by Thomas Shaw
"Oh here we go" David said rolling his eyes.
"Fuck yes!" Sam said with a sinister grin on his face. He turned around and punched the nearest robot in its head, crushing it instantly. David activated the shield on his right hand, punched a robot in the middle of its body a few times until it was cracked open. He then shoved his left hand inside. He grabbed a handful of its internal wires and shocked it, making it collapse on the floor, smoke rising from its joints. Amy was using her bare fists to fight. She had her hands super-heated and was melting away the weaker points on the robots with her swings. Shots were being fired in all directions but luckily the team were managing to avoid the bullets. Laura was making the floor slippery by shooting out water and freezing it once the ground was mostly covered. Once they were on the ground she activated the shields and was punching the robot’s heads till they were too damaged to function. Sam swung a robot over his head and bowled over two other droids that were about to grab Amy. She looked behind at the smashed robots on the ground and then at Sam, smiling in thanks. She turned and shot a heat beam towards a robot that was about to fire at John. They were knocked to the ground and John shot them in the head with his pistol. A few more attacks later, and all the robotic soldiers were downed. Laura flicked her wrist and the ice turned back into water.
David looked over at Anthony who was typing away on the keypad. The wall to their right slid downwards and stood there was a trio of robots, but these were different to the ones they had been fighting. These three were bigger, a foot taller than any of the team. Their heads were shaped like someone wearing a gas mask. Their body resembled the DarkWatch suit that James had stolen. Their triangular eyes glowed green, along with other various lights on their arms and torso. They stomped foreword and headed for different members of the team. Laura started freezing the water that was covering the floor, trying to hold them in place, but they were too strong. They just pulled their feet out with ease, not even slowing down. Sam walked over and swung for one. It grabbed his hand, a few inches from its face and, although it was moved back slowly, stopped him! Sam looked surprised and was even more so when it punched him in his side. He was knocked down to his knees and the robot knelt down next to him and held Sam down by his throat and raised its other arm. Sam watched as, whilst held in the air, its arm violently shunted forewords then back. It had a pneumatic piston which made its punches hit a lot harder. Bullets pinged off its head until eventually one broke through and shut it down. It collapsed on top of Sam. He threw it off him and looked over at John. He was lowering his gun and breathing out slowly through his mouth.
The other two robots were closing in on David and the girls. David shot a bolt at one of them. It took it in the shoulder, recoiled, then continued stomping towards them. Amy looked at David, "Hey Sparky. Firestorm?"
David nodded but didn't say anything. Amy raised both hands and fired a heat beam at the robots. They were slowed down but pushed through the intense heat. Amy slowly moved her hands apart and the beam, although not clearly visible, got wider. David stood close to her and started shooting electricity into the heat. The lightning swirled round in a spiral, traveling down the invisible beam till it hit the two robots simultaneously! They crackled and were blown apart, pieces flying everywhere! Amy and David stopped. She turned to David with a pleased grin on her face, raising her hand in the air. He didn't smile but he high-fived her. Sam and John joined them and they all looked over towards Anthony.
He was stood still, looking around at the smoldering piles of his fallen robots.
David, breathing heavily, called over to him, "Surrender"
Anthony tapped away at the keypad again and slid it back up inside his sleeve, "No" he answered simply.
"Look, you can't win" Amy pointed out.
"You've said that before" Anthony said mockingly, "And you was wrong then as well"
John raised his pistol, "Anthony, you're under arrest". His voice was breaking slightly with nerves. All that fighting and making a simple arrest was the most intense part.
Although his face was shrouded in darkness, David was sure Anthony had just raised an eyebrow.
"Enough of this. Go whilst you can" He ordered, waving his hand at the door.
"We're not going anywhere. Not without you" David said, taking a step forward.
"Dead or alive" Sam added.
John leaned closer to him, "Actually, orders are alive" he corrected him.
Sam glared at him, "It's called intimidation"
"You're not taking me anywhere!" Anthony announced. He pulled out a small gun from the inside of his cloak and started shooting at the team! David grabbed a piece of fallen robot’s torso and used it as a shield. Sam raised both hands, activated the shields and covered his face, deflecting the bullets, the ones hitting him just knocking him back slightly. Laura manipulated all the water on the ground around them moving it in front of her and created a wall of ice. Amy and John took cover behind it with her.
The shooting stopped, and they all came out of cover. Anthony was stood, the gun down by his side, smoking at the barrel. He dropped it on the ground, "You won't stop me you do realize that? I have been given a job. No. Actually, a purpose"
"Oh great" Sam groaned, "He sounds like a religious nut!"
"Religion's got nothing to do with it you simpleton!” Anthony spat in disgust, “No, I am to bring about a perfect world. Just as she wants me to"
"She?" David muttered to himself.
Anthony continued, "I have been chosen as the one to make this world a better place. To make our planet paradise, to bring back the ones we love"
David’s eyes widened, "Ones like Ra-"
"Don't you dare say her name!" Anthony barked in intense anger. The room fell quiet.
"Look, I'd hate to take you back to DarkWatch in pieces mate, but that's the way this is going" Sam threatened.
"You are nothing. All of you" Anthony said with a hint of disgust. He unclipped his cloak and it fell to the ground, "I am more than any of you"
Amy cocked her head, looking at his body, "I'd say less"
Under the cloak, Anthony hadn't any clothes on. His legs and the bottom of his torso were fully robotic. The robotics looked very articulated and advanced. Both arms had also been replaced by metal limbs and, like his legs, were professionally made and made to look good. Half of his chest had a metal plate attached to it. It seemed to be partially buried into his flesh around the edges. His hood had remained on him, the clips holding it in place, fused with his collar. This was probably because he didn't want anyone seeing his face at all.
"I have stripped away the unnecessary. The pieces of my body which slowed me down. Which would hold me back from doing what needs to be done"
"Which would be what exactly?" Laura asked, sounding disinterested. She was unimpressed by his inability to explain things clearly.
"Well for starters..." Anthony said, bending his knees slightly, "…Getting rid of you five". He quickly sprinted foreword, so he was stood in the middle of them in seconds. It seemed that his new legs gave him more power. His hood remained in place, still covering his face.
Without any time to react, Laura and David were grabbed and thrown to the ground. Anthony turned and stomped towards John. Amy impulsively jumped on Anthony's back, grabbing him around undo his neck and tried to bring him to his knees. She noticed he had metal bolted into his back and going all the way up his spinal column. Green lights pulsated from where his neck and back met. John raised his pistol, aiming for Anthony's head and pulled the trigger. Click. Empty. John swore and ducked from a punch by Anthony. Amy was trying to hold on to his shoulders. She started to heat up her hands and tightened her grip. Anthony shouted in pain and reached his arms backwards in, a position impossible for normal humans to reach, and grabbed Amy. He threw her into the table that he had been stood beside, which she bounced off and landed on the floor. With no Amy on his back now, Sam saw an opportunity and tried to tackle him but Anthony turned and grabbed him and the
y were locked together. Anthony gripped Sam's forearms tightly and Sam squinted in pain. He pushed Anthony from him and looked down at where he had been gripped. He was bleeding from where a finger had been dug in too tightly. Laura had retreated to the back of the room and was resting against the wall. She was trying to assess the situation. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Meanwhile David stood in front of Anthony. He activated both shields on his hands and raised them up.
"Impressive" Anthony said, "Let’s see how long they last" He swung for David who blocked with his left hand. The hit was hard and knocked his arm back, but the shield was still active. David went in for his own punch, jabbing him in his fleshy side. He electrocuted him at the same time, adding more power to his attack. Anthony recoiled in pain crouched, swept his leg and knocked David down to the ground. He went to grab him whilst he was down but David rolled to the side. He jumped to his feet and punched him again, this time on the metal side, which wasn't the best idea. Anthony grabbed him by the neck and threw him back to the ground. He punched him hard in the stomach. David cursed and curled up in pain. Anthony grabbed him by the arm with a tight grip and held him up to eye level. His metal fingers were sharp, causing David to bleed. He was about to say something when he was tackled from David by Sam. He grabbed Anthony and threw him against the wall. He marched over to Anthony, cracking his knuckles. Anthony got back to his feet and when Sam was close enough he uppercutted him knocking him in the air. He too had a pneumatic arm like the bigger robots. Amy groaned and got to her feet. She looked at the scene. Laura was still stood by the wall, her eyes closed and she seemed calm, like the fight wasn't going on at all. John was by the door, he was furiously typing on his phone. David was curled up on the ground, clutching his belly. And in the middle of the room, she could see Anthony, stood over Sam, his fist raised in the air about to punch him. She jumped on top of the table and launched a blast of heat at Anthony, aiming at his head. Smoke began to rise from the hood and suddenly it burst into flames! Anthony grabbed at the material with his metal hands and ripped it off of his head, screaming in agony! Just then there was a creak coming from the walls followed by a groan of metal. Immediately after, water burst through the ceiling and started pouring over Anthony and started filling the room! Laura walked away from the wall and closer to the water with her arms raised. She formed it into a ball all around Anthony. She touched it and it started to freeze inwards.
Inside the water, Anthony grabbed a small device that was attached to the side of his leg. It extended so it was roughly the same length as himself and he started spinning it around, swirling the water, stopping it from freezing. David raised his hands and went to electrocute him in the water but it was too late. Anthony, using his powerful legs, jumped out of the water ball and landed in front of Laura. He grabbed her by the shoulder, digging his fingers in deep, cutting her. She winced in pain but kept still. She looked at his face. Half of his right side was covered in metal. His green eyes seemed to have light behind them. His jaw has been completely replaced. The hair on his head was short as a lot of his scalp was plated. He grinned sadistically at Laura but his smile quickly disappeared as he was hit in the back of the head by something. Then another thing and another. He turned around, Laura was mentally shooting water out of her water ball, turning them into ice spikes midair and hitting Anthony with them! He let go of her and turned to defend himself. Laura could see blood dripping from an open wound by his ear. Anthony used his weapon, which looked like a long metal pole, to smash the ice as I flew towards him. One slipped past though and stabbed him in the chest, cutting him deep. He grabbed the ice shard from the wound and crushed it in his hand.
Sam had ran over to Amy and was discussing tactics. They both nodded and Amy ran over to Anthony, followed by Sam. She started punching him, her hands engulfed in flames with every hit. She marked his skin with black fist marks. Sam stood at the opposite side and started punching him in his robotic joints. Laura backed off but continued to launch pieces of ice at him from the shrinking ball of water. David ran over and joined in with the fight. Anthony shouted out in frustration as he couldn't defend himself from all the attacks. He got down on one knee, spun round with his weapon extended and swept David, then Amy and Laura of their feet. The metal pole hit Sam but he didn't budge. Anthony quickly stood up and hit him in the face with a pneumatic punch, which did knock him down. Whilst looking down at them he saw a rifle from one of the fallen robots by his feet. He crouched down and picked it up.
Across the room, by the door, John was watching everything. As soon as he saw the team on the ground, Anthony grabbing the gun, and then loading it with four bullets, he stopped typing and immediately dialed Mike Richards directly. The phone was answered within seconds, "This is Zero. We have a Z1 situation. I repeat, this is Zero. Z1!"
"Clear to go" Came the immediate reply. John unclipped something from the back of his belt and threw it at Anthony. It flew through the air, beeped, glowed blue and magnetically stuck to Anthony's arm. He grabbed it trying to remove it, and his hand stick to the device. He shouted in terror and started running towards the back of the room.
John ran over and slid on the ground to David, "Get up, we've gotta go!" He shouted in panic. They got to their feet and followed John out of the room. Anthony turned and saw them and shouted in frustration. Sam slammed the door shut behind him and kept his back pressed up against it, holding the door closed tightly. On the other side there was a tremendous explosion! Dust blew out under the door and the lights flickered off. After a moment they came back on. Sam gently opened the door and peeked through the gap.
The robotic carcasses had all been blown around the room and completely littered the floor, along with collapsing ceiling tiles and other bits of rubble. At the back of the room was a huge, black, smoking hole in the wall.
"What the hell was that?" Amy asked as they all stumbled back into the room. Now the fighting had stopped, they were feeling the pain?
"It was, what DarkWatch call, a Z1 situation. An un-winnable fight. My job, at those times, is to neutralize the threat completely, using any means"
"You could've killed us" fumed Sam, clearly not happy with what had happened.
"He was going to kill you anyway!” Argued John with a frustrated chuckle, “You were all getting tired, he wasn't. He also had you all on the ground and was going to shoot you all"
"Makes sense" Laura nodded. She walked across the room to the hole, tracing her hand around the edge. Fragments of silver metal protruded out of the ground, and bits of fabric was stuck to the wall, melted due to the explosion, but there was nothing more, "Yeah, he's dead" she called over to the others, “Nothing left of him”
David looked around at the destruction. He picked up a foot of one of the robots and tossed it aside. His eyes rested on the only other door in the room, the one that Anthony had emerged from earlier. He walked over followed by Amy. David slowly pushed the door opened and went through.
It was a simple room, no windows or other doors. A freestanding construction light stood at one end of the room, pointing slightly upwards, lighting up the cubic room. Tables were against three of the walls. David walked in and started looking at each one. The first to the left had pieces of machinery strewn about, it seemed Anthony had been tinkering with the electronics for one of the robots. On the wall above the desk were hand drawn pictures of the first, smaller robots with the label of MK1 above. Next to those pictures were others of the larger robots with the title MK2. David turned to the table behind him. The wall was bare but the table was covered in blueprints for buildings and what looked like a tank. The tank had the label MK3 underneath it, which concerned David. Whilst flicking through the papers he found a photo of the VTOL aircraft Anthony had stolen and a sketch of the plane with a different type engine and a modified cockpit. Amy was stood by the table at the end of the room, “David, take a look at this”
He put down the papers and went over to Amy. Laura and Sam joined them. John stood in the
doorway, seemingly talking to Richards.
The third table had a laptop in the middle and the only desk to have a chair. It was a simple chair, one that you would find in a canteen or in a school. He thought about trying to log on but decided not to, and thought it was best leaving it to DarkWatch. But he noticed the wall above the desk. On the left were pictures of space. Planets, constellations and hand drawn diagrams. There wasn't just drawn pictures, there were also pictures that had been taken by NASA space probes. All around the pictures were equations and numbers, seemingly random.
"John!" David called out. John looked up from his phone at him, "DarkWatch on their way?"
“Arriving shortly, what've you found”
“I honestly don't know”
On the center on the wall, scratched into the paint was a huge paragraph of nonsensical sentences filled with strange words and odd symbols. But one sentence stuck out to the team:
‘She is at the gate. And I have the key. She will come. And everything will end’
2.8
Later that day, after getting checked by DarkWatch doctors, the team were discharged and met in Richards office for debriefing and, what he was dubbing, a celebration.
“You did it. I'm only sorry to say that Anthony perished and we never got to find out what he was planning” Richards announced, mug of coffee in hand.
“So, what now?” Laura asked, manipulating the water in her mug so it was forming odd shapes.
“That’s up to you. This threat’s been neutralized” Richards took a drink, but held up a finger to show he hadn't finished talking, “But, there may be others. Would you be happy to keep working here?”
“I would like to keep researching Anthony and what he was up to, especially with the man he met in….”
“Don't worry about that David, my men are still investigating and once they have a full report, I'll copy you in the email”