I own everything in this story. Maybe some details are based on already existing stories however.
Arc 1: Attack of the Invincible, part 2
Vacation was over; time to get back to school. It was Kevin`s first day to Sainte-Esperance High School. A new world as it was also his first day of high school; would he survive it? That`s what he hoped. Michael, however, was dead terrorized by what could happen. He was so white that he looked like a vampire.
"What`s the big deal, Michael?" Kevin asked.
"I`ll tell you later, okay?" Michael just replied.
Sainte-Esperance High School had been named such from a woman who helped more than any other woman during the war of 1760. Any history class about the province would explain better, but Kevin would not understand anyway. But strangely, Sœur Esperance was not mentioned in much older books; very few proofs of her existence were found.
As for the school itself, it was built in a very strange way; a part of it was made for the elementary students; the bigger part was however built for the high school students. However the two sides never met up, as the architects built the school as if it was two smaller schools smashed together. Also, the backyards of the elementary and high school were separated by a wall. It was a very tall wall impossible to climb, so it would be impossible for mischievous "high-schoolers" to go to the other side and target youngsters. The students were not allowed to go from one side to the other till they reached the age to.
Maybe that`s what was scaring Michael. Amongst his many phobias, one of them revolved around intimidation, as he had been suffering for a part of his youth.
"Man, I hope I won`t meet Calvin here," Michael told Kevin.
"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked.
"Well, when I was in elementary here, I was bullied by a guy named Calvin, he was two years older. When he passed on the high school side, I felt great and the remaining two elementary years were perfect. Well now I might just see him again here."
"All I see for now is cuties," Kevin said. "Quebec girls are really cute."
"Slow down, Casanova, will you?" Michael reminded him. "Time to go to class." On this, the friends got inside.
Their first morning was easy. One teacher didn`t particularly like English people so he lectured Kevin, and made him swear to speak the best French he could in that class.
During lunch, Michael saw Calvin, and pointed him for Kevin to see who it was. Calvin was a muscular teenager, maybe fifteen years old, eating at a table with his gang. His shoes looked like they could crack anytime because of his feet. He was wearing a red forehead band, a black shirt with an image of a skull, and a blue shirt open in the front with the sleeves ripped off. Black jeans completed his clothing. Michael nearly ran away as soon as he saw him. Luckily Kevin grabbed him in time.
"Just do as if he was not there."
"But he ruined four years of my life, Kevin. I just can`t forget that kind of thing, you know?"
Kevin sighed. "Forget it, man. I`ve beaten tougher boys back in Vermont." Maybe Kevin was lying, maybe he was not. The rest of dinner time was calm, so were the two classes of the afternoon. Kevin and Michael grabbed the city bus, paid the four bucks needed, and left the school. However, they were not going home; they decided to go to Batara`s first.
The bus stopped near Batara`s street, so the teenagers walked the small distance to the front door. They knocked and Fastos answered. "Oh, hello misters Kevin and Michael."
"No need to be so formal, Fastos, you know?" Michael said.
"It is my program and my duty to be a servant treating everyone as superior beings," Fastos replied with his humanlike voice. "Master Batara should be coming from the basement in a few minutes."
"Thanks," Kevin said. Just then the door to the basement opened, revealing a Batara with a splash of gasoline on the cheek.
"Hey, guys. What`s up?" he asked. Michael pointed to the splash on his cheek and Batara rubbed it off with a tissue.
"The first day of school wasn`t too bad," Kevin said.
"Yeah, it was quite great," Michael added. "And how did you spend your day?"
"Well, my fighter is repaired, completely, everything is okay. And I upgraded its movement system. It will now move better."
"Awesome," Kevin said. "Can we go see it?"
"Sure, follow me." Batara walked to the underground laboratory. Batara`s house may be a modest one, the laboratory hidden underground is a lot bigger. Plus, his great backyard is used for something special, but he hasn`t shown them what yet. Batara dialed the code; it was safe because only he and Fastos knew the code. He let the teenagers in and entered after them.
Despair was right in the center of the room, with a small stool beside it; Batara had to use this because of his height. Well, both his and his robot`s heights. Despair was fully repaired; his smashed top had been replaced by a brand new one. The scar on his body had disappeared; the shell had been changed to a new one. That way, the lower belly, where the gas tank is, was also repaired. The arm that had been cut off had been replaced by a new one. The teenagers looked around Despair when they heard knocking.
"We hear everything from here. Well, almost everything," Batara explained.
On the ground floor, Fastos answered to the door. "Hello, Mister Carlos Cyrano."
Batara stood in shock as he heard the real name of his scientist rival. "Coming!" He yelled to make sure Carlos would understand. In a hurry, he let Kevin and Michael out of the laboratory, came out as well, code-locked the door behind him and showed up.
"Hi, Batara," Carlos said in a cold tone.
"Oranic…" Batara said. Carlos Cyrano is a scientist, and many scientists have a nickname. Batara decided he would not use one, but the old man had decided to make an anagram of his family name, so it went from Cyrano to Oranic.
Carlos Cyrano was eighty-seven years old. He had a crown of laurels-like hair around the head and the top as clean as a bowling ball. He had a long nose, didn`t need glasses, and he always had a smirk on the face. He also constantly wore the scientist outfit.
"Batara, my friend!" Oranic said in a fake friendly tone. "How is it going?" Batara was not fooled by this tone.
"What do you want, Cyrano?" Batara asked. Oranic hated when one used his real family name; it reminded him of his long nose and it would become an insult to him. Actually, he preferred when one used his nickname.
"Well, I have watched the competition on television, and I was wondering if I could see the winner."
"No way, Oranic. I will not let you in my laboratory. Who knows what you would do."
Oranic grumbled. "Why are you always thinking I`m up to no good?"
"I have known you for fourteen years, Oranic. As if I didn`t know you`re always trying to mess up younger scientists` creations. You can leave right now."
Oranic, frustrated, replied: "Anyway I have seen everything Despair could do, I don`t need to see it more. I thought you were welcoming."
"Not with you. Get out, please."
Oranic left the house. Fastos closed the door behind him.
"You were rough, Batara," Michael said.
"If I let myself get controlled by Oranic, then what will happen?" the scientist replied. " I have to face his intimidation. Well, guys, goodbye. Time to go home."
The teenagers left the house, took the city bus and arrived home.
***
That weekend, Batara was called by the city park`s owner, who had watched the tournament. He needed Despair to chop down trees. Batara invited Kevin and Michael to the place, and of course they agreed; to see a powerful machine like Despair doing any kind of job is always something awesome to watch.
So the small car with the metal box left Batara`s garage and left for the teenagers` house. Batara picked them up. Kevin had brought his Hoverboard, as the park had a skatepark, and Michael brought his backpack with his videogames and a few books.
After about ten minutes, the car parked in the parking. The trio was welcomed by the park`s owner, a rich man. He had to leave for a meeting, so he let the park`s guardian to show them around. After he left, the guardian welcome them. Batara opened the side of the metallic box, and let the guardian look at the machine. He had watched the competition as well, and he was impressed by the size of the creation. The guardian explained what had to be made. The forest in the middle of the park had many trees that were too old or rotten, and they had to be chopped down. Despair could use all his weapons to do this task. However, the tallest tree of all also had to be cut down, and it was difficult to do it without hitting something else in the radius. Batara decided to start off with that one.
During that time, Kevin jumped on his Hoverboard and hovered to the skatepark. He began practicing figures. He had heard the Hoverboards had many special details; if one is going at a fast speed on it, it is possible to float over water. According to the urban legend, however, the one who tried this over a lake smashed into a water-skier.
Three-Rivers` City Park was an immense park with many cool features; a round hedge maze, a small artificial lake, a skatepark, a small forest, soccer fields, and metallic structures for children.
Batara turned to the guardian. "So, what are the reasons for the job?"
"Well, first off, it is to stop all the trees from taking more space. And second, there`s a wood-work company that opened right in front of the park, we`ll send them the wood made from those trees. Now get to work, I want to see that machine at work."
"Okay," Batara said, and he turned on the remote control, which turns on the robot as well.
Batara estimated the height of the tree, then estimated the distance between this tree and the guardian`s cabin, then he also estimated the distance between this tree and many locations of this park. Finally he decided to let the tree fall somewhere it was not dangerous at all. Then he controlled Despair so the great machine walked to the tree, took out some of its weapons, and began the task. It began chopping small pieces of wood from the tree. Despair had done a nice job for now, but it would be a very long task. The tree was not falling anytime soon. However, all of a sudden, Despair stopped moving. No matter what Batara was doing on the remote control, Despair stood there, like a statue of metal.
"Guys! We got a problem!" Batara yelled to Kevin and Michael. They rushed to Despair. "He stopped moving all of a sudden… I fear it`s nothing good." Finally Batara heard a click from the robot. "Maybe it was just a sudden bug… It should work."
Batara grabbed the remote control, turned it off, turned it back on, and began controlling Despair with the joystick. However Despair didn`t move at all. Batara tried to press a few buttons, but nothing happened. Two more clicks were heard from the machine. Finally, Batara pressed another joystick, but nothing happened. Until Despair moved. Slowly the weapons came back inside the body, and the robot turned to Batara.
"Oh oh…" the scientist said. And the robot took out one of his hands with spiked fingers, and attacked Batara. Kevin, on a speedy movement, changed the trajectory of the hand, and it got stuck in the tree.
"It`s gonna kill us!" Michael yelled. "Run away!" That was the voice of a coward, but it was the voice of reason speaking.
Kevin and Batara didn`t believe it until Despair pulled out all his weapons at the same time. Batara grabbed the remote control and pressed some buttons. "It`s not working!" Kevin got on his Hoverboard, grabbed Batara, and hovered away from the robot. Despair turned his body to them. Now Despair looked really dangerous.
Luckily the Hoverboard could hover over any surface, might it be grass, sand, even water though it is not recommended. Despair`s wheels could not do this. The tall robot changed from standing form to rolling form, and went after them. However, it was being slowed down by the grass. Kevin could escape far enough. Batara looked behind.
"Oh no, it`s gonna use.. The reactors!"
"What?" Kevin asked. Behind them, Despair, on its back, used its reactor form. The reactors came out of its feet, and this threw it at full speed toward Kevin, who avoided it by an inch. "That was close…" Kevin stopped the Hoverboard near the guardian`s cabin. "Batara, stay inside. Unless he breaks everything, you will be safe."
But Despair was already rolling to them. The guardian saw that, grabbed an axe and attacked Despair right in time, avoiding Kevin and Batara get rammed by the robot. Despair came back on its feet, and faced the guardian, who got scared. In a swift move, Despair pushed the guardian aside, and approached Kevin and Batara… until it was hit by a stone. That stone had been thrown by Michael. He was acting heroic? That was like a miracle, a dream come true. But Despair turned to him, and all of a sudden Michael chickened out and ran away to the hedge maze.
"No!" Batara yelled.
"What?" Kevin asked.
"Well, Despair can ram into the hedge and make holes, while it won`t be possible for Michael to cut through the hedge. If he gets lost, what will he do?"
"Damn. We gotta go help him!" Kevin yelled. He let his Hoverboard near the cabin, and ran with Batara to the hedge maze.
n the hedge maze, Michael was going aimlessly, and he had no idea where he was going. He had to get out of the maze, because Despair could attack him any time. Soon he ended in a dead end, in front of a wall of hedge. He also heard a buzz noise, which was none other than Despair approaching.
The robot finally stopped in front of Michael. It got back on its feet, and prepared to attack. "HELP!" Michael yelled. Just then an arm popped out of the hedge wall, grabbed Michael, and pulled him out of the way as Despair was about to attack. The arm was Kevin`s. Michael had been sent through the hedge, so he had small scars over the face and his shirt was a mess.
"Is everything okay, man?" Kevin asked.
"No time for questions, Kev! Time to run away, Despair`s just there!"
"Nice rhyme, but it`s not really the right time, Michael…" Batara said till they saw Despair passing through the wall of hedge. "Run!"
The three friends ran away from Despair, so the great robot just got on his back again and chased after them.
"Let`s split up!" Michael said. "He can`t chase us all at the same time!"
"Okay!" Kevin said, before running faster toward the guardian`s cabin. He caught his Hoverboard, jumped on it and began hovering and gaining speed. Despair decided to chase Kevin. The robot got on its wheels, turned in the direction of Kevin, the reactors appeared below its feet, and it rolled at supersonic speed after Kevin. Kevin tried to gain speed, but he was slow enough for Despair to catch up. Kevin spun away just as Despair was about to hit him. However, when Kevin did that, he saw he was going to get… over the lake! Kevin tried to stop, but he was going too fast. The Hoverboard hovered over the surface of the lake, and apparently he had been fast enough to get to the other side. However, Despair, who was still on the other side, was patiently waiting.
"Come and get me, stupid machine!" Kevin yelled. Despair walked to the lake, put a foot in it, and then decided to instead turn around the lake to get its prey.
Batara sighed. "If it had decided to pass by the lake, it would have succeeded; I made it waterproof. That`s one of the upgrades I could do."
"You could have waited in case something could have happened!"
"I didn't know this was going to happen. I have watched, re-watched and re-re-watched it!"
Kevin was on the other side of the artificial lake when he saw Despair get once more into his reactor form and roll around the lake and toward him. "Uh oh…"
Despair was coming at a high speed toward him. Kevin acted rapidly; the metal structure was not very far in the distance. Kevin ran there and, in a few moves, was over the metal bars where kids could hold and go from one side to the other. Despair came back in standing form and tried to attack Kevin with its weapons. "I`m not high enough, he can get me!"
Despair was now below him and attacking with its weapons. Kevin lifted his feet where Despair was aiming, avoided the weapons, however nothing could stop the evil robot. Kevin jumped when two weapons almost got him, but he landed on a single side metal bar and he fell down, on the sand of the playground. "Ouch!" And then he saw Despair who turned to him, ready to attack.
Just then Batara and Michael arrived near the scene and saw Kevin on the ground, about to be attacked by Despair. "Kevin!" they both yelled. But it was too late, Despair`s axe hit Kevin`s nose. A "tink" was heard.
Everyone stood silent. A fly could fly around that it would be heard immediately. Despair stood there, silent as ever, with no different expression on the face. Kevin was still on the ground, with his face showing an unequaled scare. And Michael and Batara stood there, Michael wondering what was going on and Batara asking to himself how could Kevin not even bleed a tiny bit from this.
Despair removed his axe and attacked again. This time, he used a butcher knife and attacked Kevin`s arm. Strangely, the knife cut Kevin`s sleeve, but didn`t leave any scratch on his skin. Michael and Batara were quite puzzled.
Kevin rose on his feet and faced the robot. "What`s happening?" he wondered. Despair was about to attack with his spiked hands, so Kevin, out of terror, protected himself with his own hands. He noticed his hands were… glowing?
Despair had also seen this. Strangely, it was not reacting. It probably didn`t know what was going on. It`s just a robot, after all; it was not even supposed to have artificial intelligence. Kevin saw that as a chance to counterattack. His pupils had turned red. It was very strange. For anyone who watched the scene actually, it could be very bizarre, like an action scene from a fantasy movie. But Despair avoided the punch, and attacked again with the circular saws he had in the head. He attacked Kevin, but it tickled. Plus it was simply hitting Kevin`s skin, not leaving any mark. As if Kevin was made of stone or had a protection against physical attacks all over him.
Kevin walked to Despair, and tried punching him. Despair countered with one of his nailed planks. Kevin unleashed a series of punches, yet Despair could always prevent the attack from hitting it.
Kevin put his hands on Despair`s flat, metallic torso and yelled. His hands glowed red for a second and Despair was sent back a few feet. From the impact, Despair had two marks of hands on the torso, and around the print of the hands it was black, as if it had been burnt. Strange.
Batara fainted. He was the type of scientist who only believes in science; everything that comes in the domain of magic or fantasy is impossible to him; however his brain always concludes that something that looks impossible has something to do with magic. He had seen experiments, people with strange powers thanks to DNA changes, but anything that didn`t come with explanation was magic. Of course the crappy magician shows were not doing this effect because he knew it was all staged. But Kevin`s acting right now was beyond comprehension, which is why he fainted. This was unexplainable to him.
Michael saw Batara faint but didn`t know what to do. He kept watching the battle, taking mental notes for a possible future story he will maybe write.
Kevin was panting heavily. He had no idea how he could do that. Even if someone could explain him with scientific terms, he wouldn`t understand anyway. It was just all too weird. He looked at his opponent. Despair was still calm; however maybe some short-circuit was operating in its head as clicking noises could be heard. It made the silent enemy a lot scarier all of a sudden.
Despair got on his back and went in wheel mode. It rolled away from Kevin. Kevin looked at Despair rolling away. "No way!" He said, and ran after it. He was running faster than usual. Well, he probably had a good arsenal of powers… it was time to try them. Kevin began running at a better speed, and soon he reached Despair. The robot could still use its weapons, so it tried to attack Kevin. But the teenager always either avoided the weapon or used some sort of magical shield against it. Finally Kevin ran in front of Despair and stopped him successfully. However, the big robot had taken out all his weapons and because of the sudden stop they all got Kevin at the same time. But some sort of magical, invisible shield stopped them as well. "Wow," he said, "that`s special." Despair rose on its feet and faced Kevin again. It was a harsh battle; and neither of them had it easy.
In the distance, Michael was trying to wake Batara up; but the scientist was passed out solidly. Michael tried to get some water from the artificial lake, and splash it on Batara, but he couldn`t get enough water to do so. He was also afraid for Kevin. What would happen now? He got the fainted Batara on his back, so he could bring him to where Kevin and Despair were fighting. And he ran to the battle scene. "He`s so small that I feel like a babysitter," he thought.
Despair was attacking weapon after weapon, but Kevin always avoided the hit each time, and feinted again. Despair really had enough. Kevin was also getting tired of the battle, as he was panting heavily.
Despair rolled away from him, at least a hundred meters away. Kevin was tired, and he was panting too much to think about Despair. However, Despair turned to his extremely fast mode, and rammed into Kevin at the speed of a truck. Kevin had had enough time to create another force shield, and Despair smashed it instead. Despair`s head was seriously injured by this move; probably the inside circuits had been damaged. Despair rose on its feet, and faced Kevin a final time. With all its weapons, it tried a final move by attacking Kevin simultaneously. But Kevin teleported behind Despair right in time. Despair however stood in shock as its enemy had disappeared. Kevin grabbed Despair`s "shoulders", turned him around, and kicked it right in what should be the groin. A bit of gasoline leaked out of the spot, as it is where the gas tank was. Now Despair would slowly lose fuel until it stops moving. But Despair could last hours; apparently Batara added a bigger gas tank. Despair tried a final thing, but Kevin released a powerful attack like a karate user, smashed Despair on the head, and cut it in half by the center. The two parts of Despair fell on both sides. The squared nose had fallen off with the attack.
Michael arrived on the scene and saw Despair cut in half. "Wow… what caused that?"
"I did," Kevin said with a big smile. His pupils turned back from red to brown. "Piece of c…" and Kevin fainted.
Michael still had Batara on his back, and the scientist was still passed out. "What do I do now?" Michael looked around, unsure of what to do now.
***
An hour later, Kevin opened the eyes. He was no more in the park; he was on a couch. He recognized the couch resting in Batara`s living room. "Huh, what happened?" the teenager asked.
"Well, I don`t know," Batara said, coming with lemonade. His scientist shirt was a bit wet. "Al I know is that I was awoken at the park, I had fainted for a reason. Michael told me you had passed out; I could see you on the floor. Then I see Despair cut in half. What happened?"
"Well, you won`t believe me," Kevin said. "But I think I cut Despair in half with some weird powers."
"That makes no sense," Batara said. "Unless a twist ending occurred and a "deus ex machina" popped in… but we are not in a literary work."
"I know," Michael said. "But I`ve seen it, and it was scary."
"I won`t believe it until I really see it," Batara replied.
"You won`t; you passed out by seeing him use superpowers. It was too magical for you."
Batara chuckled. "Very funny. Magic does not exist. Dangerous experiments, risky creations, monstrous discoveries, extraterrestrials and mutants exist, but not magic."
"Extraterrestrials? Mutants?" Kevin and Michael yelled at the same time.
"Uh, forget what I said, ok?" Batara said suddenly, taking a distant look. "Anyway, magic does not exist. If it does, then I should learn to stop fainting or prevent my brain from turning off when it happens."
"Anyway, I know what I have seen," Michael replied. "And I`ll stick to my version. After all look at what`s left of Despair… what normal fight could have done that?"
Batara sighed. "I have seen the hand prints on its belly, and only some fire could have done it. I cannot explain, and you wouldn`t understand, but maybe a chemical reaction could have done that."
Kevin sighed. "Well maybe it was just luck. I doubt about it now."
"Anyway guys, I have some great news," Batara said happily.
"What?" Michael asked.
"I got an excellent idea! That thing with Despair made me think…" He paused. "That I should make more robots." He paused again. "So starting tomorrow, I`ll start working on…"
Kevin and Michael waited for the answer as Batara was comically stretching time.
"Sorrow, Anger and Revenge, Despair`s brothers!" Batara ended. "…Michael?" Michael didn`t respond as he was on the floor, not moving at all.
The teenager had fainted…
Author`s notes: Well, that was the end of Arc 1. I should tell you I have chosen sci-fi and friendship as the main genres of this fanfic, but now I add fantasy, and future arcs will add romance, mystery, and more. Maybe even a slight bit of suspense.
Also, as I said earlier, you should try to follow this story closely as details will come in, and soon many questions will be left unanswered. Here, there are two or three questions that have not been answered already. But many more will come, mainly during Arc 2.
Arc 2 will plunge into the organization Batara is part of, as well as scientist rivalry and more mysteries… as well as some things you might not have thought of.
The title would reveal too much, so… you will have to wait!