The guardian started tromping around aimlessly, arms waving in the air, Sprite hanging on around its head.

She didn’t know how long she had before it had rerouted its sensors to its backup resources, so she had to act fast.

Scotty screamed, in danger again of being trampled. Helen fired several more shots, trying to direct the machine away from crushing its owner, but the blasts hardly served any purpose.

Sprite let go with one arm, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a switchblade. Popping the blade, Sprite went to work, trying to pry off the central core panel.