Todd's POV

I stared at the blank screen of my television. A second ago, I was talking to Rebel through my Radish bots. They had tracked her down to an abandoned warehouse, where she was no doubt planning something.

But the feed unexpectedly cut off.

"What happened?" I asked nobody in particular.

A Radish bot hovered up to me. "The Radish Robots were shut down from an outside system. We are currently working on tracking it."

"Ah, thank you," I said. I relaxed in my throne. My bots were excellent at tracking IP addresses.

"Supreme Radish, it is time for your daily checkup on the Games," a Radish bot said as it entered the room.

"Ah, yes." I stood from my throne, walked out of the throne room, and climbed up the stairs in the lobby.

The stairs brought me to the Games room, where a real-time small-scale model of the arena was hovering in the air. There were also several dozen television screens around the room, showing footage of the arena at all times. I studied them for awhile.

"How's everything been going?" I asked. "Any more deaths?"

"Audrey was killed by Yuri, and Geneva was killed by Alvin," the bot answered.

"Hm. I like those two, Yuri and Alvin. Keep an eye on them, make sure they're not out too soon," I said.

"Yes, Supreme Radish," the bot replied.

I walked back down to my throne room. As I entered, another bot came up to me.

"Supreme Radish, we have successfully found the source of the power cutoff."

"Alright, where'd it come from?" I asked eagerly.

"It seems to have come from the same warehouse Rebel was in," the bot answered. "There must have been someone else hidden in there with a computer."

"What?!" I shouted. "Send another squadron of bots there right now! I want to know who else is in that warehouse!"

***

Naomi's POV

The five of us crept across the street towards the giant, radish-shaped mansion. There was a long driveway winding across a huge grassy lawn, which was separated from the street by a tall electric fence. Two bots stood guard on either side of the driveway.

"Are you sure this plan will work?" I whispered as we hid behind the corner of a building.

"Of course," Rebel replied. "As long as you're all good at fighting—which I know you are, since you won the Games—we can beat the bots and kill Todd."

I was still skeptical, but the others seemed to agree, so I went along with it.

"Alright, Naomi," Rebel said as she peered around the corner. "Do your thing." She moved so I could take her position.

I notched an arrow in my bow and peeked out from behind the building. The bots didn't notice me. I released the arrow, and instantly killed one of the bots. The other bot looked at it's dead companion, but before it could react, it also received an arrow to the metal skull. They were easy kills, since they weren't moving.

"Go go go!" Rebel whisper-shouted. The five of us sprinted across the street and up the driveway.

I was surprised by the lack of bots charging towards us across the lawn. In fact, everything was silent as we rushed up to the mansion. Had Todd really not seen us yet? He had security cameras everywhere.

We arrived at the door. "Stand back," Leo said. He pulled something out of his tool belt and stuck it to the golden doorknob.

We did as he instructed, and there was a small pop from the device he had placed. Leo opened the door. "Lock-picking nuke," he grinned.

"Do you just call every gadget you invent a nuke?" Choco asked as the five of them ran inside the mansion.

I gasped as we entered the huge room. It was basically empty besides the two open staircases on either side that led to an upper level, but everything was made of gold.

Except for the twenty or so Radish bots, which were surrounding us with guns pointed at our heads.

"Halt! You are under arrest!" one of the bots commanded. "Take another step, and we shoot!"

"Twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen..." I heard Choco whispering behind me.

"Are you counting them?" Glitch asked.

"Eighteen. We can take em," Choco said.

"I agree. Attack!" Rebel yelled.

She and Choco charged, causing the bots to shoot at all of us. I ducked and swiftly notched another arrow, firing it at the first bot I saw. I noticed Glitch dodging the laser bullets and charging at them with his knife out. Leo was rummaging through his tool belt nearby. Choco and Rebel were already punching and slicing their way through the robots, respectively.

I notched another arrow and shot it into a robot's head. It died, but another bot behind it aimed a gun at me. Luckily, Glitch was nearby, and sliced through it with his knife.

A laser bolt whizzed by my head, and I turned around, ready to shoot down the bot. But Leo beat me to it by throwing something small at it. The bot's electrical circuits shorted out, and it fell to the ground.

"Let me guess," Choco grunted from nearby as she literally ripped apart a robot with her bare hands. "Electro-pulse nuke?"

Leo grinned at her. "Exactly!"

"Less talking, more destroying bots!" Rebel yelled as she sliced the head off another bot with her diamond sword.

I shot an arrow at another robot, but missed as it flew out of the way to attack Glitch, who was busy with a different bot. Choco roundhouse kicked the head off the bot that Glitch didn't see, and Glitch killed his bot with his knife soon after.

Leo threw a gadget on the ground. All the bots in the room were suddenly flung towards it as it made a loud reverberating sound. Leo pressed a button as all the bots converged around the gadget, and it exploded, destroying all the bots. 

"Magnetic nuke," Leo said proudly.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" Rebel asked.

***

Glitch's POV

I was out of breath. I didn't usually do this much physical activity. Yeah, I'm good with a knife—I proved that when I won my season with no weapons besides a small dagger—but I haven't used one in awhile.

But the fight was over. We killed all the bots, now we just had to find Todd.

"Ah! My five favorite people," a voice called from above.

I looked up at the second floor, and I'm sure the other four did as well. Todd was standing there in casual clothing, smiling at us. I gripped my knife tighter.

"Were you on a date with four different people, Rebel?" Todd asked.

I looked at Rebel, who rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Tood."

Tood sighed. "Are you here to kill me, friends?"

"Yes," Choco answered simply.

"Don't call us your friends," Leo hissed. "You forced us to kill kids our own age, and celebrated us for it."

Todd shrugged. "I don't see the problem. You five don't have to live under the strict laws of the city like the rest of the citizens. You have statues built in your name. You have great lives compared to others."

"You're a monster," Naomi said.

"We killed all your bots," I spoke up. "Now we're gonna kill you."

Todd chuckled. "All my bots? That was like, half a percent of them. The rest are out in the city, keeping order. Some of them are at the warehouse the five of you were just at. Speaking of which, shutting down my bots from an ancient computer? Amazing work, Glitch."

I didn't respond. How did he know I did that?

"Enough!" Rebel shouted. She threw her sword directly at Todd. It flew so fast I barely saw it soar through the air.

But Todd saw it. He merely stepped out of the way. The sword stuck itself in the wall behind him.

The Radish chuckled again. "Ya know..." He walked over to the sword and pulled it out of the wall. He tossed it from hand to hand casually. "I do still have one bot here. I'd like you all to meet her."

Her? I scoffed internally. What, is it his se—

Suddenly, the wall to our left flipped around, revealing a huge, robotic insect looking thing. Its body and face was a white, six sided die with light blue dots in all the places regular dice had them. It had six spindly metal legs coming off of the die, and was the size of a semi-truck. It retracted its legs into itself and rolled towards them. It stood back up and let out a metallic roar.

"I call her Roll!" Todd shouted with glee.

The Roll bot retracted its legs again and rolled towards us at an extraordinarily high speed. I dove out of the way, along with the others. When it stood back up again, Choco charged at it with a battle cry.

Roll simply lifted one of its metallic legs and flicked her across the room. She hit the wall next to me and sank to the ground, unmoving. I quickly checked her pulse.

"She's unconscious!" I shouted.

"Without my sword, I can't hurt it!" Rebel yelled. "Leo, you got anything?!"

Leo was rummaging through his tool belt. "Uh, I'm running low on nukes! Let me try—"

He was cut off as the Roll bot roared again and rolled towards him. He dove out of the way, and the robot crashed into the wall near him. Pieces of the wall came crashing down on top of Leo. I saw Naomi firing arrows at Roll, but they did nothing.

Rebel charged at the Roll bot, despite what she said about having no sword. Roll stood up and scuttled towards her. She leapt into the air and jumped off one of its metal legs, clearly trying to land on its head. But a flexible metallic arm came out of one of the dots on its face, and it reached up and grabbed Rebel. She struggled, but it crushed the air out of her. She went limp, but I could tell she was still alive. Roll placed her body next to Todd.

He grinned. "Excellent work, Roll! Now, get me the others."

"We need to get out of here!" I yelled.

"What about Rebel?" Naomi, who had run over to me, asked.

"There's no way we can get to her! We'll come back!" I shouted. "Help me get Choco!"

I leaned down and grabbed one of Choco's arms. Naomi slung her bow over her shoulder and grabbed Choco's other arm.

Roll retracted its legs again and began to roll towards us. We were still a ways from the door, and it was clear Roll would crush us before we could reach it.

But then, Leo emerged from the rubble of the wall and threw a gadget at the rolling bot.

The gadget created a shockwave that sent the rolling bot flying away from us and sent us flying in the other direction, towards the door. The four of us hit the wall near the door.

"Come on!" Leo shouted. He scooped Choco up and ran out of the mansion. Naomi and I got to our feet and ran out after him.

I heard Roll roaring its metallic roar as we ran down the driveway and away from Todd's mansion. It didn't chase us, so we got away with our lives.

But I couldn't help but worry about what would happen to Rebel.

~~~~~~~~~~

what do you mean it's been almost two months since the last update

Anyway, is the story getting interesting? I hope so.

School starts in a few days, so rip my hopes of updating more often lmao

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote, comment, and follow!

~Radishologist