Chapter 2
Rochester, Homeland
“Where are we going?” asked the two-foot tall android appearing as a psycho clown while holding a hatchet. The android wore a costume that was a cross between a circus clown and a long coat of the type a gangland hitman would wear to hide his weapons.
“Just keep going,” Sebastian said as they walked down the sidewalk. Thirteen year-old Sebastian was dressed in all black, which matched his dark hair.
The small, beaten up android, known as Gorky, was owned by Sebastian. Gorky showed a lot of surface damage, but was still quite usable as a standard-sized fighting bot for kids. Some parents with some money did not mind pouring their hard-earned overtaxed cash into the expensive toys, as the after battle repairs were a good hands-on introduction to the lucrative field of robotics. These toys, marketed under the brand name of “Sidekicks”, were not nearly as sophisticated as a normal full-sized service android, but they often responded to some extent as a playmate for children, but they were more agreeable than a human peer. Also, parents knew the Sidekick units would provide a physical reality alternative to their child’s constant exposure to virtual reality, which could lead to a hard-core addiction.
Gorky said, “Hey! There’s Exo!”
Exo was a two-foot representation of the famous superhero from the Pain Posse movies. The “real” Exo character was a short man with an abnormal skin that grew into a thick gnarly exoskeleton that served as a defensive shell against supervillain attacks. Unlike the Exo character in the movies, the fighting toy’s shell did not grow and break apart at times. The thickness was fixed. Like the character, the exoskeleton was so lumpy that it impeded the range of motion of the Sidekick unit.
“Don’t get excited,” Sebastian said to Gorky. Then he said to Exo’s owner, “Hey Cr8on, you gonna make that thing fight this time?!”
“What?” Exo’s similarly-aged, but smaller owner said with a scowl. “When are you gonna shut up about that?”
Sebastian sighed. “That thing has by far the most armor, but you pull it out of any fight whenever things start to get a little rough!”
“Yeah but,” Cr8on said, “Exo is defensive. Once his defense is gone, he’s useless anyways.”
“If he’s so useless, then maybe we should let him fight until he’s smashed up!”
Gorky asked Sebastian, “You want me to fight Exo?”
“No, but if that stupid Tina brings that big bug, and Exo taps out early, I’ll bust him myself!”
During fights with their toys, if an owner commanded “tap out”, the toy would quit fighting and no other toy could strike it.
“You can’t do that!” Cr8on said. “Exo is mine.”
“It’s ugly and stupid, like its owner!”
“What’s going on?” Paulie, who was a couple of years older and a lot bigger, had just arrived with his roughed-up looking two-foot tall ninja that he never bothered to give a name other than ‘ninja’. The ninja’s sword accessory had long since broken. But the ninja software package was complete with martial arts skills which could be useful, depending upon the opponent(s). The Sidekick Robots were all supposedly designed to be about the same approximate value in combat, but the owners still had their own ideas about which ones were the best. There was kind of a scissor-paper-rock component to their strategies
“Hey!” Cr8on said to Paulie, “You got Ninja’s leg put back on!”
“Yeah, but he’s not as good. Now it limps a little and can’t kick as high with that leg,” Paulie said. “Where’s Scab?”
They all looked at each other in desperation. Then they all started trying to call him on their devices.
“Hey, boys . . .”
They looked up and it was Tina.
“Daaa!” Cr8on said.
Tina was followed by her dreaded big bug and flanked by three boys, all in the same age group, who were accompanied their sidekick proxies; a gorilla, a T-Rex, and an old unit of no unrecognizable theme, with some of its housing missing. Tina told Paulie, “I’m surprised that you brought that ninja back.”
“You can see that I fixed his leg, right?”
“I doubt it. You want me to take a look at that used up ninja?”
“You don’t go near the ninja! After this, you’ll have enough to worry about on your own.”
“Doubt it. Let’s get this destruction over with.”
Paulie said, “We’re not ready. Scab’s not here.”
“No problem,” Tina said. “Let’s just talk about our last awesome battle while we are waiting. We can put our discussion about it up on the grid as our pregame show. Unless you want to just forfeit now.”
Cr8on moaned.
Sebastian said, “That last video you posted was nothing but . . .”
Tina interrupted, “Oh look, here comes the scabby.”
The kid they knew as Scab arrived with his Doctor Maelstrom Sidekick. Doctor Maelstrom was based on a minor villainous character that would fight against the Pain Posse superheroes and other superheroes in their favorite superhero movie franchise.
Sebastian asked Scab, “What took you so long?”
“Huh?” Scab said, “I’m not even late.”
Paulie said, “Never mind. Let’s just get this party started.”
So, one team was comprised of Gorky the Clown, Doctor Maelstrom, Exo, and the Ninja; which were opposing a gorilla, a T-Rex, the junky looking unit, and the big bug.
Each of the youths gave final instructions to their Sidekick units who then went into formation facing each the other faction about six feet away.
“Ready!” Paulie said as captain of one of the teams.
“Fight!” Tina commanded, as captain of the other team.
Doctor Maelstrom hopped out into the front and started its deadly signature spinning move. The other team verbally ordered the non-descript cobbled together unit to throw itself into the Doctor, which it did. Sparks flew as the Doctor sent the ugliest, most beaten up Sidekick in Rochester into the air, almost hitting one of the kids. The impact also caused the supervillain Doctor to fall with both of its shoulders shattered.
“Good trade!” Tina shouted as the rest of the combatants moved toward each other.
The slow T-Rex chomped down on Exo’s arm. The bite was the T’s only weapon. Although it was slow, it was very powerful.
Cr8on said, “Exo needs to tap! He’ll be destroyed!”
“No! Don’t say the ‘T’ word!” Paulie said, “We need him to fight for once!”
The clown was chopping its proportionately sized hatchet at the big bug to little effect. Meanwhile the ninja was using its martial arts on the bug. Then the howling, rampaging gorilla came up from behind the clown and grabbed it in a hug. Then it lifted the psycho themed clown over its head and body slammed it down to the ground.”
Tina said loud enough for the other team to hear, “I don’t think Gorky will be in too much of a hurry to get up after that one.” Her teammates started laughing.
The bug had too many legs for the ninja to fight effectively. It was clearly a bad matchup. Then the bug got its strong mandibles on the ninja. While the bug had its small, gripping mouthpart on the ninja, the Rex’s big teeth were sinking into Exo, making crunching and cracking noises. The Tyrannosaurus Rex snapped off one of Exo’s arms at the shoulder.
“No! Tap!” Cr8on said. “Tap! Tap!”
The dinosaur Sidekick heard Cr8on’s “tap” command and Exo’s eyes lit up red, indicating that it was out of the battle. It immediately disengaged and walked back to Cr8on.
“Daaa!” Paulie said, “You seriously did not just wimp out again! That was just bad, Cr8on! Exo could have easily taken him! Doesn’t that thing ever hit anyone?!”
“No,” Cr8on said, “we were losing anyways. I knew I should have tapped out sooner. I should never listen to stupid people!”
From the other side of the battlefield Tina overheard the argument. She feigned sorrow. “Awww! I guess we’ll never know now, will we? But he is probably right. Exo is a loser.”
Paulie sneered at Tina and said, “Was I talking to you?!”
Tina was yawning and acted as if she was having a narcoleptic attack. She said, “I need a pillow. This is a boring fight.”
Paulie gave another quick look at the situation and shook his head. Both Gorky and Doctor Maelstrom could not get up from the ground on their own. Paulie knew his ninja could not stand against three barely damaged enemy Sidekicks. “Tap,” he calmly said, and his ninja’s eyes lit up red indicating a forfeit and another loss to Tina’s team.