The Evolutionite Chronicles Book Two: Dagger and Shadow Ninja in: Welcome to Las Vegas

by Timothy P. Callahan

  Daniel moaned as he turned over. Tanaka lay there motionless for a moment before saying, “Ouch.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, let’s get out of here.” He reached over and touched Daniel and teleported them outside the car.

  Daniel stood and looked around. He focused his sight in the distance and spotted them. The two robots were running away, toward the crowded area of a busy Fremont street. “Come on, we can still catch them.”

  “What about officer Lee?” Tanaka asked.

  “Forgot about him!” Daniel replied, running toward the house. He saw the front door had been blown apart, the windows to the house cracked but not broken. He ran in, and right in the middle of the living room floor, was a body. “Oh, God.”

  Tanaka ran in and stopped. He walked over to the body and bent down, confirming Tanaka’s worse fears. Office Lee lay dead at his feet. Shaking his head Tanaka said, “Broke his neck.”

  “How did we miss that? How did this happen?”

  “We were arguing,” Tanaka said, standing. “You still want to keep them alive?”

  “This doesn’t change that,” Daniel replied. “It does, however, make me want to catch them and not let them get away with this anymore. Come on, they’re heading toward Fremont, we can still catch them but we have to leave now.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Daniel’s legs felt like rubber. The bandages on his head weren’t nearly as tight as they had been and he struggled to keep them on. From somewhere deep inside, he found the strength to run and to continue running until these two maniac robots were stopped. They weren’t gaining on them, yet they weren’t losing any ground. Eventually both he and Tanaka would weaken while they wouldn’t. It was going to be a tight finish but one way or another it would end tonight.

  “Tanaka, can you teleport us closer?”

  “Not yet, I don’t think I have that many more in me. I’ve been teleporting a lot and it’s weakening me. I think it has something to do with Destructo stealing my powers. Never really felt this weak before.”

  “Okay, then we’ll just keep running.”

  They ran down Fremont street passing cars and people. Daniel looked ahead to see the great canopy that was the largest screen in the world. In the middle of the street, on medians, stood neon signs attached to posts and stuck into the grass. The sun was low enough now that the automatic timers turned them on, illuminating the street in colorful shadows. Daniel had to blink a few times to turn his heightened eyesight off.

  As they approached, the cars and the crowd grew thicker. The canopy was directly in front of them now, playing a video. The music from the show was loud to Daniel but not disorienting.

  Destructo stopped at the end of the canopy, bend his knees, and jumped, landing on the structure’s scaffolding.

  Daniel stopped running as he watched Destructo disappear across the canopy. “Tanaka! Get me up there!”

  Tanaka stopped and turned. He reached out and touched Daniel, teleporting him to the edge of the canopy. The show below him confused his senses, the different lights flashing and moving along the fabric below the white metal bars. Daniel looked over it and saw Destructo jumping from beam to beam. Daniel jumped from the beam he was on to another one, then continued hopping, not looking directly down, hoping the distraction from the moving lights below him didn’t cause him to miss.

  Destructo stopped and turned. “You should go back. Only a robot with the ability to do a trillion calculations per second can make it across this without a mistake.”

  Daniel didn’t answer and instead jumped to another girder. He had to stop to gain his balance since his foot didn’t hit the beam right. He swung him arms around and leaned forward, gaining his step and his balance. He looked back, dismayed that he had only gone a few dozen feet before making his first mistake.

  Destructo started jumping again, each stride perfect, each landing graceful as he traversed the canopy. Daniel thought about going back and following him from the ground but, as he looked around, he saw the structure connected to other buildings. It would be easy for Destructo to simply leap to another roof and get away. Daniel had to continue the journey and hope his enhancements gave him the skills needed to make it across.

  Looking across the gap, Daniel focused on the white beam. He leapt across, landed on his right foot, looked at the next beam, and jumped again. He continued doing this, looking, leaping, then looking again until he was half way across. Then, the spacing between the beams changed and when he jumped he knew he’d miss the next beam by a lot.

  His right foot hit the mesh fabric of the canopy. To his surprise he didn’t fall through. He stood there and listened carefully, doing his best to ignore the sound blast from the speakers near his location. He heard, at the very edge of his hearing, the sound of fabric ripping. He looked down at his feet to see them slowly sinking into the canopy. He glanced around, hoping to find a beam close enough for him to reach. Behind him, he saw the beam he jumped from. It was his only hope. He bend his knees and jumped backwards, keeping his eye on the beam. He somersaulted and held his arms out. Landing on his hands he was able to get a good grip. His momentum threatened to knock him off but he dug deep enough into the metal to prevent that from happening. Satisfied he wouldn’t fall, he lowered his feet and stood facing the direction from which he had come. He turned and scanned again. Destructo had stopped and was watching Daniel carefully. Above the music Daniel could hear him say, “You should give up now! Look how closely you came to dying. You are exhausted. You are wounded. You should just let me go.”

  “I can’t,” Daniel said, sizing up the next jump. He leapt across the beams, this time landing where he needed to, then he continued jumping mindful of each jump, concentrating more than the last time.

  Destructo wasn’t wrong. Daniel felt each jump in his legs and feet. Every landing sent another wave of a pain into his skull, making him aware of the holes still in his head. His bandages somehow stayed on even as they shifted with each jump. Destructo continued his path to the end of the street and maybe freedom. Once on the ground he could easily hide amongst the people milling below, or go to one of the many casinos on the ground. Daniel wondered why Destructo choose this path. Why not take the easy one? A robot doesn’t tire, Daniel realized, and this is wearing me out. He was unsure how much fight he’d have left when he reached the other side. Then he wondered how he was going to get down, and just how he was going stop Destructo when this was over.

  Daniel had to stop. He bent over, trying to catch his breath. Destructo was getting farther and farther away. Looking to the right, Daniel saw the roof of a casino. He ran across the beam and stood on the roof. He could run along the roofs instead of the beams but they didn’t line up perfectly so he’d had a lot of climbing as well as jumping. His body didn’t feel like he could do that. It wanted to give up, it wanted him to lay down and rest for a while.

  He reached into his belt and pulled out his buckler shield. He could throw it, use the last of his strength to take out Destructo. Every second Daniel waited was another second he would fail. He had no other choice but to try.

  Gathering all his strength, he walked back to the beam and stood there, his legs spread apart to give him as much leverage as he could. Destructo was near the end and he could easily jump to the ground to escape. Daniel had only one chance.

  Daniel grabbed the shield by its edge, pulled it back behind his ear, and cocked his shoulder and his arm like a quarterback getting ready to throw a long bomb. He took a deep breath, focused all his power to his sight, took aim, and with a scream, threw the buckler shield as hard as he could.

  The red shield streaked over the white tent canopy, reflecting the light on its smoothly polished surface. Destructo must have heard something and he turned.

  The shield slammed into his chest, the impact knocking him backwards and off the beam. He hit the fabric of the canopy and disappeared as he fell through. Daniel heard him hit the ground with a loud crash, followed
by several dozen screams.

  Daniel saw a door and ran toward it. After running down some stairs, he found himself on the ground, moving toward the crowd gathered around the fallen robot.

  Daniel pushed his way through until he found Destructo. Sparks flew from where the shield had impacted. The robot’s body twitched with every shock and spark. Daniel stood over him, placed his foot into the robot’s chest, grabbed his shield and pulled it out with all his reaming strength.

  He sat next to Destructo who was still twitching. A strange sound came from his mouth speakers. He was talking in a very garbled voice. “You may have beat me, but you did not kill me.”

  “Good,” Daniel said placing the shield back. “I’d have a tough time explaining that one to my brother since I told him I wouldn’t kill you. You are going to jail and you will pay for your crimes.”

  “No jail can hold me!”

  “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Daniel replied, falling onto his back. “We’ll think of something. I just need to rest for a bit.”

  The twitching stopped and Destructo’s body went limp. Daniel sat up, wondering what was happening. Destructo’s eyes were blue and blinking. Daniel knew what that meant. Knew he was communicating with something. He looked around at the crowd. Dozens of them were holding cell phones, taking pictures. A few looked oddly at their phones. Soon that odd look moved from person to person, a few asking another person if something was wrong with their phones.

  “No,” Daniel said, taking his own phone out from his pocket. He looked at the screen and saw in the upper right-hand corner the Bluetooth symbol. It was solid. Someone had connected to his phone. “No, no, no!” Daniel yelled, throwing the phone to the ground, cracking the screen.

  Destructo’s body now no longer moved. Daniel grabbed his phone off the ground and looked at it one more time. Through the cracked screen, he saw his background had changed. Staring at him was an image of two red eyes and an evil robotic smile under it.

  Everyone around him started talking about their phones. Daniel glanced at them and saw the same background.

  Tanaka had never run so fast in his life. Being about five inches shorter than his brother, he had to work harder to keep up with him. His legs burned from overuse. His lungs were pulling in as much oxygen as they could trying to keep up with the demand. He was so used to teleporting everywhere that he feared he had neglected his cardio and was paying for now. He worked hard and worked out every day but he hardly ever ran. Now that it seemed his teleportation powers were acting weird he would have to add a few miles to his morning workout.

  Robot Nancy and Destructo were in front of them. It seemed as if they were going to get away. Neither he nor Daniel were running fast enough to catch up. He really wished they could have flipped the car over or at a least commandeer one, Grand Theft Auto style. But no, Daniel just took off running when he spotted the robots and Tanaka had to follow.

  “Tanaka,” Daniel yelled, “can you teleport us closer?”

  Tanaka shook his head. He felt it in his bones that teleporting both of them at the same time would be bad. “Not yet, I don’t think I have that many more in me. I’ve been teleporting a lot, and it’s weakening me. I think it has something to do with Destructo stealing my powers. Never really felt this weak before.”

  “Okay, then we’ll just keep running.”

  Just keep running, Tanaka thought in a mocking tone. Easy for you with your long legs and ten-mile morning runs. Tanaka grumbled in his head hoping the distraction would prevent him from thinking about how much his legs hurt. He wondered how he was going to fight either of the robots feeling the way he did.

  Destructo stopped in front of the giant tent like thing, bent his knees and jumped on top. Daniel stopped running and watched, then asked Tanaka to teleport him up there. He touched his brother’s chest, looked for a good spot, and teleported him away. He fell to his knee as a bolt of pain shot through his head and rumbled across his body. What was happening, he wondered. Destructo was too far away. There was no way he was leaching Tanaka’s powers.

  He looked up and saw Robot Nancy continuing to run. She was far away now, and there was no way he could catch her with simply running. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willing the headache away. When he opened his eyes, he focused on a spot in front of Nancy then teleported in front of her. She didn’t even stop, instead she just lowered her shoulder and slammed into Tanaka, lifting him off his feet. He sailed a few feet and crashed into a vending cart selling sunglasses. The cart tipped over, hitting the ground with a loud thud. Tanaka laid on his back, looking up at the white canopy. He swore he saw the shadow of Daniel pass.

  A cute girl, he could only assume owned or worked at the cart, started yelling at him in a language he didn’t understand. Might have been German, he wasn’t sure. He ignored her and looked up to see Robot Nancy running through the crowd, pushing people out of the way as she did.

  He got up and followed. The surge of anger and determination fueled his running. He did his best not to flatten the people Robot Nancy had knocked over as he ran through the crowd. He saw her turn to look at him, then she picked up her pace, running faster now. He tried to find another gear but couldn’t. He tapped into his powers and teleported, this time appearing only a few feet behind Robot Nancy.

  They approached an intersection. The light was red for the traffic, and Tanaka knew that was bad. She could cross without fear of being hit. If the light was green, it might slow her down. Instead she ran into the crowd of people crossing with her. He was losing ground to her as she passed through the crowd. He would have to risk teleporting again.

  She made an abrupt right and headed toward the line of traffic. Tanaka, taken off guard, stopped for a second and watched in horror as she ripped open the door to a bus and stepped inside.

  He teleported over to the door just in time to be bowled over by the limp body of a bus driver. The driver was large and difficult to push off. After checking his vitals to make sure the driver wasn’t dead, Tanaka looked down the street. The bus was driving fast, pushing any car in front of it out the way. A line of wrecked cars littered the road, stunned and surprised people stepping out to see the damage and to try and figure out what just happened.

  Tanaka focused on the bus, then activated his powers.

  He landed on top of the bus with no forward momentum. He waved his arms around and leaned forward, trying his best to keep from stepping backwards and falling. The bus hit another car. The jolt forced Tanaka to fall backwards where he tumbled ass over head. The end of the bus approached quickly. He reached out with his hands, hoping to get a grip onto something before he fell off. Unable to find anything to grab onto, he tumbled off the back of the speeding bus.

  He hit the ground hard on his back. His head snapped backwards and struck the asphalt. He skidded a good three feet before the friction of the road stopped him. He lay there for a moment, letting all the pain from the road rash and his head wash over him. He focused on it, made it all real before sitting up. He didn’t realize he was clinching his teeth until his jaw relaxed for a moment. He looked at the bus. Anger and frustration were the only emotions he felt as he teleported again.

  He appeared on the top of the bus sitting down. As he started to tumble backwards, he reached out with his hands and stopped himself. The screams from the passengers inside the bus sent another surge of adrenaline through Tanaka’s body. He got up on one knee, his hands still carefully gripping the bus. He looked ahead and saw the street ended at an empty lot. His eyes widened as he realized Nancy’s only choice was a left, right, or to crash into the lot. Either way, he was screwed.

  The bus made a sharp right-hand turn, doing forty miles per hour. Tanaka’s hands planted themselves firmly on the roof of the bus and he expected himself to fall off and back onto the street. Instead he felt his hands stick to the roof of the bus. Heard the audible crackling of his skin turning tacky and felt inside his brain a new power activating for the first time. He could
stick to things now. A joyful laugh left his lips as he rode the turn out, confident that he would not fall from the bus, or any moving object, ever again.

  The cars in front of the bus were now moving aside as it picked up speed. Tanaka looked around and realized they were heading for Vegas Boulevard and toward the strip. There would be thousands of people in that area and a bus being driven by a crazy robot could kill a lot of them. He needed to get inside the bus. While on his belly, he used his new power to pull himself on the roof and toward the air conditioner. The bus hit another car, jolting him again.

  He looked at the air conditioner, hoping to find a crack or something that would allow him to see inside. It was perfectly sealed. He looked to the edge of the bus. There was really only one thing he could do and it wasn’t something he was going to like.

  Lifting his sticky hand off the roof reminded him of the sound Velcro makes as it was pulled apart. He reached the edge and looked over. The street passed below him quickly. The last thing he wanted to do was fall. Leaning over, he did his best to look inside the bus. The tinted windows made it difficult to see clearly, but he focused on the interior anyway.

  Suddenly, his hands lost their stickiness and he started to fall off the bus. Without a second to spare, he pictured the inside of the bus as best as he could and prayed his powers would activate.

  The loud pop echoed throughout the interior and Tanaka found himself on the floor. He looked up to see the faces of several stunned people, either scared from the ordeal or from him suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

  Robot Nancy turned. “You! I thought I lost you!”

  Tanaka ran down the aisle toward Robot Nancy. She jerked the bus hard to the right and Tanaka fell into the lap of a woman. “Sorry,” he said standing up.

  Robot Nancy had opened the bus door. She looked back at him and smiled. She then jumped out of the bus. He watched from the window as she perfectly landed on her feet. The bus passed by her quickly.