"I reckon, we round up a bunch of drones. You smash them to bits, which will get you the level up. Then we use whatever drones are left to distract the cat while we shove his metal ass off the platform," said Milo.

It sounded like a terrible plan. "Let's do it!" I loved terrible plans.

We darted from platform to platform, tripping all the lasers we could find. The buzz of the drones filled the air. In no time, we had a small army of drones swarming around us. I managed to destroy a couple of the drones as we went, until finally...

"That's it!" Cheered the girl as 'Athletics +1' appeared in my vision followed by big, bold text that read 'LEVEL 2'.

"Argh!" Leo cried out in pain, his voice tore through the air.

I looked over to the platform that Leo and the saber-tooth were on as the text disappeared. The saber-tooth had Leo pinned under one of its massive paws. Pressing down on his chest.

Milo and I exchanged a look of panic. We took off running towards Leo, the drones following close behind. But as I went to jump from the platform, I glanced down to the floor far below.

Big mistake!

My stomach lurched and my head spun. The next platform seemed miles away. I pushed off hard from the platform, but my feet barely left the ground. I windmilled my arms, trying to pull myself through the air, but it wasn't enough. My fingers grazed the edge of the platform as I plummeted to the ground, letting out a startled yelp.

Luckily, something snagged my tail, jerking me to a halt in the air. I dangled midair, my arms and legs still cycled uselessly. I glanced up towards the platform to see Milo leaning over the platform's edge, gripping my tail with both his hands.

"Got ya!" Milo grunted, his servos whined under the strain.

Above Milo, came one of the drones, diving straight for my head.

"Don't let go," I said to Milo as he held onto my tail.

I swung my body to the side, narrowly avoiding the drone as it whizzed past. It banked sharply, coming back for another pass.

"Grab my hand!" I yelled up to Milo.

I pulled my lower half up, reaching my arms out towards Milo. He let go of my tail with one hand, which gave me a small heart attack as I dropped a little and grabbed my arm. Then with one big yank, he pulled me back up, onto the platform. Just as the drones swarmed in from all directions, filling the air with their angry buzzing.

I twisted and weaved, trying to dodge their attacks.

"You just leveled up your dexterity skill," said the girl as 'Dexterity +1' appeared in my vision.

The XP bar began to fill up from the start again, but it didn't seem to move as far as it should have for the 250xp that I had received for the skill. I guessed that I would need to earn more XP for each level.

"We have to get back to Leo," Milo shouted over the noise of the drones.

I grabbed Milo and yanked him out of the way as another drone swooped down, flying toward where his head had just been. We made a run for it toward Leo, zigzagging between the drones as we leaped from platform to platform. A couple of them managed to get lucky, nicking us with their blades as they flew past which made my health drop down to 140hp.

We landed on the platform with a heavy thud. The saber-tooth turned its massive head towards us, its glowing red eyes fixed on us as we ran towards it. As soon as we got close enough, Milo split off to its left and I ran to the right, letting the drones that were right behind us collide straight into the saber-tooth's head. Their spinning blades sent sparks flying as they collided with the beast's metal.

The beast roared in pain as it lifted its paw off of Leo's chest so that it could swipe away the incoming drones, swatting them like flies.

I rushed over to Leo who was back on his feet by the time I had got to him.

"You good?" I asked.

With a quick nod, he got straight back to the mission at hand, bolting to the beast's head.

"Get ready to push!" Leo yelled as he ran past the drones, dodging them as he went.

"I need to level up, now!" I said to the girl.

Without a word, three holographic foil packs materialized before me. Each one was labeled with a single word: 'Body', 'Mind,' and Sheila. The packs reminded me of the collectible card game booster packs I used to beg for as a kid, instead of featuring colorful pocket monsters or wizards on a coast, these packs had an adorable little robot-kitty striking a unique pose on each of the glossy covers.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As Leo reached the beast's head, he managed to snatch one of the drones from the air. He whipped it around, through the air, swinging it at the beast's head. The drone collided with the saber-tooths head; the blades acted like a makeshift buzz saw. The saber-tooth staggered, its glowing eyes flickered.

I didn't have time to think about which option to pick. The saber-tooth looked like it was getting tired of our games and was ready to finish us off, its eyes glowed with a fierce intensity that made my metal skin crawl.

"Body," I blurted out as I reached to grab the pack, hoping that it was the right call.

As I touched the pack it did a fancy little opening animation, and three cards popped out of the pack.

"Just pick your favorite card and you're good to go," Sheila said.

I glanced at the cards. Each one featured a title and a graphic of the cute robo-kitty in different scenarios, which seemed related to the choices.

'Muscle Enhancer'

'Secure Stash Module'

'Overdrive Speed'

There were descriptions under each of the cards, but I didn't have time to read it and I figured the image and title were enough to go by. I looked over to Milo who was busy playing whack-a-drone, while Leo was going toe-to-toe with the saber-tooth. I had to make a decision now.

"Muscle enhancer," I said to the girl, guessing by the picture that it had something to do with my strength, which would be a huge help if we were going to try and push this thing off the platform.

"Newt, you with us?" Yelled Leo.

"Yeah," I replied as I headed back into the fight.

The muscle enhancer card did a little spin before it disappeared in a flash of light. I felt a huge surge of power course through my robotic body.

I charged towards the beast, swatting drones to the side of me along the way. I lunged forward, slamming my shoulder into the saber-tooth's side with all my might. The impact sent a shockwave through the platform, and the beast staggered, its claws dug into the metal platform as it began to slide along the ground.

"Push," I yelled to Leo.

Leo landed beside me and began to push with me, huffing and puffing as he did. The saber-tooth swung its head around to look at us before whipping its body around as it let out another ear-shattering roar.

The saber-tooths sudden movement sent Leo and I flying backwards. We hit the ground, metal scraped against metal as we slid backward. I groaned as my health dropped to 100hp. All the damage I was taking was starting to slow me down. But I had to keep going, we were nearly at the button.

Milo appeared out of nowhere, bringing with him another swarm of drones, again, right for the beast's head.

"Now's your chance," Milo yelled through gritted teeth as he approached. "Push the damn thing off!"

I scrambled to my feet, my newly enhanced strength ready to rumble.

As Milo got close enough I noticed metal claws shoot out from his fingers and toes. With each step that he took, his claws dug into the platform, giving him more control as he ran.

I looked down at my own hands, trying to see if I could make my claws come out of them as well. Nothing.

"That's your brother's upgrade dummy," said the girl.

"I know," I lied, realizing I never actually asked what he had chose for his upgrade.

As Milo reached the saber-tooth he clamored up its body, using his claws to hook into the beast as the swarm of drones that were following him collided with the beast, some of the drones even exploded on impact.

"Newt, push now!" Leo shouted.

I charged at the beast, again ramming my shoulder into its side with every bit of power that I had left, trying to push it off the platform. Leo joined me as we pushed together, slowly, I began to feel the beast slide along the platform.

Milo reached the top of its back, just below its neck. His clawed feet sunk deep into the beast's metal. The saber-tooth thrashed its head about like a mechanical bull trying to throw my brother off, but Milo held on tight, like a robotic Velcro strip. Then, in one swift move, Milo dug his hands into the machine's neck, puncturing straight through the metal as he tried to veer the beast towards the platform's edge.

"Push," he yelled down at us.

I pushed with every ounce of strength I could muster. My hydraulics whined as Leo grunted beside me like a constipated bear.

The saber-tooth let out a roar that sounded a lot more fearful than its usual roar of rage as it scrambled to stay on the platform. Its metal claws now left deep gouges in the metal.

Drones hovered around all of us as the occasional one would swoop down at the beast, sacrificing itself for the wrong team.

With my newly increased strength, I gave the beast one final push as the saber-tooth teetered on the edge of the platform for a split second, its eyes wide with what almost looked like fear. Then, just like that, it toppled over the edge, Milo leaped off its back landing next to us as the beast lost its balance.

The beast's roar echoed through the gigantic room until it was cut short by a distant crash.

I collapsed onto my back, sprawled out on the platform like a starfish on a beach. Leo and Milo took care of the few remaining drones as they buzzed around the room.

"Holy shit," I panted as my chest heaved. "That was crazy!"

"Yay! 333.3333333…." chirped the girl's voice in my head.

"I get it, you can stop!" I said, worried that she would continue saying three forever.

"…33XP for defeating the mega kitty!" she said as chipper as ever.

"We need to keep moving," Leo said, looking down at me as I lay on the platform.

"Aye, aye, captain," I quipped. With a groan, I accepted Leo's outstretched hand and hauled myself up.

As we leaped from platform to platform, my mind reeled, trying to deal with how insane this whole situation was. It all felt like a fever dream. A painful fever dream, the lower my health got the slower and weaker I felt.

"How do I get my health back up?" I asked the girl as we headed for the button.

"The only way right now is for you to sleep," she replied.

Shit. There was a real chance that I was going to die if we didn't get out of this soon. I imagined the other two's health was pretty low as well. We'd been in sticky situations before but this, this was bad.

With one final leap, the red button loomed before us, pulsing with an eerie light. Leo stepped forward, hesitating for a moment as his fingers hovered over the glowing surface.

He pressed down on the button.

"YAY! You have completed the push the button challenge!" screamed the girl as 900xp appeared in my vision followed by the 'Mission Complete: Push the Button Challenge' with the stats under it.

The stats that stood out were:

Furthest Jump: 16 feet

Total kills: 8

Upgraded skills: Dexterity +1, Athletics +1

Level 2 Upgrade: Muscle Enhancer

Total Mission XP: 2958.3333333333333333333xp