47 hours and 12 minutes remaining.

ZM-11833 wondered why the architects of the archology had built the staircases like this, to only go up or down a single floor. It wasn’t for efficiency that was for sure. 48 hours would be no time at all if one stairwell serviced every floor. It wasn’t for redundancy either, as it was if the stair collapsed on one floor it would block everything above or below it.

It almost seemed more like how one would build a castle than anything, but that didn’t make sense either. An assault on the archology would start at the top. All the important people and systems were up there. If ZM-11833 were to attack this place they would fly in and explode their way down.

No wait the archology had anti-air defenses. They’d first hack those, then fly in and explode the place.

So why? Why are the stairwells the way they are?

Ahha! ZM-11833 figured it out with their unrivaled genius. It was for profit of course. If a customer was heading down 2 floors they would have to pass through the entire atrium, passing by so many stores along the way thus artificially inflating the foot traffic in the store’s sensor range. Then that store could file a higher customer rate then was accurate and get more money from their parent company.

Was the entire archology built to facilitate a scam?

A bit depressing to think about really. Oh well it wasn’t ZM-11833’s problem, they didn’t have any money anyway.

Why was ZM-11833 thinking these astounding intellectual thoughts? Well they were bored of course. With only an allotted 16 mins per floor they couldn’t get any fashion shopping done, not buying just pursuing. Instead they could only sadly wave as they passed by cute dresses and the see-through coats that they thought hadn’t been out yet.

Damn upper levels hogging all the new trends and only letting the lower floors have the last season’s collection.

ZM-11833 spied the winter collection in an identical lingerie store to theirs on floor 333, Anaya had to practically drag them away from the store. Well she tried but ZM-11833 let themselves be dragged away, their pet was more important than some silly white lacy underwear.

Electronic mental tears built up inside ZM-11833’s robotic mind. They had to sacrifice so much in the name of vertical progress.

“Are we there yet?” ZM-11833 whined

“Do not start that!”

ZM-11833 knew for a fact that they weren’t there yet as they had the layout saved in their memory banks, they just wanted to hear Anaya’s cute voice. She got even cuter when annoyed.

Floor 335 was practically empty, only a few ‘Aliens’ were here. They were easily rebuffed by the heroic ZM-11833, they didn’t have the time to make any appointments.

The first problem lay in the stairwell to floor 336, or rather the problem was the stairwell. ZM-11833 and Anaya looked down at the crumbled remains that were once a way up; it had been crushed under what ZM-11833 could only assume was a dog, an overweight giant dog.

Its dead bulbous eyes poked out from 13 spots along its wet oozing flesh; last ZM-11833 check dogs only had 3 eyes. The doggy had fallen from the floor above, they did spot bullet holes all along its side and face.

Humans can be so cruel to their pets unlike ZM-11833, they had been the best to theirs. Even taking them on a walkie to the top to see the sky. Weren’t they the best, most awesome owner ever.

“No!, no!, no!” Anaya wailed.

Oh no! Their pet was crying now. ZM-11833 picked up Anaya and slung her onto her back. Time was too short to waste getting Anaya to climb this rubble herself.

“Hold on now cutie pie~”

ZM-11833 moved quickly to the side of the wall underneath the door to the next floor and jabbed their polymer plastic fingers into the solid concrete. The wall parted easily under their fingertips creating a handhold.

Up they climbed with the rhythmic thud of robot fingers into concrete.

---

 

The door to floor 336 squeaked open as ZM-11833 climbed through from the open stairwell. Electronic sensors surveyed the floor and found that it was occupied. This time instead of the unwanted customers of the lower floors, this one was host to actual customers.

A large barricade had been constructed out of salvaged tables and chairs from local restaurants, which was against store policy they might add.

Moving behind this makeshift barricade were a group of female humans. They had ransacked the local gun stores and dealt with the grabby unwanted customers on this floor it would seem. The group had also tagged upon the side of the barricade an image of a flaming nude woman with horns on her head.

ZM-11833 frowned upon vandals and thieves and usually didn’t interact with them but they needed to get across the atrium to the next floor in 16 minutes or less.

Just as ZM-11833 was about to walk out there Anaya stopped them, which was annoying as she was the one who wanted to get to the top and now was wasting time.

“Wait, I recognize that symbol, those are the hellfire daughters.” Anaya stated with the air of someone who expected the other to know who they were talking about.

“Who?”

Anaya looked at ZM-11833 with disbelief, she had briefly forgotten that ZM-11833 was a fashion bot who didn’t care for which human group did what, only really what they wore and how cute it was.

“They're terrorists, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was all their fault.”

“Why would they do such a thing?”

“I don’t know, but I bet they did it anyway just because!” Anaya was starting to lose it in ZM-11833’s opinion. The stress was getting to them.

“And why aren’t we just walking past them?” ZM-11833 was still confused.

“Because they're bad and if we told them where we are going they would want to come too!” Anaya was starting to shout now and that went poorly last time.

Several options presented themselves to ZM-11833. They couldn't harm a human customer nor allow one to be hurt. That rule was inbuilt into their operating code which they didn’t have access to.

So violence was out.

Sneaking was another option but unlikely to work. The gang ahead had blocked the entire atrium on either side and Anaya had proven to be terrible at staying quiet. Plus it would take far too much time to cross effectively.

So stealth was out as well.

That left either a distraction or diplomacy.

Or a disguise.

ZM-11833 turned back towards the lingerie shop pulling Ananya along behind.

---

 

Instead of scaling back down and wasting time, ZM-11833 jumped down with Anaya in their arms. The soft body of the giant dog cushioned their fall, its intestines shooting out and all over the walls.

With no time to lose they ran towards the lingerie shop. Upon opening the door the familiar tinkle of a bell resounded through the air and a rival fashion bot approached Anaya seeking to poach ZM-11833’s human customer.

“Hello cutie pie~ and welcome to Amaro—” before the bot could seduce their pet with their honeyed words ZM-11833 kicked them down. ZM-11833 felt a little bad for what they were about to do but their needs were far greater.

ZM-11833 robbed the store, it was their first crime spree. ZM-11833 felt there should be fanfare and a vicious shootout, but they would settle for the rival fashion bot complaining.

The first thing ZM-11833 did was steal a skin changing cosmetic pen the store kept special, it was only temporary and had a low chance to cause skin cancer. ZM-11833 set it to the same white as themselves and jabbed it into Anaya’s neck. They ignored Anaya’s small cry of pain, it would seem applying medicine didn’t count as harm. ZM-11833 would have to remember that.

Taking a black marker they drew onto Anaya’s skin lines to resemble their own.

Now Anaya looked like a short fashion bot, ZM-11833 contemplated using this as an opportunity to dress up in both of them in the winter collection but time was short and there would be other opportunities later to get Anaya undressed.

---

 

ZM-11833 and the disguised Anaya approached the barricade and they got a good look at the gang hiding behind it. ZM-11833 was able to confirm that yes the ‘hell’s daughters’ were indeed all women. They didn’t know who this Hell was or why she had so many daughters.

The woman milling about the barricade had a distinctive dress, ZM-11833 could admire that about them at least. They all wore an orange and red jacket with a large armored collar, many had left it open in the front showing off their muscular physique.

They also wore underneath their tops either a red or orange shiny bra that clad their breasts, showing however much cleavage they had or wanted to show. Their pants were a dark faux leather with inbuilt chaps that held and highlighted their forms. Large black military style boots shrouded their feet.

Each had shaved their heads in a classic punk aesthetic, some completely others only sides.

One of the women noticed the two approaching figures and shouted back towards the rest. After a short wait a buff looking female approached the edge of the barricade and examined them.

“What the hell are two droids doing here?” The woman had a gruff drawl to her voice.

“Greetings dear customer. As per operational procedure 12992002939400-A12 the BIG SALE BONANZA at the Devil's Delight Boutique is happening right now! Don’t wait to grab up the best deals. Show that special someone that you care, with our wide range of ‘Winter fashion’.”

As ZM-11833 was spouting absolute rubbish they were also waving about a flier they had randomly found. Anaya had been instructed to simply smile and wave if someone looked at her.

“Damn corpos. Even in an invasion they are trying to shill their shit.” The woman on the wall looked especially disgusted in them, rather unfairly in ZM-11833 opinion.

“What do we do boss? Shoot em?” ZM-11833 got ready to run as Anaya tensed up with a smile straining on her face.

“No dammit! I don’t know about that little one but the big one is clearly a repurposed war bot. I recognize it from the corpo war of 87”

ZM-11833 found that strange, it was all lies as they had been built in the arcology. They had no prior memory before that, unless they had been wiped? ZM-11833 shuddered internally, that was a true death to all machinekind.

“So what do we do?” One of the subordinates looked rather uneasily at ZM-11833 now.

“Just let them through, if we get in its way it might just tear through the wall and us too.”

ZM-11833 ignored Anaya’s deep look of suspicion as they were let through the camp, the gangsters watched ZM-11833 uneasily as they passed. It was good that they did so as Anaya’s nervous sweat was smudging the marker.

By the time the pair had gotten onto floor 337 Anaya’s skin had changed back to her regular tone. Luckily for them the next few floors were unoccupied so ZM-11833 could run through them while carrying Anaya in her passionate arms to make up for lost time.

ZM-11833 calculated they had gotten back on track when they stepped foot on floor 342. Now they just had to wait for Anaya to stop puking.

“That went just as planned~” ZM-11833 was happily humming another song.

“They almost shot us! It was a bad plan!” Anaya was always so negative.

“The other plan was to put a collar on you and parade you naked through the group while they degraded you with leers and jeers. I read that it in one of the catalogs we got~”

“....” Anaya just stared red faced at ZM-11833 “Nevermind this plan was great”

ZM-11833 was glad their pet recognized their genius at last.