by Simon Archer
It was a struggle to get back on my feet for a moment, and Matt stared while I shook off the devastating blow with a bit too much ease for his liking.
“No problem, buddy,” I huffed. He’d really knocked the wind out of me. “Good job.”
“Woohoo!”
“Eric, for the love of—Stop cheering, you’re supposed to be a villain,” Matt grumbled. “He’s our enemy. Remember?”
“Oh yeah,” Eric chuckled and grinned at me again. When he realized he was doing it, he faltered into a fake scowl that crumbled immediately. “Uh... I mean, grr.” He pumped his fist weakly in front of him. “Go, team,” he said, utterly deadpan. “There’s more where that came from, you stupid hero.”
“Better not be,” I chuckled, “that really fucking hurt.”
“Did it?” He lit up again, his entire body sparkling with little bolts of energy. “Awesome!”
Matt and I rolled our eyes at the same time, though Matt’s ended in another scowl. In my ear, I heard Andie’s voice say, “Think I’ve found her. She’s underground.”
Then came Kara’s response. “Oh my God, Nick, look out!”
I had just enough time to grab Matt and pull us both out of the way when the wall behind us caved in with a loud boom, sending debris flying everywhere. A tremendous bipedal robot stomped through it as the dust cleared. With its sleek black metal design and the crimson fire logo of my father painted on its chest, it didn’t take a genius to know where this was going. I cursed softly as the robot’s eyes beamed forth a holographic transmission, and my father’s giant head grinned down at me.
“Hiya, Junior!” From what I could tell, he was wearing a bathrobe of all things. It was white and fluffy, and his hair was slick from having just come out of the shower.
I couldn’t believe the day I was having. “Dad, what the—”
“So I heard you had a bully problem,” he interrupted, “and I thought I’d help out.” He jerked a thumb behind him, indicating the robot transmitting his message. “Petey here is the latest model, he can take care of it.”
“I don’t want a Petey! Dad, just... just stop!”
“Now, now, that’s no way to talk to your father.”
Matt grumbled insults to my left, and that was absolutely not helping matters. Pale and a little bit terrified, I shook my head up at the image and flew closer to face my father directly.
“Look, I know you’re trying to help, but I can take care of myself,” I explained. “You don’t need to—”
“Nonsense.” My father chuckled. Somewhere in that insane mind of his, he still thought of me as a seven-year-old boy. He clicked his tongue like I’d been caught with my hand in the proverbial hero jar. “You know I’ll always be there for you, kiddo.”
“Dad, please don’t sic the killer robot on the Barbur twins,” I pleaded. “It’s fine. Seriously. Just... just go home.”
There was a moment when our eyes met through the transmission that I thought he was going to crumble... but Barbur was a nasty word for him. It was a name that spoke of betrayal and old wounds. It was a reminder of mistakes better off left unmentioned. My father’s dark brown eyes narrowed, and he looked beyond me down to Matt and Kristen. There was unrepentant hate in that gaze. He knew full well whose children they were, and that made all the difference as far as he was concerned.
“Dad, let it go,” I said, steel in my voice as I tried to break through. “Please. Just this once.”
“Petey?” my father said, ignoring me as he looked down at something off-screen. “Please ship their bodies to the Arctic when you’re done here.”
“Stop it!”
My pleas fell on deaf ears because the transmission cut off a moment later. Suddenly, the robot was encased by four metal walls, and down below, Judgment called the match over.
“Everyone out now,” he roared. “Get to safety! Go!!”
I did no such thing.
“Starlight, we should—” Aylin began to say, her hand on my arm.
“My father hit the powers lottery way back when,” I explained as I shook my head. “Aside from the power to light cities on fire, he’s also a tech genius. If this bot was designed to kill the twins, it’s going to succeed unless I do something. I’m not going anywhere!”
“Shit,” Kara swore in my ear. “It’s too dangerous!”
“Not to me, it isn’t.”
City Master had his hands raised up, and his gaze was focused on the walls. The robot, ‘Petey,’ pummeled through them with incredible strength, but City Master drew up yet more walls to keep it contained. Their struggle rocked the entire gym.
“Got Adelaide,” Andie piped up in my ear. “Let’s go.”
I spotted Andie and Kara popping back into view with Adelaide in tow. They ran out of the course and escorted her toward the doors, where Adelaide left with Triton to call for backup. Judgment joined them after a last glance at City Master, who insisted with a glare that he could take care of it.
He couldn’t.
The second Judgment vanished out the door, Petey burst through the wall again, and City Master stumbled back in exhaustion. He tried slamming another wall into Petey to stall his progress, but the bot had proven too strong. He burst through one after another, searching relentlessly for his targets.
Matt was trying to escort Kristen out of the course when he stumbled over a broken trap. Petey spotted them both, and his twin red eyes glared downward. I could feel the heat even from a safe distance off, and I cursed.
With extended hands and a desperate focus, I managed to focus my power into a flickering white force field over Matt and Kristen just in time. They looked up in astonishment as Petey’s wrath turned into a concentrated stream of laser light, and I struggled to maintain the field under the intense blast. Petey couldn’t seem to understand what was happening as the Barburs remained un-incinerated and repeatedly fired at the twins, his frustration mounting when they continued to survive.
The energy it took to maintain the field was tremendous, and I wavered dangerously in the air. Finally, after a solid minute of artillery fire, the bot relented.
I kept the bubble where it was. “I’m running out of time,” I warned the girls through our communicator. “We need to take care of this quickly.”
“I’m trying to hack its systems,” Kara muttered. When I glanced back down, I couldn’t see her. She must have cloaked again for protection. “Just keep it busy a little while longer.”
“I will help, Starlight,” Aylin chimed in bravely.
“And me too,” Andie joined in.
Before any of us could do something, another tremendous lightning bolt slammed through the gym. This time, it came down from the skies, shattering a window as it connected to the robot. The bright white light caused me to jerk backward in the air, as I shielded my eyes from the blast. Petey shrieked a metallic whine, and sparks flew everywhere. It jerked and convulsed, then tumbled to the gym floor with a crash.
“Take that, you stupid robot! Nobody threatens my friends!” Eric had his communicator back on our team’s channel. He cheered loudly, though I could hear the exhaustion in his voice this time. He wasn’t doing that again any time soon.
Kara cursed. “Systems are resetting, guys. It’s stunned, but not for long. Take advantage while you can!”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I soared up high in the air, then flew at Petey with supersonic speed and as much strength as I could muster, fist extended. I slammed into the robot, and metal whined underneath my fist as systems ripped and tore from the mighty impact. I nearly managed to rip the thing’s head clean off with that one blow, but then cables reconnected underneath the split as the worst of the damage started to mend as easily as I’d inflicted it.
“Nanite repair systems are back online. Your dad is really good at this.” Kara’s tone was vaguely impressed. “He built this guy to last.”
“Stop fangirling,” I groaned as I punched Petey repeatedly in its face. “It’s a death bot.”
I sighed. Amused, yes, but now wasn’t the time. “Kill it first, then we can discuss how awesome it is, okay?”
“You got it, buddy.”
Another lightning bolt came down and seared the robot’s systems again. This one was much weaker than the former, and I frowned, realizing that I wasn’t the only one running out of time.
“Systems are still rebooting,” Kara confirmed. “Eric, your bolt didn’t fry it this time, I think it’s created some kind of failsafe.”
Aylin joined in with my efforts, throwing energy beams into the robot’s exposed wires. Andie twisted herself into its innards through the cracks Aylin and I had split in Petey’s shell and began ripping cables at random. Despite all five of us attacking the machine with everything we had, the bot still managed to recover. It stood, shook off Andie with a metallic groan, and swatted Aylin out of the sky. As they both slammed hard into the gym floor, I hissed with worry.
“You two okay?” I called as I punched the thing in the face so hard it dented the ground beneath the robot.
“Fine,” Andie groaned.
Aylin struggled back to her feet. “I am well, Starlight.”
“Kara, please have some good news!” I called out, relieved that the girls were okay.
“These systems are freaking insane,” she came back, a mixture of frustration and admiration in her tone. “I’m doing what I can, but it keeps figuring out ways to lock me out! It’s almost like it’s an actual fucking AI. Is that possible?”
“I don’t know, I—”
“That was a rhetorical question, Nick! Keep it busy!”
It occurred to me that I didn’t actually have to if I could get rid of it then and there. I swooped in and kicked it back out the giant hole that it had crashed in from. It stumbled into the Valcav parking lot, arms windmilling to correct itself. Innocent bystanders shrieked and fled at the sight. I could hear sirens in the distance. The police were on their way.
The robot didn’t seem to know what to do with me because it extended a glowing palm only to set it back down in apparent confusion. I was the thing that it had been sent to protect, and here I was, trying to destroy it. I decided that it could figure out those questions in space. I took a deep breath, grabbed hold of the bot, and flung it as hard as I could into the skies. I’d never sent something into space before, but I’d never found a limit to my strength, either.
At first, Petey flew up into the atmosphere until he was just a tiny dot in the heavens. I thought I’d succeeded and took a moment to gain my breath. I started to walk back inside to check on the others, but then Kara called out in my ear, “He’s coming back down!”
I heard the roar of jet engines, and a moment later, the parking lot shook with the crash of the robot landing behind me. Slowly, I turned to glare at it.
“So it’s going to be like that, then?” I sighed.
With a passive aggressive glare of his burning red eyes, the robot marched over me and ducked back through the hole into the gym. I followed behind and then kicked it so that it was sprawled on the floor again.
I concentrated energy into my palms, creating a small bomb as I had in practice, and then fed it energy while glaring at Petey. With a growl, I launched myself at him and fed the bomb into a visible tear in its chest. It exploded with a sharp burst of light, the entire robot shuddering from the shock of the explosion, and I expected the bot to at least struggle with the loss of yet more innards.
Still, the inside of the bot seemed structurally sound regardless as he struggled to rise.
I wasn’t sure how that was even possible and demanded, “The hell is this thing made out of?!”
“I don’t know,” Kara muttered back. “This is... nuts. It’s like it’s off-world tech. Does he have access to that?”
“My dad’s taken over half the world,” I pointed out. “We’re not the only ones with a spaceship.”
Regardless of how tough Petey was or his origins, he needed to go. The bot was going to destroy the entire academy if I left him here, and there were more than just powered students in the facility. There were plenty of children and unpowered civilians too. Obviously, my father wasn’t one to target kids, but they were known to suffer in the crossfire of any battle. I wasn’t in the mood to take risks.
I finally released the white field protecting Matt and Kristen and then swooped down to snatch Matt by the collar.
He wasn’t happy. “The hell? Where are you taking me?!”
“Andie, give Kristen your cloaking device,” I muttered, ignoring him. “Keep her shielded.”
I literally dangled Matt in front of Petey, and the robot swerved to attention. Slow, lumbering, and stupid, it crawled to its feet and stumbled after me. I held Matt more securely as I took off toward the woods beyond Valcav. It crashed into the trees while it tried to follow.
“Look,” I sighed, quietly speaking to Matt as I flew, “I know you hate me, but you dying to Brad or some stupid robot just isn’t in the cards today. Can you possibly, just for ten minutes, be grateful that I’m saving your life?”
“I... actually, I, uh...” Matt cursed softly and glared down at the bot. He avoided my gaze with an awkward grimace.
“Actually, I...” he tried again after he cleared his throat. “I, uh... maybe I should have... fuck. I’m sorry about what I said. About your mother, I mean. Earlier in the year.”
That caused me to freeze in the air. The bot glared up at us, uncertain if it wanted to fire at Matt while I still held him. Clearly, it was under orders not to harm me.
I didn’t care about any of that. I lifted a brow at Matt, who avoided my gaze with a burning flush of his cheeks.
“Jesus, was that an apology?”
“Don’t you fucking start, Nick.”
“Oh my gosh.” I grinned. “Kara, did you get that?”
“I did indeed,” she chirped.
Matt’s snarl was a classic, but it only made me smile. He wasn’t happy with the expression.
“Nick, if you don’t drop it, I’m gonna—”
“Hurt me while I’ve got you dangling over a thirty-foot drop, where a death bot wants to smash you to pieces? Yeah, okay, go ahead.” I craned my neck to give him a good view. “Get a good hold, I’ll wait.”
“Fucking kill me,” Matt muttered.
“I don’t think I can, to be honest. You’re too durable.”
And with that, I felt my powers start to leave me. I cursed and immediately descended into the trees. Matt panicked with a wide-eyed glance and shook his head.
“Oh no, why are we going downward? Do not go down. The robot is down there!”
“Don’t have a choice,” I grimaced. “You better be ready to fight it, because I’m about to have some big problems.”
“Nick—!”
I landed us both into the undergrowth, narrowly missing a few trees. My powers left me fully with an exhausting drag of energy, and I stumbled to my knees, struggling to stay conscious.
“Ugh. Matt, just... just stay near me,” I muttered. “Okay? So it won’t attack. We need to keep it distracted a little while longer, so Kara can shut it down.”
It was bad this time. I’d used too much energy keeping up the field earlier, and I felt the world spin all around me. Nauseous, I stumbled and tried to find my footing again. Matt grunted as he caught me right before I planted face first into the dirt.
Something must have gone wrong in the robot’s programming because the bot had finally decided that protecting me wasn’t its first priority anymore. I heard the whir of energy and gears and glanced up just in time to see angry red eyes glaring down at both us.
I used the last of my strength to shove Matt behind me in a desperate bid to protect him, but then the robot snatched me up into the air and propelled us both into the sky with a roar of its jet engines. I heard
Matt scream from down below. Dizzy, I tried to fight off the bot’s grip with my failing strength. I couldn’t budge it.
From deep within me, I could feel the unending well of power demanding entrance back into my body, desperate to save me, but I was too exhausted to take it. With a hiss, I tried to let some of it back in any way, and briefly, I felt the wind suck back into my lungs. I managed to pry apart the bot’s fingers, just enough to let me hover away with a dangerous waver in the air while the bot glared at me.
“Nick, you've got to get the hell out of there,” Kara pleaded in my ear. “It’s reprogramming itself too fast to counter.”
My reserves were dangerously low, and the world was spinning around me while I desperately tried to stay in the air. I blinked at the bot with a confused daze and slowly shook my head even though I knew she couldn’t see it.
“S’not... an option,” I slurred.
The bot twisted to glare down at Matt instead, no longer perceiving me as a threat. Twin red beams of laser fire burned in those eyes, and instinct propelled me to act.
I didn’t fly. I fell. I fell in front of Matt and took the blast at full strength with little to no reserves left to tank it. It burned right through me, and agony seared up and down my spine. I screamed, and then Matt screamed in response. His eyes were wide, terrified that I’d just died in front of him... and maybe, for a few seconds, I did.
It felt like I did, anyway. I blinked slowly, trying to see the world beyond his terror and the pain thrumming all around me. There was nothing else.
Still, I smiled at him reassuringly.
“You’re... gonna be... alright,” I whispered.
That was important. At that moment, it was the most important thing in the world. Being what Matt was and all that he’d done didn’t mean that he deserved death and torment. It was no different from my father, really. He needed to know that. They both did.
I just wanted them to stop for two minutes and be okay.
I stumbled backward, struggling to keep standing. The world was a haze all around me, and I was nauseous from the pain. Matt caught me before I fell, and I repeated, “You’re... you’re gonna be—”