Steel Dragon

Silence took over the shop when the drone stopped spinning. Mei Mei stared at the blinking blue display, not knowing what to expect. It was just a cleaning drone, but with the pendant stuck there, it seemed like it had turned into something bigger. She sighed, tired, sat on the floor and tried to relax. Maybe she was going crazy, imagining things.

The drone shook again. Suddenly, the blue light turned green, then red, and lit up an orange LED bar on the side. The screen went dark and, for a second, she thought everything had fried for good.

Then a voice appeared, out of nowhere. It wasn't synthetic, nor any machine sound. It was a familiar voice, hoarse, drawn-out, with that irritated tone only one person had.

"Already finished playing or are you going to keep breaking my stuff?"

Mei Mei froze. Her heart jumped. She looked around, trying to find where the voice was coming from. Nobody there. Just her and the drone. She looked at the display again, not understanding.

"If you've gone deaf for good, let me know. We'll install a bigger speaker in this hunk of junk."

She widened her eyes.

"Grandpa? Is that you?"

The voice grumbled, almost laughing.

"Unfortunately. I thought I'd be able to rest in peace, but I couldn't let my granddaughter finish destroying everything alone. By the way, nice mess you made. Congratulations."

Mei Mei's eyes grew even wider, she stood up in a jump, tripped over a box, almost fell.

"That's not possible. I'm dreaming. Who's making this bad joke?"

The drone's display blinked. The voice got louder.

"You always had this habit of not believing what's right in front of you, Mei Mei. Test the command, go on. Call me AI. Or electronic spirit. Whatever."

Mei Mei took a deep breath, closed her eyes and opened them again.

"Drone… grandpa… say something only you would say."

The drone did a loop in the air, bumped lightly into the wall, spun and stopped right in front of her. The display blinked:

"Only a blockhead would try to fix a robot with duct tape."

Mei Mei turned pale, then blushed.

"Okay, that really was something only he would say…"

The voice got ironic.

"So you figured it out, huh? Now do me a favor, clean this floor. I don't want to be the AI of a dirty shop."

She laughed, nervous, running her hand over her face.

"I must be going crazy. Are you… inside the drone?"

The display blinked again.

"Worse than that. In a way, yes."

Mei Mei shook her head, still confused.

"How did you end up there? Was the pendant a chip the whole time?"

The drone made a sound like a sigh.

"That was the secret. I took my retirement and made a copy of my brain onto the chip. Your grandma almost killed me at the time. I hid everything there, in case something happened. I don't trust people, only machines. The chip was powered by Bluetooth, there was a transmitter in my head."

She laughed, nervous. Her heart was pounding.

"Grandpa, this is bizarre. But I'm happy to hear your voice. Even if it's in a flying tin can."

The drone rose, spun in the air and came down again.

"Less talk, more work. I want to see if you learned anything. Grab a wrench and take apart that panel without breaking anything."

Mei Mei made a face, but obeyed. She grabbed the wrench, tried to open Chun-Li's panel slowly. The drone hovered over, supervising, shining light on her hand.

"Easy there, you're not frying eggs. A tool isn't a baseball bat."

She laughed, still not believing she was hearing grandpa grumbling through the drone. With each move, the voice didn't let up.

"That hand shaking, Mei Mei? Looks like you're defusing a bomb. Hold it steady, come on. The screw doesn't bite."

Mei Mei smiled, even being teased. The mood got lighter, fear gave way to a weird kind of joy. She finished taking the panel apart, looked at the drone, waiting for approval.

"Didn't break anything? Miracle. Mark it on the calendar. Now clean that piece. It's dirtier than sneakers after a storm."

She cleaned the part, watching the drone spin, laughing to herself.

"Done. Now what?"

"Now put it back together. And if there are leftover parts, start over. No jury-rigging in my shop."

Mei Mei took a deep breath, started to reassemble. Each part in place, hearing grandpa complain again at every crooked screw.

"That's crooked! That won't last till lunchtime!"

"Trust me, grandpa. I learned."

"Learned nothing. If you had, you wouldn't have let that Kazuo mess you up."

She made a face but swallowed her pride.

"Next time will be different. Now I know what to look for."

The drone spun around, almost hit Mei Mei's head.

"Great. Then learn to do it right while you still have someone to teach you. Or I'll have you take apart the whole floor."

The tone was joking, but Mei Mei knew that was grandpa's way of showing affection.

She finished putting it together, showed the panel to the drone. The display blinked: "Approved. 6/10. Has a future if you don't give up."

Mei Mei laughed.

"Six? Only that?"

"If you do it again without losing a screw, you get seven. It's not easy being a teacher after death, you know?"

The day passed like that. Mei Mei took apart, put together, got scolded, heard jokes. The drone didn't stop, spinning, messing with tools, bumping into boxes, sometimes even turning off the light on purpose just to get in the way.

"Grandpa, are you enjoying my pain?"

The display answered: "Always."

At the end of the day, Mei Mei sat on the floor, tired but laughing.

"You're not going away, are you?"

The drone's light blinked blue.

"I'll only leave when you learn to do things right. I can't stand watching you struggle alone."

Mei Mei took a deep breath, looked at the drone, felt like crying again, but held it in. Now there was a new strength there, a friendly voice, even if electronic.

"Thank you, grandpa. Stay with me."

The drone was quiet for a moment. Then, blinked a last message:

"Always. Steel Dragon never dies. Now let's get to work, tomorrow's training day."

Mei Mei smiled, ready for whatever came. Her dragon was back, in a new and impossible way. And she knew she'd never be alone again.