seemed to have also hurt, or at least disoriented Jay, who shook his head as if to clear his now concussed thoughts. Milo would try as many dirty tricks as he needed to, but he didn't want to hurt Jay unnecessarily.
Jay's cold, unfeeling expression said he did not share the same sentiment as he flung an arm forward to grasp Milo by his shirt collar.
Another body slammed into Jay, tearing his hand from Milo and creating a quickly moving blur as they rolled along the floor.
Rowan!Milo thought fearfully, for as soon as they stopped moving, Jay proved the one on top, raising a closed fist that he punched into Rowan’s midsection.
“No!”
Jay raised his fist again, this time as if to slam into Rowan's face.
Milo reached them, catching the closed fist before it could impact again. Despite bot protocol to not kill humans, circumstances like this were exactly when accidents happened—and knowing how readily Andrewplayed dirty, Milo doubted it would even be an accident if Jay’s programming had been tampered with.
Using his grip to throw Jay off of Rowan, Milo immediately turned to pounce on him yet again, slamming his fist down into Jay’s face in a purposeful mimicry of what the bot had almost done to Rowan.
Jay’s eyes remained lit but had dimmed significantly, likely from processing the damage and as if he were stunned.
Milo first checked on Rowan, who was grimacing while holding what was likely bruised if not broken ribs, but otherwise seemed okay and nodded to indicate as much.
Then Milo advanced toward Andrew.
“Almost got Milo!” Troy announced.
“This is ridiculous!” Andrew snarled, backing up a step as he pulled a small tablet from his suit pocket. “I didn’t want to have to startcompletelyover, but in case you have forgotten who else has access to our shared controls, I don’t need you anymore!”
Just as Milo reached for him, Andrew pressed an unknown button on his tablet and every part of Milo’s internal components went cold.
Initialing full wipe and reboot sequence.
“Milo!”
Everything went black and Milo’s body crumpled to the floor.
Notes:
Not. Saying. A. Word. *runs*
31
ROWAN
Milo dropped. Just suddenly seized, eyes going blank as the light in them snuffed out, and his body collapsed in a ragdoll heap.
Rowan couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear anything but the distant din of Troy and Raina each crying out, and Andrew saying something snide and victorious, while Jay lay in a temporarily stunned condition on the floor, and Milo…
Milo…
“Milo!”
Rowan was at the bot’s side before he had registered scrambling up from his previously prone sprawl. His ribs ached, but he couldn’t care about that now. Troy had almost been finished clearing Milo of the kill switch. It shouldn’t have even mattered, because Andrew was not supposed to have a way toactivate it from a fucking tablet! They’d prepared for so many outcomes or disruptions, but not this.
Not this…
“Milo…?” Rowan sank beside Milo and gathered the now still body into his arms.
"Now, if the rest of you behave yourselves," Andrew snidely scoffed, "I might keep the charges to breaking and entering instead of attempted destruction of property and everything else I might throw at you for this nonsense. You will of course all be fired. With the potential exception of Dr. Palmer should you reset whatever it is you were about to do right now and step away from that console."
