*****I DON'T OWN MEDABOTS********************************************

Chapter 5

Time Is On Someone's Side

Levi and I were sitting in the park thinking. Several people were walking by and I was using this time to continue my self repair.

"We can't interfere with the normal flow of history." Levi said.

"Levi, we already interfered. We'll become the World Robattle Champions for crying out loud." I told him.

"But does that make it right." Levi said.

Then, I noticed Spike and Sloan were walking through the park to get to work. Just like they did twelve years later. Crosserdog and Totalizer were with them. I looked up at Levi.

"We do need the medaparts." I told him.

We walked into Spike and Sloan's path.

"Hey kid, get out of our way." Spike said.

Sloan however seemed to understand what Levi wanted to do.

"Okay, we battle." Sloan said to Levi.

"I'll take both of you on." Levi told them.

Crosserdog and Totalizer got in front of their medafighters and Mr. Referee popped out of the bushes and the battle began. I leapt over Totalizer and delivered three powerful shots to the back of Crosserdog's head. Totalizer swivelled around and fired at me which made me dodge running straight into Crosserdog. I heard the clink of Crosserdog's medal dropping to the ground focused my attention on Totalizer. My Prominence began to charge and Totalizer ran towards me. I leapt straight into the air and landed on the branch of a nearby tree.

"Boss, where'd he go?" Totalizer asked.

"I don't know." Sloan answered his medabot.

"Look above you." Levi said.

Totalizer had a look of horror as he turned to look as I fired the Prominence at point-blank range. I felt sorry for him. He had no chance. Levi collected the weapon arms of the two medabots and we walked off. Pretty soon though, we came to a playground where little kids, many of them I recognized, were playing with their older brother and sisters. The older siblings had their medabots with them and Levi and I found a quiet corner to talk.

"Man, this is going to get lonely." Levi said. "It's not like we can just talk to people."

Then, I noticed someone walk up to us. It was a girl who looked awfully familiar.

"The name's Kyla. Nice medabot. Wanna battle me and my boyfriend?" Kyla asked.

"Sure." Levi said.

Then, a flash of memory hit me. I was Quinton and my girlfriend just called me to have a battle. I walked there with Red Nova and saw an ArcDash...

"Levi," I said. "I have a strong feeling we're going to win this one."

"How do you know?" Levi asked.

"Trust me." I said as Quinton walked over.

"Hey," Quinton said. "I saw you over at Samantha's shop. We didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves. I'm Quinton and this is my medabot, Red Nova."

"Levi, this is Quantum Fire." Levi introduced us.

"Transport Medabot." Kyla said as before her medabot materialized.

NAME: Rimfire

SPECIALTY: Flight

Rimfire appeared to be a green FemJet style medabot. If I could have, I would have looked puzzled. Rimfire crossed her arms.

"An ArcDash. From what I hear, that's a rare medabot." She said. "Might be nice to get that Prominence meda-part."

Mr. Referee popped out of the bushes once again.

"Funny, I don't seem to remember you." He said to Levi.

"We're new in town." I quickly responded.

"Oh well. A robattle is a robattle. Medafighters ready! Medabots! Robattle!" He exclaimed.

Red Nova converted into CAR-Mode and began to spin around me and Rimfire took to the air. I recognized the strategy and remembered that it worked always except for one time. This was that one time. The strategy was to trap a medabot a small area allowing a flying medabot to shoot from the air. No car, it wouldn't work. I began to charge the Prominence as Rimfire fired down on me. As I was charging, I began to time Red Nova.

"Bah-Bye!" I exclaimed as I fired.

I was almost sorry for what I did to Red Nova. Like I said, almost. After the Prominence knocked out Red Nova, I began to leap up a tree and fire at Rimfire. Finally, one of my shots hit her left wing and she spun out of control. She hit the ground hard and her medal ejected. I jumped off the tree and landed on the ground. Kyla laughed.

"That use to work every time, Quinny." She said.

"How the hell did you figure out how to break that move?" Quinton asked Levi. "That always worked."

"Actually, you may want to talk to Quantum Fire. He acted before I did." Levi admitted.

"You got a smart medabot there. Are you going to be at the competition that they're holding today?" Quinton asked.

"Competition?" Levi asked. "Where is it being held?"

"About a block past Maple. It'll be easy to spot. I heard Dr. Aki is going to be there." Quinton said looking down at his medabot. "Since you just totaled Red Nova, here's my contest pass."

Quinton threw a card to Levi who caught it. With a smile, he picked up Red Nova and walked away. Levi looked down at me.

"So, what are we going to do?" Levi asked as we walked towards the stadium.

"I don't know. Everything we do here will change the future." I said. "Clearly, we didn't go for damage control."

"That's for sure." Levi said. "But won't anyone notice that the medaparts I keep in my pack are ahead of their time."

"Probably Dr. Aki." I said. "He would know."

"Let's do it." Levi said, a smile on his face.

We ran down the streets until we got to the competition. Since we already had a contest pass, we were let through. I saw a meda-part that I didn't recognize. We walked over to where it was being sold. It didn't look as though it was in a good state of repair.

"What's that part?" I asked.

"It's a piece of junk. Something the Medabot Corporation couldn't get to work right. Tell you what, kid. I'll sell it to you for a couple of bucks." The man said to Levi.

"Levi," I whispered. "I think I can repair it."

Levi gave the man the money and I grabbed the meda-part. While Levi got registered, I began to inspect the part. I was laughing when Levi returned.

"What's so funny?" He asked a soda in his left hand.

"I figured out why it wouldn't work. From what I can theorize, this meda- part drew power from the medabot to fire a spread of lasers. The energy requirement drains the medabot's batteries approximately 35 to 45 percent. Essentially, all you get is two shots. If I were to add a dilithium crystal, an isotope of lithium, and reconfigure the part to take power from the crystal rather than from the medabot, I might be able to get ten shots from it and still be at the maximum energy output." I explained.

"Great, do you have one?" Levi asked.

I pulled out the crystal and began the reconfiguration. By the time I was done, they were introducing the medabots that were going to be fighting. Levi and I were surprised at whom we were going to be fighting.

"Ikki and Metabee's first match will be against a last-minute entry. This duo is Levi and his medabot, Quantum Fire." Arika said.

I saw Arika was dressed in a blue business suit. Brass was holding the camera as Arika walked over to us.

"So, how does it feel to be going up against the legendary Ikki Tenryou?" Arika asked him.

I remembered that the record the World Robattle championship had on me and Levi said that Ikki would be beaten by me at least eight times. I knew this was the first.

"Pretty good." I said.

"Looks like you'd better take your position." Arika said.

I had a passing thought of asking Levi for Rimfire's Aero-parts and that new spreader but I decided against it. I wanted this to be against me and Metabee. No additional parts added. Metabee looked the same but of course he had to. Ikki, on the other hand, was wearing some kind of black trench coat. It didn't look good on him.

"Medafighters ready!"

"Let's do this, Ikki!" Metabee exclaimed ready for the fight.

"You can do it, Quantum Fire!" Levi exclaimed.

"Medabots! ROBATTLE!"

Metabee ran towards me at full speed and I ran at him as well. As we got close, I jumped into the air landed behind him. I fired my tri-cannon into his back. The yellow KBT type medabot fell to the ground and I was worried that I might have damaged his medal. Metabee got up and chuckled.

"Well, looks like you're going to be more of a challenge than I thought. How good for me." Metabee said. "MISSILE LAUNCH!"

Two heat seeker missiles roared out of the launching tubes on Metabee's head and I ran. I knew that I was just creating more heat so that the missiles could follow me but that wasn't what my plan was. I leapt into the air and fired my tri-cannon again in an incendiary mode to generate a fire around Metabee. Metabee laughed louder.

"YOU MISSED!" Metabee yelled up.

"METABEE!" Ikki yelled. "YOUR MISSILES!"

"Uh oh!" Metabee yelled leaping out of the way as the missiles impacted. Their explosions snuffed out the fire. "Nice trick. Don't think I'll be trying that one again. You ready for some more!"

"Try me." I told him.

**************************************************************************** **

The Present

(Salt)

My optics blinked as I was reactivated. Dr. Aki was over me with a serious look in his eyes.

"Salt, what did you mean by your question?" He asked.

I knew that I had betrayed the promise I gave Quantum Fire but I knew it was too late now. "How should I put this?" I asked. "You guys wouldn't believe me if I told you. I scarcely believe it myself."

"Well." Melissa said. "Tell us."

"Red Nova's medafighter is Quantum Fire." I blurted out.

"Red Nova's medafighter was my mom." Melissa said. "It's not Quantum Fire. Medabots can't be medafighters."

I shook my head. I knew this was going to take a little more explanation. "I don't mean his current medafighter. I mean his original medafighter." I told them.

"You mean..." Ikki said.

"Yes, Quantum Fire is human. Or at least slightly more than what normal medabots are. He's Melissa's dead uncle. Your mother isn't here, is she?" I said.

"She's at the hospital with Samantha and Sloan. The explosion injured her." Melissa told me. "I can't believe that he's my uncle."

After a moment, Anara said, "But clearly, he's not going to change his fate."

"Why do you say that?" Ikki asked. "I would try."

"It wouldn't work, Mr. Tenryou." Anara said politely. "If he does try and succeed. A paradox would occur. It would be like if Koji went back in time and stopped himself from going into the cryogenic tube. Then, how would possibly cause Ikki's son to not be born by having Koji marry Karin. It's all possible."

**************************************************************************** **

Back To The Past

(Quantum Fire)

"Try me." I told him.

Metabee began to fire his laser cannons at an accelerated rate. I began to charge the Prominence and fired my tri-cannon at his legs. It wasn't the easiest thing to do but I managed to take out his right leg.

"Time to go down." I said stopping and pointing the Prominence Horns at Metabee. "Prominence!"

The intense energy beam erupted from the horns and struck the KBT-Type medabot. I will probably remember those screams for as long as I exist. When the light from the energy beam faded, I couldn't believe what I saw. Metabee was still standing and making those same strange sounds he makes. His armor was blackened and I saw on some parts, his tin-pet was showing. Then, a yellow aura encompassed him. I knew what this was. It was the Medaforce. I raised my tri-cannon.

"Kiss your bot good-bye! MEDAFORCE!" Metabee yelled.

I fired my tri-cannon and dodged. However, I didn't dodge fast enough. I was hit hard by the Medaforce. Before I blacked out, I saw Metabee's medal eject and I laughed.

(Levi)

"FUNCTION CEASED! THE WINNER IS LEVI AND QUANTUM FIRE!" Mr. Referee yelled.

"WHAT?!" Ikki yelled. "His medabot's medal got ejected."

I saw Ikki look down to see Metabee's own medal was lying on the ground. He turned to me.

"That was a great robattle." He told me.

"Thanks." I said. "Too bad we eliminated one another."

"Hey, I'll give you a ride to Samantha's shop to get your medabot repaired. You earned it." Ikki said picking up Metabee.

I picked up Quantum Fire and we walked to Ikki's car. It wasn't like I was getting a ride from a stranger. I knew him just not yet. When we arrived at Samantha's shop, the woman was not pleased to see me again.

"Hey!" She exclaimed. "I just fixed your medabot. How the heck do you trash it that fast?"

She saw Ikki and I shrugged.

"The Medaforce. Fortunately, I beat him." I said.

"If you beat him, I'd hate to see Metabee." She said laughing.

We brought in Metabee next and she stopped laughing.