Round 2 is in the "edisonades" sub-genre. My prompt was the title " _______'s Tiny Mechanical Dancer"
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Hector watched his young assistant as she bent over his microscope. "It kind of looks like they're dancing," she said as she pulled back.
He smirked and stooped over to see. "Well... I guess they do."
"Can we dance?"
"That's a strange question. You've never shown any interest in dancing before."
"I'm inspired now." She held her arms out towards him and he smiled as he pulled her close.
"Not quite like that," he said as they waltzed. "No, just follow my lead. The left foot. Left. Ouch!" As her heel slammed into his toes, he released her and backed away.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Dancing was never something you were meant to do."
His assistant blinked, then gestured to the microscope. "The nano probes weren't meant to dance either" she said, "but they still do it."
"That 'dancing' as you call it is actually a complicated process of artificial mitosis which results in new cells being healthier than the old. It's brought on by a bombardment of carbon ions and minute amounts of radiation. What looks like dancing is actually healing."
"Healing what?"
"Everything from HIV to Cancer to old age. Pumping these babies into the blood stream could potentially make a person immortal."
"So...your probes get to save the world and have an accidental dance party but what do I get to do? Watch your experiments when you're away? Make you tea when you're busy?"
Hector frowned at his assistant. He knew one day she'd want more. "How about first thing tomorrow morning I'll start working on a new dancing program. What would you like? The waltz? The foxtrot? Krumping?"
"All of it!" She smiled. "I wanna know every kind of dance."
Hector laughed and patted his assistant's shoulder. "Okay, by tomorrow evening you'll be dancing circles around these probes, but for now I think you should recharge."
"Oh of course! I'll need plenty of energy reserves for tomorrow." She clapped her hands and moved toward the wall. "I'm so excited Hector, I can't wait to dance." She stooped to pick up a cord as big around as her fist. She uncovered the end to reveal a nasty series of needles and hooks. "Promise me we'll dance tomorrow?"
Hector smiled and nodded. His assistant looked absolutely giddy. That is, until she reached back with the cord and jammed it into the base of her skull. She jolted and shook, then went limp at the waist and folded in half.
"Tomorrow will be a new day for you," Hector said as he placed a hand on his assistant's back. "My tiny mechanical dancer."
