Chapter 10: The Decisive Battle Part Two
The silence was deafening. Xero's previously stunned expression had hardened and the look in his eyes alone had Der reeling in fear. Another dozen of Neer's guards came into the convention hall. Xero hadn't broken his stare on Der. Suddenly Sligh was sent flying just in front of him. Without looking away Xero pulled a device off his wrist and dropped it on Sligh, creating a small some of light around him. The smaller Irken cried out, trying to get Xero's attention, but the Enforcer seems deaf to everything around him.
"Kill him." Neer called out laughing maniacally.
Xero simply looked back at the fearless altered Irkens. Twelve of them. The smart metal of his armor appeared around his arm and formed into his sword. As the twelve guards reached him they began to drop like flies. One swift strike for each, slicing some in twain, freeing their heads from their bodies, and even splitting their PAKs and their bodies in a single strike. Until all twelve laid dead on the floor. Only seconds had passed, but he managed to kill the supposedly superior Irkens without even trying, he didn't even have his armor on, which meant he wasn't using his augmentations. Then he looked back at Der. The other Enforcer managed to get close, but was frozen in place as Xero's gaze locked onto him. After a few minutes of staring him down, Der manages to overcome the fear in his body.
"Time to end this Xero" he drew his own sword from his smart armor. Xero said nothing simply looking at the tubes in Der's left arm and leg. He simply stood in wait. "Oh Xero, don't think I'll make the first move, you only ever beat me because you waited to counteratt…."
Xero had gone by in a second putting a massive gash in Der's stomach causing the other Enforcers blood to spray out for a moment until it repaired itself. Enraged Der swung his sword backwards to hit Xero. Xero caught the sword in his hand, the blade cut deep as his armor still wasn't on. Der was stunned and tried to pull the sword away only for Xero to pull him forward and slam their heads together cracking Der's helmet. Blood began to drip down Xero's face, but he was still focused entirely on Der.
"Der, kill him already!" Neer sounded scared. "Go help him!" Neer sent the rest of his guards to help.
The guards approached him from all sides. Xero kicked Der, released the blade of his sword, and reached passed him grabbing the blaster from his hip. Der was furious, Xero was more interested in fighting those….those drones, he dared to disrespect him that way! Der felt his left side pulse. Xero dropped to one knee under a guard's staff putting a bolt in their head, then spinning back to his feet, cleaved a guard's head clean off. Six more guards, six more corpses. Three of them attacked at once. He jumped into the air twisting his body around and shooting one of the guards dead, and stabbing another through the eye. The last guard, he'd hooked his legs around and twisted, throwing them to the ground. Without wasting any time, he swiftly moved into a position over the guard pressing the blaster to its head and pulled the trigger. The last three guards approached carefully. Xero stabbed his sword into the ground and walked toward them. One of them went to strike him, but he sucked beneath the attack quickly coming up and grabbing their head, pulling it hard enough to tear the flesh away and pull the head off. The other two approached violently, one with a staff the other a pike. Xero took the pike from the guard in one quick movement. He followed up by impaling the guard mercilessly. The final guard slammed it's staff over Xero's head. The Enforcer just turns around and rips the staff from the guards hands. Then knocks the guard down and begins violently slamming the staff into its head, bashing it until the head is little more than paste on the floor.
Neer, seeing his guards dead made a mad dash out of the room. "Xero, calm down, Neer's getting away!" Sligh called out unable to leave the barrier. Xero continued bashing in the head until it started becoming a fine green mist. The barrier deactivated and Sligh ran after Neer. Xero finally stopped and turned to face Der again.
"Say something!" Der was growing more angry by the second and he felt his body pulsing faster. Xero remained silent. He tossed Der's blaster to him and walked over to Syn's body. The light of the PAK was barely there. He took up his partner's blaster. Then he faced Der again. He had become taller and his left side seemed to be bulging out a bit. Der shot at Xero dozens of times with his blaster. Xero didn't dodge, he simply sat there, unfazed as his body was hit each time. His face lost it's rage, he wasn't angry, Syn still had a chance at survival, but now he just pitied Der. That look of pity just brought out more rage from Der. Finally Der's body grows to a height of a Monstrosity. His left arm and left leg pulsed and burst, tearing the sleeve of his uniform and the leg of his pants. The left limbs grow larger than the right, veins pulsing and throbbing along them.
Without hesitation he uses his massive left hand to punch Xero, sending the now smaller male flying into a wall. Xero stood up like he wasn't even hit at all. Der continued his assault punching Xero into the ground over and over and over again. When he finally stops he sees the other Irken bloodied and bruised. He steps back admiring his handy work. Until Xero stands up again and cleaves off his left hand. In seconds the hand seems to reform. "Hahahaha! You fool, as long as Neer's Serum pumps through my body I'm invincible!" He slashes Xero across the face and stabs him in the stomach. Then punches him again sending him flying again. Once again Xero stands up. This time he pressed a few buttons on his wrist making his armor encase his body. The augmentations kicked in.
"Say something you little wretch!!!" Der slams his fist into Xero, but this time the Enforcer doesn't budge. Der had hit him harder than ever, but Xero didn't even slide back, it was like he was glued in place. Der went to attack again, but Xero seemed to just disappear. Then Der felt it, his body started falling to the left. Xero had severed both his arm, leg and the tubes connecting them. His limbs reformed in seconds, but when he turned back to look at Xero, he saw the Enforcer mere centimeters from his face driving his sword through Der's forehead. Der fought through and slammed Xero down again. And began prying open his armor only to find the wounds he'd inflicted were already gone. Xero pressed Syn's blaster to Der's eye and emptied the energy bolts into it. Der staggered back and Xero pulled his sword from the larger Irken's head. Then sliced off his arm again.
"Idiot I told you…." Der noticed the regeneration was slower now. 'He…he's been cutting off my limbs so the Serum will spill out of my system….I just have to kill him before I run out then!'
Xero ducked under Der's sword and with a swift slash, shattered the blade. Der was stunned, and in his momentary lapse in focus, Xero severed his torso from his legs. He fell forward ready for the regeneration and to continue the fight, but then an electric buzz was heard along with metal punching through metal. Xero had driven his sword through Der's PAK. Then he started twisting the blade grinding the PAKs inside. His body repaired itself and kept the serum flowing, but his PAK couldn't do that. So to destroy the invincible, you destroy that which makes them so. He pulled the sword out, tearing apart Der's PAK as he finally fell, dead on the floor. Xero dropped the sword and walked to Syn, lifting his partner. The Collector's PAK was still flickering, he may be able to save him yet.
*Neer's Laboratory*
Neer hovered around the room looking for anything he could use when the door opened. Sligh stepped inside holding a pike close.
Neer slammed his fist into a table. "How did Der lose!? He had my serum, he was beyond perfect in every way!!"
"That was your mistake Neer." Sligh stated, walking closer to the Tallest. Then two holograms emitted from his PAK. Holo Red and Holo Purple.
"We were already the ultimate force in the universe." Holo Red began.
Holo Purple continued for him "you tried to improve upon perfection."
"And thus tainted the glory of the Irken Empire." Holo Red ended it there.
"Kill him." Holo Purple ordered.
"Sligh, can't you see they lied to you, just look at me, living proof that they have been keeping us held back from our trip height." Neer said frantically as Sligh approached.
"How could you ever be the Tallest when you're that low." Sligh insulted him. "Besides, you're lying anyway." With a thrust of the pike he stabbed the chest piece of Neer's armor and wrenched it hard, cracking it open. "You were so desperate for control that when your own Serum had no effect it broke you, and you had to make a mechanized suit!" Neer hit the ground hard, his true form on display. His serum didn't change him, the tallest hadn't been sabotaging him, he really was just short. And now that truth was revealed. A small device emerged from Sligh's PAK which began to float and record. "Brave soldiers of the Irken Empire! Neer is not your true Tallest. This is the liar's true height!" The device focused on Neer as he cowered away. Sligh stood before him. "Now, I shall do as our true Tallest instructed."
Sligh kicked Neer onto his stomach and grabbed his PAK. He forcefully pried it from his back and slammed it to the ground, before quickly stomping it. It held up against his furious stomping, then he noticed a vat beside a table. A quick look and nudge to a random piece of equipment proved what he suspected. It was Acid. Neer's PAK tried to reattach itself only for the connector tubes to be cut off. Sligh picked it up and dropped it into the vat, watching it slowly deteriorate and melt away. The sounds of battle had suddenly stopped. The ships swarming around the Massive had halted in their tracks. The Resisty ships took the time to escape and the Irken fighters returned to their frigates.
"You did it Sligh" Holo Red spoke first.
"You finished the fight." Holo Purple added.
Sligh sat in silence a moment "We…won."
"Your loyalty will be remembered for years to come Sligh." Holo Purple said looking around the room.
"Come on, you don't really think he kept them do you?" Holo Red asked, knowing exactly what his counterpart was looking for.
"Well he had to base that suit off of something right?" Holo Purple stopped just in front of a wall with a button. "Hey, come here and press this."
Sligh walked over and pressed the button. The wall opened up, revealing two tanks of blue liquid, inside which…
"Told you" Holo Purple smirked looking at his seemingly repaired and maintained body.
"Guess I owe you some snacks." Holo Red mumbled looking at his own.
"My Tallest, I think it's time for you to take your rightful places as our leaders." Sligh started walking away to retrieve their PAKs from the ship.