Sidekick by Carl Stubblefield (10 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

The robots reset twice more, with Gus using only his fists and feet. It was oddly satisfying to punish these poor robots as if he were dispensing justice to all those who had wronged him in his life. A victimless crime. The pillowbots were increasing their fighting skills each round, and were even replaced with stronger models. Two had pressed him between them, holding his arms still while the third jabbed in and out with well-timed punches.

Struggling to get free, Gus found that he could not move despite his angry wriggling and twisting. He activated Smol and felt himself shrinking. It felt like he was condensing, and he felt a constant compression against his skin in his smaller form. His now one-foot frame slipped out of their grasp and he fell to the floor. Gus pushed against the leg of one of the pillowbots and found that even though he was smaller, he had the same strength. Leverage was working against him, but he still managed to trip one of the pillowbots, pushing the leg out from under it. Gus sprang back to normal size once the effect wore off and dropped an atomic elbow on the pillowbot’s head. He’d always wanted to do that at least once in his life.

The two remaining bots worked in tandem to keep Gus from grappling with one, so he readied Gemini and waited for his moment.

Gemini: Create an illusory copy of self that acts independently based on mental commands. Shares no actual abilities and can cause no physical damage.

Now! He sent his double after the other bot. With this distraction, Gus was able to close and subdue the other pillowbot easily. He turned back and saw the pillowbot swinging through the ghostly image of himself, but continuing to fight with it, despite not encountering anything physical. This allowed Gus to sneak around and grab the bot in a headlock, and soon it was down.

The next round started and the pillowbots engaged now that numbers were in their advantage. Once they found the duplicate was insubstantial, they ignored it completely, turning their attention to Gus. Gus suffered dual hits as one pillowbot kicked him and another followed up as he was thrown to the side from the kick, punching him right in the nose.

The fury that had fueled his previous attacks was waning, and Gus tried activating Smol again. He shrunk in size, but the bots backed away and sunk lower, lowering their centers of gravity. They maintained a consistent distance, corralling him until he regained normal size.

As expected, Telepathy did nothing, and the robots had retained their resistance to Electronic Mind. “You damn Borg, stop modulating your frequency,” Gus challenged as he looked for something new to try.

Zeno Effect: Focusing on the quantum state of an object or target will freeze its passage through time, preventing physical movement or skill activation while observed.

Gus had no idea what these abilities were even supposed to do as he activated Zeno Effect on one robot. To his amazement it stopped in mid-air! He rotated around the robot, and it hung there, the effect feeling very Matrix-esque. A rabbit punch from behind caused Gus to blink and the frozen robot completed its jump with no loss of momentum, though it had been hanging stock-still. Gus tried Zeno Effect again, this time on all three pillowbots but found that it only affected the two who hadn’t initially been frozen. Gus tackled the previously frozen bot, finding it more difficult than he imagined to keep an eye on the other bots while he fought the third at the same time.

“What kind of weeping angel BS is this?” Gus tried to alternate blinking only one eye and fight at the same time.

The effect didn’t seem to have a time limit. He turned his attention to the others and the airborne pillowbot crashed to the mat. He was free to take down the other frozen bots. Smacking his forehead, he pushed them both out of the ring, winning the match easily.

He had just started another round when Aurora’s comm clicked on. Finally she’s ready to apologize. Took her long enough.

“Meet me outside,” Aurora yelled, her voice breaking Gus’ concentration. He ended the simulation, cutting the training session short. “…they’re already back,” she finished grimly.

Gus stepped out of the ring and toweled the sweat off. He still hadn’t showered today.

You have completed (5) waves of Adaptive Training. Final difficulty rank: A.

25,000 XP awarded.

LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 19 reached!

500 FP awarded.

You have (5) additional stat points to assign.

7,700 XP to level 20.

One point to Constitution and the other four to Intelligence. Boom! Done. Gus smiled as the elevator doors closed.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Carried Away

Gus jogged out the manor entrance to see Aurora on the courtyard lawn, pointing seaward.

“More of them are approaching!” Aurora shouted, even more angry than the day before. “We haven’t even recovered yet!”

“What makes you think these guys fight fair?”

“Oh, they’re going to see how dirty I can fight.”

As the supers came closer, Gus recognized Slipstream and Mercurio among this batch of opponents, the ones who had subdued Aurora on the station. A quick look confirmed she saw them at the same time.

“Don’t you even dare, Gus. Those two are mine! I have a score to settle. And payback is going to be a bitch.” She took off, and Gus could swear that she was flying faster and with more control than she had in the past.

He wondered if she had leveled or evolved her flight skills or was just so pissed that she was hyper-charging the ability subconsciously.

“Go ahead, knock yourself out,” Gus said, a little irritated, but part of him cheering on her revenge.

Gus targeted some of the other supers, intent on keeping them busy so that Aurora could fight with better odds. All of the supers in this wave of attackers appeared to be able to fly, but they landed and formed a semi-circle in front of him instead of engaging in