Chapter 29
"Harry, please! Harold!" came the cry of a weeping woman.
David and the Guards came rushing around the corner where one house in particular was ransacked.
"Brianne, get the children and run!" came another voice, this time from a man."
"But Victor…" Brianne's voice rang again, before there was a crash, and simultaneous to her shriek "NATASHA!!" a young girl flew out of the broken window, and crashed into the wall of the narrow street outside. Three more people ran from the house. A Man, who David assumed would be Victor, a woman, who David again guessed would be Brianne, and a young man. The clattering continued inside the house.
"Bri' get out of here!" Victor said firmly.
"Jackson, help me get your sister," Brianne told the young boy.
"But I want to fight!" Jackson cried to his mother!
"Son, you can't fight him, he's too str…." Victor began, before a deafening roar sounded from inside the house.
"What's going on?" David asked, running up to the family.
Before Victor could give him an answer, an abnormally large man barged out of the hokme. The guards readied their weapons.
"Don't kill him!!" Brianne cried; but as she did so, the mutant turned, and swung at the guards, sending two of them flying. He then picked up a third, and used it to whack the fourth. As all four guards lay dead, he turned on David.
"Oh no you don't!" cried David, as the strange mutant stormed towards him. He was about 9foot tall, and his muscles were the size of a small man! His skin had a metallic blue hint to it! The ground shook with his every footstep. There were rags on his body, giving David the sense that he had only just become this beast. Regardless, he fired a shot into the chest of this person, knocking him back. Launching himself into the air, David spun in mid-air, creating lightning strikes to fall around him, driving the mutant back. From behind the Mutant, Siobhan, Samson and Olva appeared with 9 armed guards. First noticing the dead bodies of David's men, before see the creature emerge from the darkness. Siobhan fired an icy bomb at its back. As it exploded, the mutant writhed in pain, before leaping on top of the nearby terrace houses, and running for his life. As David descended to the floor. Siobhan and Olva ran to meet him, as Samson directed the guards, before following.
"What the hell was that?" Olva gasped.
"That was my oldest son!" came Brianne's voice. She was supporting her daughter, Natasha. "He was just standing outside, watching the battle, when he came back in, he was that thing!"
"What happened to him?" asked Victor
"I'd guess, Althea!" David sighed.
"Who?" Brianne asked
"The one behind these attacks, along with her husband," David growled. "She can make people turn into mutants; I'm David by the way, This is Samson, Siobhan and O!"
"I'm Brianne!" she said, "Brianne Swarnla"
" I'm Victor Swarnla," Victor continued, "This is our daughter, Natasha, and our son, Jackson. That was Harold."
"Harry for short!" Brianne sobbed, as she burst into yet more tears.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" David sighed. "All I can do now is ensure the rest of you get out of here in one piece." As he said this, Jason, Fi and Ella came running in from behind them.
"Mrs Swarnla, take Natasha to the nearby Hospital, Jas' can you help her get out of here safely?"
"Sure thing!" Jason replied, before helping support Natasha, and leading Brianne off.
"Now, Ella, take Mr Swarnla and Jackson to the Refugee home near the base. They'll be safe there."
"Yes boss," Ella saluted, before motioning the way, But Jackson stood firm.
"No. No, I want to help David fight!" he demanded.
"Jacks!" Victor knelt to look his son straight in the eye. "I can't, I want you safe."
"He will be!" Siobhan interrupted, "We'll look after him!"
"Really?" Jackson smiled broadly, before turning to his father, waiting for his verdict. Victor sighed.
"Wait here!" he said, before running into the ransacked building, before returning a few seconds later, holding a shotgun
"If you're fighting , you need a weapon!"
"Thanks Dad!!" Jackson gasped in awe of what his father was giving him! "Thanks so much."
"You staying?" David asked Victor.
"No, I can't," Victor shook his head. "I mean, I need to set up a new home. Just promise me you'll look after him."
David moved his left hand over his heart. Victor nodded.
"Come, this way," Ella directed. Victor gave Jackson one last hug goodbye, then followed Ella to safety.
A loud roar came from behind David. The second wave of troops came running around the corner. The guards ran to the centre of the junction, and formed three lines, readying for the attack.
"Come," Siobhan ushered Jackson.
"Wait!" David called Jackson back. He pulled a rifle from the hold on his back.
"That shotgun wont work kill anyone while it's in the hands of a human." He held the rifle out to Jackson. "Swap?" he asked. Jackson just looked at him in awe.
"Wow!" he gasped, examining the rifle. "Yeh I'll swap!" handing over the shotgun, and picking up his new weapon. He examined it more closely. "This has to be….."
"Mutant technology!" David finished the sentence. "Made by a girl called M. Lovely lady, you'd like her."
"Oi!!" Samson scowled at David. "She's already taken!"
"I know!" David smiled innocently at Samson, how realised he was just trying to wind him up.
"One of these days, I'll take that cheek and shove it up your arse!!" he growled
"Language!" David replied, "And talk to your leader like that or he'll force feed you your own attitude till you're fit to burst!"
"Are we going to fight or are we going to stand here and have a battle of the ego's?" Siobhan shouted, as the guards opened fire on the second wave of mutant attack.
"Good point, Jackson, Shiv with me. Samson, O, take the back route, surround them! Fi, get into the air and find Morgormir"
Running for the junction, David could see the guards being murdered by the mutants. His pace quickened, desperate to save yet more lives, as Fi launched into the sky, screeching as she went. Suddenly, a mutant leapt out in front of him, blocking their way. Olva and Samson were blocked by three more mutants, as a another joined the one in front of David.
"Going somewhere?" The first one hissed.
"Get the hell out of my way!!!" David threatened, aiming the shotgun at his opposition.
"Oh, but Lord Morgormir would be most upset if we just let you go!" The second mutant said from behind the first, emerging to his left, David's right. David however, had had enough talking, A third mutant had moved from behind him, to his left side. Swinging the shotgun round, he blasted him into the rubble of the Swarnla's ransacked house. Crashing through the debris, He exploded in a blue flash
"ATTACK!" screamed the first mutant, and the four remaining mutants ran forward. Bringing the Shotgun to the front, David fired at the mutant running straight at him, the moved the barrel left to shoot the leader of the once five. The two mutants behind him were at an arms length. Turning with the gun across his back like a snooker cue, he knock the fourth casualty out of the air as he lunged at David. Siobhan had taken care of the fifth, as an icy blast rammed him into the wall, the ice tearing through his skin. Blood splattered the street. The guards at the junction were being swamped by the enemy. David couldn't afford any more time.
"Go, help them!" he ordered. Samson and Olva hurried, obeying his orders. Siobhan and Jackson stayed, looking at him.
"You're not coming?" Siobhan asked
"You were awesome with back there!" Jackson told him, "I've never seen anyone move like that, even in films! We need that skill now!"
"We do, but you can drive them back on your own," David muttered. "Jason and Ella will be back before too long, you'll be able to drive them back a bit. My quarrel is with Morgormir tonight!"
Siobhan just nodded. "Good Luck!"
"And you!" he said, as he flew into the air.
Above the battle. Jet and Luca sat upon their steeds, Jess with them. They watched David soar into the air. Fi swooped to their side.
"You not fighting?" she gasped, out of breath.
"We were told by David to fight off the air born troops. Having killed them all I think we deserve a break before returning to battle!" Luca explained.
"Pete and Sofamke could use your help on the Western Front!" Fi explained. "Will's men got held up at the church defending the fleeing citizens! They need help!"
"On my way! Sighed Jess, diving down, past the rooftops.
"An' what about you?" Fi questioned.
"In a minute or two!" Jet grunted, "We are a spent force Fi, we need our energy before we…." He voice stopped abruptly. "David's not heading to the main battle! He heads South! Away from Siobhan, and his troops!"
"He's found him! He's found our target!" Luca growled
"Is it me, or does it feel the right time to avenge our brethren?" Jet smirked
"The hour for killing princes!" Luca agreed
"Well I feel fully charged, do you? Jet turned to Luca, "Sister?"
"I feel like I'm born afresh!" Luca replied
"Then the city goes to war one last time!" Jet growled, "Ride Xa!" she cried, patting her black spirit horse.
"Riddel!" Luca did the same with her steed, that glowed as bright as 30 suns. Their descent was clear and purposeful. They had a score to settle! FI screeched, and set off after Jess. The war had come to life!
Morgormir stood on top of a building, watching as his men went to war. Althea would be proud He thought to himself. The sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts.
"David, at last a meeting that might last for more than a couple of minutes!" he growled
"This ends tonight Morgormir!" David shouted, a blade of electricity forming in his open palm, before his hand closed around the hilt. Morgormir drew his sword.
"Indeed, as it's already over!" his voice calm, yet menacing. "Even if you beat me here, we own over half the continent, we occupy every major capital. Europe has fallen, and the advances have started on the east. You can't stop them all!" He hissed
"Your wife doesn't want just want world domination, she wants the eradication of all man kind. If you fail tonight, she will drag every single mutant from the continent to wipe out all that is left of humanity! If I stop you tonight, there is every chance in the world we will win!"
"Stand aside David!" came Luca's voice. She stood to his left, advancing with a golden scimitar in her hand, formed in the same way as David's sword had been, and as Jet's had been. "He is our responsibility!"
"He is a traitor to our home!" Jet continued, to David's right, surrounding Morgormir, her black sword in her fist. "it will be one of us who ends his treacherous life!"
"Now now children!" Morgormir smiled, "There's enough of me to go around!" as he divided himself into three.
Back down below, Jess had landed on the eastern front of the city
"About time!" Pete cried when he saw her. "We're almost out of reinforcements!"
"Well that's why you have me!" Jess replied, "Any word from Will?" she asked, stopping to hit three enemies.
"I sent Sof to help him. They broke through the barricade, they should be here in minutes!!!" Pete called back. He moved his hand to the road in front of them. A Giant mud wall burst from the ground, and filled the gap between houses.
"That should buy us a little time!" he said, content with his work. All of a sudden, 4 enormous mutants, spikes growing from their arms, legs and shoulders, crashed through the blockage. The first, and apparent leader, as he was slightly larger than the other three, let out a deafening roar. The guards under Pete's control fired another volley of bullets, but the mutants seem unaffected by them, and just threw the guards back, picking them up as if they were pencils.
"You like my pets?" came a soft voice. From behind the settling dust, Jem walked casually into view. "I wanted a war hound, but my mistress thought that these would be more to my liking!"
"About time we met one of the big bad four, this battles getting too easy!" Pete grunted
"Errr, Big Bad Four?" Jess whispered to him
"Well I couldn't call them the big baddies could I?" Pete replied
"You didn't have to call them anything!" Jess exclaimed
"I know, but it makes things more interesting!" Pete explained
"Retard!" Jess muttered, prompting Pete to kick her in the leg.
"I must say I agree with your lady friend!" Jem interrupted,
"Thank you!" Jess sighed, looking at Pete in a I told you so manner
"Err, if you don't mind, we're in the middle of a war here, bitching is not appropriate at this moment in time!"
"The Dunce does have a point!" Jess admitted
"Indeed!" Jem growled, before her right leg swung elongated at Pete, throwing him into one of the near by houses next to the next street. His howl shook the brick and mortar, and the house he had crashed into toppled and fell, narrowly missing Pete, but blocking the meeting of the two roads, just as Sofamke, Will and his reinforcements rounded the corner. They couldn't rescue Jess, who was now on her own to face Jem and her troops.
"You Bitch!" she screamed
"We all have our bad points!" Jem retorted
"Well it's not fair to have you AND your army versus just me."
"One on one?" Jem suggested. "I call off my men, temporarily!"
"That sounds like a deal in my favour!" Jess smiled
"I doubt it. I could kill you with my thumb!" Jem growled
"well when you can make your thumb the size of a whole city, I'm not disagreeing!" Jess replied
"Indeed!" Hissed Jem, drawing a pair of daggers from her belt. Jess grew two giant thorns from her back. Two vines pulled them from her spine and handed them into her.
"To the Death?" Jess asked
"To the Death!" Jem agreed
Back at the main battle, Siobhan and Samson were driving back the second wave of attack. Jackson had gone with Olva to set up a forward command post at the back of the Plaza. Siobhan had been creating a wall of water, while Samson had been backing it up with a fierce wind. With the enemy on the back foot, Samson moved the gale upwards, dragging some of the water with it!
Within seconds, there were 9 huge water-hurricanes spinning in the street.
"Neat trick!" Siobhan looked at him with complete amazement "m sure has picked a gooden'
"Thanks! Practice and all that!" Samson replied, struggling to control the sheer mass of water.
"allow me," Siobhan said, before sending the water crashing down the street, rolling effortlessly over the hordes of fleeing mutants.
"Well, the death toll has just risen considerably!" Samson said, as the water submerged the blue smoke that rose from where the mutants fell.
"Ok, Samson, I need you to run to command post behind the city, call for reinforcements!" Siobhan ordered
"Sure thing," Samson said, but rather than hurry straight off, he stopped to take his boots off.
"What the hell are you doing?" Siobhan asked, completely shocked.
"I want to see how fast I can run, and those boots way a tonne!" he replied
"Weirdo," Siobhan muttered "Well hurry up then!!" she cried. Samson nodded, then disappeared in the blink of an eye. Within two minutes, he returned.
"20 men are on their way, they'll be here in 15 minutes; and Jason will be here in about 5 minutes."
"Excellent," Siobhan said, "That gives us plenty of time to finish plenty of these bastards ourselves!"
"Confident?" Samson asked
"Totally! It's not rare for me to be complacent!"
"Oh, well you know, you might want to watch that complacency, one of these days it will come back and bite you!"
"Let it try!" chuckled Siobhan
Despite the raging wave dying down, no enemies had emerged for the best part of 5 minutes. It dawned on both Siobhan and Samson that their complacency might not have taken into account Althea's cunning.
"At what point in the middle of a battle does the enemy stop attacking when it still has a good proportion of dispensable units to throw at it's opposition?" Samson asked
"Never," Siobhan said, "and it's not like Althea to….." stopping mid sentence, Siobhan looked to Samson,
"Something seriously wrong has happened," she muttered, "or-" her tone becoming more and more worried. "Something is about to happen!" she gasped.
Her attention was drawn down to the cobbled road they were standing on. In the cracks between each stone, a red haze was slipping through. Her gaze was taken for so long, she didn't realise what was happening until it was too late. Her distraction was broken when Samson let out a horrendous scream of pain. Looking round, the red haze had crept under Samson, and had shot through his body. Samson fell to his knees. The souls of his feet had stained blood red, and red cords of light wrapped his body from head to toe, burning into his skin.
"An easy target" Coral growled, emerging from around the corner. "Corruption is easiest when the victim has no way to defend himself, which is why it works even better when you take said victim by surprise!"
"What the hell do you mean corruption?" Siobhan yelled
"Poison! Puts him out of action long enough for me to deal with you, then when you're soundly out of the way, I can kill him without too much trouble!"
"You've got no chance! I'll kill you if you lay one more finger on him!" Siobhan cried
"Is that a threat?" Coral growled, a flarebomb in his hand. He launched it at Siobhan, with it landing and exploding inches to her right.
"I don't miss twice!" he warned, a second flarebomb grew from his wrist, into his hand. As he threw it at her, Siobhan launched a Ball of ice at the air-born weapon. As they collided in mid-air, they exploded, out of harms way.
"I don't miss once!" Siobhan smiled. Coral screwed his face up, before throwing a third flarebomb, to be met by another of Siobhan's blasts.
"Resistance is futile!" he bellowed, preparing to throw again, when he was thrown back by a fiery blast. Looking up, Siobhan saw Jason flying up above!
"Who exactly were you talking to, her or yourself? 'Cos I can get you a mirror if you like!" Jason called, as Coral got back to his feet.
"I don't care if I have to kill you both victory will be mine"
"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Siobhan scowled
"So be it!" snarled Coral.
The sound of bullets had tailed off, as Morgormir and Jem had called their respective troops out of battle. The entire Plaza had fallen quiet with tension. At the command post, Jackson and Olva monitored the Plaza on a screen.
"What's happening?" Olva asked
"How the hell am I supposed to know? I'm not even a mutant!" Jackson replied
"Sorry," sighed Olva. "Can you guess?"
"If I were, I would say, it looks like a stand off!" Jackson muttered.
Their discussion was cut short by a deafening yell.
"Stand Off Broken!" Jackson smiled.
Morgormir had charged forward, engaging all three leaders. Forcing them apart, the three identical soldiers tried to turn their counterparts, and trap the three opponents as he had supposedly been at the start. Jet was the first of the three to show any signs of fighting back. Morgormir lunged his sword towards her, but rather than blocking or dodging it, Jet suddenly became transparent, only an outline remained of her. David, Luca and Morgormir looked at her in astonishment. As Morgormir withdrew his blade, Jet returned to her regular self.
"It's a way of avoiding things such as swords, vicious animals, moving vehicles and walls!" she explained
"Well, you learn something new everyday!" David gasped, before the fighting resumed. The second Morgormir lunged for Luca. Skipping over the sword, Luca swung her foot and caught him in the centre of his back, sending him flying. Picking himself up, he charged again. Luca wrapped her scimitar round his blade, before proceeding to kick him in the stomach, then elbow him in the face. As his sword crashed to the ground, Morgormir wiped the blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Luca picked up the fallen sword, and plunged it into his chest. Morgormir screamed in agony, before he disappeared in a silver flash, the sword with it!
The other two Morgormir's pressed forward their attacks on David and Jet. At one point, Jet and David stood back to back to each other, trying to prize their opponents swords from their necks!
"Scared?" the two Morgormir's hissed together.
"Nope" Jet replied
"Of you? Not a chance!" David retorted, as they pushed back, turned the tables. Morgormir stood at the edge of the rooftop, David and Jet pointing their swords pointed at each of their necks. Luca stood behind them, her scimitar ready for the attack. Morgormir just laughed.
"But how many can you kill?" He hissed, kicking David away, and knocking Jet's sword away from his windpipe. As they stood back, Morgormir created hundreds, perhaps thousands of replicas of himself, all armed, and dangerous.
"And now I know you're not scared!" they all echoed, as David, Jet and Luca retreated, "You're Petrified!!" they cried, before a deafening call! "CHARGE!!!!"
And so it came at them, Hundred, upon hundred came hurtling towards them, in one, giant block. David stood, his eyes burning, the blue light that kept appearing when he felt a surge of power appeared, but this was more than ever, something was taking over. He had sensed the end. Maybe there was a way of still beating Morgormir. As the army neared, David roared, and unleashed his power, but it didn't do what he expected. He expected a steaming blast to go straight through the centre of the block, but instead, a giant net formed in front of him, and wrapped itself around the block. They stopped in their tracks! They couldn't move! He'd done it, he'd stopped this force! And David smiled, and started to relax; and then he realised. If he relaxed he lost power, the net would fall! He caught a glimpse of Morgormir, sneering at him, and the force moved forward, the net restricting them to a slow walk, but they could still move, and David was putting all him energy into holding them back.
"Run, God damn it, Run!" he cried to Luca and Jet, "Save yourselves, and the City!"
The net had moved to within touching distance. Morgormir pushed further forward, his blade in his hand. The net was almost upon David, still desperately trying to keep them back. But the resistance wasn't enough, and with one last push, Morgormir's blade slipped into David's stomach!
David roared, and a massive burst of energy ripped through him, hurling all the Morgormir's back! Only the original remained, and he looked as David became nothing but an unbearably bright glow! He smiled, before a cloud of dust came and carried him off. Jet and Luca watched on, as the glow died down, and David fell to the ground.