GIANT FIGHTING ROBOT CAR

Prince basically builds a Gundam suit, and the crew brawls Eco-corp's model.

1. MARION

“I wonder what Spikes want us to see now.” I sneered.

I was strolling around the junkyard with Katrina and Fleana. Prince had given us an urgent call earlier, telling us to meet him there and considering the last time he worked on something in the junkyard sent us through time and space, we thought to visit him and then knock some sense into him.

“I don’t know, but he’s probably losing his mind right about now since we took so long.” Katrina pointed her gaze at Fleana. “If someone had finished their last Monster Mocha bar…”

Fleana shoveled another chocolate bar into her mouth. She didn’t bother chewing and didn’t bother wiping the stain off her face. “Last one, promise.”

“You. Have a problem.”

“I’m not the one with the problem; you’re the one with the problem!”

“That’s what a person with a problem would say.”

“Let’s just find Spiky and get lost. He better not be building another time machine I know that.” I said.

We found our friend scrounging for scraps around another car. Well, at least this car look like it had just gotten thrown out, so that’s a nice change. If I had to guess why no one wanted it, it would have to be the color. Powdered blue had no business being on a car.

“Ah, what are you doing now?” I groaned.

Katrina jabbed her finger at the car. “That better not be another time machine.”

“Oh, no.” He responded. “I’m into much more epic things.”

“Doesn’t look too different to me.” Fleana said through another bite.

“Yeah, but watch this.”

Prince pushed a button on the hood. The car began trembling and expanding in a bluish white energy. Arms jutted out from below the vehicle along with a torso and two legs until what stood before us was a ten story robot decked out with missiles, old, rusty flame and lightning patterns, and just junk falling off it.

“Prince,” Katrina marveled. “What are you doing with your life?”

“Making history, Tropical.” He nearly whispered. “Making history.”

“Of what?” I raised an eyebrow. “Terrorism. Dude we have a weapon of mass destruction at our fingertips.”

A bird passed by before Fleana raised her hand.

“I wanna ride it.” She chirped.

“Awesome.” I replied.

II. PRINCE

“Whoo-hoo!” I hollered as I piloted the machine downtown while Katrina fired flares into the sky. I felt unstoppable, that is until I got a call.

“Spikes! It’s your daddy!” Fleana called after answering my itablet.

“Slap it in front of me.”

The image of my dad’s slightly irritated face appeared in front of me.

“I have gotten some calls about some giant robot rampaging toward Juxtapose City. You wouldn’t happen to know about, would you?”

“I haven’t seen any other giant robots, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out.” I told him.

“Very funny. Just so you know, I had Nathan stroll into the junkyard and destroy every tool he could find over there. Keep this up and you might be caring your books to school by hand.”

“Dad. I’ll have to call you back. I think I’ve found your robot.”

“What?!”

A giant red mecha knocked over a building as it made its way toward us. Its eyes glowed eerily and it lifted a hand to beckon at us.

“I guess it’s time for some cliché Japanese anime.” I said.

I admit the odds were not with us. This bot looked sleek, fresh off the assembly line and ready to battle compared to our bot formed out of old cars and junk. The shade of red, an evil color mind you, reminded me of the death bots, so I guessed it had to have been made by Eco-corp, and they had the best stuff. But one thing they didn’t have was my video game skills.

I grabbed the controller and made our machine slam its fist into the red one’s chest. I managed to stagger the robot before it pelted us with lasers from its eyes.

You know the saying “always wear a seat belt”. Well, it’s not just a TV slogan. It could’ve saved us a lot of bruises.

“Move!” Katrina slammed me into the passenger’s seat and took the controls. “You always suck at this game.”

Our robot aimed both its arms and launched the missiles I made from old trash cans and some chemicals you could find in any high school chemistry lab. It didn’t have the explosive climax that I hope it would, actually it just splattered and fizzled on the mecha’s chest.

“Aww! Our missiles suck!” Fleana moaned.

“Well, what did you expect?” I explained. “I built this thing from junk. It’s a miracle this thing could even move.”

“Well, what do we do?”

“Beat the crap out of it.” Katrina started making our robot smash the other one’s face, an unfair tactic she always uses in our games but a very effective one.

“Marion, what are you doing?!” Fleana croaked.

Marion opened a hatch that gave a nice view of the bot Katrina was pounding. It’s wires were exposed and arcing with electricity.

“Giving it a face full!” A bonfire blazed in his clenched fist. “Eat fire metal head!”

Marion blasted a column of fire at the machine. The metal on its face grew even more red, and its face was short circuiting. Katrina took the opportunity to lift the bot by the waist and body slammed it a mile away from the city. It would’ve been cool if we hadn’t come flying out the hatch in the process. Seat belts. Remember your seat belts kids.

“Hang on!” Fleana cushioned our fall with a pillar of air she mustered up at the last second. “I hope I remembered to put on some clean underwear.”

“Fix your dress after we land.” Katrina ordered.

After my feet touched the ground, I commented. “You know giant fighting robots are cool in theory, but when you actually play it out, it’s really painful.”

“Well, at least that thing’s dead.” Marion remarked.

The machine eyes glowed and its joints creaked as it rose to its full height. It regarded us with a cold stare and began lifting its foot way above us. I wished I had no regrets, but honestly I had many and I wouldn’t have long to mull over them.

I shut my eyes and waited for death’s embrace, but the robot took its sweet time actually doing it. I felt a hard thud that lifted me a few feet off the ground. I cracked open my eyelids and found the thing sprawled on the ground with a leg in the air.

“Okay,” Fleana removed her forearms from her face. “Either we’re really awesome, got lucky, somebody turned it off for some rea--”

“Yeah, yeah,” I interrupted, and started climbing the body. “Let me see.”

I started examining the body for some tell-tale signs of what led it to it’s demise. Sirens were wailing in the background, but at least the city was safe…as far as I could tell.

“Really thought we were screwed there.” Marion uttered.

“Day’s not over Solar.” Katrina remarked.

“Do you think it came from Eco-corp?” Fleana asked.

“Well, it’s definitely not piloted.” I stared at the caved in head, which had no apparent signs of life. “Unless it’s by tiny people that had been flunged thirty miles from the wreckage.”

“So remote controlled. Got it.” Marion swept. “So what made it keel over?”

“Let me see now�"Ah! I guess my missiles weren’t so useless after all.”

The solution had dripped into the thing’s chest and dampened its circuitry. What a way to go.

“Well, don’t just stand there, man.” Marion jeered. “Tell us what happened.”

“Oh. The solution short circuited it.” I stated.

“Oh.”

“What a way to go.” Fleana brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

“Well, I’m done with playing robot.” I gestured to our robot. “Let’s take this back to the dump, and then nurse our bruises.”

Author's Note

Check out my novels at Amazon.com by Xavier McDougle