Free Robot Warriors by Zac Harrison

struggled to remember the student’s name. “Yes, thanks... er...”
    “Don’t crowd him, Xyglurz,” squeaked the little fuzzy alien. “We were here first.”
    “Yeah! Back off,” said Kritta. “Leave this to the real fans!”
    Xyglurz laughed. The sound was like a fingernail moving along a guitar string. “I was backing John before any of you!” He waved the ThinScreen. “How many of you lot have put together a profile on him, eh?”
    Now John remembered. While he’d been repairing Super-Rover last night, Xyglurz had been firing questions at him, pestering him for information about Earth, his family, what people ate, and even what they got up to in the bathroom. It was all a bit too personal.
    This must be what champion footballers on Earth feel like, when the newspaper reporters wait outside their houses to hammer them with questions...
    “So how are you feeling about the finals today?” Xyglurz asked, ThinScreen at the ready.
    John pushed away his untouched tea. “Well, it’s all been a bit sudden, to be honest... hasn’t really sunk in yet...”
    “Listen to that,” said the fuzzy pink creature. “He’s a true sportsman, isn’t he? So modest.”
    “Not as modest as KAAAAAAL!” boomed the one-eyed giant, and they all started yelling at one another again.
    Better get dressed while they’re all distracted, John thought.
    But it wasn’t that easy. His fans insisted on bringing him his clothes, and a few of them were even trying them on themselves. In the end, he had to pull them back out of their grasp, lock himself in the toilet, and get dressed there.
    Alone for a few precious moments, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. This was not something he’d ever expected to have to deal with.
    “Fame at last,” he said to himself. “You did it, Riley. If your Earth friends could see you now!”
    There must be over a hundred people cheering me on, he thought as he dressed. They’ve never heard of Earth before, but they’ll remember it now! In your face, Mordant Talliver!
    When he came back out, his fans all had questions ready to fire at him.
    “What’s Earth like?” piped the fluffy pink creature.
    “Are you really descended from primates?” barked a walrus-like being.
    “What gave you the idea for such an unusual robot?” asked Xyglurz.
    John grinned. That was one question of the metallic alien’s that he didn’t mind answering. “It’s based on a dog,” he answered.
    The fans chattered excitedly. “What’s a dog ?” several of them asked.
    “It’s a sort of pet animal,” John explained. “With four legs and a tail and teeth, and it goes woof . And it wags its tail when it’s happy.”
    “So it’s quite small, then?” asked the furry pink thing. John really wished he knew its name. He couldn’t just call it Furry Pink Thing all the time.
    “Oh no,” he said. “Dogs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are little, like Chihuahuas and Jack Russells. But some are huge, like Great Danes and mastiffs.”
    “We’ve got a pet skrellick at home,” said a bulbous-headed student whose body was luminous and transparent. John immediately thought he looked like a light bulb. “It’s always getting into the ventilation pipes.”
    “Skrellicks do that,” said Xyglurz knowingly. “They’re trouble. Always on the move. What you want is a good faithful loffleclod.”
    “ Loffleclods ! ” scoffed the walrus creature. “They’re useless! They just sit there! Takes them half the day to crawl to the food dish, and the other half to crawl back!”
    “At least you can rely on them to be there for you,” said Xyglurz defensively.
    “Only because it would take them a year to run away,” scoffed the walrus.
    “We had a loffleclod once,” said the pink thing sadly. “It died. We didn’t notice for three weeks.”
    “Give me a Kvellian razorbeast any day,” put in the Myconian. “You get respect with one of those. They’ll fight anything! Just don’t ever let it see