Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction

Titanium

47.90

Killer Robots

"Damnit, Sean, comic book writers don't employ the Stanislavski method."

"I do," I said, and threw the mech into gear. The roof exploded as it

straightened to full height. The walls collapsed as I strode forward.

Outside, people ran from their houses screaming. They looked like ants.

It was great. I was getting a lot of insight into my character's

motivation.

But when I said this to Joshua, he began waving his arms around.

"Titanium doesn't have any motivation?he's just a giant killer robot!

He's programmed to destroy!"

"Glad you reminded me," I said. I hit the "stomp" macro, and watched the

mech do its thing. The good part was that it could flatten a house in six

stomps. The bad part was that when it did, it looked like a third-grader

having a hissy-fit. I was going to have to fix that in the rewrite.

"Look, maybe you should power this thing down," Joshua said. "The police

are here."

"Bangin'." I began picking up cop cars and flinging them into the night.

It was trickier than it sounded. I had to stoop down and keep the mech's

back straight or else it would topple over. But when the cars hit, they

burst into flames. It was way cool. "I've got a good feeling about this

project. Titanium is gonna win awards!"

"I don't know why I even bother talking to you," Joshua said in a

resigned tone.

"Because I've got the mad skills, that's why. Hey! Wanna see this baby

take out a skyscraper?"

"Not really, no." Joshua was silent for a few minutes while I strode the

mech across the Walt Whitman Bridge, toward Philadelphia. (Lots of good

material there.) Then, abruptly, he said, "What's the name of that writer

who used to work with you on Bot Killer?"

"Ben Davis. Talented guy, but a little lazy. He wasn't willing to do the

kind of research it takes to write a first-rate comic." I toppled a water

tower. "Why?"

Joshua pointed fearfully up into the sky. A monstrous flying

transformer-type robot was roaring toward us. It loosed air-to-ground

missiles. "Because I think he's just gotten a frazz more ambitious."

The bridge exploded at our feet, and the mech plunged deep into the

Delaware. I seized the controls, and brought my offensive weaponry online.

This was going to be great!