This is Chapter 4, approved and edited. It was co-written by HahliNuva, me, and Legolover. Because me and LL have already written chapters, the authorship for this one will be given to HN.
- Spoiler:
- The Grand Creation
Chapter Four
They can’t get away with this!
There Ackar was, sneaking up on two Great Beings — Great Beings who, out of all the things they could have chatted about, were plotting to destroy a decade’s worth of construction: the Grand Creation, the magnificent A.I.-controlled robot that was scheduled to launch in months. And they were doing it within earshot of him.
Who wouldn’t be crushed by the revelation that his society’s rulers, apotheosized by many, were as corrupt as any lowly Glatorian or Agori?
Crouching in the shadows by the corner, Ackar thought back to the Elder. Great Beings, Ackar had noted over the years, were prone to keeping secrets. Maybe their mental powers had something to do with it; or maybe they just weren’t talkative as a rule. Ackar had never thought the Elder would hide something corrupt, but what if he was? What if he had signed that scroll? What if Ackar and his team were working for the wrong person?
His mind, raveled in what-ifs as it was, barely processed the sudden silence that had permeated the area, or the movement down the hall that meant Osavus had stiffened and half-turned.
He blanched but remained still. Osavus canted his head to his right as if thinking hard.
Slowly, Ackar took a step backward, staying close to the wall against which he had leaned whilst eavesdropping.
Footsteps.
A whistle of air—
Ackar ducked. The blade of a scythe now jutted from the wall where his head had been a second before.
Across the intersection, an emerald Glatorian with an outstretched arm grimaced at the near miss. Behind him stood a crimson-armored female, a small Morningstar held in her right hand, and a tall dark blue Glatorian to whose arms blades were mounted.
More urgent was the tall, muscled Glatorian charging straight at Ackar.
The Fire Glatorian dodged to the right as Robur’s oversized fist left a dent in the wall and swung his sword. The blade caught the rusty-armored Glatorian in the hip; he growled and stepped back. Behind his back, the green Glatorian darted to his scythe.
The dark blue Glatorian now ran forward, his blades knifing the air. Ackar parried one blow and evaded another by stepping back. Then he moved to the left and back, taking advantage of his sword’s greater range to swing at the aggressor’s foot, creating more room.
Room which was then filled by the red Glatorian.
The ball swung round on its chain. Ackar swallowed his impulse to use his sword to block and instead ducked and charged forward, his shoulder striking the attacker in her solar plexus. She gasped as she fell backward, no air in her lungs.
Ackar turned to run.
The green and blue warriors were in his way.
He stopped short — big mistake. A pair of large arms wrapped around his upper torso, pinning his arms to his sides. Ackar’s feet left the floor. He struggled; no use.
The brute proceeded to slam Ackar into the wall as though hammering a nail into place with Ackar’s helmet.
Bang! Bang—!
The brute fell, pulling Ackar with him. Ackar landed on top and rolled away, gasping for air and gripping the floor as the room spun underneath him.
The sound of a sword swinging through the air could be heard. Ackar, dizzied and battered, was in no state to dodge, only to roll over and observe—
—as a cloaked being with twin swords darted underneath the green Glatorian’s scythe and struck him in the temple with the right sword hilt. The green Glatorian fell hard, a curse flying from his lips. Ackar had to lift his head up to look over the prone body of the brute, which nearly pinned him against the wall.
The cloak swirled as its wearer gracefully avoided the red Glatorian’s ball-and-chain; an upward slice and the Morningstar fell roughly to the ground, while its owner grasped her right wrist in pain. A kick to the chest sent her to the floor with her allies.
While the cloaked being had dispatched the red aggressor almost nonchalantly, the blue Glatorian with arm-mounted blades had run behind her. He leapt—
And the cloaked Glatorian spun out of the way, parrying the blades and simultaneously sticking out her leg, the momentum of her turn tripping the dark blue attacker.
By now, Ackar was on his knees. “What,” he choked out, “in the Great Beings’ name...?”
“Shut up and run.” The voice beneath the hood was terse and unexpectedly high. So Ackar’s savior was a female. Not that her identity was bad, just surprising. “Come on! I’ll help you.”
She grasped Ackar under his arms and roughly pulled him to his feet. He stumbled forward a meter before gaining his balance and ran for a nearby alarm switch.
“STOP!”
Ignoring the voice, Ackar grabbed the switch, yanked it hard enough for the metal to bend, listened to the warbling klaxons fill the hallways.
And immediately yelped as he was yanked through the air and to the ground.
Invidior, it seemed, was ticked. “Scarabax,” he growled. “What do you think you’re doing!?”
Ackar spat at Invidior’s feet, thus earning an enraged expression and the prompt mental-power slamming of his head into the chilly metal floor.
“Coward,” he whispered.
Invidior paused, releasing his mental grasp from Ackar’s head. “Not really,” he replied coolly. “I prefer to think of myself as smart.”
“ACKAR!”
Galintin!
Ackar turned his head as surreptitiously as possible in the fear that Invidior would harm him upon movement. Invidior’s gaze, however, was on the approaching beings. Osavus’s gaze was directed likewise.
“Let them go!” yelled Raanu, a dagger in his hand. Behind him and Galintin stood Rohkea, Pomerax, and Varonis.
Invidior laughed. “Actually, I much prefer them where they are.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion,” Galintin cut in. “That was an order.”
“Huh. What authority do you have?”
Galintin pulled his badge from his pouch; a hint of pride crossed his features. “Say hello to Security Team elite, recruited by the Elder himself.”
At "the Elder", Invidior and Osavus shared a glance. “That’s nice,” Invidior said, his voice cold enough to cover the uncertainty dancing in Osavus’ eyes. “You know what else is nice? Life. And Ackar won’t be able to enjoy it if you don’t back away right now.”
The Great Being gestured to Osavus, who grimaced in concentration. The cloaked Glatorian was flung into the air by invisible hands; she landed before the Security Team and rolled, her hood flung away from her face. Rohkea let out a gasp of “Casiria!” and ran to the fallen Glatorian, lifting her body into a sitting position.
“We don’t care about her,” Invidior continued. “She’s an unwitting pawn in this game. But Ackar? He chose to get involved. He didn’t need to, but he did. Therein lies our problem.”
“I’m warning you!” cried Galintin, but his voice shook. Raanu tapped him on the arm and muttered something indecipherable; in response, Galintin brushed away Raanu’s touch, eyes serving as kindle for the fire consuming his mind.
Invidior shook his head. Ackar was pulled into Invidior’s arms as if drawn by a magnet; he struggled but could gain no leeway. His attackers, he noticed with chagrin, were beginning to recover; the green Glatorian had already stood on his own and was helping the red one. There was a prick on Ackar’s neck: He caught a glimpse of silver in his peripheral vision, felt a drop of blood trickle down his skin, and went still.
“Like I said,” Invidior restated patiently: “if you attack, Ackar dies. Now lower your weapons.”
He began pulling Ackar back. Casiria, now on her own feet, took an aggressive step forward; but her look of pure anger was quelled by Rohkea, who blocked Casiria with an outstretched arm and, eyes on the ground, told the others to lower their weapons. They did so with varying degrees of hesitancy.
Invidior smiled. His grip around Ackar tightened as he began backing round the corner. “Good. Now, you stay there and make no movements, and Ackar will stay alive. Do we have a deal?”
“A scarabax,” growled Galintin, “can’t make a deal.”
A hint of a grimace could be heard in Invidior’s voice. “I’ll pass over that insult, thank you. Now, I have better things to do than talk to lowly scarabax such as yourselves. If you’ll excuse me...”
Ackar was nearly yanked from his feet as the Great Being began running sideways through the hallways. The henchmen and Osavus followed close behind. Ackar heard a truncated curse — Galintin’s — echo through the grand, arching corridor behind him.
To Ackar, only seconds passed before he was thrust into the bright sunlight of Spherus Magna. Across the grass they ran to awaiting Sand Stalkers. Osavus mounted one; two henchmen went atop each of the next two mounts.
“You will ride with me,” said Invidior, leaping atop the center-left Sand Stalker with ease despite Ackar’s weight. He planted Ackar firmly onto the saddle before him — a click: Ackar’s hands were cuffed. “Don’t try any tricks. My patience is worn thin as is.
“And now,” he called to the others, “we ride!”* * *
As soon as the Great Beings were out of sight, Galintin charged—
—and was stopped before he could turn the corner by a hand on his lower arm. He came to a stop and turned; a magma-red Agori held him back, Rohkea and Raanu standing beside him.
“I can’t let you go, Galintin,” said Varonis, his fingers pressing unintentionally against a nerve.
Galintin tried to pull away. “You spikit! They’re getting away!”
“Getting away with Ackar, to be exact,” said Varonis.
“And?”
“Would a rescue mission be even considerable at this point?”
“Are you kidding? Who are you to say—?”
“The Team Leader, of course,” he said.
Galintin sputtered. “Who made you leader?”
“Newsflash, Galintin: Ackar is gone. Someone reasonable should take over, someone who has a clear mind!” Varonis’ hand brushed the handle of his axe; he was serious about this. “If we go after Ackar now, the Great Beings will kill him!”
“They wouldn’t dare,” Galintin muttered.
The right corner of Varonis’ mouth twitched. “We don’t know what they’re willing to do. Best to stay put and wait for the right chance to do something. After all, they are Great Beings.”
Galintin gritted his teeth; opened his mouth to say something; gave up and collapsed into a sitting position. The Great Beings had too much of a head start; and even if he followed, the Great Beings might easily spot him and kill Ackar.
“But” — Raanu entered the conversation here — “we can’t just let them go!”
“What would be the advantage of going after them?”
“Excuse me,” Rohkea said, “the advantage? He — he’s our friend!”
“...whose life is danger. If we try to approach them even by a mile, Invidior could kill him without a second thought! Is that really what you want?”
“No, but—”
“Then shut up.”
Rohkea did so, her expression turning glassy as if in rejection of showing emotion. Raanu looked startled. Pomerax remained standing a ways behind the others, as if unwilling to enter the discussion; his head was bowed, his arms crossed over his chest in a thoughtful position.
Varonis’ mouth twitched some more as he noticed the heavy silence that had fallen. “I gave my orders,” he said in an obvious attempt to dispel the awkwardness. “I’m going to report to the Elder. We’ll meet in my office in an hour.”
He walked off, his movements stiff but belying the obvious doubt in his mind.
Galintin turned his head to look at the others and mouthed a single word: “Scarabax.”* * *
“Are you sure, Invidior?”
Ackar drifted into consciousness. A rough rope bit into his wrists and ankles; he tested his limbs and found he could not move. On the other side of the foyer, the maroon-armored brute from earlier sat heavily against the wall, his eyes closed, his breathing slow and heavy.
“He’s dangerous, Osavus!” Invidior’s voice was tense as it drifted through the inner doorway. “I wouldn’t doubt his ability to break out of a simple locked room.”
“I know, but... in the shell? He has done nothing except follow the Elder’s orders; he doesn’t deserve that kind of punishme—”
“I will not risk our plan due to weak pity,” Invidior interrupted, his frustration evident. “You said it yourself: He’s following orders. Orders that would place us — us both — in a detention cell before you could say ‘spikit’.”
Before Osavus could rebut, Invidior called out: “ROBUR! Here! Now!”
The brute across from Ackar opened his eyes in surprise and looked around himself as a lost scarabax attempting to locate his nest would. He rushed through the entrance into the main room to present himself to Invidior.
“Uh, yes, sir?” Ackar heard him question.
“Do you remember the red Glatorian you took out earlier? Get him onto that platform.”
“Yes sir.”
Robur rushed back into the foyer and, sans theatrics, grabbed Ackar by the head and slung him over his shoulder. Ackar let out a surprised yelp at the strain on his neck. With his limbs tied, he could do nothing except allow his body to be shaken as he was carried in awkward fashion into the inner room. Looking up as best he could, he saw the Great Beings pass by his vision, and started spouting profanities.
His cursing was cut short as he was thrown roughly onto the platform. Osavus rushed to its foot and pulled a lever; a circular platform below Ackar’s legs was raised him two feet off the ground, followed by a web of lightning beams lancing from pillar to pillar that trapped Ackar within a shell.
More curses. Ackar charged. “I’ll get you, you little—!”
And he screamed as he struck the lightning and was repelled backward — into the other side of the electric shell. He fell to the floor, spasms yanking his otherwise prone limbs about.
“I wouldn’t try that if I were you.”
Ackar rolled toward the voice, groaning in pain. An Agori dressed in dark red robes with glowing symbols neared the platform. Beneath his hood could be seen a hint of a grin.
“Welcome back, master,” said the emerald Glatorian standing off to one side.
The approaching Agori nodded. “Thank you, Avarus. Robur, Silex, Ferveon” — the Agori gestured to each Glatorian in turn — “my greetings to you as well.”
Invidior inclined his head toward the newcomer but did not speak, instead turning his back and examining some papers on a nearby desk with Osavus. The Agori faltered midway through a step but rounded the platform without any further hesitation.
“What — urgh — are you planning, you little sand bat?” Ackar forced through his grinding teeth in the direction of the Great Beings.
Invidior did not bother to turn. “My plan?”
“You heard me.” Ackar’s eyes gleamed with a sharp light.
The Agori laughed. “Ha, and you expect us to tell you?”
A chill washed down Ackar’s spine. Where had he heard that voice before...?
“Now, providing we were that stupid, what would you do?” The Agori now stood up against the platform, nearly touching the electric field. He moved his hood back and blinked in the light.
“You filthy traitor!” screamed Ackar. Before he could think, he lunged at Varonis — a lunge that was stopped short with a jolt by the field of electricity. A curse flew from his lips as he fell back onto the cold metal. “You betrayed us!”
“Not betrayal,” corrected Varonis. “I prefer to call it a ‘good business investment’.” A faint chuckle drifted to the Agori and Glatorian from Invidior’s direction.
Ackar was on his knees now, the voltage faded from his system. “Spikits,” he spat. “You’re nothing more than criminals.”
“The Elder isn’t as noble as he makes himself seem, Ackar,” Invidior smiled; his expression could almost be taken as genuine pity. “You’ll learn that sooner or later.”
Ackar didn’t respond. Invidior and Osavus returned to their silent planning.* * *
Unbeknownst to many in Magnacus Renata, the city was built around what was once a central point for a series of magma refineries spread across the surrounding area. Many metal pipes crisscrossed beneath the surface, leading into abandoned purification plants and, thanks to Invidior’s under-the-table planning and dealing during the construction of the control building—
“—directly into the control room,” Invidior finished with pride.
It was through one such tunnel that Osavus and Invidior now travelled. They had ridden on Sand Stalkers to the very outskirts of the area Magnacus Renata called its own; there, they had split from their henchmen and Varonis and entered a nearby abandoned magma refinery.
Their footsteps echoed, sounding tinny in the metallic surroundings. “How much longer?” asked Osavus, looking up at the ceiling.
“A while,” replied Invidior. “But it’ll be worth it. By the time we do arrive, no one will notice.”
Osavus paled a little; in the dim, unsteady lighting, Invidior failed to notice.* * *
A scream, cut off.
An alarm horn, meeting the same fate.
And forty throaty yells lifting to the sky.
“Come on!” cried Varonis, darting out the front door of the Tower before several guards. He was fast for an Agori, Rohkea thought as she tried to keep up; several guards followed her, too.
The shouts were growing louder; screams intermittently wailed across the landscape. Rohkea’s heart beat a little faster.
Up ahead, Varonis pressed a button on his armor. “Alpha Team, are you on position?”
“Raanu, present,” said Raanu.
“Same for me,” cut in Pomerax.
Galintin’s reply was less appropriate.
“And I’m with Rohkea,” Varonis said as he sprinted. “Get to the main gates. Gather as many guards as you can. Go!” He released the button and turned so he was backpedaling. “Rohkea — get to the right; see if you can flank the attackers. I’m going to the left, see if I can catch them by surprise.”
“Wait,” said Rohkea, “how—?”
But Varonis was already running away with his group. Rohkea slowed; the guards, sensing her hesitation, slowed as well.
“What’re our orders, miss?” asked one.
“Um... flank them,” said Rohkea. The pressure of giving orders was too much for her to bear. “I think. Let’s, uh, try this road?”
“Your orders,” said the guard.
A second passed before Rohkea remembered she had to run. So run she did, drawing her sword as she went. Most of the guards behind her carried both a sword and a Thornax launcher; she felt rather vulnerable in comparison.
But even that didn’t compare to her feelings as she saw the forces that had breached the gates.
Several Agori’s bodies were littered across the street. The gates, surprisingly, were still barred. There was only one explanation Rohkea could think of; the attack occurred from the inside of the city.
A cry. Rohkea’s forces had been spotted. Several Thornax launchers fired in unison; the walls of the buildings around Rohkea’s force were blasted, and the group had to take cover. More Thornax sailed through the now-empty gap: cover fire.
“Here they come!” cried a guard.
Rohkea prayed that the others were already joining the fray — and that the attackers took all the time in the world to come.* * *
“Is this going to take much longer?”
Impatient, Invidior gripped the armrests of the chair in which he sat. He glared at the ceiling and tapped his foot incessantly. Osavus was brilliant in his own way, but he had a tendency to be far, far too patient with slow progress.
“Patience,” Osavus retorted, as Invidior had known he would. “We have plenty of time. Everyone should be at Renata’s entrance gates by now.”
A faint click. Invidior turned toward the closed doorway into the control room, resisting the urge to bite his tongue. It was already humiliating to have to expunge his superior’s mistake by sneaking underground into a facility he had helped construct and resorting to sabotage; being caught in the act would be outright insulting.
“What on Spherus Magna is taking your program so long?”
“I don’t know, brother. The Elder must have changed the database encryptions,” sighed Osavus.
“We don’t have any time to spare.”
“I know that, thank you.”
“What can you do to get through the new encryptions?”
“Can you calm down? We aren’t exactly guests in here; it’s enough we had to take out two innocent Agori!”
Invidior grunted, settling for a façade of acquiescence; arguing would accomplish nothing save for interrupting Osavus’ progress. “Just do what you need to do.”
He looked around the room, when he recalled a trick he had been shown to by the Elder long ago. Eons ago, the present Elder and Invidior used to be sharing experiments and ideas all the time.
“I think he may have used a proxy server to ‘customize’ the databases. Their ids are different, but the basic code, is the same. Try breaking the firewall, and see if the virus will fit in then,” added Invidior.
“You really think he’s that smart?” asked Osavus.
“He’s not an idiot... I know he’s not,” Invidior replied with haste. Osavus looked back at his screen, preparing to hack the firewall. The firewall seemed to be progressively growing harder to break, but eventually, Osavus’ experience and skill with electronics managed to break the code, thus dropping the customized databases’ ids.
“Marvelous! It’s working! I just need to—”
Invidior turned around in less than a second and saw Osavus being dragged and thrown off his chair by his neck. The figure looked at Invidior and rushed towards him. He ducked, backing away to avoid the attack. He felt an itch around his stomach, but continued trying to deflect the attacker’s hits.
The moment the figure became distracted, Invidior rushed to Osavus, helping him get up.
“Brother... are you alright?” asked Osavus
“What do you mean?” said Invidior, surprised. “I’m fine, you’re the one─”
Osavus stared at him. Invidior looked down, and noticed a large cut on his stomach. He looked back up, and fell unconscious in the ground.
The figure cracked a smile and laughed.* * *
The Tower’s doors opened wide. The crowd watched as the Elder himself, enraged, came out of the Tower, followed by a thousand guards and several Great Beings. Confused, the people cheered, as if they were praising the Elder and the Great Beings. A lot of them thought the robot was launching, and created a false wave of excitement. Such was their trust and attachment to the Great Beings, that they completely ignored the henchmen’s apparent attack on the city.
“Tell them to keep quiet,” he ordered the guards.
A small burst of energy flung out of the Elder’s hand, hitting the entire construction facility attached to the Tower, specifically built to construct parts of the robot. It was also the Team’s headquarters, ever since the Elder promoted them. It was an elegant design. With the construction facility located inside the city, there was only one choice for the robot’s platform; the endless empty outskirts of the city. The platform included the control facility and assembly, with the control platform being the station between the city’s walls and the platform’s walls, and the way the parts were transported to the robot. The assembly line was a collection of scaffolds and supports surrounding the robot.
As the Elder’s small armada entered the construction facility, it changed. All entrances were locked shut, with guards taking a new formation. Reinforced steel melted from the top, covering and stabilizing in the same second the entire facility.
“Everyone step aside!” screamed one of the guards. “The facility is on lockdown!”* * *
On Avarus’ hip, his handheld radio played a blip-blip!
His scythe cleaved through another Glatorian. A Thornax flew just over his head; he ducked to the side and behind a nearby house. There, breathing heavily, he scanned the crowd of combatants for his allies.
There. Robur, large as he was, was unable to act stealthy to save his life. He had already lumbered into a nearby alley and rounded the bend, heading roughly in the direction of the construction facility. A few seconds later, Ferveon followed. Silex, meanwhile, had somehow rounded the defenders and was now crossing the street to the construction facility behind them.
Taking a deep breath, Avarus plunged into the fray as though he were plunging into a river.* * *
The yelled commands to attack had stopped a long time ago; and now, the remaining forces were beginning to falter.
Galintin noticed it first in the lessened resistance to his sword swings and the widening radius around his group of guards. “Guys!” he called over his radio. “They’re” — he coolly parried a sword blow and plunged his own blade into the aggressor’s ribs — “they’re starting to fall back!”
“Let’s push the advantage!” Pomerax suggested between grunts of effort.
“Make that an order,” Varonis cut in.
Galintin ignored the irritated chagrin bubbling in his gut and honed his attention on the push and pull of his muscles as they commanded the sword he held. The attackers’ numbers were many, but their empty eyes showed clearly the absence of a driving force behind their actions; they offered little resistance. Thornax flew, swords clashed, and bodies fell. Some of the aggressors even surrendered and willingly allowed themselves to be bound and left on the ground to be picked up later; a precious few others drove blindly into the gaining defenders as though they no longer cared whether they lived or died; the great majority found themselves herded toward Magnacus Renata’s gates, which had been closed during the melee, and so were trapped.
The sounds of combat faded into silence-belied tension. The Alpha Team found itself reformed in the main road leading to the gates; guards streamed past them to keep the attackers caged in. Many glares and growls were shared between the two sides, but neither allowed itself to fall to intimidation tactics: a standoff.
Varonis, when he spoke, sounded tense. “There’s not much else we can do...”
“So what do we do?” asked Galintin, looking over the crowd of henchmen.
In lieu of replying, Varonis lifted his finger to the radio on his upper left chest armor. His lip twitched as the radio crackled to life. “All guards: Prepare to fire,” he ordered.
“No!” Rohkea stepped forward faster than Galintin had ever seen her move before. “You can’t just — just kill them in cold blood like that!”
“Not all of them,” Varonis responded, though his words were built atop a regretful undertone. “Just enough to get the rest to cooperate.”
“But they’re still being killed—”
“Some of them.”
“Exactly!”
“You know what? Shut up.”
Rohkea was shocked enough that she lapsed without complaint into an air of frustrated acquiescence. Galintin gripped her hand; she tried to pull it away, stopped when she realized Galintin’s grip was too strong.
Varonis’ mouth opened, ready to spat out the words ‘fire’, but stopped. These were his men. Would killing them benefit? No.
“…scratch that.”
“Excuse me, sir, but what?” said a surprised guard.
“Arrest them. All of them.”
“Are you certain, sir? They are by far too —”
“I already gave you orders.”
Rohkea felt relived. Galintin was more than puzzled.* * *
Having dispatched and placed under control all of the henchmen attackers, the Alpha Team’s effort to place the city under control had been successful. Maybe the day was coming to a closure, but their work was just starting.
Rohkea stopped, trying to act surprised, as she was too tired to pull off a fair reaction. “Guys, uh, what is this?”
“No! Dangit!” cursed Galintin.
“What’s going on?” asked Pomerax.
Galintin opened his mouth, but was blocked by Varonis, who talked over him. “It’s in lockdown. We’ll have to get in, someway. I have no idea why the Elder didn’t talk to me about this,” he added. And for once, he was telling the truth; the Elder had not explained to him why the facility was placed at lockdown, so he was forced to follow the safe path; act surprised, and throw ‘foolish’ ideas, like trying to break in.
“Can we bypass it?” said Raanu.
“Pretty sure we can’t,” said Galintin quickly, trying to act as if he was head of the Team. Varonis didn’t pay much attention, much to Galintin’s frustration.
“That’s it..? There’s no other option? No backup plan?”
Everyone shrugged, carried away by their thoughts. Varonis was attempting to contact the Elder, leaving the Team into a skeptic state. Unnoticed, a familiar figure came out from a small building, and she walked up to them; her face was lightened up by the street lights. It was Casiria.
“Well, I’ve got an idea,” she said.