Chapter 4
Elvis grinned, "I can't wait to show up Dick Murphy," he laughed. "We'll show him that his tank bot isn't so great!"
"You know," Atom voiced, "This is a bit like cheating. Don't the rules require you to have actually built and programmed your robot entry? I'd be ringer, an impostor."
"Not exactly," Elvis hedged. "You should see some of the entries, they make use of stuff that was purchased, not built, jury rigged to be remote controllable. I've seen battle bots that had actual chain saws, nail drivers, circular saws, even BB guns, mounted on a mobile chassis made from modified large scale RC cars."
"So I'm just an off the shelf robot chassis dressed up to look like a battle bot?" Atom asked.
"I see your point," Elvis said shrugging his shoulders. "But believe me, the contest judges will look the other way, even if they knew. All they care about are the shows ratings. The rules, such as they are, exist only to keep the competitors on a somewhat even basis, at least on paper."
"Fine." Atom replied as he slowly removed the battle bot suit. "But, you'll need to make a few mods here."
"What's wrong?" Elvis asked.
"Well the pants will need two holes cut in the rear to let my guns project through. I can't wear these gloves if I'm going to use my finger tip lasers, you'll have to at least cut the finger tips off of them. And you'll need to make the face plate a bit more transparent."
"Hard to see though?" Elvis asked.
"A bit," Atom replied, but the real problem is they are polarized like one way mirrors."
"You don't like mirrored glasses?" Elvis questioned.
"Well with them this won't work very well," Atom explained as he turned on his eye searchlights full bright.
"Wow!", Elvis laughed. "Guess you forgot to tell me about that one. You planning on blinding the enemy?"
"I've resorted to that before," Atom nodded, handing the battle bot suit to his host.
Elvis placed the robot skins on his work area and started making the modifications. He used a hand held drill to make the openings for Atom's fanny guns, and then carefully removed the visor shield from the helmet. He found a suitable piece of lightly tinted transparent plastic, cut it to size and shape, and inserted it into the helmet in place of the mirrored glass.
Atom examined the modifications and approved. "What's the plan?" he asked.
"I'm going send Dick a challenge by email," he replied. "He's the current entry challenger, anybody who wants to enter a battle bot in the show would have to first go up against his tank bot and survive for at least three minutes of combat."
"That won't be hard," Atom said, "bring it on!"
"OK," Elvis agreed, pressing the final key on his computer to send the email. "Well, it's getting late, and I need to catch a few hours of sleep before sunrise. You OK down here?"
"Sure," Atom replied. "I'll sack out in what's left of the Spindrift, I need to check the ship out and make an inventory of what will be required to fix it. See you tomorrow."
Elvis headed for the door and waved. He turned out the lights as he left, leaving Atom in the dark. The boy robot switched on his eye lamps and flew back to the Spindrift. He entered though the doorway that Elvis had broken into and checked the ship out.
"Doesn't look too bad," Atom thought to himself, as he looked around. He checked the storage area where his personal supplies were loaded. "My reserve energy tanks weren't damaged, thankfully." He opened his chest panel and inserted the refueling hose from one of the energy tanks to top himself off. "I have a feeling I'm going to need this, real soon!"
Sometime the next morning, Elvis ran down into the basement workshop looking even more excited than the previous evening when he'd first found the Spindrift up in his attic. "I've gotten the reply, Murphy has responded with a formal challenge," he told Atom, reading the email. "You're on!, I can't wait to finally steamroller your stomper. I called the TV studio, they have an opening this weekend. Bring your 'bot, I'll be there with mine." Suddenly Elvis' face turned white. "The weekend?", he panicked, thinking out loud. "We'll have a lot to do to get ready!"
"No problem!", Atom replied, "I'll help."
It was cramped and uncomfortable inside the locked case, but Atom dealt with it. He was swaddled, sung as a bug in a rug, in the cutout made in the foam lining of the carry case that also contained the robot suit skin, and the fake remote control that he and Elvis had rigged up. Even with the padding, Atom felt every bump in the road with the case strapped to the luggage rack over the rear wheel of the young man's motor scooter.
Elvis parked the scooter, and untied the bungee cords holding the case to the luggage rack. He grabbed the luggage by the handle and ran with it towards the main entrance of the TV studio. Inside the case, Atom was bounced around from the G forces, like he'd been riding a roller coaster at a Six Flags park. Suddenly the darkness disappeared as the lid of the luggage was opened, and he looked Elvis squarely in the face.
"You could have been a bit more careful lugging this case around," Atom complained, "You gave me a bit of a ride there!"
"I'm sorry," Elvis apologized, "I thought I had you well padded there."
"You did," Atom answered, "but if I wasn't a robot, this case would be filled with vomit right now!"
"That bad?" Elvis voiced.
"I guess you don't understand the physics of scale," Atom shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I'll try to be more careful next time."
"Fine." Atom answered. "Let's get ready."
Elvis removed the remote control box from the case, while Atom put on the robot skin. He first put on the lower half, pulling it up over his boots like a pair of trousers. He then donned the middle part, which when on like a vest, and finally the helmet.
Elvis powered on the remote transmitter. They'd modified that by adding a jack for a single ear-bud, which Elvis had stuck into his left ear. Atom was able to communicate with the young man via voice, the conversation was two way since Elvis' ear-bud also acted as a microphone via bone conduction. The two joysticks sent messages which Atom could read via a heads up display in the helmet. He'd be able to 'act out' being controlled by the remote, while actually handling the tricky stuff himself.
"Mr. Costello!" a voice called from down the hallway. "Glad you're on time! You're on in five minutes!"
Elvis gave a hand gesture reply towards the man who was waving for him. He picked Atom up and placed him back into the case, and closed the lid. Once again he grabbed the luggage by the handle, a bit less violently this time, and quickly shuffled down the hallway.
Dick Murphy was waiting for him inside, his tank bot was already on the arena floor. "So you didn't chicken out," he laughed. "Meet BoraBora-2" he laughed, pointing at the impressive looking machine on the combat floor.
"You, rebuilt it!" Elvis gasped.
"Sure did!" Murphy smiled. "BoraBora-2 has twice the power of Bora-1. I made it a bit larger so I could conceal all of the weapons inside. You won't know what hits you, till it's too late!"
Elvis swallowed hard.
"So let's see that your stomper, Atlas wasn't it?"
Elvis waked onto the combat floor and placed the carry case on the ground. He snapped the two latches open, and lifted the lid. "Actually, I've renamed him," he replied, reaching inside. He gently picked Atom up and placed him in a seated position on the floor. "Bora-Bora, meet Astro Boy!" Elvis announced.
"Contestants! Move your bots to the starting positions!", the announcement came over the PA system. The announcer then introduced the two robots to the crowd by name, "In the red square, it's BoraBora, a tank bot that will bore you to death. In the blue square, it's Astro Boy, our first stomper bot. Wish him luck, he'll need it!"
Dick Murphy placed BoraBora-2 behind the starting line on his side of the arena, while Elvis sat Atom down behind the other side, also behind the white line that ringed the arena.
"Contestants! Power up your bots and make any final adjustments before combat begins!"
Dick lifted the rear of BoraBora's chassis and activated its power switch. The tank bot just sat there for a few moments as its internal computer systems booted up and ran their initial diagnostics and initialization sequences. The robot emitted a low hum, and then a slightly louder mechanical squeal as its servos swung from end stop to end stop. The robot lifted itself up off the ground as its body raised itself up, and exposed its tank treads. It then exercised those treads, wiggling back and forth as the motors self aligned. The upper chassis then slowly raised up revealing the bot's cameras. Enclosed in a thick plastic bubble, the twn cameras gave BoraBora 3 dimension vision. Twin microphones hidden below the vision turret provided the bot with stereo hearing. BoraBora then seemed to stretch itself, as the front and rear halves of the main chassis telescoped outwards revealing trap doors underneath which the robot hid its arsenal of weapons.
Meanwhile, Elvis fumbled with the switches on the hand held remote control transmitter. Atom slowly got to his feet, carefully acting out the power up sequence that he and Costello had worked out. Making mechanically choreographed movements, he flexed his arms and legs, like an Olympic athlete doing his warm up exercises. Atom then took a defensive stance, staring out at his opponent, who was nearly twice his height and looked to be many times his weight and mass.
"Be careful Atom!", Elvis whispered into the remote link. "Dick's bot looks twice as deadly as the prototype I saw a month ago. The last one was equipped with a buzz saw and a flame thrower, God knows what else he's added into this latest incarnation!"
"Don't worry," Atom radioed back. "I can handle the flame thrower, providing he doesn't have something exotic in there, like LOX"
"Contestants! Combat starts in 5 seconds! Good luck!"
Elvis and Richard took their places behind the bullet proof glass of the arena, leaving their robots in the colored squares on opposite sides of the arena. The lights dimmed and the announcer's voice came over the arena loud speakers. "Red team ready?"
Dick Murphy pressed the red button in front of him and the area of the arena under BoraBora lite up in a red light.
"Blue team ready?" came the announcement of the speakers. Elvis pressed his push button, lighting the blue area of the arena where Atom was standing.
A large overhead lighted square blinked yellow twice and then turned green and a klaxon indicating the start of the battle. Atom stepped forward slowly, his gaze fixed on BoraBora. The tank bot inched forward slowly, as if daring Atom to make the first attack. Atom stood his ground.
"Let Bora make the first move," Elvis whispered. "We want him to reveal his secrets first!"
"Right!", Atom replied.
After nearly thirty seconds of a tense standoff, with both battle bots teasing each other by making false starts, BoraBora suddenly charged. The tank offered no offense other than accelerating to ramming speed. Atom wasn't taken off guard, he readied himself to leap out of the way at the last moment. Bora continued to charge, Atom faked a move to the right before suddenly dogging away from Bora's charge with a move to the left.
But Bora seemed to expect that, the left hand trap door on its fore chassis popped open and a chrome steel claw shot out and snapped shut around Atom's neck!
"Yipes! Its got me!" Atom cried out. His fingers grabbed at the claw and he tired to force open the jaws, but the ratchet drive of the device would not budge backwards. Slowly the vise like pincers increased their squeeze around his neck.
"No you don't!" Atom yelled, twisting his body around. The twin barrels of his fanny guns emerged from their hiding places. Atom swing his legs up over his head, bringing his weapons in line. He aimed and fired. The burst of depleted uranium shells blasted into the claw arm at its base, severing it from BoraBora's chassis. With the claws activators deprived of their electrical power and hydraulic pressure, the grip around Atom's neck released itself. Atom freed himself from the vise like grip and hurled the appendage back at the tank bot, jamming it into Bora's right and tank tread drive. His opponent suddenly spun around in circles, partially paralyzed.
"Good work Atom!" Elvis radioed.
The studio audience suddenly started cheering. "Go Go Go Astro Boy!" they shouted.
