19...20...21... I pushed harder and the suit picked up on my strength. I had the impulse to drop out of the game. I was feeling dizzy."43 m/h. You're halfway there." Zed said. "You won't leave this place until I see a tweak in your ratings." That pushed me to keep going, I was beaten by a Klozandroid, overpowered by a mimic, merely annoyed by a condor, and saved by a girl. There was no way I was falling out of the race. I reached the line and my vision doubled. I stumbled before the line and fell sideways. I cringed clutching the floor. I was angry with myself. "Stay away from electrolytes. It's bad for you." "Sorry, Private, You have a lot of training on your hands." She outstretched her gloved hand and I clutched it, she struggled. "Turn off the suit." "Deactivate. Whoa!" I was whisked forward and we fell. I had to try this again. It took me 159 tries and I only broke out with 24 miles."Class dismissed." Zed flicked the lighter off. He turned to the tyres drifting into his bri
We froze and she nudged me to pick up the phone. Guard Dog closed in on me. I pushed it back and picked up the phone. "Mortay.""Don't Mortay me. After all I've been through. The weekend is almost over and you didn't make it. You were looking forward to this. I waited all day for you. It's not strange of you to decline, you're always declining! I finally thought we were going to have a good time. Me and you without all this alien nonsense coming into the mix.""Wait a second, I was excited. But I had training.""Is that so?" I could hear the harsh tone in his voice. "Yeah, it's so. It was an impromptu meeting anyways. I'm at Frank's place. Just ask Oogie." I said and she cast me a dry look standing akimbo. I facepalmed. "Then why didn't you call me? I would have understood.""I had a lot of things on my plate." "Like what? It's not like you were in the middle of a fight. I know you. you've been bitching about that ride for ages. I was trying to be a good friend." Turned out he
"He came face to face with Lord Gondomier. We didn't know what happened next. But the state of the field indicated that there was an epic battle. Teyen forced him to yield. In fact the only reason that he let go of the heart, the nanites and the Box was left to him alone. I know not about his motivations." I swallowed hard. I did hear about the slaves of Gagarin that were rescued. Why would they betray Zed like that? The extra AI from Zoldor indicated that he rescued them from the dying planet. Did it contain false records? Were the other slaves abandoned, embittered and lost? I wanted to ask her about them but she looked back at the creature creeping out of the ghost town. Dust and smoke rose and I set my hand over my eyes. I heard screaming behind us. Oogie pulled out a luminescent staff. I took out a blaster. We stood back to back."I figure it's too late for escorts." My breathing turned shallow when I heard soft growling noises. "What is that?" I turned around and set out my
The alien slowly dropped and I wheezed moving on. The city was ridden with them. It was all my fault, I couldn't let my friends and family or others down but I couldn't let Gondomier get the nanites or the rest of the world. I was stretching myself too thin. I limped out in grief ignoring the incoming call from my dad. I pushed myself. I ran towards the city and drifted with my thrusters to the inner city where these spiders were raiding. Oogie was amongst them in a coccoon. I shot at them, another raised its appendages at me. An alien with tentacles stepped down. "Ah, the Mech Soldier is here, or shall we say, the Mech Knight." He laughed maniacally. He had green skin, red eyes, a purple suit with wings just like their appendages hanging stiffly on its back. He rounded up a horde of people within the barriers and I noticed that Beck was among them. He looked horrified. More water drop vessels fell from the sky on to the roads. I was asked not to show emotions before my adversaries
I gasped heavily at the smoke, a pile of stones was raining. The alarm system in my suit beeped. "Shit, my thrusters are jammed." The dust and fumes filled my lungs. I stayed down crawling and breathing in the oxygen on the floor. The nanotech crawled on my face and it was painful to breathe. I recalled my mother and how it must have felt, was it painful? Or was the explosion so terrible that she didn't even see it coming? Was she afraid of being alone? Depression weighed on me like a wet blanket as I crawled. I groaned as something jumped on me. The earth shook like there were tectonic plates underground. I pulled away from Gilgax, and blood dripped down his face. I kicked back and jammed a rock into his face. Again and again. I crawled away as it rained dust and climbed out, I couldn't stay here. I needed to survive. I gasped getting up to run from the explosions. I pushed running for what could have been 45 miles away from the hot spot to safety. I met Mort and Oogie. She gripped m
I faced her head on and her eyes narrowed to slits. I tried my hardest to look her straight in the eyes but my heart was beating against my ribs. I stopped my hand from curling. Hers did. I remembered her saying that she would do her very best to be fair and honest. Sometimes being honest was a good thing until it compromised someone else's position. Someone like me. If I didn't say anything to her, I would continue to live in turmoil and if I did tell her, she might make a report of it to anyone deemed fit of dealing with me. My knees were heavy and my stomach felt hot. I couldn't face her but I had too. I gnashed my teeth afraid of the outcome. She kept the necklace close. "I'm not letting it out of my sight until you tell the truth." I shoved her to get the necklace. She pushed back and punched me. I kicked her down and she flipped over elbowing my face. "Gah!" I saw black and white after that punch and my neck snapped in pain. She lifted me over her shoulder and I screamed as sh
"I'm just hyperventilating."Chima chuckled. "Ah don't mind me, we don't have air conditioning systems yet. I was only able to rent the equipment for baking." He rubbed his gloved palms together. "You're sure you're okay, brother?" Amir said and I nodded. "Yeah, nothing to it." I worked my jaw and Chima picked up interest in his cooking and began to mix the flour and the likes for the pastry. He asked me to dice the Irish potatoes and the vegetables. He didn't get the minced meat so we had to grind them ourselves. Amir stir fried the minced meat and sliced onions, then sprinkled seasoning into the pan frying for like ten minutes. He blinked. "It stings." He held a tablespoon to Chima who had a taste of the pie. Grace paint-brushed the oil on top of the tray. I cringed at the phonecalls but I was caught between painting the edges of the small sized dough on the tray with eggs while Amir speedily used a ladle to pour sizeable portions of golden meat sauce into small sized circles of d
I shook my head after that, how was I supposed to turn up once anything bad happened? They were looking for a man in a black suit? What if I made a big show of my battle and they came after me anyway? Lois held my wrist. "Can we go now?." She held her stomach. I forced myself away from the television and I fled with her. I brushed my nose walking home. I couldn't believe this, half of the city hated me and loved Oogie 'The Blue Knight' for standing up to them fearlessly. I reached home to drop her things. I gaped at the cage where Sandra clung to the glass. Beck inherited that spider from my mother. People thought it was weird that we let her roam about. She only wandered to look for food. She was venomous but shy and hardly bit anyone unless she had no choice. The fact that he didn't let her go out was saying something. I opened the lid. She clicked the back of her legs chirping like a cricket and disappeared. I made breakfast and set down a portion of halfburned eggs on her plate. I