(A/N)
TheDreamChaser: Yes, I'm aware of that. It's just that I think that this whole plot is already complicated enough and there's too many characters, I don't want to add more extra characters in it.
Love Story
Chapter 33
"How is the new weapon you are coming up with, Soldier Gizmo?"
"It is going to be ready soon, just adding to the final touches,my lord," said Gizmo curtly.
"All right, but if this thing fails..." Malchior dropped his façade and hissed.
Gizmo gulped. "You shall not worry, my lord. I take an oath that the mines will work or my lord, you, shalt have my head."
"Better be," Malchior muttered and left the special weaponry tent.
Victor's eyes followed Malchior while pitching his tent. When Malchior was back in his rest tent, he put away his tent stakes and stone. "Hey Soto, can you..."
Soto, his tent mate, nodded. Not wating any time, he strode to the special weaponry tent.
Victor bent forward to touch the first ever canon. "So... Gizmo, I heard that—"
"Stop!" Gizmo sprinted towards him and smacked his hand off the canon. "Don't touch anything here!"
"Okay. Back to the point. I heard that you are building something new for the battle."
"Absolutely. Landmines. No one has ever tried that before, but I think it is a good start. Since no one has ever done that before, no one will know the weaknesses of it. It will be a winning battle for us."
"Here," Gizmo beckoned him to follow him. "This is the landmine."
Victor gazed at the weapon which was encased in a transparent box. The supposedly weapon was so small that it seemed that it can't really cause any harm. He studied the landmine. It was a relatively flat cylinder. There was a disc almost as wide as the its diameter positioned on top of it, supported by a protrusion. Around the cylindrical thing was a thin layer of brownish coating. (1)
"What does landmines do?"
Gizmo chuckled, proud of his new invention. "Well, you just plant this under the soil and once somebody steps on it, boom! There you go."
When he saw Victor's brows knitted together, he explains furher. "It's the pressure, you see. You plant this slighty below ground. If someone steps on it, it will experience some kind of pressure. See this disc on top? Once that is pressured, the mine will explode, sending you flying away. Anyway, if you don't touch it, you'll be safe."
"Then how do you plant it if you can't even touch it."
"Well, you can actually. The copper is only activated after you plant it. That way, you can touch any part of it except the disc when you're planting it."
"So is the brownish thing copper? What does copper do?"
"Uh... Copper is a new element discovered. However, I do not know what it can do. I coated copper around the disc so I can observe what effects copper will cause, and also protect ourselves if copper enhances explosions. "
Gizmo went further on about the land mines. Victor tried to remember everything he said, like the mine itself contains unstable chemicals which, when trampled upon, could trigger and explosion, and also the protrusion on the mine is safe to touch, when activated or not..
"Wait. But what if the king wanted to deactivate the mines? You said that once they were activated, you can't switch it off."
"Yes, that is the problem I'm trying to solve right now. You see, once activated—"
"Wait a minute!" Gizmo eyed him cautiously. "Why are you interested in this all of a sudden."
Sweat broke out on Victor's forehead. "Well, I'm interested."
Gizmo raised a brow, unconvinced. He had to change tactics, "See, King Malchior sent me into the special weaponry team."
"Oh really? I don't think you qualifies to be in."
"Who says I'm not. Look, I'm almost mechannical. King Malchior thought I would be more familiar on machines, so I was apoointed here."
"Hmm..."
"I think you did a very good job here. But I still think that a device that could trigger their explosions could still be added."
Gizmo raised his brow. This time, it's questioning Victor's suggestions.
"You know, something that you can press to make the mines explode intentionally."
Gizmo smiled. "Welcome on board."
Victor gave a crooked smile. He had told a very very big lie. Once that lie was exposed, who knew what would happen. Getting beatened up by Gizmo and his pal, Mammoth? Having revealed that he was a spy for Richard? Sentenced to death by Malchior?
I have to leave this place soon.
RxR
"Attention!"
Every soldier gathered at a small set-up podium to listen to Malchior's announcement. By the look on Malchior's face, it's god news.
"I am very happy to announce that before we advance further in to Califorinia, I will be fetching my bride, you new queen, from Steel City. Some of you may know her... because she is the daughter of the Late King Trigon."
There were some gasp from some soldiers, especially those who were still alive after the Reign of Trigon. A look of suprise flickered across Victor's face.
"Yes, Princess Rachel."
Some soldiers began to whisper things like "I though she was the fiancée our Late King Slade!" and "Despicable!"
"I know, there are some misunderstandings." Malchior raised his hand. "Our late king, he actually has been doing deals. My lord, Slade, appeared to be asking for her hand, for her marriage, but this has been a faux. Princess Rachel is bethrothed to me, in fact, by my lord."
Victor rolled his eyes, bullshit!
"I will leave in three days time."
I really need to get out of here. I must get to Bruce.
RxR
"If I were Bruce..."
"I should be heading out to Mount Heugor... to have a better view of California," Victor tried to recall what his Geography teacher had taught him many years ago.
"They will be taking a more hidden route to Heugor." He frowned. "And that means that they are taking a longer route by the California river."
"If they had begun trekking up the forest a couple of days ago, they would be... somewhere around the swamps. Then, I'll have to set off to the north of the swamps. And that would be around five hundred miles from here." If his horse was to gallop all the way to the swamp (with occasional breaks), he would make it in about one day's time. (2)
He gaped at as he realized that the swamp was less than fifty miles away from Steel City—where Princess Rachel was.
RxR
"Where do you think you're going?"
Victor whipped around, shocked, until he saw it was only Alexander Polinsky. Victor didn't see him as a threat. He was a silly, unshaven man who was in the weaponry department until two years ago where he got kicked out due to the failure of his mechanical remote invention. He became in charged of the stable then. However, he was still very obssessed with invention. His obssession and his remote gave him the nickname of "Control Freak". (3)
"Running an errand for Sir Gizmo."
"..."
Victor added, "I need my horse for the errand."
Control Freak blinked several times, then went into the stable and handed Victor is horse.
"Oh, and keep this a secret. I'm not allowed to tell anyone that, about the errand.. I trust that you will not let this information out." Control Freak smiled.
(1) Okay, I don't really know about landmines, so that's all fabricated. I only have a vague impression of these deadly weapons.
(2) "[Horse] gallop averages 40 to 48 kilometres per hour" ~ wikipedia.
(3) Alexander Polinsky is the voice actor of Control Freak.
Will Victor reach Bruce and Rachel in time? Will Alexander/Control Freak let the "secret" out? Find out in the next chapter :)
Okay so, if you guys don't like how it turned out, I sincerely apologized. I know that Cyborg isn't the type of guy who always lie, but I think under desperate situations, you'll do something that's out of your nature... For example: Cyborg disguised himself as a villan to get into The Hive Acadamy.
I know for some of you, your vacation has just started, but here in Singapore, the one-month holiday had just ended. I have a lot of upcoming test, so I'll try to post a new chapter as soon as possible. Thanks for your understanding.
Please review.