The Unnamed: A Mechanical Maniacs Mini-Novel

By Gauntlet (Shadowman)

Chapter 11

Hard and Spark watched as the doctor bots rushed Magnetman into the robot operating room. It had been a day and, after fighting the Gom Jabbar off for so long Magnetman took a turn for the worse.

And still the rest of the ‘Maniacs were nowhere to be found.

Spark had tried some member’s cell but, aside from a cryptic response by Geminiman, nobody could be reached.

And now their friend was on death’s door.

“Their probably out partying' or somethin’,” grumbled Hardman as the two robots waited outside the operating room. “They lose members all the time ... so what if one more bites the dust?”

“Well, I doubt that’s true,” said Spark Chan. “I’ve known the team for a while. They wouldn’t miss this unless there was a good reason!”

“Well, what could have happened then?” snapped the robot giant. Spark didn’t know how to answer that exactly.

Time passed on slowly for both robots. The place was eerily quiet. The procedure was one of programming, not mechanical engineering.

“Don’t worry about this, Sparks;” said Hardman, sensing Spark Chan’s growing depression, “we’ve been in much worse scrapes than this! Remember the time the Evil Eight invaded Teletran One? We had to get new EXE forms just to fight them!”

Sparks did not look very impressed.

“And what about …. The time we fought the Decepticons?”

Sparks sighed, “I wasn’t there for that adventure.”

“Oh yeah. Um ….. Well, what about the time we fought the evil us-es …. No, not there for that either, were yah?”

Sparks shook her head.

Hardman chucked. “It’s a nice story now, but it was Hell then! Those evil uses were smarter, more powerful than us … and they couldn’t even be killed! Me and Mags were teamed up against our own evil selves. It was one Hell of a fight, but we whooped their asses!”

Sparks smiled a little. “I heard you were the only ones who got captured.”

Hardman let out a loud laugh. “Oh, you heard about that already, eh? But the point is … we won! We got out of that and we’ll get out of this. You’ll see.”

Despite a brave front Hard was not as confident as his words suggested.

It was quite some time before the silence was broken.

In the distance alarms could be heard, bellowing out warnings.

“What’s that?” Yelled out Hardman.

“I don’t know,” responded Spark Chan, “but if it’s destroying the hospital, Mags could be in trouble!”

That was all the discussion needed. The two robots ran off to fight for the hospital.

***********

It wasn’t hard to find what was responsible for the chaos. The telltale whiff of smoke and gasoline as something both Hardman and Spark Chan knew quite well.

Standing among the littered remains of medi-mechs and guard-bots, Torchman stood triumphantly. Behind his mask, he wore a wide grin of satisfaction. He swung his long torch high into the air and let loose a burst of fire. Flame rippled along the ceiling, shorting out lights and covering the halls with even more smoke. The sprinklers poured water over the entire area, but Torchman, unlike many other fire robots, did not mind dampness. He was created for sewer maintenance and dampness went with that job. He was fine unless a great quantity of water clogged his systems. And luckily for him, none of the Mechanical Maniacs had that particular ability.

“You’re acting pretty smug for beating up on a bunch of low-level scrap, Torch,” said Hardman, unimpressed by Torchman’s spectacle. “Why don’t you try to face a couple of real warriors?”

Torchman let out a laugh. “Why not? And after I send you and any other Maniac to the scrap heap I’ll melt that obsolete look-alike of me you call Magnetman into a ….. Puddle of magnetic ….. Stuff!”

Hardman didn’t need to hear any more of Torchman’s lame attempts at threats. He began the attack with a double fisted Hard Knuckle. Torchman, however, had fought against various people filling the spot of Hardman and easily saw the attack coming. He ducked out of the way and hit Hardman with a burst of flame with his Torch Arm.

Surprised at actually being hit, Hardman was wide open for a physical attack made by the delusional red robot. Sprinting to Hardman’s position, Torchman hit the one vulnerable area on Hardman’s body – his face with as much physical force as he could muster. Stunned Hardman took several steps back. His fists were returning, but Torchman was well aware of how they worked. He was ready for the return trip and ducked out of the way as Hardman regained his strongest weapon.

Hardman looked to the ceiling, but found there was simply not enough room to leap high enough to quake the ground. In that moment Torchman let loose several more fire balls, inflicting minor, but insistent damage on the lager and heavily armored robot.

“Spark Chan! You gotta let loose with an electric attack!” shouted the giant robot, as he was continuously pummeled with fireballs. The hospital hallway was too confining. The slow moving Hardman couldn’t dodge the attack. Moreover, the Hard Knuckle, while quick in and of itself, was easily avoidable by someone who had fought against the same robot so many times.

Spark Chan was nearly in tears. She was behind the giant robot and could do little to help. “Hard, there’s water everywhere! If I let out a Spark Shot, not only could you be hurt, but the entire building could be put in a blackout! Think! If I did that all the patients could die!”

Torchman laughed and continued to pummel the helpless robot with fire.

“Yes, what are you going to do,” gloated the red and black robot, “I can easily avoid your punches. You’re too slow to physically attack me. If you use your weight to destroy their floor, more patients could die. And Spark Chan is completely helpless. Hah!”

Hardman grimaced. Normally, fire did not do much damage to him, but this amount was beginning to tax his thick metal plating. He could feel his “skin” getting hotter. It was only a matter of time.

“This is why it’s inevitable that I win,” Torchman continued, “You silly heroes worry about things like that. While I don’t!”

Finally, with an audible explosion, Hardman fell. His glowing green eyes went a deathly black. Smoke curled from his still, gaping mouth.

Spark Chan gasped as Torch moved closer.

Torchman’s feet made splashing sounds in the water.

“If you used you electricity, you could probably survive,” said the fire based robot.

Spark Chan went pale.

Torchman laughed and aimed his long, grey torch at the slim, female robot.

Spark Chan did the only thing she could.

She ran.