Chapter 10

"So, you're the one they've been calling Alpha."

Gribbles recognized the voice immediately. It was the projected thoughts of The Compound. Coming from behind, he walked ahead of Gribbles immediately in front of Alpha and halted. In his hands were two objects appearing as stars, each star segment gravitating around an ender pearl. The star component looked to be something like Bailey's hard light wings and goggles.

"Compound…is that a hard light weapon system you have? Did Bailey give them to you?" "No, he is currently incapacitated with Balthazor; it would appear that Nicholas has taken quite the beating as well."

"Yea, I did what I could, but…"

"Go" The Machine said ordering.

"W-What?"

"I said go, go to Ocelot, Blue Cove, wherever. Get Police Chief Barrett and bring him back here. I will deal with my predecessor."

"Are you sure, he is insanely strong and..." "The more time you spend talking to me about why I should not combat Alpha is more time you allow the three to pass into the other world. Go, now!" With this, he sheathed his rapier and sprinted on all fours in the direction of Barrett.

"What are you, small one?" Alpha spoke in a booming, haunting voice.

"I am your newer version. You are known as Alpha to your creators, and to this point, I. I regret to say this brother, however, your existence here must end."

"Oh, you declare it so? What makes you think that you hold a candle to me? I am larger, stronger, have absorbed much magical power and have essence of the Nether with me."

"It's not that I hold any candles to you, however, I need to do what I must to defend my creators and the world they live in. That is my primary directive, as it should be yours as well."

The Compound ceased from this point all conversation with Alpha. Readying himself in a combat stance, he gave a quick rotation to the ender pearl in hand and along with it the hard light stars spun. Alpha initiated. The large bear mecha gave a sprinting step to close the distance. Alpha had on his arms, and connected to his chest tendrils similar to those of Beta; however, they could not be used freely. They must have been used in the form of energy management discussed by Balthazor. Mimicking its brother, The Compound wrapped the tendrils from his back over shoulders, swirling along to its hands. With this, the energy from the Spark of Life began to empower the arms, and bracing from impact with Alpha held them out in a counter-ready position. Alpha had grown to massive size since ambushing Nick, leading to the conclusion that the energy gathered quickly and attributed quicker.

The punch that Alpha gave would have been enough to break Nick's arm up to the shoulder had it been him fighting Alpha. Though it did not cause excessive injury, the Ender Stars acted as a breaker for the hit and flung across the yard. Panicking, The Compound teleported to the discarded star avoiding the god strength blow; as Alpha made contact with the ground, the crater made was easily the size of one of Nick's smaller blasts.

"Hmm, you are quite slippery aren't you? It will be no matter; hiding behind those weapons of yours will do you no long term good."

"I can see that. Very well then, shall we box brother?" "Oh, WE SHALL!"

Gaining a crazed look, Alpha made yet again another charge. The Compound placed the ender pearls used in the Ender Stars in his shoulders, and readied a fight stance. There would be no avoiding him. The only option that would work would be going hand to hand, using his much smaller size to get off shots to the body. Alpha was within five feet, and as he came in, The Compound met his fist. The air distorted at the action, giving way to the strength of the two individuals. They traded blows like this for several minutes, the ground and grass around them shaking and blowing with each blast of air erupted from intercepted blows. The Compound knew there would be no tiring in either of the combatants, and in recognition of this began to take the offensive. The nucleus of energy began moving about, shifting with each movement of the fighters' feet; several trees had been broken by some blows missed. Beta took a small form and evaded a right hook from Alpha, and with this began retaliation. Multiple jabs and hooks to the body shook Alpha hardly given his massive figure; however the room was there to make something of this. With a stunning blow given The Compound teleported behind The Ancestor, floating in the air for fractions of a second enough to give a fierce kick to the side of the head where the temples would be on a human. This created a stagger enough to warrant using weaponry to try and finish the fight. Taking out the pearls and recreated the Ender Stars, a rotation allowed Beta to begin carving through Alpha, and the damage was recognizable. Even, however, with all of this injury that would have ended a fleshy beings' existence Alpha never ceased in assault. Unlike Beta, Alpha held no remarks to injury or fear, and would keep coming until death gripped him. Teleporting to the same position in which the kick was delivered, The Compound threw his right star into The Ancestor's back and did a repulsing kick to retreat. However, Alpha had the instinct to land a crushing blow in the center of Beta's chest, immediately where his Spark lies.

The attack sent Beta flying, giving initiative to demolish the newer copy before it could recover. Alpha jumped on the opportunity literally, taking a squat position and launching into the air. As much as The Compound could see while in flight was the figure of Alpha in the air getting ready to land on him with all of his weight. The figure in the sky was brown, and from the center of his chest outward sprung tendrils attached to the body that were used to spread the energy gathered in the middle of the chest outward. More than likely, he would send the majority of this energy to the legs just before impact to maximize damage inflicted. Something would have to be done about that system of energy management; otherwise this fight would not end up in Beta's favor.

Alpha then dropped from the sky as a four-hundred pound weight would, gaining speed for every nanosecond of air time had. The nether star had managed to remain in Alpha's back for the time in the air, and would provide the only means of escape providing any advantage for Beta. Alpha was gaining speed on descent, and action would have to be taken fast to avoid being broken to bits by this meteor above. Without the ender pearls being in the shoulders, Beta had no means of free teleportation; that is, he was reliant on the position of his Ender Stars to do so, and he could only teleport to their place. Teleporting to the Ender Star in Alpha's back, Beta ripped it out and gave a kick to the back to boost Alpha's uncontrollable speed; he also gave a rotation that would not be able to be set correct by the time of landing, so Alpha had no choice but to take a lot of damage from the fall. Landing face first into the ground, Alpha bounced with contact with the ground.

No movement came from the other side of the field for quite some time, with the bounce came a crook in the neck of Alpha, body damaged, and eyes still.

"I suppose…that it is…finally over…" Limping, broken, and tired, Beta turned to Bailey and Balthazor and began walking. Suddenly, he was put in a burning grip by the neck. Alpha had come back around and was making use of hellfire in the claws to gradually take Beta down.

"Now, little one….before you can do anything more to me….I am going to BREAK YOUR FUCKING NECK!" The claws were beginning to eat through The Compound's metal; if they kept at this rate he would be beheaded.

"You are certainly strong brother…but I hate to inform you that I am the more dangerous one here…"

With this Beta began to wrap his tendrils around the neck of The Ancestor. Each tendril wrapped around the neck four times, providing excellent grip and power, and with this Alpha began to be lifted off of the ground. By the time it could react, it was too late; he was on his way to being slammed into the ground, again, head first. And head first he went, making a crater the size of a creeper's explosion. He quickly got up however, and within the minute he was back on the offensive. Slashing and kicking, Alpha tried to catch Beta, though to no avail. Beta saw no end to this battle in sight; Alpha just would not back down, and with no sense of pain he would not have a reason to stop unless his existence was ended.

This brought an idea to The Compound's head, but there was going to be difficulty in execution. There were a few options, Beta could just go ahead and carve Alpha into pieces until he quit functioning, but that would take too long and in that time he may take in more magic and be undefeatable. Alternatively, he could go directly for the kill; though the problem presents itself in its execution.

"I'm going to finish this, Beta, PREPARE YOURSELF!"

Alpha opened its mouth wide, and fire engulfed the fangs. This was going to have to work; otherwise, it would be Beta that got ended here. As Alpha stretched for the crunch, The Compound threw a tendril down Alpha's throat, and he halted; he had also wrapped the extra tendril around his right arm.

"Alpha, I must say, this was quite the interesting experience. Fighting my brother, learning so much about my abilities…It has been all sorts of fun. However, I have to end it. Maybe…maybe you can come back some day as a kinder being. Goodbye, brother."

Alpha was being controlled from the inside out, so no efforts were made to stop The Compound from finishing the job. It wound up a punch from behind the back, and sent a cross punch through the chest. It went immediately through the heart, finally putting an end to the fight.

A/N: YAY, first fight! I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, I'll get chapter 11 to you all as soon as possible. Should be a decent increase in activity once that comes around!