Prodigy Returns (book 3)

Chapter Forty-Two

Alex sat with her crying sister in her arms. Overhead, a swarm of bots circled around, blasting the dome periodically. With every bolt of energy from the blasters, Alex thought the dome would disintegrate and leave them exposed. She wanted to cry too, but needed to remain strong for Olivia's sake.

"Don't worry, Olivia, it's going to be okay."

"What... about... Monk?" Olivia asked through sniffling pants.

"Monk is just resting. He'll be okay."

Alex and her sister were hanging on by a thread and as long as the force field held up, they could survive until morning where they would be at less of a disadvantage. Just then, Monk groaned.

"Monk?" Alex said, releasing her sister. She went over to him, placed her head gently on his fur, and listened for a heartbeat. It was too noisy to hear, but she felt his chest expand as Monk inhaled his first deep breath since he collapsed. "Hang in there, Monk," she said, petting his head.

Alex looked up at the drones that hovered above. They didn't seem that intelligent, but there were far too many to take on her own, especially since she could not see them. She grabbed her blaster, stood up in the dome, and fired a few shots into the sky. Much to her surprise, two drones exploded and fell to the ground. Revelling at the lucky shot, Alex continued to fire her weapon, thinking she was the one who had downed the flying machines.

Obscured from her vision was an ally that had come to their aid. As more drones began to fall from the sky, Alex clued in that she was not fighting this battle alone. When the last drone was struck down, all went silent as it plummeted from the sky in a flaming heap of wreckage. The ground shook as the heap of metal crashed into the ground. The crackling flames were all that remained in an otherwise void atmosphere.

"It's okay, Olivia. We're safe now," Alex said, lowering her weapon and putting her arm around her sister.

They stood together in anticipation of Maxim or Kyodin coming to rescue them. Then, without warning, Alex and Olivia saw their friend in arms descend from the sky and slam into the ground in front of them. Their assumption had been wrong. The towering metallic frame of the RT stood before the two girls, causing more confusion than anything. As far as Alex knew, the bot was not sentient — it required an operator. But who?

Standing face to face with the ten-foot tall robot brought back a lot of memories for Alex. She had her fair share of battles with them and was not used to one being on her side. From the chest cavity, a little compartment opened up and Alex could not believe her eyes.

"Zeus!" Olivia shouted

Even after seeing it, Alex still couldn't believe it. She wondered how such a tiny creature could have the intelligence to operate a complex drone using only its mind. Clearly Alex had underestimated the little guy.

"I knew you would come save me!" Olivia said, walking through the force field and hugging the giant war machine.

Olivia cupped her hands together and the small jerboa jumped out and onto her hands.

"Olivia, did you ask Zeus to come here?"

"Yup!" she said. Her tears had yet to dry, but already she was overjoyed. Her mood had completely changed in a matter of seconds.

"How did you communicate with him?"

"I don't know... I just thought about him, and then he showed up."

Alex had more questions, but backed off for the time being. She went back to check on Monk to see if she could help him in some way. His breathing had stabilized, but he was still unresponsive. She did what she could with the first-aid kit she had available. Her main focus was on spraying the wounds with a rapid-healing solution that would sterilize the cut and stop the bleeding.

Olivia nuzzled her nose in Zeus's fur and then placed him back in the compartment before sealing it shut. The RT operated by using a tiny device called a brain/machine interface, or BMI. It affixed externally to a pilot's head and could interpret the pilot's brain signals and convey those signals into complex movement from the bot. The pilot would also receive signals from the bot's cameras and various sensors so that the pilot could be many miles away and still see and hear everything around them. The BMI was small enough so that even a tiny creature like Zeus could affix the device to his head and control the movement of the RT. The tiny jerboa had now become a part of the RT, using it like mech suit.

Even though Alex knew how the device worked, she was still astounded at Zeus's apparent intelligence. There was clearly a lot more to the tiny animal than she had considered. With Zeus controlling the RT, he signaled for the group to follow him.

Olivia sat beside Monk, and Alex lifted them both off the ground like she had done with the pitdador. Her body was exhausted from a long day, but she was still buzzing from the adrenaline dump.

Following the large machine, Alex exited the stone forest and emerged in a large field. It wasn't obvious at first, but the further she walked she noticed large hunks of metal located sporadically across the plane embedded in the dirt, succumbing to the elements. When she walked passed some of them, she noticed they were rusted and broken bots — some as large as dinosaurs. She also encountered another type of craft that appeared to be much different than the others. Alex pieced together a story that she was now walking on an ancient battlefield where hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago an epic war took place.

Alex went as far as she could before she crashed. She was dragging her feet and barely able to continue. She stopped to rest just for a bit and check on Monk and Olivia — both seemed fine and were fast asleep.