Machine Story

Battle of the Familiar

The two wurms slithered, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. They kept circling around, causing fear and despair to everyone on Rocky. However, they never got a chance to attack as suddenly, an elite Metadross dropped down from the sky, between the two sandwurms. It was one that David, Shaan, and Niall had seen back in the forest, the twin-blade Metadross.

Feeling threatened, the sandwurms lunged towards the elite unit. The Metadross raised its arm in opposite directions and a cannon nozzle appeared on top of its hand. Out of the nozzle were two large streams of fire that melted through the sandwurm’s armor.

The giant wurms had been heavily damaged, and after a small taste of what the flamethrowers could do, they retreated with their offspring as far away from the Metadross as they could.

After witnessing what this Metadross was capable of doing, Jovin, Atana, Jake, and Mya were filled with trepidation. David and Shaan were on high alert but Niall held out his hand to calm everyone down. He slowly got off Rockey and made his way towards the giant robot.

“What is he doing?! He is going to get himself killed!” Jake shouted. David and Shaan didn’t reply, hoping Niall knew what he was doing.

Niall was now standing a few feet away from the massive Metadross. It began to bend down on one knee with its pink visor staring at his eyes. After some time, a hatch opened in the torso area of the Metadross. Out of the compartment appeared his older sister covered in cybernetic augmentations.

“Isabelle! You are still alive!” Niall said in astonishment. The girl looked at Niall with a blank stare and held out both her daggers, ready to strike. Despite her hostility towards him, Niall slowly walked closer with his weapon sheathed. With each step, he attempted to say something that would reach Isabelle’s ears.

The closer Niall got, the more unstable her arms became. When Niall was two feet away, she dropped the dagger in her left hand and began pressing against her head with her hand. Niall sensed that it was working, so he continued to encourage her until he reached her.

As he reached out to try and comfort his sister, a missile came crashing down between them, separating them in opposite directions. Two giant chains wrapped around the twin blade Metadross and then with a mighty pull, it collapsed onto the ground. The red-eye Metadross had appeared.

David and Shaan rushed to Niall’s side to check on his status. Niall was okay but he was more concerned about what happened to Isabelle. He looked up to see that she had been knocked unconscious and her unit was completely ensnared.

After David and Shaan helped Niall up, he walked towards the attacking Metadross unit, leaving his two comrades behind. David and Shaan attempted to follow him but Niall once again told them to stay back. He had a score to settle with this current enemy and he wanted his friends to rest and recharge.

Once he was close enough to the red-eyed Metadross, he shouted for it’s attention. “You can stop showing off now. I know it is you inside that machine, Roop!” Following his words, a hatch in the chest area of the Metadross opened up. From the compartment lept out the person Niall had called, Roop, who also looked to be cybernetically enhanced.

It was clear that Roop was not his normal self. Niall, Shaan and David had a sense that he was currently not in control of his mind. Roop has his chains whirling in the air, signaling to Niall that he was ready to brawl. Niall pulled out his blade with his left hand and gladly complied to fight against his old friend.

As everyone was watching the fight take place, Jake probed, “Shouldn’t we be helping him?” Shaan calmly shook his head in response. “These two have been competing against each other since they met. Although Roop isn’t fully himself, I’m sure this is something they both wanted to happen for quite some time.”

“Niall isn’t at full strength though, will he really be able to keep up?” Jovin fretted. David confidently stood up, “He can handle himself, plus if anything bad happens, we are right here.” Shaan confirms.

On the battlefield, Roop kept swinging both his chains relentlessly but Niall was able to either dodge or deflect each attack that came his way. “What’s wrong Roop? I’m limited to only my left arm and you have all those augmentations to help you out.” Niall kept taunting his former comrade in hopes to catch him off his game.

Roop swung the chain on his hand extra hard as he was provoked by Niall. This was the chance Niall had been waiting for. He deflected the right chain with the sword and dashed straight for Roop before he could recover his right chain or swing the left. It looked like Niall had a straight path to finish Roop in one strike but beneath Niall’s feet was the left chain that Roop had placed strategically.

Unfortunately, Niall didn’t notice in time and his right leg got caught around the chain. Roop then swung the chain that was hooked around Niall’s leg and he sent Niall flying in the air before slamming him back down to the ground.

Roop clearly had the upper hand and he was about to swing Niall back into the air again. However, Niall grabbed the chain on his end and surprised Roop by pulling him towards him. Now Roop was flying straight towards Niall so he placed his right shoulder in front of him and tackled Roop right in the gut.

After the collision, they separated and Roop reclaimed both chains into his hand. He dusted off the attack from Niall as if he felt nothing thanks to his new mechanized body. Niall’s body on the other hand was becoming sore and his shoulder really felt the last impact.

Niall and Roop were ready to engage in battle again but before they could, a bullet was fired right at Roop’s face. Despite how focused he was on Niall, he caught sight of the projectile and swung his weapon to divert the shot. They both looked to Shaan, who had interrupted their skirmish.

“I thought you were going to let the two of us settle this. What happened?” Niall asked Shaan. “Sorry but I got impatient. You two were having too much fun and I couldn’t just sit by and watch.” Niall shrugged his shoulders and told Shaan to see if Roop had any objections. Still unable to process words from his mouth, he lifted his hand and motioned it in a way that indicated, “Come at me with all you got.”

David and the others couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Roop was clearly on the side of the Metadross yet somehow through their interactions, it almost felt like he still had some of his free will. However, the friendly brawl would not last for long.

Up in the sky was a giant warship that had appeared and hovered above them. The aircrafts was loaded with many Metadross minions waiting for orders to attack. Right in the middle of the ship appeared a being that was mechanical but still bore some similarities to that of a human in that he had a face, arms, and legs.

He slowly hovered out of his massive airship and made his way in between Roop, Shaan and Niall. Roop immediately retracted his weapons and went down on one knee. As he stood before Roop, he held out his right hand and closed it forming a fist. Then suddenly, Roop fell over and his systems began to go haywire.

Niall and Shaan pointed both their weapons to the new foe that had appeared. “Who do you think you are and what did you do to Roop?” Shaan demanded. The mechanical being with his back turned towards them replied, “Orders are to be strictly followed. He didn’t follow my orders and so he was punished.”

Unsatisfied with his answer, Niall jumped straight at him with his blade ready to strike. However, the enemy grabbed the blade with his metallic hands, disarmed Niall and threw him back at Shaan. The two collapsed against one another upon the sands. With both of them still down, the palm of the mechanical foe’s hand began to fire a laser beam straight towards them. Thankfully, before the laser could strike them, David jumped in and shielded them from the blast.

After saving his friends and coming out unscathed, David wasted no time getting the attention of the mysterious mechanical enemy. “I assume you are the leader of the Metadross?” The enemy smiled and nodded. “Then that means you are Sibleon.”

As that name was called out; Jovin, Mya, Atana, and Jake’s facial expressions instantly changed. “Yes, that’s me, Sibleon, leader of the Metadross and the demise of the human race.” His words did not cause David to flinch, instead, it just got his blood boiling.

“Intriguing.” Sibleon said out loud. David was confused, he wasn’t sure what Sibleon found so interesting. “You see, I am able to make every single thing that has been imbued with Metadross metal, obey my every word. But for some reason you seem to be immune.”

David wasn’t entirely convinced so Sibleon showed him a small demonstration. With his right hand lifted up, he got Isabelle to get up and stand beside him with her two daggers out and ready for battle. He also pointed to Roop to remind David that it was he who malfunctioned his systems because of disobedience.

“Hey David, calm down, I know you are feeling pretty aggravated by this guy but you can’t let that…” Siri attempted to restrain David from making any rash moves but was unsuccessful. He leapt in the air and dove straight at Sibleon at full speed and crashed against the ground.

His pre-emptive strike was unsuccessful but he followed it up with bullet speed punches. Despite how fast David was attacking, Sibleon somehow managed to evade every single one of his attacks. Over time, David’s movement began to decline, allowing Sibleon to counterattack with a mechanical slash. The attack left a scratch mark against David’s chest but luckily he was able to slightly dodge the attack and reduce the severity of the hit.

“David, you are putting too much pressure into all your systems, they are going to overheat if you don’t…” Siri warned him again but David was too focused on the fight. He concentrated all his remaining power onto his right and left arms transforming them into cannons.

Sibleon stood still and smiled grimly as he watched David struggle. “Yes, keep it up, let’s see how much your body can handle this.” David’s cannons were almost fully charged but his system was warning him that it was going to overload and malfunction.

Thankfully before David was about to harm himself any further, a device was thrown behind him that caused his system to completely shut down with minimum damage. He also fell to the ground unconscious and completely defenseless.

Sibleon wasn’t sure what caused David to stop but now was his chance to steal him away. However, Niall and Shaan quickly picked themselves up and stood between him and Sibleon. “You two fools again? This time I will finish you off!”

Right as Sibleon raised his right arm and held out his right hand ready to deal a devastating blow against them, smoke pellets were thrown beneath his feet, obstructing his vision. Mya had created the diversion and that allowed Rocky to pounce in to carry the three boys away.

Once Sibleon cleared the smoke, he could see Rocky carrying everyone on his back running away. So, he pursued them with tremendous speed and he quickly closed the gap, just inches away from catching them. As Sibleon was about to reach and grab Rocky by the tail, the dust clouds began forming and the sand was spiraling heavily in the air.

“Sandstorm!” Jovin yelled out to everyone. The ravenous winds obstructed everyone’s vision including Sibleons and it caused him difficulty to track them in the storm. Massive sand tornados were formed and he soon realized that it would not be worth his while to stay.

“Looks like you got lucky today but it doesn't matter. Soon you will all suffer the consequences. Once I destroy the last stronghold of humanity, the City of Corrinth, there will be nowhere else for you to hide.” Those words that Sibleon spoke pierced into Mya’s heart.

As Sibleon was about to return to his warship, he saw both Roop and Isabelle lying on the ground. He first looked at Roop and kicked him aside. He then turned to Isabelle, “I still might have use for this one.” And he carried her onto the warship with him.

The storm was strong but Niall could still faintly see what was going on. He reached out his arms yelling, “Isabelle!” as she disappeared along with the Metadross spacecraft.

“Everyone brace yourself, this storm is only going to get worse from here.” Jovin warned everyone. He was ready to issue the command to leave but Shaan intervened, “Wait! Our friend Roop, he’s still out there. We have to save him!”

“What? Are you out of your mind? It's way too dangerous out there! I ain’t putting our lives on the line anymore!” Shaan was outraged, he began arguing with Jovin and they both exchanged some unpleasant words to one another. They would have continued to argue but Mya stepped in and spoke to Jovin, “Please go back for him.”

Mya’s voice along with the support and agreement of Jake and Atana convinced Jovin to turn Rocky around. They braved through the storm before, allowing Niall and Shaan to grab Roop and throw him on board.

Once they had everyone on board, Rocky ran as fast as he could to get everyone out of the storm. He managed to evade all the tornadoes, debris clouds, and power through the sand in his face. Finally, it came down to one last massive sand tornado, if Rocky could pull through this, they would be out safe.