“Please welcome our victorious duo! Pompeii and London!”

  We were escorted through the lavishly decorated wooden doors by a foursome of heavily armoured centurions. Despite being unarmed, every precaution was being taken to ensure that there was no window of opportunity to potentially destroy the high-ranking leaders who attended the ceremony. Besides them – dozens of VIPs and high rollers lined the marble-floored walkway, applauding our success. Gold and bronze and various other valuable metals were inlaid into every place they could be. Crimson banners hung from the pillars and shifted in the artificial winds.

  The pomp and pageantry of it rubbed me the wrong way. We were trained to be brutally efficient above all else, so the idea of wasting time and resources on decorating this lavish VIP room for the celebration and crowning ceremony was enough to make me wince. They had strayed very far from those priorities over the years. With enough time I would start becoming the same way.

  >> The only thing they’re missing is a grand buffet.

  At the rear of the chamber lay a large set of steps, leading to a set of thrones. Castra Regina, Rome and Antioch were all waiting for us. Rome and Castra handled the day-to-day, and Antioch was the liaison between them and the other members of the Committee. The arena was the crown jewel of their perfect little empire – so they kept a tight leash on what ‘Rome’ did.

  Rome was the one who delivered the opening speech. Pompeii and I stood at the foot of the stairs and waited patiently as he boasted at length about their foresight and wealth.

  “To stand atop the Rusted Wall is the ideal and dream of many. The founding members of the Committee were blessed with the insight to know that we should aim to emulate the greatest creations of our human makers. We devoted ourselves to hardening our hearts and protecting our minds, building a city that would stand for a thousand years. Few titles are more coveted amongst our number than Champion. To demonstrate strength and skill that eclipses all challengers!”

  Castra Regina and Antioch nodded along with his speech, although I did wonder if Antioch saw this for the illusion that it was.

  “Today we celebrate the crowning of a new Champion. It has been many years since our last tournament, and now the strongest have been separated from the rabble. For a second time Pompeii has ascended to the greatest of heights and proven that his mentorship was no fluke.”

  One of his attendants approached with a large velveteen pillow, upon which a new cape sat.

  “London, I hereby grant you this cloak as a symbol of your victory, and grant you the freedom to leave the arena district and indulge in what our great city has to offer. I’m certain that the allure of greater challenges still will bring you back to the arena as a competitor soon.”

  The cloak was draped over my shoulders by the attendant, and a matching banner was handed to Pompeii so that he could hang it up in his workshop. He tried his best not to look too scornful about being burdened with another one.

  “Now, before I allow you off your leash to enjoy this wonderful party – Antioch would also like to speak to everyone present.”

  Antioch took Rome’s place at the front of the stage.

  “In stressful times like these, we should all find solace in the courage of robots like London. New threats claw at the walls with every passing day – yet we stand firm regardless. We must hone ourselves, our talents, our nerves, and our bodies so that none may threaten the Rusted Wall. Leeds Fifty-Eye, the Rampants, and our rivals in the Big Under would sooner see us damned to the scrapheap than do the right and moral thing. For that reason, we can only rely on ourselves.”

  He turned to regard me specifically.

  “London. While I would love to see you here again, perhaps your talents would be of more use as a member of the guard?”

  “I’m honoured that you think so highly of me,” I replied as diplomatically as I could.

  “Nonsense. Your abilities are plain for everyone to see, and we pride ourselves on giving every robot here the opportunity to improve their station through merit. Even someone bought from the markets can rise to be a respected and influential figure if they prove their value.”

  >> One hell of a polite way to describe slavery.

  “And to you, Pompeii – I must applaud your hard work. To win one tournament is an incredible feat, but to repeat that victory for a second time with a different ward is truly an achievement worthy of being remembered. Dare I say that a statue of you may be placed in the district as tribute if you keep going at this pace.”

  “Thank you,” he said tersely.

  There was a brief pause. It was in that moment that my proverbial stomach dropped like a lead ball. I had a horrible feeling which came out of the blue and left me speechless. I looked at Pompeii and stared, knowing that something was about to happen that I wouldn’t like in the least. We were so close to them, yet surrounded on all sides by heavily armed guards. Surely he wouldn’t risk taking a foolish course of action? I already knew the answer. My faith had been badly misplaced.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The panels on the top of his forearms and wrists both popped upwards, revealing a pair of rectangular ports connected by wires to an unseen power source.

  “Sorry, London.”

  The guards were too slow to stop what he was intending. He turned on his heel and engaged both blades, a pair of blue beams emerging from above his hands. Castra Regina was the unlucky bot who was in front of him at that moment. Before he could escape he was being bisected by one of them. Pompeii plunged it deep into his chest cavity and pulled it upwards, splitting his torso and head into two pieces connected loosely by molten metal.

  Shock and awe spread across the chamber. Rome tried to escape by scrambling over the side of his chair, but Pompeii had no intention of stopping. He pushed ahead and came down on top of him, stabbing him through the head and leaving a gaping, smoking hole where his Braincase used to be. Antioch ducked behind a pair of centurions, who finally came to their senses and charged at him to try and prevent the massacre from unfolding. Pompeii easily cut through their shields, severing their arms and leaving them completely defenceless on the ground.

  He stepped over them and rushed at Antioch.

  “This is for Salonae! You piece of garbage!”

  Antioch never stood a chance. Pompeii pounced on top of him like a predatory cat and sank the blades through the back of his head, cutting clean through the braincase and irreparably damaging the contents.

  >> He’s dead – London. When you cannot recover them, they’re dead. All of those ideas and memories are gone now.

  >> Never mind that. We’re both going to be dead very soon if Pompeii didn’t come up with an escape plan!

  In a matter of seconds three of the highest-ranking bots in the Rusted Wall had been cut to ribbons and left for scrap. The guards could do nothing to stop Pompeii’s rampage. Each one who tried was quickly lost their limbs or found themselves decapitated. I tried to stay out of his way. I had no weapons or armour to protect myself with. The fattened pigs they invited to the ceremony yelled in fear and rushed for the exit, caring most about preserving their own lives rather than standing up for the Committee.

  Pompeii kept fighting but it couldn’t last forever. I became painfully aware of what the original intent of Aguntum offering him this mysterious energy source was once he fell to his knees and started to lose power. The lasers coming from his arms were so demanding that they completely drained his battery within a matter of seconds. I rushed through the riotous crowd and grabbed him, dragging him away and through the doors before they could catch us.

  “L-Leave me! Leave me behind, London!”

  “Don’t go deciding things on your own!” I scolded.

  We made a beeline for the fastest way out of the arena. It wouldn’t be long before word of Pompeii’s massacre reached the other guards and they swarmed the area trying to capture us. I hauled Pompeii’s mostly immobile body down the steps and through the casino until we reached the main lobby’s staircase. There were already guards waiting there for us by the door.

  Change of plans. We turned around and kept going until we reached the access door to the exterior balcony. I kicked it through and slammed it shut behind us to try and conceal our location for a second longer. Pompeii’s weak attempts to keep himself upright ended and we both stumbled down onto the stone paving. He waved me away and rolled over onto his back.

  “What the hell was that, Pompeii? That was the thing you’ve been hiding from me this entire time?”

  “…Aguntum wanted me to do this. She knew. But…”

  “You didn’t want to drag me down too.”

  “That’s right,” he murmured, his voice distorted by a lack of energy. “I gave you the core I was meant to use. I didn’t see any reason to protect myself. I was damned a long time ago. You’ve still got the chance to have a different ending.”

  I stared at the fading light in his eyes and wondered how genuine that desire was. I was going to be in the same place as him when he finally kicked that plan into action. Did he assume that I would be ready to cut and run at the first sign of trouble? It would have been safer to warn me beforehand, but perhaps he feared me trying to dissuade him from an impulsive course of action.

  “You’ve really got me into a lot of trouble, Pompeii.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Glancing between the steps and the edge of the balcony, I realized that there was no easy way for us to escape. Carrying Pompeii across the artificial cliff-face was bound to fail, and I had no weapons with which to fend off the horde of armed centurions scouring the district. We were trapped.

  “Go on without me. I already told you. My heart died back then, when I stood there and kept quiet about what happened to him. Let me have this. Let me have this little piece of satisfaction.”

  A slight hiss was followed by one of his arms coming loose and dropping to the floor.

  “Go on. Take that and show them why you’re the champion, alright?”

  A stampede of footsteps was approaching our location as we spoke.

  >> Take it. At least we could try and use the thing to figure out where these parts are coming from later.

  My acceptance of his left arm was all he needed to hear. I propped him up against the railing and momentarily considered rolling the dice by throwing him over the edge into the city below, but that wasn’t what he wanted from me. He was going to make sure that everyone in this blasted place understood that he was the one who claimed three heads from the Committee’s leadership ladder. One way or another – he was going down in history.

  I cast aside the consumer-grade arm I was wearing and replaced it with Pompeii’s. The absurd power-draw figures caused by the engine in my chest calmed slightly as I redirected a large portion of it to the new limb. It was hungry. No wonder Pompeii ran out of juice after a few seconds of using this, and no wonder Aguntum told him to use the engine in conjunction with them.

  “Goodbye, Pompeii.”

  His head dropped down, the light in his eyes finally fading away as he ran out of battery. Would he ever awaken again to face the consequences of what he’d done? The Committee would want to make an example of him but I didn’t know what that entailed. The guards were almost on top of us. Without wasting another second I hiked my body over the edge and clung onto the building’s exterior, shimmying across towards the entry courtyard below.

  I needed to find Venice, and fast.