Steel Dragon

The house was strange, very quiet. The smell of coffee no longer came from the kitchen. Instead of sadness, Mei Mei decided to invent something to keep herself busy. She looked around and almost tripped on a pile of parts and tools left on the floor.

"I need to clean this mess. It's impossible even to walk," she said quietly, even knowing nobody would answer.

Walking through the warehouse, she saw something she didn't even remember existed. In the corner of the shop, the cleaning drone, covered in dust, looked like a forgotten pet. The device was crooked, with the propeller stuck and the base kind of loose.

"I think you'll do to keep my mind occupied."

Mei Mei tried to turn the propeller, but nothing worked. She huffed, sat on the floor and looked at the drone like someone facing a miniature enemy.

"You're kidding, right? Nothing in this place works anymore."

She decided to take it all apart. Started taking out the screws one by one, throwing the parts into a box. With every piece removed, more dust flew. Mei Mei sneezed, cursed, but didn't stop.

She found tangled wires, a circuit board full of burn marks and even an old insect nest. She laughed alone.

"Seriously, this drone is more abandoned than my dignity after the tournament."

When she went to touch the central compartment, she noticed a small space, as if it had been made to fit something very specific. It was different from the rest of the project, almost new. She tried to force an old chip in, but it wouldn't fit.

She looked at the pendant and saw something strange—the pendant seemed to be the right size.

Curious, she took the pendant off her neck and looked closely. The engraved dragon was a bit worn, but the fitting seemed to fit perfectly into the drone's hole.

She hesitated for a second, remembering her grandfather's words: "Protect this pendant. It's more important than you imagine."

But curiosity spoke louder. "Just a quick look. It's not going to do anything."

She put the pendant in the slot. Right away, she heard an electric noise—zzzzzt!—and the drone lit up a blue light on the screen, as if it had woken from an eternal sleep.

The drone's display started blinking, several codes running up the screen. Mei Mei's eyes widened.

"Huh? You never did that, buddy. What trip is this?"

Suddenly, the drone jumped, the motors started spinning on their own. The stuck propeller came loose, spinning hard. The drone lifted off the floor a few centimeters and almost hit Mei Mei's head.

"Hey! Easy there! Do you want to kill me with fright?"

The drone spun in the air, hit a shelf, almost knocked a box of screws on her. The cleaning sensor started beeping, shooting a beam of light all around, as if it was scanning the whole shop.

The scene got chaotic: drone going one way, Mei Mei dodging parts, trying to grab the drone with both hands, but it escaped every time. The device seemed to have a mind of its own. Almost hit a cup, brushed against wires, even made a weird sound—like a sarcastic "beep".

"So now it's a mess with artificial intelligence, huh?"

She tried pressing the off button, but the drone ignored her. The screen blinked a strange phrase: "Special mode activated." Then another message: "Unique device detected. Command: start extreme cleaning."

"Extreme cleaning? Now you're going to throw everything out, including me."

The drone flew to the dirtiest corner, sucked up dust, pulled in paper, threw an empty box toward the door. Mei Mei ran after it, slipped on a part and fell sitting, watching the drone spin like crazy. The propeller was making a wild noise.

Suddenly, it stopped in the air, made a turn and came straight back to Mei Mei. The screen showed: "Extra mission: core protection."

She didn't understand a thing.

"Protection of what?"

Before she could react, the drone fit the pendant completely into the compartment, released an electronic lock and the display blinked: "Device integrated. Removal impossible."

Mei Mei tried to pull the pendant back, but it wouldn't come out. The red light blinked: "Error. Don't try to remove. System locked."

She felt a chill in her stomach.

"Great. Now the pendant is part of the drone... Grandpa is going to yell at me even from beyond."

The drone landed on the floor, stopped, went silent. For a few seconds, only the sound of Mei Mei's breathing. She stared at the device, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Suddenly, the drone lifted again, spun in the air, and released a cloud of accumulated dust, throwing dust right in Mei Mei's face. She sneezed, stood up, ran to grab the drone, but tripped over her own feet.

"This robot thinks it's my boss now?"

The display blinked: "Supervision mode. Control test. Awaiting voice command."

Mei Mei thought quickly, decided to test.

"Chun-Li, power on!"

Nothing happened. The drone just spun, as if laughing at her. She huffed, wiped the dust from her face.

"Drone, sweep everything!"

The device made a loud noise, started spinning like a crazy dog chasing its own tail, spreading more mess than cleaning. Mei Mei burst out laughing.

"Congrats, now I'm a vacuum cleaner's assistant!"

While the drone spun, Mei Mei realized it was no longer an ordinary robot. There was something different, a hidden intelligence, as if someone was in there, watching her. The display kept blinking new messages all the time, some senseless, others in code.

For a moment, she felt a shiver, as if she was being watched.

"Okay, okay... You want to play? Let's see who's boss here."

She grabbed the manual control, tried to restart the drone. The display turned off, then back on with a message: "Manual control disabled. Priority function: protect Steel Dragon."

Mei Mei stared, not understanding a thing. She sat on the floor, tired, but couldn't stop laughing at the mess.

The drone landed slowly in front of her, blinking a blue light. The display showed: "Activation complete. Supervision started. Awaiting new command."

Mei Mei looked at the pendant, now attached to the drone, and felt that something big had started. The pendant was never coming out of there again. Now the Steel Dragon's secret had changed place. And nothing would be the same.

She took a deep breath, laughed alone, spoke to the drone: "If you're really special, then help me clean this chaos. But without trying to kill me, please."

The drone blinked the blue light, made a sound that seemed like a laugh. Mei Mei stood up, held the device with both hands and felt, for the first time in days, that she wasn't so alone.