Exception

By: Aviantei

56. Sacrifice, Share, Scout

Johnny gave it his best shot, and no one could deny that. Even so, his best shot was shaping up not to be enough to overcome the challenge in front of him. Wiseleybot had way more equipment, and its responsive AI was quickly picking apart Johnny's attack patterns and turning them against him. Everything before had been a simple pattern (which had been enough to defeat Wiseley's round one match up), luring Johnny into a false sense of security.

But he'd known that the matchup wasn't looking good from the start, so he had no complaints. No, instead he was focusing on the larger goal of getting as much information as possible for his other Club Members and wearing down Wiseleybot wherever he could.

But the longer the match dragged on, the clearer it was becoming that Johnnybot was running out of steam. The repeated strain of coming up against an enemy with way higher defensive specs was wearing his lighter robot down. Johnny's reaction time on the controller hadn't faded, but the execution for his bot was flagging, meaning he was making more and more mistakes. The countdown to his incoming loss was getting lower and lower, and there was no miracle that would allow him to escape.

I think I've done all I can do now, Johnny thought, gripping his controller harder. He felt in the zone, but no amount of flow state could make up for failing technology. He'd been compensating for his steadily growing mechanical failures, but dragging it out as long as possible would do nothing but prolong the inevitable, Wiseleybot's AI able to keep Johnny from advancing without revealing any new tricks up its sleeve.

"I guess this is it," Johnny said, his expression set in full dramatic resolve. "All I can do is go out in a blaze of glory."

"Johnny…" Reever said, holding back a swallow. "You don't mean…"

"If I don't do it now, all my hard word and engineering this will go to waste. And if I get the choice of getting dragged into the ground by my opponent and going out on my own terms, then I'll pick the latter every time." His finger hovered over a button on his controller he had yet to press and hadn't intended to press until the finals—but that plan had changed. Reever could understand fully, because he would've made the same choice. Who wouldn't want to show off all the results of their hard work, even if it meant rushing headlong into a loss? With one more encouraging nod from Reever, Johnny finalized his resolve and faced forward. "Alright, this is my final move!

"Ultimate Gill Rush!"

It was just the press of a button on the controller, but it changed everything in that moment. Johnnybot overclocked itself, operating at its highest possible output. Doing so would be enough to run Johnnybot into the ground even if it was at full capacity, but in its damaged state, Johnny didn't have much longer than a couple of minutes left on that stage. The audience was riled up at the reveal of a super move so relatively early in the competition, no matter which side they were supporting, bursting into roaring cheers.

The hype was so much that even Wiseley raised his head for a moment to see what was going on. He dropped right back into his folded arms for his nap, but that he'd even bothered to rouse himself was impressive enough.

That being said, Johnnybot's whirring and lighting up in apparent power was making the gymnasium an even more difficult place to get any peace and quiet in. Johnny wasn't about to waste any of his limited time now, sending Johnnybot rushing forward with a burst of speed that hadn't been seen before in the match. The tactic was a last-bit gambit, yes, and Johnnybot was still a smaller, but a head on collision with it would still cause a decent amount of damage.

And that was exactly what Johnny was planning to do, aiming to at least make some headway against Wiseleybot for other Black Order team members to exploit later on.

But just like Johnny wasn't willing to go down without a fight, Wiseleybot also wasn't just about to take a frontal assault. It responded by retreating—but the difference in speed was too much to handle. Johnnybot gained ground, and soon it was bearing down on Wiseleybot in a spectacular collision that let out a resounding bang!

There was no dramatic cloud of dust, no way of obscuring the view for dramatic effect to know what the result would be. No, it was clear as day: Johnnybot in crushed shambles, though there was an impressive Johnnybot shaped dent in Wiseleybot's side.

"Match—Wiseley of Millennium Private High School!" the referee declared once it was clear that Johnnybot wasn't going to make any sort of miraculous recovery at the end. MPHS supporters all cheered in excitement at the next tally in their victory count—but Johnny didn't hang his head in shame. No, he stood proud as he walked onto the field to collect the remains of his creation, and soon—with Lavi in the lead—there was a chant of "John-ny, John-ny, John-ny!"

Was it a loss for Black Order High School? Yes, but they all could recognize that Johnny had put up an excellent fight, and that was worthy of recognition. There was even a standing ovation as the bespectacled boy walked out, a single fist raised in acknowledgement.

Just like that, the second round of the Robot Fight Club was in full swing.

From there, the competition continued as expected. With Johnny's determination serving as a morale booster, the following matches included several Black Order High victories, from both our main school and their East branch companions. It didn't end up being anything close to a total sweep, though, with MPHS's own Science Club members securing plenty of victories as well, making it a pretty neck and neck competition. As the matches progressed, more and more robots took damage, making face-offs that would've been no problem whatsoever at the start become much more harrowing bouts. That was the sort of excitement the crowd had been waiting for the entire time, and the gymnasium was even more packed to the brim than before, since several late-comers had arrived for the chance to see that exact level of carnage. Wiseleybot, in particular had drawn plenty of attention, becoming an MPHS crowd pleaser and a sort of heel fighter to those on Black Order's side. The result was several creative sorts of insults being thrown back and forth across the event hall, but nothing had amounted to any physicalfights.

Yet.

There was always yet to worry about.

And yet what Allen was much more worried about was keeping his sanity in check as he continued his concessions work. At the beginning of the day, there had at least been some lull periods, and everyone had had the opportunity to trade out for breaks. But now, with the size of the crowd having increased and the afternoon pseudo-lunch rush upon them, things had grown even more chaotic to the point that they were lucky they had time to breathe, let alone have a moment of peace. And with the addition of Lenalee and Ari organizing for a local pizza shop to provide some extra lunchtime stock, things were even more nonstop than they'd been before.

"Here's your pizza. Thanks again and have a nice day!" Allen said, passing the food over to the customer before him and using the couple of seconds the customer spent on making sure they didn't drop their rations to keep himself sane. It was a good thing that Allen had far more patience than most mere mortals could even begin to muster, otherwise he might've broken down crying in the corner a long time ago. He was back in action within seconds, though, which was plenty admirable, ready to greet the next customer until there was a hand on his shoulder.

"Alright, Allen, tag out," Lenalee said with a smile. Allen glanced at the line (that didn't seem to have an end, because of course it didn't, why would it), just a little bit concerned that he was hallucinating the conversation. Lenalee just flashed a thumbs up. "You've been at it all day, and you need a breather. We'll be counting on you for the home stretch, so go ahead and grab something to eat."

Allen might've been able to form a convincing polite refusal if it weren't for his famous appetite kicking in and making his stomach growl loud enough to be heard over the sounds of customers ordering and other volunteers shouting out requests to each other. "Okay, but what about all the management stuff?" Allen asked anyways, not wanting to be the reason why Lenalee and Ari's carefully crafted strategy ended up failing. "Asking you to do my job seems like a bit of a waste…"

"Don't be silly, Allen. Any good manager is willing to step in to give everyone a break. We wouldn't be able to do this without all of you, so it's natural." Whenever she said it like that, it wasn't surprising that Lenalee was pretty popular; he genuine kindness paired with her social skills put her in a precise position to earn the admiration of many. Even so, she was still willing to be a little bit pushy to get her point across, and she tugged Allen out of his seat and gently shoved him in the direction of the mini rest area they'd conducted. "We even ordered you a whole pizza with your name on it. If you're back before twenty minutes, I'll get mad, so take your time."

And without even giving him any time to argue back, Lenalee had plopped into Allen's seat and was mid-customer interaction, so the deal was sealed. Feeling touched and a little unnecessarily teared-up, Allen thanked her and headed off to achieve his warm, cheesy goodness while he still could, taking care not to disturb a still calculating Ari in the process. Allen was pretty sure he didn't remember the concessions area they'd set up that morning being this complicated, but it was probably just his imagination after being at work for so long.

It was not his imagination, since Ari and Lenalee had stepped up their game ever since Jasdevi had arrived, but the logistics didn't quite matter. The most important thing happening then and there was that business was booming, and Lenalee could handle customer service with no problem. After all, she'd been raised with plenty of manners (a miracle of miracles, considering Komui's…well, Komui-ness), and her social rating was off the charts. After staring down the planning for so long, she had all the item prices memorized, and she was able to handle customer requests smoothly and without issue. It was this level of skill that had put her in charge of breaks, versus someone like Ari who tended to get a little too hyper to provide what most would consider good customer service.

"Oh, didn't expect to see you on the front lines, Lenalady," Lavi said in genuine surprise as he stepped up for his order. "You're not working yourself too hard are you?"

"It'll be fine. We don't have school tomorrow, so I'll catch up hard on my beauty sleep." Lee Lenalee's day had been long, and it wasn't over yet. Yes, she'd be taking a long bath and sinking into her cozy bed once she got home, but those were rewards to be reaped once they were done on their battlefield. "Two pieces of pizza and a cola?" she asked, already knowing Lavi would say yes but being thorough for thoroughness's sake.

Lavi held a hand up to his heart. "Aw, you know me so well. I'm touched." As far as Lenalee was concerned, knowing that much about one of her oldest friends was to be expected, but there wasn't much point in boasting about something like that. Still, while she'd predicted Lavi's order, she hadn't expected what he was about to say next. "Though, um, if you could double that order…"

To the untrained eye, anyone might have suspected that Lavi was just doing Teenage Boy Things and eating way more than any other rational person would. Hell, Lena had just sent Allen off to consume a whole box of pizza by himself, so that could've been a passable explanation. But, no, with way Lavi tried to hide his blush under his scarf (and failed because the tips of his ears had turned red as well), Lenalee's keen senses knew that there was more to his request than that.

"Ohmigod, are you on a date?!" Though the explanation point helped exude enthusiasm in her voice, Lenalee had at least kept her volume down out of respect for Lavi's embarrassment, which was just getting worse by the second. "Oh, snap, you totally are. Is it that guy you were talking about with me before? Agh, I wanna know the deets so bad, but we don't have time." Case in point, one of the other fundraiser helpers had already brought over Lavi's food and drinks, and there was a line to tend to after him, which was mega unfair. "Okay, fine, I'll let it go but you gotta promise to tell me all about it, 'kay? We could call tonight—no, wait, I don't wanna interrupt you if things end up going well. Tomorrow! You can call tomorrow, right? Or come hang out at my place! You will, won't you?"

Lavi, whose head was already spinning at the implications of Lenalee worrying about interrupting him if things went well, stuffed his payment in her face to save himself the potential death by embarrassment. It wouldn't have been so bad if he just had Lenalee to contend with, but heading back to Tyki so flustered would lead to a combo attack so deadly Lavi was pretty sure he'd expire on the spot, and that would be a sucky end to an otherwise chill date. "Yes, I'll come over, please just stop talking now," he said, it only occurring to him in the aftermath that Ari was also part of the fundraising team, and her hearing about this would just end in a catastrophe of unrepentant teasing sibling proportions. Oh, god, I don't wanna think about it. Okay, Lavi, deep breaths. You can do this.

Lenalee giggled, tendering Lavi's change and passing it back to him. While she wasn't above teasing her friends, she didn't want to overwhelm Lavi too much in public. Oh no, that could wait until later, whenever it was prime gossiping territory. She'd have to remember to pull out the crème puffs from the freezer if she was having company tomorrow. "Don't worry, I'll keep this under wraps. Now you don't wanna keep your date waiting. Have fun, and I'll text you later!"

While her customer service smile had been pretty bright, Lenalee was positively radiant at the idea of cheering on her friend's love life. A few other customers and passerby were caught up in the glow and blushed in response. Lavi, whose affections were wholly focused in a different direction for the time being, thanked her and rushed off, not wanting Tyki's pizza to end up cold. Lenalee took a moment to stretch her arms.

Okay, now that I have something extra fun to look forward to, I'm super full of energy. Let's kick some fundraising butt!

And so with motivation renewed, a busy sort of peace settled over them, even as the fires of competition raged on.

With so many people attending Robot Fight Club, one might think that Sir Komlin III would have a difficult time navigating the event hall. They were, by all intents and purposes, a glorified Roomba, and those tended to have arch nemeses under the monikers of "changes in elevation" and "other, bigger objects getting in their way."

But then you had to remember that Sir Komlin III was a creation of Komui, and it really was best for anything remotely close to common sense to go flying out the window.

Of course, Sir Komlin III preferred travelling by floor. It was just the easiest. Stairs, as we'd already seen, were part of his default movement set, so it wasn't like they were vertically challenged in such a regard. In the Lee household, those two choices tended to be enough, considering that Lenalee and Komui were considerate of Komlin III's presence, and any company the family did have over didn't tend to be such a crowd as this. But because Komui was Komui, which often meant the messes in his labs stuck to the walls in addition to the floor, he'd given Komlin the function to travel on walls.

Hanging upside down on ceilings was a little bit beyond them, but Komui was working on it.

Point being was that Sir Komlin III had thoroughly scoped out the Robot Fight Club venue and was now watching the matchups from a position on the main gymnasium's wall, giving them a slightly higher vantage point than Road's. Though Komlin III understood what the event consisted of (they were built upon the data framework for Sirs Komlin I and II, who had both participated before), it was still a little rough for them to watch their fellow bots meet their tragic ends. Even so, Komlin III could admire them, fulfilling their purpose with gusto, even if such battles were something that Sir Komlin III couldn't participate in themself.

At least, not directly.

Because right now, their job was to just watch.

Watch for their fourth incarnation's sake.

In time, these battles would end, and it would be time for Sir Komlin IV to make their debut, and Komlin III could rest easy knowing that recording and sharing data over their internal connection network to each other would contribute to the Komlin line's biggest victory yet.

[Author's Notes]

It seems like fanfiction updates are working again. Go check out previous chapters if you missed them during the email blackout.

I get the next week off for American Thanksgiving, so I'm ready to chill and go play Persona 5 Tactica. If you also celebrate this holiday, I'm wishing you a happy one.

Next Time: "57. Place Your Bets." Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[11.18.2023]