#40: Looking out for her
On route to Metropolis High...
Both Karen and Aaron are walking and talking about a situation that happened yesterday at the mall.
"Okay, okay. You're telling me one small push was all it took for her to fall through the floor?" "Yup!" They both laughed and Aaron said, "I wish I coulda saw that in person." "What were you doing yesterday by the way?" "Working on a special surprise." "What is it?" "Karen, you heard me say 'surprise', right?" "Oh, right." "Don't worry, when you see it in action, you'll love it."
"Hey Beecher! Heads up!"
A football came flying at Karen. Instinctively, Karen caught it. She was astonished at what she did and Aaron smiled at her. "Hey!" They both looked to see Doris coming at them, "Gimme back my ball!" "Here's a thought D, how about don't throw something if you don't want it with someone else?" Aaron said, irritation in his voice. "Stay out of this, Palmer. Give me my ball!" She reached out to Karen to grab her but Aaron grabbed her wrist and twisted it making her grunt. He pulled her head down and whispered in her ear, "Touch her and you'll feel what a thousand punches feel like in one hit." He pushed her away from him. She straightened herself, groaned, held her wrist, and stormed off. Leslie Willis, who was at the side and saw the whole thing, smirked and went after her.
"Thanks Aaron." "Don't mention it, Karen." They continued their way to school and Karen said, "Hay Aaron, I get that you can't stand bullies, but sometimes, don't you think that I can handle things on my own?" "Of course I do, I just have a strong protective side ever since Techno was born. I care a lot about others. Even you." He said booping her nose, making her blush. "So, after school, wanna trash Doris' football?" "Sure."
Back with Leslie and Doris, Leslie started, "What was that all about?" "Don't wanna talk about it." "C'mon Doris, were friends right? You can tell me." "I said I don't wanna talk about it!" She snapped, her eyes glowing orange. Leslie held up her hands and said, "Okay then. None of my business if you're too weak to fight Aaron." "I'm. Not. WEAK!" She roared then punched a trashcan out of rage, leaving a dent. "Well, when you're done crying over it, meet up with me after school." Leslie finished walking away.
After school on the rooftops...
Techno and Bumblebee were at the edge of a building with Doris' football in Bumblebee's hands. The ball had a yellow Ultra Disc on it. "Ready?" Asked Techno. "Ready." "Okay, throw!" She threw the ball in the air and a snap from Techno,
BOOM!
"That one's going in the book." Tech said, "Karen, we should do stuff together more often." "Um, about that." Bumblebee started, getting Techno's attention, "Could we maybe just hang out tomorrow, just the two of us? You don't have to if you don't want to." "Actually I'd love to. There's not a lot of things to do besides my training challenges and the countless crimes to stop. So yeah, I'd love to hang out with you tomorrow."
She blushed hard and was about to say something else when, they both heard a loud crash coming from two blocks over. "Uh oh." They both said, making a run for the sound.
Cutting to the scene of destruction, Techno and Bumblebee showed up to see both Giganta and Livewire going on a wrecking riot. Tech whistled to get their attention and Livewire said, "Well look who it is. Hope you're ready for a rematch you two."
This part's a lot shorter than the usual Aaron P.O.V.s, but it works for what's about to happen next.
#41: Quick and too easy fight
I cracked my knuckles then my neck. This is gonna be cake.
"Ready Bumbles?" "Ready as I'll ever be." Bumblebee shrank then flew at, around, then past Giganta and said, "Catch me if you can!" making her go after her leaving me with Livewire. "Watch out, I just might beat you again." I said, smile growing. "Will you stop with the smile already?!" She charged me and a blocked it and blasted her back with a bolt from my chest. We went hand to hand then.
In the background I saw Bumblebee fly around Giganta and grow to normal size and stomp on her head. That got her riled up. She shrank again, flew of her and gave her an uppercut making her stumble back.
Back to my fight, I kicked back Livewire and shocked the ground and her in the process. Weird. Something feels, strange. This fight feels almost too easy. Like they're not even trying. Something's up.
"Techno!" Bumblebee came flying at me with Giganta on her tail. Time to use the new power move we worked on. A power move's something I call when two or more people use what they know and have and do an attack together. I ran at her and said, "Bug Zapper!" Still flying, she grew to normal size and I grabbed her hands and spun on my heels at a fast pace. From afar, I bet we look like a tornado. "Get ready!" I said, sending some of my energy into her suit. With one last spin, I let go and sent her flying into Giganta. When Karen made contact with her, it both push Giganta back in to a wall and electrocuted her leaving a huge crack in the wall.
Karen got off her, flew to me, and said to Giganta, "Looks I win again." We high fived. "Is that right?" We turned to see Livewire going up to Giganta.
#42: Techno's Last Resort
"Come on Giganta, you really gonna let two weaklings beat someone as strong as you?" She went to her ear and whispered, "Or are you gonna let one more person be able to stand up to you?"
That got her to get up fast. She's not gonna let a third nobody take her spot as the strongest. She already had Aaron beating her in combat at school, and she had Bumblebee, who can literally be a twentieth of her size, beat her yesterday at the mall. If Techno was thrown into the mix, she'd go nuts.
Giganta's eye's glowed orange and she grew even more, making the others move back. She was now five times her size, as big the skyscrapers! Livewire, who appeared on Giganta's shoulders via electric signals, said sinisterly, "Go for it."
Giganta raised her foot up and slammed it down towards the heroes. "Bumblebee!" Techno blasted Bumblebee out of the way, leaving just him to be stomped on. "TECHNO!" she yelled, seeing her crush get crushed. Her suit's visor scanned the area to see if he was okay, but there weren't any vital signs. There was nothing. "No...no..." She fell to her knees, with tears forming.
Meanwhile, in some pitch black area, two glowing eyes opened up slowly. When they fully opened, they squinted and the entire scene filled up with the light.
Back with Bumblebee, Livewire said, "Looks like the Glitch King's no more. There's just one more problem in the way..." she gestured to Bumblebee. However unexpectedly before Giganta could do anything, everything in the area started to rumble and shake. All three of the girls were confused. If you think that's something, look at the bottom of Giganta's foot. There's bright neon green light shine from beneath it. Her foot then was lifted up by a figure that's completely glowing with the light. With one more big push she was lifted of the figure and on to her side about three miles away. That there is a strong push.
Giganta got up and saw the figure grow up to her height. Then the light went away, and it showed that it was Techno the entire time! Well he's a little different than usual. His suit and skin are the same, but in this form his hair's all spiky and neon green, there's sparks of energy and pixels appearing and disappearing on his body, and his visor's gone but instead there's a big glowing neon green imprint in the shape of it across his face and his eyes were also sparking and glowing too.
When Techno's Last Resort does this to him, it increases everything about his body. His height, strength, and power. All of it make him more than he was before.
"Techno...?" Bumblebee said from afar still on her knees and eyes still wet. Tech looked back at Bumblebee, winked at her, then turned back to Giganta who readied herself. "You think just because were the same height you can beat me?" "I don't think, I know." He said, making her charge at him.
He blocked and they both pushed against each other, messing up some of the road in the process. He pushed her hands away then punched her in the abdomen so hard she slammed into the building behind her. She moved from it and charged at him again but this time he moved to the side when she went past he spun around and kicked her in the back making her hall face first on the ground. He grabbed her by the legs spun around on his heels and when he was fast enough, he let go and she went flying into another building. She got up and was about to attack again, when Techno smirked and his eyes shined and shot long, huge, and strong volts of his energy at her making her stumble back. Her shredded clothes looked a little more shredded now. She charged at him again with fists ready. He blocked two hits with his own and punched her in the face then shoulder charged into her knocking her into the building again.
She slowly stood straight again and she was swaying a bit. This told him that she was weak enough for his finishing move. With a smirk, he walked up to her and gave her a barrage of punches all across her front. He grinned, readied his fist and gave her a strong uppercut that sent her flying straight up in the air. He blast jumped after her and when they were at the same altitude, he did a wind-up punch and punched her so hard towards the ground that left a huge crater in the street. Techno landed back on the ground on his feet, then cracked his neck, his grin never leaving.
Giganta started to shrink. She's still big, she's just at the size she was before. Techno looked at her and said, "Still think I'm no match for you? I'm pretty sure it's the other way around." She groaned then passed out. "Hey!" He turned to see Livewire on top of the building on his right. "No fair! You weren't supposed to come back all huge! I didn't even know you could do this!" "Instead of crying about it, why don't you get big too?" He held out his hand and sent a big bolt of his energy at her which zapped her and made her a little weak. "I hate you..." She fell and passed out too. Techno shook his head and said, "If people actually do knock me down, they shoulda known I'd get back up." His entire body got covered in pixels in in a flash of light, he was back to his normal self, visor, size, look, and all.
When he landed, he looked to his right and saw Bumblebee hesitantly walking up to him. "Is-Is it really you?" "Hey Bumbles. Liked my Last Resort?" "It is!" She ran up to him and almost tackled him and had her head in his chest. She was crying so much. "I thought you were gone!" "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. Let it all out." She looked up at him and said. "Please, don't scare me like that again." He smiled at her. "All I can do is try, K." She smiled too. "It really is you." They then hugged it out.
#43: A quick chat
Tomorrow at school...
"Eesh. You two look terrible." I said walking past Leslie and Doris. They had bruises all over themselves, and looked more sore instead of normal. Walking out of the building, I saw Karen waiting for me. "Do you mind if I walk home with you?" she asked nervously. "Not at all. Come on."
On the way to my house, Karen was quiet the entire time. "Okay, what's the matter?" "Oh, uh, nothing!" She tried to hide her worries with a smile. "Not much of a poker face you got there, K. You can tell me. C'mon, what's wrong?" She sighed. "It's just that, I was scared." "Scared? Of what?" "Aaron, as yourself and Techno you're amazing at, like, everything. You always keep things in check, you don't give up, you're perfect in every way. I'm just scare that...that..." "That what?" She clung onto my arm tight, "What if you were gone!? Yesterday, I thought I'd never see you again! I don't think I can-" "Hahaha! Karen you do realize who you're talking to right?" She looked up at me confused. "I'm the unstoppable lovable glitching hero that everyone can rely on. You know no one can keep me down even if they tried." I put my arm around her. "Look, sure everyone loves me and would hate it if I was down for the count, but if I do go out, it's on my own terms. And from how far we're going and how strong were both getting by the day, it doesn't look like that's happening anytime soon. My place is here and I don't intend on leaving." She tried to hide her blush.
We just arrived at my house, and we agreed on meeting up with each other in an hour. Before she left I said, "Remember Karen, there's nothing for you to be afraid of. I promise." She smiled. The second I turned around to go inside, I felt something warm touch my cheek. Turns out, it was Karen giving me a kiss. I admit, I may or may not have blushed. When she pulled away, her eyes widened in realization her face went red and she quickly said, "Uh, gottagobye!" As she ran off I can hear her repeating, "Why'd I do that?! Why'd I do that?! Why'd I do that?!"
I smiled an shook my head. She'll tell me on her own time. Give her some time.