2 Killipede
[You are now the Pilot.]
[Thank you for choosing Prime.]
[What would you like to name your Mecha?]
"..."
"Oh. My. God."
Jamie was awestruck as he read the text over and over. He had some knowledge on mechas, and the fact that the mecha in front of him was referring to him as a Pilot meant that this mecha was high quality!
Most average to low-quality mechas such as the grunt units that Dynamos had could be used by anyone, but higher quality mechas bonded to a specific pilot, meaning only that person could use that mecha.
"Hooo, okay. Gotta pick a cool name."
Calming himself, Jamie brought his hands together as the red panel awaited his answer.
"Hmm…"
He looked around the area, looking for a good name. Ditch? No. Trees? No way. Slum? Ew. Then he looked back at the mecha's chest, reading the word etched into it.
"You know what, let's keep it simple." Jamie clapped. "I'd like to name my Mecha Prime."
Almost immediately, the text responded.
[Prime is now the name of your Mecha.]
[Prime is now yours to control.]
After he read the new lines of text, the red panel disappeared. Jamie smiled, approached his mecha and knocked on the chest.
"Now, how do I enter this thing?"
As Jamie inspected his new weapon of war, the ground began to shake as he could hear a loud rumbling.
"What's going on? An earthquake?"
The ground shook harder, and Jamie was filled with dread as he feared the worst. A short distance away, the ground burst as a massive creature rose into the sky, roaring before looking down at Jamie and Prime.
"You have GOT to be kidding me!"
Jamie grabbed his head in exasperation as he looked at the giant monster. It was a black centipede, with double the amount of legs, each one twice as big as Jamie was. It's spiky carapace glistened in the daylight, and a bundle of horns protruded around it's head.
"Do you have any weapons!?"
The centipede wasted no time and dived at Jamie, who turned tail and ran, Prime following behind him.
"I'll take that as a no!"
The centipede crashed into the ground beside them, forcing Jamie to put his arms up to block the spray of dirt. It immediately crawled forward and turned around to face Jamie and Prime, roaring as it charged at them.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
Jamie fell on his butt in fear, screaming his lungs out as the centipede rapidly approached, the horns and legs ready to tear him to pieces. The only thought he had in his mind was for his mecha to do something!
As Jamie awaited death, he saw Prime dash in front of him, rearing its fist back. The centipede roared as it saw the metal humanoid daring to challenge it, crawling faster. Right as it was about to hit Prime…
BOOM!
The mecha's fist crashed into the centipede's face, and Jamie's jaw dropped as he heard the sound of the impact that sounded like an explosion. The centipede screeched in pain as it recoiled, moving away from the boy and mecha, rising into the air once more. Now far from the robot, it hissed as it prepared to attack again.
"Wait, I can control you with my thoughts?"
Jamie ignored his heart that threatened to beat out of his chest, and stood up. He tried his fight to not shake as he smiled at Prime. The moment he thought of it, the thrusters on Prime's back sputtered and came to life as blue flames came out and the mecha began to hover.
"Go!"
Prime flew into the air to face the centipede, the speed of it releasing a burst of wind that forced Jamie to step back. The giant insect and robot sized each other up as Jamie watched, ready to Pilot the hell out of his mecha.
As the tension rose, the centipede decided to strike first, trying to impale Prime on its horns. The mecha dodged, flying around the centipede's head as it rained blows on the carapace. Jamie focused on weaving and dodging in the air as he thought of how to hurt the centipede.
Changing tactics, the centipede curled around itself, taking swipes at Prime with its legs. Dodging some of them, Prime caught one of the legs and pulled, bending it the wrong way and snapping it off as green goo spilled out of the wound.
"Aha!"
Now armed with a very sharp insect leg, Prime flew to the centipede's face, maneuvering around the mouth that did the best it could to bite the mecha. Seeing an opening, Prime stabbed the leg into the centipede's eye before tearing it out, a flood of green goo spraying the land.
Unbeknownst to Jamie, blood trickled out of his nose as he directed Prime to go in through the empty eye socket and go crazy. For a minute or two, the centipede screeched and thrashed around in the sky before releasing one last cry of defeat, falling to the ground.
"Uh oh…"
Jamie watched the massive centipede's body descend towards him. Prime quickly flew out of the centipede's body, picking up Jamie and carrying him to the sky as the centipede crashed, flattening some trees and creating a pretty big crater.
"WOOHOO! I HAVE A MECHA NOW, BITCHES!"
Prime gently placed Jamie down on the ground as the boy cheered, sticking his fists in the air. He wasn't dying to no oversized insects today! Unbothered by the nosebleed, Jamie wiped it on his sleeve as he looked at the dead centipede and the green goo that pooled beneath it.
Jamie was so engrossed in admiring his handiwork that he had nearly failed to notice the red panel with white text that appeared before his eyes.
"What's this?"
[You have killed a level 20 Killipede.]
[Mecha Core has leveled up!]
[You have gained Attribute points.]
"I leveled up?"
Jamie turned to Prime, who looked back at him. "You can do that?"
As he looked at his mecha, another notification appeared.
[Would you like to absorb the Killipede's affinity?]
"Affinity?" Jamie questioned. "Like the Wizards? Sure, I guess."
Jamie watched as Prime approached the dead centipede before touching it. Within seconds, another notification appeared as the mecha returned to his side.
[Magic Core has leveled up!]
[You have gained Quality points.]
"I should probably check out this attribute and quality stuff…"
Jamie rubbed his rubbed as he glanced at the dead monster, then at the massive wall surrounding the slum, then at the forest in the distance. He gulped thinking of what other monstrosities lurked there, after all the killipede he fought was massive, the part of it that was above ground at least.
"I think I'll go back home first. Let's go, Prime."
Hurrying, Jamie ran back to the massive border wall, up the ramp and to the door, Prime closely
following him.
"Make sure we can put back the door after."
Stepping back, Jamie watched as Prime placed its hand on the door and pushed. The door could only resist a little before the lock broke and was opened, albeit with a large dent in the middle.
"Good enough."
Stepping back into the slums, with Prime having to duck through the doorway, Jamie closed the door and propped some junk against it to keep it closed. He released a breath of relief as the smell of trash and sounds of poverty reached him. He was back where he belonged.
"Okay, let's be quick."
Jamie began to traverse the slums of Old Orion using all the blind spots and alleys he knew to avoid Prime being seen. A mecha, in a place like this? Forget Dynamos, even the average street urchin would kill for one. Mechas were amazing and powerful, equal to Wizards. Hell, some of the more quality mechas could easily raze slums like this one to the ground.
"Hide here for a sec."
Arriving in an alley next to what was basically his home, Jamie quickly threw a random sheet of cloth over Prime's head. Gulping and dusting himself off, Jamie walked towards his home, which turned out to be a mechanic shop.
He noticed the shutter door was open, which meant she was working on something. Jamie always loved seeing her, but he was a tad bit worried about how she would feel about him bringing home a weapon of war.
Knocking on the doorframe, Jamie announced his presence. "Hey, I'm home."
"Jamie, you're ba - what happened to you?!"
And there she was. Red hair in a ponytail, green eyes, dirty old mechanic overalls. Amanda immediately ran over and inspected Jamie, who had forgotten about the beating he got from the cops. He currently had a black eye, some bruising, and traces of blood on his nose.
Amanda was the real owner of the mechanic shop, along with her younger sister Amy. They were childhood friends, though Amanda was 2 years older than Jamie, who was 18. She always took care of them and made sure they were alright.
"It's nothing, you know how Dynamos is."
As much as Jamie loved having her fuss over him, he gently brushed off her hands and flashed a smile.
"Anyway, I have some big news. Really big. But!" Jamie quickly stuck his hands out to stop her from questioning. "You can't react loudly, you can't tell anyone, and you can't be mad."
Amanda raised an eyebrow, but didn't complain. Taking that as a good sign, Jamie used his Pilot link (he started calling it that) to call over Prime to enter the shop.
"Jamie, you're back!"
From inside the shop, Jamie saw Amy and Aiden appear. Amy was Amanda's sister, and looked like a younger version of her, since she was 16. Aiden on the other hand was Jamie's younger brother, and he was only 10 years old.
"I suppose it's best that all of you are already here. Now, no violent reactions…"
Prime appeared in the doorway as he said that, having discarded the sheet. Jamie turned and presented Prime with a wide smile as he saw the faces of the two girls and his brother be filled with shock.
"We have a MECHA!!!"
