Chapter 10: Taurus the Flame Manipulator
As the two of them were watching the destruction in front of them unfold, Geo was trying to figure out a way to get to his friends. The explosion that caused him to fly down the stairs earlier had brought up a wall of fire that was impossible to move through. In his eyes, he saw that it was only made up of EM Waves, but it still felt pretty real and burning hot when he got near it.
"How does this fire look and feel real if it's only being caused by that crazy Wave being?!" Geo shouted as he tried to find a way around the fire. "It doesn't make any sense!"
"That's because it isn't real," Omega explained as he watched the boy's feeble attempts to get through the barrier. "It's only been stimulated to be seen and felt as something real by the Electromagnetic Waves in the air. Taurus has the power to manipulate fire, but can't bring it into the real world without the help of the EM Waves. If enough stimulation is given to his flames by the EM Waves, then something from the Wave World like this will take on a realistic form and, therefore, can be seen and felt like any other real object."
"Well, where is this stimulation coming from, then?" he questioned Omega as he gave up on trying to find another way through. "There must be a source for this kind of power somewhere nearby."
"I've already introduced you to it. It's coming from Taurus. We FM-ians are sophisticated enough in our bodily formation that we can easily manipulate the EM Waves around us into whatever we want. Basically, the waves act like ammunition for us to directly attack the real world. So as long as Taurus keeps at it with his attacks, he'll continue to use the EM Waves to his advantage."
"T-there must be something we can do to stop him! How about you, Omega? Can't you go look for him and stop his attacks?"
"You have got to be kidding me, kid!" Omega said with a look of disbelief on his face. "Taurus may not be the brightest marble in the bag, but he has more than enough brawn to cover for that. Trust me, one hit from him can easily send you flying into the next country!"
"Well, couldn't you try and give him a surprise attack?" Geo suggested as he started to come up with ideas from out of nowhere. "I'm sure that if you do that, then you should have the upper hand."
"Uh, I know I said that he wasn't exactly smart, but even he's got enough brains to notice something like that."
"Then, how about I cover for you while you sneak up on him? That way, you can ambush him."
"Okay, I'm going to say something to that, but that doesn't mean I care about you," the Wave being slowly said as he took a deep breath. "ARE YOU INSANE?! IF HE FIGURES OUT THAT YOU CAN SEE HIM, HE'LL GO AROUND TELLING THE OTHERS AND YOU'LL DEFINITELY BE HUNTED DOWN AND TORTURED, MAYBE EVEN KILLED, BY THEM!!!"
"Alright, you don't have to yell!" the boy shouted as he tried to relieve the ringing in his ears from that terrible outburst. "Don't you think I already knew that? I don't care what happens to me. As long as my friends are okay, whatever happens to me doesn't really matter!"
At that remark, Omega was left speechless. It wasn't because he couldn't find anything to counter it, like he always did, but he couldn't find it in himself to counter it. It was as if something inside him was holding him back from doing so and telling him to help Geo.
W-why can't I bring myself to tell him to forget about it? the being thought as he was having a mental battle with himself. It's not that hard to say. All I have to ell him is that it's really none of my business. The only thing is, I can't! Why?! Why does this feel different than all the other times? Why can't I say it out loud?!
"Y-you…I…," Geo heard Omega stumble over his words.
"What is it, Omega?" he inquired.
"F-fine, you win," Omega managed to get out as he looked away from the boy. "I'll help you out here, but just this once! Don't think I'm going to be making this into a habit."
"Thanks, Omega!" Geo replied with a smile that quickly faded and was replaced with a look of seriousness. "To start with, do you think that you can figure out where Taurus is making these flames from?"
"Heh, that's an easy request, kid," the Wave being said with a snort, quickly regaining his old attitude. "His Wave signature seems to be leading me in the direction of that tall skyscraper building."
"Y-you mean he's at the IFL Tower?" he asked for clarification as he looked at the spot Omega was pointing at.
"If that's what the building's called, then yeah. According to his signature reading, he's somewhere around the base of the building."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Geo nearly shouted as he broke into a run in the direction of the IFL Tower. "Let's get over there and kick this guy's butt!"
"H-hey, wait for me!" Omega called out to the quickly disappearing form of Geo. "Don't start taking him on before I get there! He's seriously strong!"
Just hold on for a little while guys, Geo thought as he got closer to his destination. Omega and I will get rid of those flame and then you can get a chance to run. Just please hold out for a few more minutes!
When he arrived at the base of IFL Tower, Geo noticed a sudden change in the atmosphere. It was increasingly getting warmer at an alarming rate. He was already starting to sweat bullet within the first few seconds.
"Gosh, it's hot here," he said as he wiped some sweat off of his forehead. "It's almost like an oven here."
"What did you expect it to feel like around here, a freezer?" Omega sarcastically replied as he caught up with the boy. "As I said before, Taurus has the power to manipulate fire. Don't expel all of your energy in one go. The heat can easily tire you out if you do so."
"Alright, so where is he?" he anxiously said as he scanned the area for any sign of the fiery Wave being.
"Darn it!" the Wave being exclaimed. "He's relocated to the roof of the building!"
With that said, Geo automatically looked up and saw who he believed to be Taurus floating along the edge of the roof.
Taurus had a look of a bull with the horns on his head. He had on ruby red armor and was giving off an orange glow from his body. With the two colors mixed together, it almost looked as if he was surrounded by fire when viewed from afar.
"I'm guessing that cow that's about to be roasted is him," he said with an added emphasis on the word "cow".
"Quick with the insults, aren't you?" Omega asked with a smile at the boy's sudden cockiness. "Yeah, that's him alright. How long does it take you to get to the roof from here?"
"Uh, it's about a five minute trip from here to there," he answered with a little bit of hesitation.
"Darn, he probably would have moved by the time you get there," the Wave being said thoughtfully as he tried to come up with a back-up plan. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. You are going to distract him from down here while I go into the building and make my way up from inside. That should give us the edge we need. You ready to take on the challenge, kid?"
"Am I ready to take on the challenge? When it comes to situations like this, I was born ready!"
"Heh, I never would have thought that you would have a cocky side to you. Alright, then. Stall him for a couple of minutes while I make my way up. That should give me enough time to get to him. So come on! Let's do it!"
And with that, Omega hid behind a nearby cluster of bushes that were near the entrance to the IFL Tower yet were also far enough from the Wave flames, waiting for Geo to take over his part of the plan.
With a deep breath, Geo prepared himself to make himself heard by Taurus. Then, he let loud yell escape his lips.
"Hey, you cow-freak!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "Why don't you pick on other Wave beings like yourself for a change?!"
As a response, Taurus looked down at Geo as if he were crazy. He then went back to overseeing the destruction he was causing.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, you overgrown bull!" he yelled again to attract his attention.
This time, Taurus looked down at Geo with a slight look of disbelief on his face.
"Are you talking to me, you puny kid?" he spat out as he started to float down to Geo's position.
"Who does it look like I'm talking to? I don't see any other beings around here that look like a bull!"
"So you can see me," the bull said with a smirk as he floated down in front of Geo. "Well, isn't that interesting?"
Wow, that worked better than I thought it would, Omega thought as he saw Taurus fall for the bait and actually come down from the roof. Either that or Taurus is getting even more stupider by the minute. Anyway, now's my chance. Here goes nothing!
"How is it possible for someone like you to see me?" Taurus inquired with an utter look of confusion written on his bull-like face. "You humans shouldn't be able to see us Wave beings. Eh, it doesn't matter to me. All I have to do now is get rid of you and…Gah!!!"
With a yelp of pain, Taurus fell face first to the floor without making much of a sound. With him on the ground, Geo could clearly see Omega in an attack position with his left hand slightly glowing. When he relaxed a bit, his hand stopped glowing.
"O-Omega-Xis!" Taurus exclaimed in pain from being struck so hard in the back. "I-it was you who hit me?"
"Who else could it have been?" Omega asked as he pretended to have a sudden interest in his nails, if he even had any to begin with.
"Y-you traitor," the orange Wave being breathed out with a shudder. "How…dare you strike…a soldier of the king?"
"I still can't believe that the king actually saw it in him to make you into one of his personal soldiers," the blue Wave being sighed as his hand started to glow again. "You're nothing more than a brainless lout who spends his entire day sleeping."
"At least…I pledged my complete loyalty…to the king!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Omega said without any interest as he struck Taurus hard in the head, causing him to go limp and fall to the floor. "You only pled loyalty to him because he promised you an easy life."
With Taurus out for the count, Geo suddenly felt the temperature in the air start to drastically drop. He let out a sigh of relief as he walked up to Omega's side.
"D-did you kill him?" he hesitantly asked the Wave being as he examined Taurus' still body.
"I wish I could," Omega said with a shake of his head. "Unfortunately, only the FM King or his right hand man has the power to officially kill us FM-ians."
"Well, that's good, I guess," Geo quietly said as he looked away from Taurus.
"What do you mean 'that's good'?! When he wakes up, he'll go back to his comrades and tell them about us in the next chance he gets! How could you consider that good?"
"That's not what I meant. What I meant was that I didn't want you to go killing him just because he had us figured out. It wouldn't have made much of a difference nor would it leave me with a great feeling. Whether or not the person we fight is the enemy, killing them will never solve anything."
"That's kind of hypocritical, don't you think? At first, you wanted to come here and stop Taurus. Now you're giving me a lecture about not going to far with stopping the bad guys? Why don't you make up your mind already?"
"Hey, I only asked for you to help me because my friends were in danger. Oh, no! I got to go back and check up on them!"
Before Omega could get another word in, Geo ran back to the shopping center where he left his friends.
God, that kid is crazy, he thought as he began to follow him. If you're going to stop the enemy, why not go all the way? It's of no use to anybody if you let the enemy live. Maybe there's something I'm missing here that Geo hasn't told me yet. I'll have to ask him about it later. Right now, I better follow him and make sure he doesn't get into anymore trouble.
When he arrived back at the shopping center, he saw Geo and his friends talking to each other and giving each other reassurances. They then start to walk away from the mall, agreeing that going home would be the best option as of now.
However, just as Omega was about to follow them, he suddenly felt a power surge of some sort. A second later, he recognized the Wave signature as Taurus'.
"Hey kid, get out of here now!" he exclaimed. "Taurus is back!"
"Oh, you got to be kidding me!" Geo said as an explosion sounded from the direction of the IFL Tower. "Come on, everybody! We've got to run for it!"
Before they could do so, however, another explosion, this time much closer, knocked all of them off of their feet and causing everybody to faint except for Geo.
"Are you okay?!" Omega cried out as he began to rush towards the group.
However, something roughly pushed him out of the way, causing him to fall to the ground hard. When he looked up to see what it was, he saw Taurus towering over the group.
"What do you want from us now, Taurus?!" Geo shouted as he stared the Wave being down.
However, instead of backing down, Taurus actually advanced towards the group. The next thing he did shocked both him and Omega.
Taurus actually bent sown to Bud's position, who was currently dazed from the blast, and started to integrate himself into his body!
"Hey, what are you doing to Bud?!" Geo shouted in an attempt to make him stop.
It was already too late, though, as he had already completely assimilated himself with Bud. Before anyone could react, Bud had transformed in a blinding light.
When the light disappeared, both Geo and Omega were shock at what they saw. The person who stood in front of them was no longer Bud, but it was also wasn't Taurus. It was a fusion between the two and it looked even more powerful and more menacing than Taurus by himself.