Grow Up

by Craig Anderson

  Josh tried to turn around to grab his backpack, but the leg restraints held him firmly in place. He could almost grab it, his fingers tickled at the green fabric, but he couldn’t quite pinch it.

  Not good.

  His mech moved by itself. It slowly turned to reveal ten other mechs standing in a semi-circle. They were all Ticket Busters, and most only had energy swords, except a couple which had blasters, and one which had a Blaster, an Energy Sword, and a Rocket Silo. Josh didn’t need to see the emblem to know which faction it belonged to. “I see the Galactic Corp have come better prepared than everyone else.”

  Yes. The others are running the absolute minimum mechs to try to keep operating costs down. This is after all not intended to be a fight.

  “Which one is the Blurgon mech?”

  The purple one. Let us hope that they go easy on us.

  “Unlikely, that one is being piloted by the Teacher.”

  Josh felt his arms and legs stiffen in fear. He said, “Would you calm down! We need to keep cool.”

  We cannot defeat the Teacher. I’m sorry, I thought I could help, but you are asking for the impossible.

  “I get it. He’s always been tough on you, and told you that you aren’t good enough. Well guess who proved him wrong? Which of us is the fully qualified lawyer in here?”

  I am… mumbled Frag.

  “I didn’t hear you. Say it louder!” Josh yelled.

  I AM! Frag exclaimed, far more enthusiastically.

  “Exactly. Now let’s teach that smug bastard a thing or two.”

  The mechs all took a step forward, swords raised. Josh said, “What are they doing?”

  Tradition dictates that they will approach us and attack at the same time, so no single lawyer is responsible for the killing blow. That way they are all upholding the law, and yet none of them are murderers.

  A voice over the speaker said, “This trial shall commence in 3...”

  Josh strained for his backpack, but it was too far away. He felt the panic kick in, but this wasn’t over yet. He glanced at the panel of buttons in front of him. It was more basic than the mech controller, with a lot less buttons, but it was still entirely unfamiliar. “Frag, please tell me you know how to pilot this thing?”

  I do. I joined the law school just as direct mech piloting was starting to be phased out, but I learned the basic controls.

  “2…”

  “Well I sure hope you remember them, cause if not I’m about to die.”

  “1…”

  The mechs pulled back their energy swords, ready to thrust.

  Josh felt his limbs go numb, and then they started moving of their own accord. As they touched the controls, a blue light washed over him and a message appeared on the screen.

  Welcome, Frag. Qualifications validated. Access granted.

  “Begin.”

  Josh tried to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. They weren’t currently his eyes. His hands flew to two joysticks and pulled down, throwing the mech backwards just as the energy swords clashed in the spot he had just been standing.

  I need my backpack! he thought as loudly as he could.

  His hands reached up and flicked a switch, and the mech spun so fast he almost passed out. To the crowd it looked like a pirouette, but it had the desired effect. The backpack came loose, flew around the cockpit, and landed on his lap.

  Give me a hand!

  Frag obliged, and Josh regained control of his left hand. He pulled at the bag’s zip while Frag kept the other hand on the controls, incase anyone attacked.

  Nobody did.

  A call came in over the viewer. Josh thought Who is calling us in the middle of a battle?

  “Says it is from the Galactic Corp. Should I answer?”

  We don’t really have time for Jax’s smug face right now, but we need to buy some time. Answer it.

  Frag pushed a button, and a sleek orange face filled the screen. It was shaped like a teardrop, with a point at the top, and no hair, but large and expressive eyes. Right now there was only one emotion they were conveying. Pure, undiluted rage.

  Can you make the chat window smaller? It’s blocking our view! Josh thought, trying to see around the huge face that was filling up the viewer. They were completely vulnerable without being able to see the enemy mechs.

  The face spoke with a high-pitched voice. There were definite female qualities, so Josh just mentally assigned the creature as a her. “You dare to betray the sacred oath? You cannot even die with dignity. I do not know how you have overridden the controls, but you shall wish you had accepted a swift death. Prepare to die at the hands of Blaze.”

  Give me the mouth for a second, Josh thought. A moment later he said, “Josh isn’t afraid of idiots who refer to themselves in the third person. You must be a friend of Jax, because you have the same winning personality.”

  “Do not speak ill of my mentor, he is superior to you in every conceivable way,” Blaze said, her orange skin darkening.

  “That’s not what the scorecard says. He wouldn’t even come down here and face me when I am completely unarmed. Instead he sends a lackey.”

  She went from orange to red. “He sent me because his time is more important than this pathetic excuse for justice. I have sworn to him that you will be turned to paste before the day is through, and I intend to keep my promise.”

  “Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. You have his same sense of self-importance too. If he’s taught you everything he knows then I’m not too concerned, I could beat Jax with my hands behind my back.” Josh demonstrated, putting his hands behind his back just as he finally pulled the controller out of his backpack. He held down the sync button and felt it vibrate. A small press of the left analogue confirmed the connection was working. He was in control of the Ticket Buster.

  Why are you antagonizing her? Frag thought, rather loudly.

  “You’ll see,” Josh muttered. Then he thought as hard as he could, Kill the connection, she’s going to attack us any second now and I need to see.

  Without warning his right hand shot out and pressed something, and the viewer screen returned to the battlefield just in time. Blaze’s mech raised its blaster and prepared to fire.

  Frag, this needs to be a team effort. You know what to do, but use the game controller, that way I can still use the other buttons.

  The blaster flashed, and a volley of plasma headed their way. As it was about to make contact Josh boosted out of the way, but Blaze was ready. She retargeted and fired again, anticipating the dodge, and the new plasma flew straight at Josh’s Ticket Buster. Someone had done their homework. Shame she hadn’t used this year’s textbook.

  “Now!”

  Frag took over, pressing the button at the last possible second. There was a flash, and then the blaster round discharged into the dazzling blue energy shield that bloomed from the mech’s wrist. It was gone as quickly as it appeared, but Josh had already adjusted their course to head straight for the G.C. mech.

  To her credit, Blaze didn’t live up to her name and she kept her cool. She holstered the blaster, drew her energy sword and prepared to strike. Unfortunately for her, that was exactly what Josh had anticipated. He ducked and boosted at the last second, power sliding under the sword strike, while Frag simultaneously deployed the energy shield right between the G.C. mech’s legs. It pushed them both outwards, causing the Ticket Buster to attempt the splits, and the frame groaned in protest. Frag tilted the shield, and the enemy mech toppled over onto its own sword.

  Josh didn’t waste any time. He quickly bent down and picked up the blaster while every other mech realized they could no longer just stand still. Their opponent was now armed. Josh pointed the blaster at Blaze’s mech as it struggled to get back up. He said, “Say hi to your boss from me.” Then he unleashed a volley into the mech’s back, crippling it further. Before Blaze could recover Josh followed up with a curb stomp, stooping to pick up the energy sword in the process. He used it to decapitate the G.C. mech, ending its struggle
once and for all.

  Panic broke out in the arena, as every other rookie lawyer found themselves in a fight they weren’t prepared for. The purple Blurgon mech was the only one that stayed focused on Josh. Teacher wouldn’t spook so easily. He was happy for a fight. He led the charge, and the other mechs followed, rushing at Josh like a tsunami.

  Josh wasn’t done stripping down Blaze’s mech just yet. He bent down and ripped the rocket silo right off its shoulders. He reached up and slammed them into place on his own mech’s shoulders. There was a loud click as they locked in.

  He didn’t wait for confirmation—he tested them out, unleashing the entire silo at the wall of Ticket Busters that were neatly lined up. They were close enough to be caught in multiple explosions, and Josh didn’t stop firing until the silo was empty. Then he immediately ejected the entire silo to get rid of the extra weight.

  Explosions rocked the arena as the crowd sat stunned, not quite believing what they were seeing. They had come to pay their respects to the plucky underdog who had defied all odds and actually won a fight against the G.C., but nobody was ready for this. This kid wasn’t even fighting for Blurgon anymore. It wasn’t clear if they were even allowed to cheer for him, but someone in the front row started to chant.

  Josh.

  Josh.

  Josh.

  Soon there were thousands of fans joining in.

  When the smoke from the rockets cleared, three more mechs were taken out of the trial. That still left six to deal with, including Teacher, who had somehow dodged the onslaught.

  The two Ticket Busters with blasters opened fire, and Josh dodged as best as he could. The shots he didn’t dodge, Frag absorbed with a flash of the energy shield.

  “How are we doing with the shield?” Josh asked while performing a double jump. It was a vastly different feeling doing it while inside the mech; it rattled his bones when they landed.

  Down to 82%, but the blaster fire does less damage than energy swords, and soon we are going to have to get close enough to engage. If we can leave a gap between fighting it will recharge.

  “Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to get much of a break.”

  In that case we should move in quickly, to reduce their opportunity to shoot at us.

  “Not yet. We need to take out the blaster mechs first, or they will simply shoot us in the back while we are fighting. Lesson number 1, always take out the ranged fighters first, so you gain control of the space.”

  Josh performed his strafing trick, focusing his fire on one of the blaster mechs. He trusted Frag to deal with any incoming fire while he maintained a stream of projectiles on his target, which couldn’t move and fire. It chose to shoot instead, and regretted that decision, eventually falling from the onslaught.

  Blaster needs to cool down, Frag said.

  Josh stopped firing, and concentrated on dodging. He found himself between two mechs, an orange one and a red one. They both moved to strike at the same time, their swords ready. Josh double-jumped at the last second and both mechs skewered each other, doing minimal damage, but slowing them down. As Josh turned back around the two mechs were now engaged in a sword fight of their own, completely ignoring him. They didn’t attempt to dodge; they simply took it in turns to carve chunks off each other until both mechs were incapacitated.

  “What’s going on? Why are they fighting?”

  Those two factions hate each other and are always looking for an excuse to fight. I guess we gave them one.

  “Fine by me!”

  The three remaining mechs grouped up, their backs together, swords facing outwards. The one with the blaster kept it trained on Josh, firing whenever it seemed likely to hit. The purple mech kept tabs on Josh, watching him, waiting for an attack.

  “These guys look pretty well-coordinated. We need to try and find a way to break them apart.”

  They reminded him of something, bunched up so tightly, and it took him a moment to realize what it was. “Skittles! That gives me an idea. Get the shield ready.”

  Josh stopped strafing and charged straight at the group, boosting the whole way. A light started flashing in his peripheral vision, no doubt warning him that he was low on booster fuel, but all the more reason to take advantage of a chance to take out more than one enemy at the same time.

  The three enemy mechs were unsure how to handle the kamikaze charge. The blaster mech took advantage and fired everything it could. Josh tried to dodge, but he momentarily lost control of his left thumb and the shots landed.

  “Frag! Stay in your lane!”

  Apologies, it is hard to maintain control of just a small part of your hand.

  “It’s going to get a whole lot easier if I am blown to pieces!”

  Warning sirens blared, but Josh ignored them.

  Hull integrity at 71%, Frag warned him.

  “Get ready for a shield bash,” Josh yelled as they crashed into the group, sending them reeling. The closest mech tried to time a sword attack to strike just as they connected, but Frag blocked it with the shield, before retaliating with a shield bash, stunning it. Josh slashed at the blaster mech with his energy sword, using the temporarily stunned mech as a giant shield, keeping it between him and the purple mech to prevent the Teacher from stabbing him in the back.

  The blaster mech put up a good fight, but it struggled to land a hit as Frag blocked all of its attempts with the energy shield, which started to turn red.

  I can only block a couple more hits before we need to rest the shield, Frag thought frantically.

  “Don’t worry, this guy is going down with one more decent hit and then we can safely retreat.”

  Josh parried another attack and slid the energy sword down the enemy mech’s blade, catching it in the chest. Smoke poured out and then there was an explosion as something important was breached.

  The stun has worn off!

  Josh boosted away just as two energy swords were thrust at their back. The first one missed, but the Teacher anticipated the dodge and carved a groove as they dashed away.

  Booster fuel is at 8%, energy shield is at 6%. Hull integrity 43%.

  Down to the wire.

  “At least they don’t have blas…”

  A shot flew past them and Josh turned around in time to see the Teacher’s Ticket Buster scoop up a blaster from the other fallen mech. They were looting their buddies. They had also learned from their earlier mistake, and were now staying far apart, so they could converge their fire without posing a combined target.

  “Well that complicates things. We can’t hang back and recharge the shield if they can pick away at us, and I can’t strafe them without using up our remaining fuel.”

  Josh stayed back and opened fire, peppering the mechs with blaster fire, alternating between them to try and distract them. The remaining grey mech took a couple of hits, but the purple one dodged them all. Frag thought, Stop firing, the blaster is going to overheat.

  “What happens if the blaster overheats?” Josh asked.

  It rarely happens due to safety protocols on current Mech Controllers that prevent the blaster from firing when it is overheated. Ours however does not appear to have that feature. Before that failsafe was installed, overheating blasters would regularly explode, causing critical damage to the Mech using them.

  Josh grinned. “Excellent. That gives us a couple more options.”

  I strongly advise against intentionally overheating a blaster. If we mis-time it the explosion will penetrate our damaged hull and kill you instantly.

  “That’s the difference between us, Frag, you like to play it safe, and I like to live on the edge.”

  Josh kept his finger on the fire button, making sure to concentrate his shots on the grey mech. As the blaster started to glow red he felt his finger slowly lifting off the trigger, and the shots stopped.

  “Frag! What are you doing?”

  I am protecting you from yourself.

  “You stop that right now and give me control of my finger back.”
>
  Josh concentrated, gritting his teeth. He could almost feel his finger again. If he just focused all his energy on it.

  What are you doing? Stop that!

  The mech shook as it took two hits of blaster fire, which got both Josh’s and Frag’s attention. The energy shield flashed up and blocked another shot, while Josh boosted them out of range.

  “We have enough enemies out there, we can’t be fighting amongst ourselves. Myself? You know what I mean,” said Josh.

  I only wish what is best for you.

  “Everyone keeps telling me that, but what is best for me is if I am allowed to make my own mistakes. You can’t protect me from the world.”

  But you are my only friend. The thought came out before Frag could stop it.

  “Then as my friend, let me choose my own fate.”

  Frag didn’t say anything, but Josh felt his finger release. He said, “Thank you, Frag. For everything.”

  Don’t mention it. Now let’s win this thing.

  “That’s the spirit!” Josh stopped retreating. He said, “Status.”

  Booster fuel is at 5%, energy shield has recharged slightly and is at 9%. Hull integrity 18%.

  “Then I guess this is it.”

  Josh gave a final thought for his family back home, and then charged at the point exactly between the two mechs. They maintained their blaster fire, but he skidded under and jumped over the projectiles, until the firing stopped. Their blasters had overheated.

  He opened fire with his own blaster, shooting at the Teacher, strafing to stay on target while still maintaining his trajectory. His blaster started to glow. Teacher dodged the attacks, but it stopped him from firing, which was the main objective.

  Frag screamed in his head, The blaster cooling system is failing, explosion imminent.

  Josh fired two more shots to be certain, until smoke was pouring out of his blaster. Then he pivoted the top half of the mech and tossed the blaster at the grey mech, just as it raised its own blaster.

  The blaster plinked off the grey Ticket Buster’s chest and landed at its feet. Josh willed it to explode, but nothing happened.

  Now what? asked Frag.

  “Now we die fighting.” This was it, he was all out of clever ideas. A couple more blaster shots would finish them off, and now they were in the worst possible position, directly between the two remaining enemies. Even Frag couldn’t block shots from two opposite sides.