Shellshock Live Double Rainbow

[Urbano Bozman]

THISTIME OF YEAR, the phones are always ringing: A Good Samaritan has found a snapper hit on the road with a broken shell. An animal control officer is coming with a painted turtle chewed by a dog. A volunteer retrieves from a pond a snapping turtle with the bolt of a crossbow through the neck.

Entering the front door, we step over a knee-high wooden barricade to the living room. We are soon met with one reason for the barrier. Pizza Man, a twenty-year-old, twelve-pound red-footed tortoise with a knobby black-and-yellow shell, is headed toward us like a slow-motion missile. High-stepping on columnar legs, his toenails tapping softly on the wooden floor, he holds his pale yellow bottom shell tall as he paces determinedly across the room. He stops two inches from my feet. He jerks his wizened-looking head to the right, holds it still for a second, jerks his head back to the center, then jerks it to the left. He then swings his neck back to center and stares up into my face.

I had always thought of turtles as silent. But, as I was soon to learn, much of what I thought I knew about turtles was wrong. Snapping turtles, for instance, are usually pretty chill; I would quickly learn how to pick up even the largest of them safely. Within weeks, Matt and I would come to know one enormous snapper, Fire Chief, so well we could feed him by hand.

At the bottom of the stairs, the first thing we see is the surgical theater: spotless aluminum exam and operating tables; a high-intensity light and a magnifying viewer; a Doppler ultrasound machine that can estimate blood flow through the heart and blood vessels; storage areas for surgical instruments, bandages, vet wrap, and syringes; scales for weighing turtles large and small; blackboards listing meds and procedures scheduled for various patients; a fridge and freezer for storing foods and meds; a stacked washer/dryer; a deep double sink.

They created posters and flyers telling others how to help, too. But they kept finding turtles hit by cars, run over by lawn mowers and hay mowers, chewed by dogs, or afflicted by disease from neglect or poor care from people who had bought them as pets or had taken them from the wild.

They live slowly. They breathe slowly. (In cold water, an olive ridley sea turtle can hold its breath for seven hours.) Their hearts beat slowly, sometimes, as with the red-eared slider, just one beat per minute. During the turtle summit, we were astonished to learn how slowly the patients here react to drugs. Many analgesics are useless, because a painkiller that would work on a mammal in seconds or minutes could take hours or even days to take effect on a turtle.

This story was made possible with the support of Merloyd Ludington Lawrence. Excerpted from Travels in Turtle Time, written by Sy Montgomery and illustrated by Matt Patterson, due out in fall 2023 from HarperCollins.

The robot was two-wheel drive and invertible, armed with a rainbow-colored horizontal spinning bar, driven by a large brushless motor and belt drive. Although the primary weapon could reach a deadly speed, it struggled to cause damage to well-armored machines, largely due to its weapon belt being too tight and suffering issues with their speed controllers. Debuting in the fourth season of the show, Rainbow won two matches, including a rumble and a knockout win over Nelly The Ellybot, but failed to make the Top 16 following a convincing loss at the hands of Yeti.

Rainbow was originally called Pinkie Pie (Russian: Пинки пай) featuring characters from TV show My Little Pony on the top armor panel, which were hand-painted by the team. Despite competing under this guise in Russia and India, due to copyright issues, the name and top panel artwork had to be changed to fit the new name.[1] As such, Rainbow was weighed ahead of filming without its Team Rainbow artwork, which was applied by Karina Khatkevich and Daria Antipova ahead of their official photos. The original version of the robot weighed just 198lbs, but was upgraded to fit the 250lb limit ahead of BattleBots.

The team have not returned to BattleBots after World Championship IV, with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting almost every international team in the fifth and sixth reboot seasons. Despite this, the team have remained active within the Russian scene.

Rainbow returned in October 2023 under an all-female team called Energy Girls, for the Russian live event Bitva Robotov.[2] This team consisted of captain Zoya Sudakova, Valeria Orlova, Alina Bektasheva and Sasha Kravchenko. The robot was subsequently renamed Iron Wind.

Rainbow's first match was against fellow newcomer Nelly The Ellybot. When the match began, Rainbow's weapon got up to speed and began to attack Nelly's wedge, causing minor damage. Rainbow continued to attack and tore into the face of Nelly, leaving Nelly's left googly eye inoperable and sending one of Nelly's ears flying. Rainbow continued its assault and tore off Nelly's right eye completely. Nelly was still mobile, so Rainbow went after the other eye, ripping it off and damaging the face further. Nelly showed very limited movement after this attack, so Rainbow delivered a final hit which also dislodged its own weapon belt. Nelly The Ellybot was counted out, giving Rainbow the win by KO after 1:05.

Rainbow's second match came in a rumble against Double Jeopardy and Extinguisher. When the fight began, Rainbow was able to spin up their weapon going and damage Extinguisher while also avoiding the latter's hammer. After a hit, Rainbow's weapon struggled to get up to top speed, but was able to cause minor damage. While Extinguisher and Double Jeopardy were losing mobility, Rainbow mostly stayed away, trying to get their weapon going again. Time ran out with only Rainbow showing true translational movement, so the judges awarded Rainbow a unanimous 3-0 decision.

Rainbow's next opponent was Greg Gibson and Yeti. Unfortunately, the team was unable to repair its weapon in time, forcing Rainbow to fight with its bar barely functioning. As the match began, Rainbow was immediately on the retreat, trying to spin up its bar weaponry. Rainbow took a big hit from Yeti which cracked part of their rear armor, dislodged their top plate, and flipped the robot over. Rainbow started smoking heavily as a result from its batteries being ruptured inside. Despite being invertible, Rainbow was no longer moving and was counted out, giving Yeti the win by KO in under a minute. Despite a positive 2-1 record, Rainbow was not selected to advance to the knockout tournament.

Iron Wind's first match was against a 4WD drum spinner named Gladiator. The fight started with both bots spinning up and a weapon to weapon shot that tore off Gladiator's drum. Iron Wind took a second to spin up again and landed a finishing blow that killed Gladiator. Gladiator was counted out, giving the win to Iron Wind who advanced to the next round to face a well-armored vertical spinner known as B.O.B.R.

The fight started with both bots spinning up and Iron Wind landing a one-two punch that disabled B.O.B.R. B.O.B.R was counted out and the win went to Iron Wind who advanced to the next round where it would face the Turkish drum spinner, Lonely Wolf.

The fight started with both bots spinning up and exchanging a weapon to weapon shot that threw Iron Wind into the screws. Iron Wind spun up and exchanged several more weapon to weapon shots with Lonely Wolf that killed it. Lonely Wolf was counted out and the win went to Iron Wind who advanced to the next round to face the terrifying vertical spinner of Putevoy-23.

The fight started with bot bots spinning up and Putevoy-23 landing a devastating uppercut that dislodged Iron Wind's top plate and killed its weapon. Putevoy-23 landed another minor hit before backing off and spinning up. Putevoy-23 landed several more devastating shots over the course of the fight that completely killed Iron Wind. Iron Wind was counted out and the win went to Putevoy-23 who advanced to the semifinals.

RainbowParticipation InformationReboot SeasonsWorld Championship IVOther NamesPinkie Pie

(Original name)Team InformationTeamTeam UnicornTeam MembersPetr Kravchenko (Captain)

Karina Khatkevich

Daria AntipovaFromSt. Petersburg, RussiaRobot StatisticsWeaponsHorizontal bar spinnerStatistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt. Rainbow was a heavyweight robot built by Russia's Team Unicorn, which competed in BattleBots World Championship IV.

The robot was heart-shaped, two-wheel drive and invertible, armed with a rainbow-colored horizontal bar spinner driven by a large brushless motor and belt drive. Although the primary weapon could reach a deadly speed, it struggled to cause damage to well-armored machines, largely due to its weapon belt being too tight and suffering issues with their speed controllers. Debuting in the fourth season of the show, Rainbow won two matches, including a rumble and a knockout win over Nelly The Ellybot, but failed to make the Top 16 following a convincing loss at the hands of Yeti.

Rainbow was originally called Pinkie Pie (Russian: Пинки пай) featuring characters from the TV show My Little Pony on the top armor panel, which were hand-painted by the team. Despite competing under this guise in Russia and India, due to copyright issues, the name and top panel artwork had to be changed to fit the new name.[1] As such, Rainbow was weighed ahead of filming without its Team Rainbow artwork, which was applied by Karina Khatkevich and Daria Antipova ahead of their official photos. The original version of the robot weighed just 198lbs, but was upgraded to fit the 250lb limit ahead of BattleBots.

The team have not returned to BattleBots after World Championship IV, with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting almost every international team during the two seasons which followed. Despite this, the team have remained active within the Russian scene.

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