[Luke – 13 years] → starts early in Chapter 48.

"Hey, Parker!" I say when he answers the phone. "So Xander apparently isn't doing classes again today, so-"

"I'm going back to sleep."

"I'm going clothes shopping again," I tell him. "So I thought I'd invite you and-"

"I'm. Going. Back. To. Sleep."

He's never been like this before. Ever. He just grumbles about getting woken up and then comes over and gets coffee from whichever of my parents is still here. I tried asking him after Tyler left yesterday why he didn't like hanging out with my other friend, but he refused to answer. It seems he's still annoyed by me wanting to hang out with Tyler.

"So no clothes shopping?"

"Just pick some damn outfits and stick with them!" Parker snaps. "Jeez! You're going every week to get new clothes! How hard is it to just pick some that you like and-"

"I don't care for nor want any attitude and drama," I say. "I just want friends, so when you're done being a little shit, let me know and we can go back to hanging out like always! In the meantime, I'm gonna be at the store, picking out new outfits! Enjoy your sleep! Bye!"

I hang up and decide on the pink button-up with short sleeves to go with my khakis. Once I've pulled it on and buttoned it up, I slip on my shoes and head downstairs, where Dad's fixing a breakfast of crepes and fruit. It doesn't seem like Gabe is up yet, but he tends to sleep in so I'm not surprised.

"Parker's in a mood," I say. "So he's not coming over to hang out. I'm gonna go to the store and get some new clothes; I'm not feeling like these outfits anymore or any of my old pairings."

"I'm sure you have a little of everything," Dad says. "Wouldn't it be easier to try on combinations from your closet?"

"Oh, definitely," I say. "But this lets me potentially find new clothes to get, and it's more fun to try them on at a store and see the combinations there with someone… oh. Crap. Without Parker there, I won't have him giving me feedback. Well! You never know what you might encounter at the store! Did I ever tell you about the time I came across a lightning monkey in the oral care aisle?"

It was examining dental floss for some reason.

"I was there with you, remember?"

"Oh, right!" I sit at the table. "That was a weird one, even by my standards!"

Dad chuckles and serves me breakfast before serving himself some and after we eat, I stretch a little.

"Since Parker's not coming with me," I say. "I think I'll just go to the office and work on finishing the generator. It's not really fun going clothes shopping without him. I'd Xander and see if he wanted to go, but he's probably got stuff since he's not doing classes."

Xander would probably turn me down, but it wouldn't hurt to ask!

"Give me five minutes," Dad says as he clears the table. "And I can drive you. I need to head in to the office, too."

"Okay!"

I head out to the car to wait for Dad, then he drives us to the office. I hurry inside and up to my workshop, where I adjust some of the alloys for the generator. That lasts basically the entire morning but now that it's done, I can get to work on cleaning up the enchantments. A few more tests will be needed, a few more rounds of alloy adjustment and enchantment cleaning, and then the generator should be good to go!

Seems Mom's coming over, so I hold off on touching the enchantments and wait until she pokes her head into my workshop.

"Lucas," she says. "I'm getting ready-"

"Mooooooooooooom!" I protest. "It's Luuuuuuuuuuke!"

"Sorry, sweetie," she says. "Luke, I'm getting ready to order something for lunch. Want me to order you something?"

"Only if you're paying!"

"Of course I'm paying, Luke," she rolls her eyes. "What do you want?"

"Chicken-fried rice, sesame chicken, and a salad, please!" I answer. "Berry tea to drink, and chocolate cake for dessert! Can I get a double serving of food?"

"Sure," she smiles. "It should arrive in around an hour; I'm not ordering just yet. Want me to bring it here for you?"

"I think I'm gonna take a break from the generator," I tell her. "And check on one the company is producing rather than just this one."

It never hurts to let my mind take a break and focus on something else for a little bit. Sometimes, it even lets me come up with new ideas or make new realizations.

"Alright," she says. "I'll bring it to you once it's here."

"Thanks!"

I put my tools away, then head to one of the development rooms and examine the generator inside. It's an industrial generator we're building for another company. They're building a research station out in the wilderness and need several different power supplies, and this one's going to be a supplemental and backup system for them.

"Are you sure that should be moved?" One of the engineers asks as we work together.

"Yeah," I point. "Look here. This setup would normally be fine, but it's too close to the conversion zone. Any errant electricity from that would abrade the runes unless we fortify the enchanting material. Even then, we'd probably need to redo the enchantments in three or four years. If we move it over to here, we'll need to add in some extensions and connections, but it'll be safer and more stable than just fortifying it. This change is slightly more expensive, but it's overall better."

The engineer looks at the spell matrices and the conversion zone, then nods.

"You're right," he says. "Thanks for catching that. We would've gotten it during the tests but it's better to fix that sort of thing now than later. Do you think that's the best spot to move it to? What about here?"

I look at the spot he's indicating and do some quick mental calculations.

"There shouldn't be any problems there," I say. "Might need to strengthen the enchanting fluid by about eight percent for there, though, since you'll have to move it over one of the panels for controls. Make sure shielding's added if needed."

"Will do," he says. "Thanks for taking a look."

"No problem," I say. "I'm going to make one of the parts needed for the conversion chamber."

I take a seat at one of the worktables and begin using the magitech tools to craft the pieces needed. One of the key pieces for a generator this large is extremely delicate and there are only four people in the entire company with the know-how and skill to actually make one. If not me, then one of my parents would likely be the craftsman for it.

The "piece" is actually a ring-like disk three inches in diameter with the center hold two inches in diameter. It's made of a specific magical alloy that's treated with alchemy and affected by certain enchantments several times before being given its final alchemical coating.

Despite the generator being the size of a long dumpster, this small piece is absolutely essential to it. Two small divots on either side of it provide a spot for it to be clamped into and held in place by. When the generator is turned on, the enchantment matrices will begin their work and this disk will stabilize the mana while it's being converted.

No one really knows how it works, just that it does. Our company's ability to produce this piece is one of the reasons that we're a leader in magitech energy for large businesses and as a power company in general. Its owners being able to sense electricity and having a gift with it in both magical and nonmagical forms also helps.

"Is it bring your kid to work day?" I hear someone whisper as I examine the piece after finishing it. "Who's the kid? And is it safe for him to play with stuff?"

How in the heck is there yet another person able to work on a project this big who doesn't know who I am? I'm a pretty famous thirteen-year-old, and that's on top of being in literally one of the workshops for the company my family owns. Doing work that's literally one of the reasons I'm famous – I've been in articles about my magitech genius!

My parents should make reading those articles mandatory for anyone who works on big projects.

"Got the stabilizer finished," I hand it to Keith, the engineer I was speaking with before. "If it doesn't work right, just let me know and I'll make a new one."

"Thanks," Keith accepts the piece. "Your mom stopped by with your lunch and saw that you'd thrown yourself into something. She asked me to let you know that she'd put it up in your office."

Probably in a stasis box so it'll still be fresh. I forgot lunch was coming and creating the stabilizer took me about three and a half hours, even with using magic and magitech which helped speed some of the process up.

"Awesome!" I say. "Thanks for letting me know! I might come back down after I eat."

"See you then," he chuckles. "Enjoy your lunch!"

"He gets an office, too?" The other worker whispers. "Or is it his mom's?"

"Dude," another employee says as I leave. "That's Lucas Gates. His parents own the company and he's a magitech genius. Probably one of the best when it comes to anything related to making power. He's got an entire workshop to himself upstairs."

"And if I were playing with magitech," I poke my head back into the room. "I'd be making either robots or remote-controlled cars, both of which would fight using electric magic."

That actually sounds pretty cool, so I think I'm going to do that after I eat!

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[Sig – 13 years]

"Alright," I tell Rusteo. "Now you be a good boy, okay?"

"Woof!" Rusteo responds, then I leave and make sure to lock the door behind me.

His owner is out for part of the day and wanted to make sure he got another walk in, so she's paid me to take him for one. We just spent an hour at the dog park and now I'm all sweaty and gross, so I head straight home to take a shower and get some rest. Playing and roughhousing with a dog in the sun for an hour really did a number on me.

I probably need to drink more water.

Once my shower's done and I'm in a clear pair of shorts, I head to the kitchen to get a drink and look for something to eat. Mom and Dad should've gone shopping today and… I snap a picture of the fifteen bunches of bananas, then send it into the group chat.

[Sig]: The heck do they think I'm gonna do with all of these???

No one responds right away, but I think they're all doing chores or something. I take a picture of the forty cans of cream of mushroom soup and send them in the group chat, then do the same for the basically-empty cabinets, fridge, and freezer.

As I contemplate either going down the street to get some actual food or just ordering something, Connor asks if I let Aunt Rachel know.

[Sig]: Nah. She's busy with something I think.

[Connor]: Parents?

I send a picture of the note on the fridge letting me know they went to Niagara Falls. It's a day earlier than normal, but I'm not surprised. Since they left a day earlier, they'll probably be gone for an extra day or two, maybe even four or five or ten. It would've been nice if they'd gotten me food, but I can just buy some with my earnings and then pester them to pay me back. It'll just be $20 most likely regardless of how much, but I can just pick up some extra work to make up for it.

The friends all say they're doing stuff when I ask, except for Xander. He doesn't respond at all but that's normal for him. Either he answers quite bluntly and sometimes too honestly or he doesn't respond at all.

I decide to place an order for some stir-fry, then head to my room to see who's online.

None of my MMO friends are online, which is a little disappointing, so I wait until my food gets here, pay the delivery guy, then dig in. Chicken-fried rice with teriyaki chicken and some beef, and a drink of tropical punch. Once it's done, I dispose of the containers, then check to see who's online.

Still no one.

That means it's time to hop on the European FPS servers and piss off other players with my skills and limited English.

I pull on my headset, then load up one of the games I started playing after I turned thirteen. Duty of Loyalty has a competitive league and while I don't play in it… I did once screw up one of its top teams' battles. It wasn't a competitive battle or anything like that, just them playing with normies, but they were pretty pissed at getting total-party-killed by some scrub.

While I couldn't fully understand what they were saying and don't know how to read English, I popped onto one of their channels later to view the VOD of the fight and saw the guy raging. It's one of the reasons I know how to swear in English.

Well, me playing on the European servers has taught me a lot of the English versions of our swears.

After signing in, I join a random game as a result of my situation without checking my friend's list. This isn't a game I've made any friends on, since I barely know any English and almost no one in North America plays it, which is why I hop on the European servers.

Where basically no one knows Zrebzialan.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In other words, I can't really have a "regular" group yet and haven't made friends.

The scenario I find myself in when the random game loads is a two-team battle. Setting: an island which once housed a village of around ten thousand people. It's now in ruins, many of the buildings damaged or destroyed while monsters roam the land.

It's an island devastated by the appearance of a portal, a gateway to a pocket dimension filled with resources – resources which can be used to strengthen whoever lays claim to them. While that sounds good in theory, the appearance of the portal created a large number of monsters. The small island village wasn't able to handle the situation and was destroyed, with what few remaining survivors it had escaping by boat.

Now, two different military forces have shown up.

First among them is the one belonging to the nation the island was a part of. Their nation's wish is to clear out the monsters, recover items of those who were forced to flee, and claim the portal to use its resources for the nation. Some of that will help with the refugees as well.

Opposing them is an independent military force which wishes to use parts from the monsters and the resources from the portal to strengthen themselves for when they eventually topple the regime. Power over people is their way, and they'll stop at nothing to get what they want.

Both sides will have supply drops sent in regularly, but they'll need to claim them. They can claim the other side's as well to boost themselves further.

There are five players and thirty-five AI-controlled soldiers on each side. The ultimate goal of the mission is to lay claim to the portal and secure the area around it. Just taking out all of the enemy team isn't enough – with the monsters around, it's still possible to lose. After fifteen and thirty minutes, another forty AI soldiers show up for each side, but only so long as it still has one player still alive.

While we can issue orders to the AI soldiers and they'll follow them, they'll also work on their own if they have no orders. However, they'll work toward the goal when on their own – killing monsters, defending and healing allies, scouting out ahead, and so on. Sometimes, it's better to leave them be to gain resources, clear the area, and learn about things in the area than it is to issue them orders.

I haven't played this map before but I'm looking forward to it. This game is pretty fun, even if I can't communicate too well. It looks like I'm a loyal soldier this time, a part of the nation's military. Our job is to scout the area, locate the exact position of the portal, take out the enemies, and make sure things are ready for a bigger force to come in and take over.

My team has someone I've played with and against several before and she's pretty good at the game. I don't know the other three, but I do know two of the names on the enemy team – one of them is someone I've fought with or alongside several times before, and one of them is a pro.

One of the salty sorts. He'll probably try to hard focus me until he's taken out. Again.

"Fucking North American," one of my teammates says in very bad Zrebzialan, probably learned just to be pissy when one of us plays.

"Bastion!" The teammate I've played with and against says as we select our loadout. "Sniper-med?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Sniper-med."

Everyone is presented with a list of preset builds and Classes to choose from. Their build determines what weapons they start with, and their Class determines special effects they get. Teams aren't limited to how many of the same build or Class can be on it and I like being a sniper-med.

"Oooh, this is Bastion?" I think that's what one of the teammates says, but then he follows that up with more that I can't understand.

"Yeah," the girl I've played with and against says as I finally remember her name.

My game is in Zrebzialan, but it doesn't translate English text from others and I can't read it at all. For my own username, it's in English, but I had to us a translator and some careful adjustments to make sure it was right. Since their usernames are input rather than from the game, I have zero clue what they actually say.

"He's insane," Lexi, the girl I enjoy playing on the same team as, tells the other guy.

I know that word pretty well, mostly because of how often it gets thrown at me. It seems like the other player has heard about me and I think he's agreeing with her.

Once the team setup is finished, the unhappy player getting silenced by Lexi, we confirm we're ready. The other team is still preparing, though there's still a couple of minutes left on the timer so it doesn't matter. Either they're ready by then or they're forced to deal as the game begins.

Some degree of a plan is made while we wait, though I can't really understand what's being said. Fortunately, Lexi knows from a previous match that I can understand basic directional words such as "right", "left", "north", "east", and so on and uses that to let me know the directions for a few good snipe points.

When the game begins, I immediately set off and seven of the AI soldiers follow me. I let them do their thing, as they're actually pretty good at scouting ahead or making sure an area is clear. We navigate our way through the ruins, gunning down the beasts that we come across.

Though a sniper, I do have a handgun I can use for closer targets. The AI soldiers use more automatic and high-powered weapons, though, so I let them do the work. They'll do their best to make sure I survive since I'm both a sniper and a medic, two things not good for close-range combat.

I make sure to keep the AI soldiers healed up between fights but don't overdo it. While it's good to keep my allies alive, it's also good not to run through my spells healing when it won't be fully utilized. What good is healing someone for 300 HP when they're only missing 30?

On the way, we encounter random items left around and I make sure to loot them and monster parts. The AI soldiers are good at that as well and one of them even finds some ammo for my gun that's a 30% power upgrade over the starter ammo.

While I don't know what my allies are doing, I can pick up some of what they're saying; mostly directions from Lexi. She's probably taken on the role of team leader and is focusing on making sure we have supplies for when we go for the portal as well.

We reach my destination and I scale a building, the AI picking up the path I used and having the soldiers do the same. I can go up some of the stairs, but need to climb walls or pillars as well. It doesn't take me long to figure out the path and reach the top.

This probably isn't one of the sniper nests Lexi was trying to tell me as it's not got a clear line of sight to a wide area… but it's more than perfect for my needs.

I look through my scope to a few key spots and see exactly what I expected at the second one: the salty pro sniper going up a building. Either he dismissed the AI soldiers to help the other team or he's using them as decoys somewhere to conceal his actual location.

Not that it's a bad strategy. In all fairness, it's a good one. Chances are good he's got shielding or a tank aspect to protect himself better.

The latter of which doesn't do much for headshots. I wait for him to reach the roof of the building, then fire off a shot. His avatar is thrown back but there's no death notification. Shielding, then. Unless he's gotten a boost or some better shielding gear, he's now out of shield and has to wait for it to recover.

By the way his body was thrown by the impact, he'll know my general direction and is probably telling his team about it now. Chances are, he'll want to check to see if he can spot me in a quick head-pop. I'm not sure how well-known my patterns are yet but he probably knows I usually keep my AI soldiers with me.

The best spot for him to discreetly pop his head up quickly and back down would be… there. Not two seconds later, his head pops up slightly to the left of where I'm aiming. I'm able to adjust my aim and click to fire quicker than he can pop his head back down… and I get the notification that I took out an enemy.

"Oh, yeah!" I cheer. "That's how you do-"

"Enemy spotted, 2 o-clock," one of the AI soldiers says, and I turn to face that direction.

They're still a decent distance away and aren't a sniper, so they won't be able to take me out. It's just an AI soldier rather than a player, and they're moving with three others, each checking to make sure the area is clear. I watch for a minute and that's all they're doing and all who are there.

That's got to be bait.

I scan the area and spot the actual player, who's trying to move in stealth with his AI soldiers split up into three groups – I'm guessing he has some of the dead sniper's with him.

"Two down!" I exclaim as he drops to the ground.

I then get to work on taking out the AI soldiers. There are twelve of them in that area, then I take out some of the monsters. Those are taken out by headshots as well, except for one particularly difficult guy that I don't even try to take on.

"Section Fourteen," I activate the comms. "Big boy. Ammo low."

Most of the ammo I've looted is for other weapons and we don't start with very much for our guns. I hope I actually said the words I think I did so my team knows.

One of the other guys says something which I think means he's got ammo for me and that he's in Section 19, so I head over that way and meet up with him, taking out a few more monsters on the way. An airdrop pops up on our radar, so we make our way toward it and I acquire more ammo for my gun on the way.

There's a chance the enemy's spotted the drop as well, so we split off after that point and I climb up a building suitable for a watchtower, my AI soldiers taking up guard around it.

Looking around, I spot a group of enemies approaching the supply drop.

"Northeast," I say. "Two players, twenty soldiers."

I think the nearby ally is asking me where they're at, but I'm not entirely sure if that's right or not. I couldn't give him more precise information, and it's not relevant, anyway. It's even possible I said different words than I thought.

"Northeast," I say once he finishes asking whatever it is. "Twenty soldiers."

I love being a sniper!

My temporary partner, our AI soldiers, and I work together to clean up the soldiers and monsters in the area, then we claim the supply drop, which contains additional armor, some magic shield devices to give us shielding, ammo, and recovery supplies. We reunite with the others as a notification pops up letting us know Lexi took out the last of the enemy players.

Dealing with the rest of the enemy soldiers and random monsters isn't too difficult with the five of us and our soldiers traveling together. We slowly but surely manage to locate the portal and reach it, then set up a defensive perimeter using materials from a few supply drops that come after we "radio in" we've reached the portal. They don't drop right on us so we have to go back out to retrieve things, but we get the perimeter set up, then take on several waves of monsters and several random ones as we wait for greater military force to arrive.

"Good game!" We all start saying after we receive the Mission Success notification.

Since I can't really understand what they're all saying after that, I exit out of the mission and am about to submit for a new game when a hand taps my shoulder.

"Ahh!" I shout in surprise. "I don't know what happened to the muffins!"

"What muffins?" Aunt Rachel asks.

"What muffins?" I ask her back as I pull off my headphones, and she just gives me a confused look. "You scared the bejeezies out of me! What're you doing here? Didn't you say you had moving-in stuff you're doing today?"

"What language were you speaking?" She asks.

"English," I tell her. "I only know enough to get by on the European servers for Duty of Loyalty. It's a fun game I play when none of my North American gaming friends are online. Wait! Hey! You didn't answer my question!"

"Connor told his dad who told me about your parents leaving for Niagara Falls and only buying bananas and cream of mushroom soup," she says.

"Oh!" I say. "You're gonna buy groceries again? Thanks! There's the grocery list on the fridge, so you didn't need to let me know before. If my parents don't want to pay you back after, don't worry. I know the combination to their safe. How long were you here for?"

"About ten minutes," she answers. "You didn't respond when I knocked but I could hear you so I knew you were here. And no, I'm not here to buy groceries. Do you remember what I said before?"

"About what?"

"When your parents go on their vacations," she says, and I just give her my best confused look because I'm honestly confused. "That when they do that, I'd like for you to come stay at my place."

"Oh, right," I say. "I don't wanna go over."

"We can pack up your computer and bring it over, Sig," she says.

"Yeah, but I don't wanna," I tell her. "It's not a problem. They do this all the time and they do pay me back when I get groceries."

"Really?"

"Well, just a little."

"Sig," she sighs. "It is a problem."

"No, it's not," I say. "This happens all the time, Aunt Rachel. I'm fine, don't worry!"

"And yet I do and will worry," she says. "You're old enough to spend the day alone. Maybe an evening and night. But you're not old enough to spend days or even weeks by yourself. The only real change between staying here and staying with me while your parents are gone is that you'll need to let me know where you're going, when you're expecting to be back, and who you'll be with. Maybe ask permission at times.

"And you'll not have to rely on Paul or doing dog sitting/walking, babysitting, and mowing for food," she pokes me in the stomach. "There is a restriction on the pool use, but that's for safety purposes. If you pack up your computer and some clothes, we can take them over to the house and get it set up in the room we've set up for you. Then, we can go to the store and get groceries. I was on my way to do that when Paul called me."

She's not going to let this go, and she'll probably tell my parents I was misbehaving or being disobedient or something when they return. Then I'll get grounded and that'll ruin a significant part of the rest of the summer.

I let out a big sigh.

"Fiiiiiiiiine."

"I've noticed you're usually shirtless around the house," she says. "You're free to do that at my place, too, if that's what makes you comfortable. As I said, this is mostly for safety reasons, Sig. It's to make sure you're fed and you're not left alone for a long time. Once we get back from shopping, you can go swimming, too."

I guess one good thing about this "extra supervision" is that I'll be able to go swimming more often, since it won't have to be a time where my friends and I are heading into the woods around or outside of town. Hopefully, someone's free to come over and swim once we're ready, I don't like playing alone.

----------------------------------------

[Luke – 13 years]

"Hi, Dad!" I say as he enters my workshop. "Guess what? So I was going to go clothes shopping, except Parker was in a weird mood and it's not as fun to go by myself, so I came in to the office to do some work instead! And I helped out on one of the big generators we're building and made one of those really complicated bits for it that only a few of us can make. Then after lunch – Mom got me something – I built this!"

I hold up the robot while Dad just stares at me. He doesn't even look at the robot and I'm super proud of it.

It's about fourteen inches in height and has a humanoid shape, including with hands that have fingers it can use like we can. He's even got the hilt of a sword on his left hip, ready for battle, and a gun strapped to his back. A small, homemade one designed for the robot.

"It's a robot!" I tell him as I pick up the controller. "A remote-controlled one that fights with lightning magic!"

"Luke," Dad says. "I knew most of that already. I'm the one who drove you here, remember?"

"Oh, right!" I say. "But that's not important. Look! It's a robot! So I was designing it and I thought to myself, what would make it awesome? And the answer to that was a sword and a gun and-"

"Luke," Dad says. "Come with me."

"O…kay?"

He doesn't care about my robot, which is really disappointing. I've spent hours building it and Dad's just like "come with me" instead of "that's so cool, show me everything!" Today is just not my day, and I'm definitely going to spend a few hours playing a game and eating ice cream when I get home.

Dad leads me up to a testing room I've never been in before. I'm not sure what it's used for, but it has an area around fifty feet in diameter that's sectioned-off in the center of the room. It has a short wall about eighteen inches in height, and the runes drawn on it indicate that the purpose of it is to contain damage. There's a sort of barrier in the walls and the floor and a dome-like one will form over it when the protective magitech is turned on.

"I'd heard you talk about making robots if you're playing around," Dad says. "And figured you might make one. So I built one myself, because what is the reason for building a combat robot if not to use it to fight against another?"

Did he just say what I think he just said?

"Seriously?" I ask as Dad walks over to the other side of the oval-shaped center zone and picks up… a robot about the same size as mine! "That's awesome!"

"Put yours in," Dad tells me as he sets his robot into the zone. "Then let's begin."

I set my robot down in the arena and pull the controller back out as Dad pulls out a controller of his own. Dad turns on the protective enchantment and a clear barrier forms over the field. This will allow us to battle the robots without damaging the rest of the room.

We count down from three and once we reach zero, we begin the battle. Dad's robot whips out a gun while I have mine whip out his sword and charge forward. Though it started as only a hilt, a blade of lightning and plasma forms when it's drawn.

Dad's robot shoots small bullets of ice at mine. The damage readout on my controller indicates each bullet drains about 0.1% of the energy from its defensive barrier coating, so I can handle them for a little bit.

Dad dodges my robot's initial strike, but I shift mine into a spin that catches the barrel of the gun and part of the robot's hand.

"Ha-ha!" I exclaim as the gun clatters against the arena wall. "Got you!"

"Only a little!" Dad responds as his robot hold a hand forward, conjuring a barrier of water.

The gun was a trick! Dad's robot's a mage!

"No!" I exclaim. "Water negates lightning!" My robot's sword goes through the water. "Or not, because it's magical lightning!"

And magical water… which freezes solid before my robot's sword can strike Dad's robot, somehow cutting off the blade of lightning and plasma as it forms into a solid barrier.

"Wait, no, not fair!" I say as a dozen tiny spears of ice mixed with lightning form around Dad's robot as I have mine dance out of the way and cancel its sword before pulling out its gun to start shooting tiny bullets of lightning. "Wait! Dad! No! One element! Stick to one element! I didn't think of two!"

"Should've thought of more!" Dad laughs as his robot fires its conjured spears, which slam into my robot, taking its barrier all the way down to 0%.

Fortunately, the metal I built the robot with is pretty durable and only gets lightly scratched from the attack. The barrier is more of a way to know when to stop the battle.

"Nooooooooooo!" I cry out in fake agony. "I've faaaaaaaaaaaailed!"

"And when you're done wailing," Dad says. "Let's order something for dinner, then you can make some improvements to yours and we can go for a second round. How does that sound?"

Upgrading my robot is a definite must if I want to best Dad's, that fight was so short because of how inadequate my robot was! I'll need to strengthen the defensive barrier, increase the capacity of the mana batteries, add in a few additional defensive enchantments, and add in some more attack enchantments and magitech as well. Those are just the basics of what I need to do to upgrade this, but I can manage all of that in probably an hour, since it's mostly upgrades and small additions.

Depending on how long dinner takes to get here, I might even be able to finish before we eat.

"Fantastic!" I answer. "I want pizza! Can we do pizza? And I can already think of the things I'm going to upgrade on mine so it can win next time! I'm gonna-"

"Tell me what they are and you'll just lose again," Dad grins at me.

"Oh, right!"

I shouldn't tell him my upgrades or he'll counter them with his own!

With that in mind, I start to leave the room and Dad calls out to me.

"Calm your sparking before you leave!"

I guess I was getting a bit too excited, but I don't care! Dad building a robot so we can play together is amazing and I'm eager for round two. Victory will be mine!