“Wha-What the Uffern!?!?” Forge asked before he was hit with huge force again, sending him flying through several walls before he stopped himself. 

As he cleaned dust from his face, a shout from the room he was just punched from could be heard. 

“I-Is it... OH NO!!!!” he exclaimed, panicking. But before he could move, the walls he just went though were shattered as the charging centaur robot faced him again.

“YOU!? Bu-But you wer'?” the Man in the White Shirt wondered before he heard the same shouts as before.

Thinking fast, Forge then flew at the automaton and landed a powerful punch on it's chest. The robot was sent backwards, but it regained it's footing and swung it's fist at him, which Forge dodged. This repeated several times until the robot, swinging even faster than before, punched him away.

The Man in the White Shirt was sent rolling down outside the building. “Playin' dead.... it... it was playin' dead...” he realized as he got back up, slightly dazed. But another shout for help alerted him, just as the sound of the machine vacuuming more wreckage became louder.

Quickly flying back through the living room hole, he looked around until he found the Fly Lady, again. She was looking frantically for something, amidst the chaos.

“Hey, you alrite'?” he asked. She looked scared of him, backing away.

Forge tried to calm her down: “No... I-I'm... not go-gonna hurt ya. Se-Serusly.”

She still looked at him, less afraid this time, but began to say something and point at the rubble. Her maggot was trapped between the wreckage, and she tried desperately to find it.

“Wh-Wha' is it now?”

She desperately pleaded to him, in her language. Forge just looked at her, confused.

Again she spoke to him, while pointing to the rubble, sounding more angry now.

Forge still didn't understand.

She slapped her own forehead and, frowning, gestured at him, doing a sign of holding a baby. He finally understood.

“OOOHHHH!!!! GOT IT, GOT IT, SORRY!!!!” he abruptly realized.

The maggot was hidden behind by a huge amount of rubble, but not crushed. The sound made by the automaton vacuuming the rubble had drowned out it's cries. Attempting to find it, Forge could only look around the rubble, but couldn't see the baby.

Then, the vacuuming sounds stopped, and the larva's cries could be heard. “There it is!!!!” the Man in the White Shirt said, as he figured where the baby was.

However, he failed to account for the robot returning. Just as he found the crying baby in it's chair, surrounded by the rubble (which, thankfully, hadn't fallen on it), the centaur saw the Fly Lady again.

She could only stand in fear against it, as it swung it's arm at her, to crush her.

But, before the robot could crush her, Forge caught it's arm in mid-air. The force of this alone was enough to send the Fly Lady rolling through the floor. Feeling tired of this problem, he pulled it's arm sideways, causing it to topple over, as he kicked it's belly-region. The machine was sent skipping away through the ground, making some distance.

Forge picked up the larva on the infant chair and gave it back to it's mother. She took it, smiling thankfully at him. Thanking him in her language, she ran away to a safe place (outside this building this time). 

“Al... Alrite, n-no mor' babies or moms now, just us...” the Man in the White Shirt said as he flew towards the robot outside. The centaur was already awaiting him and the damage inflicted at it now looked fixed. It's bandages still remained, even if they looked damaged around it's chest region.

Forge charged at the robot, then flew upwards, not expecting the machine to be able to reach him in time. But, to his surprise, the automaton, when it was below him, rocketed towards him (with multiple thrusters), quickly grabbing him.

“Ahhh, seriusly...!!!” he exclaimed in annoyance.

It started to emit some sort of fire from it's hands. It was surprisingly powerful, enough to hurt.

“H-HOW MANY TR-TRICKS DOES THIS-” Forge said when he noticed it camera “eye” begin to click and reorient itself.

“...I-It's... It's t-taking a picture!?” he asked in pain, before the robot threw him away.

Then, from it's camera-like face, it shot a powerful green glowing ray that hit Forge and sent him flying away from the town across into many trees outside, destroying them and causing a large explosion.

Standing up from the crated, he said “Owww.. t-that... dif-definitely hurt....”, clutching his chest. It was glowing and smoking from the attack. 

“Hop-Hope that's... not too bad...” he said, not noticing the machine approaching.

 

With it's multiple rocket thrusters, the robot charged at him much quicker than you'd think it should and punched him solidly in his stomach, again sending him flying, but even farther away.

“GYAH!!!! What's it with these damn planets and robots?!?!” he said as he rapidly stood up, clutching his belly. 

“That's... gonna hurt mor' tomorrow...” Forge sardonically said. 

Staring at the centaur, he aimed his palms straight at it, saying:

“We... we outsid' the... town righ'? L-Let's go all out...”

From his hands there appeared a bright whirlwind of energy with various shades of blue, while the robot began to charge it's own face ray. They both released their energy, with it's green face ray and the blue beam clashing, making a huge shockwave of blue and green.

The explosion looked huge even from the (now far away) town. Both of them were thrown back, but Forge stood up faster. Taking his chance, the Man in the White Shirt again began to charge energy in his hands, this time shining in shades of gold.

Aiming his hands at the automaton, he quickly released the attack, a bright golden blast hitting it in the chest. Another huge explosion was made, obscuring the view for a while, but the robot quickly emerged, rocket charging at The Man in the White Shirt and trying to hit him with it's battering arms. It looked damaged, but not severely so. Most of it's bandages had fallen off.

Forge catched both of it's arms, as they wrestled. At this moment, neither of them could push the other. The robots face-cannon began to glow again.

“N-NO!!!!” said a panicking Forge.

He flew backwards, causing the machine to lose it's grip on him. Before it could activate it's thrusters, he punched it again, this time sending the robot rolling. He charged even more energy in his hands and fired again at it, with blue rays. This time there was an even bigger explosion.

“Shoul' I... no, I-I need to see h-how much... hurt it was by that.” he reasoned.

When the smoke cleared, the automaton was surprisingly in good shape, it's damaged left arm already repairing itself for another attack. The blast didn't seem to bother it much.

“OH COM'ON!” he yelled, irritated. In fact, when he looked closely, it was evident the entire robot appeared to be constantly self-repairing or re-assembling.

“Heh, that mi-migh' be a... problem.” he said sarcastically to himself.

He attacked again, this time trying to damage it while it was distracted. However the robot expected this and quickly punched him with it's good arm, hitting him so hard he was buried underground. 

He exploded from the ground, surrounded with bright blue energy around his entire body. He was... displeased, to say the least. With some blood in his shoulder and chest, he struggled far more than he expected. 

“Siriusly, WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?!?!?” he exclaimed angrily. 

“I... I need to attack it fr-from the insid', b-but how...?” He asked himself before he noticed the robot's belly hatch, as it continued to absorb material from the land. It's arm and other damages were quickly fixed. Strangely, while it absorbed the earth, it released some disgusting-looking black liquid. 

“Maaaaaybe I shoul' attack it in... n-no it... it'll just close it i-if it' in danger. But I can' just sneak towards it eether, I can't take my time here...” 

So he just figured he'd attack it from a distance. He rapidly charged and fired multiple blue blasts, causing explosion after explosion. Nothing could be seen other than smoke. 

"Repair this... HA!!!!" he shouted, smugly. From the smoke, something suddenly flew towards him, which he dodged. But he noticed it wasn't the automaton, but a large boulder ripped from the ground.

“It throwin' rocks?”

Suddenly, the robot, being much more sneaky that it looked, rammed him from the side, sending Forge flat on the ground. The now damaged robot charged his face ray, about to shoot, to finish him off. But a bright light surrounded the Man in the White Shirt. 

“ENOUGH!!!” said Forge, as a whirlwind of blue energy surrounding his body actually knocked the robot over, exposing it's belly hatch. 

Forge wanted to blast it again, but he suddenly had an idea. He punched the hatch's door, leaving it open. Remnants of the strange black ooze could be seen bubbling inside. The machine couldn't fight back quickly enough, with it still repairing the damage done previously. Forge charged a bright blue blast again, aiming directly into it's “mouth”. Right before he fired it, he (reluctantly) shoved his hand into the open hatch and fired.

A huge explosion emerged as Forge quickly flew backwards, barely avoiding the blast and smoke.

“Pleas' stay down...” he hoped.

The automaton emerged from the flames, very heavily damaged, sparking electricity from everywhere and oozing some amounts of black fluid as it tried to repair itself. Still, it stumbled towards Forge. It quickly grabbed him again, and weakly began to charge it's barely functioning face cannon. The machine was weak, he could feel it in it's grip. Forge easily broke it's grip and knocked the destructive machine upside down again. He lifted his hands and began charging between them another ball of energy, which he threw like a basketball at the robot's belly area.

Once again, the concentrated, yet intense, explosion lit the area up. When the smoke and fire cleared, there was only a broken large piece surrounded by many smaller ones.

There will not be another round.

“FINALLY!!!” he exclaimed. He was about to fly towards the town, but right before he did, he noticed something. Approaching the robot's remains he saw a strange lightly florescent red slab. Almost like a keyboard-sized piece of concrete, but it shone like a red glow-in-the-dark star. He grabbed it, it's not like it could harm him even if it were radioactive.

“Wh-What's this... the power sours'? Be-Better tak' this... an' it better not be rad-radioaczive or somthin'.”

He clutch it's hurting chest again, when he noticed his chest now had a mark, as a result of the first green blast the robot shot at him. This odd “scar” looked like a white star-shape, with red stripes emerging from it.

“I... don' think that's goin' away soon... owww...” Forge dryly said to himself.

He figured he'd wait there for a while, to make sure the robot was truly decommissioned. Also, making sure to separate the pieces from each other, to make sure they stayed separate.

Soon enough, he returned to the town (making a brief stop to leave the red slab in his ship), the inhabitants looking thankful. Having seen the fight from afar, they were relieved at what seemed to be the end of a long-running problem.

The police looked uneasy at him but still thankful for his help; and they said they would help him in any way they could. When he returned, from a distance he saw the Fly Lady again, in her arms the now calm larva, smiling and nodding at him, looking thankful. He nodded back, giving her a thumbs up.

Finally, Forge brought his ship into the town, to see if the inhabitants could be of any help. They promised him they would give energy to his ship, but it would take at least a week, as currently they were going through an energy crisis. Unsurprisingly, he had little enthusiasm at waiting.

“A... A week... ar' you serius?” he groaned as he returned briefly to his ship. He showed the police the slab he found. One of them requested Forge give them the slab. He reluctantly did so, not being sure of the reasons.

Some uniformed inhabitants looked at the slab, scanning it and conversing among themselves. They looked hopeful and thankful towards Forge.

With the little energy that remained in the ship, Forge asked DEURMOD about the slab:

“Al-Alrite, so whas' that thing?”

“That appears to be blencol, Sir. Specifically, red blencol. A very useful material, often serving as a potent energy source.”, answered DEURMOD, who continued with: “They, evidently, could really use that blencol. They hope it'll help them out of their energy crisis.”

This got Forge an idea: “W-Waaait, Durmod, ya say the blencol works as... an energy sours'?”

“Indeed, Sir.”

"Woul' it work for the ship?”

“Yes.”

At this, Forge casually walked towards the inhabitants and took the blencol from their hands, against their objections.

As he climbed up the ship, he quickly heard the inhabitants begin to shout at him.

The inhabitants sounded agitated at this. They pointed at the blencol, pleading him to give it to them. Their expressions changed to desperate and resentful ones. The Man in the White Shirt simply shook his head and ignored their pleas.  

“I-I'm sure they' be fine. They...They've survive' this long... 'sides... they do owe me that, right...? I don' work for free.” he said coldly as he entered the ship. 

“H-Here's the 'blencol'... what do I do?” 

The computer replied “Very well, Sir. Insert the blencol into the receiver.”, as as a medium-sized hatch opened.

Putting the slab into the energy receiver, the ship quickly charged up.

“Fin'lly!!!!” said a relieved Forge.

“Very good, Sir. Let us continue our journey, then.”

“So... you don' care about me jus' take-takin' it?”

“I am only programmed to act like I care, Sir. I really don't.”

“...Ar-Are you progammed to say that too?”

DEURMOD bluntly responded with: “Yes.”

Forge just blinked and changed the subject: 

“Wha'ever... how long 'til we get to the planet 'Reglom'?”

“Only a few hours now.”

“Can hardly wait...”

But little did he know, something else was still hitching a ride in the ship.