Nawx (Project IzeBorn Book 1)

by Andrew Jones

  "Dense, let the boy be useful. He came to our village looking desperate. Let the boy repay his debt." Drakkar frowned, turning back around at the factory.

  The fading sounds of the men were heard from the bottom of the factory. The breeze blew heavily as the girl watched from above. She made sure to keep her distance and to remain in the shades. She was bent down, hiding slightly behind a thick red bar, peering her head over to look down at the men. She scoffed as she recognized them, but as they made their way into the Eldon Factory, she stood up and kept her eyes at the bottom where they were positioned.

  "What are they doing here?" She asked, sounding a bit surprised but frustrated at the same time.

  She pressed both her pointer finger and her middle finger together on the side of her forehead where a hidden symbol began to glow a fading bright purple color as she closed her eyes.

  "Unknown reasoning. Analyzing targets of Drakkar and Densetsu..." A voice spoke within her head, just as the symbol dimmed the bright purple coloring.

  She sighed as she stood up and crossed her arms, leaning back against the red bar she had hidden behind. She frowned as she glanced back down where they stood, and them toward the other side of her where a platform led to a room where she was supposed to be headed.

  "Chip, can you hurry this up? It's not like we have time to waste." She whispered harshly.

  "There is no known resources. They must be here in secrecy, BLAZE-0X119." Chip answers with his robotic voice.

  Blaze chuckled as a sly half smile formed on her lips, "No matter. If I see them in there, I'll just tear them apart. Chip, just show me where my destination is."

  "Affirmative."

  Blaze pushes herself off the red bar gently before running quickly down the platform and into the door that led into the factory. The room had machine parts all over the place, from Blaze's recent battle with the countless machines that made her know that this room was their territory. She quickly dashed up some stairs, stepping on some machine parts as they exploded due to her heavy stepping. As she made her way up the stairs, a door led her back outside where she looked around, seeing machines patrolling the platforms that led to the other door she felt she needed to get to.

  "BLAZE-0X119. I have confirmed the destination of the current target." Chip spoke quietly.

  Blaze nodded her head as she snapped her finger and allowed for her vision of sight to access the factory's mapping blueprints with Chip's assistance.

  "I see... This factory has a secret locked away room. Perhaps it can be in there?" Blaze muttered.

  She tapped her hand on the mapping blueprint, as it was some sort of virtual reality device compatible with Blaze's movements and brain functions, along with Chip's help again. She used her fingers to zoom into the air, and compared to how far her current location was, coming up with a pretty accurate assumption of how far of a distance it was. She nodded her head with her results and swiped the map blueprint to the left, closing it down.

  With the enemy machines in front of her, guarding entry of the next room, she dashed toward them and used her long, skinny sword to slash one of them on the back, completely cutting through the machine's shell defense that would expose their insides. Blaze used her fist to punch her way into the machine's insides and pulled out a bunch of electric wires, disabling the machine. But as the other machine noticed and approached her quickly, she quickly entwined the electric wires with the tip of her sword. The machine used its weapon to slash Blaze, but as she quickly dodged, only some of her hair was cut off. Frustrated as she watched the silver locks of her hair fall gently to the ground, she dashed and stabbed the machine in their face, electrocuting it and letting it fall backward, off the platform and onto the ground.

  Blaze looked below as her hand felt it's way through her hair, feeling the imbalance of her hair locks. She grunted as she gripped her hair tightly and watched the machine explode as it hit the ground.

  "Your emoticons are increasing again, BLAZE-0X119." Chip spoke with confusion in his voice.

  Blaze grunted, "It's nothing."

  "BLAZE-0X119, you must remember your limitations."

  "Shuddup."

  Blaze sighed as she weakened her grip of her hair, eventually letting it go. She turned toward the door of which will lead to her destination. The door automatically opened as it revealed an open room, similar to the room with the numerous dead machine parts. She gasped as she looked around after hearing some rumbling and thumps from way above them, the ceiling that showed a dim light from up above from the skylight. But from what Blaze saw, the window was broken, evidently from the little piece of glass that fell and made a little noise that gained Blaze's attention as it hit the floor across the room.

  "Ugh. Chip, scan for enemy machinery." Blaze spoke into the silence as she walked toward a giant set of doors, hearing her echo move along the bar walls loudly.

  "Affirmative..." Chip responds. "Processing... Enemy presence confirmed to be above BLAZE-0X119."

  Blaze raised an eyebrow at his readings as she turned away from the giant set of doors and looked above, seeing machines jumping down from above. The few that jumped hit the ground with a perfect landing, holding a variety of weapons but mostly battle axes and maces. But one bigger machine fell from above and landed behind them. This one had arms that looked to be replaced and modded into giant laser shoots.

  Blaze gasped silently as she reached her hand behind and grabbed her spear that had been attached to her back from some mods she had done to her own body in order to hold more weapons. The holder opened access as she pulled the spear in front of her and aimed it at the machines.

  "T-T... Traitor. Accessing, BLAZE-0X119. Wanted for the dismemberment of ally Machina and acting without network permission."

  One of the machines spoke in its robotic tongue.

  Blaze snared at the speaking machine, "Chip. I need you to get those doors open now!"

  "Access denied." Chip responded within seconds after the order.

  "Of course."

  Blaze sighed as she blocked a sudden attack from the bigger machine, thrusting much power into the slash of its battle axe. Off the corner of her eye, she sees another machine, a smaller one, begins to attack with its mace. But as she begins to dodge the attack by feeling the motion of the attempted attack, Blaze moves her body quickly toward the silent wave of the attack, successfully dodging away from the two machines. As she dodged, a bright purple aura overshadowed her quick movements as she slid away from them. With this opportunity, she used her spear to penetrate the machines' shell defenses. Afterward, she jumped back and tossed her spear to allow it to flow into the exposed weaknesses of the machines. The smaller machine exploded from the impact, but the bigger machine took only little damage.

  Blaze grunted as she retrieved her own battle axe and stabbed the ground in front of the machine, creating a crack on the floor that would disable the machine's walking functions. She climbed on top of the battle axe, the handle part as it was up high off the ground, and she spun around it in a very stylish and exquisite way, landing multiple kicks into the machine. With the last kick that would assist in her pulling the battle axe out of the ground, she uppercut the machine and watched as it flew off the ground and into the air.

  Blaze glanced at the last small machine as it cowered in it's landing spot, looking to have been frozen from the fear it had while watching Blaze easily take out its companions. She scoffed as she made her way to the machine. She placed her hands on her hips as she observed the machine, raising an eyebrow.

  "You're just a lad," Blaze mutters.

  Blaze looked at the machine to see if it would respond, but it did not. She bent down close to it and waved her hand in front of its face, trying to get its attention.

  "Uh, hello?" She muttered once again, sighing after. "Chip, this machine is frozen. Try hacking into it and find some information on the network. Preferably a way to unlock this door."

  Chip responded immediately, "Affirmative."

>   Blaze stood up and walked aimlessly around the room as she hummed softly, waiting for Chip's announcement that he has hacked the network within the frightened machine. But just as she let her guard down, she heard a noise coming from the top of the room again, where the machines seemed to jump from. She pulled her spear from the wall, her tossing of the spear earlier must've landed into the wall.

  She heard screaming. She narrowed her eyes while tilting her head. A figure within the shining of the sky's light slowly materialized, but it seemed to be something else. It wasn't a figure of a humanoid such as herself, so it couldn't have been Drakkar, Densetsu, or that other boy with them. And it wasn't another machine. But within seconds, as she laid down her spear, she saw a light green stuffed animal bounce onto the ground, gaining a bit of odd air as it hit the ground.

  "Owwwwwww!" The stuffed animal shouted.

  Blaze gasped as she stepped toward the stuffed animal, it looked familiar to her, but her familiarity was blurred. She quickly put both of her weapons away as she watched the teddy bear sit up and rub his head, soon looking around.

  "Hmm," Blaze whispered.

  The whisper was just loud enough for the teddy bear to hear her, forcing it to immediately look at her. It gasped, as it stood up and patted down its little legs and torso.

  "H-Hey! Fancy meeting you here!" The teddy bear shouted, sounding a bit too nervous for Blaze's comfort.

  Blaze narrowed her eyes, but then she saw the other half of the teddy bear's body, seeing that side of it consumed by mechanical parts. She crossed her arms as she looked down into its face.

  "I think I remember you. I saw you with Drenawx that day. A while back." Blaze said.

  The teddy bear gasped, "Y-You remember me? My name's Kryptonite, by the way!"

  Blaze frowned as she looked down, placing her two fingers on the symbol on the side of her forehead, thinking. "Chip, get me a reading of a Kryptonite while you're hacking."

  She blinked her eyes as she removed her fingers from her head.

  "You all right? Do you have a headache!?" Kryptonite panicked as it reached into it's pocket and pulled out a little bottle of pills. "These will help! ... I think."

  Blaze chuckled a bit as she reached down and took the bottle of pills, looking on the back of it to read it contents.

  "Ah, how erm-... Sweet of you..." She mumbled.

  "So, do you have a name?" Kryptonite asked.

  Blaze's eyes looked up at him, as she still had looked down at the bottle. Her face was slightly covered by her long silver hair, but one of her bright purple eyes was still visible.

  "Name?" She questioned.

  Kryptonite gulped, "Uhm-... It's a way to separate yourself from others, I think. Like, my name is Kryptonite, so you'd call me Kryptonite."

  "I see... Kryptonite..." Blaze whispered as she looked to be in deep thought. "My code name was BLAZE-0X119."

  Kryptonite swooned as he watched her lip's motion when she spoke, "Lady Blaze, such a heavenly name..."

  Blaze frowned, urge to laugh. "Lady Blaze?"

  Kryptonite immediately stopped his swooning of her and grew even more nervous, obviously embarrassed about his actions and his nickname of her.

  "Um... So what brings you here?" Kryptonite cleared his throat awkwardly before speaking.

  Blaze brushed her hair back as it soon started to cover her eyes, looking back at the giant set of doors. Kryptonite scoffed as he walked past her and pulled out a screwdriver. Blaze followed behind him and crossed her arms as she watched.

  "What are you doing?" She asked.

  "You're trying to get passed this door, correct?" Kryptonite answered with a question of his own.

  "Yes, but-"

  Kryptonite pounded his chest in a confident way, "Leave it to me!"

  Blaze glanced down as she watched the teddy bear undo some screws, which opened a little vault part. He slowly crawled inside, wiggling his backside in an attempt to squeeze inside. She shook her head as she turned away and stepped a few steps away.

  "Chip, you have anything yet?" Blaze whispered.

  "Negative. Processing load time has exceeded." Chip responded.

  Blaze silently facepalmed in frustration, "You're useless. Nothing on this mysterious network, or this being called Kryptonite?"

  "There is a strong source of energy revolving around the network just past that door." Chip answers, knowing Blaze had turned to look at the door. "And on the matter of the one called Kryptonite, this one has a long history that needs more specific factors in order to search his background."

  "A long history, huh?"Blaze whispered as she looked inside the little vault door, only to see darkness. "Maybe he can be useful if he hasn't already."

  As she said that, she saw the door begin to unlock itself. The large lock that had locked the door tight falls to the ground, creating a loud thump from the contact of the iron flooring, while the chains that held the lock extracted and hid behind the walls. Afterward, the door moves upward at a fast speed, after Kryptonite managed to escape.

  "Nothing to it!" Kryptonite shouted as he again had to dust himself off, approaching her slowly.

  Blaze crossed her arms again, "Good."

  Kryptonite's face lit up again, "Really?! Did I do good?!"

  Blaze sighed, but she nodded her head. Kryptonite smiled as he saw her nod, but his curiosity forced him to look beyond the opened door, seeing nothing but a dark hallway.

  "Is this why you're here?" He asked.

  She nodded again, "Yes."

  Blaze begins to walk off into the dark hallway but stops as she hears Kryptonite's voice from behind.

  "Wait! -... Can I come along?" He asked, shouting loudly.

  Blaze grinned, still facing the dark hallway. "I don't see why not."

  Kryptonite jumped with joy as he managed to jump up high and onto Blaze's shoulder. He sat down silently as he watched Blaze guide him to the next room that had been anxiously awaiting her arrival.

  Verse III

  The Mysterious Network

  Just as the two headed into the darkness of the hallway, the hallway began to light up. The light bolts that hung on the walls lit up brightly, with a strange red glow. The room at the end of the hallway had the same color glow within. The room was hung, and the little platform had laid before them led to a big circular platform in front of them. Just passed that was a small platform similar to the one in front of them, leading to another big set of doors. Kryptonite jumped off Blaze's shoulder and took a soft step.

  As his foot took that small step, a loud alarm went off. The lights that resembled the red color turned on and off frequently, forcing Blaze and Kryptonite to look around anxiously. She frowned as she looked down at Kryptonite.

  "The hell did you do, bear?" Blaze said harshly.

  Kryptonite gasped, looking rather nervous yet again. "I-I don't know!"

  Blaze sighed as she looked down and pressed her two fingers on the symbol on the side of her forehead, making contact with Chip.

  "Chip, what's going on?" Blaze thought, making contact.

  "The system's alarms are blasted, BLAZE-0X119. It was set off by yourself, or somebody else." Chip responded.

  "Ugh. It couldn't have been us. It had to have been Drakkar or Densetsu." Blaze whispered, sounding frustrated.

  Kryptonite turned back at Blaze, wondering who she was talking about, but then a loud screeching sound came from below them. The walls had dents, dents that made some of the ancient machinery in this factory have access to go from floor to floor. One of those machines must've been sliding up the floors from this room. It was so as one machine slid up the wall and stopped right in front of them. The machine did not have a face, though it was still able to make contact.

  "Intruder alert!" The machine shouted, the shout somehow echoed along with the factory's alarm sounds. "State your business here, intruders!"

  Blaze frowned at the machine, not trying to look intimidated by the big size and somewhat intelligence of the machine.<
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  "Just step aside." She spoke bluntly to the machine.

  "I cannot do that, as I do not have feet." The machine responded.

  Blaze pinched the bridge of her nose, looking more frustrated. "Fine, you stupid bot. We're here to take down the network. Armagna."

  "Wait, you're here for Armagna?" Kryptonite asked, appearing to have been shocked.

  "That's right. And the network's main source is right through the door this damn machine is blocking." Blaze explained loud enough for the big machine to hear.

  As she spoke, the machine's center part opened up, revealing three big holes, maybe for laser shooters. On the sides of the machine, three wiggly arms with hands of claws stretched out really wide.

  "Threat detected. Permission to eliminate threat granted by network administer."

  Blaze gasped, "Administer? You mean this network is actually in control by someone?"

  The machine quickly stretches all six of its steel built arms at Blaze, but she manages to quickly dodge them, exposing her bright purple aura. Within the aura, she quickly counters the attacks of the steel arms and slashes on of them in half as she dashes in the air. She landed right next to Kryptonite as the machine's separate arm lands on the other side of Kryptonite.

  "The machine's brain must be rusty or something," Blaze mutters as she stood on her feet, looking beside her at Kryptonite. "Can you fight?"

  "Of course! I can also synchronize myself with this separate machine arm, allowing me to use it against it." Kryptonite shouted as he reaches his paw toward the separate arm.

  The machine arm lights up with a bright green color, slowly floating up in the air and rising toward him. It leaned close to his paw, appearing to have become some sort of temporary arm for him that he can use to fight. Kryptonite quickly jumped up in the air and pulled out a paraglider with his free paw, allowing him to glide toward the distorted machine and damage it with its own separated arm.

  Blaze chuckled as she watched the teddy bear fight against a big, distorted machine until she saw the center laser guns of the machines take aim right at her. He grunted as she saw the machine recoil due to the burst of the laser's power escape through the machine's guns. A loud beaming sound erupted as the yellow beams aligned with each other to create three times the damage a single beam would damage. Blaze began to dash away as the beams quickly followed her.