by Cheng D.A
Chapter 21
The Istanu
The air was getting thinner inside the meeting room. Oxygen was being sucked out of the room by the minute, and the Colonels were all on the floor by now. A major fight had broken out, and those who were still conscious were more desperate for air than they were for blood by now. All of the Golden Gurkhas were out cold. The room was also hot, filled with carbon dioxide. Oxygen was getting scarcer by the minute.
“Forty years of chewing grenades and spitting out fire and I am about to die in a meeting room.” Said Colonel Eastwood, now reduced to a singlet and pants.
“Why are you talking to a chair, I am over here.” Said Dr Brown, as he crawled over to Eastwood. Eastwood sighed at Dr Brown. He took a look at Chuck who was sleeping.
“And forty years of listening to his nonsense, and he turns out to be the one who saves us all.” Eastwood had a newfound appreciation for Chuck. Chuck was snoring even louder now. He was sleeping away soundly like a baby. Eastwood took another look at him with a look of disgust and respect.
“All those stories about him and the Gurkhas. They were all true.” Said Eastwood.
“You mean how he defeated them?”
“No. About how he managed to fall sleep after that.”
About a hundred metres to the meeting room, outside a huge glass window, were two guards down the long corridor, who job was making sure that no one came to rescue the Colonels. The younger guard was the same man who was guarding End in the Institute of Salvation. The two guards were looking at a huge map showing a well-fortified base.
“Where are we again?” asked the nervous young guard.
“Here! In dead center, anyone coming would have to infiltrate all of these traps, all of these guards over here and go through this impossible maze to reach us.”
The young guard heaved a sigh of relief.
“Thank you. I just got promoted to guarding the Istanu. My name is Rowan, what’s yours again?”
The old guard chopped the back of his head, and left him unconscious. The old guard tore off his disguise.
“Snakeskin.” Said Snakeskin as he shook Rowan’s hand. Snakeskin rushed to the glass door and saw the Colonels almost out of oxygen.
“Takoyaki! Analysis.”
“Twenty seconds of oxygen left. Bomb proof door.”
“Give me a TIF calculation.”
“Why didn’t I think of that? Total internal reflection calculation.”
Snakeskin touched the glass, his hand shown a light that went into the glass medium. The light was bounced about in the glass as it searched for a weak point.
“Weak point found!” said Takoyaki.
Takoyaki helped to position a lighted spot to show Snakeskin the weak point of the entire glass structure.
“You got to hit it now. You only have thirty seconds of oxygen left in that room!”
“Stop!” shouted the young guard as he stood up with a photon rifle in his hand, pointed at Snakeskin. Snakeskin raised both hands in the air.
“I was just promoted!” said the young guard with much desperation in his voice, “Wait a minute, you are Master Sergeant Snakeskin!”
Rowan began to check his VF for data.
“Bounty is a million for “alive”, and two million for ‘dead.’” Rowan smiled a most evil smile as he fired without hesitation. Snakeskin dodged the bullet and the bullet hit the weakest part of the glass, shattering the whole thing. Snakeskin didn’t make his mistake twice as he took only three steps forward to knock Rowan out cold.
The Colonels finally took in a deep breath of air. They were alive for now, but they were too weak and almost unconscious. Snakeskin walked forward to help them but a strong roundhouse kick met his chin. Snakeskin flew to a wall.
“Pick him up. Let’s move.” Said Amon who had unleashed the kick. His men carried Snakeskin away. They walked a series of mazes. The maze was made even more complicated because the corridors were made of smoke and mirrors. Finally they arrived at the vault door, where some of Amon’s men were drilling. They seemed to be using dark energy drills to drill at the huge vault door, which is protected by a layer of light. Benjamin Navajo was standing there watching everything, he felt that things were a little peculiar as he saw Amon coming with Snakeskin.
“What happened?”
“This crazy guy tried to stop us.” Said Amon.
“The final hinge is open sir.” Reported one of Amon’s guards attending to the drills.
“Colonel Amon, why are you drilling the doors, is the Mentor in trouble?” asked Benjamin Navajo.
“Is the broadcast ready?” asked Amon.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Amon pushed Benjamin towards to huge Vault door that was falling. The vault door crushed Benjamin Navajo completely killing him. Amon peered inside like a child with wide eye wonder. Nobody had ever taken a step inside the vault before. Inside was the Silver Servant, standing proud and tall with arms folded, his entire face and body shimmering in silver. Behind him was the mentor, old and frail in a wheelchair, but with the same fierce expression that knew evil when he saw it. Amon looked at the opening created by the vault door, and smiled.
“Attack!” commanded Amon.
His guards ran forward and were electrocuted by the thin layer of photons that protected the inner vault from anyone.
“No one ever reads history. There are only three people who can enter the vault, with or without a door.”
Just then, Snakeskin pounced at Amon. Amon’s reactions were faster, as he grabbed Snakeskin by the throat.
“Oh, are you interested in entering the vault as well?”
He tossed Snakeskin towards the invisible field of photons. Mid-air, Snakeskin managed to kick off from the hinges slightly to deviate himself from a full impact. Nonetheless, his arm touched the field, and he felt a terrible shock of pain. He fell down and was out cold.
“It’s simple actually. All your need in life is clearance.”
Amon walked into the secret vault with ease. He wasted no time, as he charged towards the Silver Servant. The Silver Servant seemed unfazed as he remained in his proud pose with arms folded and blew out a breath of air. His soft exhale of air sent Amon crashing against a wall. When Amon attacked again, The Silver Servant used a finger to flick him across to the other side of the vault. The Silver Servant hardly lifted a hand to fight. Wiping the blood off his own bleeding lip, Amon applauded the Silver Servant’s might.
“Not bad. But you think you are invincible. That’s why you can’t grow.”
Amon took out a small black capsule, labeled Dark Energy capsule, and ate it. A glow of darkness made him glow with dark energy. He fought the Silver Servant again, and finally landed a punch on his face. The Silver Servant flew backwards surprised that he could actually be knocked to the ground. The Mentor had never seen anyone who could floor the Silver servant. Amon took out five more Dark Energy capsules and swallowed them. He walked forward and punched the Silver servant out cold. He then lifted him up using telekinetic powers and brought him near. The Silver Servant was floating before Amon, at his mercy. He was unable to move.
“No, I want your favorite pose!”
Amon used telekinesis from his dark energy to force the Silver Servant’s arms together. He forced him to fold his arms the way he always did.
“That’s your favorite pose. Arms folded that way. I understand you enjoy being a statue. Well there is one more thing that Dark energy can do.”
Amon took out a small grenade and threw it at the Silver servant. You could see the Silver servant’s face in agony as the dark energy absorbed all the time out of the molecules around him.
“Inside a black hole, even time cannot escape.”
The Silver Servant was frozen into the statue that he had always pretended to be, because time did not move in space that he occupied.
Amon proceeded towards the Mentor.
“Dear Mentor.” Amon took his time to toy with the Mentor. He p
icked the feeble old man up from his wheelchair, and helped him on to his feet. “The legendary Mr Tomorrow. People say you know everything that is going to happen. But things are slipping through the cracks of your faulty radar aren’t they? I have been working on Dark energy weapons right under your nose since the birth of the ILC. Can’t you take a clue that the Dark Obstacle Course is made of pure Dark energy? Where is the ‘Mr Tomorrow’ who looked into fine details? I was playing the trash collector of wasted energy using my dark rooms, and you never bothered about where the trash went. Well, Dark Energy opens a whole new industry for the city. We’re going to go into the business of war, which produces dark energy, which sustains our city. It’s kind of like recycling.”
“Dark Energy is dangerous.” Said the Mentor. Amon edged his face closer.
“Dark energy is beautiful! Did you know that the amount we can collect from a simple LFC exercise is enough to power the entire school for a month? Tell me honestly then, since you loved to debate, why can’t we use Dark energy?”
“Because there are people like you.”
“You are absolutely right! People like me would get greedy and want more. In this city, or in this world for that matter, where the pressure on kids to succeed is so tremendous, I am going utilize that flaw and drain every child dry of their negative emotions. I think it makes sense, don’t you?”
The Mentor looked away. There were tears in his eyes. Amon saw the tears and laughed.
“No. No tears! This is a celebration. Not a funeral. Why do you feel depressed old man?”
“I loved you like a son.” Said the Mentor. There were more tears in his eyes.
Amon paused and laughed.
“No you don’t. You once said that people were the only natural resource we have. I am only a natural resource, and best of all, I have solved the energy problem of the city. Your precious people are indeed going to generate more usable energy than crude oil or nuclear energy combined. That’s why I really don’t understand why you don’t champion this dream of mine.”
Amon wrapped his hands around the neck of the helpless Mentor, as he spoke his next words in one breath.
“You say the reason is because there are people like me? People like me, were made by people like you. The model city for the rest of the world to follow. I love competition. I really do. I love winning, winning at all costs, because this is survival. I have been like this since I was a boy. My parents, my school, my society. Only the best are allowed a chance to live. Imagine the pure fear that I have accumulated over my childhood years. How much fear did I accumulate exactly? Well, I found out on the day I put on my first viewfinder. My VF broke. The levels of stress were too high. It was then that I realized that all the hurt, all the hate, all the fights, all the competition, allowed me to become the better person that I am today.”
Amon shot a blast of light at the ceiling. It blew a hole through the ceiling, and through seven floors of concrete above. The night sky was now visible, and the full moon shone bright at the two men still standing. It is grimly romantic.
“Even without photon weapons, my hands were enough to generate such power. Why? Do you know why? It is because for all the years I have been alive, I have never stopped fearing that my inadequacy would result in my meeting with the Sphere of influence. This fear kept me alive, kept me strong. Please don’t misunderstand my opinion of you. I don’t blame you for anything. I can’t even stop thanking you enough. I love you.”
Amon left go of the Mentor and turned his wheelchair around. The blast had given them a clear view of the night-lights of the City of Lions.
“See your beautiful city? The people are hardworking, and so the city became beautiful. But their hearts are corrupted. They fend only for themselves, and would slaughter the one beside them, the moment they are threatened. You will see what I mean. I will make them hungry, and without the real education of the soul, they will tear each other apart just to survive. It is their nature, our nature. This is what it means to be a lion.”
Snakeskin stirred. He picked himself up and tried to fire a photon weapon. He fired, and Amon dodged the photon bullet. He turned around to look at Snakeskin.
“Why did you even do that?”
“To bring him.” Said Snakeskin as he fainted. The bullet flew out into the sky and made a huge firework explode. The Canoe hovered just outside the vault. End was standing in the Canoe, and was about to make a leap into the hole created by Amon. His team-mates wanted to join him, but he stopped them.
“No. There is a photon field. Only I can enter.” Said End. End leapt in through the hole in the ceiling. Amon was surprised that End could enter the vault. Amon looked at the Mentor.
“Ah. You chose the Dark Energy boy to be your champion. Well done!”
Without warning, Amon fired a blast of Dark energy at End. End tried to dodge but realized he didn’t have to. The blast did not affect him at all.
“You picked End because you knew that the boy with Dark energy was immune to it.” Amon took out a few more weapons to fire at End, but nothing could hurt him.
“No wonder they say you are the man who read the book of destiny itself. But let me ask you Mr Tomorrow, do you know what this is?”
Amon took out a small sphere from his pocket. It was a small sphere of energy.
“The latest product from All Star labs, funded by Mr Marlon Hoofhearted who didn’t even care what he was financing. This is a mini Sphere of Influence.”
Amon exposed the sphere to End. End fell to the ground, weakened by it. Concentric circles made of dark energy began to build around him. End could not move.
“This smaller sphere magnifies your dark energy and brings about the end of the city. Believe me, if I had so much Dark energy, I would have used myself long ago for this blackmail.”
End was groaning in pain on the ground as the Dark energy began to grow. Amon looked at the Mentor. Everyone else stood helpless as they watched on, unable to interfere.
“I have been testing it for years. Putting fragments of it, under the pillows of the Librarian, and Amadeus. My dearest Mentor, I believed I have you at checkmate. You have always valued this city more than life itself. But of course you do, you built it from dust. Now, you will have to choose. Either you see your city reduced to the dust you brought it out from, or you give the key to the city to me.”
The Mentor was silent. It was a tense moment.
“It’s simple. Either I rule the city or there is no city left. I got Navajo to prepare a special broadcast. I want you to state your retirement and hand the city over to me. This special broadcast will be projected on the clouds, on every Cloud Link building ever built in the City of Lions. Thank you, End, for your father’s contribution.”
Amon looked at End as if there was a final secret that End did not know.
“Oh wait a minute. You don’t know do you? There is a secret to the engineering of all Cloud Link buildings. When combined, they become the biggest film screen in the world. Do you know why it was build this way?”
End did not understand Amon’s implications. Amon seemed to be rather impatient to tell him.
“Your father knew your true talent from day one, the talent for film making. He was preparing the clouds and the world for it.”
End felt a sadness overwhelm him. He never knew this before this day. He suddenly thought back to all the times where his father told him to video record all the family vacations, and edit them. He always saw them as a chore, but enjoyed doing it anyways. There were also times his parents sent the small stories he wrote to various competitions. He won a few.
“So you see, even in a world where arts is just about the dumbest career choice since there is no choice, your parents still tried to make it happen for you. Cloud painters don’t own any share of the buildings they have created in the skies, but there is a special contract that has come to my attention. Your father has made a special arrangement that on the day that your great film masterpiece is ready, you own t
he right to activate this amazing CloudLink screen, as they call it, and project your film to the world. You alone have the password to such access. I need that password to broadcast my appointment as the new leader to the good people of the City of Lions now!”
End was speechless, he did not know what Amon was talking about.
“Give me that password.” Said Amon.
“I don’t know any password.”
Amon smiled at End and looked back at the mentor.
“Alright End, We’ll sort that out in a minute. Mr Mentor, sir, let’s waste no more time. You have ten seconds to give me the key to the city before your city dies.”
The mentor didn’t have to think twice when it came to saving his city. He reached into the underside of his wheelchair and pulled out a box.
“I know that the key helps to prolong your life. I am really sorry for that, but it’s time it prolonged mine.”
The Mentor opened the box. Inside sat a lightning bolt that was contained in a glass tube.
“Will you look at that beauty.” Said Amon, “The legendary key to the City of Lions.”
The Mentor raised the box to Amon.
“You will have to come and get it,” said the Mentor with a weak voice. Detaching himself from the key was draining his life force away. Amon walked over. Excitement gripped himself so hard, that he did not see End crawling over. Just as Amon was about to grab the box, End had grabbed the sphere from him.
“What are you doing?”
End held the sphere closer to his chest, and the power magnified. A glow of darkness surrounded him and shielded anyone from entering. End was now untouchable.
“What are you thinking! Toss that sphere out! You will kill us all!” Amon tried to get it back, but End shook his head. Amon was desperate.
“End, Listen to me. Put down that sphere. We can work this out. It is no good if you kill us all. There will be no city left for me to rule!” Amon was getting even more desperate. He tried to claw his way nearer to End, but the sphere was impenetrable, and its energy was growing by the second. There were tears in Amon’s eyes.
“I worked so hard. All through my education and my adulthood. Don’t rob this from me! I want my city, it is mine!”
End felt the power of destruction inside him. It was expanding. Through it all, the mentor watched on, calm as an assuring breeze. End began to cry.
“You hypocrite! Why are you crying! You never wanted anything. You crazy suicidal boy! You don’t even want life! You are so selfish!”
But no one knew what was really happening except End. The greatest battle was happening inside him. Unknown to every child who had ever sat before the powerful ball of energy, the sphere could only influence the child if he could not control his emotions. But the End that is before us today, the same End who had gone through so much, had learnt a lot about control. He channeled his meditation to internally re-configure his emotional state. Hate no longer hid inside the dark corridors of his heart. They still existed, but they were in clear sight, and held on with chains. End had seen this in Kubric, who was the master of even his dark emotions, and thus could not be touched by Dark. End breathed out, and became calm. He told himself that there was only one way to save everyone. He told his heart to calm, down and to return to innocence.
The mini sphere saw a different End. The dark corridors were invisible to the sphere now. All that the mini sphere could see was the innocent End, the original End, the End who was that innocent boy before all of this had happened to him. End had managed to shed himself of the memories of pain that he had accumulated to trick the sphere. The sphere was tricked, as all that it saw was a normal child.
And so, the sphere began to influence End, the same way it did to any child. It began to erase his mind for good, and grow his physical strength, turning him into a mindless zombie.”
Amon wiped away his tears.
“What is happening?” asked Amon.
Just like anyone else, all End ever wanted was his little space in the world, to do what he liked and to stay happy. He could feel his memories being erased. He could sense the discomfort of letting go of the things he cherished. He felt the memories of his loved one, ? disappear. He felt the memories of how his parents used to cuddle him, praise him and say how great he was at blowing out all the candles of his birthday cake. He saw the memories of his city, his beautiful city, which he never really appreciated. His friends, his new found ILC friends. He saw his memory of Quentin slip away. All of it, erased.
Only in this final hour, did he finally realize that he once had so much time to do so much. He felt that old feeling of fear. Death wasn’t scary, what scares a man is what he has to lose. It was only now that he wanted to live more than ever. He wanted to embrace ? in his arms, and keep his promise to her. He wanted to see his parents, and tell them he was sorry. But that time is up. He could see the final pieces of his mind slipping away. No more memories, and no more decisions to be made, just one final decision to follow through, a decision where he decided to give up his life to save his city.
The sphere finally powered down having performed its duty. End became nothing more than a mindless zombie awaiting orders for manual labor. Amon grabbed his own hair and almost tore it out. End was no longer a weapon for his use as blackmail. Amon collapsed to his knees. All the emotional stress he had hid so well as a chief of defense, all came flooding out. He was speechless. All his years of planning for this day, wiped out in a single act of sacrifice by End. And when he began to lose control over his own emotions, he also began to lose control of his mind. Amon lost all focus. With his mind in chaos, the fingers of the Silver Servant began to twitch.
All at once, the Silver Servant broke free from his immobility. Amon saw it and ran towards the Mentor.
“My key.”
With claws out, he dashed towards the Mentor. The Silver Servant tried to intervene but it was too late. Amon managed to grab the key first. The Mentor looked Amon in the eye, as Amon smiled like a child.
“Finally. The key belongs to me.”
The Silver Servant stood still, folding his arms. Amon smiled. The Mentor sighed at Amon.
“I cried, only because, if you had just asked, I would have given the key to you.”
Amon’s smile began to fade.
“Do you feel any power holding on to this key?” asked the Mentor.
Amon tried to smile but couldn’t. Because he didn’t feel anything but he was trying to.
“Yes. I feel the energy.” He lied anyway.
“But how could you? It is a toy I bought from Bitch road.”
Amon’s smiled began to fade. He opened the container of the lightning. As he did, he realized that it was indeed nothing more than a cheap science toy that was bought in Bitch road. To rub salt into his wounds, it even had a “made in Panda” sticker underneath.
“Where is the real key old man? Where!” said Amon as he grabbed the Mentor’s shirt. The Silver Servant motioned forward, but the Mentor told him to keep still.
“The real key is the people.”
Amon’s eyebrows arched in a way even he did not understand. He was confused beyond.
“There is no key. I am the leader because I was chosen by the people to lead them. For all the good deeds you have done, they would have chosen you. But the moment, you started to believe that there is actually a physical key, then no matter what you do, you will never find it.”
Amon covered his eyes. He didn’t come to listen to all this. He came to get a key. It was supposed to be in the box. Why couldn’t he find it? What did the Mentor mean? All of it was too confusing for him. Suddenly, he summoned a Dark Energy sword and lunged it at the Mentor. The Silver Servant who had stood by to watch for the longest time, finally gave a long awaited slap to Amon’s face. That single slap killed him in one stroke. The Silver Servant had held back all this while because the Mentor had instructed him to. He walked back to check on the Mentor’s health condition. The Mentor held his hea
rt and breathed out slowly. The Silver Servant went to pour some tea for the Mentor.
“I am getting too old for this,” said the Mentor as he drank some tea that calmed him. Just then the Mentor felt his heart. The Silver Servant looked worried, although his facial features were hard to decipher since the face of a statue was rather solidified. But it was not a heart attack that the Mentor was feeling. The Mentor was looking at End. End was now mindless. He was just standing there staring at empty space, something he used to do during class when he was young but under a different context. Finally for a long time, there were tears in the Mentor’s eyes. The combination of this drama with Amon and End had given back his emotions. The Silver Servant noticed.
“Yes. I haven’t felt anything since my wife passed on.” Said the Mentor with a smile, “Schedule a conference with the Nation Earth Union. I want the sphere abolished.” The Mentor spoke with renewed vigor and purpose, “and we are going to do everything we can for all the victims of the sphere.”