End Boss

by Bryan Nyaude

  “Come back alive, okay?” Rick said and joined his sister in the main control room.

  “Right!” I whispered to myself, looking down, out of words to say. Weapons, I needed weapons before I went out there. I retracted back from the hatch door and went into the armory.

  Just what was I doing anyway? Logic told me to go with the others; however, my heart told me to go back.

  “Oh well,” I said to myself, replacing my armor battery with the new one.

  My armor vibrated silently and blinked green, alerting me that it was at full power. All was good again—time to kick some alien scum. I took some javelin bazookas and a few exploding pellets and placed them deeply into a new satchel pack. All right, I was ready to combat any opponent who came up to me. Oh who am I kidding? As I recalled last time, these javelin bazookas had done little damage to the terror beasts, and it was probably going to be the same in this case. “What now, for crying out loud?”

  Something landed on my head and held on too tight, causing me to lose my balance. It was some sort of creature of incredible power, grasping onto my head tightly. Was it a terror beast? But how had one got in here?

  “Huggers, there you are,” Rick said, walking into the armory. “I have been looking for you everywhere. Did you come to say goodbye to Den?”

  That’s right! I had forgotten that Rick was now friends with that little terror beast, of all things.

  “You know, I really want to shoot it,” I growled to him, wrestling to fix my hair again.

  I could still feel what felt like claw marks on my scalp and it felt really weird. I observed the odd relationship Rick and the creature shared, rather an uncomfortable sight.

  “Come on, Den,” Rick said, patting his evil pet softly. “Huggers was just trying to be friendly, just give him another chance.”

  “Oh sure,” I hissed, raising my eyebrows in anger, “Give him another chance so he could scratch my skull off? Yeah, don’t think so.”

  The idea of becoming friends with a terror beast, after the madness they caused, was just ridiculous. These creatures were wild and dangerous. Eventually, Rick would learn that lesson the hard way. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be too heart broken or dead. Without warning, the ship rattled and shook wildly. We had been hit by something. Pausing briefly, we looked at each other, confused, as we paced towards the main control room to see what was wrong. There was a small hole in the ship, causing some of the air outside to ooze in. Everyone put back on their helmets and began to prepare themselves for a confrontation.

  “Leaving so soon without a goodbye?” I heard a familiar voice say, coming from outside.

  “That voice,” the captain boomed from the com link to us. “It’s Peter, I really believe it is him.”

  Perfect timing, it saved me the trouble of having to look for him amidst this chaos. I clenched my fist, breathing deeply. My feelings towards him were great and negative. Grudges were not my thing, but when it came to Peter, that was another story. After his last stunt, I owed it to myself to get him back.

  “Keep going and don’t stop,” I ordered Dalla as I exited the ship by myself. “Don’t come back for me, no matter what happens. I will try to make it back as soon as I can.”

  Well! That was if I could; it looked like this was a one way trip for me. On the other hand, a risk I was willing to take. Looking ahead, I saw him and felt a surge of powerful anger. His appearance was different. Mainly, because of his newly acquired armor. It looked Rasian made, rather troublesome. I had to be careful in the way I confronted him.

  “Been a while, old friend,” I chuckled, tensing my body, aching to keep my emotions from taking control.

  “Den! Impossible,” Peter said, connecting to my com link. “How can you still be alive?”

  Good question, if I knew, he was going to be the first to know, right after I kicked his rear.

  “It doesn’t matter why I’m still alive,” I responded and aimed my javelin bazooka at him. “I am here right now and I have some questions I need to ask you.”

  “Well, you are right about one thing,” he laughed like a maniac, hiding behind his new armor helmet. “You will be dead soon, so there is no point in asking. You should have stayed dead, but oh well.”

  Hearing his constantly annoying voice was really irritating me—all I wanted to do was stuff some missiles down his throat. Before that, I had to know why he did it. Why did he betrayed all of us? We were his companions, his allies, and friends. Not friends exactly; although, close enough.

  “Siding with the enemy, how low can you get?” I bashed at him carelessly. “Why did you betray us?”

  This couldn’t be the Peter I once knew, it just couldn’t be. The Peter I knew was a scoundrel, but he was no traitor. There had to be a motive behind his actions. I had to find out for myself, even if it killed me. Well, literally speaking, of course.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” he snickered and fired small fast missiles from his new armor. What the! I barely saw them coming, until I was hit and on the ground. The damage impact on my chest was not deadly; nevertheless, painful. Impressive, he had acquired a very powerful armor to boast his ego. Another hit and it could be over instantly.

  “This is the true power of the Rasian armor,” he rampaged in madness, lifting his hands up in admiration.

  “Can you feel its destructive power, Den? Have you ever felt anything like this before?”

  Yep, it was official. I really wanted to stuff some missiles into his mouth. This was definitely Peter, but it wasn’t the Peter I knew from my past. He had changed from the man I once knew. Could I save him? What if I had no choice than to kill him in the end? No! There had to be some kind of explanation for his madness and I had to find it out, before making any decision. Maybe he was under some kind of hypnosis, just like the others in this kingdom. That could be it or at least hoped. The ground suddenly vibrated as more explosions sounded throughout the kingdom. The echo of battle and chaos was just too great to ignore anymore, and if this continued, there were going to be more causalities.

  “Peter, stop this lunacy, now,” I tried to reach out to him, lowering my javelin bazooka. “You can still do the right thing and help us end this chaos. Your actions will not be held against you.”

  “You are wrong,” he cut me off completely, with a tone that was almost human. “You and I both know that it is not true, Den. It is too late to save me and you know what? I don’t want to be saved, for the first time in my life, I am free to be myself.”

  He was starting to infuriate me completely. The more he talked, the more I wanted to punch him in the gut. It was his voice, it just irritated me. “Is this what you call free? Look around you, at all this chaos, this isn’t being free.”

  There was a long pause for a minute, I couldn’t figure out what his true intentions were, but at least he wasn’t attacking. Possibly, I was getting through to him.

  “No, just shut up,” he growled, raising his weapon at me. “No more talk, from now on, we just fight.”

  Okay then, I had tried. The only thing he now understood was violence. I raised my javelin bazooka and placed my left leg back for stability. Whoa, the weapon Peter was holding was glowing with radiance of neon particles—this was really dangerous for me. I had no idea how he had acquired one of these weapons, but if I took it head on: I was done for.

  “This is the sword of Ras,” he boasted, raising his weapon high, its shape shifted into a sword. “With this weapon, I will finish you once and for all.”

  He wasn’t joking, wasn’t he? It was now obvious he had completely lost his marbles and he was a danger to everyone around him. Fortunately, the others in the ship had taken off, so I didn’t have to worry about them for now. But who was going to protect me from him? I had not planned this through and it definitely looked like a plan that was going to backfire at me.

  “Here I come, Den,” Peter rattled and dashed towards me at a massive speed.

  He was so fast, I could barely keep up with hi
m, even with the help of my armor scanners. His suit was giving him an advantage unlike anything I had ever seen before. I stepped back, closely tracking him, trying to distance myself from him. Getting close to this enraged psychopath was too dangerous. My best option was to fend him off from afar. Unfortunately, I couldn’t distance myself, he was just too fast. Within close contact, he launched a forward strike with his neon sword, aiming for my chest, and I barely dodged it by ducking down. A piece of my armor was slashed off. He bounced off and retracted his blade for a second attack, from the bottom, aiming for my legs. I jumped out of his reach and extended my body away slowly. I needed a plan, something he couldn’t predict. Going head to head with him was just suicide. I blinked one minute, and realized the next moment, he had vanished. Impossible! Perhaps, my eyes were playing tricks on me, wouldn’t be the first time. Just what kind of armor did he have?

  “Where are you looking?” a voice whispered from behind, followed by a jolting pain in my spine.

  He had struck me down from behind with incredible speed; it looked hopeless for me. I fell hard to the ground, stunned, in pain. Never thought he would strike me from behind, a fatal mistake on my part. It was obvious—I was no match for him.

  “Why is this situation familiar to me?” he commented, standing on top of me, with his sword pointed down on my neck. “Oh, that’s right; I remember taking you out and you falling down into that hole. I don’t know how you survived, but this time, there won’t be no coming back.”

  I couldn’t agree with him more, he was absolutely right on both statements. His arrogance was going to be his downfall; he was too confident to act cautiously around me.

  “You are right about one thing,” I smiled, with my shields raised to maximum around me. “Only one of us will survive this.”

  Peter lowered his sword in curiosity and came close to me to see why I had said that. Perfect! It was a mistake that was going to haunt him dearly, because it was the chance I had been waiting for. While he had been rumbling on with his crazy speech, I had thrown a dozen exploding remote grenades all around the ground, and waited patiently for the right moment.

  “What are you,” he said but didn’t finish, as an explosion erupted and covered everything in massive fire.

  Everything went blank. All I could see was this massive ray of light, like my life was flashing before my eyes. Darn! I had used too much explosives. Not my ideal style of winning, but it was all to vanquish a greater foe. I coughed out as smoke came through my helmet. The lens covering it shattered to a few pieces, sending small fragments of glass next to my eyes. On the bright side, I was alive, although in bad shape. Can’t say the same for Peter, even if he was still alive, he wasn’t too happy. I looked around and saw nothing beyond the vibrant smoke. Had that explosion destroyed him? Nah! That fiend was still out there somewhere, just lying in wait. There was so much smoke and debris everywhere; it was the aftermath of a terrible war. My posterior body armor had been synched off and the chest area was almost half exposed.

  “You know that was a good plan, but it didn’t work,” a cold voice said. It was Peter and he sounded close by.

  I shrugged back in intense fear; my plan had failed after all. Peter sounded like himself and not someone in pain. All that work had been for nothing, making me feel completely worthless. From the fog of dust, Peter appeared, limping slowly with his fists clenched and shaky. No, I had injured him after all. A part of his armor had been dented badly—I could tell by the smoke it was emitting in the back.

  “I have had enough of you,” Peter hissed at me and charged: “I will end this now.”

  Quickly, I stood up and shifted my body sideways, to move into his blind spot. Something was different about him. His once lightning speed was gone as he was now slower, and his movements were almost predictable. I could easily predict the range of his neon sword and evade without too much trouble.

  “What is wrong, Peter?” I teased, starting to feel confident I could win. That last explosion had damaged his armor, nullifying his speed back to normal. Every move he made was easy to read and counter. “I thought you said you would end it now.”

  Peter’s movements became even more vicious as the length of his blade extended greatly. Yes, that idiot was letting his emotions impair his judgment. Despite my advantage, I had no weapon strong enough to defend against this sword. It was on a level completely above anything made on earth. Neon swords had gone extinct during the third Great War, plus they were also expensive to manufacture. The only way to counter was to get in close and attack him at full force—just enough to knock it out of his hands or him unconscious.

  “Oh come on!” I said to myself, hearing a familiar cry of a wild terror beast.

  Darn it, just when I thought things were getting easier. The ground shook terribly like a horde of terror beasts were coming directly towards us at full speed. It was getting dangerous and the only way out of this mess was to stop Peter and try to flee. I glared back towards him, tensing quickly to launch a counterattack. Peter attacked and I dodged, getting in close with each swing. He was a terrible swordsman without his lightning speed. I really couldn’t believe this guy had almost killed me before, which I now found amusing. I grabbed the wrist of his arm tightly and pushed his arm up.

  “It’s over,” I said, as soon as I was in his face. “I really wished I could have saved you from yourself.”

  After finishing my sentence, I blasted him with a ballistic of proton bullets and he fell to the ground. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but just enough to knock him out for at least a few hours.

  “Darn you,” Peter fell stiff and trembled violently. He tried to get up, but fell down and did not move again.

  Stubborn idiot, he was definitely tough, that’s for sure. Sweet revenge, it was not as satisfying to me as I imagined it would be at first. Peter had been defeated and yet I did not feel any joy or anything in my heart. I sighed out loud and looked away into the sky. The worst was not over. Clouds of despair and destruction were still reigning down on the kingdom. How many lives would be lost in this civil war for control? And now an army of terror beasts were close by and coming directly towards me. Could it get any more complicated? Slightly, I felt pain in my backside, as I was lifted off my feet and sent flying a few hundred feet straight ahead. The moment my head touched the ground, I lost all my strength in my body. I had been struck down by something, a bullet, perhaps. I closed my eyes and remembered nothing after that.

  10

  “This is just incredible,” a voice I had never heard commented, “he is completely regenerating his cells, thanks to those neon alpha particles.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” another voice growled in response. “We should just kill him now, before he becomes a real nuisance.”

  My eyes were closed the whole time these men were speaking. My head hurt and none of my limbs would budge an inch, like I was strapped down by steel rope. Just what had happened to me? The only thing I remembered was defeating Peter, and then something hitting and knocking me out. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked around at my surroundings. I was in a large building; I would say a grand laboratory, based on what was around me. The interior walls were covered with this magnificent and bright metal I had never seen before. There was a lot of mechanical devices and variety of chemicals, possibly, toxic and lethal. In front of me, two men, in mobile speed armor, were standing resolutely, holding really mid-grade military rifles. I felt their gaze glued directly at me. Who were they? They didn’t appear or act like normal Rasian soldiers. I took a good look at them and noticed something odd. Their weapons, they were modern rifles made five years ago, definitely not alien tech.

  “Now it makes sense.”

  The two men who were missing along with Peter were these guys. And one of them was responsible for knocking me out. Bunch of cowards, no wonder they got along with Peter.

  “So you cowards joined up with Peter? I just hope whatever you did it for was worth it.”

  I turned my
head and looked at my arms and legs. I was strapped down in some sort of metal container, completely immobile. Perfect, this day just kept getting better and better with each hour. It was now obvious that Peter wasn’t under hypnosis or some kind or mind control device. He had made this choice by himself. I took a deep breath of fresh air and sighed out slowly.

  “You are lucky, I took it easy on you,” one of them said to me, walking closer, with his gun firmly gripped. He looked up at me and grunted out loud.

  I couldn’t see his facial expression since he was wearing his head gear. Speaking of which, it sort of resembled Peter’s. They had definitely acquired new armor, and I was curious as to why. Something big was up—these guys were up to something bad.

  “What are you talking about, Danack?” the other guy asked, marching peacefully towards us. “You shot him with your best bullet, but he just didn’t die.”

  The second guy, there was something off about him. His voice sounded way too calm and relaxed in my presence. I observed him for a couple of seconds. Strangely, he gave off no personality traits in his gestures or movements. Who was this guy?

  “Shut up, Roldo,” the first man said and hit his partner on the head. “Do you want him thinking that he is invincible or something?”

  “Well, you just told him that right now,” Roldo said and shook his head.

  “Ah! Darn I just did, didn’t I?” Danack slapped himself on the face. “Well, it’s not like he can do anything while he is strapped down to that machine.”

  Okay, never mind, these guys were idiots. I didn’t know whether to ignore them or slap them in the face. Someone was making the plans, but it wasn’t these guys, and certainly not Peter. A true mastermind, the fiend was hidden and controlling everything from the shadows. But where was he or she? It had to be someone influential enough to get Peter and his lackeys to change sides and betray us. Wait! Roldo and Danack! Those names sounded familiar to me, but I just couldn’t pinpoint where I had heard them.