“Cap, tag in!” Min said.
“Against missiles?” Eva asked, gesturing at Nara, who was now darting forward to attack Gustavo directly.
Min’s bot made a shooing gesture, and Eva shrugged. With an assisted boost from her suit’s hand-propulsion units, she leaped in front of Sue with her leg already out, landing a kick that scooted Nara back and allowed Sue to retreat. Gustavo now sported a giant black scar across its front, and tiny yellow bots squealed and rushed around putting out fires and making other minute repairs. Sue herself seemed shaken but unharmed, thankfully.
“Annihilate her!” Miles shouted at Nara. Eva rolled her eyes; as if the bounty hunter needed tips from Miles fucking Erck, of all people.
“I can’t believe you’re fighting for that comemierda,” Eva said, her voice amplified by her armor.
“I’m fighting on behalf of my employer,” Nara replied, also amplified. “A contract is a contract.”
They came together in a crash of metallic polymers, trading punches and kicks, blocking and parrying and dodging with tech-assisted speed but their own skills acquired from years of combat experience. Nara was much taller than Eva, and though her suit was bulkier, she’d had years to become acquainted with it while Eva had only worn the Protean armor this once. All the minute adjustments she had to make to compensate began to add up, and Nara pushed her inexorably toward the fence as Eva defended more than she attacked.
She could practically hear her old boss Tito shouting at her, “Stop using your fists and start using your brain, comemierda!”
Or in this case, Eva thought, my bombs.
Eva fired her palm propulsion units to push Nara back just enough for some breathing room, then launched the explosives from her armor’s shoulder compartments. Nara dodged sideways, jumping onto the fence and clinging there for a moment before leaping back toward Eva with her arm weapon already blazing. But Eva was ready with her own surprise: she had swiveled the laser cannon forward from her back, and Nara was unable to avoid its intense beam, taking it square in the chest and flying backward toward the still-recovering Jei in a tumble of sparks.
Unfortunately, that was the only time Eva got to use that particular weapon, so now she was back to just her own fists and feet unless she did something drastic. And she had less than a minute left to win this fight before sudden-death overtime.
Before Nara or Jei could go back in, a murmur swept through the previously cheering crowd. On the balcony over the pit, Rubin Hjerte had appeared, a pitiless expression on her face more or less directed at Miles. She didn’t raise a hand or say a single word, but Miles was clearly picking up what she was putting down.
“Step aside, you two,” he told Nara and Jei. “Let me show you what a real bot fight looks like.”
Eva rolled her eyes, causing a minor hiccup in her tracking display that quickly righted itself.
Miles’s bot—Pounder, Eva remembered with a snort—stepped into the main part of the pit, its huge frame towering over Eva by almost two and a half meters. Its spiked armor, while ridiculous, didn’t have any clear gaps that Eva could exploit with the minimal weapons at her disposal. If it were an actual human, as its absurd muscles suggested, she would go for the usual vital organs; but it was a bot, and she knew nothing about its features or technical specs.
Well, as Tito had always said: when in doubt, aim for the head.
Eva ran up to the bot and slid between its legs, barely avoiding an energy blast from its massive hands. Scrambling to her feet, she leaped onto its back with the aid of her palm boosters and proceeded to climb. Before she got high enough, a repulsive force threw her off, sending her flying toward Nara and Jei. The former took the opportunity to throw a few punches at Eva for good measure, dividing her attention when she could least afford it.
Thankfully, Sue also decided to help out, and darted forward to distract Miles with her flamethrower. She moved back quickly, before he could return fire, and the crowd roared approval on both counts.
So much for the noobs staying on the back line.
Eva disengaged from Nara and returned her attention to Pounder. Joints were also a common weak point for bots, so she proceeded to attack its knees in the hopes of damaging one enough to hinder its mobility. With a cruel laugh, the bot launched a series of energy pulses along the floor from one hand, knocking her into the air and allowing it to fire a huge laser at her from its mouth. Eva yelped as the Protean armor attempted to redirect and spread the heat and concussive damage, raising the temperature inside to what would have been deeply uncomfortable if she weren’t already wearing her spacesuit underneath.
Landing in an awkward roll, Eva struggled to her feet. She must have hurt something in her chest, because while her body wanted to suck in big lungfuls of air from her exertions, her ribs objected with a jagged pain that left her breathless. Her armor was also unhappy, throwing small but insistent status notifications in front of her face that suggested its structural integrity wouldn’t survive another hit like that one.
“Feel free to tag in, Number One,” Eva shouted.
“Hold him off for a little longer, Cap,” Min said. “I’m studying his form.” She’d pressed herself up against the fence around the pit, her lips pursed thoughtfully.
“You’re going to be studying my dead body in a minute,” Eva muttered. She assumed a fighting stance as Miles made Pounder pose for the screaming crowd, flexing as if its muscles were real instead of cables and carbon fiber.
Bueno, keep using your brain, then, Eva thought.
The bot had at least one weapon in each hand, another in its eyes, possibly more it hadn’t used yet. It was definitely slower than she was, so if she could keep moving, she might be able to dodge the worst of its attacks. . .
Just as Pounder flexed its biceps yet again, Eva used her palm boosters to give herself extra height and jumped toward the fence. She pushed herself off and flew up toward the bot, latching onto its arm just above the gauntlet that appeared to house one of its weapons. Activating her boosters, she grabbed the arm and triggered the propulsion units, hoping they had enough juice to burn through and do some damage.
Pounder tried to shake her off, but she clung tightly, and her efforts were rewarded by a shower of sparks from the arm she was attacking. The hand was still intact, but hopefully its weapon would no longer be functional.
Eva had to time her next attack carefully or risk losing some limbs. Before the other hand could grab her or knock her off, she swung her legs up and activated her gravboots, which stuck to the bot’s helmet. Using the rest of her momentum, she curled her body up, ignoring the pain in her ribs, and grasped the lower part of the helmet’s visor, trying to get her palms into position to burn away its eye weapons.
This time, she couldn’t make it, and she had to deactivate her boots and push off to avoid being caught by Pounder’s other huge hand. She executed an aerial backflip that would have made Tito proud, then landed hard on one foot and stumbled backward, skidding to a stop on her butt. The crowd laughed, and she waved as if she’d meant to do that, eliciting a ragged cheer that did little to ease the pain in her ribs.
“This ends now,” Miles said, raising an arm dramatically, and Pounder advanced on Eva with its eyes glowing red as dying suns.
“Min, a little help here!” Eva shouted.
Sue responded instead, tearing a piece of the floor up with her mech’s hands and throwing it at Pounder. It hit the bot square in the chest, but did little apparent damage, and Miles gave a gloating chuckle.
“Is that the best you can do?” he asked.
Eva shrugged and settled into a fighting stance once again, gesturing for Miles to come at her. Her suit protested weakly, and she turned the alarm sounds off, ignoring the other flashing indicators that suggested she had indeed done her best and should stage a strategic retreat.
“Showtime,” Min said suddenly. Her bot, Goyangi, straightened to its full height, running through a quick series of stretches in which its arms
and legs extended past their normal range, then pointed at Pounder. “Game face: on. Number One, ready for combat.”
The timer rang out the end of the match. The referee returned, and over the cheers and jeers of the crowd, she coolly announced, “All combatants remain active. Sudden-death round initiated. First team to achieve a total knockout wins.”
Eva hadn’t even noticed how long the fight had gone on, given how much she was being pummeled. She backed up to the fence around the pit and glared at Min. Not that the pilot could see her expression inside the Protean armor.
“Min, qué coño?” she asked. “We’re already beat-up. If you don’t take Miles out now, estamos singado.”
Min grinned and flashed a victory sign at Eva. “I’ve got this, Cap.” To Miles, she shouted, “Prepare to get owned, noob!”
“Well, actually, if you fight like your captain, you’re the one getting owned,” Miles said. Pounder posed dramatically again, and Eva stifled a groan.
“Cap’s not a bot fighter,” Min said, slowly advancing her bot into the center of the pit. “But I am. And Pounder is about to get pounded.”
Eva glanced up at the balcony, where Hjerte still stood, arms crossed, her expression flat and distant. A winged todyk, its feathers red as rubies, approached and told her something. The corners of her lips rose in a smile that gave Eva a chill.
They needed to win, and they needed to do it without pissing off the boss. Eva ran her tongue over her teeth and wished her suit had come equipped with stims as well as explosives.
“Ready?” the referee asked. “Begin!”
Min launched Goyangi toward Pounder immediately, her speed boosted by rockets Sue had installed in the bot’s shoulder blades and calves. She landed a flurry of punches that drove Pounder back several steps, despite their half-meter size difference. Pounder attempted to retaliate with its hand weapon, but Eva had apparently damaged it more than Miles realized, and it sparked uselessly instead of firing.
Goyangi leaned on its fists and kicked at Pounder with both legs together, the limbs stretching so that the bot was still just out of reach even as its strikes connected. For the first time, Pounder raised a shield, its shimmering gold energy like a modified version of a spaceship deflector.
That meant Miles was worried. And if he was worried, they had a chance.
As soon as the shield disappeared and Pounder raised its undamaged arm to attack, Goyangi’s forearm plating retracted, exposing tiny missiles that Min fired toward her opponent. They exploded harmlessly against the shield, but in the haze of smoke they created, Goyangi once again leaped forward and struck. Step by step, meter by meter, Pounder retreated under the onslaught, and Eva cheered with the crowd, especially reveling in the extremely pissed expression Miles wore on his pale, rage-blotched face.
“Are you even trying?” Min asked, her bot leaping into the air and kicking down at Pounder, its leg stretching just over the upper edge of the shielding to hit the other bot square in the head.
“Well, actually, this isn’t even my final form!” Miles snapped, and with a roar, Pounder ripped its own helmet off to show a chrome-colored skull with sharp teeth and pointed fangs descending from its cheekbones. Its eyes shifted from red to a bright magenta-purple that Eva found eerily familiar, just before it fired a pair of eye lasers at Goyangi that burned twin holes through its chest plating.
Mierda, mojón y porquería. Eva’s heart would have stopped if it wasn’t mechanical.
The crowd roared, bloodthirsty and savage, and the band on the stage played a rousing, boisterous riff as if to punctuate the decisive strike.
Min’s bot staggered back, but immediately leaped forward again. This apparently confused Miles, who must have been expecting more of a retreat, so he was entirely unprepared when Goyangi grabbed Pounder and loosed a shock of electricity that lanced through the bot’s systems, sending up more sparks from its busted arm.
“Jódete, cabrón!” Eva shouted, even though the fight wasn’t over. Min had to win. They couldn’t afford to fail.
Pounder shuddered but didn’t fall, instead using the same repulsive force it had on Eva to push Goyangi away. But Min’s bot had extendable arms and legs, and it landed a flurry of hits even as it was shifted backward.
Eva’s sensors alerted her to movement on the back line. Jei, positioning himself to fire at Min, and even Nara angling for a shot from another direction.
“Not a chance, sinvergüenzas,” Eva said. “Sue, hit them with your bots!”
Sue noticed what was happening and nodded, firing her strange pistol at both the fighters. With a shrill order, her tiny robots rushed across the pit and leaped onto Jei and Nara both, harrying them in ways that were more annoying than destructive. One bot covered Nara’s optical sensors with what looked like a tablecloth—where the hell had it gotten one of those?—while another was waving a frying pan around wildly without actually hitting anything.
This distracted Miles, apparently, because he shouted, “Hey, where’s the ref?” and gestured angrily with his bot toward the altercations.
The referee looked up at the balcony where Hjerte stood impassively. She didn’t uncross her arms, didn’t move, simply stood like a frozen hologram and waited.
“No penalty,” the referee said. The crowd roared, whether in anger or approval, Eva couldn’t tell.
Min, certainly, was smiling like a cat who’d gotten a tin of fish. Miles raged, stalking back and forth from his controller position and tugging at his thin blond hair until finally he settled in a wide-legged stance, hands curled into fists.
“This ends now!” he shouted. Pounder’s shield sprang up, and the bot charged forward, knocking into Goyangi like a battering ram. Min’s bot slid backward, and Pounder’s shields dropped as it fired its eye lasers once again.
Except Goyangi wasn’t in their path. It had leaped into the air, boosted by its elbow and calf rockets.
Time seemed to slow. Pounder began to raise its arm to strike, but Goyangi was faster. A series of lasers coalesced in a point in front of the bot, forming a force field like a shimmering pink pyramid just in front of its arm. It dove down onto Pounder, the pyramid rotating like a drill, and the force of it drove Pounder into the floor, pieces of its armor peeling away to expose the cables and other anatomy beneath.
Miles screamed, in anger rather than despair. “Worthless thing is lagging!” he shouted. Pounder attempted to stand, but Goyangi gazed down at it in the pitiless way only a robot could manage. Or Hjerte, apparently.
“Aw, you’re trying so hard,” Min said with a giggle.
Goyangi opened its mouth and fired a blast of energy straight into Pounder’s exposed face. It must have hit something vital, because moments later there was a burst of light, then smoke began to pour out of Pounder’s eye sockets. The bot hitched once, then lay still, tiny sparks of electricity arcing up from the hole in its formerly fake-buff stomach.
The crowd flipped out like someone had thrown a chair, drowning out the band with their screams and roars and whistles and other assorted sounds. Eva assumed the angrier ones had lost bets and were preparing to take out their feelings in unproductive ways, but the rest of the crowd was living.
“Match complete,” the referee said, her voice amplified barely loud enough to be heard. “Your new champion is Number One, piloting Goyangi!”
Sue climbed out of Gustavo and rushed at Eva, hugging her in excitement. “We did it!” she shouted. “We won!”
Goyangi began to dance, waving its arms and spinning in place. Min did her own shimmy in her seat, grinning and shaking her blue-braided head to a music only she could hear. This elicited more cheers from the audience, and a few other people danced as well. The band finally started to become audible once again, and the bar was mobbed so thoroughly that additional bots were deployed to handle orders while the many-tentacled bartender prepared as many drinks as they could manage.
Doors in the fence around the pit opened, allowing the fighters and bots to exit.
Miles didn’t even bother to check on Pounder; he immediately began shouting at Nara and Jei, jabbing his finger at them accusatorially. Jei frowned, his skin a shade paler than it had been, and Nara stood impassively as usual, her expression hidden by her helmet.
Eva looked up at the balcony where Hjerte had stood. It was empty. A chill ran down her back and she hoped that didn’t mean what she thought it did.
((Cover me,)) she pinged at Vakar and Pink. To Sue, she said, “Stay with Min. I’m going to chat with our friend Miles.”
Sue began to protest, but Eva silenced her with a gesture and stalked across the pit. Her armor was still sending up grumpy status signals, but at least it wasn’t freezing, and she suspected she might need the protection for a few more minutes.
Nara noticed her approach and moved into a defensive position, while Jei simply scowled. Miles was too up his own ass to even see her.
“Hey, Erck,” she said, interrupting his foamy-mouthed rant. “Time to settle up. You said you’d tell us about Josh if we won, so start talking.”
Miles glared at her as if his own eyes could shoot lasers. “Well, actually,” he said, “I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“Oh, you resingado cabrón hijo de la gran mierda.” Eva considered whether she could make it around Nara to punch him in his actual face, but in her suit she would probably end up breaking his jaw. And then he wouldn’t be able to talk even if she wanted him to.
“You made an agreement,” Jei said, his face slack with shock. Eva pitied him for a moment, but she was too pissed to hold on to any other emotions for long.
“Well, actually, I didn’t sign anything,” Miles retorted. “And I don’t care. She can’t make me do it.”
“Would you have honored our agreement if we had won?” Jei asked.
Miles shrugged. “You lost, so it doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere with you two.”
Prime Deceptions Page 12