Future Girl flew at the machine, but it struck her with an electric blast. It didn't hurt her, but the force of the blast sent her falling against one of the classroom's walls.
"Help us, please," one student said.
Future Girl flew at the robot again, only to be thrown back again by another blast. She heard the wall crack apart behind her and she felt dust and small pieces of debris fall around her.
Future Girl picked up the nearest desk and tossed it toward the robot, which seemed to wander about in confusion.
While it fired another lightning strike at the desk, Future Girl used that split second to fly across the room.
She reached for the machine's electric rod first, giving it a good hard pull. The rod didn't come off, but the force of her superhuman strength lifted the robot off the ground for a second. As it found its footing, with all eight legs temporarily scrambling in confusion, Future Girl brought her first down on the point where the rod meets the robot's body. That did the trick. The rod didn't break off, but it was loosened and dangled helplessly on the front of the robot's body.
Now weaponless, the machine continued stumbling around the workshop. Future Girl turned to the group of students.
"Who built this?" she asks.
A pudgy kid with a crewcut raised his hand.
"It was supposed to be for mountain climbing," he said. "But then they asked me to consider military applications, and..."
"Yeah, I get it." Future Girl turned her attention back to the robot. There was nothing left to do except the violence. She flipped the machine onto its side and ripped off each of its legs, one by one. It still sputtered around on the floor, so Future Girl raised both fists above her head and brought them down onto the robot's twitching torso. That finally quieted it down.
"Is anyone hurt?" she said.
A curly-haired girl spoke up, teary-eyed. "It hit my arm."
The girl's left bicep looked badly burned and the clothing around it had been scorched away. Future Girl hovered over to her and said, "Just hold still." She placed her hand against the girl's bare arm.
Future Girl relaxed, feeling the energy of the Paradoxicon flow outward from her and towards the curly-haired girl. She had a vague sense of muscle, veins, flesh, and other human tissue reforming and re-stitching together in the midst of a euphoric feeling of giving herself over to the Paradoxicon and surrendering to its energies.
Future Girl pulled back before she entered a full sleep-like state, leaving the other girl's arm perfectly healed of its burns.
"I don't believe it," she said. "Thank you."
"That's what I'm here for," Future Girl said.
woot-woot-woot
Security was right outside, Future Girl knew, and that was her cue to exit. As fast as she could, she flew out the window she originally smashed through.
Outside, she allowed herself a moment to take in the beautiful blue sky all around her.
She flew back to the biology building, around the rear of it, landing by the pair of dumpsters behind the structure that she knew was a security camera blind spot. She pressed her left thumb to her right palm again, feeling suddenly exposed to turn into ordinary, powerless Amber Veda.
Amber ran around to the front of the building, ready to explain that she panicked and ran there to hide. But no one asked, and her teacher hurried her and her fellow students inside to continue class.
"Just another false alarm," her teacher said.
Class ended, and Amber had free time in the late afternoon. Instead of hitting the gym or going into town, Amber returned to her room to study for a few hours.
Marci showed up again and they chat about each other's days. Marci invited Amber to dinner with her friends Liz and Wendell at the school cafeteria. Amber didn't say much, not wanting to give herself away, as the other two had gotten to know her as Future Girl.
After dinner, Amber politely declined Marci's offer to join her and the others at the movies in town and instead walked to their room for more studying.
"I wish I could have been there," Marci said later that night when they were alone. "I could have helped."
Amber shook her head. "This one was pretty straightforward. Robot goes berserk, I punch it. Same-old, same-old."
"What does it say about this school that killer robots are 'same-old, same-old?'"
"That's what bugs me," Amber said. "This kid never intended his robot to be a killer. He built it help mountain climbers."
"There's bound to be military applications for tech like that," Marci said. "A lot more profit in that, too."
Amber sat up in her bed. "Since when do you care about money?"
"We have to start thinking now about what we're going to do after college," Marci said. "Science is a pretty limited field. I don't like weaponizing tech either, but we have to think of our future careers."
"And all your talk about helping people?"
"I will," Marci said. "But I can't do that until I'm established first."
Amber stood up and touched her palm. The energy rushed from the Paradoxicon through her whole body as she again transformed into Future Girl.
Marci sat up in bed after shielding her eyes from the bright light. "What is it? Emergency?"
"No. I'm going flying. I need to clear my head."
She opened the window and popped out the screen, carefully hovered through it, and flew up into the night sky. It was dark enough that she was confident no one would see her. If anyone did, she figured Marci would be able to cover for her.
It was a cloudy night, so Future Girl flew straight into the nearest cloud. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of the cloud's cool moisture all around her. It felt cleansing as it wisped around her bare face, neck, arms, thighs, and the backs of her legs. She tried to relax.
She knew what she had to.
She flew to Ms. Kahror's office.
# # # #
Next: Confrontation.