#100

The party has already reached the central spire, the one that they think will lead up to the Emperor's chamber (assuming Mark is correct). Instantly, and without flourish, ritual, or any particular cleverness, the assembled robots appear before them. Everyone takes out their weapons, but as they do so, the door behind them leading to the computer room closes. As it does, silence sets in, except for the hissing of fuel and the vague clanking of external devices. The robots do not move, but the floor starts to, with a jolt. This entire room, which forms a massive disc, though one much smaller than the disc of this central tower itself, begins to rise. It must be one of several elevators leading up the Red Tower; and the controls are in the hands of another party.

An intercom turns on, and a mechanical voice, which You recognizes as the same from Zorro City, begins speaking. It simply says: “Stage One.”

“So I guess we're locked into some sort of gladiatorial battle,” Jacob says. No one replies, but it's clear that it's agreed upon.

“Our first enemies are robots?” Mina questions. “Piece of cake.”

“Just be careful. I think the Emperor won't allow us to see him unless we get past these guys,” Mark says. And that's the last thing said, before a few more seconds of pause.

That's when Susie runs forward and starts attacking. She doesn't shout, or if she does, her voice is censored by the sound of Tommy gun fire.

The robots lunge forward then, and the battle begins.

There are five of them in all; the Pneumatic Prototype, three members of the Stellar Corps, and the Death Guardian. One foe for each kid. Both sides recognize this and split up to take each other; the robots tend to be slow and heavy but there's nothing holding back the youths. They're already sprinting and dodging attacks, which mostly manifest in the form of pink diamond-shaped energy shots from the rifles the Corps members are carrying. These shots cleave through the walls, exposing the gnashing teeth that drive the elevator upward.

Mark has the Pneumatic Prototype. To him, it looks unbelievably shitty; a huge, block-shaped thing with elephant legs, that has a tube for one arm what seems to be a piston for the other. It doesn't even have a head, just a tracking sensor on top of its “torso”. Still, he's not one to talk; he only has a knife. He doesn't really know what to do, but it does. It aims the tube at him, and without warning it sucks in a huge amount of air; knocking him off his feet. In fact, it goes further than that; he loses his grip on the ground and is dragged towards the tube. This occurs just in time for the air to be sucked through the mechno-beast's body, and into its piston arm—which slams into Mark in midair, throwing him across the room. Susie yells his name even as her gun opens fire on the Stellar Corpsman she's engaging.

Susie isn't alone. The three Corps members are being dueled by You and Mina also. The androids—resembling essentially large, mechanized Imperial soldiers, with greatly defined muscles and all-black armor—are doing pretty well against You's laser pike, sadly, but a few shots from Mina's revolvers seem to be ripping apart hers. She's noting, between nerd-glee poses she's striking, that she's already fired more than twelve shots between the two guns; but they're not running dry on ammo anytime.

This of course leaves Jacob against the Death Guardian, which stands twenty feet tall, and has a platinum finish. Why this thing was never used properly, no one really knows, but it is very slow and that might have something to do with it. It's mostly human-looking, aside from its size, but is covered in sharp fins and spikes. It keeps trying to simultaneously crush and slash him, but to no avail. Still, it's a melee duel, since he only has his metal-cast “boxing gloves”; which aren't doing anything against the creature's hull.

Mark gets up, and is more angry than hurt. He redraws his knife and charges at the Prototype. This is only a kitchen knife, but it's remarkably sharp; if there's even a tiny part of a somewhat soft metal, like gold perhaps, he can cut into that. It doesn't look like there's any gold on it, but there could be tin or aluminium somewhere. He just has to try to stab it, in essence. He just has to make sure that that piston doesn't hit him again; but it looks like it needs to suck in air to “charge” the piston. Which reminds him of something—vacuum cleaners. He used to work with those, he remembers dimly (though he doesn't have time to question why he can't recall this so easily). And then he knows what to do.

Meanwhile, Mina has nearly made short work of her Corpsman, while Susie has managed to blow a few holes in hers. You isn't exactly impressed with Your enemy either; the laser pulses from Your pike are starting to melt and fuse the robot's armor. It turns out that the Stellar Corps would have to rely on blind luck to hit anything; their shots are basically flashing cake sprinkles for all it matters, really only imperiling Mark and Jacob, who are off to the side, and the Corpsmen themselves. In general, You and the girls don't really have the hard part of the fight, which you are all aware of. Susie finds this demeaning, but Mina is happy to be in a fight. She almost feels like this is what she's wanted to do her whole life.

Jacob slams his fists into the massive legs of the Guardian. Even with the protective gloves his hands are starting to hurt, and he hasn't even made a scratch. He glances over and sees how happy Mina is, just as she blows a hole in the central processor in her Corpsman's head. “Hey, Wilhelm!” he calls over to her. “Wanna lend me a hand?”

“Just a sec!” she shouts back. She deserts her partners for a second, causing them to cry out; but they're almost done, too. The pair of cousins then take up the offensive against the titan.

Mark isn't getting any reprieve from the piston arm. The vacuum-arm must have been rusty or something, though probably not literally; it's drawing in air in quicker succession, meaning that it can slam outward more swiftly. The punches it's throwing are capable of cracking the floor, as demonstrated by one close call. But Mark knows what he's doing now, and jumps onto the vacuum-arm. Sure enough, there's a panel on the external part of it that he can get off with the knife. The seam of this panel is softer than the metal around it and soon he breaks it off. There's a simple plastic tube within, just like one of his old vacuum cleaners, that's sucking in that air; and he cuts that immediately. The drone is useless now, though it could perhaps still crush someone with its bulk. Mark is about to end that menace, now at his own leisure...

But the fight has driven him back, into Mina and Jacob's playing field. Acting on a programmed instinct, the Death Guardian lashes out, and a bladed fin slices through Mark's side.

“AHH!!”

“Mark!” Susie looks at him as he crumples to the ground. Then she looks at the Guardian. “You killed him!”

She then jumps at the thing, firing several shells into its hide. Like Mina's bullets were doing, some of these rupture it, and the Guardian seems to cry out in “pain”. You is at her side as well, trying to calm her down, but also firing Your laser pulses at well. Those are having difficulty damaging the metal skin, however; in fact, most shots are reflecting. However, You knows You has to think quickly. Though the Guardian's movements are accelerating, thus making aiming difficult, You begins to shoot at the thing's eyes—two dark spots indicating sensors on its head.

Mina catches on to what You is doing, and also opens fire. It tries to dodge but it can't reckon with your combined accuracy, and soon those eyes shatter.

The thing begins making more low roaring sounds, as it begins to rampage through the suddenly cramped-seeming elevator. However, Susie's anger has allowed her to tap into swift wisdom, and she opens fire at the ground where the Guardian is running. Fortunately, it happens to be headed for where the Prototype had smashed open the floor; and her bullets cut through the floor around that area. Inevitably, a good-sized chunk of the floor falls in; and the Death Guardian falls with it.

With the platform in shreds, the ride is much shakier, but the group grabs Mark's body to prevent it from falling with the Guardian. They nearly lose it when the platform suddenly stops; they have no time at all to check if Mark is even still alive or not, because now doors are sliding open. They raise their weapons, but a voice comes from within: “Don't shoot! Don't shoot!”

As the intercom overhead announces “Stage Two”, a pair of Ultramarine Guards walk in. Behind them, there's nothing more than a pile of dead soldiers and fellow Ultramarines.

You is about to fire anyway; after all, it had been Ultramarines who had tortured You, and who had escorted You to Your would-be execution. But even though they're armed, they raise their hands in the air.

“We're here to help you!” one says. “There's not a lot of time to explain, but we took down 'Stage Two', for you. Those soldiers, those Guards in there, they were still loyal to the Emperor, but we figured if you've all made it this far—it would be a good time to take a stand, and maybe escape being turned into those Crimson things...”

As if making a peace-token gesture, one of the Ultramarines turned his rifle downward, to face the Pneumatic Prototype; and he opens fire. The blast that results from this particular rifle is like a rapid-fire series of shotgun bursts, with a field of flak pellets opening into a cone; this easily shreds the already-defeated Prototype. If this was meant to imply friendliness, then it's a strong sell.

The party is aware that there's no time to decide. Instantly the platform shifts again, and they all privately note that it's moving faster with each stage. They must be getting close to the top by now.

Sure enough, as the speed increases exponentially, they're all floored; just as the intercom voice, to the sound of rushing doors opening, says, “Stage Three.” Jacob is the first to look at up at what this stage entails—only to see a platoon of five Crimson Guards.

“Oh, shit.”

The Guards step out, and they don't waste any time waiting for the group to stand up. They have their spears out and are charging, though their charge is more like a hypnotizing dance...

The Ultramarines lifted their rifles and open fire. The shells mercilessly crush the Crimsons, with the shrapnel fired shredding their armor and blowing their helmets and exposed skulls apart like glass.

A mere thirty seconds have elapsed since the Ultramarines accessed the platform.

The platform doesn't move for a very long time; and in what seems to be, by measure of heart beats, an eternity, four young men and women let out a long, collective sigh.

Of course, one of their number, it looks like, can no longer sigh. And it's the shocking realization of this that breaks the second-long calm.

Up ahead, the chamber that held the now-mutilated Crimson Guards slides open in a way that no one assembled cares to try to understand. There's only a dark hallway ahead now.

The four, plus their two spontaneous helpers, are left alone in the silence; or near-silence. Mark's blood can be heard dripping through the platform, onto the mechanisms below.