The other two competitors were seasoned pros: Mitzi “The Mitt” Corcoran, whose hands moved faster than a sewing machine, and Old Proxx, a retired factory lead with bionic fingers.

Judges laughed.

So he stopped racing them. He started building his way — slow, weird, asymmetrical. He used zip ties where they used welds. He rerouted the power core to the hip instead of the chest. When the two-hour mark hit, Mitzi and Proxx had two sleek, textbook exos. Marco had a lopsided, humming, cobbled-together mess.