Part Five: Battle Royale
DAVID
Six of us, one weird monster thing, three mix-and-match monstrosities, and a horde of Hork-Bajir, all with Ripper morphing to his Bug morph as fast as he could.
"WASTE 'EM!" I ordered, "GET TO YOUR MORPHS!"
The battle was on.
Dashing around the room as I morped from Hork-Bajir back to human, then to Gervasid, I saw the rest of my crew morphing to Aorkians.
I knew who…or what those Frankenstein things used to be… Slip, Coil and Roach, Alek's old partners in crime. Almost at ruthless and terrible as he was, all amoral murders and warriors, gangsters and thugs.
Now, in spite of it all, they were alive. I had watched as Coil and Roach had fallen to a policeman's bullet months ago, as Slip had died at Aleks's own hand as he tried to run.
But the things that made up their bodies were undoubtably them.
How?! Aleks cried, unsure where it was an exclamation or a question.
"Well, I for one, was never dead," Slip exclaimed, extending his right arm, replaced with a long brown spike that extended out to the black creature, almost spearing it, "But the others were," he finished, his mouth filled with fangs and the horns on his head pointing towards his opponent.
Coil took over, his African body with little patches of sickening green scales and porcupine spikes covering massive muscles, and one red eye in his left socket "Rico didn't let us stay dead. He took us back, made the Yeerks bring us back. You should'a seen Death, Blades! It was fuckin' awesome! Everyday, we got to play that gunfight out, where Hounder got wasted by the Crips! 'Nothin but fightin and shit and shootin' horse and speed…" He said, taking a swing at LaRouche, who jumped over him.
"They brought us back, made us into these supersoldiers, it's the life, it is!" Roach cackled, both of his arms replaced with scorpion claws and a fireball coming out of his stubby tail, burning Skorre, who pounced on another Hork-Bajir from behind, "They took the weakness right out of us! Gave us demon parts, demons powers, demon LIFE! I mean, me and Coil came back with a bit of Drac in us, but Slip was a fuckin' Shrike!"
At this, the black creature that Slip was fighting spoke, ~Of course! I see you now, Fesrak, once the Lord of Anger you were, now a mortal!~
Slip drew his telescopic-spire-spike-arm-thing back in, and the creature killed a dozen Hork-Bajir with it's bear hands.
What the HELL are you?! Screamed Sara.
~Hell? Not far off, mortal!~
By now, the Vissers had all abandoned the chaos raging in the room.
I looked around. Efflit 1318 was nowhere to be seen, though Rico/Eusshe was cowering in the corner.
Only two or three Hork-Bajir were still standing. Ripper took his claws and jumped onto one, decapitating it.
Suddenly, all time slowed down. Everything stopped. Except for the creature, and its words, in an icey and evil tone.
~I am Tyrak. A Shrike.~
With that, the Shrike took its darkness and stabbed Ripper, impaling him on an evil spike.
NOOOOO!!!!! Sara cried.
Ripper was dead.
Time kept going, and I jumped onto Roach, tearing his tail off.
"FUCK YOU!" He cried, snapping his pinchers at me.
Aleks's jaws found his head, twisting it off.
I should have done that a long time ago, he muttered.
Roach's mangled form fell limp to the ground. As Aleks spat the head away, a dark crimson glow seemed to wisp away from the neck and be gone to the wind.
"ROACH!" Coil cried, lunging for the thing nearest to him.
LaRouche.
Coil picked up the Aorkian form of Marc LaRouche in his muscular hands, and snapped his neck.
NO! I yelled.
Die, you Hesenka! Skorre yelled, lunging towards the Shrike, cursing in Hork-Bajir.
The Shrike flung him away, like a child who was throwing a toy.
Skorre slumped up against the wall of the room, seemingly unconscious.
Coil and Slip lept for the Shrike simultaneously, and again time stopped. The Shrike moved with impossible speed as the two gangsters sat helpless in the air.
The Shrike moved its arms into the dark spikes, evil knives, and cut off Slip's human arm. It skewered Coil, hoisting him up and throwing the poor son of a bitch down on the ground, still alive, yet rolling in his own blood.
It's too strong…we can't beat it… Said Aleks, at my side, sounding defeated.
We have to! It killed Ripper! It killed LaRouche! Sara pouted, behind me.
Ok, I said privately to my two remaining crew,Charge it.
The Shrike stood on the other side of the room, watching us, but not moving.
Charge it. Throw everything you've got at it.
No offence, Dave, but I don't think we've got a shot, said Aleks.
If we fail, then…Well, see you on the other side.
We charged.
Like bats out of Hell we ran, tooth and nail clanging on the ground, in our last hurrah.
The Shrike raised an arm, stopping time as it had before.
Aleks and Sara, once beside me, fell behind. I still ran forward, albeit slower.
~Magnificent valour.~ Remarked the Shrike.
All thought left my mind. I pounced.
The Shrike raised its arm and impaled me.
I was still alive, but not for long.
Then, the shadow that surrounded the Shrike thinned, and on its head I saw a single cycloptic eye that burned into my soul.
~Sleep now, in the fire, Beast. I shall deal with your comrades.~
And I died.
Falling, falling, flying, flying, falling, flying. I couldn't make any sense of it. I knew I was moving, but to where? Where would my final resting place be?
I didn't care.
It was then that the movement through time and space stopped. I was at the crossroads.
In a place of pure black, were two roads. One surrounded by fire and ash. There was power there, I knew. I could feel it in my bone. On that road was adventure, chaos and conquest.
The other road was emitting an otherworldly blue light. Everything about it was…light.
That road could lead to peace. Rest. I would be complete. Whole.
I began to walk down the road of fire and ash. It would take me where I needed to be. I needed to be in that fire. It would be my home. It had always been my home.
Then, it was as if a giant hand grabbed my arm, yanking me away from my road.
"No!" I cried out, not sure if I could actually speak in this place, "I choose the Machine! I choose the Machine!"
"Yeah, well, I want a toilet seat made out of solid gold, but it's just not in the cards, is it?" Came an unfamiliar voice, tinged with an old-time Brooklyne/Italian accent, like you would hear in a depression era movie."
"Where are you taking me?" I demanded.
"Paradise."
I looked all around. Nothing was touching me. I was just…moving.
"Jeez, look at me, handling the Beast itself."
"IT?!"
"Look at yourself. You're more of a Beast than your old pal Bin Laden was. Oh, wait a tick, he was a Shrike. My bad."
I looked down.
My entire body was covered in many carvings, each saying the exact same thing.
666.
Then, the darkness was gone! The emptiness of the crossroads was gone, replaced with a bright, eternal light.
Far away, many miles in the distance, was a clear, crystal wall, stretching from here to eternity.
"What the fuckin' Hell is that?"
"Kid, you can't talk like that. It's the wall of Paradise.
"Don't you tell me what to do, dude. Who are you?"
"Whistler. Look, don't give me any more trouble, alright? I'm getting' too old for this anyways."
We reached the foot of the wall. Along the bottom of the crystal wall were hundreds of blue, muscular, mouthless things. They had strange tails, tipped with a swirling ball, shining bright as a star. They looked imposing, but their elfin ears subtracted from their intimidation factor.
"Whister! What, in the name of the Power, caused you to bring this BEAST to the Gate of Paradise?" demanded one of the blue-things.
"Let me through, Archron. This goes higher than you."
The thing, I suppose it was called an Archron, thought for a moment, then nodded its head reluctantly.
It let us pass, though I still couldn't see who my companion was.
Once on the other side of the wall, everything became clear. I saw millions of people, of all different races and species.
And I saw my protégé.
My friend.
My…son.
Lewis Sanders stood right in front of me.