The Unnamed: A Mechanical Maniacs Mini-Novel
By Gauntlet (Shadowman)
Chapter 14
Shadowman was stunned. His old team wanted to reform? And they wanted him to join?
“So, how about it?” asked C.J.
Shadowman was shocked silent.
Snakeman has a different reaction.
“You! I don’t care if you were here first, you guys gave up and let us take the jobs you didn’t want! You can’t come back now!” Spat the serpentine warrior.
Gizmo (the former Geminiman) scoffed. “Well, we weren’t asking you, buddy.”
Snakeman shot him a glare of pure hate.
“Hey, don’t worry! There can be a place for you newbies!” said Titanium 91, the former Magnetman, “As maids for Magnet the Mighty!” Titanium followed with barking laughter. Raijin exploded and leapt into attack. Unfortunately he was stopped by Anton’s Needle Cannon.
“No comments from the peanut gallery!” Snickered the former Needleman.
"Nnnnnnnnnhhhhhh!" responded the personality-less Hardman.
Sean (the former Sparkman) took a turn to speak. “Common’, Shadow! You can’t deny the old days were the best! Didn’t you have a ball in the Technodrome? How about the time you fooled everyone into searching for the Dragonballs? And what about lobotomizing Sigma and Juno? You can’t say they weren’t great moments.”
Shadowman paused for long moments. “Those were great times,” said the ninja, “and I’ll never forget them. Or any of you. But my place is on this team now. My team. I worked hard making it what it is today. The times ahead promise to be even better than the times past.”
“What’s so great about them? You’ve beaten all your enemies! There’s no one left, man! Even the Sinister Six have disbanded!”
“They’ll be new times! You can’t retreat into the past just because times are tough now. You gotta move forward! I’m sorry …. You’re my friends, but I can’t just let you take over the Mechanical Maniacs name. I won’t join you.”
There was a moment of silence. The old ‘Maniacs looked disheartened.
“I really thought you’d pitch in,” muttered Jacob, the original Snakeman. The current Snake looked smug.
C.J. shrugged. “Oh, well. Bring him in, boys!”
Shadowman heard the sound of footsteps right outside the room. Just outside the room Oilman, Waveman, and Bitman stood carrying a beat up Topman. His yellow armor was cracked with blue fluid leaking out of some major arteries. Topman groaned in pain. The robots tossed him onto the cold, hard ground with an audible clank.
Shadow felt an impending sense of doom.
“It’s fine that you didn’t join us, Shadow,” said C.J., “We’ve actually found someone to take your place.”
Somehow Shadowman felt a jolt of shock. He never expected this from people who he once called friends.
Bizarro Shadowman had teleported in.
"Nnnnnnnnnhhhhhh!" was all the personality-less Hardman could mutter. The grunt sounded menacing and full of hate.
“I’m sorry it had to come to this,” said Jacob, leveling his cannon at his would-be friend.
Shadowman threw down an smoke bomb to cover his escape. Snakeman was adept at moving in darkness and made his way to the door, making sure to grab the hurt Topman while doing so. The former ‘Maniacs were helpless. C.J. barked orders, but nobody could see anything.
Nobody but Bizarro.
The mutant robot leapt across the room and slammed into a wall as Shadowman dodged his attack.
“MOVE!” Yelled the ninja as he hurled his patented Shadow blades at his doppelganger. Bizarro’s shields automatically deflected the attack. The mutant grinned evilly and ran like some animal after his prey. Being an imperfect copy of Shadowman meant he has all of his physical abilities, including his incredible speed. Shadowman wasn’t about to let himself or his friends be caught, however. Their teleporters didn’t work and that meant that the Technodrome had been outfitted with some sort of scrambler field (probably designed by former friend and former Sparkman Sean), so the three robots had no choice but to make for the doors.
Bizarro was closing in. He launched an attack with his own Shadow blades aimed at both targets. They struck Shadowman, but didn’t wound much. They were his own weapon and only loser robot masters like Metalman were vulnerable to that sort of attack. Shadowman needed to buy some time. He stopped in the hall yelling at Snakeman to move forward. He then summoned his giant mechanical frog from a Pokeball he kept at his side. Bizarro looked …. Amused. But he wasn’t the target. Shadowman aimed at the ceiling and let loose with the frog’s mighty tongue. It was enough to send large chunks of the ceiling’s metal (and the floor above) in Bizarro’s way. It wouldn’t stop him, but it would slow him down.
Shadowman put the frog back in it’s ball and ran ahead, trying to catch up to Snakeman. He found him not too far ahead, going in the wrong direction.
“The Technodrome has many twists and turns. Try not to get lost,” said the blue-clad ninja. Snake snorted loudly.
“Did you ever have a normal base?”
A loud crash came from behind them. The two robots hurried even more down the corridors and crashing noises could be heard just behind them. Bizarro was always eager to please. Looking back, Snakeman caught a glimpse of Bizarro on his own frog bounding down corridors using the frog’s jumping ability. A good idea in abstract, but the frog was slamming Bizarro’s body on the ceiling as it went. Painful.
Of course Bizarro would regenerate any damage done by the time he caught up with them.
Snakeman had an ideas.
“Get ready to book it, ninja-boy!” yelled the green robot as he shot search snakes at the frog’s legs. Using their jaws the snakes disassembled the frog’s legs while it was still in midair and the thing landed unevenly on it’s face. However, this wasn’t the end. The inertia carried the frog forward making it barrel towards the three robots. Shadow and snake Man both ran as fast as they could. The end was in sight. The frog continued to barrel towards then at top speeds.
The two robots dove through the exist as fast as they could as the frog hit the wall, too big to make it out itself.
Snake and Shadow spared a glance back at the exit. The frog wasn’t moving. They took that time to use their teleporters to escape to the Ark.
***********
Topman awoke in the medical bay. His head was pounding. The last thing he remembered was being thrown at the floor by the PC robot losers.
“Finally awake, kiddo?” asked Snake sarcastically. Topman groaned.
“Some of the equipment is back online thanks to the auto-repair. You’ll be fine.”
Topman looked around the room in disbelief. “You brought me out?” he asked.
Snakeman nodded. “Of course. You’re one of us, man.”
Topman smiled.
***********
C.J. scolded Bizarro for losing Snake, Top, and Shadow. Bizarro whimpered and went away to his room. It was no matter. It would have been nice to ensure success, but he really had all that he needed.
The “new” Mechanical Maniacs were done for. They just didn’t know it yet.
