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Adelaide paused for breath in an alleyway behind a shop. She'd been cut off from her original escape route, and her pursuers were proving to be tenacious, if not fast. She'd acquired a wide-brimmed hat and tucked her hair into it, but unfortunately her gleaming, gold-trimmed arm was less easily hidden. Again she lamented the summer heat - a nice, enveloping cloak would have been perfect to hide in, but in this weather she'd stick out like a sore thumb. And probably melt.
Clattering armor caught her attention. They were getting faster, and closing off her avenues of escape. She hoped Knight was okay, but after she'd lept off the roof, they'd activated some kind of jamming field. She was on her own. It was a good thing she'd had a childhood full of evading guards like this, although she doubted these ones simply wanted her to come home and have dinner with Mother.
Time to move again. She sprinted down the alley, willing her boots to be quieter on the cobblestones. She lept, rolled, and dove into another shadowy corner, where-
"There you are!"
Adelaide spun. Her fist flew wildly towards the voice. She planted her feet and lept away- or, that was the plan, anyway. Instead, she found her arm caught by another robot, dressed in dozens of ribbons of garish fabric. She struggled, but her arm was built more for speed than power.
"Oh, quit wiggling! We're going to be late for the show!"
Adelaide found herself dragged around the corner, thrown down to her knees, and then suddenly something was jammed down over her cybernetics. She focused on her captor, who was sitting across from her, with a surprisingly human-looking face, and... a puppet on each arm. Adelaide could hear murmuring on the other side of a cheap plywood stage stand, and a familiar approach of clattering armor.
"Come on! Prithee, let us start the show anon! Lest yon jackbooted knaves attempt to disrupt our theatre."
Adelaide looked at the robot again, and saw its - her? - uncertainly grinning, half pleading face. Then, she looked at the puppet that had been foisted onto her.
It was, naturally, a princess.
