***
Axel would swear he heard Dawn speaking to him, like she was standing right beside him. He glanced around and saw no one other than Alena and the Nazibots. “Dawn?” he shouted into the air, resulting in a strange look from Alena. Then he heard her scream, and the sound chilled him to the bone. Her voice was unmistakable, but he did not hear it in his ears. He realized he had heard it in his head. “Dawn!” Axel cried.
Axel glanced at the hundreds of Nazibots running toward them, then at Alena. He needed to end this, to find Dawn and save her! “Get behind me!” he shouted at Alena. She nodded and in the span of less than a heartbeat she was six feet to his rear. Axel drew the electricity from his body, and from the air around him. Alena’s eyes went wide as she saw him begin to glow with a bluish light brighter than she had ever seen before. Suddenly, Axel released what could only be described as a roar from his lips as the blue energy leapt from the whole of his body, decimating all of the Nazibots in its path. Once the energy left him, Axel dropped to his knees, weakened and unable to stand. Alena rushed to help, kneeling down beside him.
“Are you alright?” she asked as she placed a palm on each side of his face. The concern in her voice was unmistakable.
“Yes,” he said weakly. “I’ll just need a moment to re-energize.”
“I don’t know that we have a moment,” Alena replied.
“The others are coming,” Axel said. “They’ll help us.”
Alena tilted her head to look at him. She was about to ask him how he could possibly know that when she heard voices behind her. She turned and saw Alexi, sprinting toward her with Tom and Rolf close behind. “Lexi!” she shouted as she leapt to her feet. In a flash, she met him and jumped into his massive arms. “Thank heavens you’re alright,” she said.
Axel turned to see his friends. He smiled as they reached him. His smile disappeared when he saw Dawn. “What happened to her?” he asked.
Rolf shook his head. “She was touching something upstairs and she started to float in the air.”
“Float in the air?” Axel asked.
Rolf nodded. “Then she just fell over.”
Axel looked at Tom. “I would swear I heard her speak to me,” he said. “She told me you were coming.”
“You did hear her, Axel,” Tom replied. “She’s using telepathy or something—I don’t know. We’ve all heard her. She led us to you.”
Axel swallowed. “Then she’s in trouble. Bad trouble.”
Tom cocked his head to the side as he stared at his friend. “What do you mean?”
“I heard her scream,” Axel said. “The most horrifying scream I have ever heard.”
That revelation sent a chill up Tom’s spine. “We have to stop Arnulf,” he said through clenched teeth.
Axel nodded. “That’s where we were headed.”
Tom’s eyes surveyed the hundreds of vanquished and decimated Nazibots littering the corridor before him. “And you’ve been busy, I see.”
“Yes, but I’m afraid I’ve exhausted my energy supply.”
“Here, let me help you up,” Tom said as he tried to lift Axel.
“Wait,” they heard Alena say behind them. “Lexi, go carry Axel, okay?”
“Okay, Lena,” he said. The giant of a man walked past the others to stand before Axel, reached down and lifted him up with ease.
Alena stepped over to Tom. “You’re Tom, right?” she asked.
“He’s Canary,” Rolf corrected her, trying to cover up Tom’s real identity. Alena and Tom both smiled.
“Well, Canary, until…um…Blitz is recharged, you’re going to be our only firepower. Can you handle that thing?” she asked as she pointed toward Tom’s rifle.
Tom smiled and chuckled. “My dear, I was killing Nazis when the rest of you were in diapers.”
“Good to know,” Alena said with a smile. “I’ll scout ahead. Be right back.” In a blur of red she was gone. Tom turned to say something to Axel, but was interrupted by a gust of wind as Alena returned. “We’re all clear to the command room.”
“Christ, that was fast,” Tom said.
Alena gave him a quick wink. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go,” she said.
Tom led the way, rifle held at the ready. Alena was close behind, then Rolf and Dawn followed by Alexi and Axel.
***
The scream had barely escaped Dawn’s lips when the great dragon reached her. It did not chomp down on her as she had feared, however. Instead it grabbed her in its mighty claw, its long talons curling around her. It flew faster and faster and then slammed her into the ground shattering concrete around her. She did not understand how there could be ground or concrete in this place, but there were both.
She moaned through the pain, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. She suddenly felt the dragon’s warm breath and smelled smoke and sulfur. She blinked her eyes open to see the dragon leaning over her, its snout just inches from her face. It chuckled, a deep unnerving laugh. Then it spoke. Its voice reminded her of Arnulf’s, but there was something deeper in it—more primal.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find you lurking around in here?” the dragon asked, its sharp fangs just inches from her face. “Did you think you could take what was mine?”
“Yours? What is yours?” Dawn asked.
“This. Everything. The alien base belongs to me. With it, I shall be master of the world.”
“Yeah, your old boss thought he could be master of the world, too. Look how that turned out.”
The dragon reared back its head with a thunderous laugh. “Hitler was a moron. Very good at getting people to do what he wanted, but otherwise an idiot.” The dragon went on a diatribe about the failings of the Fuhrer and why Arnulf’s plan was vastly superior. How he was sure to succeed where Hitler’s Reich had failed.
As the beast spoke, Dawn glanced about taking in her surroundings. She appeared to be just outside of an old, medieval castle. How in the hell was that possible? Dawn turned back to the dragon and interrupted his arrogant rant.
“We will stop you!” she spat at him. This caused him to laugh again.
“Oh yes. The Jews, the Slavs, and their pet monkey girl,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as his eyes narrowed on Dawn. “A truly fearful threat.”
“Monkey girl?” Dawn asked.
“Yes, my little monkey in a cage,” he said as a terrifyingly wry smile spread across his scaly face. He lifted Dawn up off the ground and threw her into a giant cage that seemed appropriate for a giant canary and slammed the door shut. Dawn stood, slamming herself against the bars, shaking the gate as the dragon morphed into Arnulf. It was a more handsome, younger version, dressed sharply in an SS uniform, but it was clearly Arnulf. He stared up at the cage. “Well, you are certainly the prettiest monkey I’ve ever seen,” he smiled at Dawn. “Later, if you’re a good girl, I’ll put you on a leash and let you dance for me.” He began to cackle as he turned away from Dawn. He reached forward and gripped a doorknob, opening a door that had appeared out of nowhere, the light pouring from it into the dark space. He stepped through, closing the door behind him and snuffing out the light.
Chapter 25
Tom led the way into what they were referring to as the “control room” where Arnulf had disappeared behind a protective cone shaped mass of organic metallic material and taken control of the alien base.
“I think I’m feeling strong enough to stand on my own now, Alexi,” Axel said as they entered the room and the giant man nodded as he set Axel down with a smile.
“Where are all the Nazibots?” Axel asked anxiously.
“Feels like a trap,” Tom said, verbalizing the fear they all felt.
“Doesn’t matter,” Alena said flatly. “We have to destroy him and this is where he is.”
“Where?” Tom asked and Alena and Axel pointed to the large metallic cone in the center of the room into which Arnulf had disappeared. Tom approached it cautiously. He began to circle it. “I don’t see a door, hatch or
anything,” he said.
“Just like the rest of this place,” Alena said.
“Axel, have you tried electrocuting it?” Tom asked.
“Yeah, it was the first thing I did. It didn’t do anything. The energy was simply dispersed throughout the room.”
“Well, there has to be someway into it. I mean he got inside, so we can as well,” Tom said.
“There is a way,” came Arnulf’s creepy disembodied voice. “I can open it up.”
“Go ahead,” Alena said causing Arnulf to laugh wickedly.
“Oh no my dear, it will not be that simple. I will open it when you are ready to bow down and submit to me.”
“You’re going to get quite lonely in there,” Axel retorted.
“We shall see,” Arnulf hissed.
“Alexi open it!” Alena shouted and her brother bounded up the steps as he raised his massive hammer and slammed it down into the exterior of the cone. The cone vibrated so hard that it caused a shock wave which sent Alexi tumbling down the steps while knocking the others off of their feet.
“That was a valiant effort,” Arnulf laughed. “But the base’s self defense mechanisms prevent such brute force from destroying it.” Suddenly the walls of the room began to open up, like a giant puzzle to reveal a large cavernous space filled with thousands of Nazibots.
“Jesus,” Tom whispered.
“I will break you. Each of you. And you will serve me. This is just a small taste of my power. I can produce millions of these ‘Nazibots’ as you called them. Plus flying craft, transports, you name it. And with my super soldiers leading my armies, the world will fall to its knees within days of the invasion.”
“Form a circle,” Tom barked. “Place Dawn in the center. We need Rolf’s hands free to fight.” They obeyed quickly, forming up into a circle. Rolf laid Dawn gently upon the ground. “Rolf and Alexi, stand on opposite sides. Alena, you’re by me so I can cover your area while you rush outward to fight. Axel, you’re opposite us.”
“Are you ready?” Arnulf asked as he chuckled at Tom’s preparatory commands. “May I order the attack now?”
Instead of answering, Tom raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired, hitting a Nazibot in the chest and knocking it down. “Bring it on, you Nazi asshole!”
Arnulf obliged. The Nazibots began marching forward in perfect unison, their stun pistols raised. Alena did not wait for them to reach her. She dashed outward, a sword in each hand chopping at the Nazibots with blinding speed. She removed a head here and an arm there. She sliced, slashed, stabbed and cut destroying Nazibot after Nazibot as she dodged stun blasts. But they kept coming.
Tom pulled the trigger of his M-16 over and over, placing well-aimed shots into approaching Nazibots. There was little need to aim, however, as the mass of enemy was so large that it would have been difficult to miss hitting one. He dropped the magazine, allowing it to fall to the ground with a clatter, and quickly slapped a new one inside. He glanced about to see how the others fared.
Alexi and Rolf were being pelted with stun blasts, but due to their armor and strength the blasts were more of an annoyance than anything. Alexi stepped forward swinging his mighty war hammer upward, slamming into a Nazibot. He brought the hammer back down, crushing another. He then swung the hammer across his body tearing a large hole in the ranks of the enemy. He swung back across, swiping more of the robots.
Across the circle from Alexi, Rolf was using his massive shield to block the stun blasts. As the Nazibots moved closer, he slammed his shield forward knocking the first row down. He then reached around the shield and snatched the head off of one of the bots with his massive hand. He reared back and threw the head with all of his might and it tore a hole through the chest of another. Rolf began using his shield as a weapon, swinging it from side-to-side, smashing waves of robots as they kept advancing toward him. He swung his shield across his chest to his left, knocking three bots to the side, and then reached out and snatched another bot up by its right leg. Rolf began to swing the bot like a club, back and forth, slamming it into other attackers. He slammed the Nazibot again and again, smashing it to bits as it slammed into the enemy. Rolf turned and glanced over his shoulder at Axel.
Axel was not fully recharged yet which was evidenced by his conservative use of energy blasts. Like Tom, Axel was taking well aimed shots intending to immobilize the target with the first blast, and with just enough power to do so. Blue energy leapt from Axel’s fingertips, popping heads off of Nazibots. He fired quickly, taking each robot out before it had a clear shot with its stun gun, but their numbers were beginning to overwhelm him. Using his lightning bolts so conservatively, he was not going to be able to fend them off for long. Suddenly, he was hit by a stun blast. Axel expected to collapse as the electricity rippled through his body. To his great excitement he realized that the stun blast actually energized him, rejuvenating part of the energy he had lost and he sent the blast right back toward the Nazibot that had shot him. Axel smiled at the incoming robots as he stopped dodging the blasts, standing still to allow them to shoot him. “Oh yeah,” he said as he felt the currents of electricity rushing through him, empowering him more and more. Axel raised his hands and released one massive blast tearing a large chunk out of the Nazibot ranks.
Tom leapt, startled, and quickly turned to glance over his shoulder when he heard the explosion of Nazibots. He smiled as he realized Axel had just blasted a large swath of them. Axel was clearly feeling better. Tom turned back to the Nazibots in front of him and continued to fire his rifle. He was down to his last magazine and wanted to take care with his ammunition. He still had his sidearm, but once those rounds were exhausted he’d be left to rely on his bayonet. He was a normal human, not one of the prime humans as Sava Ruslan had referred to them, and did not relish the idea of hand-to-hand combat with armed robots. Tom took careful aim and plugged another robot, then another. They were moving in closer and closer and he kept firing. He was as conservative with his rounds as possible, but eventually exhausted his supply of M-16 ammunition and slung his rifle over his shoulder. He reached for his sidearm, drawing it as the Nazibots closed in.
Tom felt a stun blast impact his chest. It stung and made his legs feel like jelly. He dropped to one knee, but thanks to the insulated suit, he recovered quickly. As he recovered he realized that the Nazibots were getting too close. He raised his pistol and chambered a round just as robot arms reached for him. In a flash he saw two arms and a head fall to the ground and Alena was suddenly between Tom and the Nazibots, slashing and chopping at them. Her intervention gave him enough time to take aim and begin to fire. Once she had thinned out the enemy enough that Tom could protect himself, she was gone as quickly as she had arrived. Tom silently thanked her before pulling the trigger twice, dropping two Nazibots in their tracks. He stole a glance at Dawn who still lay unconscious on the floor, and hoped she was alright.
***
Dawn sat on the floor of the giant cage which hung high above the ground, leaning back against its bars. She had tried to open the gate, but it had held tight. The bars were strong, much too strong for Dawn to bend or break them and too close together for her to squeeze through. She could see and hear the fight between her friends and the Nazibots, but she could not communicate with them. Somehow this cage held her completely enclosed and cut-off, both mentally and physically.
Dawn lifted her head and narrowed her eyes. How could she be contained physically when her physical form was not here? She looked down at her hands. They were there just like normal, all ten fingers accounted for, but she knew that they weren’t really her hands. She pushed herself up to her feet. She was not really inside of a cage. In fact, there was no cage at all. It suddenly occurred to her that Arnulf wasn’t holding her prisoner. She was holding herself prisoner. Arnulf was simply tricking her mind, like placing someone in a circle and telling her if she stepped out of it she would die. Arnulf had convinced her that she was confined, but she knew that in reality she was not.
&nb
sp; Dawn squeezed her eyes tight and told herself that her body was not here, that the cage was not here. She opened her eyes and could still see the cage and her own physical body. Perhaps that was asking too much. Her mind was not quite ready to ignore what her eyes had told her was real. Perhaps she should try a different tactic.
Dawn closed her eyes again and this time she concentrated on the spot on the floor where Arnulf had entered the door. She told herself that she was not in the cage, but rather standing in that spot. She concentrated on being on the floor, imagining what the surroundings should look like when she opened her eyes. “When I open my eyes, I will be there,” she whispered to herself. She slowly opened her eyes and almost jumped for joy when she realized it had actually worked. She then turned to the location in the blackness where the door had magically appeared for Arnulf. She stared at it and concentrated on it opening. “Open,” she whispered. Nothing happened. She concentrated harder. “Open!” she shouted. She smiled broadly as the door opened bathing her in light before she stepped through into another room.
The door closed behind her as she stepped into what could only be described as the bridge of a futuristic space ship. Sitting in the captain’s chair watching the battle outside take place on a giant movie screen was Arnulf. He did not notice her enter as he was too consumed by the spectacle before him.
Dawn needed to take over the controls of the base, but she didn’t really know how to go about doing so. She decided on the old fashioned approach, assuming that whoever sat in the captain’s chair was captain of the ship. That meant she had to dislodge Arnulf, situate herself in his place, and take control while preventing him from being able to retake the chair. No easy task for sure. How could she do it? In the movies the good guy always snuck up behind the bad guy and hit him over the head with something. Dawn glanced around the room, but did not see anything she could use for that purpose lying about. She wished with all of her heart that she could find a baseball bat. She turned her head and to her great surprise, noticed a wooden bat propped up against the wall in the corner.
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