Chapter 10: The crowd pleaser
After everyone passed out Tom went around cleaning up the beer cans and bottles of spent wine coolers through the house. All the girls were sleeping on the couch so he cut off the T.V. and went into his room to see Larry sprawled across his bed while Mike was snoring on the floor.
Once he made sure everyone was asleep he threw a couple of his robots into a sturdy tote and dragged them to the front porch before running to the basement to grab some Bud and a grinder. On his way out he overheard Chelsea talking in her sleep, she must have been having a nightmare about losing her nose because she kept grabbing her face...
After making sure everything was set he went outside and grabbed the tote while making his way to the garage on the side of the house. while Tom does most of his programming for running scripts in his room for the Bots the garage is where all the magic happens. His dad was so excited when Tom showed an interest in robotics he bought him a high end 3D printer with metal extruding capabilities, and gave Tom a Lowe's gift card so he could purchase whatever tools he may need.
Needless to say the garage was turned in to Tom's fortress of solitude, even his friends didn't go in there while he worked on his projects so they would never know about the collection of custom bongs and pipes he made with the printer. As Tom's printer was warming up he packed a bowl and started smoking while typing new ideas into his laptop.
"Hmm I feel like Mrs Crawley just looks like a spider.. I need to give her a web to make it more realistic". While Tom mused to himself about the upgrades he could come up with he started researching home made grappling hooks and fishing nets. After some browsing on YouTube he finally decided how to go about his project and jumped on Amazon to purchase a few different sized industrial springs before opening up his Lowe's mobile app for different types of cable and chain.
"Dad did say he would keep the balance up on my card.. and if I win the invitational and get into the top three in the finals I would have even more money." Rationalizing his expenditures he went ahead with a few purchases and made sure to use the gift cards he got on his birthday so it would look like he spent less.
"I could go ahead and start designing a mounting bracket and a winch to draw the web back after firing.. maybe I should make an interchangeable spike so it can just pierce the Bots that are too big for the net." Once Tom finished his design on the Tinkercad software he sent it over for the printer to start running. "And now we wait..."
The process of 3D printing is actually quite time consuming and unlike those that set and leave Tom prefers to watch the extrusion process in case a flaw appears, so he can stop it and correct the mistake instead of coming back to a hot mess. As the printer begins moving Tom pulls out his 'babies' and sets them out in chronological order starting with his trusty 'Snail Gunner' that was basically a glorified set of treads with armor and an air compressed nail gun modified to shoot 10 inch spikes "Oh man I can't believe this thing almost got me to the finals".
Tom started getting nostalgic while looking at his 'First born' before moving on to his 'Manic Mantis' which until recently was his most complex creation. The 'Mantis' proved to be a major pain in Tom's @$$ during production and due to bad luck was taken out in an early round two years ago at the Juniors league because of a bad match up against a rolling sledge hammer on wheels. He almost cried when his poor 'Baby' got whacked on the lead left leg causing it to bend right into the path of the rear left leg making it immobile for the ensuing pounding.
"It took me three days of constant work to get you back into shape.. your lucky I'm such a good father." The 'Mantis' is most likely Tom's Cruelest invention and the only one that is limited to melee combat with it's razor sharp sickles operated by an electric piston the 'screaming' noise it makes when they descend is soul scarring and the speed they can slice apart sheet metal is nerve wracking for anyone operating a speed oriented robot.
Tom continues on to pull out Mr Crawley the only Bot that wasn't designed to go into direct conflict. This disgusting little b@$t@rd is all about speed with six highly mobile legs and it's compartment full of thermite pellets. It took a while to figure out a way to make wireless ignition switches that he could activate individually but hard work pays off. Mr Crawley was designed to harass the opponent to death while keeping a safe distance leaving a veritable mine field between itself and the enemy. The only other weapon it has is a pair of jury rigged miniature skill saws that pop out from the sides underneath his wings.
Before Tom pulled out his latest creation he stood up to check the printer. Seeing as everything was running smooth he hit the bong again before coughing a lung up and retrieving Mrs Crawley. Where Mr Crawley was a harasser Mrs Crawley is designed to tank the damage and drag her opponents into a slug fest. Equiped with the same thermite pellets as Mr Crawley, a mini compressor similar to the snail Gunner, and a mini saw in place of fangs. Once he finishes her 'web gun' she will be ready to take on the world.
"Baby me and you are going to rule the ring this year." Tom says as he sets Mrs Crawley on his work bench next to the others "Talking to a robot spider that can't talk back is kinda creepy you know?" "HOLY F∆¢K!NG SH!T!!" Tom jumps up and turns around to see Mari standing behind him smirking.
"Don't you know what knocking is? If I had a something in my hand I might have whacked you or hurt myself Christ!" Mari just looks at Tom with her hands on her hips "Since when have I ever knocked? It's not like you were masturbating or anything" Tom sighs "What ever.. what's wrong why'd you wake up?".
"Nothing's wrong, I didn't fall asleep yet when you left I was trying to but when you opened the door I kinda got freaked out and wanted to make sure you weren't going to Harikari yourself over Ashley.." Tom raises an eyebrow before dignifying Mari with a response "We both know that would never happen, I love me too much to kill me besides.. Ashley is just a crush anyways no love lost there and she decided to go with Chad so I wouldn't even touch her with a ten foot pole".
"So you gonna show me what your 'Baby' can do? or do I have to wait like the other plebs?" "Eh I could give you a short demo, but let me check my printer first. There's some Bud in the grinder if you wanna smoke, the bowls cashed." As Tom gets up to check the printer again Mari empties and packs a fresh bowl into the bong before taking his work chair and spinning in circles while she smokes.
"Why don't we ever smoke out here? It's even big enough to run a game." After Tom Triple checks the printer once again he looks over at Mari still spinning in HIS chair before replying "Because this is the only place in the house I can be alone, Mike and Larry crash in my room every time, you and the girls take the couches, and if I go anywhere in the house and cut the lights on while y'all sleep Vicky might stab me for waking her up, Now gimme." Tom reaches out for the bong only for Mari to hold it away "Don't wanna it's mine now" Tom grabs the chair to stop her from spinning.
"Gimme or no demo.." "Oh please you have all the controllers right here I could probably show myself" Mari says indignantly as she reaches for a random controller. Tom frantically jumps in front of her to stop her and gets in her face to make a point.
"They are all fully loaded and looking right at us... If you push the wrong button a hospital trip would be the good ending, NEVER touch my robots these things could kill a man quickly as fast as you mash buttons". Mari begins to blush. "Fine I'll give you the bong if you tell me why My picture was in the drawer next to the wine..."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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