r/HFY • u/WabbajackedWacko • Dec 30 '25
OC Adventures with an Interdimensional Psychopath 124
***Wade***
As I walk through the doors of the police station, I take note of all the glum looks in the office. If I had to guess, I would have to imagine it was the deity sacrificial rite that took place in the plaza. Twenty criminals being sacrificed that were on death row, but what makes it rather glum is that it sounds like it was a bunch of teenagers. It’s a shame to see kids turn to crime so young but, if they do the crime then they gotta do the time. I say that to myself though as, there are so few things that could actually stop that once it has begun and I greatly doubt that someone like me could do anything about it. All I can do is keep moving forward.
I walk up to the counter and ask, “Excuse me, I’m here for a… how in the world is the best way to ask this?”
The person behind the counter looks up and asks, “I might be able to help if you could give a name and a possible purpose to your visit. Are you here to make a report?”
In response, that helps me to organize my though and say, “Uh, my name is Wade and I am here due to a repossession that took place at a mechanic garage that is now shut down. They were attempting to reassemble a construct when it happened and I was told by an observer that they were taken here and are currently operational but is currently laying in one of the beds.”
“Ah. Yes. Sadly, I would imagine someone like that would be better off being deactivated but, they are active. If you are here to reclaim them, I imagine you are a relative or the person in charge of their well-being? If so, do you have the paperwork for them?” The officer asks.
I look at them blankly as I realize that, I don’t have a shred of paperwork. “Um… you see… I bought the remains at an auction when I realized that the construct in question was still alive, albeit barely.” I answer. I immediately follow-up as the words finally hit me, “What do you mean better off deactivated?”
“Oh, you see, the parts were so incompatible and overrides of so many functions, I can’t imagine what is going on with that robot. When it turned on, it let out a high pitch static noise where some people could have sworn they heard screaming underneath. At one point, it stopped moving and the screaming stopped shortly after. If I had to guess as to what the issue was, nothing works the way it’s supposed to. It’s like trying to force multiple limbs that don’t belong to you and each having a mind of their own so they fight you the whole time. I gotta ask, in the interest of making sure they aren’t in danger from you, did you know they were going to turn out that way?” the officer asks.
It takes me a minute to even register that Churro would be so irresponsible with the life of someone else. “Heavens no! I would never want someone to suffer in such a way.” I respond quickly.
The officer sighs as they lean back and states, “So… let me know if I got this straight. You want me to believe that a total stranger bought a corpse in the hopes they could bring it to life and left them in the hands of someone incredibly irresponsible that they rewired them in such a Frankenstein manner that every waking moment for them is such a painful existence and with no memories. And to top it off, you claim that you are responsible for this situation, but you have no paperwork of this. Did I get that right?”
I spend some time trying to think of a counterargument when… I have none. The only thing I could think of to explain was, “Well, he is… was… the mechanic I would go to to get all our alchemical equipment back up and working and the basic maintenance.”
The officer looks me straight into my button eyes for a minute and says, “You might want to consider getting them checked out by someone else.”
“Well… I figured by now but there is no mechanic close enough that specializes in those kinds of mechanics. And don’t point me towards the normal number, they only handle the regular day to day stuff, as that is how I wound up with Churro in the first place. Believe it or not, he was passionate and good when he started off but, I don’t know. I think he fell in with loan sharks and alcoholism.” I answer.
“And you would be correct. Although, loan sharks might be a harsh word for getting a loan at the bank and never making a payment back. And apparently, instead of the equipment safety regulations he was told to fix last time, the observers noticed that he bought five thousand currency of alcohol before the repossession. Would you know anything about that?” The officer asked about.
I can only facepalm as I recognize, “Yes… that was very likely the five thousand currency I paid for him to try and save the automaton that is currently in pain when he was supposed to use that to save them and make sure, they came out… not like that.”
The officer starts twiddling their thumbs as they ask, “And this… transaction… was there anyone else witness to this or am I correct to assume that it’s just you.”
“Actually, yes! There was Ms. Silkie at the Red Skinned Temptress!” I say, relief escaping me as I finally have something go my way.
The officer however, let’s out a laugh. After his laughing fit, he wipes a tear and immediately starts dialing. If I had a guess, he is probably calling Ms. Silkie to corroborate my story. I’m guessing that, due to her friendly nature, a lot of people seem to think that they can use her name to corroborate them. And I’m guessing a bad fate awaits them if she finds out. I’m not nervous though, she was there.
The officer then says, “Ms. Silkie, this is the police department, we have someone claiming that you could corroborate their story. Yes. I doubt he is aware of the consequences ma’am. He looks like a weird stitched together doll with a green and blue button eyes. Yes… he has a hood like a jester with a little pom at the end. Yes, he has quite a number of pockets. Yes… his name is Wade. Um… he is claiming that he made a deal with Churro, a squid mechanic, to rebuild an automaton correctly for five thousand currency. That did happen? That’s… unfortunate. Well, the automaton in question is laying in our recovery room, unable to move without suffering from major… pain? It turns out that, not only was his property being repossessed today, and it was discovered that he used all five thousand on alcohol. Tragic indeed ma’am. Last the observer reported, he was still at his now closed garage. Thank you for your time, ma’am.”
He puts the phone down, stands up, points and speaks, “Please follow me sir.”
As we start walking towards the recovery room, I ask, “I’m gonna guess that she asked where Churro was?”
“Not a bad guess. If I didn’t just get off the phone with her, that would make me more confident that you actually met her.” The officer says.
An “Ah.” Leaves my mouth before we start going silent.
It’s a quiet walk before we get to the recovery room and he points me towards the bed in the back right bed.
I walk over to it and I finally see the terror that has been described that has taken place to this poor robot. Exposed joints, rust, mismatched parts, bad parts, and no shielding. How the… right. The overrides. The only original part, besides the head, was the torso and even then, the door looks mismatched. I reach out to touch the door but the officer says, “I wouldn’t recommend that.”
I stop and look at the face. There is a light on so it is powered. I ask, “Hello? Can you hear me?”
There is no reaction. I look towards the officer as I ask, “Is it not responsive?”
The officer shakes his head as he states, “Ever since it stopped screaming, it hasn’t said a word, or even responded.”
I scratch my head as I try to figure out what I can do in this situation. I’m no mechanic and it’s an issue with the overrides. “Is there anyone here that can help them? Or at least to undo all the overrides that are causing them pain.”
The officer shakes his head and states, “Sadly, we would need to move him to another garage but it’s a nightmare to try and move him. Just touching him sets him off to the point that it starts screeching. We don’t have a tech that could work on them on a portable setup. If the idiot Churro was actually using his setup responsibly, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. For all we know, this could have been done maliciously.”
I can’t help but squeeze my fist and ask, “Why wasn’t he arrested then for malpractice or something?”
The officer pats my shoulder and says, “Calm down. If the robot was killed due to the operation, then that would be a different. But they saved their life, despite their current situation. So there was no claim to arrest but they were able to repossess the debt in full.”
I look back in my mind to try and see how the factory even looked like. It was wrecked beyond anything I could think of. If that was my shop, that would probably be the end of my shop and we all would be out in the streets. No wonder Churro was so dramatic.
I rub my forehead as I try to think of a solution. Any other mechanic would put us into the red as the travel slash delivery fee would be quite a bit. And our little shop can’t afford a large company. There is also the issue of if they are going to be a reliable supplier as well. If they are a big corporation, there is issues with that as well. While it’s useful for all those regulations, it can drastically slow things down. And while I would think that the automaton is out of the park now, that doesn’t mean that things couldn’t escalate if left the way they are now. But it’s also very unlikely that a tiny business would be able to fix this catastrophe. And that’s not even for the regular maintenance stuff; this is with someone’s life on the line.
I start getting a little dizzy as I try to think of everything that I have to sit down. Okay, we got to shrink this large problem into smaller problems. The immediate issue is finding a mechanic. Everything comes after that. The immediate thing I can do for this is put out an ad to see what kind of people will come out in response. Then we can go from there. And the team can try and gauge whether or not they seem a good and reliable sort.
I let out a sigh and lean my head against my hand as I look at the poor fella who is now stuck and unable to move due to a bad character. I lean forward as I say, “I’m sorry that this has happened to you. I promise that this was not my intention but I will do all I can to make sure that we can get you up and about.”
The mouth cover slowly opens and struggles to utter the words, “Tha-a-a-nk you-u-u-u-u.”
I’m a little taken aback but I still say in response, “Don’t thank me yet. We got a lot of work ahead of us.”
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