Maid Wars Notes 03: Not Without a Fight

Prin was almost certainly considered for maidification, long before she became a famous killer of robots. In fact, she was supposed to be maidified along with her class.

The MASA operative who helped coordinate the mass abduction told the Screen Face carrying it out that there were 30 maidifiables on the bus: 28 students, 1 professor, and 1 female bus operator. After the attack the machines reported back that they had "recruited" the 28 students and the driver, but found a middle schooler, instead of a professor.

The reporting robot informed the operative in order to assure him FMP had observed the secret treaty and not harvested the youth. The operative heard the news and realized he now had a belly full of damage control to do.

In the hospital, in which Prin was admitted following the attack, the traumatized young woman was rousted from a fitful sleep by the tinny, chillingly familiar voice of the Screen Face who had abducted her class.

Officer: "You see? She's 23! The treaty does not apply to her. There's got to be a 'bot who wants a short maid."

Screen Face: "That is certain. Are you sure this will cause no inconvenience?"

Officer: "Just get her out of here. The inconvenience is explaining the lone survivor of an accident we're about to stage."

As the pair approached the room, Prin was almost overcome by terror. But there was something more. A tiny growing scream, that chastised her for not fighting before. For letting the big, intimidating machines bind her without resistance. The scream got louder, drowning out the terror.

She might not have a chance, but she would never again give up without a fight.

An intravenous stand, thrust through the Screen Face's head, was Prin's first kill. The desperate, maniacally frightened young woman then scrambled to the MASA officer and snatched the standard issue Incineration Pistol from his hip.

The man, wall-eyed with shock, was Lt. Avery, the obsequious MASA representative who had visited Prin's room that day with a battery of weird questions, padded with assurances that, "All was being done to find her students."

The intuitive little pistol easily yielded its secrets to the clever little professor, and Prin released its safety with a flick of her thumb.

The lieutenant's eyes grew as wide as saucers.

Slowly and carefully, the lieutenant raised his left hand. He produced a key card from his breast pocket, and flicked it over to Prin.

With reflexes she had yet to fully comprehend, Prin snatched the card out of the air while still keeping her stolen gun trained on Avery.

Lt. Avery:  "It's a black comet. Level two, space ten."

Lt. Avery had just saved his coward's life.

Prin turned and ran, barefoot through the dark hospital, and the outside until she found the car.