Ranto Academy

Chapter 4: The Pythagorean Theorem

"Two snipers, Port to Stern!"

"English!"

"Behind you and to your left!"

Penny and Emz had been pushed back to their safe. The final wave of attacks was far tougher than the previous robots. They were barely able to deal with the boss robot by themselves. They had range on their side but stopping the boss from reaching the safe was nearly impossible. The only object they had to body block was Penny's mortar. The mortar's body was perfect for keeping it distracted while Emz sprayed it down for bonus damage thanks to her special made Bad Karma hairspray.

Every time Penny's mortar went down it blasted the boss with huge hits of bonus damage while Emz slowed it down with her super. When Penny couldn't charge her mortar up again they were forced to trade blows with the boss until she could drop another mortar. The two girls were taking a breather after finally defeating the giant robot (their clothes were torn and their bodies beaten) when Primo informed them of the final wave. Now they were busting their asses trying to fight off the oncoming onslaught.

"There's two more of those little, like, bugs coming from your left."

Penny lined up a shot into the front runner of the two bots watching as the second fell apart under the spreading damage. Emz finished the survivor with a quick puff of spray while Penny slid past her to drop a mortar beside the safe. "Damn bots are too fast for the mortar to hit. Emz how long before your super?"

"I need more time."

"Dammit, I don't know how much more we have." Penny turned to her right blasting another bot in the face until her bell was rung by a boxer bot.

"Penny!" Emz sprayed the offending bot down while she checked on Penny. "You okay?"

"I've... had worse." Penny clutched her head as the robots kept coming. Penny tried to grab her Plunderbuss but saw it laying on the ground a few feet away. Emz tried to blast away a few more bots but without Penny's instant damage to support her, the bots just walked through the corrosive chemicals.

Emz backed up as she tried to shield Penny. They didn't have a way out. She could try to run away but with the damage their safe had already taken, leaving it without some defense would be an instant failure. She looked down at Penny as she looked to her active mortar. The turret tried to hit the incoming enemies but all its attacks missed without the help of Emz's slow.

Emz started panicking, she wasn't the leader of their group. She never had to make these tough decisions. The only thing she wanted to lead was the fashion industry or the walk down the runway. The swarm around her grew as snipers started to get in range. At the front were several boxing bots followed by the mini pinchers. They were glowing red to indicate their increased strength.

The bots grew closer, their aggression directed at the two girls. Emz didn't know what to do. She was pushed to her limits. She just wanted them to, "BACK OFF!" Emz smashed the ground with her spray cans causing a small circular cloud of chemicals to pulse around her. The bots that were within range were blasted backward colliding into each other in a tiny pile. Emz stared in surprise at her strange attack. She inspected her spray cans to find an answer but was more confused as she continued to look.

Penny, however, jumped into action. She used their newly acquired distance to dive for her Plunderbuss blasting a group of bots and watching them explode into a puff of metallic smoke. She reached onto her back and dropped a new mortar on the ground. Her current mortar starting to vibrate as it was overloading. "Emz!"

Emz snapped out of her stupor. She pressed a button on her purse, seeping out around her was a dark purple cloud of smoke drifting low to the ground. Penny was apprehensive of jumping into the cloud with her but Emz nodded in her direction. "This is my perfected super. This is... Caustic Charisma." Emz stood in the middle of the giant purple cloud with her hands on her hips.