Testing: A little Sci-Fi adventure (chapter 5)

Chapter Five
Enter Mr. Kerrigan

TWELFTH ORION, Lysithea Orbit.

“Swords and Magic. The constant battle of powers. Ever since the beginning of time, these two forces have always tried to claim the title of ‘best’. None of them ever won, even with the balancing of the gun. Do you want to know why Artemis?” the man asked the person kneeling before him while twiddling with a fountain pen.
“It’s because the rulers of the Afterworld love the constant fighting, is it not?” The other person replied, coolly and indifferently.
“That is not the answer my dear friend, but if that is what you believe, then I ask you to prove it. Why do the people of the Afterlife enjoy the fighting?”
“Because it’s the way we are, my liege. We cannot live without bloodshed or fear.”
“Very well Artemis. I want you to do a little errand for me.”
“What is it, my liege?”
“One of my aides has failed me horribly in a simple task. I ask you to complete it for me.”
“Who is the person that I have to kill?”
“No, no, not kill Artemis. Killing doesn’t get you anywhere. Capture.”
“Very well.”
“I believe you know who I am talking about Artemis.”
“Yes I do, my liege. I will have him captured, bound and tortured by the time the moons revolve around the sun.”
“His friends. Dispose of them.”
“My pleasure.”
The kneeling figure got up and saluted the man sitting at the table. He swished his cape and put on a pair of sunglasses, smeared with blood. He walked out of the room with flames erupting from his footsteps. When the steel doors closed and locked themselves, something shiny and brilliant stood up and showed itself from its hiding place in the shadows. It signaled a simple salute.
“Sire, you do realize that you are sending one of your best agents to his doom.”
“On the contrary, I don’t think that he will die, after all he is a messenger of the Devil. He is smart enough to know the time where he needs to retreat.”
“Then why do you even bother, my liege?”
“Why? A little enjoyment maybe. After all, we shouldn’t let the boy waste his strength now should we?”
“As usual, you are always right, my liege.”
The shining figure returned back into the shadows. The dull sounds of combat drifted in from the outside.

TWELFTH ORION, Ananke.

“Please remind me again what we are doing here.”
“I told you, we had no choice, now shut up and fight.”
“I am going to hate you for the rest of my life for this.”
“Go ahead. It’s not my fault that someone ‘accidentally’ dumped all the stores.”
“Hey! You told me to rid the cargo bay of all the junk!”
“I said junk! Not food!”
“Our food is junk no matter how you--”
Isaac narrowly had enough time to avoid the falling mortar. The explosion shook the ground and caused the pots and various decoratives to fall. The town they were taking cover in was being bombarded by the republican forces. They fired round after round of high explosives straight into the streets and decimated the local population. The sound of blasting never ceased and the only way that two people could talk was through shouting and hand signals.
“Hiryu! I’ll never forgive you for this!” Isaac screamed out.
“Shut up! They’ll be able to pinpoint your voice!” Hiryu shouted back.
Sure enough, another shell exploded right on the building Hiryu was taking cover in. This was followed by airborne gatling laser blasts. Isaac could make out Hiryu running and jumping around like a madman as he tried to avoid the bullets. Hiryu escaped the building just before the ceiling collapsed and brought tons of rubble along with it.
“Naomi’s going to kill us when she comes back from her vacation!”
“Not if we die here!”
Another artillery barrage hit the area. This time both of them started to evacuate the plaza. It was getting too extreme for them to handle. By then they were most likely the only survivors of the defensive force. The worst part was they weren’t going to get paid if they survived. They had no choice; it was either die at the hands of the enemy, or die at the hands of Naomi. The choice was easy, both of them turned back and rushed towards the sounds of cannon fire.
After a hectic fifteen minutes of running and bullet-dodging, they made it to the fringes of the city. Right in front of them waited an attacking force composed of ten battalions, and two armadas in the air. The odds were on Isaac and Hiryu’s side, the defensive force had already eliminated at least half of the opposing army. None of the soldiers fired and the two heroes just stood in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by loyal and fanatical soldiers.
In front of them, the personnel parted to make way for a man who walked towards the duo. He wore a olive brown overcoat over a simple collared shirt and satin pants. He had his hat slanted to an angle along with a pair of expensive sunglasses over his eyes. He reminded Isaac of one of those detectives from the old disks. He pulled down his dark sunglasses a little so that you could see his ruby red eyes.
“Welcome, welcome to my humble party! I’m Artemis Kerrigan, the host of this fabulous redemption. Glad to see that you are still alive and ready to continue the next round of partying!”
“Party? We would love to stay and see what happens but we have a pressing engagement somewhere else, so if you don’t mind, we’ll just cut the celebrations short.” Hiryu butted in as usual.
“Why? Isn’t this fun? Don’t you enjoy the death and destruction which floats in the air after an artillery barrage? It’s such a wonderful thing.”
“What kind of sicko are you? Why did you even attack this village in the first place?” Isaac mouthed.
“Sicko? This is an art my dear friend. Death is marvelous and ii hope that I can bring more to our pathetic society. Now, now, enough talk. Let’s party shall we?”
Artemis raised his hand into the sky. Instantaneously, all the troops and soldier who stood there clenched their hearts and fell to the floor. Their bodies burned and evaporated thus turning into a dark smoke. All the battleships in the air exploded and came crashing down to the soil. The grievous amount of smoke darkened the sky and encircled the battlefield. Isaac could se the souls of the brave men wailing in pain as they drifted around in the dense smog.
“Ready? Nevermind, here I come.”
Kerrigan waved and swinged his hands around like a crazed conductor. The fumes reacted and formed thin spears and javelins, riddled with spikes and gashes. Simultaneously, all the condensed weapons flew at Isaac and Hiryu. Hiryu did it cool, he swung his three ton sword and sliced the spikes as they came. Isaac resorted to running around the ‘arena’. Kerrigan was laughing and creating more drills, lances, poles, et cetera.
The ghostly cries that echoed out from the clouds turned Isaac’s blood cold. Some of the gas seeped into the ground, and on Kerrigan’s command, crashed through the surface. Everywhere, there were blades and gas. The now increasing number of holes in the ground made it even harder to avoid. Isaac armed the cannon on his right arm. He fired at the enemy but somehow the bullets just bounced of newly created barriers.
Hiryu began his offensive. The onslaught of morgue gas never ceased. Hiryu plunged straight into the heart of the combat. Isaac jumped away to avoid the wave of dust from Hiryu’s dash. For a moment, there was the sound of steel slashing through flesh, but it was followed by the scream of Hiryu. When the dust cleared, Kerrigan was smiling at Isaac. Hiryu’s sword was holding its master in the sky, blade in his chest. Blood flowed freely and already the phantoms in the smoke were feeding on the flesh.
Isaac felt anger sear his heart and change his mind. Kerrigan’s expression changed and became serious. He got into a combat position and commanded all the fumes to him. The gases compacted and condensed around Kerrigan’s hand. Isaac saw the shaft of a saber form within the grasp of Kerrigan. The blade was free-flowing smoke.
Isaac tried to stay as calm as he could. The hatred burned holes through his mind. He got into an offensive position. A drop of blood spalsed on Isaac’s hand. He was injured. Kerrigan took this chance and flung shadow missiles at Isaac. The ghostly projectiles exploded around the spot where Isaac stood. Kerrigan moved and managed to stop the downward slash that came from above. The shadows flew out from behind Kerrigan and cut Isaac all over.
The battle raged on and Kerrigan always managed to manipulate Isaac with complex moves and showy techniques. Everytime Isaac attacked, the clouds would just form a wall at that spot. Behind and under him, spikes and spears would erupt and retreat back inside. Slowly Isaac loss confidence, he did not manage to hit the man of shadows even once. He was already brutally injured and had been stabbed several times in his torso. He was now wishing for miracles just like before.
“Tired already? We’ve only just started.”
“*** Tired? We’ve only just started to dance.”
Isaac jumped away and landed next to Hiryu’s corpse. He could sense a heartbeat, Hiryu was still alive. Isaac whispered something and drew out the blood-stained sword. He remained in combat position and chanted old verses. Then he dashed at Kerrigan. He put everything into that one strike. Kerrigan laughed again and summoned the dark shield.
“There’s no way you can defeat afterlife smoke! Don’t waste your time!”
Isaac didn’t heed those words and charged bluntly into the fray. Scores of spines and razors flew out to counter his attack. Isaac felt the blades knife at his cheeks, bring warm liquid down his face. He never faltered, three meters more. He felt the tip of the blade penetrated the shield, the power arising from within. He was certain that he killed Kerrigan.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… I’m undefeatable!” A voice came from above. The man was standing on a tower of coiled souls and various skeletons. The architecture was a fearsome sight, orifices like mouths and noses spewed out flames and toxic liquid.
“Isaac! Throw the sword into the air!” A familiar voice hoarsely whispered out.
Isaac flung the sword as high as he could. Kerrigan had a look of disgust on his face. He snapped his finger and spontaneously, Isaac was stabbed and impaled upon a spear through his right arm. Though he was in pain, Isaac couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s too late…” He whispered.
“Ultimate attack! Waltz of the three Quinn Dragons!” Hiryu shouted out in the distance.
The sword burst into pieces and three orbs flew into the sky. The first created Damarus, the dragon of time, followed by Nevitinne, the dragon of space, and Xel’xapher, the dragon of creation; the three dragons involved in the transfer of power. Their almighty cries sounded off in the sky and their wings blew a hurricane over the desert. Kerrigan had already summoned a storm of lances that flew into the sky.
The three entities swooped down onto the now small Kerrigan. The shadows had no effect on them and were repelled by unknown forces. They circled the tower, slowly making their way to the top. Kerrigan tried in vain to fight back. The tower morphed into a great lumbering machine, the skull of a god adorning the head. Before he could lauch an attack, the dragons flew to the top and stared at Kerrigan in the eye.
A spherical light blinked at the top of the tower, followed by a pillar of light which separated once again into three. The three orbs flew to the heavens and came back down onto the tower; smashing right through the planet. The final cry of Artemis Kerrigan was heard and then there was silence. The sword fell next to Isaac, back in one piece. He smiled and blacked out. He could barely hear the sound of a landing craft nearby with familiar shouts. All he could feel was the running blood all over his body. It was warm and soothing.
“Isaac!”
“Hiryu!”
“No! Please god no!”

TWELFTH ORION, Lysithea orbit,

“Look what the dog brought back.”
“Artemis, explain yourself.”
The battered figure descened from a great beast, hairy and foaming at it’s three mouths.
“I have failed you. But I do not believe that he will recover from his wounds as fast as I have.”
“That is not the question. Very well, return to your unit, I will call you again.”
The man snapped his fingers and the beast disappeared into a burning portal. He followed moments later, mumbling about getting new sunglasses. When the opening closed, the metal warrior who was leaning on the wall started laughing.
“It seems that our little Isaac has become quite powerful with help from his comrades.”
“True. But still, we should bide our time. We must always wait for the fruit to be ripe before it is plucked.”
“I can’t wait for the day that I can face off with him again.”
“Patience Number Five. Patience.”
Vile evil laughter still came out from the android.

TWELFTH ORION, Ananke orbit,

Isaac awoke to the sounds of an old creaking ceiling fan. He was back in the dusty battleship, Pyre. Layenne was unconscious on the nearby coffee table. Her eyes were still red from crying. He could smell something heavenly coming from the kitchen. He tried to move, but he was stuck in a full body iron cast. The smell was overwhelming, he had to get there.
He forced himself up and somehow managed to budge a little. Consequently, he fell with a thud to the floor. Naomi poked her head out of the kitchen.
“Oww…” Isaac groaned out of the bandages covering his mouth.
“Stay still. I have to finish this.”
“Don’t leave me like this!”
“Too bad, who asked you to move?”
“And you would think that all women are feminine…” Isaac muttered to himself. A burning hot frying pan with stir fry beef hit him on the head a few seconds later. At least now he could taste the gravy. He watched out of the corner of his eye, Naomi storming out of the kitchen, throwing off an apron.
“What did you do this time?” Hiryu asked while lifting the frying pan off Isaac’s face. He picked some of the meat and fed himself. Impromptu he pinched his nose and took a gulp of beer from his hip flask. He let out his tongue which had turned a strange hue of red and shook his head.
Isaac laughed and tried to shake off the meat on his forehead. Layenne who awoke from the chorus helped him. She was smiling happily but the traces of tears still remained on her pale cheeks. Once again, they managed to scrape themselves out of another disaster.
In her room, Naomi shut the door slowly and sat by the bed. She wiped a tear from her eyes and smiled. If those two had left her, she would have preferred to join them. She swore to herself never to go on a vacation without them again.