My Calling: Night Warriors
Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
MAKAI! Separates Paragraphs
Chapter 9: 9 years later…
It seemed that the world of humans was finally getting back to a state of normalcy, following the defeat of the Alien Tyrant Pyron nine years earlier. With Pyron's defeat, the number of Darkstalker attacks began dwindling, but never nearly to the point that most people forgot about them.
The Demon World, on the other hand, was in an uproar. News was quickly spreading about Demitri Maximoff's return, and those who held personal vendettas against the vampire were quick to take up arms. The fatal blow that silenced many of the demons, though, was the fact that Morrigan, the current ruler of the dominant Aensland Family House, was fully supporting Demitri. Never before in Demon World History had two rival houses come together.
For many certain people in both worlds, nobody could've imagined what would transpire next…
MAKAI!
"All right, fire."
The sound of gunshots rang out, followed by the sounds of metal clashing on metal. Not too soon afterwards, the sound of high caliber rifles went off, immediately followed by the explosion of grenades.
"Test phase one is complete. Get the targets set for round two."
With a click, a young man in his mid-twenties flicked a small switch on a pair of gloves before handing them over to a middle-aged man, who promptly placed them on a mounted crash-test dummy.
"Phase two is ready to begin, clear the area." Once the area was clear, the command was given. "Fire." Rocket Launchers, high-focus laser beams, and artillery cannons fired off, all hitting a technological shield. Explosions, laser sounds and heavy metal collided into one ear-bleedingly loud sound. As the dust cleared, it was revealed that the dummy was still standing upright, without a single scratch on its body, and the gloves were radiating a force field that stopped the attacks cold.
"Defensive testing complete. Switching on test machines for combat testing."
Once again, the young man at the site took the gloves and slid them on his hands, then waited for the machines to activate.
"Machines active. Executing program 3."
All at once, the robots charged the young man, who simply raised his hands and held the palms outward toward them. The machines froze in place, being held back by a blue-green rectangular field that was emitting several watts of voltage, more than enough to freeze the robots' systems. With these ones down for the count, another set activated and charged. This time, the index fingers on each hand were held out. The left hand's finger shot out an icy beam that froze several of the bots in their places. As a third set moved in, the right hand's index finger generated a 15-inch blade of electrical energy, which was used to cut down the machines. The fourth set of test robots acted like gunfighters, attacking from a distance. While one of the gloved hands was used to block the incoming volley of bullets, the other hand's palm was held outward, and from the center of the hand shot out a pair of plasmatic spheres, which promptly caught up to the group and exploded, heavily damaging the machines.
"Thank you, Mr. Raoul. That will be all for today." The machines were quickly swept up as the young man exited the test facility, only to meet with one of the scientists. "We've gotten rather remarkable results from these pieces you've brought us. It's a shame we can't find a complete model."
"Considering what happened all those years ago, it's not surprising." Following the end of Pyron, the Huitzil robots went into a dormant state, retreating to an unknown location. Only the parts of the decimated machines remained intact, and several pieces were brought back for testing. Of them, the hand units were most valuable.
"With a little more testing, we should be able to figure out the full extent of these units."
"Right. Same time next month, then?"
"Correct. Take it easy, Mr. Raoul."
With that, the one called Mr. Raoul left the facility. He managed to get a good distance away before closing his eyes and shaking his head, causing his hair color to change from a light brown to a much darker color with red streaks. As he opened his eyes, they changed from a dark color to their standard orange. With a grin on his face, Nelius took a look at his new prize: a pair of nicely upgraded gauntlets, courtesy of a few Huitzil parts and human ingenuity.
'I suppose this is the reason of how humans continue to live.' He knew that his wings would protect him in certain situations, but it didn't hurt to have a secondary form of defense.
All souls, return unto one…
'The hell was that?' Nelius looked around, trying to find the source of that voice. 'Maybe I've been hanging around humans too long if I'm starting to hear weird voices.'
"That would be a wrong assumption." Thoroughly alerted, Nelius spun around to see a young woman dressed in a red coat to fend off the chilly autumn air. Her violet eyes were fixated on him. "You aren't the only one who heard that."
"I guess it's no mere coincidence then."
All souls, return unto one…
"I believe that proves it. Something's at work here."
"The big question here is, what is it?"
Worthy souls rejoice… and join with me…
A small flash of light, and the world seemed to waver around the two.
"The hell is going on! Hey, do you know what's..." Nelius turned around to see that his companion had gone missing. "This is some strange shit!" The world seemed to melt down to the ground, and he felt like he was being flung through another dimensional rift. When said trip finally ended, the first thing Nelius had noticed was, after a long sense of disorientation…
"The air smells different here. It's close to the demon world, but there's something off about this place." The second thing he noticed was that he seemed to be in the middle of a forest or some kind of jungle. There was an abundance of trees, but the most of them appeared to be wilting, almost malnourished. Some of the plant life leaned more toward jungle environments, and one of them was snacking on a reptile…
"Wait, what?" Seriously, one of the plants had teeth and was lazily chewing on a reptilian creature that had wandered too close. A second plant of the same ilk began chewing on the reptile's tail. A Venus Flytrap this isn't. He'd have made a snide remark, but a droning sound filled the air.
Looking skyward, Nelius saw what amounted to a cloud, no, a maelstrom of bees the size of footballs blotting out whatever source of visible light was available. With what sounded much like an excited buzz, the horde of stinging insects made a dive for the demon. Holding his palms outward, a sheet of electricity radiated outward from both of his palms, shocking and frying many of the bees. Deciding on a pincer tactic, the bees split into three groups, each attacking from the sides and behind.
"A pincer, huh? Time to test something." He felt his body starting to get hot as the bees closed in, ready to begin a stinging assault. In a fast flash of light, a pillar of cosmic fire rose from beneath Nelius' feet, causing many of the bees to fry, warning the others to stay away. Finding themselves outmatched, they had no choice but to fall back, for the moment. As the fire died down, wisps of smoke emanated from all over his body, and his breathing was a bit heavy. That's what he gets for not testing out his newfound powers, or actually fighting, for nine whole years. Getting to his feet, he heard the droning sound again, only, it sounded a hell of a lot louder, and much deeper this time.
This time, instead of a cloud of bees filling the sky, it was something akin to a mobile hornet's nest. The hexagonal openings dotting the nest were easily large enough to allow several human-sized objects to flow in and out, and speaking of which, something was exiting the nest.
MAKAI!
Yeah, it's fairly short and another cliffhanger. I haven't been feeling like myself lately, so you'll have to excuse me on this.
Until next chapter,
Cornell Valentine Gainsborough