Robot Wars: ODT v.s. The Swarm

<Robot Wars>
Zack stared out at the arena, trying to guess the strength of
Kayn's robot. Cubie stood next to him, frowning. "That thing should
be a piece of cake."
Zack guided The Swarm out to its starting position. The robots
traveled in a rolling ball when not in actual combat to save power.
Across the arena, ODT squatted, covered in nasty spikes.
Cubie chuckled. "That thing's history. He might knock two or
three of our bots out of the air, but the rest will shred him good."
Zack allowed a cautious grin to cross his face. "You think so?
We did dismally in the pinball round."
Cubie snorted. "Well, that match was geared toward robots with
a little more mass. We did strip the paint off of several obstacles
and riddle them with holes, but actually moving heavy things
around . . . that's where we lost points. We finished the course in
record time."
The signal to start began, and Zack activated The Swarm. Each
of the hundred robots broke apart from the sphere and raced toward
ODT. ODT, initially charging toward the sphere, stopped in its
tracks, Kayn and Efof evaluating The Swarm's attack.
The tiny robots darted between ODT's spikes and drills, nestled
in the joints and undercarraige, and began grinding and cutting for
all they were worth.
Cubie swore as she checked the readout. "That thing's made of
titanium. It's gonna take forever to cut through that!"
Zack adjusted the controls and more of the robots crawled or
flew under ODT, seeking out a weak seam. But Kayn and Efof had done
their work well. The Swarm was piercing the armor, but slowly.
ODT lurched to life, rolling out of bounds. The Swarm went with
it, clinging tenaciously as they tried to infiltrate ODT's armored
hide.
Cubie pointed. "Zack, we've got company!"
Zack spotted the house robot rolling up to deal with the out-of-
bounds offender. "No problem. I'll just-"
His next words died in his throat as the house robot doused ODT
in an oxyacetylene inferno. "Yikes!" He checked his monitor, and
confirmed the worst. The Swarm was melting rapidly, each little
robot caught in the house robot's blast. They melted within ten
seconds, leaving streaming rivulets of molten steel dribbling down
the sides of ODT. ODT was undamaged by the intense heat, and
casually maneuvered back in-bounds, flames still dripping from its
alloyed flanks. In under a minute, the flames went out and ODT stood
there with nothing worse than blistered paint, numerous superficial
gouges, and three minor command relays severed from their power
source.
Zack and Cubie looked at the monitor. Only three of the tiny
robots had survived, and one of them was crippled. ODT rolled over
it, and its active light winked out. The remaining two robots tried
to resume the assault, but ODT caught one with a spike and impaled
it, then flung it at the other. The last robot's antigrav was
damaged, and it couldn't maneuver fast enough to avoid the hurtling
comrade. Both of them clattered to the deck, reduced to junk that
ODT promtly crushed.
Cubie pouted. "I'm sorry, Zack. I should have seen that
coming!"
Zack flipped the cover over the control panel, then turned and
faced Cubie with a grin. "No sweat, sweetie! I had a ball!"
They left the isolation booth and were immediately met by a
grinning hologram. "So, things didn't quite play out as you had
planned, did they?"
Zack shrugged. "Well, that's the breaks. We were a novice team
up against some real pros. Our opponent took advantage of his
strength and our weakness to pull off a victory."
The hologram nodded. "Shame about your robot - a unique design,
but unfortunately not much to salvage."
Cubie bristled, but Zack took it in stride. "Well, it was built
in fun, and fun is what we've had. Right, sweetie?"
Cubie nodded reluctantly, but as she thought about it, she
smiled. After all, the whole reason behind entering the Robot Wars
in the first place was to relieve some of Zack's stress. That had
been extremely successful.
Grinning, she grabbed Zack's elbow. "C'mon, let's go celebrate
our loss!"
Zack smiled. "You mean . . . ?"
"Yeah!" Cubie's eyes glittered with excitement. "But I get to
drive the schoolbus this time."
Zack nodded. "I'll be the Volkswagon! Let's go get some
quarters!"
They scurried off to Parrots. The driving game awaited.
~Zack & Cubie~