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Wandering in the Dark |
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By Benxiao Ma Chapter 1: Lone Wolf No More The year is 2145; technology has reached the skies, and beyond. Money is no longer a currency of paper, but of zeros and ones. Cars and roads are no longer bound to the ground instead have taken to the air. Man has even started life in outer space, and on the moon. Government forces have developed new high power laser weaponry for more control over crime. A new construction method; nanolathing, which uses millions of nano-bots rather then man, power to create structures. But in spite of all these new ingenious advances in science there is always a dark side. * * * Its 1:47 a.m. pitch black out, and deafly silent, well that is if you ignore the alarms from the city bank. The two robbers who broke in were preparing to send a total of 1.3 million dollars to their bank accounts. While the robbers were finishing their business there was a rustling noise from behind them. “Huh? What was that?” One robber asked the other. “It’s just the wind, now hurry up before the cops get here!” “I would say that you’re too late,” answered a misty voice from somewhere in a dark corner. “Turn yourselves into the police and no harm will come of you.” “Harm us? Tch! We’re the ones that’ll harm you!” “Must your kind always do this?” “Can it! If your so high and mighty why don’t you show yourself?” From the darkest corner of the building a figure emerged wearing a pitch-black cloak making it look like he was just a floating head. “Oh I’m scared! It’s the big bad boogieman,” the two men laughed, and all the time the stranger didn’t show any sign of being angry. “Now I’ll only say this once more, surrender or pay the consequences.” “Tch, yeah right,” with that he drew a gun and fired it, a crimson beam shot forth, and instead of it coming out the other end of the stranger, was repelled. “What in the world?” The gunman yelled. They started backing away from him in utter amazement. “I warned you.” With that he dashed straight at the two stunned men, with two swift movements they had collapsed onto a heap on the floor. At that moment the inside of the bank was filled with flashing red lights, flashlight beams were being pointed in through all the windows. “This is the police! Put your hands over your head, and drop to the floor!” Shouted an officer over a megaphone. “Hmm, time to take my leave,” the figure muttered under his breath. He leapt backwards into the air, landed on a ledge, then out through the ceiling window, and continued leaping onto other building tops toward the city tower. The city tower looks like any other one you may find in another city, but this mysterious figure calls it home. On the top floor is an elevator door that was later built after its construction. No one knows what it’s there for, so must assume that some rich man built himself a private wing in the place. But for him, it’s his home. Slipping in through an open window he walked up to the door, pressed his hand to the switch and the door-hissed open, leading to an actual elevator. After riding it to the top he opened a door and entered a dimly lit room. Inside it was very cluttered, mechanical equipment and parts were scattered all over the floor, tools hanging on a nearby wall, a large computer console on the wall opposite to him, and a small bed next to it. “2:19 five more hours till school starts. Well let’s see what’s left to do now,” First he turned on a light, which revealed more of his appearance. He had a full head of snow-white hair, one red eye, another blue, and an emotionless stare to complete his solemn face. He removed his cloak, which revealed he was wearing red protective body armor, which explained why the laser had no effect on him. Once removing that he went over to the computer console sat down and turned it on. The computer hummed to life. “State user identification,” the computer instructed. “User is Airaxen,” he replied in his misty voice. “Welcome back, what do you need?” “Pull up my to do list.” “Patrol the city.” “Done.” “Repair any system damages sustained during patrol duty.” “Sustained none, continue.” “Study for mathematics entrance exam tomorrow.” “Bah! I was hoping I’d get four hours of sleep tonight, no rest for the weary.” With a heavy sigh he took out a small-computerized notepad and started doing exercises till the crack of dawn. * * * The bell rang, and in seconds teenagers were flooding out from all of the classrooms simultaneously, all-heading for their lockers ready to get their lunches, preparing to sulk after the test. <Well, the test could’ve been worse I suppose,> Airaxen thought to himself, while walking down the hall to the lunchroom he yawned so hard that his jaw nearly dislodged itself. “I don’t need the chemical energy, but this 45 minutes may be a good time to recharge my photon energy reserves, chemicals can only sustain me for so long before I shutdown.” Airaxen slipped out a side door and into the crisp, cool autumn air. The trees were all losing their leaves, leaving them looking bare and naked compared to the spring and summer. The ground was covered in sunset colored leaves, with each step a crunch, and crackle. He walked over to a tall crab apple tree, and climbed up to the tallest branch, then started to fell into a deep sleep. * * * A few moments after Airaxen had dozed off someone had exited out of the school as well, a girl from Airaxen’s psychic’s class, Tikai. She was tall, had blonde hair, and had the most captivating blue eyes. She continued walking, and noticed Airaxen high up in a tree snoozing. “Sleeping in trees probably doesn’t help his reputation of being a weirdo.” She stopped at the curb, obviously waiting for a lift. Suddenly there was a shout from behind her, turning around she saw Airaxen fall out of the tree, head first, into the ground 15 feet below. * * * After falling asleep Airaxen started to dream, of a time long past. At first he was just sitting in a math class, but with black hair, and blue eyes, as well this was 5 years ago. At the time there were many bomb attacks on schools, major companies, populated areas, and of course major political gatherings; but of course at the time Airaxen was very ignorant to these big events. Then over the intercom a panicked man shouted “All students and facility, evacuate the building there is a bomb in the building, repeat there is a bomb in the building!” It took a second for the knowledge to sink in, then everyone was running out the room, throwing people out of the way rushing to the doors. A tough battle was fought, but he made it to the doors. The instead he stepped outside giant explosion rocked his ears and rocked the building for that matter. Giant slabs of rock were being sent in all directions, when suddenly one smashed into Airaxen’s stomach breaking bones, forcing blood out. He collapsed on the floor, clutching the fatal wound, then another piece of rock flew at him, but Airaxen saw it in time and rolled out of the way, Airaxen got up slowly limping away from the school. But he never made it, another rock had flown at him and hit him in the back of his head. With a horrific snap his neck had shattered, and all went dark. Airaxen awakened again, with no ability to move his body, barely alive. It was dark he could barely make out the objects around him. To his side was a heart rate monitor, an oxygen mask was attached to him. Well, even thou he was pretty much dead, at least he knew where he was. Then the door creaked open a figure walked in. Airaxen thought it was a nurse or a doctor coming to check up on his condition. But then the figure start disconnecting all the things keeping him alive. Airaxen’s mind raced, this guy was going to kill him! But that’s all Airaxen could think before he passed out again. Awakening this time, Airaxen was laying on a cold steel table. Taking a look around, he was in a dimly lit lab with many things in the background, but it was hard to make everything out. Then a thought came to him; he was on the edge of death, how is it possible that he’s alive now? Once getting off the table Airaxen walked over to a few softly glowing capsules. Their contents were illuminated with a soft blue light, not much of it, but enough to make out what was in them. Within each were machine parts with what appeared to be some sort of living organism attached to it. Some didn’t have any form; others resembled a human being. Each of these creatures were pulsating slightly, in tone with the beat of a human heart. Airaxen continued to examine these strange things, until a voice from behind him interrupted his train of thought. “You know, you were just like that before you were finished. Now enough idle chitchat, time to introduce ourselves, my name is...” The lab faded away, and turned into a burning forest. The heat was intense, flames on all sides, moving at him almost like they were trying to pull him in. On top of a cliff high above him a dark figure stood there. “You dare to disobey me?” He shouted over the roar of the flames. “I will never help you accomplish your horrid goals!” “I gave you new life, and I can take it as well!” With that he swung his arm, fired a red orb at him, Airaxen leapt to the side; where the orb did hit was now a giant crater. Another swing of the attacker’s arm and another orb charged at him, this time however Airaxen didn’t react in time. Screamed in pain, then a loud explosion, a set of flames, and Airaxen was launched high into the air, sent flying. All that happened after that was a loud thud of him hitting the ground again, and then all went dark. * * * Soon Airaxen came around. He was staring up at the tree, in which he fell from. Airaxen looked around and was staring at someone’s feet. Getting up he found out the feet belonged to a girl, the face was familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, not that it mattered. “Don’t move you fell a long way, and you landed on your head.” “Don’t worry I’m perfectly fine.” “You sure? Maybe you should go to see a doctor or something.” “No, no I’m perfectly fine.” “Are you-” “Yes! Now please stop badgering me, I have many things to take care of.” Airaxen started to head back into the school. Tikai watched him frowning. “Geez, I was just trying to be nice.” Tikai muttered. Airaxen brought a hand to his face and slowly dragged it down , letting out a sigh at the same time as well. “Uhh, I only got 3 minutes of rest. A pity I can’t remember anything from that dream, it may give me answers to some of my questions...” Airaxen continued walking back in, thinking over the dream he had. <I suppose the answers I seek won’t come so easily.> * * * The school day had finally come to an end. Unlike the mass of the student body which took a hover car home, Airaxen leaps and bounds to his home. When arriving to the tower he picked up a paper and slipped into his private suite without anyone noticing. “Bank robber foiled by mystery man.” Airaxen read, smirking to himself while he waited for the elevator to stop at the top floor. Then he noticed the picture and frowned. “The photographers have done a better job at capturing me on film; this time some details of my face can be seen. I had better start covering myself up better.” Airaxen entered the room and moved over to a pile of junk, and start throwing things from it out of the way. “Bah! It must be here, there would be no other place for me to put it, this has to be where I left it-ah-ha! Here it is.” He removed a black helmet with two mohawks on it which curved to the side, a darkened visor to keep his eyes covered, and a clear diamond like crystal in it’s center. “Just what the doctor ordered, now my identity is safe, at least for the time being.” Moving over to the bed Airaxen started prying something off his arm, it turned out to be a metallic cover which hid the machine parts with blue vine like organisms built into the machinery. “I’m starting to lose the speed and reaction time for this arm; I had better start toning it up.” Airaxen removed a toolbox from under the bed, opened it and took out a welder and some circuit boards as well. He began replacing some of the equipment in his arm, repaired some damaged and worn parts. During this time Airaxen’s attention was slowly drifting away. * * * <Day in, day out nothing but battles, not knowing why I do this, not knowing what happened to him. My memory is in pieces, can barely piece it together. Why me? All the people hurt in the explosion, only I was given a second chance at life, for what purpose? Was it like he said? To hurt? To kill? The answer escapes me. I just wish I knew what had happened after that night...Bah, as much as I try to remember, I know virtually nothing of my own past. Someday, the answers will come to me...> Airaxen was paying so much attention to what he was thinking rather then what he was doing and then let out a cry of pain; he had moved the welder over the blue vine like part and had burned himself. After tending to the wound he put a small wrist watch sized monitor into the open part of his arm, cut out a hole in the outer coating and placed it back on. “Something to keep track of the city’s activity, and it doubles up to nanolathe my arm cannon to my arm; now I won’t be so defenseless.” He fished through another pile of scrap metal and pulled out a sword. It had some rust on its hilt, and looked rather old in general. “It may not be state of the art, but something's never die.” At that instant a beeping came from his arm monitor, he put on his helmet and cloak, then exited through a ceiling hatch to embark on a car chase. * * * The days rolled by, slowly but surely. The start of the cold, freezing time known as winter set in. Everyone went around bundled up in colorful coats, all enjoying going about to their usual tasks. BRIIIIIIIIIING!!! BRIIIIIIIIIING!!! “ACK!” Shouted a startled Airaxen, as he tumbled out of his bed doing a face plant onto the floor. He raised a hand to the computer desk and felt around for the screaming alarm clock. Eventually he found it and turned it off. “I hate waking up in the morning! 6:49 AM, ugh such an unsightly hour to be awake.” Muttered a very annoyed Airaxen. Once getting up, a yawn, and a quick stretch later, Airaxen went over to the ceiling hatch, and opened it. And a ton of snow came raining down on his head to greet him. He opened his eyes making him look like a giant pile of snow with eyes. “I really, really hate getting up in the mornings.” He growled. He shook the snow of him and climbed onto the roof. Airaxen’s eyes went wide as he saw just how much snow was there, there had to be at least 3 feet of it! And it was still snowing! “Good grief! How could it snow so much in just one night? Oh well, at least it’s a snow day, no school; yeah!” Cheered Airaxen weakly. After rubbing his eyes he looked at the still dark sky. With a gentle sigh a small smile crept across his face. “I rarely have the time to admire the beauty of the stars and moon. So relaxing.” With that he jumped down into his room and closed the hatch before slipping back into bed. * * * Awakening this time, 4 hours later Airaxen sat up and stretched. Now nicely refreshed and not so annoyed compared to last time. Then a thought struck him right between the eyes. <Hmmm, well I think since it’s a snow day, and they’re probably won’t be so much crime today...maybe, maybe I should take the time to enjoy what the day has to offer...like when I was young, yeah sounds good.> After putting on jacket Airaxen went up and jumped off the tower landing, but being so caught up in optimistic thoughts, he didn’t pay attention to his landing, and landed on his back and sank into the snow. “I really should be paying more attention to what I’m doing.” He mumbled as he sat up. * * * SPLAT! A snowball just struck the tree Tikai was hiding behind, making her rather muffed. “Who threw that? I’m going to get you!” She shouted. A crunch of snow quickly gave away the position of the attacker. Way came to greet him was a barrage of snow; one to the stomach, one to his head, and one final shot to the shoulder sending him off balance. “Ahhh man! Take it easy Tikai! Not like that thing actually hurt! Ow, you got some arm.” “Oh suck it up ya big baby, I didn’t hit you that hard.” A few missed snowballs from the side cut the conversation short. A smirk appeared on her face, then the two countered the shots from their friends. The battle raged on, craters everywhere, many hits were taken, but no one did give up. And on it went, with no sign of either side giving up * * * From a distance leaned Airaxen on a tree, arms crossed, watching the snowball fight enviously. “Oh how I miss those days, but that was before it all happened. Oh well, what can you do?” He stayed there unmoving, watching like a hawk. * * * Tikai dashed as best as she could in all this snow to go around the other team, trying for an ambush. But she was looking to the side this whole time, and didn’t notice a tree, until she smashed into it with a loud thud. “OW! OW! Stupid tree!” “Should watch where you’re going.” Interrupted a misty voice. “Hm? Oh it’s you again, Airaxen right?” “Yes.” “Well you don’t have much luck with trees either.” “Heh, I suppose you have a point there.” “So why are you here?” “Just...enjoying sometime off.” “Oh, ok. Hey why don’t you join in? It’s
lots of fun.” At this he to the side to look at her, then went back
to staring straight ahead. “Oh how hard can it be? I mean all you do is grab some snow, roll it into a ball and throw it. What’s the hard part?” “Oh I don’t think you want some no body ruining your fun, besides I doubt any of you could come close to hitting me.” “Psssssh, care to prove that?” Tikai was rather annoyed at that comment. “Really who did he think he was? Acting all high and mighty like he’s some king. Well time to dethrone him.” She thought sinisterly. “Well then, why don’t you prove it? Or are you just full of hot air?” Again this merited a side glance from Airaxen. “Alright, I’ll prove that I’m not lying.” With that he uncrossed his arms and walked onto the battlefield, with Tikai following him. She went to take her position with her teammate. “Hey, what’s going on?” He asked. “Airaxen thinks he can beat us all without taking a hit.” “Tch, like that’ll happen. Oh well guess he’s going to have to learn the hard way.” The news of the recent turn of events was then announced to the other team, then a countdown. 3...2...1...Go! Airaxen soon found himself in the middle of the crossfire. “Heh, this is just like those combat simulations, not to difficult.” He thought. With that he ducked and rolled to the side. Two swift movements and two snowballs hurtled at one of them. A shout and a splat later he was knocked over and laying in a the snow. “Hmm, calculating angle, force, pull of gravity...and time to try some artillery.” Started spinning around extremely fast like a top, then tilted downward scooping up snow with each rotation, then launching it into the air, then all the snow was raining down on Tikai and her teammate. Tikai was quick enough to evade most of the barrage, unlike her friend who was literally buried. The remaining two people left standing met in the middle behind a snowdrift while Airaxen was trying to regain his composure from all that spinning. A second after he regained his balance two snowballs whizzed by his head. “That’s pretty good aim, I was just lucky there. Think I should take them both out quickly.” ducked behind a snowdrift himself while having splattering snowballs behind him. Taking a deep breath, he leapt up high into the air, then came down with a incredibly loud smash a wave of snow went flying up, and right down on the last two attackers, completely burying them. “Ehehehe, I’ve always wanted to do that. Anyway, I hope that‘s enough proof for you.” A small mischievous grin crept across his face. At this time the other two victims had freed themselves and went over to Tikai and her buried companion to get them out. Once they were freed Tikai looked at Airaxen strangely. <How did he do all that?! It just wasn’t human...> She thought, then a strange possibility came to mind, but was quickly dismissed. “That was very invigorating, maybe we should do this again later, but I must take my leave.” With that he walked off whistling, rather content, leaving the other four people rather stunned. * * * The next day arrived, and when Airaxen tried to open the ceiling hatch, he barely could move it! And with his enhanced strength this wasn’t right. With a few strikes to the hatch it fell off and at least double the amount of snow from last time came crashing through. “What in the world?!” Jumped onto the roof and the snow came all the way up to his neck. “This isn’t right, it’s never snowed this much, ever! Something is screwing around with the weather.” He stumbled back into his room and suited up, with a nice new set of recently built rockets into his shoes. Once flying up into the air he looked around for the cause of this freak snowstorm. When he found nothing at his present height, he went higher up, nothing there either. Then finally way up into the air, even higher up then the clouds. Then there it was; a rather large orb like machine with many spikes on it, each releasing a large black cloud over the city, with it the cloud released water all the time, which instantly froze and became snow. “This machine has been causing all this snow! Well then I’ll just take it out.” He drew his sword then flied at it, then one slash and the machine split apart, before exploding. The dark cloud soon dissipated, all the snowfall stopped with it as well. Soon beams of sun started shining through beginning the slow process of melting the snow. Once landing back on his tower, he thought of something, <I’m probably going to have to go around the city digging people up, all day long. Oooooh goody.> He said sadly. Then moped off to the city streets carrying a shovel. While helping dig an old lady and her car out, another thought came to him, “That machine, it couldn’t possibly have been made by one of the current scientists. Leaving only one other person I can think of...the man who did this to me, whoever he is must have built that freezebot. Well, looks like my questions might be answered soon.” * * *
Time went on, like it always does and soon the ice age was over and became the nice warm spring, then the scorching hot time known as summer. The summer holidays were soon in sight, but before that, the dreaded, the hated, the loathed, final exams had to be dealt with. * * * “Alright students, when they announce the beginning of the test you are all to start, after that time there is to be absolute silence! If I hear anyone talking, they will instantly receive a zero! And you know what that means you’re all going to have to repeat the 11th grade...” And on the teacher went, talking about what to have checked for to have, etc. <I can’t wait for this to be over, I’ll finally be able to take a break, maybe sleep some more bef-> at that instant a man came on the intercom, “Teachers and students, there has been a tornado warning issued. I ask that everyone in the building head to the gymnasium, please don’t take anything down with you.” All was perfectly still after the announcement. Then the teacher stuttered out, “Al-alright everyone, line up single file at the door.” <A tornado? Here? That’s just not possible, it can’t be natural. Even if I’m wrong I should look into this none the less.> “Umm, sir? May I quickly run to the washroom?” “What? This really isn’t the time for that!” “But, it’s an emergency!” “Oh fine, but be quick!” With a quick nod of his head, Airaxen dashed passed his peers, out the door, and out of sight. Once on the roof a quick trip to the tower, and a change of suit later, Airaxen was out looking for this so called tornado. After taking a quick glance around, he spotted a large funnel like thing heading from the countryside towards the city at an incredibly fast speed. “That definitely isn’t right.” Airaxen blasted off towards the tornado, meaning to investigate it more closely. * * * The noise on the bus wasn’t so bad, amazing considering all the people onboard. <Ahhh, took all my exams early, so I won’t have the teachers hounding me when I get back. Just 2 months off in Hawaii, I can’t wait!> A smile that went ear from ear appeared on Tikai’s face. For the next little while she sat on the Greyhound bus listening to some music on a set of headphones. For quite awhile she was off in lala land, just waiting to get to the airport. The bus driver who was also listening to some radio music was as well in lala land. Well that is until he noticed he was driving straight into what could only be the largest tornado in the world! “AHHH! EVERYONE HANG ONTO SOMETHING!” He screamed, then swerved to the left, did a U-turn and started going full speed running from the tornado. The passengers were rocking, and rolling all over the place, people bouncing around the inside of the bus like ping pong balls. Tikai who one second ago been in a chair, was now on the other side of the bus upside down. “What in the world was that?!” The other people were all very scared now, for what could happen next. So the chase began, the bus charged forward, heading into town with the tornado quickly gaining on them. Tikai, accompanied by some of the other passengers ran to the back of the bus, and the sight of the tornado gaining on all of them, ready to shallow them up into the abyss. This caused many of them to lower their heads, some prayed, some just cried, some were hysteric. “Oh god, oh god, I don’t want to die!” Screamed a large women, <I know how you feel.> Tikai thought dismally. All the things she wanted to do, her hopes and dreams, all will never be fulfilled. She slumped back to her sit, put back on her headphones and tried to enjoy herself before they were all sucked up into their doom. * * * “Good lord, that thing has got to be artificially made! No way can a natural tornado be so large.” Airaxen drifted around in the air searching for it’s source. Instead he spotted a bus trying to escape the tornado. “I think it’s time to do the hero bit again.” With that Airaxen flew down and went along side of it. Some of the people saw him, and their faces lit up with renewed hope. He gave them a nod and salute before dropping to the back of the bus. Placing both hands onto the rear, he then threw his rockets into full force rocketing the bus forward and away from the tornado. A cheer went through the bus, smiles on everyone’s face, all confident that they’ll live to see the next day. Tikai who was sitting down all depressed looked over at the others all yelling and such. Taking off the headphones she went over and asked what was going on, they all pointed to the rear window, she looked over and was staring down onto a black finned helmet. <Ha! We’re saved! Yay! I’m going to live
and enjoy life...> Soon everyone was rather slack and happy,
thanking their lucky stars. Airaxen was glad to hear all the
celebrating, but then something muffled it all out. Curious to know
what it was he looked behind him, and somehow the tornado was
catching up, going incredibly fast compared to last time. “Blast! I must get those people out of there and to somewhere safe.” Getting up again he rocketed after the bus. Once entering the vortex, the inside of the tornado had green lightning bolts circling the inside. <I knew this thing couldn’t be natural. Now time to find the source of this monstrosity.> The winds screamed at him, like a chorus of banshees. Airaxen looked around, seeing nothing but dirt, debris, and small buildings were all sucked up into the mess. Soon he spotted the bus, flying around smashing into all sorts of things. <Hmmm, if I took the bus out it would probably get sucked up again, I have to stop the tornado first, then I can take care of my other problem.> Airaxen tried to fly up, but it was a very difficult trying not to get hit by anything or lose control now, he was the only hope for about 60 innocent lives. Soon a small sphere like machine was in sight, on closer look it was like the freezebot, but instead of spikes there were angled blades, all spinning at an incredible speed. <Problem found, now to get rid of it.> He armed his cannon and fired a laser straight at it, but a house flew in and took the shot instead. <What the? I’ll try that again.> Another round, but this time a large van flew in and took the shots again. <That thing is smart, it can defend itself, alright time for a change of plans.> He started going closer, but then a mobile home came at him from the side. Seeing this he fired off a laser to take it out, but there was still enough there, and smashed into him. After regaining his composure, he looked around to see two small cars fly at him, with a quick burst of speed upwards the collision was avoided. Then he flew closer at the sphere, blasting at the objects that were being hurtled at him. Soon he made it close enough and fired a barrage of beams at point blank, shattering it. The whistling noise was starting to stop, the winds were dying down slowly. <Have to find that bus again, and quickly.> He fly straight down frantically searching, soon all signs of the tornado were gone, it was almost too late, but by a complete stroke of luck he saw it; among the debris. It was falling fast, very fast, Airaxen was barely able to catch up to it in time, but when he did, he flew underneath it and pushed up. The decent wasn’t slowing down one bit, then the rockets on his boots fired even more, now the decent was slowing, not by a lot, but was slowing. Twenty meters, fifteen meters, ten meters, they were going to hit the ground hard no matter what, but he had to keep trying. Five meters, four, three, two, one, and THUD. They had all hit the ground hard, throwing many people in all directions. After the rough landing everyone emptied the bus frantically, glad to be on the ground. Tikai stepped out and looked around seeing some of the last of the tornado’s victims landing. “Hey...what happened to the cloaked guy?” She wondered. “I’m done here, under the bus.” What happened was Airaxen being hammered into the ground like a nail. The driver drove the bus off of him, reviling their savior stuck, and in need of help. The passengers all rushed over and started to pull him out. After about fifteen minutes Airaxen was free, after thanking them, and being thank he flew off back to the school. * * * Now that June was over the school’s all emptied out, now they were all bare and empty. While the malls and fast food joints in the city were packed to their maximum. Airaxen may be free from the bindings of school, but his job has gotten even harder; trying to stop drunk drivers, catching them, stopping shoot outs, and the list goes on. But a small window of clarity had appeared, giving him sometime to himself. <My search to find out about my past has still yielded no results, but I have to keep trying.> He thought to himself. Airaxen sat on the floor, cross-legged thinking about how to make some free time for himself. But the beeping from his monitor interrupted his train of thought. He suited up, then started heading for the mall. “Another shoplifter I see.” Airaxen mumbled on his way. When he landed on a building nearby Airaxen looked down, and what was there to greet him was something much more hazardous then a simple shoplifter; instead what appeared to be a teenage boy was firing red blasts of lasers in all directions, killing some, hurting many others, pieces of the building were raining down on innocent lives, trapping many beneath them. “This is deja vu all over again.” He took the sword from his back, drew it, then leapt off the building with the sword aimed for the boy’s head. With an earth shattering clash of metal on metal Airaxen back flipped off with the boy clutching the giant gash wound in his head. “AHHH! My face! What have you done to my beautiful face?” He screamed, then turned around and fired red beam at Airaxen; he easily dodged it and was shocked when he saw what had happened to the attacker. The gash was deeper then he thought, half his head was barely there, much of the metal and organic part was showing, making him looking utterly grotesque. “Well, you know I can’t see the difference between your face now, then how it was two seconds ago.” “Grr! Well then eat beam cannon!” He fired another large blast at Airaxen, he did a set of flips and spins in the air, angled himself downwards with his sword out spinning, and was slashing into the attacker’s mid section over and over until he sliced right through him. “Alright, I know who sent you here. Where is he?” Airaxen tightened his grip on his sword just incase this guy pulled a fast one. “Never will I tell you. But you know...” He righted himself with his arms and turned around. “The crowd in front of me looks sort of scared, wonder how scared they’ll be when they get blasted into oblivion.” Airaxen’s eyes widened behind his visor. Airaxen thought panicked. <No time to counter the beam, only one way to save them, and I know I won’t like it.> He faded away into thin air, then reappeared in front of the crimson wave with his arms raised defending himself, preparing for the blast. * * * In the crowd that was watching the battle, contained the same girl from the months ago in fall, Tikai. When the severed robotic body turned to face them and said that it was going to blast them all into oblivion, her life flashed before her eyes, suddenly the cloaked figure appeared in front of them all and blocked the wave out so there was a patch of safe ground. The beam kept pummeling the cloaked figure, Tikai doubted that they would make it after all, he was having trouble keeping himself upright, not to mention his body armor and cloak were all falling apart, and then his helmet starting cracking apart. Then it shattered revealing a full head of white hair. * * * The pain from the beam was intense, every bit of Airaxen’s being was struggling to keep himself standing, struggling to keep himself from passing out. But he could feel himself being torn apart, his cloak was turned to tatters. Even the extreme resistance of his body armor was being disintegrated from the sheer power of the blast. Then he realized his helmet was starting to fall apart as well, the dark visor was starting to shatter, then fell apart revealing the full intensity of the beam’s light, he tried to squint to block it out, it was blinding! Then another crack went down the helmet, finally one more crack straight down the middle all the way through it; the helmet could take no more and shattered like glass. Soon the beam stopped pummeling Airaxen’s body; he fell to the ground on his hands and knees, groaning in pain, and partly from relief. “Blast! That was the last of my energy reserves! You should’ve been disintegrated!” “Well I’m still in one piece aren’t I?” Airaxen groaned, “but I know for a fact that this will do it!” Getting up Airaxen grabbed his sword, dashed at the severed body booted it into the air, leapt up to it and slashed it vertically, then diagonally, time seemed to slow down the instant Airaxen finished swinging his sword, a green grid schematic of a cannon appeared on his left arm, it quickly became a solid real cannon, and then he fired a laser beam at the pieces of the decrypt robot, causing it to erupt in a ball of flames before falling to the ground. After landing the cannon piece dissipated. A serious look of discomfort came across Airaxen’s face. “Whoever he is, he’s back. I was too late to stop him from restarting his plan, but I’ll stop him before he can finish it.” Airaxen muttered. “So, who ya talking about?” Chirped a somewhat familiar voice from behind him. Turning around, there was the same blond girl from the fall, and that day in winter. “Well? Aren’t you going to answer? Hmm Airaxen?” The tone of her voice made him wince. Airaxen picked her up and leapt onto a building out of earshot. Letting her down Airaxen faced her with a menacing glare. “Alright you know who, or rather what I am, now what are you going to do?” “Depends on what you’ll do to me.” “Well I just may have to get rid of all traces of this little incident, and you do know what that means...” She started looking worried after that comment. Just escaping death three minutes ago was enough of a scare, now Airaxen just might take care of her personally! “Well I’d like to know the name of the person who found me out at least.” “I’m Tikai, you know from when you fell out of the tree, and when you buried me in snow.” “I knew you looked familiar. Well even if I want to get rid of this mess my way, I won’t. If you promise not to breath a word of this to anyone I won’t cause you any harm, but if you do I just may have to change my mind.” “Don’t worry I’m the Fort Knox of secrets, they go in but never come out.” “Good. I’ll drop you off down there and that’ll be that.” He moved forward, then stopped landing on his hands and knees with sparks and electricity coming out of his chest and shoulder. Tikai walked over and helped him up. “You’re in no condition to jump off a twenty-foot building and get to your place.” “No, I’m fi-ah!” A small explosion had just occurred on his left arm, obviously causing pain. “Bah! Maybe you’re right, I may need your help.” “That’s better. Now where do you live? I’ll give you a lift or something.” “The city tower.” “You’re joking! That’s way across town! And it’s not like you blend in with a crowd.” “I’ll just leap back to it.” “And break yourself? Uh, uh.” “The damage I sustained was mostly in my upper body, my legs are fine.” “Well if you’re sure.” Then the door leading to the roof of the building burst open and the media swarmed onto the rooftop. Cameras were being flashed constantly, questions being yelled at from all directions, microphones shoved into their faces. “Time to take our leave.” He yelled over all the voices. Grabbing Tikai and putting her under his arm he leapt off. “Oh this is a great view of your butt.” “I was being sarcastic!” * * * “This is where you live?” Tikai was utterly amazed at the incredible mess of junk on the floor; pieces of everything mechanic were scattered everywhere, from some simple wire to a full arm. “What did you expect? A luxury suite?” Airaxen cleared off the bed took of what remained of his cloak and armor, before collapsing onto a heap on the bed. “You know, eventually your parents will wonder what happened to you.” “Don’t worry luckily their gone to Hawaii, would‘ve been there too, but after that tornado all the airports and buses are closed.” “I see, pass me that toolbox will you?” “Where? Oh wait never mind.” Sitting up Airaxen took the box from Tikai and started replacing the destroyed armor parts. “So who built you?” Tikai asked. “Technically, I wasn’t built I was rebuilt.” “Huh?” “7 years ago there were many series of bombings by terrorist groups, one of them blew up a school causing many to be hurt and one supposed fatality.” “That was you?” “Yes, I only remember being in math class one day, then out the door with a slab of rock flying at my mid section then at my face. The next time I wake up I’m in the ER being rolled away by someone. Turns out the bombings were planned by the person who rolled me away. Sadly, I can‘t remember anything after that. All I know is whoever did this to me is a brilliant person, but is a corrupt one.” “How so?” “So do you know what happened to him after
that?” “Well.” Said a deep and dark sounding voice. “It’s nice to see that you still think so highly of me.” The ceiling hatch opened up and a black haired, red eyed, dark grinned man popped down. “You.” “It’s so nice to see you again, so how have
you been doing? Making new friends? Doing well in school? Causing
any mass destruction?” “Hey! Be careful out there, I just found out your identity and haven’t had the chance to blackmail you yet!” “Sarcasm?” “No I was serious.” “I’m going to pretend I just didn’t hear that.” Grabbing his sword he dashed after him, intending to finish this long drawn out battle. * * * The stranger was hit so hard that he landed in a mountainous region way out of town. Now he was stuck in a crater on the mountain wall. “Ohhh...that was uncalled for.” Airaxen was running straight for him, with sword out. “Funny, I thought I was!” He tried slashing at him, but he had already gotten himself free. “You should know swordplay is my forte.” The stranger drew two blades and attempted to slice off Airaxen’s arms, but the move was parried. With swords locked their faces inched closer, until they were just a few centimeters away from each other. “Who are you? Tell me!” Airaxen ordered. “Well since you must know, my name is Sonaris.” “Huh, You could’ve gone far, but then you disobeyed me. Oh well I’ll terraform the planet myself.” “Terraform?” “Transform it you imbecile, the ones who built me wanted the surface to be terraformed. For that I thought assistance would be required.” “You mean you’re not human?” “It all finally sunk in, even with all the technological advances a true AI has yet to be developed. Now enough idle chitchat.” The two broke apart, Sonaris fired a bolt of electricity out of his sword at Airaxen, but Airaxen jumped over it and flung his sword upward, then it struck a boulder causing it to start falling onto Sonaris. He leapt to the side and dashed at Airaxen, Airaxen dashed at Sonaris as well. Then he jumped onto Sonaris’ back and leapt off him at his falling sword, and knocking Sonaris over doing a face plant. Then the two lunged at each other, swinging swords. The battle raged on, sparks flew everywhere with a loud clash with each strike. Then Sonaris swing at Airaxen’s mid section, his response to this was jumping straight into the air brining his sword down to try and slash Sonaris straight down the middle, but Sonaris was ready, he countered the move with one sword and with the other sliced off Airaxen’s sword arm. Airaxen fell to the ground clutching his shoulder, where his right arm used to be. “You know I believe the saying “you have to do it yourself to get the job done” has been given new meaning to me. Well it was nice meeting you again good bye.” Sonaris moved his sword closer to Airaxen’s head ready to deliver the final strike, but in the distance a humming noise could be heard, and it was getting louder with each passing moment. “Suddenly I have a rather ominous feeling come over me.” Mumbled Sonaris. At that moment a car fired out of some nearby trees, smashing into Sonaris driving him into a mountain wall again before erupting in flames. “I think a miracle just happened here.” Airaxen murmured in shock. “Well your miracle has just arrived.” Chirped Tikai from nearby. Popping out of some nearby trees she helped Airaxen up. “I hope you have insurance on that thing. On a serious note, you had better get out of here before Sonaris decides to get some payback.” “Ok, oh I think you might need this.” Tikai handed him his arm cannon bit. “Thank you, now.” The car that had smashed into Sonaris just went airborne as it flew over head. “Ok, now I’m really mad!” Shouted Sonaris in the distance. “Tikai, run fast run far!” Tikai obeyed and dashed out of sight. Airaxen attached the cannon to his left arm and readied it. “Hey Sonaris, I got something for you!” Airaxen fired round after round of lasers at Sonaris, blindly shooting into the dust cloud which engulfed him. Suddenly a golden beam shot out of the cloud, it took split second timing for Airaxen to dodge it. “Playing with lasers can be hazardous to your health!” Sonaris was walking forward very slowly toward him, with barely a scratch. His chest cavity opened up revealing circular opening which shot outward creating a cannon nuzzle, the back of it sealed itself off. A gold orb started growing in size, laminating the inside of the barrel. Airaxen tried to destroy Sonaris before he could fire, but it was too late, the golden beam erupted from the cavity and blasted Airaxen, a giant explosion rocked the countryside. Sonaris was sure that his blast destroyed Airaxen, but after the smoke cleared he was still there in a large crater, missing almost all his armor, barely in one piece, blue vines showing, he looked like someone who got skinned, but in spite all this he was alive. “Persistent are we? Well one more blast should finish you for good.” Sonaris began charging up again; Airaxen thought quickly, fore this might be his last moment on earth! “Evaluate situation, barely alive, my arm cannon can’t fire, and finally there’s a giant cannon pointed at me, got to think fast...Ah-ha! I got it!” He aimed his cannon straight into the barrel of Sonaris’, rather then trying to fire a laser fired the whole cannon into the barrel. The instant it went in Sonaris fired his beam, but with no way out the beam started cutting through Sonaris himself, before exploding in a blaze of flames. Airaxen sat up, stunned that his plan had actually worked. “Well, that could’ve been worse.” Airaxen looked at himself, one arm gone, half of another, legs tattered probably couldn’t stand on them, no body armor, only his head looked slightly normal, just missing the left corner of it so he only had one eye and a little spot over his mouth. Tikai ran back out from some trees again, and once more helped Airaxen up. Airaxen said grimly, “This battle may be over with, but the ones who created Sonaris will try again, and now you’ll be a target for helping me.” “Well I can take care of myself; I’ll just ram a car into anyone who tries to mess with me.” “Very funny.” “So for the man who’s done it all what are you going to do now?” “Let’s see, spend a month fixing myself, take a vacation, and sleep for 25 hours a day.” A smile crept across his tattered face. They started limping back to the city, on the way Airaxen murmured, “In the time span less then an hour my entire life has changed, someone has found me out, and may possibly blackmail me in the future, Sonaris is gone but his creators will come back. This all may take some time to get used too. But I think things will turn out for the best in the end.” “Oh come on, have some more confidence Air! Things will be fine! I know it!” Tikai’s perkiness was a pleasant change to Airaxen, then he started to laugh softly. “Ok, ok I’ll take your word.” * * * Within a dimly lit lab a computer screen turned itself on. Then it started to type something onto the screen, “Ahahahaha, you may have beat me this time boy, but the real games are about to start. We shall meet again, this time it’s all or nothing!” |
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