Machine Story

Skavolan Woods

The first area they entered after leaving the village was the Skavolan Woods. The area was a forest teeming with plants and wildlife. However, as Niall and David were traversing the area, they didn’t encounter many animals. Something felt off about the woodlands and Niall told David to keep his guard up.

As they continued into the deeper parts of the woods, their stomachs began to growl. They stumbled upon a bush filled with red berries that looked ready for picking. “These berries good to eat?” David asked. Niall inspected the berries and replied, “Hmm, these could be the Acharryan berries which are some of the healthiest and tastiest berries around. But on the other hand, these could also be the poisonous Golestanian berries. We should be safe and avoid these just in case.”

Ignoring his warning, David grabbed a handful of berries. “Only one way to find out,” he announced and quickly gobbled down the berries into his stomach. Niall couldn’t believe what he was witnessing as he was eagerly waiting to see David’s reaction.

Nothing happened initially, but after waiting about 2 minutes, David began to grimace in pain and hold his stomach. Niall wanted to scold David about the terrible decision he made but he was more concerned about the boy’s health. He looked around for herbs or anything that could help ease the pain but couldn’t find anything.

With nothing to aid his condition, David first fell on his knee before lying down on the floor. Niall rushes to his side to see if his vitals were still operating. Before Niall could check anything, David attempted to speak to him with a very weakened voice. “Open your hand…” As Niall held his hand out David threw a batch of berries in his hands.

Niall was confused at first but then he realized what was going on, he had been tricked. “The berries are fine, I got Siri to analyze them before I took a bite out of them!” David said as he was holding back his laugh. Niall gave an unamused look as he took a bite into the berries.

David: So we have been wandering through this place for about a week and I have been wondering, why did you agree to go on this mission?

Niall: Got tired of being stuck in the colony. I need a change of scenery.

David: Well that’s one of the biggest lies I’ve heard.

Niall: Your computer friend helped you figure that out too?

David: Actually, she isn’t online right now.

Niall: Interesting. Anyways it’s none of your concern. Just get some rest and we will resume in the morning.

David: I know we might not be friends but right now we are together on this mission. I have a feeling there is something you want to achieve out here. If you could tell me what that is I could help or stay out of your way.

Niall: Hm, that is surprisingly mature. Are you sure you are a teenager cause you didn’t sound like one there?

David: Yup, still haven’t graduated from secondary school.

Niall: Well, I have multiple reasons for being on this mission and I will give you the short version. Back when we rescued your body, there was a third member of our team.

David: One of them was Shaan?

Niall: That is correct.

David: Then who was the other one?

Niall: His name was Roop. I was unable to defeat the giant mechanoid and so he jumped in and took over for me. Unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price.

David: So you are out for revenge?

Niall: Call it what you will but the more Metadross we can get rid of the better.

David found it difficult to argue with that logic after all he had experienced. He wanted to query further about Niall's other motives but Niall changed the subject. “It’s getting dark, you should rest for the night. I will take the first watch.” However, David insisted that he would be the first to stay watch. His mechanical body allowed him to have longer endurance than the typical human so he thought Niall could use the extra rest. Not wanting to argue, Niall accepted David’s offer to guard watch while he took a much needed rest.

As time passed through the night, David’s eye were beginning to feel heavier. He had drastically underestimated how tired he was. He would have fallen asleep but Siri suddenly interrupted, “David!” He slaps himself a couple times before jumping to attention, “I’m not asleep, I’m wide awake!” Siri indicated to him that she was picking up movement on her sensors. Someone or something was watching them.

David proceeded to wake Niall up by shaking him on the shoulders. Niall was slowly gathering himself up when he noticed something was coming for David’s back. He pushed David away and took an arrow to his right shoulder.

David rushed back to Niall and asked if he was alright. Niall, pulled the arrow out of his shoulder to examine the damage. He said the arrow was not intended to kill anyone, it was made from very weak material. However, the tip of the arrow was laced with a chemical meant to tranquilize its target. “I’m sorry, but it looks like I’m going back to sleep for a bit.”

With Niall lying on the ground, David stood up ready to challenge his foe. Another arrow was fired at David but this time he was ready. He stuck out his right forearm and to block the arrow, which snapped in two as it ricochet. “Your arrows won’t help against me. Come out and face me like ----”

Before he could finish, his opponent stepped out of the darkness and completed his sentence, “Like a man?” The challenger that stood before him was a woman in her teenage years. She carried her bow in her hands along with a quiver of arrows and a spear behind her back.

Siri informed David that the person standing before them was an Amazonian. They were a proud female warrior tribe whose strength rivaled even the strongest of men. It was also rumored that they had disappeared after the invasion of the Metadross.

Since their opponent was a human, David attempted to reason with her. However, the Amazonian was in no mood to cooperate. She warned David that he was trespassing on sacred ground and worse of all, her tribe was not too fond of seeing David’s kind.

David was confused, what did she mean by ‘his kind?’ They were both humans after all. “She’s an Amazonian. Her tribe doesn’t like men. They have a long history, which you would have known if you didn’t skip class.” Siri scolded. David argued but as he was busy replying to Siri, an arrow was shot at his face.

Luckily, David deflected the attack and ready himself to charge at his target but she hid back in the trees. More arrows came flying his way but his armor was too tough for the arrows to pierce through. He shouted to the woman that she should give up as her attacks were useless against him. That was when one arrow struck at a joint on David’s arm. The arrow briefly short circuited his right arm causing David to be stunned. The Amazonian took this opportunity to charge with her spear, aiming it at David’s chest.

The spear successfully connected against David’s chest. All his systems had shut off and it looked as if the Amazonian was the victor. Shortly after however, David’s system turned back on and he was wide awake. He pulled the spear out of his chest and threw it far out of reach from his enemy. He then got a burst of speed from the boosters on his feet and threw a fierce punch right at the unarmed Amazonian.

The Amazonian was caught off guard so she was too slow to react to David’s attack. She managed to prevent the punch from connecting against any of her vital organs but her left arm took the majority of the damage. David’s surprise attack nearly ended the match, but the Amazonian was still standing.

Siri told David that he should stop taking his opponent so lightly. The Amazonians were well adept in combat. They were able to defeat animals over twice their size. She even added that he was extremely lucky the spear that impaled him didn’t go any deeper or she might not have been able to restore him back to power as quickly.

David admitted that he needed to finish the battle now. He readied his fist in preparation for one last attack. He began charging at the Amazonian but suddenly, she held out her arm to signal a ceasefire. She asked David to pause their battle as she could sense something was coming.

Not wanting to fall for any tricks, David ignored her and was about to re-engage his attack but was again stopped by Siri. Her sensor was picking up a massive amount of movement not too far from where David stood. It didn’t take long for an army of spiders the size of hounds to emerge and surround them.

David got a quick assessment of the situation. There were too many spiders for him to take on by himself. There was also the amazon lady he had to worry about and Niall was still lying down defenseless. “We need to work together.” The lady spoke out. David was skeptical but he figured she didn’t want to end up as dinner for these insects.

The Amazon knew she wouldn’t be much help in combat with an injured arm, but she knew the layout of the forest well. David agreed to let her lead the way but first, he had to grab Niall. David rocketed forward with his shoulder first to tackle through any of the eight legged creatures that got in his way.

He easily cleared the path all the way to Niall where he stopped and asked Siri if she could provide some assistance with waking Niall up. David put his hand right on Niall’s shoulder and Siri sent a small electric shock through his hand and zapped Niall awake. “Who? What? When? Where?” Niall said in confusion.

David let Niall know there wasn’t enough time for the full detail. Right now all he needed to know was that they had to escape the human eating spiders. Niall was in complete agreement that not getting eaten was a magnificent idea. As they were getting ready to run towards the amazon lady, she cried out, “Watch out, above you!”

A giant creature attempted to ambush the two from above but thankfully David was able to evade the attack and escape with only minor scratches and bruises. He quickly got back up to get a look at the creature that snuck up on him and it was a creature he had only heard legends about. The creature standing before him was the giant spider queen known as Queen Arachnid.

She was much larger than her minions and the look on her eight eyes was extremely unsettling. Seeing that she was about three times David’s size, he figured the old saying must apply, ‘the bigger they are the harder they fall!’ So he began to charge at his opponent, who was wrapping Niall in her web. He slammed his right fist right into one of the queen’s right legs but it rebounded off, not affecting her at all.

David shook off his right arm and attempted to attack her left limb but once again the queen was not fazed. This time, it reacted by flicking David aside with one of its legs, sending him hard against the ground. He immediately picked himself back up but he was still wondering why his attacks weren’t having any effect on the spider queen.

Before David could attempt another attack, Siri halted his advance with some important analysis. A majority of Queen Arachnid’s body was covered in Metadross, shielding her from all of David’s attacks.

Time was of the essence as Niall was now wrapped into a cocoon by the spider queen. David was looking for ideas to save his comrade but had no options. No attacks were working and even if he managed to find a way to save Niall, he wasn't sure he would be able to escape with all the spider minions surrounding them. The situation looked bleak.

“I’ll distract the queen.” David looked up as his ally spoke. “I will get her attention, and when she looks away, you should be quick enough to speed boost in and grab your friend out to safety.” David adamantly disagreed with the plan. It was too risky and he was not willing to leave her alone against the horde of spiders.

The woman looked at David and asked him if he had another idea. He hesitated and nothing came from his mouth. “Then we proceed with my plan. My hand still hurts from your attack but I should be able to fire a few arrows to cause a distraction.” She confidently pulled out her bow and walked towards the enemy. Before she began to fire her arrows David asked for her name. She replied, “Addyson.”

As Queen Arachnid was looking at her captured victim, an arrow was fired that hit right in one of her eyes. She let out a screech of pain that could be heard throughout the entire forest. After her beastly bellow, she set her sight on the Amazon and began to charge towards her. This was the moment they were looking for as David used his boosters to rush in and grab Niall away from harm’s way.

With a spider behemoth crashing through her way, Addyson began backing away and firing her arrows to slow the creature down. Unfortunately, all the minions were jumping in front of their queen to protect her from further harm. Eventually, Addyson backed into a tree and was cut off on both sides by the spiderlings. She was trapped as Queen Arachnid came lunging forward for a fatal strike.

In her final moments, Addyson stood tall and proud like any member from her tribe would. But today would not be her end as David rocketed through all the minions and pulled Addyson away from the fangs of the beast.

For a moment he was carrying both Niall and Addyson before letting them down on the floor. He began to tear apart the cocoon by turning his hand into a claw to shred through the web. Addyson got up and was furious, she told David to leave with his comrade. “Sorry, that is not how I do things. Nobody gets left behind if I have anything to say about it.”

Niall was now free from the entanglement of the webs but he wasn’t anywhere near 100% but stood with his weapons drawn. David had both his fist ready and Addyson raised her bow ready to fire. Addyson attempted one last time to convince them to leave but David and Niall didn’t budge, this was where they were going to make their stand.

With the swarm closing in, Siri began to speak with David. She alerted him that she found a new weapon for him to use. Without giving it a second thought, David told her to activate it for him. Suddenly, David’s right arm transformed into a plasma cannon.

Not wasting any time, he fired his new weapon at the mob of spiders. The attack took out a good chunk of the spiderlings and melted through the armor on one of the spider queen’s legs. The aftermath of the shot had the enemies stunned and second guessing their advance.

Although the attack was successful, it required a great deal of energy from David, who now had one knee on the floor. Realizing this, Niall and Addyson rearranged their positioning and stood in front of David to prevent the enemy from engaging him. Queen Arachnid slowly but surely began to catch wind of that fact and began to command her underlings to continue their assault.

As Niall and Addyson stood their ground, David communicated with Siri to see if they could fire another shot. Siri informed David that he could charge up for a stronger blast, but the end result could leave him defenseless for a long period of time. David only had one question for Siri, “Does this give us the best chance to defeat Queen Arachnid?” With a bit of a pause, Siri confirmed that this choice had the highest upside.

David got both his comrades’ attention and told them to stall for time while he charged up his cannon. Niall and Addyson nodded and positioned themselves to protect him. Once they were all ready, David told Siri to divert all power to his right arm.

With David’s right arm charging, Niall fought on the front lines while Addyson gave him cover fire by standing high up on a tree. Even without his full strength, Niall could easily take out the spider minions especially with the support of Addy’s sharp shooting.

Once David’s arm was about fully charged, he called out to his teammates to get out of the way. Niall took out one last spider before withdrawing from the battlefield. Addyson continued to provide Niall with cover fire until he was in the clear but the spider queen saw this as the perfect opportunity to strike. She fired a string of web that latched around Addyson’s arms and pulled her down from the tree.

Queen Arachnid now had Addyson in the clutches of her web and began to reel her in. David was now caught in a dilemma. If he released his attack when it would be fully charged Addyson would be caught in the crossfire. But if he fired now, the cannon wouldn’t be powerful enough to take out the queen. As he struggled with the thought, Niall told David to stick with the plan and fire the cannon when it was ready.

Siri informed that the charge was about 95% finished and David relayed that information to Niall. Niall took a deep breath, giving himself a mental countdown of how much time he had. He charged back into the fray slicing through the spiders that got in his way. He took out about fifteen more enemies but many still stood in his way.

97% was now what Niall was working with. He quickly assessed how many more underlings he had to muster through and where Addyson was currently. As one of the spiders lunged towards him, he jumped on it and used it to spring himself up into the air. While in midair, he flung one of his blades at the spider thread and cut it off, freeing Addyson from being pulled.

“99%!” David shouted to the both of them. Addyson snapped the remains of the web from her arms and picked up Niall's blade, throwing it back to him. Niall catches the other half of his weapon and continues taking out a few more spiderlings to clear an opening for their escape. Addyson fired one last arrow which landed right on the spider queen’s leg that David had blown the armor plate off from his previous attack. From there, Addyson quickly regrouped with Niall and together, they ran as fast as they could to get away from the line of fire.

“100!” Siri shouted in David’s head. David aimed his plasma cannon right at the spider queen and unleashed all the energy he had stored up onto his enemies. Queen Arachnid attempted to move but the arrow that Addyson shot on her right leg slowed her down tremendously. The plasma beam wiped out all of her spiderlings that stood in the line of fire and struck through her body.

The aftermath of the attack left the area decimated. Niall and Addyson each picked themselves up and dusted themselves off. They made their way to David to find that he was unable to move but still conscious after nearly expending all his energy to create such a devastating impact.

“Looks like your idea worked, you crazy kid.” Niall happily mentioned. David was too tired to say anything but he looked up and gave a weak smile with the remaining strength he had. Meanwhile, Addyson stood confused by the two. After her experience, she began to question everything she knew and believed about men.

As they helped David up, they heard a noise coming from the direction of the spider queen’s body. “You have got to be kidding me.” Niall said in disbelief. Although almost all her armor had been destroyed, Queen Arachnid slowly got back up to her feet.

Addyson’s hand began to feel weak again as it never fully healed. David was clearly immobile, which meant Niall was the only one who could still fight. Niall stood in front of them instead of choosing to flee.

Queen Arachnid slowly made her charge and was now within 10 feet from the three fighters. As she prepared to strike, multiple arrows with ropes attached were fired towards her, binding around her limbs and preventing her from moving temporarily. While she was struggling, two amazon archers emerged and each fired four arrows, one for each of the spider queen’s legs.

With all eight legs impaled with an arrow, the queen was screeching in pain and unable to escape. Finally, one last amazon woman emerged from the distance. She was very well-built and tall even for Amazonian standards. The bulky amazonian blitzed towards her target and unleashed her fist onto the giant beast. In one punch, everyone could hear the bones within the spider queen shattering. She was about to follow up with another strike but the other two amazons held her arm, signalling that their enemy was already defeated.

After the threat had been disabled, one of the Amazonian archers ran up to give Addyson a big hug. Her name was Sonia, who was the shorter of the two archers. The much taller Amazon woman, Priya, stood close by and was glad to see Addyson.

Addyson was about to introduce everyone to each other but Priya interrupted. She was extremely unhappy to see both Niall who was a human male and David who was nearly fully mechanized. Without letting Addy finish, she commanded the arrest of the two trespassers. The giant Amazon woman who took out the spider queen in one punch, known as Chelle Chandra tied both Niall and David with extremely strong rope. She then dragged them along the ground as Priya led everyone back to their camp.