Mighty No. 9 Prologue
"The Robot Colosseum Battle begins in 10 minuets, will Mighty No. 9 please report to your station" Beck heard from a speaker outside while he starred at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He then heard the voice of a man outside the bathroom a few seconds after the message.
"Dr. White's big mistake was giving him a personality, it would have been so much better if he just made him like the others" the man said.
Beck turned back to his reflection.
"Come on, Beck, you can do this. You're not a failure, you're not a mistake. Prove them wrong"
Beck splashed his face with water and then put his helmet on before running out of the bathroom and to his station.
"The Robot Colosseum Battle begins in 5 minuets, Mighty No. 9, report to your station immediately!"
Beck walked past the other Mighty No.'s who were already standing on their designated platforms, ready to be lifted into the colosseum. Beck stepped on the last platform right next to Mighty No. 8.
"You're almost late again, No. 9" said No. 8
"I know, I just got really nervous and I heard some humans talking about me and..."
"Such 'emotion' will not be tolerated on the battlefield. Understood" interrupted No. 8
"Y-yes sir" replied Beck
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for, behold the most powerful team of the Robot Colosseum; The Mighty Numbers!" a voice shouted as the Mighty Numbers' platforms raised them to the battle field. Beck mentally prepared himself before the platform hoisted him to the colosseum of cheering fans.
"...And finally, the most recent addition; Mighty No. 9!" shouted the announcer
The crowed began booing and throwing garbage at the field almost immediately as Beck stepped on the field.
"The battle begins in 10...9"
Beck looked at the opposing team, a group of 9 military themed robots.
"8...7...6..."
Beck noticed the other Mighty Numbers meet eyes with the robots that they were going to take out.
"5...4...3"
Beck met eyes with a robot starring directly at him from the other side.
"2...1! Begin the battle!"
The other robots from both sides charged at each other with great speed. Beck froze as he watched the robot charge at him with death in his eyes.
"Beck! Don't just stand there! Move!" Call shouted at Beck through the speaker in his helmet. Beck jumped backwards as the robot swung at him. The robot continued to swipe at Beck as he kept dodging his attacks.
"Don't just avoid his attacks! Use your Burst Cannon!" Call shouted again
"R-right" Beck replied
The xels in Beck's arm separated into several glowing cubes and re-assembled into a gray arm cannon. Beck nervously pointed his cannon at the robot and closed his eyes just before shooting. Beck opened his eyes to see that he had missed the shot just before the robot hot him with a powerful punch and then pinned him against a wall and began punching him with great strength.
"Beck, you're taking too much damage. I'm pulling you out"
Beck was instantly teleported to the repair chamber of the colosseum.
"...and it looked like Mighty No. 9 is the first to go out again" Beck heard from the speaker. He looked out the window to the continuing battle as Mighty No. 3 took out the robot who nearly destroyed him with one shock from her electric shock.
"Alright, I'm coming down to repair you now" Call said
"Ok.. Thanks" Beck replied
Beck gripped his shoulder where the robot had repeatedly punched him. The xels in his arm kept re-arranging from his hand to his Burst Cannon and back again. Call teleported down to the repair chamber with the xel mender in her hand.
"Alright, let's see where you were damaged"
"Right here, on my shoulder"
"Ok"
Beck sat down on the bench and had Call mend the xels on his shoulder.
"Are your internal systems nominal?"
"Yeah"
"Alright, it's a good thing I pulled you out when I did, if you were there any longer you probably wouldn't be able to use your Burst Cannon anymore"
"Yeah, thanks for that"
"Then you wouldn't be able to fight anymore"
Beck froze as he thought about that. If what Call said was true then he wouldn't have to go into the colosseum anymore, he wouldn't have to go through all the trash throwing from the audience, he wouldn't have to overhear humans talking about his limitations in battle, or any of the other Mighty Numbers constantly pointing out his short comings. But he thought if he couldn't fight then he'd have no purpose, and he'd be dismantled. It was a conflict he had thought about many times before, he either fought or died. The problem was, he didn't know which was worse.
"Alright, all the repairs are done" said Call
"Thanks, Call"
"I'm going to go back up and help Dr. White with the other Mighty Numbers, you wait here"
"Ok"
Call teleported out of the repair chamber leaving Beck alone. He lied down on the bench and closed his eyes, just waiting for the battle to be over.
A flash of light from the window startled Beck out of his seat. He looked out to see all of the Mighty Numbers frozen still. No. 4 looked like he had just destroyed one of the opposing robots before the flash. They all just stood there for a good 30 seconds. Beck watched in confusion just before they resumed animation. They all walked to their designated platforms in single file, as if they were being controlled by something. Beck wanted to go see what happened but couldn't because the repair chamber had no doors and he had to be teleported out. He put on his helmet.
"Call, what's going on?"
"Nothing, we won again"
"B-but what about that flash of light?"
"It was probably just a defense mechanism put in by the other team, clearly it didn't work"
Beck sighed.
"Ok"
"We'll get you out of there soon, I just need to run the mandatory tests"
"Got it"
It was late in the night, about the time when all the Mighty Numbers had to go into their charging docks to prepare for the next battle. The others plugged into them without any hesitation, but Beck just stared at the cold, metal chamber that he had to plug himself into every night and dreaded doing so. Call approached her chamber, which was right next to Beck's.
"Just get in" she said with an annoyed tone
Beck sighed as he once again hooked himself up to all of the machinery in the dock and the computers caused him to go into stand by mode.
Beck awoke to the lab alarm going off and Call ripping off all the cords connected to her to see what was going on.
"What's happening?" Beck asked
"The others are gone!" Shouted Call as she ripped the final cord out and ran to the lab
Beck looked around and noticed that the others were missing from their recharge docks before dashing out of his dock, ripping all the cords from his body. He ran upstairs and turned on Dr. White's computer to see if there was any news on what was happening. On the front page of a news website was a live broadcast.
"This is Martha Graves with breaking news, a virus has caused almost all of the county's robots to go maverick and attack humans. The most devastating attacks are being caused by 8 of the 9 Mighty Numbers who have taken over key facilities. It is still unknown what the cause of the attacks are, the mastermind behind the virus, or the whereabouts of Mighty No. 9 but it's being rumored that him, and his robot sibling Call, are the only ones not affected. We will continue our broadcast for as long as we can as long as..." the broadcast shut off there.
Dr. White and Call walked in the room.
"Beck! Thank goodness you're ok" said Dr. White
"What's going on?" asked Beck
"I don't know, the virus didn't show up on any of the diagnostic tests we ran after the battle, this is something we've never faced before"
"So, why aren't Call and I affected"
"You were in the repair chamber and Call was in the booth with me, you were both protected by the barriers set up to keep repairing robots and coaches safe"
Beck turned to the window and watched the destruction.
"How are we gonna stop then if there's no robots that stand a chance?"
"Well, there is one..." Call said
"Who?" Beck asked as he turned around
Call and Dr. White starred at Beck for a few seconds.
"No no no no. You can't mean me!"
"You're the only robot who has a fighting chance" replied Call
"But I don't have a chance! They've always done better than me! All I've got is this plasma cannon that does little damage and I always hesitate in battle! I can't, I just can't! I'm not strong enough!"
Beck fell to his knees and began hyperventilating. Dr. White approached him and put his hand on his shoulder.
"You're not weak, you're just different from the others"
"I know, I think too much like a human"
"And that's not a weakness, it's a strength, there's no shame in it"
"But how would that help me defeat the others?"
"You don't just have a plasma cannon, I told you that I made you different from the others, you have another ability that sets you apart from them"
"What's that?"
"Potential"
Beck became confused.
"When the time comes, you'll know"
Beck got up off his knees.
"Alright...I'll do it"
"Great, I've loaded the locations of the others on the teleporter, it's all ready for you"
Beck grabbed his helmet and put it on.
"I'm ready"
Beck walked into the teleporter room, ready to save mankind, ready to prove himself to the world, and most importantly, ready to prove himself to himself.