by Bryan Nyaude
“I will obey for now,” it responded back to me in a cold voice. “Should danger threat level rise, I will assume control.”
Of all the AI systems I had used, this was definitely the most free willed and obnoxious. Just what was Ali thinking? Building something this powerful and deadly was treacherous. It could take over my body or turn on me, there was just no telling.
“How did you get your hands on such a rare armor as that?” Peter asked, sounding almost jealous. “A simpleton like you doesn’t deserve such a powerful suit in your possession. I will take it from your cold, dead hands, Den.”
Abruptly, they all dashed at me at once, and attacked randomly in a guerrilla tactic. Their strategy was simply basic, nevertheless, brilliant. I couldn’t predict their next moves at all. I hovered, gracefully, out of the way and sped on foot past a few lab machines. My best chance was to separate them and then fight them off one by one. Momentarily, they fell into my snare and separated, coming at me from different directions. There was a ten second window to fight one of them at a time, clearly not enough. The threat level scanner began to blink from the new helmet as it peaked up high. What would happen when it got too high? That’s right! The AI system would take over and that was the last thing I needed on my mind, at that second.
Peter emerged first, swinging violently his neon blade at me. Danack was right behind him, waiting for a right moment to launch a surprise attack.
Crap, behind me was a metal slab, blocking my path towards the other exit. I couldn’t afford to waste any more time messing with Peter and his goons. Quickly, I ducked back and side stepped to the right. Oh no, I waltzed into Danack’s trap carelessly. Danack perfectly executed his body and launched a frontal kick, aiming for my right shoulder. I ducked down and surged everything I had into my fist, launching it at his face hard. My fist connected with his face, sending him flying back in the opposite direction. One down and two more to go!
Roldo sensed the danger and backed away; he turned his back against me, rushing off towards his cousin. I could have struck him with his back turned, but I decided not to. Darn you, conscience!
“Come back here, you coward,” Peter said to Roldo and then turned towards me. “You might have a new armor and new weapons; however, you are still the same wimpy Den I knew and hated.”
“True,” I responded with a nod, “I want to thank you for almost killing me. If you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be standing here right now, looking down on you. I really feel alive and free for most accounts.”
“Big deal, I don’t care how you feel,” Peter commented, bolting towards me to do battle once again. “But I know how I will feel, when I exterminate you and take that armor.”
Stupid! Peter still didn’t get it—there was a big difference in our power now. In this suit, defeating me was next to impossible. Plus, I had way more battle experience compared to him and a far better armor. He was careless, letting his emotions impair his reasoning. I dodged his strikes instantly, without landing a blow at him.
“The fact that you haven’t wounded me means you haven’t mastered that armor yet, have you, Den?” Peter straightened up, extending his arm into a flex. “In other words, the odds are still in my favor, since my armor was fixed.”
True! I had not yet mastered the controls of this new armor. There were still much I had to learn; however, against a fool like him, there was no need. All I had to do was keep him riled up and angry. Eventually, he would self destruct and victory would be mine. Swiftly, he moved in for another attempt, leaving his left side open. His defense literally screamed with so many openings. Peter swung again, and this time, too wildly. As the blade passed on top of me, I moved in close and struck hard the power pack battery, with my elbow. There was a slight buzz from circuits breaking, as his movements became sluggish. I moved back and observed him briefly. Peter eventually slowed down to a point that his whole body could barely move. Second sweet vengeance and still not satisfied. Bummer!
“I’m going to leave you here, Peter,” I said to him and turned my back towards him. I could tell that he hated this. “Your friends will find you, but I will be gone. I guess this is goodbye, my old foe.”
“Darn it, Den,” Peter screamed at me while motionless in stasis. “I will find you, and annihilate you.”
“In your dreams,” I laughed; it really felt good to have the last words in on him.
I truly hoped I would see him again, although as a better person. Oh what am I saying? Idiots like Peter never change; it would take a miracle for that to happen. Before I could exit the room, the ground trembled and shook as everything started to fall to the ground. I think this whole place was about to fall apart. I looked for an exit and found one, next to the south wall. Quickly, I grabbed Peter and flew up high with him, out of harm’s way. He was kind of heavy, there were times I was tempted to just drop him and leave. Knowing him, he would have left me behind without a moment’s spur.
“Why did you help me?” Peter growled at me. “I don’t need any pity from you, Den.”
Truthfully, I had no idea, it was just impulse. I looked towards the floor and saw utensils and lab machines fall to the ground. It was only a matter of time before this whole lab crumbled to the ground.
Just what was going on? We managed to make it out, only to walk into chaos. The scenery outside was a total disaster. This was catastrophic, a war of epic proportions. I gazed into the distance and saw two groups of people fighting: one was the Resistance and the other was the kingdom soldiers. Peter and I heard a loud growl and turned our heads backwards. Something was beneath the ground—something big and powerful. It came from the location of the secret lab. Suddenly, the whole ground burst apart like a great explosion had been detonated. It was powerful enough to send mild shockwaves into the sky. What was going on? I turned on my scanners and searched the whole area around it. Two beeps emerged, showing me two life forms—one was almost human and the other terror beast like.
“You are a very interesting child, Den,” a voice shot out of the debris. “You had the chance to destroy your enemy and yet you saved him. You remind me so much of him.”
It was the man from before, the mad scientist I wanted to stop.
“Dr. Drus Vegai,” Peter said, admiring the man.
I was shocked to the bone; I took one good glimpse at him to be sure I wasn’t mistaken. Now it all made sense. I recognized him, but the new gray skin had not done him any good. This man was one of the pioneers of the space age era—I honestly thought he died a long time ago.
“You have some nerve, wearing the armor that destroyed so many Rasian cities in the past,” he rattled, while keeping his emotions in check. “You should give it to me freely as retribution.”
Wait! Something was off; he was standing on something big, clearly unaffected by the planet’s gravity. The thing beneath his feet moved gently. What kind of a terror beast was that? I trembled in my heels, unable to focus.
Relax! Relax! Calm down!
The alien mad man, aka Dr. Vegai, ran his left hand into his black hair softly. He had no helmet or armor, it was the same with Kristin and the Resistance. Rasians were really tough and strong, that much I was definitely sure of. As to his request, my answer was absolute.
“No way, I won’t let you do what you want. I will stop you before you destroy the whole earth. You are...”
Before I could say anymore, something very huge growled and the whole ground shook. The giant monster shifted into visible light, displaying its sharp, powerful fangs. What a monster, way bigger than anything I had ever thought possible. How was this possible? Drus Vegai! Was this really the man I had adored, as a kid, growing up? His works were legendary in the science world. It was hard to believe this maniac was actually him? Just what happened to make him this way? Dr. Drus Vegai took something out of his pocket, similar to the crystal core and pressed it.
“Well, I will just have to take it by force then,” he giggled like a crazy maniac.
He cl
early had lost it. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds; I think he was trying to frighten me. It was then I heard the loud soars of a mini jet-like engine. It sounded like it was getting close. I turned my head left, and caught glimpse of a suit appearing out of nowhere and stopping next to him, opening like a hatch. Of all the crazy things in the world! The armor merged with him, allowing him full access to its operations systems.
“No way,” Peter commented in amazement. “He has the War Boss system?”
“What’s that?” I asked him, since I didn’t have a lot of knowledge on special war armors.
“So you don’t know. Well, it just means you are in for a world of hurt,” he snickered and shrugged all over the place. “Will you put me down already?”
Gladly! The thought of dropping him down did occur to me, but I decided not to. I flew somewhere safe on the ground and put him down, but not too gently.
“Try not to move as much or the terror beasts will find you,” I said to him and left, flying back towards the doctor.
My gaze turned south, catching sight of this huge gate, high enough to reach up into the sky. I was surprised that I had not seen it till now. Perhaps, it was camouflaged and you could only see it from ground level, possibly. If my guess was right, I would say that was the dimensional gate. The one we had to destroy at all costs.
“So that is your plan?” I said to him, once I was close enough. “You plan on sending these monsters to earth using that gate.”
“Amazing,” he sounded surprised and spooked a little. “How did you know about that? Oh, so you are definitely in league with those Rebels, aren’t you?”
How did this man become so evil? Perhaps these 500 years on this planet could really change a person.
“You see this horde behind me,” the doctor said, pointing to something behind him. “This is my ultimate creation, an army of havoc beasts or terror beasts, as you call them, with no weakness. I genetically engineered them to have no weakness to electricity and multiply at a speed way above their reproduction rate. The first batch I sent to earth was just a test run, but these monsters are my true vengeance. The earth is doomed once this horde reaches it.”
He laughed so hard after speaking, that it almost sounded like thunder was roaring. I looked at his armor, studying it for any weaknesses. Sadly to say, I found none. More than likely, I would have to get in close and study him through close combat. Not the best decision in my opinion; nevertheless—unavoidable. I looked quickly behind him, looking for the horde of terror beasts he mentioned. At first, my scanners picked up nothing at all. Wait, I glanced even closer and saw a horde of terror beasts, completely motionless, about a few hundred feet behind him. Odd, my scanners couldn’t pick up their residual heat signatures. Something wasn’t right, there was no way to stop them all by myself.
“Destroy the dimensional gate, if you truly wish to end this,” my AI said to me.
Not bad, it was actually brilliant. If I destroyed the gate, then his invasion plans would be thwarted. To get to the gate, I needed a distraction, something to keep the terror beasts occupied. To be exact, I needed a companion to aid me. But who would do it? One person came to mind?
“Can you connect me to the resistance’s frequency com link?” I asked my AI as I came up with a plan.
“One moment,” it replied and then displayed all the frequencies of transmissions on ground level.
As I scanned through them, I located Kristin’s and tried to establish contact.
“Kristin, I need your help.”
There was static for a while but then a voice said, “I am kind of busy at the moment. What do you need?”
“A distraction,” I replied, arming my suit for frontal attack. I probably had one shot to execute this plan perfectly. “I have located the dimensional gate and I want to destroy it; I just need someone to keep the terror beasts he created busy enough to buy me some time. Here are the coordinates and please hurry, because there isn’t enough time.”
Strange! She didn’t respond for a while. I guess she was either busy, or just didn’t care. Dr. Vegai somehow sensed my desperation and began to move in slowly. In his new armor, my chances of winning were not good. I had no idea what weapons his new armor granted him, much less my own.
“I have sent a unit in that direction,” she finally replied back after a few minutes. “Just keep the doctor occupied, and perhaps, I might be the one to destroy the gate.”
“Will try,” I responded and cut the com link connection. As far as I was concerned, it didn’t matter who destroyed the gate. The only thing that mattered was stopping this maniac and his new batch of monsters from destroying earth.
“I once adored you as a brilliant scientist. You were one of the greatest weapons scientists on earth, I truly wanted to become like you.”
He laughed so hard like I had said something stupid, “Wrong, I was and still am the most brilliant scientist in the world—I have acquired an infinite amount of knowledge and you can still be like me, if you want. In time, you will realize this: nothing is set in stone. Even someone as pure hearted as you can change in the face of war.”
Wrong, the path I chose to follow in life was clear. I would never let revenge taint me into corruption like it had with him. Being a space biologist had been the best thing to happen to me, except for the time Rose left me. I wish I knew how it happened, but oh well.
“I will pass,” I said and took an offensive stance. With my legs shifted, I could execute an aerial attack without putting too much strain on my body.
“So be it, Den,” he replied me and took off into the air, headed in my direction.
So fast, there was no way I could defend an attack of that level—meaning my best option was a head on collision. I took off into the sky and charged, with my fists raised. The speed my armor generated was too much that it felt like my organs were going to fall off. Surprisingly, Drus Vegai matched me speed for speed; perhaps, he was a bit faster than me. Within seconds, we clashed out loudly, sending a blitz of punches and kicks in every direction. We kept at it for a couple of seconds, and then backed off to size each other up. I took long, deep breath of air—that was intense. At best, I was good for another two rounds.
“What’s wrong, Den?” he asked with his arms folded. “Out of breath, already?”
True! My stamina levels were not on par with his and I was still learning how to use the suit. I tightened my abdomen and lowered my stance, preparing for another exchange of fists. Instead of his fists, he pulled out a revolver from his armor and shot a few rounds from it. Luckily, my AI took control and dodged me out of harm’s way. Those revolvers, they looked similar to the ones I had, but couldn’t use. Useless junk!
“That’s it,” I said to myself and took out my revolvers too. Before, I didn’t have enough power to activate and use them, since they were high level weapons. But now, I had the End Boss; it was more than enough to activate them at full power. Or so I thought.
“Well, this will be interesting,” he commented, raising his guns in the air. “You have assault revolvers, too; you truly intrigue my interest to no end. I want to see more of that power, Den, show it to me.”
Crap, it was probably best not to tell him I didn’t know how to use them yet. There was strange light coming from where his bullets had landed. Within seconds, massive explosions erupted, disintegrating everything apart. It literally split apart the molecules on the ground. Was that the power of his revolvers? Rick had them too and they had different abilities compared to his. I just wished I knew how to use mine.
“Automatic lock off,” my AI said and suddenly my guns were glowing, “the reason you couldn’t use them before was because they only work with this armor.”
Oh! That made sense in a way. Didn’t really understand it, but it was best not to argue with an AI system.
“If you are determined to stop me, then show me,” Dr. Vegai put his weight forward, while extending him arms straight. “Show me everything that wonderful armo
r has to offer—don’t hold back one bit.”
This lunatic was out of his mind. There was no getting clear to him; revenge had corrupted him to a point of no return. Just what had happened to him? I tensed my whole body in reprisal and pressed forward. Well, he asked for it, so it was best not to disappoint him. Quickly, I pointed my guns at him and calculated his trajectory based on his speed, just enough to know what direction to fire.
“Is this what you want?” I screamed and fired the two revolvers at him.
There was a loud bang that sounded like thunder through the skies. The beam emitted from one of the gun was so intense it knocked me back a few yards. What the! I was sure the left one fired; however, nothing came out of it, which was strange. By some lucky break, I managed to knock the doctor out of the air, just for a short time. He landed roughly on the ground, creating a small crate of dust beneath his feet. Yes, it seemed I still had a chance after all. With this awesome new power, I felt like I could do anything.
“This is what I have been waiting for,” he screamed up towards me, scratching off dust from his armor. “Finally, a worthy opponent to test my new abilities on.”
What! Just what was he talking about? While he was rumbling on, I noticed the huge terror beast start to move. It was so massive and heavy, it changed the terrain with each step. That thing was too dangerous. Unleashed, it could go on a wild rampage, resulting in heavy casualties for both sides. Normal conventional guns wouldn’t work on something that massive. I needed a level 8 or above weapon, like my revolvers. Only problem was that I had a few bullets left in my reserve. To complicate things even further, only one of them was working. But as long as the creature wasn’t acting out, I could afford to keep my attention towards Dr. Vegai. He was the real head of the beast I needed to take down, if I wanted this invasion to end. I tightened my grip on both of my guns, preparing myself for another confrontation. All forms of thoughts and doubts bore down, causing me to hesitate for a second. What if I was just lying to myself? I truly thought I could end this war, but using violence was the worst way to do it.