Cykopath- Birth

by Luca Braña

  Reddox immediately cast a protective barrier while Cyko jumped out alongside Magy and several other enhancers and close combat specialists, ready to meet any opposition. The enhancer was disappointed, however, when all that waited for them was a dark room, filled to the brim with crates of all kinds.

  “Hey, Tela, did you or any other of our guys find anything alive in this floor?” Cyko swept the room hoping to locate something hiding behind the crates, which served as perfect hiding places.

  “Hmm… Give me a few minutes, for now stay close to the elevators, can you describe what you can see?”

  “It seems like a storage room. There are crates and equipment everywhere. Cars and trucks… Huh, I think I see a few of those tubes they stuck into us to awaken us.” The enhancer jumped on top of the largest crate near him to view the whole room, but only found that there wasn’t a soul present.

  “Do you think we can spare a few minutes to wreck this place and maybe search for anything useful? Otherwise, I think I can see the elevator from here, it’s just a single one. It seems to be a straight path.” Cyko said, looking around one more time before jumping back to the ground.

  “Hmm… That’s strange, I can’t find a single mind that is not ours on that floor. Perhaps they evacuated everyone who worked on this floor to regroup. In that case, I think we should just go straight up, if we give them more time to prepare, it will be disastrous.” Tela couldn’t help but feel like this was too easy.

  “Something feels wrong. Scythe says we are in a good position to get ambushed here. We’ve been relying on Tela’s detection too much, I think.” Magy walked up to his side, clenching her twin scythes in anticipation.

  “The wind, it’s still,” Ellyn commented, approaching both Cyko and Magy with Reddox in tow. She continued, “It’s not saying anything. It feels dead, like there are vacuums spread all around, sucking in the air and preventing it from speaking. I want to get out of this place, and fast.”

  “I can detect trace amounts of magic in the air, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from,” Reddox chimed in.

  Soon Tela and her crew joined up with Cyko and his. The strongest led the group, followed closely by those of nearly equal power and then by those who were the least likely to want to fight. It would be a problem if they targeted those in the back, but the redhead was confident that by seeing so many powerful children grouped together, they might try to take them out first.

  “It’s here!” Reddox exclaimed just as the group was halfway past the large storage room. “A large magical spike, it’s surrounding us.” The mage’s magical grimoires materialized from his body as he readied himself for battle, quickly followed by the others as they looked around in anticipation.

  The fabric of reality seemed to erode away like television static, revealing a fully lit storage room, with hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers surrounding them, mages standing atop crates, each surrounded by their own magical barrier, holding staffs glowing with arcane power.

  They quickly noticed the difference between those soldiers and the ones they had fought on the lower floors. Many of them wore much bulkier and heavier looking armor, carrying large and deadly weapons. For the mages, all of them were wearing more protective armor than they were used to, covering their body from head to toe. The message was clear; they weren’t holding back anymore.

  Despite all of that, the most unpleasant surprise was the large, menacing glare of the second leader of the mutants, Leo, accompanied by no less than forty of his loyal underlings, all of them standing behind him.

  Seeing the look of shock and incredulity on their prey’s face, the lion let out a mighty roar, his weapons of choice, the sand hammer and axe in his hands.

  “Unlike that idiot Drago, I actually use my brain. I knew exactly what you were doing. You’re wondering how I got out? Well, here is a news flash for you,” the lion said as sand floated around him, making a small, translucent ring form. Tela and the others looked at the ground, and noticed that it was corroding away, turning into the sand that Leo used to make his weapon and armor. “I could have escaped this facility whenever I wanted!”

  “H-how?!” Tela exclaimed, looking around her with wide, horrified eyes. All the mutants that were supposed to be locked behind their training rooms under their seal were present in this floor, accompanied by the soldiers who looked deadlier than ever.

  Face set in determination, she took a step forward to meet him in battle, only to flinch as her face collided with an invisible wall.

  “W-what?!” Her eyes widened as the barrier finally made itself known. A small cage surrounded her, stopping her from moving at all. She looked around and noticed that enclosures also appeared over several other children, Cyko, Magy, Ellyn and Reddox. The strongest ones.

  “So, this is your plan, huh?” Cyko commented with a sneer, a blue aura appearing around his body as he let his powers fully course through his veins. “Too bad, we’ve dealt with things like this before!” He broke the barrier surrounding him in half, making it dissipate. Just as he was about to vanish from his position, however, his flickering form collided against another barrier.

  He snarled and tried again, and again, and again to no success. Reddox made his barrier disintegrate by using the power of all of his tomes and just like Cyko, he tried to take a step forward, only for the cage to reform itself around him.

  “Haha! Try to escape as much as you want, it won’t work! I knew this would happen,” the lion whispered mockingly, enjoying the sight of Cyko’s increasingly frustrating attempts to free himself.

  “Now, all of us here will hurt and maybe even kill your friends, until you give up this foolish rebellion and surrender,” he spoke again, causing Tela to gasp and Cyko to snarl.

  “Fight me yourself then, you coward!”

  “Maybe later, but for now… don’t say I didn’t warn you,” the mutant leader declared. A piercing noise rang out across the room, quickly followed by a cry of anguish.

  “AHH! MY KNEE!” The child standing furthest from Tela and the others fell to the ground and clenched his bloodied knee.

  “N-NO!” Tela cried out both mentally and vocally, feeling the fear and pain of the child through her mental connection with him. “Don’t hurt them! Those aren’t fighters!” she pleaded with the mutant.

  “I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” Cyko shouted, attacking his cage once again to no avail.

  With a snap of Leo’s fingers, his mutants began to circle slowly around the now wary-looking children.

  “Now, here comes the fun part. You either surrender and stop this ridiculousness, or we will tear your friends apart until there’s no one left,” the leader offered, his low growl sent shivers down their spines as they learned that his threats were very much real.

  “N-no…” Tela whispered to herself, watching with fear as the mutants circled around their prey.

  If only she could break through this blasted barrier or use her telekinesis to erase it! Reddox had stopped trying to free himself, Ellyn was trying to manipulate the wind outside her dome, to limited success. Cyko kept trying to break through the barrier, destroying it repeatedly only for it to regenerate before he could move. Magy had her weapons cleaved through the barrier, scowling in concentration, but she hadn’t freed herself.

  It seemed hopeless, and Leo’s mighty roar was enough to evoke more fear from the weaker children. She could hear sobs sounding around her. Was this it, then? Had she failed again?

  Leo suddenly brought his forearm, armed with both his armor and sand, up to protect himself against a sudden streak of flame that was flying towards him. A large boom resounded from the point of impact, causing the lion to grit his teeth.

  The fireball landed on the ground to reveal the flaming form of Torch, who was glaring up at him. “Like hell we’ll just give up like that!” the redhead shouted, the fire surrounding his body almost pulsing.

  Looking around, Leo noticed groups of children at the ready, assuming a battle stance at
the defense of their fearless leaders.

  The mutant leader roared, advancing towards the group which was the signal for the battle to start and in less than ten seconds, the once quiet storage room turned into chaos.

  “We won’t let you do as you please anymore!” Anna yelled, firing two charged shots straight at Leo, who jumped high into the air to avoid the plasma spheres, but was caught by Starry’s projectiles, exploding against his form.

  Quickly getting to his feet, the lion willed his power to work faster, causing several spears of metallic sand to rise from the ground, seeking to impale the children who were fighting him, but somehow, they all dodged his attack at the last moment. He willed the spears to explode, pelting them with shrapnel.

  Just as he was about to charge at Sara, the ground below him shook. The lion stumbled as he tried to hold his footing, once again giving an opening that Anna and Starry were more than glad to take. The older girl fired another charged shot at the beast, striking him right in the chest, the plasma from her projectile exploding upon contact, piercing his sand and his armor, burning the skin underneath. Falling backwards, the lion was bombarded with a salvo of exploding stars.

  Finding himself outnumbered, wounded, and under rapid fire that was not allowing him to get up, the lion cursed loudly. He had hoped that by holding the rest of the rebels hostage, the blasted telepath would give up. He had to fight for his own survival now.

  With the barrage of projectiles coming to a halt thanks to several guards firing at his opponents, the lion took the opportunity and jumped to his feet.

  With a mighty roar, he declared, “Enough playing around! I’ll show you why I am the king of the jungle!”

  The ground and several containers around him evaporated into dust, bringing the siblings’ attention from the guards back towards him, eyes widening at the tornado of metallic dust that surrounded him. It exploded suddenly, causing shrapnel to fly in every direction, piercing everything and everyone in the immediate area.

  “Aaahhh!” Starry screamed in pain as several large shards of shrapnel stabbed through her armor, wounding her forearms and legs as she could not dodge them. Grimacing, they all turned towards the mutant leader, and gasped as they saw him.

  Towering over everyone was a gigantic silver colored lion with six arms, holding two giant hammers, two axes, and two more appendages appeared to be cannons. Leo’s own body was nowhere to be seen.

  The metallic lion roared, the loud sound causing several of the floor’s occupants to flinch and cover their ears at the volume. Leo pointed his cannon arm towards a large group of rebels and before anyone had time to react, it fired a sphere of metallic dust towards them. It exploded on impact, burying most in his sand.

  “NO!” Tela screamed, both out loud and mentally. They had been knocked unconscious. Everyone else was staring at the giant metal lion, ears still ringing from his roar.

  “YOU CRUEL ANIMAL!” Cyko screamed in anger, panting slightly from his efforts at trying to break the barrier that still imprisoned him. He glared at the metallic lion.

  Just as Leo was about to fire another projectile, dozens of large vines sprouted from the ground and took hold of his cannon arms with surprising strength and stopped them from moving. Two large torrents of water drenched both of the limbs, freezing upon contact and sealing the cannon holes away.

  “He may be large, but that just makes him an easier target,” Henry declared, the flower floating on top of his head was beaming.

  Sara approached him, sweat covering her forehead. “I told Tela to not worry about him, we’ll take care of him ourselves,” she said, creating more water spheres to use at a moment’s notice.

  Starry sent a fleet of dark stars towards the metallic titan.

  Anna fired her plasma projectiles at Leo with one arm, while the other fired off charged shots. Mat and Torch joined, shooting searing fireballs from their mouth and hands.

  With a roar, Leo swung both of his giant axes, forcing the siblings to dodge his attack. As both weapons struck the ground, several bullets of metallic sand sprung up, spreading widely from the point of impact. Some children, mutants and even guards got hit by surprise, giving their respective opponents enough time to counterattack. This took out five rebels and three mutants, along with the death of ten guards.

  As Tela watched the fight, carefully monitoring and updating their shared map with any information she or the others could find about the metal lion, her mental partitions also took in the state of the rest of the battlefield.

  Several children had been guided off to hide behind a large container, those who either didn’t want to fight or were too weak to battle against such large numbers. With them were more children who protected them from incoming attacks. Others were fighting off two of Leo’s mutant friends.

  The area directly to her left was where fighting had been the most intense, so far. Those that had not gotten imprisoned, but were still formidable on their own, had banded together. Several shapeshifters could transform themselves into other creatures like small dragons, giant canines, lizards, snakes and even into less corporeal things, like ghosts.

  One of the largest advantages the shapeshifters had was their ability to cure themselves of all wounds by reverting to their base forms. Thanks to this, Tela had advised a strategy of rotation in which those who had taken a breather would swap with those who were most wounded, allowing them to keep up with the pressure. Already, she had confirmed the death of over a hundred guards and a few mages because of this tactic.

  Other shapeshifters had spread out. The child who could turn into a cloud of locusts was fighting a bulky-looking lizard, trying his best to evade the mutant’s corrosive smoke. A boy who could turn his own arms into machine guns was keeping three guards busy, another who could turn into a steel golem was having a fist fight against a stone golem mutant who was double his size. A faceless, floating cloak was fighting against two mutants at once, allowing his own intangibility to provoke the two insectoids, using his own ghostly claws to tear away at their stamina. A kid made of pure fire was running between the guards, hoping to set them ablaze, and also distracting them long enough to give others an opportunity.

  The spiritualists were making use of their ability to communicate with spirits to harass both the guards and the mutants, gathering information on their positions and the best way to attack.

  The enhancers were the main vanguard, speeding through and shrugging off the bullets. Their main job was banding together and fighting against the mutants to keep them away from the weaker children and other combatants. Five enhancers had just annihilated a mammoth mutant, while another one had taken down a group of five guards who were manning a machine gun.

  Quite a few mentalists like Tela had been captured by the cages, but that didn’t mean all of them. Some were helping by causing confusion, fear, and hallucinations in their enemies, while a small group was trying to free the caged children.

  Tela turned her attention back towards the fight with Leo. Already, Henry had covered most of his form with vines, restricting his movements but also sending shrapnel towards the children whenever he struggled. Several bleeding wounds punctured the siblings, especially Torch, who liked to get as close to Leo as he could.

  “Hey, Magy, what are you doing? You haven’t moved,” Cyko questioned his friend, sweat dripping down his face from his own escape efforts.

  Magy turned to him, a smile on her face. “I think I might be onto something. I have been talking with Scythe all this time, we’ve been working on keeping this hole I made with her open. Remember how she can partially enter barriers like this? It’s the same principle. I’m having her absorb the barriers energy to weaken it and use the energy in other ways.”

  “How?” Tela asked.

  “If I targeted that annoying lion, I can probably muster enough power to blow one of its arms apart. I can probably kill those mages responsible for this spell if I score a direct hit, but they are spread all over the place. It would ta
ke forever to take them all out,” she explained.

  “Magy, can you control the potency of your attack?” Tela asked.

  “Sure, but what do you need me to control it for?” She raised an eyebrow at Tela.

  “Do you think you can lessen it enough to send Cyko flying away, but not enough to hurt him?” she questioned, causing those around her to blink at her bold plan.

  “That is…” Magy frowned, retracting her weapon from the barrier and looking at her friend. Sure, she could probably do it, but it would be painful. Seeing her expression of worry, however, the enhancer pounded his chest with a smirk.

  “Magy, don’t worry, I can take it! Besides, I trust you.”

  “Fine, but… it’s gonna hurt.” She stabbed her weapon through the barrier, stopping halfway through in Cyko’s direction. “Whenever you are ready. Please, be careful.” She willed her dark energy to concentrate on the space between her two blades.

  “Cyko, once you are out, do your best to cause as much mayhem as possible, but your priority will be the mages. Their barriers should work like ours do, but they are covered in two barriers, cast by each other. If you want to take one down, you’ll have to destroy both and then strike them down before they regenerate them,” Tela explained to Cyko, who grinned at her words, his plan forming in his mind.

  “Don’t worry, Tela! Once I’m out, they’ll never know what hit them!” He focused on increasing his endurance as he braced himself to destroy the barrier and endure Magy’s attack.

  “Magy! On the count of three!” Cyko shouted, getting himself into position to slash at it. When she nodded in confirmation, he began his mental countdown alongside her, staying in synchronization thanks to Tela.

  One…

  Two…

  Three…

  “NOW!”

  The barrier disappeared in a flash of blue just as a pink streak of energy hit Cyko in the gut, knocking the wind out of his lungs and sending him flying into a crate. The barrier that used to imprison him regenerated in the place he stood seconds before.