Chapter 2: Introduction
"Yo Kracker! Check it out!" called Carrick through the empty house. The young male was stretched out across nearly new looking blue couch that had two cushions, and massive armrests…and was in fact, older than Carrick himself. Carrick however was simply dressed in his baggy black jeans with his belt strapping the waist line of the jeans to his relatively athletic frame. His chest tanned from hours in the sun, and his back going on seven shades darker. His hair however had been dyed a dark blue. The small T.V. before Carrick flashed to the scene of a robattle competition going on somewhere across the country on the "Meda-channel." The clunking of something large coming from the kitchen is heard as a large medabot crawls out of the kitchen. It is a modified crab type robot, relatively slow, heavily armored, and heavily armed. However.....its usual claw arms had been replaced for home duties with regular worker type arms to protect the 2 room apartment from damage.
It was just another beautiful Saturday morning in Churnwood. The morning dawn light spearing through the overcast clouds in hues of pink and purple, and the light fog blanket receding from the downtown core streets back into the harbor, then to the Juan De Fuca straight. The time was 5:12 AM, and Carrick and Kracker were getting ready for another day of work. Carrick was finishing off a bowl of cereal as Kracker was finishing his nightly recharge. Kracker was a more unusual robot, the crab type robot not having gotten much production run anyways. Generally, the crab type robots were on par with tank type medabots, but were phased out due to the tank type's success. Heavily armored, heavily armed, but the Crabs had the ability of short bursts of speed, unlike the tanks. Kracker is also modified to some degree, mostly in his offensive and defensive parts. His claw arms had been changed and re-worked internally to allow multiple weapons inside the claws…the standard laser cannon in each was pretty anti-climatic considering the size of the robot…which is 5 feet tall. His left arm wielded two rocket launchers inside the claw, and his right arm wielded two laser cannons. Although, each claw itself was a weapon in its own right, capable of exerting over 12 tons of crushing force, or able to swing around like a wrecking ball. Bi-pedal, these bots were often pained red and white from the factory.
"Come on Carrick, we're gonna be late again if you don't move it." Kracker called to his medafighter. Shuffling along, Kracker snatches the remote from under Carrick's "nose" and turns off the T.V. Rolling over, Carrick groans, "And if I don't want to go to work today fish face?" Kracker just replies swiftly, "Then you give me another chance to prove that I am better than you."
That was all the incentive Carrick needed. Kracker already exploited every chance he got to show he was "better". Standing up, Carrick walks over to his dresser and pulls out a shirt, and slides it on. He'd already showered and gotten ready other wise. Fishing out socks, and letting the snake like objects engulf his feet, he puts on his shoes and laces them up. He slaps on his head and white medawatch and simply checks out hard his gelled blue hair is…stiff…perfect. He flicks through the watches programs until his finds the medapart call function and checks to make sure that the claw arms are ready. Pushing the watch face, two blue beams flash onto the robots arms, and transport them away, while replacing them with the claws. Opening the door, Carrick lets Kracker outside, locking and shutting the door, Carrick follows Kracker. They clamber down the stairs and out onto the street, next to the local Pizza place, "ZZA'S". Living above a pizza shop had its advantages at times. Carrick and Kracker then start walking down to the museum and city center area. Arriving early, they simply punched their cards and headed off to do their respective duties, finishing off the addition to the Churnwood Museum.
By about 10:30 am, the crews had finished the project, and received their contracted payments, several thousand dollars worth. The heat of the day had risen by now, and Carrick was glad to be off work for the next couple weeks, until their contractor could find more work for them to be enslaved into. Walking down to the inner harbor, the two stroll along the walk for a bit, scouting the scenes, checking the occasional robattles that are common along here. Soon, some young kid in dark blue shorts, no shirt, and a hat on stops in front of Carrick and Kracker. The kid seems new, rather fresh faced, different from any other kid Carrick knew. The kid had brown hair sticking down from beneath his red baseball hat, and had a light blue medawatch on. Beside him, was a custom fade painted (dark red, to orange) medabot, a newer KBT type. The kid did the usual routine, "Hey, I'm Chad. Your 'bot looks interesting, wanna robattle?", while extending his right hand. Smirking slightly, Carrick accepted by shaking the kids hand and replying, "Name's Carrick, and yeah, Kracker is an interesting robot. Submission battle?"
Chad agreed, and they backed up several steps. Lifting the medawatch to his mouth, Carrick calls to Kracker, "Battle ready Kracker." With the order, Kracker snaps his claws twice, flashing the weapons within their dark recesses.
Chad blinks, and regains his composure. A small crowd starts to form around the two, someone chuckles in the background, "Carrick's got another one." Chad calls to his medabot, "Slag, use repeater!" The red and orange Medabot slings its left arm up and starts firing at the body of the crab type. Shots ricochet off of the crab's armor, doing little damage. Carrick calls to Kracker, "Rapid laser!" Suddenly, the right claw of the goliath reaches out to face the smaller medabot, and snaps open wide, baring the two barrels within. Suddenly, the lower barrel opens fire, alternating with the top barrel, showering the area around the KBT with laser beams, pockets of the pavement kicking up into motes of dust as they hit the ground where the KBT was.
Kracker spins to face the KBT, only to get a solid punch in the side of the head. Unfortunately, the crab regains composure too quickly, and dives forth, its right claw open and quickly snatches Slag up in the claw. Slag begins to flail as Kracker begins to apply pressure, saying in a low, dark voice, "Time to crack you like a walnut!" The vise like grip is simply too much for the KBT to stand, and against Chad's wishes, the robot throws in the towel.
Kracker concedes, and lowers releases pressure on Slag, and lowers the smaller robot to the ground gently, where it instantly begins checking its armor for cracks. Soon Slag looks up to Kracker, "You could have cracked me in half in a second, why didn't you?"
Kracker replies in a calm tone, "It is not the way to compete in a robattle, to destroy the enemy. We never use excessive force, my missiles may seem excessive, but I wouldn't fire them upon you." Carrick comes up behind Kracker and puts his arm around the brute's shoulders, adding, "Yeah, I couldn't imagine having Kracker destroyed, if he was, I don't know what I'd do. It's my presumption that almost every other medafighter out there feels the same."
Chad by now had come over to Slag's side and nodded to his opponents from their match. "Hey, thanks for the robattle…Yeah, I'm kinda new here, moved in on Friday. Anyways, what part you two want?"
Carrick smiles and asks quickly, "New? Figured you were, where do you live?" Carrick pauses and then continues, "Yeah, could I see what you have in storage? We are searching for two more, heavy laser cannons to fit into Kracker's right arm."
Chad shakes his head slightly, "Well, I don't have an arm with a heavy laser cannon on it at all, but I did defeat a tank bot that had an automatic grenade launching arm. We tried using it in our robattle after that, but it offset Slag's balance too much. But I think Kracker could handle it, and it would be pretty intimidating to come up against."
Carrick nods, "Good, that'll work." He says this absent mindedly, already thinking of what could happen…Kracker suddenly snaps him out of his daze, holding up the arm in his claws. "Oh, uh yeah," Carrick blinked and teleports the arm to his storage place. As Chad and Slag started to walk away, Carrick shrugs and thinks about something quickly, and calls to Chad, "Hey Chad, you got any spare time?"
Chad turns around quickly, "Yeah…why?" His face showing his puzzlement.
"Because, since you're new to Churnwood, I thought you might like to know the best shop to get medaparts from." Carrick says as he catches up to Chad. Suddenly something odd appears in the crowd…an old rusted robot with lichen and moss coating its armor. Chad and Carrick turn to look at the thing…and give a synchronized, "The hell?"
"Yo Kracker! Check it out!" called Carrick through the empty house. The young male was stretched out across nearly new looking blue couch that had two cushions, and massive armrests…and was in fact, older than Carrick himself. Carrick however was simply dressed in his baggy black jeans with his belt strapping the waist line of the jeans to his relatively athletic frame. His chest tanned from hours in the sun, and his back going on seven shades darker. His hair however had been dyed a dark blue. The small T.V. before Carrick flashed to the scene of a robattle competition going on somewhere across the country on the "Meda-channel." The clunking of something large coming from the kitchen is heard as a large medabot crawls out of the kitchen. It is a modified crab type robot, relatively slow, heavily armored, and heavily armed. However.....its usual claw arms had been replaced for home duties with regular worker type arms to protect the 2 room apartment from damage.
It was just another beautiful Saturday morning in Churnwood. The morning dawn light spearing through the overcast clouds in hues of pink and purple, and the light fog blanket receding from the downtown core streets back into the harbor, then to the Juan De Fuca straight. The time was 5:12 AM, and Carrick and Kracker were getting ready for another day of work. Carrick was finishing off a bowl of cereal as Kracker was finishing his nightly recharge. Kracker was a more unusual robot, the crab type robot not having gotten much production run anyways. Generally, the crab type robots were on par with tank type medabots, but were phased out due to the tank type's success. Heavily armored, heavily armed, but the Crabs had the ability of short bursts of speed, unlike the tanks. Kracker is also modified to some degree, mostly in his offensive and defensive parts. His claw arms had been changed and re-worked internally to allow multiple weapons inside the claws…the standard laser cannon in each was pretty anti-climatic considering the size of the robot…which is 5 feet tall. His left arm wielded two rocket launchers inside the claw, and his right arm wielded two laser cannons. Although, each claw itself was a weapon in its own right, capable of exerting over 12 tons of crushing force, or able to swing around like a wrecking ball. Bi-pedal, these bots were often pained red and white from the factory.
"Come on Carrick, we're gonna be late again if you don't move it." Kracker called to his medafighter. Shuffling along, Kracker snatches the remote from under Carrick's "nose" and turns off the T.V. Rolling over, Carrick groans, "And if I don't want to go to work today fish face?" Kracker just replies swiftly, "Then you give me another chance to prove that I am better than you."
That was all the incentive Carrick needed. Kracker already exploited every chance he got to show he was "better". Standing up, Carrick walks over to his dresser and pulls out a shirt, and slides it on. He'd already showered and gotten ready other wise. Fishing out socks, and letting the snake like objects engulf his feet, he puts on his shoes and laces them up. He slaps on his head and white medawatch and simply checks out hard his gelled blue hair is…stiff…perfect. He flicks through the watches programs until his finds the medapart call function and checks to make sure that the claw arms are ready. Pushing the watch face, two blue beams flash onto the robots arms, and transport them away, while replacing them with the claws. Opening the door, Carrick lets Kracker outside, locking and shutting the door, Carrick follows Kracker. They clamber down the stairs and out onto the street, next to the local Pizza place, "ZZA'S". Living above a pizza shop had its advantages at times. Carrick and Kracker then start walking down to the museum and city center area. Arriving early, they simply punched their cards and headed off to do their respective duties, finishing off the addition to the Churnwood Museum.
By about 10:30 am, the crews had finished the project, and received their contracted payments, several thousand dollars worth. The heat of the day had risen by now, and Carrick was glad to be off work for the next couple weeks, until their contractor could find more work for them to be enslaved into. Walking down to the inner harbor, the two stroll along the walk for a bit, scouting the scenes, checking the occasional robattles that are common along here. Soon, some young kid in dark blue shorts, no shirt, and a hat on stops in front of Carrick and Kracker. The kid seems new, rather fresh faced, different from any other kid Carrick knew. The kid had brown hair sticking down from beneath his red baseball hat, and had a light blue medawatch on. Beside him, was a custom fade painted (dark red, to orange) medabot, a newer KBT type. The kid did the usual routine, "Hey, I'm Chad. Your 'bot looks interesting, wanna robattle?", while extending his right hand. Smirking slightly, Carrick accepted by shaking the kids hand and replying, "Name's Carrick, and yeah, Kracker is an interesting robot. Submission battle?"
Chad agreed, and they backed up several steps. Lifting the medawatch to his mouth, Carrick calls to Kracker, "Battle ready Kracker." With the order, Kracker snaps his claws twice, flashing the weapons within their dark recesses.
Chad blinks, and regains his composure. A small crowd starts to form around the two, someone chuckles in the background, "Carrick's got another one." Chad calls to his medabot, "Slag, use repeater!" The red and orange Medabot slings its left arm up and starts firing at the body of the crab type. Shots ricochet off of the crab's armor, doing little damage. Carrick calls to Kracker, "Rapid laser!" Suddenly, the right claw of the goliath reaches out to face the smaller medabot, and snaps open wide, baring the two barrels within. Suddenly, the lower barrel opens fire, alternating with the top barrel, showering the area around the KBT with laser beams, pockets of the pavement kicking up into motes of dust as they hit the ground where the KBT was.
Kracker spins to face the KBT, only to get a solid punch in the side of the head. Unfortunately, the crab regains composure too quickly, and dives forth, its right claw open and quickly snatches Slag up in the claw. Slag begins to flail as Kracker begins to apply pressure, saying in a low, dark voice, "Time to crack you like a walnut!" The vise like grip is simply too much for the KBT to stand, and against Chad's wishes, the robot throws in the towel.
Kracker concedes, and lowers releases pressure on Slag, and lowers the smaller robot to the ground gently, where it instantly begins checking its armor for cracks. Soon Slag looks up to Kracker, "You could have cracked me in half in a second, why didn't you?"
Kracker replies in a calm tone, "It is not the way to compete in a robattle, to destroy the enemy. We never use excessive force, my missiles may seem excessive, but I wouldn't fire them upon you." Carrick comes up behind Kracker and puts his arm around the brute's shoulders, adding, "Yeah, I couldn't imagine having Kracker destroyed, if he was, I don't know what I'd do. It's my presumption that almost every other medafighter out there feels the same."
Chad by now had come over to Slag's side and nodded to his opponents from their match. "Hey, thanks for the robattle…Yeah, I'm kinda new here, moved in on Friday. Anyways, what part you two want?"
Carrick smiles and asks quickly, "New? Figured you were, where do you live?" Carrick pauses and then continues, "Yeah, could I see what you have in storage? We are searching for two more, heavy laser cannons to fit into Kracker's right arm."
Chad shakes his head slightly, "Well, I don't have an arm with a heavy laser cannon on it at all, but I did defeat a tank bot that had an automatic grenade launching arm. We tried using it in our robattle after that, but it offset Slag's balance too much. But I think Kracker could handle it, and it would be pretty intimidating to come up against."
Carrick nods, "Good, that'll work." He says this absent mindedly, already thinking of what could happen…Kracker suddenly snaps him out of his daze, holding up the arm in his claws. "Oh, uh yeah," Carrick blinked and teleports the arm to his storage place. As Chad and Slag started to walk away, Carrick shrugs and thinks about something quickly, and calls to Chad, "Hey Chad, you got any spare time?"
Chad turns around quickly, "Yeah…why?" His face showing his puzzlement.
"Because, since you're new to Churnwood, I thought you might like to know the best shop to get medaparts from." Carrick says as he catches up to Chad. Suddenly something odd appears in the crowd…an old rusted robot with lichen and moss coating its armor. Chad and Carrick turn to look at the thing…and give a synchronized, "The hell?"