Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection

by Kerry Adrienne

  The red hunk of metal stopped, a blue light shining from its eyes.

  “It’s a death ray!” screamed Jim Zepeda.

  Office workers scrambled away, clumping in a corner as the azure beam scanned over them. The robot’s appendages now ended in rounded, five-fingered, human shaped metal hands that still looked like they could crush four buses. All at the same time. The robot continued examining the group of humans until he stopped, locking onto Charlie's feet, which were glued to the floor with the strong adhesive of fear. So, when the figure approached with large, heavy steps that shook the floor, all other workers had the good sense to part while Charlie stood still. Almost still; he was shaking in his boots. He was actually wearing loafers, but the shaking part was thoroughly accurate. Charlie clutched his brown satchel bag, which held the code to the future tightly. He knew he should run, his legs just seemed to disagree. Besides, this robot was one athletic looking machine and Charlie had no doubt it could start as middle linebacker for the Chiefs, and even more easily, run him down.

  The robot came so close to Charlie that had it been programmed to breathe, Charlie would have felt it. Charlie thought about crying, but even he knew it wasn’t a good look to go out on. He did find some solace, however, in his certain final moments. He was glad last night when he met Jade she wasn't just a crazy woman; this robot was proof of that. And if she hadn’t been crazy, what she said about needing him to save her wasn't crazy. Point Charlie.

  The robot’s arms shot out in perfect 90-degree angle from its body. The crowd gasped. Charlie held his breath. The robot’s right hand shot down to its stomach, and he bent forward with a bow so textbook, a noble of any royal court would weep with jealously.

  “Charles Richards, of Topeka, Kansas?” His voice had a slight aristocratic accent and complete courteousness. “I am Angelo, and I am at your service.”

  It is generally accepted in the 24th century that there are three distinct races: humans, hybrids, and bots. The argument could be made that a bot wasn’t a race since it wasn’t a living organism. But of course, Proposition 183-22B had passed. In truth, a rare fourth classification could be made between hybrids and bots. The Magnes PB EXX was not an official designation, but it was referred to as such in the dark top-secret hallways where it was developed. The reason Magneses were rare was because, except for only the most limited and significant circumstances, they were illegal. Blake Crowley himself, of course, had three of the six in existence. The two others were kept on lockdown in a secret location. The final one, Angelo, belonged to Jade Crowley.

  While there is room for debate, Angelo didn’t necessarily have feelings, but he understood them. He processed the feelings of fear, of love, of hatred, of loyalty. The third level of Angelo’s programming was to be outrageously courteous and enormously charming. This was to hide who Angelo was, so to speak. The second level of programming was to be loyal to his owner. Not in a mere “do as commanded way,” Angelo was much more sophisticated than that, he was a Magnes PB EXX after all. He was loyal in a deeper sense that transcended mere acts, and operated his own decision-making processes in her best interest. This is a major part why they were illegal; if everyone had such a powerful bot working this way, it would be chaos. Angelo’s top level of programming was “all other programming must honor the common goal of protecting his owner’s interests.” This meant kill anything and everything in his way.

  From outside the office down the hall came shouts. “Move, move, move!” The sounds of a swat team swept through the walls and closed in on the office.

  A cacophony of shattering glass filled the air.

  Charlie jumped as the window adjacent to the one Angelo came through was smashed into another 639,253 pieces and a formidable black figure burst into the room. Angelo was formidable himself, but what stood amidst the glass shards, its massive black head surveying the room, was an eight-foot-tall ebony pillar of a robot. Its arms and legs thick, its chest a tank. This robot looked like it hit the robotic gym at least ten hours per day. Its head was the shape of a sizable tear drop, its eyes a green strip of light. This must have been the figure Charlie had seen the night before.

  Angelo, and the rest of the crowd, turned to face the intruder.

  “Mister Genesis,” Angelo said, maintaining all the charm and courteousness. “I dare say you could have used the window I just broke. It would have saved these poor people some cleanup.”

  Genesis’s slit for an eye seem to glow with anger. “Mission objective: Charlie Theodore Richards.” Genesis' voice was deep and strong. It didn't sound robotic in tone, but it did in language.

  The doors to the office burst open and a team of swat, police, and a few underpaid security guards stumbled through. They froze like everyone else at the site of the two killer robots facing off against each other. They did their best to yell and posture threatening poses to intimidate two killer robots. It didn't, on the surface, do any good, but it did turn Genesis's attention.

  Angelo tilted his head to Charlie, who clutched his bag like a very useless shield. “I think it would be a good time to get out of here, sir. Please, if you wouldn’t mind terribly, bring the bag.”

  It was smart advice, considering all hell had broken loose.

  Humans fled the room, urged by the cops who, like the actors in a Transformer’s flick, had realized they were greatly out of their depth.

  Angelo stared down the black-as-night bot across the room; Genesis. A destroyer bot of unmatched strength. Angelo crouched into a defensive pose. His fingers connected, split, and sharpened, creating hands of laser blades. His eyes glowed. He was programmed to be charming and unassuming for a reason. Angelo, ProtectoBot (P.B.) of Jadyn of Crowley, was one of the deadliest bots in existence.

  Unfortunately, so was Genesis.

  Opalum is hard material. That's a vast understatement, it is otherworldly hard. Literally. It is found and mined from Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. It is roughly two-thousand times as hard as a diamond and can withstand heats up to twelve thousand degrees, or double the temperature of the center of the Earth. All of this makes the material an extremely expensive commodity in the 24th century. Otherworldly expensive. Leaders-of-the-world level expensive. Prince Jabir of the United Empire was said to have a yacht made of one, though rumor has it was just opalum plated.

  Unless you happened to have a nuclear reactor and liquid oxygen, opalum was virtually indestructible.

  The bot, Genesis, was made of this material. This was not usual. Genesis was the P.B. of someone very wealthy and powerful.

  Charlie crouched as a beam of light shot from the slit across Genesis’s face. Angelo’s arm sprang up, instantly transforming into a pizza box shaped shield. (Charlie was hungry, which is why he associated the shape. Others may have thought it was merely a square shield.)

  One never knows how they will handle the unexpected until it is happening and, well, it’s never quite what you expect. Abby stood to one side, staring agape at the two robots, not moving a muscle. Nate was frowning at them as if they shouldn’t have gotten past security. One guy wearing a Dr. Who t-shirt ran forward, his arms outstretched and screamed, “Chose me!” But as a whole, most people were screaming and making a mad rush towards the door.

  The SWAT team wasn’t really, well, SWATing. They weren’t trained to combat killer robots from the future and, let’s be honest, they were human, and humans get stunned sometimes. The Brick, that was what everyone on the team called him because he always hurled himself into the fray, knew this was his time to shine. He jumped up, yelling wildly, as if he was going to scare these programmed bots, and fired a round of bullets at Genesis. He fired a few shots at Angelo. Neither robot so much as looked at him. He threw his gun and it clattered harmlessly to the floor. It wasn’t enough. He was a brave man and this was his moment. He ran screaming at the red bot. After all, when you’re going to take on a killer robot, you should at least start with the smaller of your two choices.

  Without taking his sensors of
f Genesis, Angelo held out a hand and a needle shot out of his palm. He stabbed it into the center of the Brick’s forehead. The Brick fell like one.

  Charlie stood quietly watching the entire scene as if it was just some event on the screen. Except for one small thing … he felt no emotion. Often, he would laugh or tense up or even on the odd occasion get a slight tear in his eye during a movie, but standing here in front of these about-to-duel robots… he felt nothing. His feelings were completely gone. Unless, of course, you want to include complete denial as an emotion, then he was extremely emotional. Otherwise, nothing.

  Angelo and Genesis returned facing each other old west style. Then, they attacked. Metal and metal collided in sparks of fury (fun fact: Sparks of Fury is the name of the comic book this event one day inspired.) Metal on metal, as discussed, wasn’t accurate – nano-matter on opalum was correct. Angelo’s shield-like arm glowed with a pulsating red energy. The energy pressed forward into the space between the two robots and pushed Genesis back, ever so slightly. The massive black robot lowered its head to charge. It was hard for Charlie to tell, glancing up at the shining red robot that protected him, if Angelo was worried or not. But Charlie most definitely was. His emotions had begun to return.

  Angelo must be programmed to sense human emotions, because he noticed the shift in Charlie. His free arm shot out, grasping Charlie protectively. His eyes glowed fiercely red like the shield that protected them.

  Genesis extended the thick, black columns of his arms on either side of Angelo’s shield and began to squeeze the pulsating red light as if it was an enemy to be vanquished, which it was.

  To Charlie’s horror, the glowing red shield began to compress under Genesis’ onslaught.

  Angelo’s eyes burned brighter, his chin lowering a bit as he focused all of his processors on keeping the shield between Genesis and Charlie.

  But it wasn't enough. With a dying squeal, the glowing shield was extinguished. But it was worse than that. So much worse. With a resounding clangor, Angelo’s forearm snapped off and plummeted to the ground, severed from his body.

  “No!”

  Charlie started at the familiar voice. Jade was by far the most badass woman he had ever seen yesterday, but today she was tenfold. In the near dark of the powerless room, he could just make out the outline (nice outline) of her body. The aquiline planes of her face were stunning, but her eyes… they were ice. She pointed a black device the size of cop’s baton directly at Genesis. From one end, long lasers of white light sizzled and cracked like a dozen of electromagnetic whips.

  Nate was the last to go. Backing up quickly towards the door, he screamed at his friend, “Charlie, I don’t think she’s from Silicon Valley!” As if that information was somehow useful in this situation.

  The black pillar of Genesis stepped resolutely towards Angelo. Angelo jumped sharply to his left to Charlie. With a giant shove of his remaining hand, Angelo sent Charlie sprawling. He crashed into the corner of a cubicle on the far side of the room. But the action backfired. Charlie’s bag, with all the prize code in it, flew from his hands, landing with a resounding plop right in front of the steadily approaching Genesis. In an instant, a black beam came out of Genesis’s hand, scanning the contents, before he snatched the bag up.

  Jade let rip the electromagnetic whips out of her black baton. They struck Genesis with a loud sizzle, seemingly dazing the giant machine and sending it crashing to the floor. Seizures captured the giant black robot’s body as electro sparks danced from his head.

  Behind Genesis stood Jade, weapon in hand.

  "Not so fast,” Jade said, reaching down and grabbing the bag out of the trembling robot’s hands. “C’mon.” She strode to Charlie as the sparks around Genesis’s head began to subside. “Get your hustle on. The stunner is brief.” She glanced at Angelo’s arm, a frown rolling over her face. Whipping a different device that looked a lot like a remote control for a television, she aimed it at Genesis’s head.

  Angelo grabbed her arm and pushed it down.

  “Don’t waste your power. It won’t work on him.”

  For a brief second, Jade looked like she might do it anyway, but instead, she grabbed up Angelo’s severed arm and motioned for them to roll out. There was no way Charlie was going to be left behind.

  Then he saw it.

  The notebook. His prized, most recent notebook… the one with the code in it that Jade had known about in the Lonely Tree Tavern… it had slid out of the bag and was lying, almost hidden, under the black monster’s armpit.

  Without even stopping to think, Charlie was going in. He darted forward, snatched the notebook with a fierce tug and turned to flee. He made it half a step when his forward motion came to an abrupt halt and he cried out in agonizing pain. Genesis had regained some motion and had clamped a claw-like hand around Charlie’s ankle. Mostly likely he was squeezing very lightly for a destroyer robot, but it was shattering Charlie’s ankle.

  “If you don’t mind, sir,” came a polite voice. “I request you to please let go.”

  Charlie screamed louder as the black robot’s grip tightened. Angelo jumped roughly one high jump world record (21st century) into the air and smashed down on Genesis’ head. It did no damage, but it distracted the robot just enough that he loosened his grip.

  Jade grabbed Charlie and slung him over her shoulder, a fact Charlie would forever deny and Jade would begrudgingly leave out. But the fact remains, he was bouncing unceremoniously over her shoulder as she sprinted towards the shattered windows.

  Genesis had recovered. He hurled Angelo against the wall like a rag doll. Genesis’s goal wasn’t Angelo, though, it was Charlie’s code. Genesis sprinted with lighting speed towards Jade and Charlie.

  Jade knew there was no out-running an eight-foot opalum bot. She was going to have to use the last power of her electro-whip. The bolts of electricity snapped out and snaked around Genesis. The power of her custom-made, top-the-line electro-whip, which was so experimental it hadn’t even been branded yet – its code name was Jade’s Whip – would have destroyed most bots, but it just pushed Genesis back a smidge.

  That was all Angelo needed. He crashed into the bot’s side and they went spiraling like a red and black tumbleweed over the shattered glass on the floor of the destroyed office space.

  Jade dropped Charlie at the edge of the six-story open window and stared down. Charlie didn’t like the hesitation. He had no idea what Jade was capable of, but the fact that she didn’t seem to like the thought of a six-story jump meant Charlie didn’t like the thought of a six-story jump, which he’d never even thought about before.

  Jade glanced over her shoulder looking for Angelo. “No!” she cried. Genesis had Angelo pinned down and was crushing him, about to snap him like a wishbone.

  “Don’t worry, my lady.” Angelo’s voice was strong, but it trembled underneath with weakness and fear. “I insist you fulfill our mission. Please.” He added the last word as Genesis snapped Angelo’s remaining arm off.

  “No!” Jade cried.

  Charlie could see she was about to go back and take on the giant black bot again. The bot that was destroying their killer bot and, once he was done, would surely focus on killing them. Charlie placed a hand on Jade’s arm as Genesis ripped off one of Angelo’s legs. “We have to go!” he shouted at her. “He’ll come for us next!”

  Jade’s ice-cold eyes turned on Charlie and he shrank back slightly, but he knew he was right. “We have to fulfill your mission!” Genesis tossed aside Angelo’s body parts and riveted his deadly attention on Jade and Charlie. The sensory strip of his eyes seemed to glare in anger.

  Jade glared back at him.

  Charlie tugged at Jade’s sleeve. “Your mission!”

  Her eyes flitted to him and for a moment he snapped her out of the deadly duel she was about to engage in. It was enough. “Charlie,” she said, as if she had known his name her whole life and it meant something. In a lightning-fast move she wrapped her arm around his waist and hurle
d them both over the six-story ledge as Genesis came blasting towards them.

  Chapter 6

  Charlie screamed all the way down. He was hoping she had some futuristic gadget buried somewhere in her tight black outfit, but as they hurtled forward towards the concrete, that seemed ever more unlikely.

  “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Was the only expression Charlie could manage as he clung to Jade, acting as a dead weight to their fall. Charlie would object to the term dead weight. He didn’t deny he needed to lose twelve pounds, but hopefully it made him softer.

  Only nothing was going to stop the bone-crushing impact they were about to have with the sidewalk.

  At the last possible second, Jade pulled Charlie in tight and curled around him in a ball. She twisted herself, angling her body with precision so only her left side slammed into the concrete, taking the full impact as she rolled forward, the sound of metal still clanging in Charlie’s ear.

  They rolled for what felt like forever until Jade unraveled, letting Charlie slide away until he was lying flat on his back waiting to see if his lungs would breathe again. When they did, the ripping ache of his rattling breath was almost too much for him to bear. A moan escaped with his gasp.

  But he was alive.

  How the hell had they survived the fall? It didn’t compute. And what was the metal cacophony he’d heard when Jade hit the concrete? His head twisted sideways. Despite the tension that ran through her face and the slight grimace she displayed as she walked towards him, Jade was already up and moving.

  “Come on!” she yelled, not allowing him respite.

  With a flash of understanding, he knew exactly why. The black monstrosity of a robot had not been defeated, he had merely slowed for a moment to tear apart their protector. Now he stood on the edge of the six-story building, looking over the ledge, preparing to jump. Had he been human, Charlie would have guessed his expression was something of a leering pleasure at the thought he would soon be tearing both apart.