The Everlancer. Piloted by Carlos Esparza. Ten-foot-two, 510 pounds. Winner of the 45th Mecha Realm and one of the greatest mechs of all time.
The stat-sheet didn't have that last fact, but Marvin thought it was appropriate to tack on.
Today was the day. First fight of the season. His reentry into the mech-fighting scene as a brand new robot allegedly piloted by his mentor, Caroline Sand.
Caroline was already in the pilots' room, getting ready to plug into the Bessemer chair. Marvin was in the team room, a large space filled with monitors and tables and a door to the arena. He stood in his mech body, looming five feet over his two teammates beside him. His normal-sized cyborg body was not here; there were cameras everywhere, so they had transferred his head to the mech before coming. No one was allowed to pilot with a consciousness implant. Instead, they pretended like Caroline piloted said mech when in reality, she was just synced to a stray camera.
Renee was the first to approach Marvin. The mute girl gave a thumbs up and tilted her head to ask if he was all set. Marvin returned the thumbs up, and Renee beamed. A little forced, perhaps. She was probably nervous—she'd written the program to hide Marvin's identity, to trick the referees into thinking Caroline was piloting Marvin, and there was a small but terrifying chance the code would fail and Caroline would be disqualified for cheating.
"How are we feeling?" Ben said, walking over enthusiastically. Ben was the outsourcer of the team—he talked to other teams, obtained information, and set up duels. "You guys ready to win a-hundred-fifty points?"
Marvin made a face, forgetting Ben couldn't see it. Winning 150 points meant winning this duel and siphoning half of The Everlancer's points, and that was certainly not going to happen.
"By the way, is the forfeit switch working?" Ben asked. He walked behind Marvin and wiggled the mech's armor plates to make sure they were in place.
Renee made a throwing motion. No more forfeit switch, remember?
Ben frowned. "Oh, right." He rounded Marvin and whispered, "You sure this is a good idea?"
"Didn't you say I'm gonna win?" Marvin retorted. His dialogue appeared on Ben's tablet; they didn't want the refs to catch him speaking.
Ben glared. "You know I was joking about that." He sighed. "You will forfeit, right?"
"I will."
To forfeit, you took a knee and cut off one of your limbs. Only two actions. Marvin could do that quickly enough without a button itching the back of his brain. This fight was just about getting the hang of things, trying to learn from the best. There was nothing particularly large at stake.
Renee waved her tablet in the air, signaling that Caroline was situated in the piloting room and ready to call. Marvin activated his earpiece and Caroline's voice filtered through.
"Hey," she said. "You guys ready?"
"I'm ready," Marvin said; his voice box was still off, and only Caroline could hear him through her own earpiece. Ben and Renee affirmed as well.
Ben asked, "How far along is Immortal Ignition versus The Praetor?"
Mech duels were scheduled consecutively in one arena. Each arena had four team rooms and four piloting rooms so that the next mech up could be on standby. Since an average duel only lasted fifteen minutes, stadiums brought in five to ten mechs at a time to maximize and retain attendance. The "bundle model" as it was called.
"They just wrapped up," Caroline said.
So Ella was even worse than Marvin had thought. No one was expecting her to win against The Praetor, piloted by the brilliant Morgan Silo, but it had barely been a minute. This was pathetic.
"I think it broke the record, too," Caroline continued. "Fastest duel win ever."
Marvin didn't doubt it; The Praetor had some of the fastest victories on average. Honestly, it was a bit of karma for Ella. She'd gloated so much on the news, and for what?
"Anyways, Marvin, are you sure you're up for this?" Caroline asked. "If you practice with the auto-forfeit—"
"It's alright," Marvin said.
There was a pause. Then, "Thank you." Caroline leaned away and asked the referee, "When do we start?"
The ref replied inaudibly, then Caroline relayed to Marvin, "He says we're just waiting on Carlos."
Marvin understood what that meant. Carlos Esparza, pilot of The Everlancer, had a disease that left him paralyzed from the waist down. There were certainly accommodations for him to get situated in a Bessmer chair.
Marvin headed to the door that led to the arena, and Ben and Renee trailed behind expectantly. Thinking of Carlos' condition had triggered a memory: at the first social event, Carlos had asked if it was worth it to get brain implants to cure his disease. The implants might make him worse at piloting, but he'd no longer need to live in a wheelchair.
Would I get implants? Well, it was too late to contemplate that. He was a robot through and through. All that made him human was stored in his consciousness chip.
"We're good to go," Caroline said.
The door in front of Marvin slid open, revealing the blinding lights of the arena. As his sensors rapidly adjusted, the smooth circular floor and metal columns of the battlefield greeted him. The silver walls rose a dozen feet high, and above them were the faint figures of hundreds of audience members. They leaned forward in their seats, looking past the edge of the pit like they were watching animals at a zoo. Their cheering drowned out Marvin's footsteps as he walked out. On the opposite side of the arena, the opposing mech sauntered out of its dark doorway.
The Everlancer was painted dark blue and green. It wielded two massive gauntlets and carried a shield on its back that overshadowed its frame. Its design was angular, brutal, not a rounded corner to be seen. The helmet was practically a square, albeit highly detailed and indented in certain places, and a singular red eye glared at Marvin.
An announcer bellowed over the stadium speakers, "At the north gate, we have… The Everlancer!"
The volume in the stands crescendoed, and many watchers began stomping their feet.
"And at the south gate, we have…" The lights flared above Marvin, bathing him in blinding white. "Sabersong!"
The crowd faltered a little, and Marvin felt a tinge of satisfaction. Is this some Saberstar ripoff? they must've been thinking.
That was the desired effect. Saberstar was Marvin's old mech before he'd been murdered. That name was illegal to use since the mech was still on standby, not completely retired from the sport. However, Sabersong was a blatant spiritual successor. It had been Renee's idea. Marvin couldn't drastically alter his fighting style, so they were advertising Sabersong as a copycat, a mech that idolized Saberstar. In addition, it would bring Marvin Yao back into the limelight with minimal risk. Many people believed he'd been sabotaged, and seeing a mech called Sabersong might reignite their theories and progress the investigation.
"Prime your mechs!" an announcer bellowed. The wave of noise in the audience receded.
"All systems are a go," Ben said through a separate microphone.
"Pilots, enter your mechs!"
"Syncing now," Caroline said.
Marvin heard her piloting helmet sink into the Bessmer chair. She crushed the neurobrick, and her presence in Marvin's speakers was snuffed out.
Marvin waited anxiously for a few seconds. What if the refs noticed something odd about Caroline's sync? What if they discovered Renee's hack to hide Marvin's Network ID?
But nothing happened. Across the arena, The Everlancer's gauntlets lit up in a plethora of cool colors. Thick, blocky fingers folded and unfolded into fists.
Marvin drew his sabers, one on each arm. Was he scared? Maybe a little, deep down. But he'd come to accept his fate over the last two months, and mech-fighting gave him bliss unlike anything else. If every fight meant getting a little closer to solving his murder, he was willing to take the risk.
Try to have some fun, he told himself. Stay alive, take notes, and forfeit when you can't handle it anymore.
"On your mark!" the announcer said. "Get set! Fight!"
-----
Ella shoved through two people and found her seat beside Luyan right as Sabersong and The Everlancer exchanged blows. The crowd roared as The Everlancer gained ground and Sabersong retreated.
Sabersong, piloted by Caroline Sand. Just when she thought she didn't have to worry about Saberstar stealing her spotlight, this thing came along. The Everlancer had better finish this quickly.
Up here in the stands, the battle looked like a hologram. Spacewarpers around the edge of the arena made it seem like the mechs were much closer than they actually were. The rest of the audience folded unnaturally around the arena, reduced to luminescent orbs. Ella looked away and her perception became normal again. She looked right, then left. No empty seats to be seen. No one looking at her, either. Before her ego could take a blow, she told herself that people were focused on the duel, as they should be.
"That was one hell of a win," Luyan said to Ella's right.
Ella smiled. Compliments from the engineer were rare.
Luyan continued, "But I was hearing some complaints. Some people were disappointed it ended so soon."
"Seriously?" Ella grumbled. That's what she got for breaking a record?
"It's about the spectacle," Luyan said. "That's what they pay for."
Ella snorted. "Fine. I'll play with them next time."
"Hate to do this to you," Luyan said. "This was the best season start we've ever had."
Ella hid her widening grin by turning her attention back towards the arena. The Everlancer brought two fists down and Sabersong dodged to the right. One of its swords was caught by the blow and the mech slammed into the ground. The Everlancer picked it up by the arm and punched its stomach, sending Sabersong flying into the wall.
The crowd shouted their approval, and Ella made sure to be extra loud. No, she wasn't cheering because she disliked Caroline Sand. Caroline was fine. Ella just wanted this clone of Saberstar to lose.
As Sabersong rebounded and pushed The Everlancer away, the man to Ella's left got up from his seat. Although he was replaced by another, Ella took this as a sign to take a break from watching. She leaned over to Luyan and asked, "Do you think it's one of them?"
"We're talking about this here?" Luyan said.
Ella nodded. She'd won. Now she got time to think about other things—for instance, if either pilot in that arena could've tried to kill her.
-----
Marvin dug his heel in the ground, spun, and struck The Everlancer with all his might.
His sword was stopped by a giant gauntlet.
The Everlancer squeezed, deforming Marvin's right saber. Marvin leapt backwards, initiating a program that detached the bent blade from his arm. Then he unsheathed the backup. It made his right arm slightly thinner, but it was a carbon copy of the old sword. Caroline had added one to each arm, expecting something like this.
The Everlancer charged and slammed one fist down. Marvin boosted out of the way and left a sizable dent in his wake. The opponent chased, moving like a feral animal.
The Everlancer closed the distance and grasped for Marvin's neck. Marvin boosted upwards, flying out of reach, then let gravity propel his attack. He jammed one sword in the opponent's shoulder, then swung around and dragged the mech down. As The Everlancer fell, Marvin attempted to swing around again and stab it in the head.
The Everlancer moved its head away effortlessly and punched Marvin's sword, the one he had embedded in its shoulder. The metal snapped clean.
Marvin retreated and drew his backup for the left saber. Now he was down to the last one on both arms.
That was a good hit, Marvin thought, looking at The Everlancer's punctured shoulder. In fact, it surprised him how easy that had been. Was Carlos slowing down? Had he gotten the implants, or was it a symptom of his illness?
Just then, Marvin heard the boos. The audience hadn't just gone quiet when they saw The Everlancer falter; they were jeering at Marvin.
He frowned. Then the next thing he knew, a gauntlet had smashed into his face. His camera glitched and he felt several neck joints come apart.
Marvin strafed sideways, putting as much distance between him and the enemy as possible, and nearly took a knee. That was his brain in there; one more punch and he would've died.
But then he heard the cheers. They were deafening, even with the arena's soundwards dampening outside noise. A few feet from him, The Everlancer slammed a gauntlet into the ground, launching itself upwards.
Get one more hit in, Marvin told himself. You're being humiliated right now.
And so he jumped and met Carlos in the air.
He was immediately greeted by a punch to the stomach that teleported him back to the ground. The Everlancer hovered in the air for a second, then boosted towards him. Marvin rolled away in the nick of time, but the shockwave of the opponent's impact bounced him several more feet away.
The audience shouted for more.
One more hit, Marvin thought, getting up. Carlos attacked again and Marvin parried the first fist, then sidestepped the second. A knee to the chin raised him off the ground. The Everlancer jumped up in tandem, grabbed Marvin's ankle, and flew higher.
Marvin saw the second fist coming for his head. Carlos would grab him by both ends and throw him into the ground, and that would be the end. Marvin initiated his 360 waist axis and rapidly spun his torso like a tornado. He felt two whirls of his swords connect with metal, and soon The Everlancer dropped him.
There, now you can forfeit.
Except, loud jeers began to assault his microphones. Why was the audience so insistent on seeing him lose?
Marvin clenched his phantom teeth as The Everlancer landed on the arena floor. There were two gashes in its armor, but its functions seemed fine. However, to Marvin's surprise, it reached behind itself and extracted its giant shield.
Marvin couldn't help grinning. There it is.
As the crowd grew to a fever pitch, Marvin rolled his shoulders and hefted his sabers. Might as well fight for a bit longer.
-----
"There's no reason we should believe it's Carlos," Luyan said, leaning towards Ella's ear. His voice was an anchor in the din of the audience. "What do you think about Caroline?"
Ella had no evidence for her suspicions, just a gut feeling. "I don't know Caroline that well, but her apprentice doesn't like me."
"Her apprentice?"
"Steve. He's a cyborg."
"Ella, I doubt someone would try to kill you out of dislike," Luyan said.
Ella pursed her lips, the sound of Sabersong and The Everlancer's clashes filling in her pause. "Whoever tried to kill me wore a cap. Steve wears a cap, too."
The moment she said it, she knew it was stupid. The look Luyan gave her made her want to shrink into her seat, but he was kind enough to only say, "You know what I think their deal is?" He pointed to Saberong, who was currently backed against the wall, desperately deflecting The Everlancer's blows. "I think they knew who sabotaged Marvin Yao."
Ella furrowed her brow. She could see where the engineer was coming from; naming themselves so close to Saberstar was obviously to evoke some reaction from the public. But Marvin Yao regrettably had many fans last year. Ella was honestly surprised there weren't more imitators.
"I'm not saying they sabotaged Marvin," Luyan said. "That'd be too obvious. But they might know something."
Ella watched Sabersong push The Everlancer back and initiate a series of jabs. Surprisingly, several hit the opponent, though didn't do significant damage.
Is it just me, or has Carlos gotten slower? Or maybe he was purposely tanking the hits.
Ella turned back to Luyan. "They never caught whoever killed Marvin," she said. "If it is Sabersong, that makes it really likely they tried to kill me, too."
If she was expecting Luyan to completely shift his perspective, she should've known better. The man just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I don't mean to discredit you—I believe everything that happened," Luyan said, "but are you sure he was trying to kill you?"
Ella felt a stab of frustration. "He deactivated the desync button!"
"It could've been a coincidence." Luyan's face twisted with shame. "I'm just asking you to consider all the possibilities."
Ella shook her head in disbelief.
The truth was, Ella knew her suspicion of Steve stemmed from paranoia. She just didn't want to talk about her main suspect yet: Aria, Immortal Ignition's programmer. Aria and Luyan were good friends and Ella feared bringing it up to Luyan might have the opposite effect. Luyan might think Ella was crazy.
"Are they still holding social events?" Luyan asked.
Ella shrugged. Caroline, Bob, and Sienna used to host conventions for mech teams. Since Sienna was the second-best mech pilot in the city, hundreds of teams had flocked to these events. However, in recent weeks, Bob had gone missing, presumed dead, and Sienna had grown despondent. Caroline hadn't made an announcement since.
"If they are, we should go," Luyan said. "They're worth looking into one way or the other."
That was something Ella could agree with.
-----
Marvin wasn't sure how it happened. One minute, he'd been pressed against the wall, sure he would lose. The next, he was standing over The Everlancer's defeated husk. He had been wailing on that shield to no avail, and then it suddenly just wasn't there. Marvin had strafed to the right and came around Carlos' blind spot, and Carlos had just froze. Marvin's left sword had sunk into The Everlancer's neck, then the right one pierced its head.
Dead. Duel over. Sabersong wins.
The crowd was unusually quiet for a moment. Then, cheers and whoops erupted in short bursts. More people joined in, until the entire stadium was chanting Sabersong.
What did I just do? Marvin wondered numbly.
The arena door behind Marvin opened, allowing him back into the team room. He stalked through, each step light and soundless like he was in a dream.
The door slid shut behind him, and Ben and Renee ran to him. They clapped him on the shoulder and whooped, but the rest of their elation had to be contained. To the officiators watching through the cameras, Marvin was just a mech, and Caroline had already desynced. Best not to make them wonder why Ben and Renee were congratulating a soulless robot.
What happened? Marvin thought as Renee scanned him for malfunctions. He was quite banged up, but his Core, his consciousness, was fine. Almost everything else would need to be repaired, though.
"What did I say?" Ben said. "A-hundred-fifty points!"
Renee clapped enthusiastically.
Yes, Marvin was probably the highest ranked mech in his Sector now. But if he had won due to interference, those points would mean nothing. And it was very likely there had been interference.
A shiver went down his nonexistent spine as he thought about his human body's fate. Carlos, killed while piloting? It'd be the greatest crime in mech-fighting history.
Caroline will get to the bottom of this, Marvin thought. There would be a pilots' debrief soon, where Caroline would get to talk to Carlos one-on-one in their pilot rooms. She would find out what had really happened.
-----
Three things awaited Marvin, Caroline, Ben, and Renee as they stepped out of the hallway into the stands: lights, cameras, and dozens of reporters.
They began to ask their questions as Team Sabersong waded through them towards the exit. How did you win? Where did you come from? How does it feel? Why the name Sabersong?
Caroline paused and answered some of the questions awkwardly. Others she deflected to Ben, and he tried the best he could. He was better at talking, but the reporters seemed focused on Caroline, the one they believed to be Sabersong's pilot. Marvin walked behind his teammates, shielding them from the mass of curious fans that had formed behind them.
I'll tell you later, Caroline had said. She knew why Carlos had lost—it had nothing to do with sabotage—but she believed it wasn't the right time to share. As Marvin kept walking, as Caroline got a little more comfortable with the limelight, he began to appreciate the moment.
No, he had not won by his own merits, but he'd made a statement nonetheless. They were the team that, in their first ever duel, had beaten The Everlancer. He could've never fathomed this in his past season.
"We don't want to disclose our season plans," Caroline said, trying to gently push a microphone out of her face.
"Are you going after other top twenties?" the reporter pressed.
"I don't know," Caroline said, smiling nervously. "Maybe?"
Next up, Ninth Gen, Marvin thought. He observed the distant stands from his high vantage point. A particular group of reporters caught his interest. They were swarmed around another mech, tall and thin, painted black, orange, and red. The color code was all too familiar. It was Immortal Ignition, pristine, not a dent to be seen. Ella and Luyan, the engineer, stood beside it, smiling and soaking in the attention.
Marvin's phantom jaw dropped. Ella had won?! She had set the record for fastest win ever against The Praetor?!
Marvin wasn't sure whether to feel impressed or annoyed. That made for two undeserved victories today.
Caroline, Marvin, Ben, and Renee reached the lobby of the stadium, and soon they were outside on the plaza. The crowd density dropped significantly, giving way to a mosaic floor and a ring of ivory-colored shops. Above, the sky glistened brightly as the horizon borders filtered in sunlight. There were barely any reporters out here. Regular people milled about, only glancing at Marvin's team in passing. The attention was still there, but quieter. This was better.
But then Marvin spotted a figure heading towards them. There was no subtlety in his step—he was after Marvin's team and nothing else. Features took form. A surgical mask, a brown, worn-out coat, baggy pants, and a mess of black hair.
What the hell is he doing here?
Marvin braced himself for a reunion with Sangeet.