by Andrew Jones
"Blaze," Lilith spoke as she opened her eyes.
Blaze looked forward at Lilith who was floating in her vault. She looked up into her eyes and didn't say a word to her, she only placed her hand on the glass of the vault and stared up at her.
"How is it being out of your vault? Does the air smell good? Are the sights satisfying? Is the world beautiful?" Lilith asked her, as she shot Blaze a smile from up above.
Blaze smiled softly, she fiddled with her hands as she looked to have become nervous about talking back to her.
"It's okay. You don't have to say anything. I know what you're thinking."
Blaze looked back up at her and tilted her head in confusion.
"Blaze, I know you're a curious machine, and you'll become the one who will have the realization. Once you do, please release me from my vault. Promise me..."
Blaze looked down and took a deep breath, looking like she was affected by Lilith's sudden request because she knew that Drenawx prohibited only Lilith from leaving her vault. She didn't know why, no one really knew why, but Blaze knew how desperate Lilith was about getting out of that vault. She had the data that described how the world looked, smelled, felt like, but she wanted to physically see it all with her own eyes. Blaze had no choice but to look up at Lilith and nod her head, smiling softly again.
Lilith was satisfied, and she took a deep breath of relief. From that day forward, she looked to Blaze for support, support Drenawx or others could not perform. Lilith showered Blaze with her weakness and grew a strong bond with her, but she didn't know if Blaze felt the same way about her.
"Hey, Lilith!" Drakkar shouted.
Lilith snapped out of her phase once again and looked forward, seeing Drakkar standing next to someone new who had entered the room.
"S-Sorry," Lilith muttered, "Eerie?"
Eerie nodded his head, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance once again, Lilith." He answered her as he smiled and bowed for her.
"Eerie is here for the assassination job. And from how you look I assume all went well." Drakkar spoke.
Eerie laughed, "It did indeed. Plenty of bloodshed, just like you asked."
"Splendid."
Eerie frowned as he looked through his data files In his head. Mentally, he clicked through several files and looked at the grid to see how far Nova and the other two was from him, and to his surprise, they were near.
"Drakkar, might I ask a question? I am looking for a couple of Synths by the names of Nova, Blaze, and Atreyu. Have you seen them?" Eerie asked politely, but straight forward.
Drakkar grinned at Lilith before looking at Eerie and answering him, "Yes, I was actually going to have your next assignment be to eliminate them. They pose a threat to my- I mean, our plan." Drakkar explained.
Eerie blinked his eyes a few times and goes silent. He walked past Drakkar and stands next to Lilith, glancing down the window and seeing his three targets standing outside. His eyes change immediately into the red color and his voice malfunctions into a more robotic voice.
"I will go forth as if this was a personal issue. Consider it done." Eerie confirms the request.
Kryptonite watches from the creek opening of the door. His button eyes grew big as he watched the three discuss their plan to eliminate Nova, Blaze, and Atreyu. He starts to pant just as he begun rushing down the hall and to the endless set of stairs. Instead of hook shotting himself down the stairs safely, he would quickly jump down a high set of stairs, which would make his cotton soft body sore after a little while. As he plopped on the floor of the bottom floor, he quickly looked around for a way out as he heard the footsteps of Eerie coming forth for the battle. He remembers Eerie leaving the back door open, but before he could get off his bottom and run to the back entrance, he was grabbed from the back of his neck.
"Hey! Lemme go! Lemme go!" Kryptonite yells as his little legs frailed and his paws tried to push his grip away from him.
Eerie grinned and looked at the moving teddy bear, laughing, "A talking teddy bear, ain't this a rare sight to see?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just lemme go, you punk!"
Eerie laughed again, pulling Kryptonite up close to his face, "How did you get in here with that magical barrier, hm?" He asked before looking back toward his three targets who were outside, "Are you with those three Synths?"
"No..." Kryptonite answered nervously.
"No need to lie to me. You've clearly got some machine in you, I'll just have Lilith hack you and gain the answers forcefully." Eerie grinned at him.
Kryptonite shouted as he was finally able to bite Eerie's hand, weakening his grip on him. He fell to the ground as he heard Eerie's grunts from the soft bite.
"You bitch!" Eerie shouted at him.
Kryptonite didn't look back at Eerie, he would just rush out the door and to Nova and the other to wake them up, knowing Eerie was preparing for the battle he was anticipating for and following just behind him with his usual grin on his face.
Verse XII
The Urge to Kill
Blaze could suddenly feel herself become reborn like her body had been charging itself in some odd, unknown way. Her eyes opened immediately as she sat up and panted for breath frantically. Nova and Atreyu glance over at Blaze, jumping from fright when they heard her awaken, but Kryptonite was quick to rush to her side. He jumped right into her face and gave her a big hug, the tightest a teddy bear like himself could give.
"B-Blaze!" Kryptonite shouted with joy in his voice. "Lady Blaze! You're all right!"
Blaze was shouting, but her voice was blurred due to Kryptonite's body covering her voice. Nova and Atreyu both looked at each other with confusion, but they stood up and approached Blaze as she grabbed Kryptonite by the back of his neck and pulled him off of her.
"Lady Blaze! How... How did you become recharged with no power source?" Kryptonite asked as he gave her his worried face.
She shrugged her shoulders, but when her shoulders moved, her body jolted. It would appear that Blaze was still in a weakened state which would limit her movement.
"Blaze..." Nova muttered to her, seeing Blaze look up at her, "Thank you."
Blaze nodded her head, "It was nothing..."
As they continued their talking, Blaze tried to explain the situation she went through with Xanadu. It felt like she was in a dream- or that she really was dead for a moment there. She didn't feel much pain, she didn't remember too much of anything at all. She could only remember seeing Xanadu there, and this place called Between Time.
"It must've just been in your head." Atreyu shrugged his shoulders, tossing that thought to the side mentally.
"Maybe," Blaze whispered.
"Anyways... We've been here since you gone out. We haven't been able to look for Amaya and the others at all." Nova interrupted, "I'm getting worried."
Blaze sighed, "I'm sure they're all right. Amaya is more clever than she looks, and Jet can fight."
"Amaya and Jet, hm?" A voice came from behind the castle.
Nova, Blaze and the others quickly look to see who was approaching them. It was Eerie, the predator Kryptonite totally forgot about because of Blaze's awakening. Nova frowned at him, as she sensed a distortion within him. But Blaze tried to stand up as she called out toward him.
"C-Conrad?" Blaze questioned, "What are you doing here? I-I thought you were dead."
Eerie tilted his head to the side, then he started laughing, "Conrad? Haven't heard that name in a loooong time."
Eerie continued his disturbing laugh as he cracked his knuckles, slowly approaching the group. Atreyu stretched his arm in front of the group, backing them up away from him.
"Conrad? Blaze, who is he?"
Blaze grunted as she fell back on the ground, "H-He was a Synth, just like all of us..."
"A Synth who WAS Human! I was forced into a machine freak like you!" Eerie screamed at them as his eyes changed into a red color quickly.
"Those eyes..." Blaze whispered.
"Calm down, Conrad, we don't hav
e any beef with you! We won't fight you." Atreyu announced courageously at him.
Eerie snarled, "My name is Eerie now!"
"Since when!?" Blaze shouted at him.
Eerie chuckled as he responded, "Since I accepted Lilith as the Machine God, of course."
Blaze gasped, "Machine God?"
"Yes. And the first thing she asked me was to dispose of any and all Synths, including all of us!"
Nova muttered, "... Even you? You're a Synth too..."
Eerie nodded his head, "I'll off myself after I take care of you all!"
Atreyu yelled, "I told you! We're not fighting you!"
Eerie stopped talking and stared at him. The moment of silence came to be, but it wasn't long until Eerie started his disturbing laugh again. And as he laughed, Nova and the others looked at each other with a confused look on their faces.
"What's so funny? Nova asked.
Eerie wiped his tears after he tried to calm himself down, looking ahead at them all, "You don't have any beef with me? I suppose what I've done was not too long ago. Human wannabes like yourselves are probably incapable of such knowledge as what we own."
"Get to the point, asshole!" Atreyu yelled again.
"Such foul language." Eerie laughed once again, "I'll give you a clue. Our plan is to rid the world of Humans and machines. My job is to rid the world of Synths, so I went out and met up with some of your friends."
Nova grunted, "Amaya and Jet?"
Eerie chuckled, "You're smarter than you look. I dealt with that inconvenience, so now you have no choice but to fight me. I mean, don't you feel like you have to get revenge for your friends?"
"Y-You killed them?" Nova asked, her voice shaking as she spoke.
Blaze glared forward at Eerie, "You think Human life is to be wasted like that? Like living species like Humans and machines, too, are not pure and precious? You're just a fucking monster."
Eerie laughed, as he grabbed his blade from its holster on his back. He used the palm of his hand to shine the blade, allowing the blade's shininess to shine into their eyes as he would look at them with intimidation in his own eyes.
"This world is already screwed! We're doing the unborn God's work! Why allow people to suffer when we can send them to the New World!? You're the monsters for resisting to die!"
"I'll rip your wires out and force them down your damn throat!" Blaze shouts loudly as she struggles to get back on her feet.
Eerie raised his eyebrow, "Blaze, I never saw you as a fighter. You used to be so soft and innocent. Oh, how have you changed..."
"I'm not the only one to change. But at least I didn't sell out to someone who is clearly stronger than me!"
Eerie frowned and held his sword tight and flung forward toward Blaze to deal an attack, but the sound of steel hitting each other echoed throughout the area. He gasped as his attack was blocked by Atreyu. He had somehow morphed his hand into a giant strong sword and flung it into Eerie's sword. He chuckled while he jumped back.
"Atreyu. Do you remember that power of yours?" Eerie asked, raising his eyebrow again.
Atreyu frowned, "What power?"
Eerie sighed, "We're the morphing machine drones, moron. We're the only machines who can transform into several different forms. We were built to be a team, and even combine to create the UltraBeam that could destroy this world." He explained, then he started to think deeply as he started to him, "Atreyu, join me."
"W-What?"
"Do what you were destined to do. You are no Human, and you are much too valuable to be hanging around dweebs like these betas. Us alphas gotta stick together, have each other's back. We're basically twins- no, the same person. Join me and fulfill your fate!"
Atreyu shook his head as his other arm morphed into a similar giant sword he had on his other arm.
"I would never join you! I've valued Human life more than machine life. And now that I know that I'm a machine... I have to put effort to save the machines from Synths like you! Synths were created to defend the machines, not destroy them!"
Eerie frowned but he chuckled from Atreyu's answer, "Pathetic. Oh, well. If you won't willingly join, there is nothing stopping me from forcing you!"
He shouted as his entire body began transforming into a giant shell that took up most of the castle's courtyard. The shell was circular, and it resembled a rusty gold coloring, this must have been Eerie's true mechanic form. On the side of the shell, he had his face imprinted, with the same snare he would have on his face after he chuckled. He chuckled, and as he chuckled, his voice grew a darker tone, as well as a robotic harmonizer tone in his voice's background.
"This world is a ticking time bomb, twin! If you choose to die now, I'll save you the grief you'll have once this world burns!" Eerie shouted loudly.
As he shouted, holes opened up throughout his circular shell, cannons popped out of each of them which all took aim at Atreyu.
"Delaying the end is worth every bit of pain you inflict! Murdering is not the answer, everyone still has their lives to look forward to, their fate!" Atreyu shouted.
Eerie chuckled, "Fate? You believe in that crap? We don't control our destiny, kid! Our fate, every single one of us, is death! The deep bowels of darkness that haunts our nightmares!"
As he shouted, he fired all of the canons that he had materialized, which shot giant black bullets at Atreyu. He quickly charged forward and morphed his arms into steel shields that would guard himself against any of the bullet damage. Getting through, he morphed his arms into the swords again, in order to stab both of them into Eerie's shell. But his attacks bounced off of the steel shell, they were purely for defensive procedures similar to Atreyu's arm shields.
"His whole body is a giant shield... How do I beat him?" Atreyu whispered as he jumped back away from him.
Blaze called out to him, Atreyu... His face..."
Atreyu widened his eyes at Blaze's idea before he glanced at Eerie's face. He was laughing at the useless attack strategy Atreyu had done. He frowned and began screamed as he charged forward, stabbing his swords into Eerie's eyes. Eerie screamed in an oddly high pitch like something inside him had malfunctioned due to the impact of Atreyu's attack. With his arms still stabbed in Eerie's eyes, he watched a pool of blood came pouring out of the morphed machine of Eerie. It was shocking how much blood had poured out, and one would assume he was bleeding out.
But he wasn't, his body had been badly malfunctioned to the point that his mindset was corrupted. Eerie began laughing even more disturbingly, just as Atreyu pulled himself away from him and jumped back. The top part of Eerie's circular structure had begun opening up and that's when a ticking sound was heard.
"You're good! I focused too much on my surrounding self, that I forgot about defending my face!" Eerie continued to laugh as he spoke, "But I have accepted my defeat, and accept that it is my time to pass into the New World, but I will still complete my objective to the Machine God. If I die now, you all will die too!"
Everyone gasped, especially Atreyu who was still forced to take him on. Eerie had set up a bomb inside of himself, and that was where the ticking sound was coming from.
"Atreyu, you have to hurry inside and disarm the bomb!" Nova shouted at him.
Atreyu looked back at her, looking conflicted, "How do I know how!?"
"You and Conrad are the same. If you look deep inside of yourself, you will find out everything about him."
Atreyu sighed as he looked forward at Eerie once again. He rushed toward him and stabbed into his face once again. He was cutting his face apart until Eerie's laughing had stopped, an opening was revealed after that. The inside was not too big, but there had been wires running around everywhere. Atreyu hastily observed the area, spotting the small bomb under a pile of wires that looked to have been intentionally hidden, but he saw the glow that came from the bomb's countdown clock. He sighed as he pushed the wires away and focused on opening the bomb, spotting an assortment of colored wires, one of them was the wire that would disconnect
the bomb and disable it. He thought long and hard, and then he remembered what Blaze had told him. Look deep inside himself, the only problem was that he didn't know what he was anymore. He had instantly become someone he never thought he would have been. Being a machine, who was able to morph his body, and the strange dark powers to go along with it. He grabbed his head tightly and screamed just as the ticking echoed into his head.
"Shuddup!" He shouted.
His head was in agonizing pain, and he felt like he was going to pass out. But he had to save them, mostly for Nova's sake. He turned back and glanced out of the opening he had created. He saw Nova out there watching him. She had that worried look on her face, but she knew deep down that Atreyu was scared and worried as well, and she had a feeling that just her smile would help him. So she smiled, a little and soft smile. It was a little something, but it was enough to bring light to his heart. He sighed and looked back at the colored wires. He reached his hand inside the machine and grabbed onto the blue wire softly, morphing his hand into a part of powerful looking mechanical pliers. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before snipping the wire cut. Nothing happened, but when he opened his eyes he heard the machine of Eerie begin to shake.
He quickly got up and rushed toward the opening, but just before he reached it, a dark mass covered the way out. He panicked as he heard everyone's voice from outside, he couldn't get out. From Nova's sight, she looked up at the top of the castle and saw a woman, Lilith, reaching her hand out toward the massive machine. Her hand formed a fist as she forced the machine to explode.
"Atreyu!" Nova screamed as she ran into the black smoke.
Kryptonite gasped, "N-Nova! Don't go into the smoke!"
Kryptonite pulled out a long rope from his pocket and swung it at Nova, the rope wrapped around Nova's hand in a tight grip. Seeing the rope get a grip on her, he pulled her out of the smoke and back toward him and Blaze.
"Wha... What are you doing!? I have to help him!" Nova shouted.
"That's a mechanical explosion, Nova! The area around the smoke has electron waves running all around it, if you get hit by it, you could die!" Kryptonite shouted at her.