The Inventor and the Phoenix

The Castle Staff

A/n: Happy New Year! Let's hope 2021 is kinder than the last year...

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Rodney sat on the window balcony, staring out through the glass. Wonderbot rested next to him, closed up. His discontent eyes stared out into the calm evening, despite some snow falling from the night sky.

His mind wandered off to the hills, where his mother used to take him when he was younger, when she was still alive. She was beautiful, full of life, even. He remembered how her red hair flowed behind from the wind breezing through, how the lakes shone under the sun, and how green the hills were as they passed through.

Rodney sighed, blinking back tears.

At that moment, a little girl, the same one that Cappy had met, snuck up next to Rodney. Pushing back a few strands of her blonde hair, she giggled quietly and quickly took Wonderbot, still asleep and unaware of what was going on.

Rodney heard something shuffle on his side and noticed in time to find the younger child holding Wonderbot in her hands. "Hey! Hey..." he couldn't help but chuckle as he tried to catch her. "I don't have time to play, okay? Trying to figure out a plan..."

Rodney attempted to catch the girl again, but she avoided his attempt before fleeing through a secret door behind the curtains, her giggles echoing.

"Hey! You got my Wonderbot!" Rodney called and followed after her through the secret door. To his surprise, it adjusted to his height, so he didn't have to crawl through it.

The girl laughed as she slipped through the end, still holding Wonderbot in her arms, and rushed to hide somewhere. Rodney' stepped out and gasped amazed at the room he was standing in.

It was a bit bigger than the room he has as of now, but a table holding a toolbox, much like the ones he had at home, a stool, and a fireplace occupied the room.

The little girl's laughter turned his attention back to her, and he found her hiding behind the bookshelf before she darted off to somewhere.

"Hey! Come back here!" Rodney started after her again. Wherever she's taking him, it's got to be somewhere good.

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Crank, an orange robot with wheels, looked inside a can before he groaned and tossed it aside. "What's the use? There's nothing left..."

It was getting worse for them as robots. As the days until the curse would soon be unbreakable passed, it was getting harder to find parts that still work in the castle.

"Hey, Deisel. I found you a voice box," Lugnut, a bigger green bot, held up a voice box from the bins.

A dark blue bot, who happened to be Deisel, clapped his hands excitedly and took the voice box and inserted it through his mouth. A crowd cheering was soon followed by an announcer speaking excitedly in Spanish, and Deisel started running around until Lugnut caught him resulting in the voice box falling out of his mouth.

"Uh, here's another one," Lugnut handed Deisel another voice box. He inserted it in and began acting like a dog.

"That's no good. Gimme that!" Crank tried taking it from Diesel, but the latter snarled at him, making him back away.

Lugnut lifted some parts and groaned when he found one smaller than him. "I can never find parts of my size."

At that moment, a head fell into a wheelbarrow holding parts, his scream cut short at the landing. Diesel barked happily, which caught Lugnut's attention. "What is it, boy?" He playfully asked him.