Round One - Xavier kicks heinie

As the rusty iron gate to the arena slowly slid up, I wondered if Cyclops had been right. Here I was, about to face a robot in a fight to the death in one on one combat, and I hadn’t brought my special hover assault chair with heat-seeking sidewinder missiles. Perhaps fight to the death was over-statement.

I rolled out into the dusty center floor and saw the robot that I would face. He really wasn’t all that impressive, except perhaps for the giant axe arm with flame-thrower attachment. All the other Last Gladiator Standing contestants sat in the bleachers watching us.

Jon had said that each robot was specially programmed to respond to our particular powers and talents. Did that mean it could read my mind? My psionic abilites don’t work on machines. How was I going to be able to hit it while it was holding a giant axe? The robot started to move towards me.

Then, as it always does, inspiration struck. I looked over at the spectator stand again and saw Maggie smiling warmly at me. I gave her a quick wink. Next to her Vegeta was tilting his head back and swallowing a rather large amount of what looked like pop-corn. Yes, he would do nicely.

I reached into his mind and took control of him. I had Vegeta leap high into the air and charge at my robot opponent. With a ferocious yell, the short Sayian warrior did a wild spinning kick and smashed the axe. The twisted, sparking metal went flying. The robot quickly retreated. I made Vegeta press the attack.

Then I noticed Henchman 432 rise up from the stand. As the robot spun out of Vegeta’s lunge, Henchman charged straight for him, crashing hard into his back. Vegeta went flying face down into the dirt. The robot had matched my powers, taking control of Henchman.

The two fighters traded blows. Their fight was awkward, their moves disjointed. The robot and I weren’t that skilled in these kind of first person combat games, but we were learning, Then I remembered Vegeta’s powers. I had seen him do something – yes –

I had him super-power up, bright yellow energy cackling all over his body. His glowing energy filled fist smashed into Henchman, sending him flying out of the arena. Henchman’s mechanical left arm was lying shattered on the ground.

I turned Vegeta on the startled robot. I could feel it looking for another fighter to take control of. Before he could though, I had Vegeta leap at him and deliver three quick blows.
Victory!