Notes:
Warning: Graphic description of death and super feels because of a grieving father
Surprisingly, the blinding light of the deadly red core receded back into the still chest of the Peacekeeper.
Tenma stood stunned, staring at the place where his young son had been pounding on the glass moments before. Nothing stood in his place.
Scorch marks were burnt into the floor around the machine including where his son had been standing. A thick layer of dust and debris hung in the air, mimicking the atmosphere.
"TOBY!" the father cried out, a look of disbelief and desperation passed over his face. He reached out for his son as if the past few moments had never happened.
Suddenly, perhaps jolted back to animation by the sound of the human, the Peacekeeper's head snapped up. It eyed the barrier which still stood in its way as if in contempt of its audacity to remain standing.
The others who stood safely behind the shield glanced at one another anxiously as the creation merely stood and stared fixated on the barricade before it.
The words 'SHIELD INTACT' and 'ABSORB' beeped and flashed on the red-tinted periscope-like computer screen the robot sported. One massive metal arm pressed to the shield and the glass began to melt. It bubbled and rippled and ultimately was sucked away at an increasing speed, into the hole at the end of its arm.
Stunned, Tenma slowly withdrew his hand from the burning glass. Stumbling back a few paces, the pale and clearly distraught father leaned against the barrier.
"Fire now!" President Stone ordered the guards as he ran back to safety.
The line of guards armed with high grade machine-guns and upper body armour fired a continuous barrage of bullets at the monstrous robot. The Peacekeeper, who had started to climb through the melted hole it had made was unaffected by the assault. Standing tall, the high-pitched reverberating bullets hit its chest plate,merely pushing it back and away from the hole.
As it fought against the motion, quick thinking Doctor Elefun, who had ducked moments before to avoid the stream of bullets, noticed the two large core cables. Thoughts and possibilities ran through his mind and one plan jumped out at him.
Acting quick on his feet, the short professor wrenched the massive blue core cable from its source and inching his way forward, he jabbed the sharp blue prongs of the cable into the red core residing in the Peacekeeper's chest.
Once the two cores had connected an electrifying surge shook the robot violently. Almost instantaneously, the dominant blue core erupted beneath its chest plate and the machine was blown backwards. The force was powerful enough to eradicate the connection between the Peacekeeper and the droids it had absorbed. Each of the robots scattered along the floor. The smaller round droids hit the ground and rolled further away, while the massive body of the Peacekeeper collided with the scorched metal surface, producing sparks and an earsplitting noise.
As the robot's red core shut down and slowly faded out, the functioning shield lifted before the distressed father's face.
Breathing deeply, he walked forward into the debris and called out, "Wh-where's Toby? Where's my son?"
President Stone, looking completely unaffected by the disastrous scene he had caused Not moments before, walked forward to inspect the unresponsive machine. The machine that has nearly destroyed them all. All of those who had been protected now spread out around the damaged half of the room to investigate the extent of the destruction..
One of the armed guards motioned over his shoulder.
"Uh… President Stone? I think you should come have a look."
"What is it?" the President replied, practically bored with the situation.
"I don't really want to explain it, sir."
Doctor Elefun, being nearer, walked towards the guard and looked at the source of intrigue. Placing his hand over his mouth, he closed his eyes and turned away. Sadness and a sickly colour spread up from his chin.
The stunned Tenma stood alone wandering through the remaining debris not hearing the guard and President converse. Scanning the wreckage of the horribly failed experiment, a small red dome-like object caught the tall professor's eye. With a sorrowful exhale, the father stepped forward and almost instantly, a look of recognition passed through his features.
It was his son's cap.
The little red hat was dusty and understandably banged up.
He slowly reached forward. The cap had never been cherished so much as in that one moment when the father squeezed it to his chest and remembered his beloved son.
None of the others in the room paid any particular attention to the short man approaching the grief stricken father.
"I am so sorry…Tenma. For the sake of your sanity, my friend, don't be tempted to go over there."
His thoughts immediately jumped to his missing child as if snapped back to reality from his foggy uncertain thoughts. The precious object was still tightly held in his long pointed fingers, when a look of horror danced across his face. The father tried pushing past his short friend.
"What? What did you find?" the professor asked apprehensively. When he received no answer from his melancholic co-worker, he panicked, shoving forward and towards the guard.
"Tenma! Don't do it!" Elefun shouted back.
Collapsing to his knees once he was near enough to recognize what they had been looking at, the father's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open. It was his son.
"No…Toby," he breathed disbelievingly.
Among the debris and rubble, there lay the badly burnt body of his young son.
From where they stood, Toby had fallen with his back facing them. Legs splayed on the ground and one arm bent at an awkward angle behind his back. His blue hoodie, white shirt, and jeans were singed and torn revealing the dark and bloodied patches of what used to be the soft unmarred skin of his side and back. His hands appeared scuffed and scratched, undoubtedly from desperately pounding on the glass.
When the professor reached out to slowly turn his son over, a heart wrenching sight met his eyes. The front of his exposed shirt was torn apart and the skin charred badly on the side that was nearest to the deadly explosion.
But as if by a miracle, his face was only mildly burnt. Toby's eyes were closed, in a cruel pantomime of sleep his mouth hung open slightly and what little of his neatly gelled hair that remained was blown every which way.
The father stunned and still, whispered to himself, "Toby…"
For a moment he pulled back, before steeling himself and desperately grabbing at his son. Clutching the limp body tightly to his thin chest he noticed that his body was still warm, skin almost hot to the touch, undoubtedly from the blast.
He thought to himself that this was the first time in a long while that he had held his child. The physical contact made the father's heart swell with joy but it lasted for only a brief moment before the deafening reality that it would also be the last time, came crashed down on the man.
He hid his long and slender face in the crook of his child's neck. Rubbing his cheek to that of his son, he recalled the first time he ever held his newborn son, running his slender fingers over the baby's cheek.
Remembering the uncertain touch of his boy's hand to his when he had taken him to the museum as a toddler. He had been so small and intrigued by the world around him. The father gripped his son's still warm corpse to him, rocking lightly back and forth.
As the memories flooded in, the man began to crumple. His shoulders tensed, his legs tucked in beneath him tightly and his back curled over the little body. Tears rushed down his cheeks as he cradled the child under him.
Shallow inhales followed by heart-wrenching sobs echoed out from Tenma's huddled form and filled the room.
"Oh Toby…its all my fault…if only I had…if only I hadn't….oh Toby…I should've spent more time with you. I should've kept my promises…my son…my little boy…" His quiet sobs an uncomfortable accompaniment to the melody of his sorrow.
Doctor Elefun bowed his head and looked away from the painful scene so that his friend could grieve in peace. He listened to the heartbreaking sounds of a father saying a last agonizing goodbye to his son who would not hear a word of it.
He took a deep breath and tried to hold back his own tears as he kept his head down, it hurt to listen and know that the most powerful, emotional, and loving things this father would ever say to his son would fall on deaf ears.