This thing broke apart the street. Then, suddenly, it lied down and began to “absorb” the rubble, like a reverse whirlpool, towards it's belly. The nearby officers watched the creature as they evacuated any nearby civilians.

He began to float towards the entity, but one of the cops stopped him, signaling him to stay away from it. Forge was confused, but did so. It didn't matter much, since in a few seconds the creature apparently had it's fill and leapt away very quickly. All that was left was a large crater and damaged buildings.

“Wha' just happen'?”  The Man in the White Shirt asked the officers.

They, along with the chief officer, attempted to explain their situation the best they could. Bringing out the translator phone...

“From the past few months, this strange machine has been attacking our town. It appears at random intervals, heavily damaging a street or part of a building. After this, it absorbs all the rubble and leaves We have tried to destroy it or at least damage it, but nothing we do seems to so much as slow it down.”

The chief officer showed him a picture of the creature. Looking at it, it resembled some sort of mechanical centaur, albeit covered in bandages.

“So... som' weird robot?” Forge asked.

The chief officer said via his device: “We are currently dealing with our own crisis and having a dangerous machine attack us hasn't helped. Everytime it attacks the town it seems to be an arbitrary date, with no real pattern. But... we fear it's getting more aggressive.” 

He was shown another picture (a simple diagram) with showed the speculated inside of the machine, there was what seemed like a glowing rectangular object inside it. Plainly, this was it's energy source. They proceeded to show Forge footage of the robot, all showing the same routine: destroy and absorb.

“Do you... wan' to me kill it for ya'?” he asked.

Again using the device, the chief officer simply questioned this: “Can you?”

The Man in the White Shirt just laughed, saying: “A big robot ain' a problem. I can rip this annoyince  in half befor' you can say...” Forge thought for a moment, but simply concluded with: “...well, ya get the idea.”

But the officers excused themselves for a moment while they talked. For a few minutes Forge just stood there, while the locals discussed between themselves. He felt like a third wheel. 

When they finally stopped talking, he got their attention and asked:

“So... what do you.... wan' me to do now?” They somewhat understood his gestures, signaling him to stay put in the station.

“....fine?” The Man in the White Shirt said, not fully understanding.

Many hours later, the sun had risen. Not much had happened, only our Forge had fallen asleep on the floor (in an awkward position) through the whole night. He suddenly woke up and noticed all the varied local officers (including ones which resembled the chief officer) staring at him then quickly withdrawing when seeing him awake.

Still dazed from the sleep, he simply said “Tha-Thanks for the privacy...” as he slowly stood up.

“Y-Ya know... floor's pre... pretty comfatorble, but ya sti-” he stopped, noticing the daylight. “Oh, look, daylight.” Staring out of the window and the station, he didn't see any sign of giant robots, and didn't feel like sleeping anymore.

“I'm... gonna go pat-patrol 'round 'til it's here... 'kay?” he said while gesturing what he meant to the officers.

They looked bemused, while he went outside. The chief officer protested, but Forge just ignored him. He didn't see them as an obstacle, much less a threat.

As he left, he gestured them that he'll be on the lookout, which they seemed to understand. It wasn't of their liking to keep this odd interloper roaming their town, but they didn't have much of a choice.

“This guys can' even deel with a big robot, and this cleerly isn't a heavily fortified habitation. They're pretty sad... Heheheh...” the Man in the White Shirt laughed at himself as he flew. 

Forge roamed through the town, with the early sunrise lighting up the buildings.

As he looked around, he stopped as he noticed someone in front of a building. An inhabitant, a navy blue-skinned fly-like female with a head shaped like a bread slice (much like the chief officer and some others), dressed in green with a gray apron, holding in her arms a crying baby wrapped in sheets. Or, rather, a creature that looked like a giant maggot, but with short arms and a head. Which looked like smaller, light gray-colored versions of her's, but with a worm tail instead of legs. The larva/baby continued to cry.

The moment she saw the Man in the White Shirt, she looked scared and backed away, trying to quiet her larva/baby. She kept walking away from him, until she was against the wall.

“Uhhhhh, calm down... I'm not gonna hurt ya...” he said to her, fruitlessly trying to calm her down.

She panicked as she rapidly retreated towards the building, which was locked. She quickly took out a card and unlocked the door (while still holding her larva) and got inside, locking the door behind her. He could see she was now looking at him from a window, cautiously.

“Yeah, go hide... So, appra-appal-apparently, the bug-people liv' here...? Or, rather, fly-people.” Forge said to himself.

He had seen a large variety of the inhabitants. Some looked more like himself (with some differences, some had noses but others not, while some had only three fingers on each hand); others, like the chief officer, had attributes of flies (again, with a head shaped like sliced bread); others looked like ungulates; others had weird-shaped heads; some had long noses; a few were covered in long fur; and at least one looked like a cat.

“I wasn' expectin' to fin' such a large variety.” he mumbled to himself.

It was noticeable how the lights of the town would occasionally turned on and off, or grew dimmer suddenly.

“Is there som-something wron' with their... their power plants...?”

The Man in the White Shirt could see the remnants of attacks more clearly now. Nearly a third of their streets and buildings had been damaged.

After a while, Forge grew bored and figured it was best he returned to the station. Back there, the cops looked at him with confusion.

“Uhm, hey, I was bor'd and came back...” he said awkwardly.

The Man in the White Shirt just went to the same spot he had slept on and sat there. What else could he do now? He just lounged there for a short while.

“I... wish I had... at least a phone...” he said, whining.

Eventually, as he waited and (tried to) stay attentive, there was a loud noise, like a landslide.

“Ugh, again...!?”  he groaned.

The robot landed close to the Police Station, again, but more so than before. The Man in the White Shirt shoved aside the officers as he quickly went outside, being sick of waiting. The machine was bigger than he thought, with four legs and a torso emerging from it's front with two long arms ending in claw-like fingers, it really did resemble a metallic centaur. It's armor shone a glossy obsidian and it's bizarre bandages that covered most of it's body just confused Forge more.

The officers shot at it, but the thing didn't seem affected. One from the heavy weapons department fired a missile launcher, which hit it's leg, breaking apart more pieces of the street with a huge explosion. It did the damage equivalent of a bubble popping against titanium. 

The machine just ignored all that as it proceeded to quickly run towards a nearby building and ram it. Rubble and glass flew everywhere, while Forge just watched, puzzled.

“Wha-What's it's goal? Wha-What does...?” he asked out loud.

The machine, again, laid on the ground. From it's belly-region an hatch opened and it started gathering pieces of the damaged buildings.

It then stood and scanned the area. The Man in the White Shirt was about to jump out at it, but before he could, the same officer as before gestured him to let it go. Forge looked puzzled.

“Uhhhhh, again, sero-seriusly? Y-You wan' me to supervise or som-somethin'?

Multiple police cars and ambulances ran to the scene of the attack.

“I hope that building was empty...” Forge said, worryingly.

Unfortunately, it wasn't and he could see many injured locals being taken into ambulances.

“Could... Iv' done more...? I mean... com'on!!!! I don' know anyone here!!!!”

Multiple citizens were hurt by the attack, fallen and hurt by rubble and glass. Other injured inhabitants ran, with some yellow blood flowing from their wounds. They all bled yellow, regardless of their morphology.

“...Huh, for such a large variety, they all appear to bleed the same...?” he whispered to himself. 

The robot had finished “feeding” and was now scanning which other building to destroy.

Sick of waiting around, Forge shouted “Hey you!!! Ye-Yeah, you!!! Stop doin' that!!!”, to the disapproval of the officers.

The robot turned it's camera-like head towards Forge, redirecting all it's attention to him.

“Fi-Finally, you notice me!!! Co-Come on, try an' bring it!!!” he shouted at it.

After a brief pause, the robot then suddenly charged at The Man in the White Shirt, with even more determination than when it attacked the buildings.

It raised it's fist and swung at the anomaly, which he barely dodged before it hit the sidewalk, breaking it apart. “WOAH!!!!! HOLEY...” It was deceptively fast, surprising even Forge.

The automaton attacked him again, which Forge evaded and took the opportunity to fly upwards, and charged towards the robot's back. He attempted to just hit the robot and quickly crush it. However, this was a bad idea. Before he could hit the machine on it's back, to crush it's internal components, it quickly backhanded him, sending him rolling down.

“Ow...” he said dryly, as he tried to stand up, but before he could, another arm punched him, sending him crashing on a house at the next street.

“Owwww...” Forge repeated, as he looked inside the house. Debris from the walls filled the floor, wallpaper scattered all over.

Taking a moment, he said: “I... I think this was th-that Fly Lady's house...”

The robot quickly followed him, and damaged the house even more. Forge ended up buried under a bunch of wall rubble. The centaur searched around, but noticed the Fly Lady looking shocked at it, from what used to be her living room. Her baby was left on a crib in another room. She frantically wanted to go get it, but the robot stood in the way. She backed into the wall, very afraid of the machine. The automaton analyzed it's options and looked about to reach out to her.

Suddenly Forge appeared and pulled it's hind leg. The machine couldn't dislodge him before he threw the robot's entire body away, causing it to crash outside.

“Ya alrite'?” he asked the terrified insectoid.

She didn't answer, instead quickly rushing towards her larva's room. Very soon the robot recovered and began to walk towards Forge. At that very moment, the mother returned, carrying her crying baby. She was running out of the room when she quickly stopped, noticing the robot.

“Uhhm, I... sugges' you take cover, ma'am, th-this'll... get messy...” he said while gesturing her to go inside again. She nodded, clearly understanding, and went to hide, clutching her larva protectively.

In those very brief seconds, Forge couldn't help but notice some of the remaining photos framed on the walls had the Fly Lady embracing a taller, very handsome and well-dressed man that looked like a completely different species.

“I-Is this... th-the baby's father...” he said, somewhat out of it.

The robot charged again, but Forge rapidly rammed at it. He knocked the machine back and continued attacking. Multiple punches hit it's chest, but the robot was tougher than he thought. His punches had barely dented it. It quickly got itself right up and grabbed Forge. The robot then swung him into the ground with a loud crash, breaking apart the street.

“WOAAH!!!!” exclaimed Forge as this happened. The robot still held him into the ground, presumably attempting to crush him. As this happened, some of the local officers beheld the battle, recording it.

“That... hurt...” he said, angrily, as he grabbed the robot's hand and blasted blue energy out of his hands. The machine let him go, as it scuttled away briefly. Forge stood up from the crater as it prepared to attack again. Being ready this time, he dodged the robot's attacks, it's punches breaking apart whatever remained of the streets. Eventually Forge himself charged at the robot, hitting it's front left leg. He hit it hard, making the machine trip forwards. He took the opportunity to hit it's head, causing it to fall sideways. on the broken street.

He again grabbed the robot from one of it's legs and swung it away. It was meant to fall to an empty area, but (not really putting much effort at aiming) it instead hit a small building, wrecking a large section of it. Our Man in the White Shirt didn't fail notice this.

“I... I hope ther' wasn' anyone inside... they'll blame me for this...”

Screams could be heard coming from the building, as Forge tried to avoid looking at it.

The automaton emerged from the building, damaging even more of it. Not charging at him, but marching steadily. It was now assured, this man in a dirty white shirt was no mere normal.

Suddenly, Forge's right hand began to glow with blue swirling energy. The centaur stood still at this, analyzing the situation.

He only said: “Resist this.”

The Man in the White Shirt then quickly aimed his fist at the robot and fired a blast of light-blue power. Hitting it straight in the chest, it made a pretty large, concentrated explosion, leaving smoke all around.

“Is it...?” he mumbled just before the robot emerged from the smoke, limping out. It didn't seem very damaged, but it's chest looked burned and missing a few pieces.

“G-GET BACK!!!” Forge said as the centaur reached out at him, before it just collapsed, twitching for a few seconds before stopping all movement altogether.

“Huh...  Re-Really? It's... over?”

He stood for a few moments to see if it moved again, but it didn't. Forge threw a sigh of relief as he pumped his fist.

“Hell yeah... I'm so cool sometimes...” he said, celebrating himself.

He looked around, mumbling to himself. “Now... what shoul' I...”

The Man the White Shirt looked at the building he threw the robot at, worried about locals blaming him. He considered entering it, but decided to check the Fly Lady's house instead. Entering through the damaged living room, he asked: “Uhhhh, he-hello? Y-Ya here, Fly Lady?”

From the hallway, he entered a room where he saw the Fly Lady, hiding. Her baby was in some sort of infant car seat, but made for larva, with a hole at the bottom for it's tail.

She looked at Forge in confusion and anxiety as he said: “Do-Don' worry... the robot's dead.”

The Fly Lady looked at him, asking something in her language. As usual, Forge didn't understand.

“Do-Don' ya hav' one of those tras-translation phones?” he as he did a “phone-typing” gesture. She didn't understand him either.

Suddenly, the walls broke apart as a huge force broke through them, throwing rubble and dust all over.