The Arena (Book 1)

Weapons

David's completely silent until we enter the house. He takes a seat in his computer chair and spins around to face me.

"What? What's wrong?!" I ask, nervous and confused.

"You're versing the one robot I didn't want to fight round 1." He puts his face in his hands, "She uses the same type of guns as you, just much better ones. So basically for every 1 shot you get at her, she'll already have about 50 shot at you."

"That's not good." I say blankly as I sit down, "So what do we do?" I ask.

"I don't know." He says. Then after a second of silence, he gets up and starts walking towards the training room, "Follow me. I might have an idea." We walk downstairs, he avoids the safe-gun table and heads straight for the do-not-touch table. Then, after scanning through the various weapons and gadgets, he chooses out a red and black metallic sword.

"Didn't you say one of those explodes?"

"Yeah, but the thing is, there's no limitation for weapons in the arena. Someone could use bombs and it would count...which is why I'm thinking," He touches a button on the sword he's holding and suddenly it lights up in his hand. He points to another button above the one he just pressed, "Make sure you don't press this one unless you mean it." He says seriously.

"Why? What does it do?" I ask, excitedly.

He steps back all the way against the wall while aiming the tip of the sword towards the holographic wall. Then he presses the button, sending a bolt of light flying towards the hologram. On contact, it bursts into an explosive fireball, no big enough to hurt us but big enough to kill whoever it would be aimed at, "That's why." He says, "I'm pretty sure there are three more shots in here so use them wisely."

"Ok, got it," I say, pleased in the crater it made in the wall.

That night when I'm plugged back into the wall to recharge, I hear him moving around downstairs in the training room. There are loud crashes and things breaking.

"David?" I call but he doesn't reply, "David!" I yell again, but still no reply. I reach behind my back and start to unplug the cords. Then I silently walk down the stairs. I see him through the door, he's building something, "David?" I say. I startle him because he jumps back from the table he's at.

"004, what are you doing?" He asks, taking off his welding mask.

"I should be asking you the same question." I say, eyeing the table, "May I see?"

"Sure, um, I'm building you another sword. This one shoots ice instead of fire. And remember, these are both fully active swords too, in case of close combat." He says, wiping sweat from his forehead. I look down at the blue and white sword. It reminds me of my hands a bit, how they have the same look of wires running through them.

"It looks good," I say, but my vision drifts off to the weapon table. I see a large gun with red lines running up and down it. When he's not looking, I walk over to the table and pick up the gun, then run upstairs. I have a feeling this one will come in handy tomorrow. I see a small dial on the side of the gun titled options.

As I scroll through the options, I see one in particular, it says, disintegrate.