Cykopath- Birth

by Luca Braña

  Their plan had worked, and the enhancer was loose.

  One mage, whose keen and experienced gaze searched for the most dangerous child, widened his eyes as he appeared in front of him, both of his holo blades glowing bright with energized power. He aimed the caging spell at the boy, confident that his own protection, a chain of barriers connecting all the mages, would guard him long enough for the cage to take form.

  His hopes were crushed when the boy slashed through his form, each blade destroying a barrier. Then, to the mage’s despair, a second Cyko suddenly appeared from his side and pierced through his armor and protective spells like they were butter. Gurgling his own blood, the mage only had time to watch the boy teleport away before the clone finished the job, engulfing his world in darkness.

  It was a nightmarish scene. One by one, the elite mages were falling, and with each death, their web of barriers and cages got weaker. By the time the soldiers noticed and answered the mages’ calls for aid, it was too late.

  “Abort the plan! Change to Plan B! All mages assume fighting formation!” One mage, their captain, yelled into the radio. All the remaining mages nodded. In an instant, they dropped their barriers and jumped down in the main areas of the storage room, offensive and support spells at the ready.

  The siblings’ fight against Leo still raged on. They sported an increasing number of bruises and wounds from the giant metallic construct, who looked far from giving up. With most of his limbs now useless, the giant lion had stuck to summoning dust spears from both the ground and its body, making them explode when convenient.

  “All right, everyone, fall back!” Henry shouted. From the moment Leo turned into that giant beast, their aim wasn’t to take down the mutant leader just yet, but to wait long enough for the yellow flower on top of his head to finish charging.

  The special flower, a species he had created himself, blossomed, revealing a dark interior. The aptly named Blast Flower, worked with the purple flowers on his shoulders, whose purpose was to absorb the ambient energy in the air, mostly magical, and transfer it to the Blast Flower.

  Just as the lion reared up for its next blow, Henry willed the flower to let out its charge. With a thunderous boom, a golden beam of energy fired from the plant, its kickback nearly throwing him to the ground.

  It struck the metallic lion right in the chest. Both giant arms fell, their joints destroyed from the damage. A deafening roar of pain echoed around the floor, the only sign that Leo was alive.

  As the smoke cleared, Henry and his siblings noticed with satisfaction that the entirety of the metallic lion’s top half was gone, reduced to a wreckage around the wounded form of the mutant leader. Leo was clutching his left shoulder, his face twisted in agony as the Blast Flower vaporized everything below his left shoulder.

  “GAAAH!” the lion roared in pain before willing his power to create another tornado of metallic dust around him, engulfing more crates into it. Torch shot at his form like a flaming meteor, only to be stopped by a wall of dust that absorbed his attack. Before the child could do anything else, the tornado exploded, sending him flying.

  Starry caught Torch before he could crash against the ground, the flames on his body somehow not harming her. This was bad. The Blast Flower was only good for one shot because it would wilt afterwards. For the time it would take for another one to charge, almost 12 minutes, they likely couldn’t last that much longer against him.

  His eyes widened when the tornado ceased and revealed the form of the giant metallic lion, only this time, all six arms had cannons, pointing straight at them. They wouldn’t be able to dodge all of his attacks at the same time! To make matters worse, the tornado had severed his vines, which laid in pieces around the construct.

  Before Henry or his siblings could do anything, however, another deafening boom echoed around the storage room. Deep gashes appeared on the lion, red streaks of energy cut off its cannon arms, turning it into a pile of metallic dust. A blue streak flashed across him, leaving a deep cut on his chest.

  Henry blinked.

  “Sorry for the wait, we had to deal with those pesky mages first,” a voice sounded from behind him, causing the group of siblings to gasp. Walking towards them was Cyko, Magy, Ellyn, Reddox, and Tela.

  “You all did well, I can see why Cyko is so proud of being your brother,” Tela said with a gentle smile, making sure they could feel her feelings of respect and Cyko’s pride. They deserved praise for holding off such a powerful opponent for so long. Her words elicited smiles in return.

  Her face turned serious as she glared at the lion who was again trying to reform his body. Almost instantly, the lion fully reformed himself, this time with only two arms, having only the claws on its fingers for weapons. Her body glowed red as she exerted her telekinesis onto the construction, causing it to contract upon itself under the weight of her mind.

  “Agatha, prepare to fire,” Tela commanded the girl who had previously fought Starry in the Coliseum, a girl with battleship-like powers. She walked forward, nodding at her command, pointing all six of her triple-barreled turrets at him.

  “I think you guys can handle this. My blood is pumping for more payback,” Cyko declared, pointing a hand towards the many still ongoing battles.

  Magy nodded and walked towards him, ready to assist further.

  “Okay, you may go. Anyone else?” Tela asked as the two friends dashed away, eager to spill more blood. When no one else stepped away, she took a moment to breathe and stared harder at the lion construct, causing it to contract even further.

  “Over fifty children have serious injuries and there are another seventy with minor wounds. I expected you to at least be better than Drago, but no, you also supported this madness. If you had helped us, we wouldn’t have had to spill a single drop of blood. Because of your thirst for power, you put many of us—including yourself—in danger. You disgust me, Leo.” the telepath said to his mind, making sure he could feel the emotions from the wounded and scared children.

  Still, he wasn’t done in yet, not by a long shot. He may have lost an arm and got himself a deep gash that nearly pierced his heart, but he was far from finished! He had trained hard and studied his abilities rigorously just to make sure the same thing that happened to Drago would never happen again. He had learned even more about how his powers worked and what he could do with them.

  Drago wasn’t the only one with an ability that the scientists had forbidden.

  He could take control of the entire ground, ceiling, and even the crates if given enough time. He could make the entire floor collapse upon itself and will it so that only he and his mutants escaped unscathed, while everyone else suffered. If he pushed his limits enough, he could make the entire facility his weapon! He could still win!

  But he wasn’t stupid. Chances are, they would counter his ability and escape. He wanted to become the leader of a powerful pride, the lion blood the scientist had awakened in him demanded it! But he wouldn’t accomplish that by dying.

  “Unlike Drago, I never underestimated you. I expected this rebellion would happen, but I never for a moment believed you would lie down and accept what is happening here, the birth of a powerful army!” the lion said to the rebel leader, gritting his teeth to ignore the throbbing pain in his chest.

  “There is also another difference I have from Drago. Unlike him, I’LL SURVIVE!”

  Suddenly, the ground underneath Tela gave birth to thin spears of dust she deflected before her eyes widened as the metallic lion melted, forming a tornado of debris, causing shrapnel to fly everywhere. Quickly those that could create barriers did so to protect the others from the attack.

  Leo was nowhere to be seen.

  “W-What?!” Tela whispered to herself in shock, realizing now that the mental connection she had made with him was gone too.

  “Tela!” Cyko’s voice came to her mind, urgency in his tone. She immediately brought her attention to him as he spewed out an explanation. “The mutants! The bad ones! They are being
grabbed by the dust! They are disappearing, even the dead ones!”

  The mutants were retreating!

  “Cowards!” Torch yelled, the flames of his hair cracking. “Get back here and fight like a man!” He threw fireball after fireball at the hole that was left from the mutant’s escape, the only evidence left of the giant metallic lion.

  “Yes! This is good news, everyone! Without the mutants, the guards will be much less dangerous! Now is the time we finally move forward! To freedom!” their leader declared, her own heart filling everyone else’s with determination.

  Cyko, surrounded by the bodies of several guards and a few mages, clicked his teeth in annoyance at what Tela had said. Not at her, but at the cowardly lion.

  “He comes here and tries to stop us like some game boss and then runs away with his tail between his legs, how typical. Don’t worry, I’ll find you one day,” the enhancer muttered to himself.

  The battle had quickly progressed from a stalemate between the two factions into a one-sided massacre in favor of the rebels. Even with more professional equipment meant to wage war rather than just stun, it didn’t make much of a difference. While dozens of children got serious injuries, the soldiers had it much worse.

  No guards were left alive. Cyko, Magy, and several of the more vengeful children made sure of that.

  However, this battle made one thing clear for them. The staff was done kidding around, and Tela doubted that this would be everything they had in store for them. She hoped that with how many guards had perished, there wouldn’t be many more to deal with.

  After the battle on the fourth floor was over, they started their next priority: taking care of the injured. Tela gathered those with healing powers and made a priority list in her mind, working through everyone that had wounds.

  It wasn’t until an hour later that they were ready for their next push towards freedom. They wouldn’t stop, no matter what.

  4

  There was one thing that the staff had done right. They had trained them to be the perfect soldiers, in terms of endurance. Not a single hour after that intense and chaotic battle, most of them were already in a condition to fight again, even those that had fought the hardest, like the enhancers and shape-shifters, were already in prime condition.

  The injured had recovered fast, thanks to the help of those with healing powers, which included Reddox. Classified as either elementals or spirituals, those with restorative powers were rare, about only 20 of them had such abilities, and most of them weren’t strong fighters, but that didn’t matter as their healing abilities were top-notch.

  The food they found was mostly snacks like cereal or chocolate bars, something the staff had added to win their favor. It failed, but the snacks had served their purpose of keeping them fed for now.

  The elevator was already open, and the first team, several enhancers, a few elementals and four of their own mutants had boarded, making for roughly 40 children. Cyko, Magy, and some others who had gone before opted to go second this time, mostly on Tela’s insistence that they were pushing themselves too hard and needed the extra rest and food.

  As the elevator ascended and left, Tela scanned the mental state of everyone remaining. While there was a near universal feeling of victory that stayed inside their hearts, she could sense the fear and worry some of them still felt over their situation, which was understandable.

  The purpose of the vanguard team was to discover the level of threat that awaited them, and to hold the line long enough for the rest to arrive to provide backup. If everything went well, the next threat would already be eliminated by the time everyone got on the next floor.

  “Tela, we have arrived at the fifth floor,” Isaac, an enhancer focused on speed, reported to her. “Just like down there, the door is very large, but it appears to be much more fortified than usual. It may take a while to open it- oh wait!” She felt his shock as if she was the one standing there with him.

  “Isaac? What is it?” Tela asked in urgency.

  “The door! It’s opening by itself!” he answered. She cursed, for she knew why it would open unprompted.

  “They are expecting us! Everyone, be prepared for anything!”

  The boy and everyone in the elevator snapped to seriousness, the elementals already creating several barriers to shield them from the inevitable hail of bullets.

  “All right! We didn’t come this far to stop now!” Isaac shouted before he froze, his previous motivation replaced by a feeling that made Tela pale.

  “Oh… Luni… Is that… a battleship? They have a freaking-” his thought was cut off as rumbling sounds came from the elevator room, causing the telepath to jump to her feet, expression ashen in terror.

  “NOOOOOO!” Tela screamed as all the children turned towards her in panic.

  Their leader fell to her knees, tears falling from her eyes.

  “No… No… No…” she whispered, not even looking up from the ground to view the elevator shaft as flaming pieces of debris fell, followed by a cloud of smoke. That was enough of a message to convey what had happened a floor above them.

  Total loss, it was a total loss. Not a single child she had sent up that elevator had survived… She had felt it again, their lives ending, their last feelings, the contradictory sentiment of regret and relief, their despair as death approached, the unique feeling of a soul leaving the body… She had felt it all, and… She had failed again.

  “What the heck… WHAT THE HECK!” Cyko yelled in disbelief as he stared at the flaming remains of the elevator before looking at the crying telepath.

  “Tela… What… What happened…?” he asked, not willing to believe what he was witnessing.

  “They… They…” Tela tried to force out between her sobs, “They are… They are all dead… J-just before their… they said… a battleship…” she managed, trying her best to swallow her despair at just losing forty children… Forty children who had trusted her to bring them to freedom…

  Tears fell freely from her eyes, and Cyko didn’t need to look around him to know that many other kids were also sobbing.

  A battleship?

  This wasn’t fun anymore. All sense of joy from killing guards and scientists was gone. It was a war; they were rebels, and the staff was the army and they would be treated just like the soldiers they were expected to be. If Cyko had been any more stubborn, he and Magy would have boarded that elevator and they would have been reduced to ashes alongside all the others.

  “Attention all subjects,” the cursed voice of the head scientist echoed through the storage level, causing everyone to snap their head upwards, spotting the cameras and speakers that had survived the fight.

  “This is your last chance, surrender now and we assure you no further harm will come to you. Continue your rebellion and we will use full force against you. I repeat, cease all hostilities and-” his ice-cold voice broke off as a blue aura covered the entire roof and all cameras and speakers were crushed into dust by an unseen power.

  “No.” Tela’s voice echoed. “We won’t stop, we won’t bow down to you, people who would kill, torture and brainwash children! We refuse to be used and treated as less than human! You tore us from our lives with false promises, we won’t fall victim to them again!”

  “I agree… We won’t surrender. Giving up is not an option!” Cyko declared, followed by a nod from a grim-faced Magy.

  “Scythe says to give up now would mean to disrespect the memory and souls of our dead friends, of little Myo, who wanted nothing more than to be free.”

  “Tela.” Ellyn approached their leader. The wind speaker took a second to breathe, to calm down her emotions. “I have been listening to the wind coming from the elevator room. The door to the fifth floor is sealed, by ice, but just before that, I could hear the arid winds of a desert and the freely circulating air of a large, open area.”

  “What does that mean? There is a desert up there? Is it outside?” Tela questioned before turning her attention to another person who was ap
proaching them. A purple-haired boy with glowing violet eyes, a spiritual.

  “I’ve asked my spirits to scout up ahead, the ice that sealed away the entrance is magical, but it’s not protected against spirits. They said the whole place is a… desert?” the boy asked, squinting his eyes in confusion.

  “A desert? That’s what you see?” Ellyn asked. Unlike other spirits, her wind depended on at least a single hole to pass through to the other side. The boy nodded, continuing his scouting.

  “Yes, that’s what it appears to be, a large desert with a humongous, super… structure at the end?” the boy reported, earning a nod from the redhead.

  “Anyone else have anything to report?” Tela asked through their minds as a few kids walked forward to discuss the situation with the others.

  Soon enough, they formed a clear idea and Tela propagated the picture with the help of the spirituals, sending it to the minds of the children in perfect detail, as if they were looking at a high-resolution image on a computer.

  A large desert awaited them, spreading five kilometers long and one kilometer wide, with nothing to use as cover against attacks, just a very large terrain of sand. At the end of the desert stood a massive structure resembling a battleship, like the boss level of a video game, stationed between them and freedom. A fortress as wide as the desert stood with three huge turrets aiming straight at the elevator door, meant to hold them hostage until they gave up their escape. From the distance, they could make out several, much smaller but no less dangerous-looking cannons.

  It was a machine of war.

  Their first problem would be setting foot onto the fifth floor without getting torn apart by the giant cannons, then they would need to destroy said cannons and survive whatever else attacked them. It would be hard, few children had abilities or the endurance to survive something this huge…

  “I’ll go. One of my roommates was in that elevator. I have the powers similar to a battleship. I can take a few hits. If just a single turret is destroyed, that should help us get in there,” Agatha declared and Tela nodded at her.