Chapter 24
The Girl Nobody Trusted! ROB vs. Factoid!
Now we continue with the story as ROB and Factoid confronted each other.
"Nobody ever believed what I said," Factoid explained to him. "Even as a child, nobody ever believed me…"
-
Now we enter another slideshow scene similar to the one when Smelton explained the origins of Gamfax.
"My original name was Cassandra, and I lived way back in the 1600s in a small village out in the forests somewhere in Europe. The first time my words were taken as a joke was when I was only ten years old…"
The picture shows a cute little girl with brown hair just slightly past the shoulder-length standing next to some adults and pointing to the woods.
"I spotted a strange never-seen-before animal in the woods and tried to spread the word, but being a little kid, they just laughed and said that it was a good story I made up. This was not a big deal or anything however…"
The next picture shows Cassandra standing next to a broken vase and she was being scold by a person who appeared to be her mother.
"It was during the same year that a wild cat came into our house and broke the family heirloom vase of ours. The cat was gone when my mother returned, and naturally, she thought I was the one who broke it. No matter how I explained to her, she never believed me and kept on shouting at me. I received harsh beatings that day…"
Next picture showed Cassandra being scolded by some guy next to the lake.
"Another time, I was with some villager at the lake fishing, but while he went on a break, a bear cub came by and knocked down all the fish he caught back into the lake and ran away. I was accused for this and no matter how I convinced that villager; he refused to be believe me too."
The next scene shows Cassandra much older looking and also more attractive.
"When I was 23 years old, both my parents have already passed on, so I lived alone. My life was humble and simple. I was just an ordinary maiden living in an ordinary village. However, people began to suspect me to be a witch…"
Next picture shows Cassandra out in the woods picking up plants.
"I had a boyfriend at that time and he was the son of the village elder. He was the nicest person to me and the only person who ever believed my words. One day when he was very ill, I was desperate to help him and thus I tried to gather knowledge on medicines. I would go out into the woods to gather herbs to prepare medicines for him, but once, I did it during nighttime and this gave the impression that I was a witch looking for herbs to brew potions and such. It didn't help the fact that I kept a black cat as a pet…
The next scene shows her doing sewing stuffed dolls.
"I always had a hobby of making stuffed dolls, and I tend to sing songs to myself when sewing one. However, some people misinterpreted my songs as spell chanting and believed I was doing voodoo."
Next scene shows many of the villagers angrily coming after him, but her boyfriend was standing in front of her to defend her.
"It so happened that the next morning, someone in the village died, and I was accused for killing him with my so-called voodoo. They refused to believe the fact that it was pure coincidence and they wanted to get rid of me. My boyfriend was the only person to step out to defend me, and he was able to calm down the villagers. He believed that I am not a witch, but a normal maiden just like everyone else. He was the only person that understood me and whenever he was around, I felt safe. But happiness was short-lived when that day came…"
Then the next scene shows Cassandra standing within a torn up room that had blood all over the place, and her boyfriend's body was lying on the floor, mauled beyond recognition.
"When I paid a visit to him one day, I found that his had been killed by a wild beast that barged into his house. Apparently he also tried to defend himself and there was a knife next to him, so I reached for the blood-soaked knife in an attempt to drive off the beast. When the villagers came in to see what happened, the beast had already left, and they were left with the impression that I killed the elder's son."
Next scene shows Cassandra beaten up on the ground with the entire village against her.
"No matter how much I explained to them, they refused to believe I did not kill him. Killing was a big enough crime, and killing an important person in the village was totally unforgivable."
The next scene depicts Cassandra having her head and hands locked through the stock.
"I was tortured and punished by the village for this and was locked at the stock for several days without anything to eat or drink. People would come by me just to throw stones at me, pull my hair, harm me physically, curse me, and humiliate me in every possible, and there was nothing I could do to prove my innocence. After several days, the village decided to burn me at the stake."
Next scene shows her being tied up to a pole and fire was being set around her.
"I was tied up to prepare to be burned to death. The pain, the burning, and the feeling… It is something you can't imagine unless you experience it yourself. I struggled against death and tried to defend myself to the end that everything I said was true, but in the end, nobody believed me…"
Then the next picture shows a lightning bolt striking the stake and the people were shocked.
"Then as if it was by luck or the heavens took pity on me, a storm occurred while I was in the midst of being burned to death. The heavy rain doused the fire and the lightning bolt struck me free, and it was a miracle that I actually survived such high voltage. The people believed that I must have used my witchcraft to summon the rain, but they all ran to hide from the fierce wind, and this was when I took the chance to run as far as I could."
And then the next picture shows Cassandra, wrapped up in a cloak, walking through the woods.
"The fire left scars and marks on me severely to the point I don't look human anymore. For days I wandered through the forest trying to survive. I had no place to return to and nobody to rely on. I wandered around the wilderness aimlessly for several days and unknowingly wandered into the border of my country, where I witnessed something…"
Cassandra was seen on top a hill overlooking what looked like an army.
"Our neighboring country was planning to lead an invasion and they had already set up the troops. Shocked by this, I quickly ran towards the capital city which was fortunately not too far from. I was able to make it to the capital in time, but…"
Cassandra was then shown standing at the capital's entrance, but her cloak had fallen off, thus revealing her badly scarred and damaged body and people were frightened by her appearance.
"My cloak fell off and the people took me for a demon that spawned from hell. I told them that I was not a monster and tried to tell them that the rivaling country was planning an invasion and that the king must be warned. But…"
And then a spear flew by and pierced her in the throat.
"A guard standing nearby tried to defend everyone by killing the demon from hell which was me. I fell over and was at that time pretty much dead. And then it was when the army came and began to take over."
Cassandra was lying lifelessly on the ground while horse and soldiers were fighting all around her.
"The whole place became a battlefield and I was lying there on the ground, ignored by everyone. In the struggle between life and death, I said to myself, 'Why didn't anyone believe me? I am neither a witch nor a monster… Why does everyone think I am one? Why doesn't anyone believe me words…?'"
And then a horse-pulled chariot with spiked wheels was seen running towards her head, and…
SPLAT!
-
Back to reality…
"There were dead bodies everywhere…" Factoid said. "After the battle, people came to mourn over the bodies of their relatives, husbands, and sons. But nobody came to mourn for me… By the time the war ended, I was no more… Not in a single piece anymore… Everyone at least died with their body in one piece, but I was in several pieces… My bone fragments, brain masses, pieces of skin, drops of blood... All dismembered and separate in the midst of the chaos… I was forgotten by everyone and history itself…"
ROB stood still and listened through the whole story without a single word.
"Nobody ever believed me…" Factoid said, starting to sound angry. "Nobody ever trusted me either… Trust… This is what the world nowadays lacked! There is no trust between anyone! Nobody believes each other! A world where nobody trusts each other! I can't stand the thought of this! Why can't people learn to trust each other more?! Why must people doubt each other?! Why?! Tell me why! TELL ME WHY!! WHERE IS THE TRUST?!" Out of anger and frustration, Factoid launched a mouth beam at ROB and he quickly moved out of the way.
"Because of this!" she continued. "I want the master to create a new world where people will trust each other! A world where there is no doubt and people will believe each other more!"
"You have a tragic past," ROB said. "But to annihilate the world for this is not an acceptable method. Think of the innocent ones."
"This world is full of doubt and mistrust! The master will destroy this world and create new one where everyone trusts each other! You have not experienced the harsh trials I've been through, so you will never understand! You shall die for this, nonbeliever!" Factoid opened her mouth again to fire the laser beam.
ROB moved back fast to avoid the blast and fired his own eye beam. The beam shot the face of Factoid and she pulled her head back somewhat in pain. "Argh! Take this!" She hand shot forward and it was connected to the arm by a metal wire. ROB once again avoided this and jumped into the air and he leaned forward and released a boost from underneath himself to propel forward. He zoomed to the front of Factoid and spun his body in a circle and kicked her in the head. Immediately after being kicked, Factoid opened her mouth and fired a blast into ROB's face.
ROB was unable to dodge this and was shot backwards. Factoid then swung her detached hand into him and sent him crashing to the wall and then fired another beam at him. ROB quickly boosted into the air and avoided direct contact from the beam. A gyromite top came out from his base and he spun it in place for a while before launching it at Factoid like a flying buzzsaw. Factoid pulled back her hand and knocked the gyromite away.
From the air, ROB boosted forward and spun his upper torso like that of a drill while approaching Factoid. She countered by firing her mouth beam, but surprisingly enough, the beam bounced away when it hit the spinning robot, and ROB crashed into her face and made her slide back somewhat and ROB himself landed onto the floor.
"How dare you?!" Factoid growled angrily. Her shoulder pads flipped open and launched out several missiles. When the missiles rained down, ROB slid back and forth very fast and was able to dodge most of the missiles. He then fired a thicker than usual eye beam into Factoid's body and scorched her. "Argh! This settles it! I'll get you for real now!" And then at this moment, her eyes glowed brightly and electrical current began appearing around her.
"Large amount of energy is detected," ROB said. "Target is undergoing metamorphosis."
Factoid then pulled back her arms and lifted her head into the air and shouted, "Final Transformation! Creer!" And then a burst of smoke appeared around her and engulfed her completely.
Note: 'Creer' is Spanish for 'Believe'.
ROB kept his eye on the whole transformation process, and when the smoke cleared, Factoid has taken a form similar to that of a centaur. Her upper torso was kept intact, but her lower torso was a sauropod's. Saurupods are long-necked dinosaurs that move on four limbs, like Brachiosaurs, Diplodocuses, etc.
"You shall now taste the most painful death, nonbeliever!" she said angrily. Then the side of her lower body opened and a spear came out from it, and she picked it up and wielded it as her weapon.
"Target has apparently increased in power level," ROB said.
Factoid ran towards ROB and lifted her spear above her and then slammed it down when she was near him. ROB hopped aside to avoid the attack and fired a beam into her body, but the beam wasn't strong enough to leave a behind a scar on her. "Both my defense and offense have increased!" she explained. "I now have the same power as the sixth Failure!" She swung her spear horizontally to hit ROB, who ducked down to avoid the blow.
He quickly moved back fast and then both the sides of his base opened and missile launchers came out from there. He placed each hand into the back of the missile launchers and began firing missiles at Factoid. The sides of Factoid's body opened and launchers also came out, and they are fired an equal amount of missiles.
The missiles collided with each other in midair and exploded constantly. During the midst of the explosion, Factoid charged through the smoke and managed to catch ROB by surprise. She slammed down her spear jut as he hopped back, and he got scraped a bit on the front of his base. However, Factoid detached her hands right afterwards and managed to catch ROB by the head and pulled him over. "Get over here!"
She held up in the air and readied her spear to stab him. "Die the death that I experienced!" She plunged the spear forward, but to her surprise, ROB's body suddenly fell off the neck and the attack missed! "What?!"
The headless body touched the floor and moved back as far as it could before firing more missiles at Factoid. Factoid let go of ROB's head after getting shot and the head hovered back to the body and connected back onto the neck just like that. "A close call," ROB said.
"I'll get you for real this time!" Factoid said, and she opened her mouth and fired a large beam. ROB leaped to the side and dodged the attack, but the moment he did, missiles were launched at him. He quickly fired a beam from his eye to destroy the missile and then got back on foot to fire his own missiles.
Factoid spun her spear in front of her like a propeller and cleared away the missiles, and then she hurled her spear at him.
ROB stepped aside and the spear plunged into the wall instead. "You think you've escaped from it?" Factoid asked with a smirk. Then the spear suddenly released a powerful voltage all around it and ROB was caught in it and was therefore electrocuted.
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!
Factoid then fired another beam at the zapped robot and it was a direct hit.
BAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!
ROB and the spear both flew out from the explosion and landed onto the floor with a thud. ROB, however, was still conscious and he got back up despite the burns. "Heavy damage received," he said. "Mobility is affected." Then to his surprise, another missile was fired at him and it exploded at his feet and he was blown back and broke down into pieces.
Factoid approached the head which was on the floor and said, "Can you feel the pain that I suffered? My heart, body, and mind were totally shattered when people kept on accusing me of things I've never done! They refused to believe a single word I said! Everyone said I was a monster, a witch, a demon! My new body represents the monster they said that I am! People having no trust in each other! Can you think of anything worse than that!? A world where there is no trust angers and saddens me! But the perfect world that the master will create will destroy all the nonbelievers!" She then raised a foot over ROB's head. "However, nonbelievers like you will never witness this perfect world! You shall now disappear from history just like me!"
All of a sudden, ROB's arms, which were holding the spear, flew towards Factoid at a blinding speed. This caught her by surprise and she had no time to act as the arm plunged the spear right through her throat. ROB's head quickly hovered back and the rest of the body pieces fused themselves together again.
Factoid took several steps back and cried and wheezed in pain from the spear impaled through her throat. "Ack! Cough! Gah!" And then she fell down to her front knees. "It… It's just like… that time… Why… why must history… repeat… itself…?" And then high voltage was released from the spear and Factoid was electrocuted from head to toe. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!
Followed by a…
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOM!!
After the explosion cleared, Factoid was no more. No metal pieces, no bolts, no wires, no cogs, and flesh and bones are definitely out of words.
"Target has been eliminated," ROB said. "Heavy damage was also received. I am in no condition to fight another target." But he continued to press on. "Must continue mission however. There will be impending danger if I do not move."
-
…
What, you thought the chapter is over already?
Anyway, the whole scene was being witness by some of the other Failures thanks to a hidden camera in that room.
The Failures saw the whole fight from a large screen.
The emo bishounen placed his palm on his face and sighed with disappointment, and the bull dog next to him said, "Wow, she must be such a wuss to lose to a small robot."
"Tsk! Such a lame way of dying," the old man on the wheelchair said. "I could've easily avoided something like that!"
"After all, she's an inferior being, so it's not surprise," Arrogarn said.
One of the people watching the screen was a girl looking about 13 years old. She had purple hair which was up to the shoulders and there was a very short ponytail tied up the back of her head and she wore a martial art clothing very similar to that of Katsura's, which was describe a few chapters back. "Aww… Factoid lost… Such a pity…" she said in a rather sad tone.
"And it was in the same way she first died too," Katsura, who was sitting next to her, said. "I can imagine how it was for her to die the first time and then again in the same method. It's a sad thing for her, I'm sure…"
"But I'd really love to see you die again in the same method that you did the first time," one of Arrgorn's subordinate said to her. I'm referring to the one with the eye-patch on the right eye, if you're curious.
Katsura's face suddenly turned red and she shouted with embarrassment. "I'm not going to die from that shameful reason again, and don't you ever bring that up too!"
"Haha! You easily had the funniest and stupidest death among all of us here!" the girl with the left eye-patch said. "It would be a sight if I was around to see that happen!"
"Shut up!"
The 13 years old girl patted Katsura in her shoulder and said, "Don't worry, big sis. I didn't find it funny. It couldn't be helped that…"
"Just don't talk about it, Kochou!"
Note: Japanese for 'Butterfly'.
"Sorry, sis…"
"Lilileft, Liliright! Don't go picking on those two too much," Arrogarn said to her two subordinates. "You don't want to get on his nerves, do you?" She motioned to one side of the room, where there was a fully cloaked person sitting on a sofa.
As I said just now, the person was fully cloaked. He was covered from head to toe in a dark brown cloth and the only opening was at the face. However, his face was not visible; only pitch blackness could be seen at where the face should be.
Then at this moment, the bulldog and the emo stood up and began walking out the room. "Where are you going?" the old man asked them.
"I can't handle the disappointment any longer," the emo said. "I'm going to do something about this."
TO BE CONTINUED
Not sure how the fight turned out. I did try to make things as tragic as possible too. Opponents with tragic pasts are always interesting as you will grow to pity them and not take them for annoying people. This only holds true for SOME of the Failures, NOT all. There is at least one Failure who is a total douche in every way.
Shake that ass! Look at those fat jiggle! Look at the… Wait, where's the fat? Watch Roy as he faces his most comedic opponent to date!
Next chapter: I Look Handsome, Don't I? Roy vs. Assholicus Dumbasser!
