Arven had no idea quite how he had overcome the robot’s control systems despite the creator floating right in front of him and ordering the robot to obey, but he knew that he could exploit that to gain control of the other five. Through the robot’s own sensors, Arven could feel the creator gaining on him as they crossed the cosmos. He streaked like a shooting star through the skies above many a planet on his way back to the place that his client called home, a planet he had never even bothered to learn the name of. “I never thought of my clients and their homelands as being important enough to even commit to memory,” Arven chuckled to himself, “and yet here I am standing up to fight for them.” The irony hit him a bit harder as he approached Leeroy’s planet, and he teared up just a bit as he and the robot entered the planet’s atmosphere.
Leeroy had received Arven’s distress call from across space, and already had the other six robots standing outside. Arven’s Unit descended from the heavens, thrusters still steaming. “Thank God for you, Leeroy.”, Arven’s voice boomed through the Unit’s speakers. The robot’s feet didn’t touch the ground. Somewhere deep inside, Arven knew exactly what to do. He called to the other Units with his thoughts, and they obeyed. A strange warmth engulfed him, like the swirling of soft music through a jolly tavern. He closed his eyes gently, and the Units floated together, morphing this way and that and jutting out previously hidden parts. Fully formed, the Units came together into a shape that was somewhat humanoid, but more closely resembled a spacecraft. The giant flying mech took to the skies and met its creator just outside of the small planet’s atmosphere. Leeroy shook with excitement inside the blue Unit. “We got this, Arven!”, he yelled into his control panel. “Like old times, eh?”, came the reply. The two shared a vicious grin as they rose, higher and further away from the planet.
“Enough of this.”, the creator said calmly. His voice echoed through the void, defying the laws of physics as if by virtue of its owner’s sheer force of will. Blasts of lightning rocked the skies around the metal monstrosity, but Arven’s full synchronization with the bots made their collective reflexes fast enough to dodge the bolts. Leeroy, meanwhile, pointed an onboard plasma gun at the creator and took potshots at him. The blasts of superheated plasma were flung off into the reaches of space before they met their target, with some being addressed manually by the Creator and some battering into some sort of invisible shield. Leeroy blasted away at the shield as Arven continued to dodge blasts of energy. Finally, the creator gave up on using projectiles and began to grow in size until he was just a bit larger than Arven and Leeroy’s ride. The two friends didn’t balk. Arven began to make the robots throw astonishingly powerful punches and kicks at their creator, while Leeroy redirected shield power with quick flicks of his fingers, diverting near-full power to whatever limb Arven was throwing at the moment. Leeroy and Arven fell into a sort of gestalt trance, and Leeroy’s synchronization with the Units around him began to increase. Before long, the inhuman Creator was outmatched and outgunned. Arven and Leeroy made an unstoppable team. The Creator could feel their mental link, but he could also feel the sharp edge of Arven’s mind, how much different, slower Leeroy’s was.
The Creator shot a blade from his right arm, and Leeroy and Arven worked together to parry the blow and send a metal foot into the Creator’s ribs. The Creator howled with glee as he coughed up a bit of blood. While Arven and Leeroy were focused on his right arm, his left had moved right next to the blue Unit. With a single stroke, he punched a hole in the massive robot. Alarms sang their plaintive song as Arven made his way to the blue Unit through a maze of tunnels, doing his best to keep his mental link to the robots all the while. Flames bathed the corridor leading to the blue Unit, but Arven simply steeled his will and dashed through them, ignoring his own charred flesh and the incredible pain it brought. Leeroy was still in his seat, seemingly sitting calmly as his robot smoked and sparked around him. Arven rushed to his friend’s side, only to see that he had been neatly bisected by the Creator’s strike. The upper half of Leeroy’s body was stuck to the chair by a metal pipe, while the lower half had long since slumped to the floor. Arven pored through the Units’ various options and capabilities, looking for anything related to first aid that might help his friend.
A small smile crossed Leeroy’s face. “Arven…”, he coughed, “Don’t worry about me. I’m okay with this.” Arven shook his head. “Leeroy, you’ve got to be joking!”, he shouted, “You’re okay with losing to this buffoon?!” Leeroy weakly raised a finger and wagged it at Arven. “It’s not losing if you beat him for me, kid. Kick his ass, will ya?” Another cough left Leeroy’s body, as did no small amount of blood. “I feel… I feel like a knight captain going down with his platoon, ya know?” The giant robot continued to rock, its movements slowed by Arven’s lack of concentration to the point that the Creator’s attacks were starting to get through. Leeroy grinned, and a final wheeze made its way out of him as his eyes rolled back into his head. Arven blinked back his tears, and turned toward the ruined view screen in front of Leeroy’s seat. He could see the Creator through what was left of it. “You!”, he screamed, “I won’t let you get away with this! No way!” In that instant, Arven’s vision faded to a translucent red sheen, and he began to see through his Unit’s eyes from its place at the head of the giant bot formation.
Arven had slipped up, and the robots had suffered for it. All of the Units had immense damage, and Arven’s best mental efforts could no longer convince the merged robots to keep up with their creator’s attacks. Arven thought for only a second, and his resolve became solid and steady. “Ok”, he sighed, “I know what I have to do.” Unable to make the robot dodge the Creator’s attacks any longer, Arven distracted him with a series of lasers, then wrapped two metal arms around him. “Let go of me this instant!”, the Creator shouted to his children. They didn’t listen. Instead, Arven made them tighten their grip, and the Creator’s ribs cracked. He screamed in anguish, but held firm. The robot arms could not squeeze any further, but they would not release him. Arven donned a space suit and grabbed his survival machete and blaster. He made his way up to the top of the formation with surprising speed, and greeted the struggling Creator out in open space. His machete wouldn’t pierce the alien’s flesh, not even his seemingly soft, bloodshot eyeballs. Arven tried his blaster, but the beam bounced harmlessly away. Looking around for inspiration on another plan, Arven saw a nearby star burning brightly. It seemed like it was at its strongest, ready to begin its decline any day now. With the same smirk that Leeroy had in his last moments, Arven gave the Units their instructions. He leapt away after giving them their last impetus, and floated out into the vastness of space with only a small oxygen tank to keep him company. The robot collective and their creator made contact with the dying star, and the resulting explosion spread for thousands of miles. The Creator was spat out of the fiery blast, back to his normal size. Arven took aim with his blaster and didn’t stop pulling the trigger until the gun could no longer fire. To make sure the job was done, he released just a bit of his oxygen tank to float over in the Creator’s direction, then used his survival machete to slice the dapper monster’s head clean off. He kicked off of the corpse, and began floating toward the nearest planet.
A corpse in a space suit crashed to the surface, still smoking. A team of men hoisted it into the air and gave a cheer. A few weeks later, a memorial plaque and a pair of statues went up in the capital city. They had given the two heroes fitting memorials based on the last bits of footage and audio captured by their suits. At the foot of one statue was a plaque that read, “Leeroy Stu, Honorable Knight Captain”. The other plaque bore the inscription, “Arven Repner, Hero To Millions.”
Arven 4/1,000 Preview
Alicia's hand was rock-steady as she deftly wielded her scalpel. Her calm breaths were directed ever so carefully as to exit the mask from the sides, ensuring that her glasses would stay clear. Each patient that came to her table with a tumor to remove brought her thoughts back to her father ,putting a fire in her belly and the determination to save a life into her hands. This patient seemed no different, but a nagging thought ate at her as she worked her usual miracle. "Never forget who you are...", it rang in her head. Then came that name again. "Arven Repner."
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