"How did you manage to escape? I thought you were dead,” Hiroshi said perplexed.
"It was simple: when I turned to you and started to brake it was just a matter of waiting for the right time to lie down and go under your exo-skeleton, then I just grabbed your back edge and used it as an anchor point to give you major impulse with my boots," Machi said smiling.
Hiroshi was amazed, Machi was very smart, for a moment he felt something like admiration for her, or would it be something else?
That last stunt had been dangerous, it seemed Machi was more fearsome than he thought, and the AI was overriding his control of the situation, he thought it was time to end that demonstration. His plan had failed miserably, and prolonging it would do no one any good.
"Please set the demonstration as finished," Hiroshi asked the exhibition control.
"Certainly Mr. Hiroshi, we will proceed to unlock the door so the young miss can exit," the control staff replied.
Machi found it strange that things had suddenly become so calm.
She noticed that the cabin of the exoskeleton had become opaque again, she could no longer see Hiroshi inside it.
Yuka was near the exit of the arena demanding that the door be opened.
"Miss, I don't have access to control this door. But I have information that it will open soon," the robotic assistant informed. Yuka waited nervously.
Inside the exoskeleton, Hiroshi tried to get up to try a more dignified position. He found it strange that the passenger compartment glass had suddenly become more opaque, without he having entered the respective command.
To his surprise, he couldn't get up, the movements he made in the clamps he had stuck in his arms and legs did not translate into movements of the exoskeleton.
"Did it break on the impact?" Hiroshi wondered.
In the control room, opening the reinforced door of the testing arena was giving an error. As the lock was electronic, it was impossible to open without the command being accepted by the system.
Inside the exoskeleton, the monitor displayed a short but clear message: "System Lockdown."
Suddenly Hiroshi's metallic exoskeleton stood up on its own.
"What the fuck?" Hiroshi cursed, surprised by the movement he didn't make.
A thick metallic voice was heard in the circular arena, and the audience was startled.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I owe you an apology. So far, the demonstration of this prototype does not do justice to its true capabilities. Per the laws governing this testing arena, I demand that it be provided with adequate ammunition and that the restrictive bindings be removed, so that the demonstration be as faithful as possible," the metallic voice shouted.
Machi didn't want to believe it, Hiroshi could only be bluffing.
In the control room, the astonished technicians saw the system granting authorization for the use of live ammunition under the testing arena's governing law. They didn't have any way to stop it, apparently, it was all legal.
In the arena, part of the floor lifted, and a block with a circular opening rose.
The exoskeleton inserted one arm in and then the other. In both instances, a series of gearing sounds were perfectly audible: loading and locking.
The block lowered and the ground leveled again.
The next moment, several metallic plates that gave the robot its characteristic rigid lines, came off. The metallic exoskeleton now looked much more flexible, with more torsion joints, a true state-of-the-art prototype.
Machi realized that the rules of the game had changed.
If Hiroshi wanted to scare her, he was succeeding.
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