Chapter 5: Defying Gravity and Glitches with a Grunt
The robot was probably 12, maybe 10 meters tall. I couldn't be precise in the middle of a panic-driven geometry calculation. I leaned my body forward, the servos in my waist assembly whining in protest, and ran. Not just a run—a burst of speed courtesy of the [Acceleration Greaves]. The world blurred into a smear of grey concrete and fake shop fronts. I managed a desperate, arcing leap that carried me just out of the crushing path of that enormous limb.
WHOOOOOSH-CRUMPH!
The giant metal hand smashed into the street where I'd been a millisecond before, sending a shockwave of debris and dust billowing outward. The air tasted of pulverized concrete and ozone.
But that didn't stop the robot's movement. It was relentless.
"What's its problem? Why is it this violent?" I muttered, the words swallowed by the din as I landed in a rolling tumble that jarred my teeth. "It's impossible the heroes would put such an aggressive program in their robot set."
I arrived at a conclusion quickly. There was a flaw. A glitch. This robot's behavior definitely had a programming error. Some kind of bug in its system. There were several possible reasons for this happening, but I didn't have time to dwell on them at that moment.
Because I was busy trying not to become a pancake.
The other students, who had been terrified and fleeing from the giant robot, stopped dead for a moment. They were witnessing a bizarre spectacle.
The guy in the weird gear was dodging the robot's attacks with extreme precision. And his eyes, visible behind the clear sections of his tinted visor, were calm. Too calm. A chilling, focused calm. This forced them to stop and stare, as if watching a supernatural scene. None of the boy's movements seemed filled with panic or fear. They were just… correct. Precise. Economical.
After a few moments, (Suzuki) had managed to protect himself and retreat a little, just enough to catch his breath. He'd trained his breathing for this. He had strong lungs that allowed him to get used to movements that would seem difficult for normal people. Because of this, he had no problems moving in an unnatural way while dodging being crushed.
"It wouldn't be good to just keep running away."
He analyzed quickly and found a pattern. The robot's movements, while powerful, were predictable. Its targeting had a 0.3-second lag after a directional change. A tiny window.
In that moment, he activated his weapon: the [Strength-Enhancement Gauntlet]. Thanks to this gauntlet, he pushed himself off a nearby building wall. His enhanced hand dug into the faux-brick with a CRUNCH-SHOWER of plaster dust, finding enough purchase to hold his weight. Then, using the recoil from the push, he launched himself towards the lower section of the robot's leg.
SHHHHWWWIP!
The robot's sensors detected a foreign object approaching its lower section. Its head swiveled down with a loud WHIRR-CLUNK. It moved automatically. Its program was clearly full of complicated, aggressive subroutines. In one instant, it almost managed to swipe (Suzuki) off, an action that would have sent him flying meters away.
But thanks to the gauntlet, which maintained a death-grip on a hydraulic line casing, (Suzuki) wasn't flung away with enough force. At the same time, he used the gauntlet's full power and slammed his body into the metal chassis with a grunt of effort.
CLANG!
He was now a stubborn, human-shaped barnacle on a giant, angry machine.
The robot initiated a protection program. It lurched forward, its other arm coming around in a wide, sweeping backhand, aiming to deliver a decisive blow that would scrape off the pest clinging to its shin.
But (Suzuki)'s eyes had become sharp. He knew what the robot was going to do. So, he didn't resist. He used the robot's movement.
He let go at the peak of the swing, letting centrifugal force carry him. He exploited the motion to create a sliver of artificial gravity, however slight. He performed a neutralizing movement, using the push of the wind to orient himself. Then, he activated the [Acceleration Greaves] again.
And he ran.
Forward.
He was suspended in mid-air, defying gravity, running up the robot's advancing arm as if it were a steep hill.
From the perspective of the other students, the scene was mind-bending. The robot was charging forward with terrifying speed, but the student wasn't running away or screaming. The other participants watched with wide eyes as (Suzuki) ran in a crazed, gravity-defying sprint. They even wondered if this was his Quirk, his supernatural ability. Because without one, it seemed bizarre that anyone could run in such an insane way. Naturally, they didn't think he was simply applying physics to use the force of the air current as a temporary platform capable of bearing his weight to perform this superhuman feat.
And in the end, when he reached the robot's head, his eyes narrowed in concentration. In a single second, he activated a part of the gauntlet. A small sphere, about the size of a baseball, deployed with a soft pfft-chunk into his waiting palm.
With speed born of endless repetition in a cluttered garage, he delivered a swift, precise kick while jumping upwards. The kick was aimed with surgical accuracy towards a specific panel on the robot's head.
The robot had no programs to dodge such an attack. It received the blow with full force.
THWACK!
The impact caused its optical sensors to crack and fizzle, a web of fractures spreading across the red lenses with a sound like crunching ice. It was now blind.
But at the same time, (Suzuki) was now in the air, about 15 meters above the ground. That didn't mean he was going to get hurt. He used the sphere he had taken out of the gauntlet. He threw it with pinpoint accuracy back towards the robot's head. It sailed in a perfect arc.
Then, he pressed a button on the interface near his wrist.
The soles of his boots began to glow with a faint, yellow light. A low hum built into a whine.
ZZZZRT-BOOM!
A concussive burst of pressurized air erupted from the bottom of his boots. (Suzuki) used this pressure wave as a platform, propelling himself sideways in mid-air. He executed several aerial adjustments, using smaller bursts to control his descent, before finally reaching the ground. He hit, rolled three times to dissipate the momentum with practiced ease, and came up in a crouch.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-roll-roll-roll.
He immediately looked toward the robot.
The metal sphere he'd thrown had landed and stuck magnetically to the side of the robot's damaged head. A small red light on it blinked three times.
Beep… Beep… Beep…
Then, a wave of crackling electricity, a localized electromagnetic pulse, spread throughout the robot's cranial unit. Arcs of blue-white lightning crawled over its metal surface with a terrifying CRACKLE-ZZAP!
For a second, the giant stood there, twitching.
Then, with a final, dying groan of metal and a shower of sparks, it pitched forward.
BOOOOOOOM-CRAAAAAAAAASH!
The impact shook the entire testing ground. A cloud of dust billowed out, covering the street.
(Suzuki) stood slowly, brushing dust off his shoulders. He had just earned… what, three points? For a zero-pointer? The irony wasn't lost on him.
The other students were in disbelief. Someone had actually defeated that robot. In an incomprehensible way. They whispered, asking each other about the type of metal sphere (Suzuki) had used.
(Suzuki) looked at the fallen robot with cold eyes and muttered under his breath, his voice barely audible over the settling dust.
"Good thing I brought a sphere specifically designed to destroy robot electrical circuits using an internal electromagnetic pulse burst."
He had used knowledge. Knowledge that told him his opponents would be a set of robots. So he had created these tools to deal with them. Of course, most people wouldn't know this, because they didn't truly know the test. But he did. So he'd had time to prepare.
He took a deep, steadying breath. The familiar, acrid smell of scorched metal and ozone filled his lungs. A small, grim smile touched his lips behind the helmet.
One obstacle down. The exam wasn't over.
He turned, his boots scraping on the debris-strewn street, and looked for the next cry for help, the next point to earn. The cog, it seemed, had just forced the machine to briefly malfunction.
And it felt… surprisingly good.
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End of Chapter.
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He did it! Using pure preparation and gadgetry, our Quirkless protagonist took down a zero-pointer! Was it cleverness or sheer audacity? What do you think the pro heroes watching are making of this performance? Let me know your reactions and predictions for the results in the comments!