The robot chassis was a humanoid shape with telescoping metal tentacles and weapon slits that opened all around it to do damage in a bubble of destruction. It sported a single eyestalk with a glowing red eye on top rather than a humanoid head.

  Like I said, he took his design cues from pop culture when I was making the thing, and damn the practicality.

  I worried about CORVAC looking up, but overall I figured I was pretty safe. It’s not like he’d be using anything useful like the radar or laser guidance packages I built into the machine. Oh no. That arrogant bundle of silicon wafers was strictly old school with this bot.

  I knew because I had to listen to him going on and on about that damned eyestalk and how "efficient" it was while I was designing the thing. After the first few conversations I'd discovered that “efficient” was megalomaniacal supercomputer slang for “bitchin’.” I was surprised he hadn’t had me paint flames along the side of the thing.

  I'd argued with him over the benefits of having an omnidirectional sensor package, but he'd insisted on having that single glowing red eye looking out from the top. I put in the other stuff anyways. I really wished I hadn’t now because it would be one less thing to worry about, but I could rest assured he'd refuse to use it on principle.

  I’d suggested it, so of course he wasn’t going to use it. Anything he didn’t come up with himself wasn’t worth considering.

  I'll admit the glowing eye definitely looked impressive, downright terrifying if you looked at it from the right angle, but it also had the definite drawback of reducing visibility.

  I breathed a quiet prayer of thanks to any higher power that might care to listen that CORVAC's ego had gotten in the way of practicality. Even the most intelligent supercomputer in the world was no match for villainous hubris.

  I peered over the edge of the skyscraper. Not one of the taller ones, but still enough to tower over CORVAC in his giant death robot chassis.

  I was treated to a front row view of cars being flung in all different directions and people running in the streets trying to get away. Apparently they hadn't taken the warning seriously down here. Or they figured they were safe when the robot started towards downtown the first time then turned around. Or everyone in the city was so blasé about an attack at this point that they figured it couldn't possibly happen to them.

  Or they were all wannabe citizen journalists, which meant they had a death wish on some level if they were working in this city.

  Whatever the reason, the people down there had clearly ignored the sirens. And now they were running in terror while cars rained down around them.

  Idiots.

  Fialux was a green and white blur darting around the robot which waved a telescoping metallic tentacle through the air trying to swat her. Doors opened on the sides of the robot and energy beams shot out, but Fialux was taking them out with her heat vision almost as quickly as CORVAC could fire.

  Other times the doors would open and a missile would go flying out and home in on Fialux. Most of the time she managed to stop it, or send it on a trajectory straight up where it could explode harmlessly, but the occasional missile did slam into a skyscraper.

  I winced. This definitely was going to come with a steep price tag, but I had work to do. The city could worry about insurance claims. There were so many attacks that the government had to step in to handle insurance claims.

  Sort of like people being stupid enough to build houses in flood zones where no rational insurance company would cover them. Or on barrier islands which were meant to bear the brunt of hurricane storm surge which meant the multi-million dollar testaments to man’s hubris and desire for a vacation home with a water view were living on borrowed time. Only in this case the floods were giant malevolent monsters and robots and villains who attacked the city on the regular.

  I pulled out my wrist computer and frowned. A screen popped up and the signal I was looking for appeared. Faint, but definitely there. I smiled.

  CORVAC you magnificent bastard! I knew he was hiding something!

  The only problem was I wasn't going to be able to get a bead on exactly where the signal was coming from unless I was able to triangulate. That meant hopping to another building. And risking CORVAC seeing me.

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  Oh well. There was nothing for it. If I was going to do this stupid hero bit then I might as well go all in.

  I leapt from the building and over the giant death robot as a flurry of laser blasts flashed around me. I didn't think he was aiming for me. I was moving slow to avoid catching his attention. If CORVAC was aiming there wasn't a chance I’d escape a blast, though I’d probably survive it, but it was still nerve-racking finding myself in the middle of a super powered turkey shoot and me not being the one who was doing the shooting.

  No, it definitely wasn't fun being the turkey.

  I flew to the top of a skyscraper that was farther from the action. I looked down at my wrist and yup. The signal was definitely there. It was a little stronger here.

  I leapt to another building. Several missiles flew over my head and I barely managed to swing out of the way. I almost went into a spiral. Then I remembered I was using antigravity to keep myself up and not a traditional jet pack or fixed wing flight, so there was no such thing as a death spiral.

  I righted myself and turned to look at CORVAC.

  He was staring straight at me. His giant red eye narrowed. I had to admit he was right. I’d argued about installing those steel shutters so the eye could scowl, but they did look suitably menacing.

  "Hello, mistress," his voice boomed through downtown and off of skyscrapers. “I am actually pleased to see you survived. It means I get the pleasure of taking you out directly.”

  Shit.

  I flew to the next building as quickly as possible and took a quick reading. I almost had enough information. Almost. My little inkling about where CORVAC had been hiding was absolutely correct.

  I looked over my shoulder and saw one of CORVAC's beam weapons on the end of a metallic tentacle pointing towards me. Crap. Crap. Crap. I leapt into the air and a moment later the beam flashed where I'd just been standing. It also took off the antenna mast I’d been leaning on.

  It was much more difficult to get my readings when I had a crazed megalomaniacal robot doing its best to kill me while I was trying to work. It was the sort of thing that really broke a girl's concentration.

  I landed at the top of the tallest building in the city and looked down. Almost there. I glanced down to CORVAC and saw one of his larger missile bays open up. Damn it.

  If I didn't hurry up then the tallest building in the city wasn't going to be the tallest building in the city for much longer. I saw the head of a spherical antigrav missile appear at the dark entrance to his launch bay and I leapt in the air.

  The missile launched. The sphere came straight for me. I briefly wondered why the hell was I allowing myself to be a decoy to save some old architecture, but the answer came to me even as the question flitted through my mind.

  Because a notable example of latter twentieth century architecture didn’t have countermeasures or shielding and couldn’t dodge missiles the way I could. That’s why.

  One of the advantages of using antigravity technology was it made me far more maneuverable than if I was using traditional chemical propulsion. One of the disadvantages of fighting a giant death robot I designed and manufactured that was inhabited by the malevolent spirit of my supercomputer and former partner in crime was he had access to the same antigravity technology.

  Antigravity technology that was built into some of his missiles. Which could maneuver just as well as I could.

  Yeah. Didn’t really think that one through.

  In fact, they weren’t even really missiles in the traditional sense that people usually imagined when they heard the word “missile,” even if they fit the classic definition. They were actually spheres with a healthy dose of high explosives surrounded by an antigravity field, and they would really ruin my day if they got close enough to blow.

  My suit could only take so many hits, after all, and in this fight I had a feeling I was going to need all the hits I could take.

  I zigged. The missile chasing me zagged. I tried flying up, but that seemed to only encourage it as it went into a vertical climb behind me.

  Damn it.

  I was concentrating so hard on the missile that I didn't have time to dodge any of the other attacks CORVAC was sending my way. I was a sitting duck for a laser attack, or maybe a plasma bolt, but it was all I could do to try and get away from this damned sphere chasing after me.

  A flash. The missile abruptly went from a vertical trajectory to horizontal as that flash carried it off. There was an explosion and a moment later Fialux appeared next to me.

  I was about to say something when there was another flash. This one bright enough that the light shields on my contacts kicked in. Only Fialux was between me and the flash, and so the beam weapon CORVAC had been aiming at me glanced harmlessly off her superhuman, and thankfully invulnerable, skin.

  That was the first time I was actually happy Fialux was so easily able to shrug off the weapons I'd designed.

  "You can't defeat me, mistress," CORVAC said, his voice booming through the concrete canyons of downtown.

  I didn't respond. I was too busy concentrating on the readout on my wrist computer. With Fialux running interference between me and CORVAC's weaponry I suddenly had a moment to pause, breathe, and make sure I had all the information I needed.

  "Are you almost done?" Fialux asked. “Because this devious plan you’re running is making it really difficult to take out the giant death robot, and you know how your other devious plans have worked out in the past and…”

  "Almost there," I bit off, trying to hide my annoyance and not doing a very good job of it.

  A green light blinked on my wrist computer. Bingo. The map popped up and I grinned. Just as I suspected.

  "Okay, I've got everything I need," I said. "Go have your fun."

  Fialux grinned. I grinned right back at her. And hefted my wrist blaster. I figured she was probably going to be doing most of the work, but I might as well have a little fun too.