Foul Play (4)

No, it couldn't be a robot. It had to be something else. A piece of metal shouldn't show up in thermal scans, right? The scanner must be broken. After all, his perception should have alerted him already if anyone was around him. 

That's what Ashton would have thought before increasing his intelligence. But now he knew better than that.

"What am I even thinking? Of course, they can show up on the scans. They have to have a power source within themselves and the power source would inevitably release heat." Ashton faintly mumbled as more and more automatons walked into his sights, "Damn... I've started talking like Baiter."

Slowly more and more of them revealed themselves. They kept coming until their number was well over 30. At that point, Ashton stopped counting them and began thinking about countering them instead.