Chapter III: Attack 3--Tyrelbeetle
The Roks-look-alike kilobot fell back against the old, broken-brick alley wall, covered in scratches and scrapes, though nothing severe. His normally bright red eyes faded to the normal glow of a medabot or kilobot's eyes, and the Extreme Tech symbol glowed red. His name, KiloRoks, was printed across the symbol in black and red lettering.
"Wha-what am I doing? Why was my world black--until now?" he questioned, staring at his metallic hands. "Where does all that noise come from-that pain-the-the… sorrow?" KiloRoks continued. "Sorrow? Sorrow. I have sorrow--or a need to do something that I don't want to do? Revenge? Where did that come from?" he was confusing himself. He tried to remember how his life began, the last time he had control. "Kam," he stated angrily, eventually. "Kam built me. I do what I do because of a painful--physically and mentally--virus that he built into me. That's where 'revenge' came from, my sorrow, my pain, the ear-piercing screams and noise that could make anyone cry, and that virus is killing me, slowly and steadily, and painfully, it is killing me." He looked straight ahead as he heard the sounds of a robattle nearby; the all-too familiar sounds. He stood shakily, his eyes glowing red, brighter, and brighter… "I will get my revenge on you, Kam Kamazaki!"
"Tyrelbeetle? You feeling ok?" Roks asked, kneeling down next to the rock Tyrelbeetle sat on, staring out at the river and the sunrise.
"Not really. I think I'm coming down with that virus you have," Tyrelbeetle answered.
"I hate to say it, but I think you're right. From my experience with it, there's really nothing you can do about it," Roks said sadly.
"I started feeling bad earlier than you, though. I'm guessing that's why I'm up so early," Tyrelbeetle added. Roks nodded in agreement.
"Please, tell me your scoop, Miss Erika!" the sailor-type medabot, Sailor-Multi, or Brass, begged.
"Brass, as soon as I find them, you'll know! Stop asking!" Erika returned.
They walked down the dirt road towards the river, looking for Tyrelbeetle and Roks, who Erika saw heading for the river early in the morning and decided to take her chance for interviewing and getting pictures of them while she could.
"Where are they? Are you sure you saw them?" Brass pressured, looking up at her medafighter.
"I don't know for sure, and yes, I did see them," Erika answered, stifling the annoyance in her voice.
A few minutes in silence later, Brass spotted Tyrelbeetle and Roks sitting by the river, watching the sunrise, Tyrelbeetle on a rock, and Roks next to him on the ground.
"Ah! Miss Erika! There they are!" Brass exclaimed, holding her hand out towards where the Kuwagata sat. Erika looked where Brass gestured, and smiled.
"That's them! Come on, Brass!" Erika ran over to the Kuwagata, and Brass followed. Erika and Brass stopped halfway down the riverbank, and Erika held her camera up to her eye and looked through the viewfinder. She got the picture focused, and snapped the photo. Tyrelbeetle and Roks jumped and whipped around to find Erika, looking at the photo on the screen of her digital camera.
"What was that for?" Tyrelbeetle demanded, staring at Erika angrily.
"Perfect!" Erika exclaimed as she looked over the picture of Roks and Tyrelbeetle dramatically silhouetted against the beautiful, red, pink, peach, and blue sunrise. "Now, all I need is a few more pictures and an interview!"
"If you want that from us, the answer's no! I think it was rude to sneak up on us and snap that photo like that!" Tyrelbeetle shouted angrily. Erika held her camera up and, as she snapped photo after photo of Tyrelbeetle and Roks, shouting, "Photo op!" Brass watched, starting to get nervous about Tyrelbeetle's anger. Erika can easily annoy and anger anyone with her camera and surprise shots, and annoyance and anger fuels the attacks the virus executes.
"Uhh, Miss Erika? Maybe you should… stop," Brass suggested nervously.
"Brass, this is perfect! I may never get another chance for photos like this!" Erika yelled happily. "Just a few more, then an interview about the virus!"
"No way!" Tyrelbeetle returned. When Erika continued taking shots, now running around frantically to get different angles, Tyrelbeetle's eyes began glowing red and brighter than usual.
"Tyrelbeetle?" Roks questioned cautiously, staring into Tyrelbeetle's angered eyes. He then quickly turned to Erika, ran up to her, and grabbed her arm, pulling her camera down, and yelling, "Stop! He's losing it!" Erika forced her camera back up to her eye, and prepared for another shot.
"Just one more!" Erika assured, and she snapped the photo. In the split second the camera's viewfinder went black after she snapped the photo, Erika heard hydraulics, more hydraulics, followed by a clank, and Brass's screams. At that, Erika stuffed her camera in her pocket and backed away quickly, before she even knew what happened. "Brass!" she shouted in surprise, gawking as Brass, who had jumped in front of her to take Tyrelbeetle's attack instead of Erika, was punched by Tyrelbeetle on her torso and head, and then Tyrelbeetle tried to grapple her with his thick, blue horns. Erika's medawatch beeped, and Erika stared at it, as the woman's voice reported the damage, "Brass--Head arrangement: Eighty percent damaged. Warning."
"Brass!" Erika shouted again as her medawatch finished.
"Tyrelbeetle, stop!" Brass pleaded as she staggered backwards. She screamed as Tyrelbeetle got his horns around her and squeezed, causing the sailor medabot to spark from her head to her toes. Roks ran up to Tyrelbeetle and grabbed his arms from behind, pulling him off Brass, who fell backwards, wincing and groaning as she hit the ground.
"Tyrelbeetle, snap out of it! I know you hear me! I've been through this! Snap out of it!" Roks ordered, shouting. Tyrelbeetle struggled, and his eyes faded back to normal when Roks's words sunk in. He stopped struggling and looked around. When he noticed Brass in pain on the ground, he gasped, realizing it was his fault.
"I-it's begun," Tyrelbeetle uttered, before he escaped from Roks's grip and ran for home.
"What was that?!" Erika demanded, scared.
"I bet you know exactly what it was. You just saw that virus in action," Roks answered. He felt some anger coming on at Erika for not stopping when he told her to, turned, and followed Tyrelbeetle's path to home. Or was there another reason-- or no reason --he was angry?
Tyrelbeetle ran as fast as he could for home, and didn't notice Roks following him. He turned into his, Roks's, and Zuru's front yard, and stopped in his tracks as his blue head throbbed with pain and dizziness.
"Tyrelbeetle, tell me you're ok!" Roks shouted as he ran up behind the blue and gold Kuwagata medabot. Tyrelbeetle didn't answer, and just rubbed his temples with his index fingers. His red eyes faded, then shutoff, and Tyrelbeetle fell forward, landing face down. He ejected his medal, and Roks, who was just close enough, caught it before it fell to the ground, questioning, "Tyrelbeetle…?"
Later, Zuru walked home calmly, but as he approached his house, he saw Roks standing in the gate's opening, holding something in his cupped hands.
"Roks? How are you?" Zuru asked politely as he stopped in front of his three-foot-tall medabot.
"I'm fine. I would return it, but I'm afraid Tyrelbeetle wouldn't answer your question the same way," Roks returned.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Zuru replied, and then he noticed what Roks held in his cupped hands: Tyrelbeetle's ghost medal. "What happened?" he gasped, grabbing the medal.
"He's got the virus."
"So, what your saying is Tyrelbeetle started feeling the virus yesterday afternoon, and this morning Erika and Brass saw you heading for the river, and decided to follow you to get a scoop, and Tyrelbeetle went berserk when Erika wouldn't stop taking pictures?" Zuru repeated to Roks, while sitting next to each other on the couch later that night, Tyrelbeetle standing and listening in on the conversation next to the couch.
"Exactly," Roks confirmed.
"I'm still in the room, you know," Tyrelbeetle said. Zuru shooed him off as he continued his conversation. "Don't ignore me!" Tyrelbeetle was getting angry, though Zuru continued ignoring him.
"What I can't figure out is why it's only infecting Rokusho, Tyrelbeetle--" Tyrelbeetle cut Roks off, shouting, "Are you ignoring me?! If you are, then--then stop." Tyrelbeetle was having trouble calming himself down. The virus was taking over--slowly--and slightly painfully.
"Don't interrupt me!" Roks shouted, ignoring what Tyrelbeetle said.
"Well, you're ignoring me!" Tyrelbeetle returned as his eyes brightened.
Roks stood, his eyes brightening. He wasn't angry about their small bickering, but he felt angry for no reason all day, and it was rising. He finally lost it, "You interrupted!" They lunged at each other, hydraulics roaring. Zuru watched in horror as the friends battled to the death for a small bicker--one ignoring, the other interrupting. He couldn't do anything without getting hurt himself, and the Kuwagata probably couldn't stop themselves. That's when the unthinkable happened. Roks's eyes faded to normal just in time to terminate his attack and dodge Tyrelbeetle's grapple. He sped around behind Tyrelbeetle and grabbed his arms, holding him back with an angered expression.
"If I stopped myself, so can you!" Roks shouted to Tyrelbeetle.
"Release me!" Tyrelbeetle returned.
"We can't fight over something as unimportant as this! Someone's going to get seriously hurt!" Roks shouted. Tyrelbeetle's eyes faded to normal.
"I-I know. I just can't help it!" Tyrelbeetle broke free and ran for his room.
Zuru breathed heavily out of fear as he tried to calm down. He asked, "Roks, could you talk to me about it?" Roks nodded as he sat down to explain everything he knew to Zuru, ending with a few thoughts and predictions.
"Well, to start, during every attack, I can't actually see what I'm doing. Something else--probably the virus--takes over. I blackout to a certain extent," Roks began.
"What does it feel like?" Zuru returned.
"Frustrating, sad, and painful."
"Painful?"
"Yes. The virus not only makes me attack, but I feel sick, and I bet it's destroying me from the inside out. That's pretty painful."
"I'm sure."
"What would you say to getting together for a meeting on it tomorrow, with Rokusho, Ikki, Metabee, Hushi, and everyone involved?" He obviously wanted to end the conversation.
"I think there's a call for it."
"Good." Roks leaned over to Zuru and wrapped one arm around his shoulders, leaning his head on Zuru's shoulder with his eyes closed. Zuru lightly returned the hug, partly surprised and stunned, partly worried.
"I'm going to bed. I've had unexplained rising anger all day, and I want to get to bed and get away from you and Tyrelbeetle before I do something drastic," Roks stated as he slowly pulled out of the hug.
"Fine," Zuru responded with an unsure nod. Roks stood and headed up to his, Tyrelbeetle's, and Zuru's shared room.
"Goodnight," Roks said as he climbed the stairs.
"Goodnight," Zuru replied.
Roks walked into the room, holding his head and rubbing his optics, tired, frustrated, scared, and sad. When he looked up, he saw Tyrelbeetle sitting on the ground on his knees by the bed, the trails from former tears shimmering on his face. He never actually made it in bed before he fell asleep. Roks giggled halfheartedly as he walked over to help him into bed. He slipped one arm around Tyrelbeetle's knees and the other around his shoulders, lifting him as best he could and laying him in bed. He covered him up with the white sheets, feeling sorry for him. After wiping the tear trails off his and Tyrelbeetle's faces, he gripped Tyrelbeetle's metal hand and walked around the bed.
During the night, the two shared the same dream-- or nightmare.
-----------------------------------------------------------*Nightmare*----------------------------------------------------------
The flaming and smoking wreckage of both medabots and kilobots covered the once beautiful, grassy meadow. The air was rusty, and Roks, Tyrelbeetle, and Rokusho, leading an army of Kuwagata medabots of all different shapes and sizes, stood triumphantly at the top of a heap of scrapped metal and parts, their army flowing down and off the hill, and back into the rusty, depressing wasteland of long-since defeated medabots and kilobots. As the air flowed and shifted thickly, a rusty shroud surrounded the army and its three leaders, silhouetting the former-heroes so their eyes shown bright red against their blackened forms. As Roks, Tyrelbeetle, and Rokusho turned around, they chipped reddened-with-rust metal off the rusty, formerly golden Kabuto, and an equally rusty sailor type; Metabee and Brass, both nearly destroyed to their medal's core, dented, cracked, scratched, scraped, and chipped all over. The entire army followed their leaders' lead and turned to each other as their eyes further brightened. A long, loud, roaring war-cry broke out from the Kuwagata army and rolled over them, and mass chaos, destruction, and war broke out-- friend hitting friend, enemy hitting enemy, foe hitting friend, friend hitting foe…and ultimately, family hitting family. Kuwagata medabots went down left and right, and, after hours--days--weeks it seemed of pure fighting, the last two of the army punched each other, taking their final hits, then fell into each other's arms as their eyes faded offline, tears streaking down their metal faces. Their Kuwagata medals ejected from their back hatches, the usually green core radiating red, angry energy. The energy surged, building up, lurched, and finally exploded out of their encasement, destroying the medals. Tyrelbeetle, Roks, and Rokusho were stuck in a merciless three-way fight--no longer a robattle, but ruthless fighting to the death, the last one standing to be the ultimate victor. Silver and white knife-like Cutlass flashing as it swept through the thick air--yellow, double sword, Chanbara Sword, roaring with hydraulics as it flashed through the air, cutting through someone's weakened armor--Grappling horns pushing their way through the two other attackers aggressively--screams of pain and horror from all three--their memories flashing through their sane sides' minds, forcing tears out of their red, glowing eyes--a strong, metal fisted punch to Roks's jaw throwing his head back past the limits of his neck joints--screams of pain and tears--an awful, gut-wrenching crack from Roks's neck as oil bled profusely from the neck joints--more tears--a bright, red light--fading--fading offline--battery overload--warning!--battery overload…multiple explosions erupted from Roks's chest, soon spreading through his body, throwing metal scraps everywhere, and blowing a thick gray smog into the reddened sky. The pieces of Roks fell to the ground as the last of the explosions and smoke cleared, and Roks's medal exploded with red energy as the two army members' medals had done. Tyrelbeetle and Rokusho paid no insane mind to the tragedy for their sane minds and continued battling. Hydraulics--clanking--yellow Chanbara Sword--metal-fisted punches--grappling horns…As they lunged for each other, they clasped hands, struggling with brute force and strength as their sane side tried to resist. The sane sides couldn't win with mental debates, and used their last resort--seemingly ancient memories of better times flashed through both the sane side and insane side's minds--tears streaked down the final Kuwagata's faces--they mentally said their goodbyes to the ones they loved--Professor Hushi, Zuru, Roks, Metabee, Ikki, each other…--and they forced themselves to spontaneously combust, just as Roks did, and fell to the ground in pieces as the air became evermore contaminated.
Goodbye…
-------------------------------------------------------*End Nightmare*--------------------------------------------------------
Roks and Tyrelbeetle sat up suddenly, screaming out, "No more!" and panting, eyes wide, positively terrified. They looked to each other nervously, realizing they both had the same dream, and smiled weakly with a giggle at the 'coincidence'. They quickly lost this expression, looking extremely worried as they looked down at the calmly sleeping black-haired boy on his side in between them, covers at his waist. Roks and Tyrelbeetle both adjusted the covers up around their medafighter's neck, and then looked back at each other for an explanation.