57 - What To Do?

At least three robots. Two minor-league villains—and not Theseus, but ones with experience. And possibly more villains and robots downstairs.

Versus…

My hero team, but down a front-liner and the Genius who might be able to counter the bots.

It reminded me of my second battle with LABRAT. I hadn’t had a good counter for the machine then, either. Hell, I hadn’t had a good counter for LABRAT until…after LABRAT wasn’t an issue anymore. The robot pushed and bullied me until I hit a knee joint and slowed it down. With this many bots, something like that wouldn’t work.

No one was moving. That was weird. The villains must be getting ready to gloat, but Springlock wasn’t even facing them. Instead, she held out one hand flat, staring at me, and put her other pointer finger between two flat fingers. She pointed it toward the TUEAS Building’s main door. Then she did it again.

The hallway erupted into chaos as Punch and Grapple charged Tearjerker. The goth villainess took Grapple out of the fight with a well-placed question about the boy’s goldfish, but Punch kept the pressure up until a stun shot caught him in the back. Springlock took off toward the engineering wing while Sara ran in the other direction. Iron Fist hesitated, then turned the corner after Springlock.

Well, everyone else was running. I’d do the same.

I headed for the doors, one of the four-legged bots right behind me. It glowed just like LABRAT and the Panic Pals, but red, and its gold armor glistened in the fluorescent lights. I dodged a stun shot and kept on running.

The Weber Quad was packed with students as I pushed the main doors open. “Move! We’ve got a problem!” I yelled.

No one moved.

“I said we’ve got a problem! Run!” I tried again. Nothing.

A second later, the golden robot crashed through the door behind me. As I whirled to face it, people started screaming all around me. There was an alien movie where no one listened to the main character until a giant worm started eating subway cars. This felt a lot like that. The camera drone had to be loving this.

The bot sprinted toward me. [Inkling] said to dodge right, so I ducked under its vibrating blade. But I still couldn’t use [Hometown Heroine], and this bot made LABRAT look slow.

[Good Thinking! +1 Cunning Point Pending]

I tried a [Spotlight Strike]. The light whipped around its body before settling on a tiny joint on its front leg—the one without a knife. I groaned and punched for it.

[Stylish Strike! +1 Flamboyance Point Pending]

I tried to dance away from the bot, but it followed quickly. It fired its stun shot, and a moment later, my chest twitched and burned as the tasers started impacting. Individually, one would have been fine. But together, they were too much. I lost control of my muscles and fell to the ground.

[HP 3/7]

As the machine closed in to use its knife, the stun-shot's pain eased, then stopped. I picked myself up and started running.

[Gritty Recovery! +1 Grit Point Pending]

The machine breathed down my neck. Metaphorically, I mean. It didn’t breathe, obviously. It would either be a long run to the Mister Felsic Statue…or a short one. It didn’t have turning issues like LABRAT did while flying. It didn’t have a speed issue like the FEAR power armor. And my [Spotlight Strike] hadn’t accomplished much.

What the hell was it doing with a vibrating knife, anyway? Didn’t they know this wasn’t serious?

No. This was serious. This was a minor league Episode, and a vibrating knife? That was the least I’d be dealing with in one of these. The henchmen would have guns, the villains would aim to kill, and the stakes would be higher. One mistake and the whole city could—

The robot’s footsteps stopped.

I looked back over my shoulder, then threw myself over a concrete bench and hit the ground on the other side with a thud. A split second later, the Gatling taser whirred and popped. The tasers clattered against the concrete bench, buzzing.

Then, as quickly as the cannon had fired, it stopped.

I started running again as soon as I heard its feet thudding on flagstones. It closed in, then stopped. I looked for cover as the Gatling gun began to spin again.

A bush? That’d have to do.

I dove into the tangle of branches and twigs, half-swimming over it. A taser hit me, then another, but most of them ricocheted off the bush’s branches or tangled up. It hurt, but it didn’t stop me from moving.

I had to take cover again twice before I finally got to the Mister Felsic Statue—once behind a giant stone ball near the Quad’s edge and once behind the pillars at the statue itself. As the tasers stopped hissing and spitting, I dashed down the ramp and into the door.

The double doors slammed shut behind me. I kept running, expecting the four-legged robot to bash through the door any second. But it didn’t. Instead, it just stood at the top of the ramp, unmoving. Its red glow had faded, too. I took a deep breath and cracked the door, expecting it to move or fire its Gatling tasers or rev its vibrating blade or…anything, really.

It didn’t do anything.

I took three deep, panting breaths, hands on my knees and eyes on the robot. I had no idea why it had stopped, but I didn’t have time to investigate. The rest of the TUSSA team was in trouble, and even though I’d followed Springlock’s orders when I fled, I knew, somehow, that it was up to me to save the day. Because that’s what heroes did. So, once I’d caught my breath, I started jogging down the tunnel.

[End of Act One! Act Two in Five Minutes! No Skill Rolls Available!]

[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 449/523]

[HP 4/7]

[Styles and Skills]

►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence

►Badass (lvl 0; 49)

►Cunning (lvl 2; 48)

► Inkling 1

►Drama (lvl 3; 52) (Skill Roll Available)

►  Stellar Ray 1

►Flamboyance (lvl 3; 31)

►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire

►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day)

►Flickerform 1

►Spotlight Strike 1

►Grit (lvl 1; 16)

► Rejuvenation 1

◄▼►

[TUEAS Dogpile: Act Two Beginning]

Fursona was sprawled out on the chaise lounge when the elevator opened. They looked up at me. “Did you win already? I knew it was a dogpile, but that’s fast!”

“No. It was a trap. They…” I paused and took a deep, shaky breath. “They had robots and minor league villains waiting for us. I don’t know how they knew we were coming or if they just reacted when we went inside, but they took out Milo and Hephaestus and Grapple before I ran and—“

“Slow down,” Fursona said. They stood up and started pacing. “Which villains were there?”

“Tearjerker and Iron Fist. Iron Fist was chasing Springlock, and Tearjerker and some of the robots were beating up the others. The TUSSA team didn’t have a front line that could handle minor league bots. The SSS took them all out too fast. This is bad. It’s really bad.” I explained about the bots, too, and how lethal they seemed.

Fursona nodded. “Yeah, it’s not good. Is the Episode still running?”

I checked. “Yeah. We’re in Act Two now.”

“Then it’s not over yet. Someone’s still fighting back, right?”

“It’s probably Springlock or Ikenga.”

“We need a plan,” Fursona said. “We can’t just burst in there and start fighting.”

“You’re right.” I breathed again and sat down. “Alright, they have Iron Fist. He seems like a Badass-stacking bruiser—like Theseus, but with more experience—so we can’t fight him one-on-one. And Tearjerker. She’s a one-trick-pony Drama villain, but we probably can’t counter her. Wait. Springlock countered her during the Orientation Episode. That must be why Iron Fist went after her. And they have the dog bots with the tasers and blades.”

“Yep. You could counter those with Lab Assistant—“

“No. I can’t. And even if I could, I don’t have it equipped.” I groaned. “Look, there should be two bots left unless the one chasing me started up again. Two isn’t so bad.”

“Two with supervillain backup, Understudy.” Fursona stood up, tail swishing agitatedly, and I looked at Tails. Her tails were doing the same thing.

“What?”

<I think you might be wrong. There’s a way to get the Lab Assistant Panic costume, and you’re ready to use it meow.>

I groaned. But then I thought about the Episode. Whatever the villains were up to, it wasn’t good for Tokyexico University. Heck, a minor league Episode could easily spill out into the whole city. That was bigger than me not wanting to think about Peter.

“Fine. Tails thinks she can get me the Lab Assistant Panic Costume. How?”

<Follow meow!> Tails took off for the door to Rocko’s studio, and I groaned again. But I grabbed the goggles and followed as her plushie body slid across the floor and bumped into the door. <Rocko will need to help.>

[Welcome to Rocko’s Backstage. System Disabled. Now arriving at Costuming]

◄▼►

I winced in anticipation of Rocko’s shouted greeting. But it didn’t come. Instead, the ilneat producer stared at us from behind their desk. “Understudy, what are you doing here?”

I started to explain, but they cut me off before I could, blowing cigar smoke out of their nose. “No, that’s a bad question. I know why you’re here. Let’s start over. Aaaaaayyy! Understudy! What do you want? You’re in the middle of an Episode. I’ve been watching, and I’m impressed you’re not out of superhero damage, but you’ve gotta do better than that!” His tone was not encouraging. Frustration boiled off of him almost as much as it rolled off me.

“I know.”

“I mean, you wanna be a minor leaguer? This is what it’s like, kiddo.” Rocko shook their head frustratedly and put their cigar out on their desk. “The only goodnews is that this disaster’s not on our studio. Phil and Lil get this flop.”

“Tails thinks we can turn it around, though. We just—“

“Howare you going to turn this around?”

“I don’t know!” I shouted, slumping into a chair. “Tails thinks we can, but we need your help! I need Lab Assistant Panic, but you can’t switch powers mid-Episode unless they’re new!”

“You need my help? Well, that’s all you had to say,” Rocko said, rolling their eyes. “So here’s the deal. I can make some phone calls, pull some strings, and get the System to cooperate with what we need. It might even work. You’ve got a great reconciliation storyline coming to terms with the break-up, which counts for a lot with the Style System—lots of Drama. If you did turn this around, it’d be great for Phil and Lil, but that’s not bad for us right now. They don’t compete in the little leagues, so a solid guest star appearance in the minors would only help us.”

The ilneat sat down. “Pataki! Take Fursona and their suit back in shape! Fursona, you’re out of the fight for Act Two, but since the damage is mostly from another Episode, we should be able to fix you up. Understudy, go…watch the Episode or something. I’m busy.”

“Fine. Thanks, Rocko,” I said, trying to push my anger down. My hands were balled into fists; Rocko could be so frustrating, and everything was about money with them.

The TV in the corner was playing uninterrupted feed from the ‘TUEAS Dogpile’ Episode, unedited and raw. The drone followed Iron Fist, who looked a little worse for wear, as he searched for Springlock in the engineering machine shops. He poked his head around the corner, then pulled back as a drill bit rocketed towards him.

So, at least one hero was still fighting. That was a relief. If Rocko could pull off whatever movie studio mumbo-jumbo they were working on, and I could get Lab Assistant Panic back…

…well…

…I had an inkling of a plan.

◄▼►