The Secondary Saga

[Proto Man]

“Oh son of a…” Top Man plucked the floating camera out of the air and brought the lens up to his face. Even as the scene in the clearing descended into chaos, the Robot Master had far more pressing concerns. “What’s the feed look like?” He asked into the machine, and after a few moments, he pulled up the text stream for his current live feed.

"Shit."

"Double shit."

"Why do I pay money for this?"

"The fuck is this?"

“Calm yourselves,” Top Man barked as he powered down the floating camera and slipped it into his backpack. Once he was certain it wouldn’t power on or do anything stupid, he switched the live feed to the one in his skull. The resolution wasn’t quite as sharp, but it was good enough. Plus, it made his viewers feel like they were walking one of those shaky camera movies.

With the camera situation resolved, Top Man glanced over at the talking puppet—Pinocchio. “You okay?” He asked, repeating the same question his new associate had asked him a couple minutes earlier. The little wooden boy responded with a nod of his head as the scream of the creatures drew closer amidst the various reports of shotguns and rifles and energy weapons. Spinning to look at the situation, Top Man saw what was coming at them.

“Orcs.” He muttered as he saw the green-skinned creatures break through the tree line.

A notification popped up for him from his live feed site.

“Lame. Orks are much more threatening. Plus, they have cooler accents.”

“Charming.” Top Man mumbled beneath his breath as a few of the orcs got around the line of attackers and started toward the Robot Master’s position. With a frown, he glanced over his shoulder at Pinocchio. “You might want to buckle up for this one… It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

Ignoring what would ultimately be a flood of snarky insults and complaints from people that would nevertheless continue subscribing to his live feeds for years to come, Top Man hopped on top of the uproots and watched as one of the orcs spotted him. The green-skinned creature came rushing at the robot with a look somewhere between anger and sadism. As the orc swung down at him with an axe, Top Man launched off the roots, and after a superbly executed aerial cartwheel, the android landed back on his boots. Meanwhile, the creature obliterated the uproots and buried a few inches of its axe into the ground.

“You missed.”

With a snort, the orc craned its neck around and spotted the grinning Robot Master standing unharmed a few feet away. Freeing its axe, it came rushing at Top Man and swung low at the preteen-sized machine. On this occasion, the nimble android hopped up into the air, spun around, and delivered what amounted to a thunderous kick the side of the orc’s skull. As his adversary roared and stumbled back, Top Man landed calmly on his feet.

Dashing forward, Top Man passed between the orc’s legs, and once he was on the other side of his opponent, he lashed out with two well-placed kicks at the back of its kneecaps. As the creature dropped down to its knees, Top Man jumped up onto its back and clamped his own knees around the sides of its head. With that, the dancing Robot Master jerked around to the other side of the orc, eliciting a hearty snap from its cervical vertebra before it went limp under him.

Relinquishing his grip, the machine flipped over and landed on his feet in front of the dead creature. Before he had much time to savor or check the comments, there were four more green-skinned warriors charging at him.