The Chronicles of AzzaNation: Dawn of a New Age

by Matt Mihilewicz

  He managed to drag himself within a few feet of the fang. He was so close now he could taste it! However, as he edged his way closer, Sheena stopped her thrashing and focused on him once again. Blood continued to fall from her face, landing in the dirt beneath her. She opened her mouth as she growled, revealing her one remaining fang. Her yellow eyes narrowed their gaze in a murderous rage on Leo, as she became determined to finish him off.

  She pounced on him, just as his fingers grasped for the fang. She opened her mouth and tried to devour his head in one bite, but Leo sacrificed his free arm to intercept her. She dug into the flesh of his arm, with enough force to almost amputate it. The pain was excruciating—but it didn’t matter because Leo was about to win. He used all the energy he still had to increase the speed of his attack as he drove the fang straight into Sheena’s temple. Blood sprayed out of the wound, like a faucet with a sudden leak—and Leo watched as the rage in Sheena’s yellow eyes faded into emptiness.

  Sheena’s lifeless body fell over with Leo’s arm still in its mouth. He removed his arm and stood up, favoring his one good leg. He didn’t hear the crowd’s cheers. He didn’t see the medics rush in to assist with his wounds. He did what he had to do to survive—and now, his mind was focused on only one thing…escape.

  _________________________

  After the prison medics did the bare minimum required to patch Leo’s wounds, they sent him on his way. One guard had grabbed him aggressively once the medics told him they were done and began escorting him through the halls. Leo limped behind the guard slowly. His open wounds had been patched up with a salve, but it did nothing for the pain, so all he could do, was take his time and favor his one good leg.

  “Hurry your ass up inmate,” said the guard, as Leo took a second to rest along the wall.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” he replied. He didn’t know this guard’s story, but he always found it safer to show them respect—even if they didn’t deserve any. “My leg was hurt bad, in that fight. Just a sec—”

  “I saw the fight, inmate,” interrupted the guard. “And just because you got lucky with that fang, I’m down two bricks of thetinum.”

  He knew what was coming next. The guard took the butt-end of his ELC rifle and shoved it hard into Leo’s abdomen. The speedster curled over and spit out some blood, coughing in pain.

  He wanted to fight back, but his body and energy wouldn’t allow it. Not only was his inhibitor chip active again, but his body was in an incredible amount of pain.

  “Careful…” was all Leo could get out, as he spat up more blood onto the ground.

  The guard, clearly not impressed, grabbed Leo by his hair and pulled him up to face him. “What did you say to me?”

  “I said…be careful,” said Leo, staring the guard down. “If you do too much damage to me, the Warden will hear about it…and then you’ll lose a lot more than a couple bricks of thetinum.” Leo emphasized his point by spitting one last glob of blood on the ground and then straightening himself up. Without looking back at the guard, to see his reaction, Leo continued walking down the hall.

  For the rest of their journey through Adras, the man left Leo alone. He didn’t strike again, even though Leo could feel his intent to do so. With the guard’s hostilities neutralized, the speedster slowly inched his way through the prison, on his way back to his cell. With every step, he waited for the Brotherhood member who would come to his rescue. In that moment, he wished Coté had given him more details about the operation. If he had known approximately where the rescue was going to take place, he could have prepared for it. Instead, he was forced to remain on edge for the entire walk. He watched everything and everyone with curiosity and hope, wishing that as they passed around the next corner, his salvation would be waiting for him.

  And eventually, it was.

  As Leo and his escort passed through the western corridor, on the upper level of Adras, they passed by a small window, that allowed some rare natural light into the depressing prison. Leo gave a quick glance out the window and saw a desert falcon flying close to the wall. The bird flew with such purpose and freedom that it filled the speedster with envy. He watched the bird closely, as the falcon flew along the outer perimeter of the prison, and as it passed by his window, he thought that it locked eyes with him, and more importantly, he saw that its eyes were glowing yellow.

  He smiled as he realized the bird was Coté, but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to prepare for what came next. An immediate explosion overtook the outside wall of the corridor. Leo was sent flying to the ground and the guard, who was escorting him, was knocked unconscious. The prison’s alarm system was now blasting through the halls. Leo turned himself over and tried to keep his vision in focus. Suddenly, a man appeared in the corridor out of thin air. Leo thought that he may have been struck in the head a little too hard, but once the man saw the speedster, he ran over and knelt beside him. The man had long blonde hair, which was pushed back by a dark blue headband he was wearing, that rested just above his emerald green eyes. The headband had a symbol on it that Leo had never seen before. It was a symbol of a sword with a pair of wings coming from the sword’s guard.

  “Leo,” said the man, “Are you alright? My name is Jacob Knight, and I’m from the Brotherhood of Light.”

  “…I’m a little dizzy but I can manage,” said Leo, trying to regain his composure. He was so disoriented, he couldn’t fully appreciate the moment.

  “Well I am sorry to hear that cause you’re about to go for the ride of a lifetime, and it has been known to be a little…rough.” Jacob grabbed Leo’s arm, “But don’t worry…you should be fine.”

  Then, in a quick flash, Jacob and Leo disappeared and left Adras. One second Leo was looking at the prison’s corridor—Jacob standing over him, the incapacitated guard lying in the corner—and then all the shapes and colors merged in a swirling cyclone. Leo felt his head spin, like he was being whipped around in a hurricane, and then just as quick as it happened, the shapes and colors untwisted and formed a new set of surroundings. Immediately after teleporting, Leo threw up. Not just blood came out this time, as bits of his prison scraps covered the ground beneath his hands. He felt like he had motion sickness, nausea, and vertigo all at once. Everything was constantly moving around him and going in and out of focus. He tried to make out where he was, but it was difficult to concentrate. He thought he was still in the desert but he couldn’t be sure. As he felt another wave of nausea overtake him, forcing him to vomit, he felt a hand touching his neck, where his implant was imbedded underneath his skin. Leo turned to face Jacob, but he fell over instead.

  “Easy now Leo…your first time teleporting is bound to make you feel sick. It’s important that you relax and take deep breaths.”

  Leo did as he was told and tried to talk but found that he couldn’t open his mouth without gagging. Instead, he pointed to his implant hoping that Jacob would understand his question.

  “Your implant?” Jacob asked and Leo gave a quick nod for Jacob to continue. “Well we have to remove it, I’m afraid. It has a tracking device in it, and I can’t take you to the Brotherhood’s base with that now, can I?” he laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood—but he found that Leo was too preoccupied to appreciate his efforts. “Anyway…that’s why I only teleported a little ways outside Adras. We have to remove your tiny friend before we continue.” Jacob laughed awkwardly again, then he pulled out a scanning device and a small knife.

  The Brotherhood member placed the scanning device over the area with the implant on Leo’s neck. He began typing a few commands into the device, and in a couple of seconds, the device let out a loud chime.

  “There, I blocked the transmission your implant receives so this next part won’t kill you.”

  Leo’s eyes widened in fear as he looked at Jacob, or at least the giant blob he assumed was Jacob.

  “Relax…” said Jacob, “I just said it won’t kill you…but it will still hurt like a son of a bitch.”

  Bef
ore Leo had time to protest, Jacob had grabbed his knife. He held Leo’s head down with his left hand and began to cut into Leo’s flesh with the knife he held in his right. Leo screamed out in pain as Jacob carefully cut around the deactivated implant. The one benefit of the excruciating pain that entered Leo’s mind and body, was that it had reset his vision. The motion sickness he was experiencing from teleporting had disappeared and sobered him up to his new reality. He wished he had the time to appreciate the irony, but he was too busy trying not to pass out. Somehow, the new pain in his neck began to intensify his previous wounds from his fight with Sheena. His arm and leg began throbbing, burning like fire, and it took all his energy to stay conscious.

  After Jacob finished tracing Leo’s implant with his knife, he carefully used his fingers to pull back the flap of skin that was covering the inhibitor chip, and with a few more precise cuts with his knife, Jacob removed the implant from Leo’s neck. Even though the implant was deactivated, it was still attached to some of Leo’s nerves, and as Jacob removed it, the pain became excruciating. The speedster let out a loud and agonizing scream before the pain overtook him, making him pass out. Jacob threw the implant away and then quickly pulled out a bandage out of his pack to apply to Leo’s wound, but as he was applying pressure, he was shot by an electric pulse.

  Jacob began convulsing and fell into the blood and vomit stained sand, unable to control his movements. As he lay on his side, he saw three royal soldiers approaching their position, each one carrying ELC rifles, and looking ready to kill a couple of rebels.

  _________________________

  Diandra didn’t know how long her mission was supposed to take. It had been over a month since she left the Egon society and almost half that time was spent walking in the treacherous Singh Desert. She had never been in a desert before and found the energy was far more different than in the mountains or woods. There was energy in the dry sands, but it felt wild and sharp. She stopped to try and tap into the harsh wind that surrounded her, but she found it extremely difficult. She wanted to let the wind pass through her, but it rejected her and the sand scratched away at her skin.

  “Ouch,” she said as she wiped the blood off her face. “That wasn’t very nice.”

  For a moment Diandra thought the wind was responding to her, as she heard a voice. It was very faint, but she could hear screams of pain. Her eyes went wide as she realized that it wasn’t the wind screaming but a person. There was no way to know for sure if it was the man she was supposed to help, but there was only one way to find out.

  She ran as fast as she could through the deep sand towards the screams. It took her a couple minutes to climb the nearest dune, and when she reached the top, she saw two men—one with long blonde hair wearing a makeshift but effective set of leather armor, while the other was lying on the ground screaming in pain. The blonde man appeared to be operating on the one on the ground. Diandra stared more closely, and watched as the man on the ground passed out, bringing his screams of pain to an abrupt end. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed three soldiers covertly making their way towards the two men. She gasped as one soldier shot an electrified pulse at the blonde one. The shot hit dead on as the blonde man fell to the ground, twitching as he was being electrified.

  Without thinking, Diandra ran down the dune towards the action, her cloak flapping behind her. When she was in range, she focused on the electric energy engulfing the blonde man. Her eyes and tattoos glowed blue as she isolated the electric energy. She drew it towards her, leaving the blonde man stunned but still alive. As she gathered the energy into her hands, she converted it to a glowing blue natural energy, which was much easier for her to control. The soldiers noticed her now and began shooting pulses in her direction. She quickly used the energy she had gathered to create a shield in front of her. Then, she focused on the soldier closest to her, and as he shot another electric shot, she focused on the pulse and pushed it back towards him. He was hit head on and began convulsing as he fell to the ground.

  Diandra then focused on the next soldier, and as they were about to shoot, she intensified the energy in their gun, causing it to explode. After witnessing this, the last soldier began to retreat. He turned and went into a squatting position. Then as he released, he jumped fifty feet into the air and disappeared out of Diandra’s sight.

  She realized she couldn’t catch the last soldier even if she wanted to, so she turned toward the injured men and ran as hard as she could, hoping that she wasn’t too late. When she got close, she saw that the man with the long blonde hair was starting to recover. He looked at her and smiled, but his focus quickly changed to his companion.

  “Thank Kahl you actually came…My friend needs medical attention, he’s bleeding out.”

  Diandra looked to the man on the ground. He had short hair and it was a dark brown. She knew immediately that this was the man that she was supposed to save. She reached out to feel his life force, but there wasn’t much left and it was fading fast. She knelt beside him and drew out the natural energy that she had made before. She focused it into the palms of her hands and then placed her hands on the man’s neck wound. She focused as hard as she could—sweat began to drip from her forehead. She poured all the natural energy into the man, and his wounds began to heal. Not only the massive wound on his neck, but also the ones on his arm and leg. When all the natural energy left Diandra, her tattoos and eyes returned to normal, and she fell back, breathing heavily.

  “So how is he doc?” laughed the long-haired man, as he sat up.

  Diandra looked at the man she was sent to save and smiled.

  “He’s going to be okay.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  W alking in darkness. A faint light ahead illuminates the way. Leo doesn’t know where to go or what he’s doing, but he knows that it’s important. He walks with faceless shapes that turn around and tell him to jump. As he’s in the air, he looks back and sees his father waving to him, smiling with pride. His body lands in an arena, a crowd screams at him to fight. He reaches for a weapon and sees a small house on fire—the sight fills him with unbelievable grief and sorrow. As he turns to leave, the ground collapses and he begins to fall—into a vast emptiness—

  Leo woke up with a jolt, sitting completely upright in his bed. He felt disorientated and slightly nauseous. Slowly, he reached his hand to his head and found that he was sweating profusely. He took a couple deep breaths, trying to remain calm, and looked around his new environment to get a better grasp of where he was.

  “I have to stop passing out all the time,” he mused softly to himself.

  He was in a single bed, and was hooked up to some type of medical scanner. As he continued to look around, he guessed that he was in a makeshift medical bay. There were other beds like his lined up along the rest of the room, each with a scanner next to it. The other beds were empty, however. In fact, the entire room was empty except for Leo. Then, out of what he assumed was an office in the back of the room, a tall darthian walked into the medical bay.

  The darthian was wearing basic clothes with a grey overcoat. They began sorting through supplies on one of the shelves. Leo watched them with an intense curiosity. He had only seen pictures of darthians—never one in person. Their unique bodies and sexless forms intrigued him. They had a long narrow neck that led to an egg-shaped head. Their face was mostly humanoid, with only slits for nostrils, and large pure-black eyes. Their appearance was unnerving, but nothing he couldn’t handle—that was until he saw the darthian reveal their second set of arms. The additional limbs came out of the darthian’s midsection, around their ribcage—reaching for some supplies on one of the lower shelves, and Leo, at the sight of this unknown species standing in front of him, gasped out loud. The darthian turned, noticing their patient’s reaction and walked towards Leo’s bed at a calm and steady pace.

  “Ah Mr. Leo, I’m glad to see that you’re finally awake. My name is Kip of Rithon and I am your doctor here with the Brotherhood of Light.” They checked
the scanner at the side of Leo’s bed, “From what I’ve been told, you were pretty close to death, but you’ve made a remarkable recovery.”

  Leo was still staring at the second set of arms that came out of Kip’s ribcage, his mouth agape.

  “And I’m glad to see that your curiosity is healthy as well.” Kip gave a calm smile as Leo snapped out of his trance.

  “Oh…I’m sorry,” said Leo, feeling embarrassed. “I’ve never seen a darthian before.”

  Kip continued to give their comforting smile. “Well I would be surprised if you had. My people rarely work outside of Infinity stations or Caas.”

  Leo didn’t know a lot about the darthians, but from what he had heard throughout his years on AzzaNation, they sometimes set up small merchant stations in major cities, but for the most part they preferred to make deals out of the gated city, Caas, and Infinity Station L-579. It was always said that the darthians came to AzzaNation after hearing Kahl’s message to develop more trading relationships, and earn more income for themselves. Their technology was always superior to any other species, but instead of using it to dominate the planet or fight themselves, they decided to set up a business model and sell their wares. And when fighting eventually did break out on the planet, the darthians always remained neutral, not out of distaste for fighting, but so they could sell their technology to anyone who could afford it. Of course, now that Infinity monopolized the tech market, they could set their prices as high as they wanted—allowing the rich, like Grindaull and his royals to remain in power, while everyone else struggled to survive.

  “So, you’re not a member of Infinity?” asked Leo, trying to get a read on Kip. Their species were objectively greedy and self-serving by nature, but the one in front of him claimed to be a medical officer for the Brotherhood of Light. “I’ve never heard of a darthian who wasn’t a…merchant.”