Ch. 3
We had meet when we were young and had just gotten our semblances. We were the only 2 in the entire project that had the same ones. However, my Aura was balanced in physically boosting my body and being useful as a projection ability. Priest always blurred the line between the two, but it was obvious that she was better at projecting light than I was. She learned how to use the effects of absorbing light to create an utter blackness. By absorbing all the light right in front of a person's face, she both blinded an opponent and drew power to project light. (*I learned how to do it, but only a year after she figured it out)
Also, about 14 years ago, she stopped coming over to my testing area. I thought at first she was being put into more focused training, her skill with light earning her the codename 'Priest.' But then, one day, a doctor put me in my first 'interrogation resistance training,' demanding I tell him where she went. I was annihilate that day, and also depressed to learn that I was never going to see her again.
We didn't even know the word 'love' while in 'The Program',' but when I learned what it meant, I knew that she and I had loved each other like a brother and sister.
To even think that this might be her . . .
But wait. What about 'The Program'?' Was I sent to retrieve Priest? Check up on her? Kill here? And what did she mean to do with these Grimm? Did she think to rescue me?
With so many questions running through my head, I almost didn't notice the Nevermore come in.
Okay, that was an exaggeration. This Nevermore was just as hard to miss as the King was small. It floated down for about half the way, but then it noticed me and went into a steep dive right at me. At the last second, I jumped up some 10 feet in the air, making the Nevermore hit full on into the wall behind me. I guess in this dark, my eyes were better than the dumb birds.
As I came down, I took out my axe and cut right into the back of the neck of the feathered beast. What my axe didn't slice in the neck, the blow itself either shattered or mostly cracked the surrounding bone, thereby effectively killing the Grimm.
I quickly dashed into a nearby nest to hide as Priest came back out to see what all the noise was. She didn't see the body at first - the light being what it was - but she made a white ball of light that not only confirmed that she was Priest, but also showed me that she had become very skilled with her semblance. If I wasn't careful, she may kill me before even knowing who I was, much less realize that I was someone she knew from a long time ago.
I took a hardened piece of a broken eggshell and threw it in the nest behind her. It made a satisfying thunk sound that turned her attention away from where I was.
"Who is here?" she said as I snuck up behind her. When I was within arm's reach, I answered.
"Paladin." (*That was the name she would recognize me by)
She turned and tried to punch me out of reflex, but the blow was both slow and expected, making it easy to block. The follow-up move I caught and held her arm as her conscious mind took control of her actions.
"It - how - why -" she said.
"I need to point out a few things before we talk about what's been happening between us," I said. "First, I was dropped off by 'The Program' in this area, so I can only assume that they may know you're here. Second, a small group of protégé Hunters are above to investigate this large nest of Nevermores. Third, and lastly -"
At this point I pulled her in for my first hug.
"I think this is a gesture to show close emotions to others."
"It is," she said, hugging me back, "and it's great to see you, Paladin."
She let the darkness trick dissipate, letting me see what she looked like after 14 years. She is now a few inches shorter than me, with long, red-brown hair, and blue/white eyes. She had on simple white robes that seemed to have been her only pair of clothes for a few years. Her skin is surprisingly unblemished and she has, what I learned later on, an average muscle tone. (*Back then, I thought she was sickly)
"Where have you been?" I asked. "I thought you were dead."
"I nearly was," she said. "A group tried to attack the place where we were kept a dozen years back, and I got caught - rescued - taken with the group. Paladin, you have no idea how they've been mistreating us. We shouldn't even have been made."
"I know."
She froze on the spot, then looked me dead in the eyes
"WH-what?" she asked incredulously.
"They showed me how I was made and how other people are made are two different things," I said.
"And you're okay with it? Not being a proper person?"
"Well, I thought that it was weird for a while, but then I thought that you can't really judge life because nobody knows the purpose of it, so why judge life by how it's born?"
She pause as she thought about what I said, then shook her head to focus back on the matter.
"Fair enough," she said dismissively. "But we shouldn't have been raised as weapons."
"I figured."
"Wha-really?"
"Yeah. They've sent me to steal things from villages, so I saw many examples of how life was like outside 'The Program.' Since I saw families a lot more than you think, it was only fair to assume that I was watching the more common way people lived. Especially when you consider the fact that you and I are the only people I know that live this sort of life. But I have the potential to be more than any person - more than any Hunter - if I stuck to 'The Program's' training for as long as they kept me in their grasp. So while I had always looked for a way out, I put as much enthusiasm as I could in learning what they were willing to teach."
"Okay," she said, completely thrown off by my arguments AND agreements. "I had thought there would be this whole argument I would have to put up to convince you to see the world as it was. I honestly thought that they would make you think the world was nothing but a battleground."
"Well, I never said that they didn't try. But it was so obvious to me how the world works from the start, so instead of believing anything they told me in that regard, I never understood their logic to begin with. Of course, they tried other methods for keeping me 'in line,' but it's kind of hard to make a person the perfect weapon by both making them unable to be controlled by anyone AND make them under your control entirely. But enough about how I agree with you. I'm not out of their control yet, Priest."
"Wait, you're on a mission?"
"Yeah, to hunt you, I think."
"Bof, that means they've already set up."
(*'Bof' is a word made by me and Priest to replace swearing. It confused the hell out of the doctors when we made it. We came up with it when Priest winded me in a mock fight. She said she distinctly heard me say 'bof' as I gasped for air and thought it was hilarious. It then became a kind of running gag after that. Especially since it annoyed the doctors)
Then she smiled, both a warm one to me and an icy one to 'The Program.' (*Or any thoughts about 'The Program' that she was having, it that phrases it better)
"Paladin, would you like to be free today?" She asked.
"Hell yes," I responded. "Just tell me what you need me to do."
"Get those kids you told me about out of her as fast as you can. After that, get on a Nevermore and jab right under the skull and right above the spine. They're trained to know that you're their master now if you do that. I'll then need you to find whatever defenses 'The Program' have up around the area. We're going to have to break out of here."
"We may be able to use the Hunters to help us get out. They said that they were flown in outside of your Nevermores' reach, but they still got in. That means that 'The Program' either doesn't consider them a threat, or they managed to sneak right past their defenses without trying."
"Good thinking. I need to go contact some people I know that may be able to help us. Get going. The Nevermores will all be here soon."
I turned around and immediately started scaling back up the wall, using my Semblance to make picks on chains. (*I would throw a pick hard into a wall, then climb the chain until I reached the end. I would throw the next one, pull the first one out of the wall, and then repeat. A bit hard where the wall slanted, but still made climbing a breeze)
Now, you may have expected me to have gotten into a fight with my childhood friend, that I would have to realize 'The Program' was evil on my own - something romantic like that. Well, not only were you wrong because of the previously mentioned reasons, but you also forget that I was made with Gold Lightning Dust. You may not know that your brain works on electricity, (*Rather, chemical reactions that RELEASE electricity from one nerve to the next) but it does. So, when you add brain signals with Magic Lightning, it results in being near impossible to be brainwashed. Also, I got some other biological perks that revolve around nerves I think I may have mentioned.
Anyway, I got to the top of the pit and thought about what to tell the group to get them to do what I needed them to do. If I come clean, that will only serve to show that I can't be trusted, I thought. But I can't make up a lie to them about what to look for. That would be too dangerous or too risky.
While I thought hard about what to do, I forgot to keep on my toes for any attacks. This meant that I just barely noticed the sound of a weapon warming up before it fired on me. I went diving behind a boulder as the fuselage rained down. The rapid fire made it almost impossible to tell that it wasn't an energy weapon, but some ridiculous rate of fire weapon. Some of the bullets shots over my cover, which let me see that the ammo was Orange Lava Dust bullets.
The Dust was outlawed when in use as a weapon, as everything it touched would turn to ash before it even caught on fire. One forest could become devastated from a single, misplaced Lava Dust Cartridge. It was only ever used as forging fuel, seeing as the heat was so intense that a small teaspoon in five gallons of water made the hottest useable substance ever. (*Case in point, I once have a single drop of said liquid dropped on the back of my hand. It burned through without even losing momentum. Luckily after that, whenever I'm in extreme pain, I just remember the moment that happened, and the pain doesn't feel that bad anymore by comparison)
No one even made the cartridges anymore, except in one place.
'The Program' was making their move.
Patting myself down, I felt the bug that they had put on my armor. They had heard everything I had said to Priest. So they went on the offensive to try to get the upper hand. I threw the bug up in the air, where it was immediately shot down from the incredible gunfire.
Soon, the gun stopped firing and I peeked out to see what was attacking me. The attacker was the new Atlesian Paladin mech that I had seen being tested in a previous raid I was dropped into. It was part of the new 300 series, so the scientist of course wanted to make it look flashy and seemingly impractical without it looking defective. This meant the giant robot was a lot of curves, sleek metal, and transforming parts. This one also had a head. I mention this as most of these giant robots are usually manned suits, not their own droids.
But what really showed that the scientists were showing off with this machine was the fact that it had no joints. Instead, there was empty space where the joints normally would be. To explain in the simplest terms possible, the joints were electromagnetic fields whish allowed the robot to look like a floating assortment of pieces that moved like a proper body. Imagine, if you would, a robot five times the size of you, seemingly made of wood elves practicing metal forging, and looked as if it was held together because the wind kept wafting the pieces where they needed to go.
With it standing on a ledge a few floors above, the sun behind it and making its surface either gleam or hide in shadow, it almost looked intimidating.
As it reloaded, I ran from my cover and jumped into the pit. Using a spear and chain (*Yes, like my pick and chain from me previously climbing the walls), I threw it into the wall closest to the automaton-o-fun and swung towards the dirt. After bracing my landing by tucking my legs up so that my feet hit the wall first, I used my Semblance even further by making force light (*I'm able to slow and condense light to act like a current of air. Think of a Jedi using the Force to push an enemy down, but make the Force shiny) push my body up as I ran up the wall. I then came soaring out of the pit right towards the gleaming golem's head.
The magnetic mech tried to swing an arm to block my attack, but I was too fast at that point. Bracing myself for the impact, I bulldozed right into the floating observance unit (*The head), cracking the thing's lenses with the crash. I easily flipped over the head as it swung in tight circles above its floating torso (*There being no neck to help absorb the impact) and landed facing away from the thing a few feet away. Bringing my axe in a wide, horizontal arc, I pivoted and sliced halfway through the left 'leg.' Quickly reversing my momentum, I pulled my axe out, spun a full 360°, and sliced at the exact same spot from the other side.
Needless to say, the leg was now completely cut in half, which caused the A.P. to fall somewhat down. It didn't hit the ground, as it caught itself halfway, but a lot of its pieces were now floating at odd angles. (*Now, before you read the next paragraph, please know that I didn't have a sense of humor when writing this portion of my story. So when this event specifically took place, I saw it as no more than an opportunity to deal massive damage to the A.P. and end the fight. Please keep that in mind, as I want you to understand how I changed from not seeing such funny concepts to never NOT seeing them)
The torso part was bent away from me, so I took the chance, made a foot-long spike of gold come out of the palm of my hand, and drove it upwards. (*I told you it was funny. I violently goosed a robot. I don't care if it's lowbrow humor, that crap's funny)
So as the thing tried to righted itself, I took the opportunity to climb onto its back. As it made jerking movements to try and dislodge me, I vented my anger of my life-long confinement onto the behemoth and repeatedly hacked at its torso randomly with my axe, chipping away at it a sliver at a time. I was battered on all sides as I hacked and slashed and destroyed the thing. But I fell into a rhythm that helped me focus of nothing but destroying the surface of the automaton. If I damaged the entire surface of the torso, I would disrupt the stability of the entire magnetic field holding it together. Besides, it couldn't risk doing anything to actually kill. Not with the constant damage I was inflicting.
Soon, I found that I had been smashing away at the metal mesh of what was left of the robot on the ground, the focused fury of my attack blocking out the outside world for I don't precisely know how long. No more than a minute at most. I looked around, breathing a little heavy. That last fight went longer than a usual one because I needed the emotional release, but now I may be too frazzled to properly plan out what to do.
I took a deep breath, calming down before I made a mistake.
I suddenly heard a terrible screech come from behind me. I raise my shield, doing all that I can to make a wall of red block the expected damaged. (*Red is easiest for me to control. The level of difficulty of light is from red to violet, rainbow-style. While the higher colors are harder for me to control, they tend to make whatever I'm doing light-wise stronger)
Except the threat was already taken care of.
Another A.P. had managed to come through where I had originally came in. I imagine it had tried to get a look on me as I destroyed its brother. But instead of personally showing me what was inside its gun, it instead had to show me what was in its own torso.
It had to because someone had ripped the A.P.s cover of with their bare hands.
Standing to the side of it, holding the missing segment of protective covering, was a man. He is only a few inches shorter than me, but has a loooooooot more muscle mass. (*Notice that if I still am in contact with people, I use present tense words to describe them. Some publisher tried to say that was wrong, but I showed him how past tense words are used on average, explained my reasoning behind why I thought using them in situations like this, and all around spouted a lot of hot air about the subject until he got feed up and kept it as it was. If you don't like it as well, too bad. I'm sticking to it)
He had on chainmail armor - like old knights would wear, but much sleeker - of beaten steel and iron. He had the visor of his helmet down, obscuring his face. As I watched, he took the serrated edge of the metal and swung it hard across the robots face, slicing it with its own serrated metal.
The automaton fell into a heap after a few more such attacks at a blazing speed.
The gladiator turned to me, I still in a pose to protect myself should he had decided to attack me next.
"Relax," he said, his voice rather young. "I'm a friend of Priest. I was once called 'Warrior' when in 'The Program',' but I prefer to be called Zack."
"You another escapee like her?" I asked, easing up visibly but still on guard.
"Not exactly. Me and Clarissa, another Duster - that's what I call people born as we were - by the codename 'Mage' escaped by breaking out ourselves. We later integrated ourselves with a small town. After a vicious killing seemingly made by a violent nomad group, we attacked what we soon learned was another base like the one me and Mage grew up in. We then found Priest, and decided to take her with us. She then grew up like we did, but had always wanted to go back for another Duster named Paladin."
"That'd be me," I said.
"I figured as much. She sent me a message to come back to help her with an oncoming attack. Thank the Dust I was not too far gone after visiting her."
"Enough. There's undoubtedly more of these Atlesian Paladins coming to kill us, or worse. There's a group of four Huntsmen trainees that will be caught in the crossfire if we don't do something soon."
"If they're anything like an average Hunter, they'll be fine."
"I killed my first Hunter at the age of six. I am now eighteen. They now know that I and Priest are here. They will send much more that any four Hunters can handle. We need to save them."
"Alright. Let's get going."
