Hellow my fellow Americans, (even though not all of you ARE American o.0) chapter VI of the Clock Struck Midnight is here :D. This chapter really only acts as a filler for the upcoming chapters, which will kick the pace into a high gear. This one has a little less pacing but it still holds crucial details just like the other chapters before it and after it.
So hope you enjoy chapter VI, as always, R&R, Intense gore and violence, language, sexual themes. In addition; I do not own MLaaTR or WH40k.
About a week had passed since that grand night of Jennifer Wakemen's first kiss. The couple had taken to each other quite well. The two had decided to go steady, no more horsing around like elementary school children. As Jenny's first boyfriend, she had really gotten quite the catch. He was everything she'd ask for. They were similar enough to like each other's interests, but differed enough that they didn't get bored with one another. What tops it all is that they were a cute couple composed of two extremely attractive people. Everyone smiled to see the two together. But the only one who wasn't was Brad.
After a week of dating, he could not find out what it was about the guy, but he knew that something was wrong with Ben. But what? He was practically perfect, but Brad isn't the jealous type. At least he didn't think he was. After all Jenny had been through, he couldn't see why he had such a hard time being happy for them. This mix of confusion and dislike fueled into anger, and this could lead to rage, something that Brad has never felt toward another person since the play ground bullies when he was four.
The five friends, Brad, Jenny, Sheldon, Tuck, and the new addition, Ben had met at their location of choice that they normally hang out at. Jenny had finally been taken off restriction and was planning on using her time with her boyfriend wisely. Her mother still didn't trust her, however, she trusted Ben after she met him. That was as insulting as it was confusing. But she didn't mind, she had all the time in the world to spend with Ben, and she wasn't going to screw up again and lose it.
The five people sat in a booth, just bull-shitting, genuinely enjoying themselves, except Brad obviously. Brad was incapable of doing that right now, and he was normally the center of the group's hilarity. But Ben was holding his own, very charismatic and bold. Ever feature on his face was so perfect that it made Brad want to beat them out of perfection with his bare hands. He just sat their arms folded and grimacing, as his other friends sat and joked and laughed. He snarled involuntarily every time Jenny fed something to Ben or they kissed innocently. It was harmless, and anyone else he wouldn't have minded. But, this guy, he hated him, with fiery passion. He wanted to rip that hat off his head and asphyxiate him with it, then stab him to death with those stupid glasses he never takes off.
Jesus Christ, thought Brad what the hell is wrong with me?
After a short while the T.V. in the restaurant had its programming interrupted by a breaking news cast. Any other time Jenny would have ignored it, but this one caught her eye. The T.V. anchorwoman spoke with that same, careless monotone that made every single news cast sound epic. The only word that caught the attention of the robot girl was the location: Seattle. Jenny turned in her seat and watched the report, eventually the rest of the group listened in. Over the noise of music and talking they heard very little:
Police raid… Seattle slum...9 killed 2 dozen injured… escaped FBI most wanted… illegal bionic enhancements… high alert… all residential areas… male, Irish decent…
"Dear god," Muttered Jenny under her breath, after a long pause: "Guys, I need to go home."
"What? Over a little newscast?" asked Sheldon "The metropolitan area is about 100 miles from here. Is that what you're worried about?"
"Yes… no… I mean… it's just robot business okay?" Stammered Jenny, standing up and grabbing her purse
"Do you want me to walk you home, baby?" said Ben standing up
"No, no," Said Jenny distracted "But thank you for the offer."
Jenny said good bye and kissed Ben. Sheldon averted his eyes out of respect and caught the gaze of Brad, whom behind his thick black sunglasses was scowling at the happy couple. Tuck broke the awkwardly long kiss.
"Ew you guys. Get a room!"
"Sorry, Tuck." Laughed Jenny. "See you guys later."
The group waved off Jenny, once again, except Brad.
"Hey, I'm gonna head out too," said Ben placing his and Jenny's portion of the bill on the table, and headed for the washrooms to ritualistically regurgitate his small amount of food. "I'm going to go wash up, see ya guys tomorrow."
Brad followed Ben with his eyes, behind the protection of his sunglasses; another snarl broke out on his face.
"Okay," said Sheldon once Ben was out of earshot "What crawled up your ass?"
"What?" said Brad playing stupid
"You kept looking at Ben and Jenny with murderous intent." He said concerned "What is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with you?" barked Brad "Don't you still have the hots for Jen?"
"Yes," said Sheldon "But I also know that when you love something let it go. Jenny is really happy with Ben and you should respect that."
"Of all people I thought, you'd be on my side." Brad stood up and gestured to Tuck "Come on, Runt, we're out of here."
Tuck followed Sheldon and mouthed "sorry" to Sheldon. The 3ft tall kid followed his older brother as he stormed out. As Brad exited he bumped shoulders with a shorter gentleman. He was dressed as if he just came from a Vampire the Masquerade meeting. The guy was bald, had a goatee, and was wearing extremely creepy clothing. He wore a black fedora, had a pair of thin blue specs on the end of his nose, he wore a black trench coat over his black suit and white tie.
The man was far out of place in this teenaged based setting. He went up to the owner behind the bar-counter, and leaned in-between two teenagers who looked at him rudely. Sheldon could not hear what he was saying, but the moment he pulled his wallet out, the old man's face went pallid, and he pointed him in the direction of the washrooms. The man in black tipped his hat, and entered the restrooms. Sheldon, desperate to be the kind of super-spy that would attract girls, specifically Jenny, he moved up to the door and heard the terrors from the other side.
The Cluster Dreadnaught exited out of warp travel finally. They crew gracious to be heading back to the dead, ashen landscape they know and love. Cluster Prime; huge chunks had been blasted out of the artificial world by the human navy. The ground war was just as devastating. The blinded and easily fooled citizens, happy with their socialist-like ideals had been blown away by the human marines within minutes, scores of innocent robots were slaughter by the minute. And they called the Cluster Savage.
And that was just the ground troops, the desolation brought by Earth Defense Unit XJ-9 had been a crippling blow to the cluster. Their strongest machines were felled in minutes and their legions of drones and foot soldiers had been massacred in seconds. Her close combat weapons cleaving through dozens with ease, her long ranged weapons would decimate entire companies.
It was a brutal end to a war not nearly as vicious. Sixteen days of naval battles. Fleets of human ships cleaved through the unaware Cluster Armada. Sixty-two days of ground fighting. The civilians extinguished, armies reduced to the man. And worst of all, three days of the firestorms. Massive warheads tearing craters the size of cities into the metal world, one warhead of which, ruined the Imperial Palace, and took the life of Queen Vexus.
After her death the survivors had lost their synapse to the hive mind, and began to lose tactical thought, they were soon destroyed in attempts to form pocket resistances against the humans. Those who did not attack blindly fled the world with the last member of the council of eight, Cassius. Now, Cassius had the ability to rectify all of this devastation, and he and his queen shall rage violent and bloody war on the humans until the flesh wearers were extinct and Earth will become Cluster Omega; the planet's neighboring worlds will become massive military bases and colonies, attracting renegade machines like moths to flame.
When the Cluster Empire has reached its full potential, they shall crusade against other flesh wearing races, annexing them as slaves and soldiers if they surrender, and jovially annihilating them if they resist. The knowledge that Cassius held in his arms, wrapped in a heavy cloth, could map out the galaxy. Pinpointing every weakness and flaw of each and every race, even their own. They could make themselves unstoppable and it will all soon be possible.
The ant-like ship touched down onto the dead world, its six hydraulic limbs stabilizing it on the uneven landscape. Cities of gruesome iron had been made molten and are now massive mountains that look as if they were painted like buildings in mockery of the once great Cluster race. Before them, the biggest defilement was made visible. An icon of their faith and government was now a pile of rubble and a series of disconnected walls.
"The Imperial Palace," breathed Cassius, his accent still southern but somehow more scholarly "The core reactor to the planet lay beneath the chamber of the Council of Eight. It is there that we will revive our too long dead legacy."
Cassius and his retinue of humanoid Locust Warriors walked up the distorted palace steps. Every step closer the ball of cloth in his hand began to glow brighter. Cassius chuckled as small jolts of green electricity tingled his fingers; the power of the item was so immense and arcane that it sensed death, so that it may have the chance to revive the fallen.
The group had reached the door to the Council chambers. Cassius pushed the massive steel doors open. The room had been desecrated; rubble and fallen guard littered the room. The six dead councilmen sad, slumped and destroyed in their chairs of office, one of which was the hated rival of Cassius; Smytus. If he had the opportunity to revive all but one, he'd be the one left out. He was a pompous, arrogant, and selfish bastard. He did not deserve the right hand seat to the beautiful seductress that sit silent on her throne.
Tears would have been flowing from Cassius's eyes if he had tear ducts. He looked at his beautiful queen and bowed, his silent warrior guards did the same. Cassius thought for a moment about how exactly he was going to do this. A thought, an amazing thought accrued to him; he didn't need to think about it. He gleefully unwrapped the ball and placed the glass orb swiftly to his forehead.
After a scream of pain caused by the rush of knowledge, he pulled the orb back and laughed manically. He raised the orb high above his head and bellowed words of a dead language:
"Maschile von la C'tan sich erheben avverbio und sostantivo!"
Cassius slammed the orb into the floor. Massive, glowing cracks formed around the orb as it went half way into the steel. Electricity and unnatural energies flowed in volts into the core reactor. The world glowed bright green from all of its faults and crevices as it began to spread life across the dead world. Dead robots arose from a once permanent slumber to see their world magically pull itself together. The craters closed, the crumpled building rectified, armies awoken and pieced themselves back together. All of the machines gained a sense of invulnerability as arcane magic filled their bodies. Cassius watched as the council of eight awoke from a rotted slumber and found their forms suddenly brand new. And most amazing of these events, he saw his beloved queen move and sit straight up. Her eyes glowed with the energy of a thousand souls. And in her amazing voice she looked at her savior, and spoke his name.
And the clock struck midnight.
Jenny landed outside of her home. Everything seemed peaceful as Tremorton always did in any non-invasion scenario. She walked through her front door, the door knob had been fixed by the government funded locksmith, and it was pretty top dollar.
"Mom!" shouted Jenny "I'm home."
No response. She pushed on the door, and walked on assuming the force would shut it, but she did not hear it slam. She turned around, and it was open slightly. Jenny dismissed it as the differences in pressure and closed it.
She walked upstairs assuming her mother was at her work bench by the telescope. When Jenny finished climbing the spiral stair case, she saw that she was right. Her mother was welding something at her work bench, completely unprotected. She even had her raincoat off. But that was her mother. A risk taker, even if it's as simple as that.
Jenny walked up to her mother, a look of curiosity on her face.
"So," said Jenny "Why did you need me here? Was it that important that you needed to leave me a silent message directly into my brain?"
"Well," said her mother not looking up from her work "It wasn't you I needed exactly, merely your presence."
"Huh?" said Jenny reeling back.
"You bitch!" shouted an Irish voice as if on cue.
Jenny lurched back as her motion detection sensors went haywire. A massive mechanical arm lurched downward from the telescope, smashing that part of the bench in two. A red robe then draped over the hunched figure. Before either Jenny or the red robed figure could retaliate, Nora, with no surprise on her face, took the welding tool to the left eye of the figure. He screamed in agony as his half metal face was burnt to near destruction. He dropped to the floor in pain, rolling around clutching his face with his four-fingered, mechanical arm.
"Planting a tracking device on your clients in case of such a scenario as this? Such a predictable, elementary tactic, Gerardo," Said Wakemen, with a tone of confidence in her voice as she turned off the welder "Even for you."
Gerardo looked up at her viscously, but could only bring himself to his knees due to the immense agony. Jenny said nothing, instead just standing with her jaw dropped, amazed at her mother's swift and tactical skills.
"I can see you're still a shriveled, cult-obsessed, bottom-feeding, worm." Said Wakemen valiantly
"Well, Nora," said Gerardo taking his hand away from his destroyed tri-focal "I can see you're still a bitch."
With great anger, she whipped him over the back of the head with the metal welding torch. He grabbed his head and yelped.
"Did I say bitch? I meant butch." Spoke the rouge Irishman with brazen bravery.
Wakemen drove her brown leather boot into his stomach, robbing the murderous surgeon's lungs of air. He stopped talking, and rolled over, coughing and gasping for breath through his skeletal face.
"Wait," interjected Jenny "How… do you know each other?"
"We both went to Oxford," said the Doctor, digging her heel into Gerardo's throat "Remember how I said there were things I wasn't so proud of?"
Jenny nodded.
"Dating this tosser was one of them." Finished Nora
Jenny gagged a bit, but it was enough to be obvious.
"Oh please," said Wakemen, looking disappointedly at her daughter, "He had his original parts back then. It was when he started preaching 'Machine God' bullocks and chopped off his arm that I dumped him."
"Oh…" said Jenny, still a little sickened "Even still."
"Will you help me prepare the guest bedroom, Jenny?" Said the small woman.
"What? He tried to kill me!" shouted Jenny.
"Only because you narced on me, you backstabbing, shiner, whor-" choked Gerardo before more pressure was laid down on his wind pipe.
"I did no such thing!" said Jenny before the thought of the FBI agents clicked in her head.
"Jennifer, I'm not going to ask you again." Said her mother calmly, and taking her foot off of the suffocating Gerardo.
"Yes, mother." Said Jenny begrudgingly
"Oi, I don't need your charity woman" said Gerardo standing up and dusting off his robes.
"Not from where I'm standing." Said Wakemen "As I see it, the moment you step out that door the federal government is going to be all over you. So you either stay here, or get abducted."
"Aye," agreed Gerardo "And what's to stop me from killing you in your sleep?"
"I thought of that." Dr. Wakemen pulled out a small remote and pushed one of the buttons on it.
With the hum of engines a massive thud crashed behind Gerardo concealing him in its shadow, his eye widened at the improbable horror that now stood behind him. He looked at the smug faces of Nora and Jenny Wakemen, and gulped. He turned to see the monstrosity and saw that it was a large humanoid robot, not unlike Jenny in design, but much larger and bulkier. It gazed down at him with a massive frown upon its face and blank white eyes.
"XJ-8, if this man tries to leave his quarters without my consent, assures he is placed back in the room one limb at a time."
"Yes, mother." Spoke the automaton emotionlessly.
Gerardo felt his heart drop, and simply agreed to follow the instructions given to him. Nora headed down the spiral staircase and toward the guest room. Jenny looked at her sister and smiled.
"How are you doing, sis?" said Jenny
"Well." Spoke XJ-8
Jenny's smile faded when she met eye contact with Gerardo, the man who seconds ago was trying to kill her and now is staying in her house. The second thought that grazed her mind was the fact that he and her mom was a couple at one point. In college! That means they were over 18 She thought And that means they…
"Oh god," said Jenny, reflexively bending over, feeling her non-existent stomach churn.
"What? Can't stand the thought of me and you're mother getting it on?" laughed Gerardo "Just to let you know, it was great!"
"Oh god…" said Jenny feeling herself reeling in a nausea that can never relieve itself
"Oh, please don't flatter yourself." Overheard Nora "You were terrible in the sack."
"Don't deny it. You know you loved all of that kinky shit we did,"
"Oh god!" shouted Jenny, her cries of pain ignored,
Nora simply glared at Gerardo and showed him her middle finger.
"Any time, baby." He said pelvic thrusting the air.
"OH GOD! PLEASE STOP!" shouted Jenny clutching her belly.
"Come on Jennifer." Said her mother, whom had turned and was storming out of the area
Jenny flew across the room, quickly catching up to her mother in the hallway. Her mother saw a look of disdain on her face.
"Sorry you had to hear that." Said Nora blushing slightly and avoiding eye contact
"Well that was pretty bad," said Jenny not looking up from the floor, to avoid awkward eye contact as well "But why are you harboring him? You hated the fact that I got the body work done. Why would you let the man, a fugitive none the less, stay in our home?"
"For one, I didn't hate that you got it done," said Nora, shocking Jenny "I hated the way you went about it; constantly going out behind my back to do something illegal with government money. And what really got to me is that you didn't trust me enough to ask me to do the body reconstruction. And for as to why I'm harboring a criminal; the government doesn't want to arrest him, they want him for something. That's why they came here that one night; they found payment documents so that they could trace the location."
"Wanted him? For what?" questioned Jenny, facing her mother
"I don't know. That's the scary part." Said Nora, finally looking at Jenny "And you know me; when I don't understand something, I take it apart until I do."
Ben finally pulled his head from the toilet, cursing the chefs of this vile, greasy, heart-stopping food. His eyes were blood shot and his throat was raw again. He cursed some more, this time cursing his sensitive pallet. He rose from the toilet and exited the stall.
He had heard someone enter the bathrooms, but thought nothing of it. He moved to the sink to rinse his mouth and wash his sweaty face. He took his hat and glasses off, setting them on the edge of the sink and plunged his hands into the water. After washing his face off, he noticed a presence behind him. Assuming the presence was familiar, her spoke and turned;
"Listen Fortunatus, I need more ti-" Ben had seen the figure behind him and his words were replaced with curses "Son of a bi-"
These words too were cut short as a hard jab to his stomach sent the wind shooting from his lungs. The next blow was to his temple, spinning him 180. He stopped and held onto the sink, and kicked out, hitting his attacker in the chest, but not hard enough to keep him at bay. Ben swung his arm around with inhuman speed, his target ducked, grabbing his arm and sent a blow to his chest.
Ben hunched over, and was kneed in the face, sending him flying back in-between two sinks. Blood gushed from his nose and split lip as he tried to gain balance. The attacker grabbed him by the collar and then placed his second hand on the back of his head. The attacker smashed Ben's face into the sink, shattering it spilling water and shards of ceramic across the floor and all over Ben.
The broken and defeated Ben attempted to stand up, but only got as far as being on his hands and knees before a black boot smashed into his ribs, putting him out of commission. Ben lay in the running water, fading in and out of consciousness. The attacker picked him up by his collar with ease. He could only see a blur of the world around him, his attacker was a white human male, and he wore black. That's all he could see.
"Listen you alien shit." barked the attacker, his voice was monotone but very dangerous, and extremely serious "We know what you're here for, and you can't have it."
"Y-you," Ben tried to speak "M-missed my itch sp-pot."
The attacker punched him in the face knocking him free of his grip and toppling him onto shards of sharp porcelain, sending them stabbing into his back. Ben screamed and attempted to roll over, but the attacker hat placed his boot on his chest and applied increasing pressure, sending the shards deeper into his back.
"Better?" sarcastically spoke the attacker "We know your after the specimen, why else would your kind wish to fiddle with humans?"
"I don't know what the fuck… you're talking… about…" wheezed Ben
"I think that's a lie," Putting more weight onto his foot "I think you are trying to gain access to the federal government's research through Earth Defense Unit XJ-9."
"You… You have no idea… what our…ag-genda is, m-Mon'kei!" retaliated Ben
"Consider this your warning shot," said the attacker taking his boot off of Ben's chest "Because the next time we see you with XJ-9, you won't even feel the shot."
The stranger left without a trace, and Ben attempted to crawl away before the world around him faded into darkness.
The strange man walked out of the restroom, swinging the restroom door open and brushing shoulders with Sheldon. Their eyes only met briefly. The hazel crescent above the rim of his blue specs was a terrifying "You saw nothing" look. The man walked out of the hangout with haste, as if he didn't want to be seen any longer than need be.
Despite the non-verbal warning, Sheldon opened the door to see if what he heard matched what he was about to see. His eyes widened as he saw the crumpled form of Ben lying face first in a pool of watery blood. Instead of calling for help, Sheldon walked in, and knelt down next to the unconscious, but thankfully still alive, Ben.
He checked his pulse to be sure and rocked him to wake him up. Ben didn't budge. Sheldon stood up and pulled out his cell phone. He quick hit a few arrows until he reached the name he needed to speak to. He hit send; it just rang, and rang, and rang, until finally he heard a voice.
"Hey this is the Bradster. You know what to do."
A high pitched beep sounded on the other end.
"Hey, Brad. This is Sheldon." He said looking down at the unconscious, well dressed body "I think you were right about Ben…"