Pain of The Lone Spectre

by Adrian P

  A conscript in a far corner screamed.

  His body levitated upwards like an invisible force carried him away. Blood burst out of his chest like an invisible dagger stabbed it. The body loosened. He fell to the floor lifeless.

  “What the hell?” another conscript readied his rifle.

  Konstantin sighed. “Petit Fantome’s stealth operative.”

  “Who?”

  “Delta Conscripts!” he shouted. “A wide open hangar like this is an advantage for her! Spread into corridors to minimise her movement possibility, and space yourselves reasonably!”

  “What about you, Brother Simonovsky?”

  “She can’t kill me.”

  His Eyes Were Crimson Red.

  Electricity enveloped Konstantin’s body from head to toe as thin metal crates around him shook. Sparks jumped from top to bottom like bouncing balls, while he clenched his fists and drew more lightning from the ground.

  “The moment she’s within range, her life’s over,” he said. “Defeat her. I’ll guard the spacecraft and Celestial Anvil.”

  “Understood. Death to the Tyrant!”

  The conscript left and joined his comrades. They organised themselves into formation and entered the interior corridor. Silence, but after a few seconds, screams and gunfire echoed from their position.

  So this is how it feels, Konstantin grinned. Having your foot soldiers drawn away, leaving you alone against an air of silence. Interesting. I have my Bionika activated in full defensive mode, and yet, the shred of fear is still there.

  He took a breath.

  “Come out here, Bandana Boy!” Konstantin shouted in English. “I have covered myself with enough electromagnetic field to repel even the strongest gun! No matter how good you are at sneaking like a rat, nothing you do will hurt me!”

  Silence.

  Konstantin waited for one minute. Two minutes. The battle between the conscripts and The Ghost Girl still ensues. After five minutes, he intensified the electric field around him.

  Why is he not attacking? I’m positive the bastard’s around.

  He turned to the spacecraft.

  Hold on…don’t tell me—!

  An explosion blew the spacecraft apart.

  Chapter 5 / Part 2

  Like a bloom of fire, the explosion scattered fragments of the ship’s chassis around. Under a blanket of electricity, Konstantin stared blankly as his arms lost their strength. Familiar pieces of metal fell around him. Pieces of Celestial Anvil’s missiles. A titanic scream blasted out of his mouth as lightning spread through the hangar from all directions.

  “Oh fuck it, shut up will you?” a voice came from above.

  Audi sat on the metallic terrace on the second floor, swinging his legs like he’s in a playground. He spun his pistol with a finger, glaring down at Konstantin.

  “You piece of shit!” Konstantin shouted. “Have you any idea what you’ve done?”

  The boy nodded. “I killed years of your hard work. Ouch.”

  Konstantin fired a massive branch of lightning.

  Audi jumped down half a second before the lightning hit him. Mid-air, he aimed his wrist-launcher upwards and fired a rope at the ceiling. As the spear-tip jammed in, the boy swung forward in an arc and went past Konstantin. He landed smoothly on the floor.

  “I warned you to stay away,” Konstantin gritted his teeth. “You’re really one suicidal bastard.”

  “Suicidal, eh? Not the first time someone told me that,” Audi chuckled. “But one can only be suicidal if there’s a risk of death. In a battle with you? I doubt it.”

  “A powerless Tyrant Slave with neither substance nor strength to back himself up. Amusing,” Konstantin stepped forward. “You will regret this Bandana Boy, trust me, I’ll make sure of it.”

  Konstantin pulled lightning from the ceiling down towards the boy.

  Audi jumped a millisecond before the lightning hit him. Konstantin kept firing, but the boy used his wrist launchers and agility to dodge every attack. He watched Konstantin’s moves. His eyes. His body language. His feet’s angles. The boy predicted every attack and its timing, solely from Konstantin’s behaviour.

  Lightning spread from Konstantin’s arms to the walls. Metal beams from the walls shook and ripped itself apart, firing like a bullet towards Audi. The boy ducked in time. Konstantin tore a thin metal sheet from the floor, firing it at the boy like a guillotine. Audi grabbed a plastic pipe on the ground and held it upwards in front of him. He tilted it at an angle, and the metal sheet got crushed at impact.

  “Listen, you Inferior Being!” Konstantin shouted. “Do you really think destroying Celestial Anvil will stop The Brotherhood from cleansing humanity?”

  “Don’t know,” the boy replied. “But at least I’m depriving them off one method to do so.”

  “Why are you so persistent in protecting these wretched people? Don’t you know the consequences of letting them live and spread their ideology?”

  Silence.

  Konstantin ripped a metal beam out of a concrete pillar and wielded it like a bat. He dashed towards Audi and slammed it downwards. The boy dodged and fired his pistol, but the bullets stopped before it hit Konstantin, and fell to the ground.

  “So many suffered because they are permissive with the Bondage to Wealth ideology,” Konstantin gritted his teeth. “I’ve lived in a world where every bit of happiness is determined by how much wealth one possessed, even more extreme than the world you live in today!”

  The boy’s eyes twitched.

  “Left as it is, your world will descend into that! I want to prevent that. I don’t want people to suffer the way I have, no matter how Inferior they are!” Konstantin clenched his fists and drew lightning from the ground. “This is the only way! Celestial Anvil is—“

  “Your motive is full of contradiction,” Audi stepped back and aimed at the man. “So to prevent humanity from suffering, you will inflict suffering. What kind of stupid logical fallacy is that?”

  “Because I am not fighting for the current generation.”

  The boy listened.

  “The current generation is lost, nothing we say will convince them to abandon their ideology. Preach ethics. Preach morality. Throw them sophisticated philosophy and advanced reasoning; they will not budge,” Konstantin replied. “My faith, my hope, my reason of existence lies with the generations that are newly born, and those that have yet to be born.”

  “Kill the current generation so the next generation never have to suffer.”

  “Exactly,” Konstantin frowned. “I believe the nature of human to be inherently good. Have you seen babies discriminate against each other? Have you seen babies inflict cruelties upon animals?” he asked. “But the way the world works, the way the world nurtures them, the way they are forced to survive in this world made them cruel. Discriminatory. Individualistic. Egoistic,” the man bit his lips. “How can you not be terrified, that the world is capable of turning many good-natured babies into profit-crazed magnates willing to exploit those less fortunate? Caring not for their fate and welfare?”

  The boy kept silent.

  “You know everything I’ve said is true. Matthew Cainson and Bryant McGowan took my contract because they have suffered from the way the world works,” he continued. “Then why? Why are you still trying to stop me? Is your love for humanity so blind, that you don’t see the consequences of their actions, beliefs, and existence? Are you willing to let the current generation live while propagating their destructive ideologies? Are you aware that protecting The Crowned Confederacy as it is will simply corrupt the next generation, and make the cycle of suffering for many worse, worse, and even worse?”

  Audi straightened his posture and put his aim down.

  “What makes you think I love humanity?”

  Konstantin shook.

  “You assumed my opposition to you comes from my irrational fondness of people, but no, I have lost faith in humanity since long ago. Since my years living in the desert of Planet V
urste. Since my Master showed me the truth of the world,” he paused. “Despite your obsession with mass murder, I am positive that you still love humanity more than I do.”

  “What?”

  “I do not disagree with everything you’ve said,” Audi clenched his fists and entered a fighting stance. “Humans are nurtured by The Crowned Confederacy’s society to become egoistic, individualistic, and shallow. How can it be otherwise? Basic needs: food, clothes, housing, health and energy require a lot of money to buy and sustain. Education and leisure are increasingly made only available to those with a lot of money,” he paused. “Moreover, those who try thinking and living differently are systematically outcast from society, denied everything from friendship, love, and general respect.”

  “Then why are you still opposing me?” Konstantin blasted more lightning to his surroundings. “If you’ve understood that much, then—“

  “For I’ve met the few exceptions.”

  “Eh?”

  “Among the commons, there are those willing to stand against the world. Those who will not concede their idealism, no matter how realism made them suffer. Those who are working tirelessly to conceptualise a new world amidst the tirades of shuns, insults, and scorns from those who’d rather adapt to the way the world works,” the boy paused. “I have yet to meet a thousand people in my life, yet I’ve already met a good number of these…Superior Beings.”

  Konstantin gritted his teeth.

  “There are three trillion people living in The Crowned Confederacy, and by statistics, there will be more others. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions of people working hard to resist against the harsh reality, trying to design a utopia amid the sufferings others inflict to them due to their refusal to conform,” Audi glared at Konstantin. “These are the people I’m fighting for. Not humanity as a whole.”

  “You think—!“

  “Your plan for mass destruction refuses to acknowledge the existence of these people. Your plan to inflict a swathe of cleansing wave will destroy their livelihood; their struggle to create a better world,” the boy said. “And for this very reason, I will stop you with everything I’ve got.”

  Konstantin spread his arms with lightning coating the ceilings of the hangar. He slowly levitated and hovered mid-air. His eyes were crimson red, the man pulled broken spacecraft pieces and formed a shield around him.

  “Naïve Tyrant Slave,” Konstantin said. “Had you not destroyed my Celestial Anvil, I’ll gladly explain the biggest flaw in your philosophy.”

  “What?”

  “But time for discussion is over,” he pulled several metal beams from the wall and attached them to the scraps around him, forming the frames of arm and leg units. “Your existence will endanger the Great Liberation. I will not let you hinder the inevitable march of revolution, and with it, the necessary steps required for its triumph.”

  Hundreds of tiny scrap metals jumped into the air, converging themselves onto Konstantin. Gradually, the metals enveloped him in a sphere, and more scraps attached themselves, bending, twisting, and changing shapes to form a humanoid battle suit five times taller than Audi. Lightning enveloped its arms, and Konstantin emerged as a thunderous steel giant.

  “Death to the Tyrant and its slaves!” his cry echoed in Russian.

  Konstantin’s Steel Giant charged towards Audi and swung its arms downwards. The boy used his wrist launcher to navigate around, swinging like a monkey in the jungle.

  His greatest feat isn’t turning into a giant, ugly robot. The boy thought. It’s his ability to exhibit perfect reflex and smooth humanoid motion despite the size and weight. Damn, is this how strong an Alpha-class can be? I must be lucky to survive against the baldy waxed egg back in Gleicherde.

  He landed on a distance and pulled out a rocket from his pouch. He detached one wrist launcher and wrapped the rocket with a leather belt around his wrist.

  But turning into a giant damned robot is a weakness on itself. The boy grinned. He has to focus his electromagnetic power to sustain the form, so he can’t perform his usual spark-spitting and metal-throwing moves.

  The Steel Giant raised its foot and stomped the ground, tearing the ceiling apart and exposing them to open skies. Konstantin pulled metal pieces from the ceiling with magnetism and moulded them into a blade on both arms.

  Hold on…

  Konstantin rapidly attacked the boy with the blade like chopping meat. He barely escaped each attack, and took cover behind a heavy cargo crate.

  I’m an idiot! This crate is made of—

  The crate flew forward and slammed the boy.

  Audi fell to a distant floor with pain enveloping his entirety. He picked himself up and stood in haste, drawing his wrist and aiming it at the Steel Giant.

  I made an analytical mistake. This bastard still has the capacity to embody his form without losing external control of his power.

  He stepped back.

  If one of my assumptions is wrong, then I need to question my overall strategy’s degree of validity. Maybe magnetism is easier for him to use? What about electricity—

  The Steel Giant drew a massive bunch of lightning from his surroundings.

  Motherfu—

  Audi dashed away as Konstantin fired the lightning like a cannon. The massive amount of electrons superheated the ground, forcing it to explode like a volcano. Pebbles fell on Audi’s back as he tried catching breath.

  Konstantin fired another lightning.

  He dodged the fire and aimed his wrist at the Steel Giant. You’ve made yourself an armoured unit, and all armoured units have a universal weakness.

  A small rocket fired out of his wrist launcher.

  The rocket hit the Steel Giant, enveloping it in a large explosion.

  Eat that, rascal. The boy stood straight. Once your metallic armour disintegrates, you have no choice but to—

  The Steel Giant emerged unscathed.

  “What the hell?” the boy yelled in reflex. “How did—?”

  Konstantin’s laughter echoed from within The Steel Giant. “I knew you had a plan, seeing how confident you are in facing me alone. But this? Really? Anti-armour rocket? You disappoint me, Bandana Boy.”

  Audi gritted his teeth.

  “The Patriot of War’s admiration for you is a miscalculation of his Art of War,” Konstantin pulled back the Steel Giant’s arm and drew lightning from the walls. “Likewise, you assume that my Bionika works only on the macroscopic level.”

  “Don’t tell me—!”

  Konstantin laughed again. “Metals. Do you know what determines their mechanical strength?”

  Cold sweat drenched the boy’s nape.

  The Steel Giant ripped a thin aluminium lining off the wall, spreading a thin sheet of shiny grey metal in front of it.

  “At the microscopic level, metals can be thought as atom nuclei swimming in a sea of electrons. A strong metal is one where these positively-charged nuclei are difficult to swim and shift within this ocean of negative charges,” Konstantin sniggered. “Which means, any metal can be made infinitely stronger if the strength of electromagnetic attraction between the electron ocean and the nuclei are strengthened. Like turning a cube of water into a block of ice.”

  He electrified the aluminium sheet and swung it to the floor.

  The floor split apart like a knife sliced through it.

  “My armour is thousand times stronger than the toughest material in the galaxy. Its melting point approaches 5,000 Celsius, and not even a meteor strike can break it,”

  Konstantin laughed.

  “Do you understand now, Bandana Boy? An Inferior Being like you standing in the face of an Alpha-class? How foolish you’ve been to renounce my mercy?”

  Audi clenched his fists and took a defensive stance. If only I can retort, but he’s right. The boy frowned. He created an impenetrable armour immune to both thermal and mechanical shock. That makes his scrap robot far stronger than Marten Vogel’s gigantic walker that I destroyed three years ago. How am I supposed t
o crack that open?

  He clicked his tongue.

  The Professor was right; this universe is full of terrifying individuals with terrifying powers and personalities. The boy readied his wrist launcher. But I’ve gone this far, and there is no turning back. I can’t escape. I can’t fail to get the medicine, or she’ll suffer.

  The boy aimed downwards and fired a rocket at the floor near Konstantin.

  The floor cracked open, and The Steel Giant’s right foot sunk down.

  “Blyat!” Konstantin shouted.

  Audi shot a rope to the ceiling. He pulled himself up and landed on a hanging metal platform. I don’t know what to do. My rocket launcher plan failed. I didn’t know his power is this versatile.

  The platform shook.

  “Oh shit…”

  “Come down here, you Inferior Being!” Konstantin raised the Steel Giant’s arm and pulled it downwards.

  The platform fell along with the boy.

  He fell, accelerating downwards like bungee jumping without rope.

  I am screwed—

  His back hit something mid-air.

  The boy opened his eyes. He levitated like an invisible force held him up. He descended, slowly landing on the floor.

  “Close call,” a woman’s voice echoed from the thin air above.

  Audi stared at the space where the voice came, and a figure blasted out of stealth: a girl in ghost exoskeleton suit, hanging upside down like a spider, with a thin string attached to her feet from the ceiling.

  “Miss me already?” Charlotte giggled.

  Chapter 5 / Part 3

  Audi and Charlotte stood side-by-side, facing Konstantin’s Steel Giant. With a tremor shaking the ground, the Steel Giant lifted its foot out of the chasm and balanced itself. It drew lightning from its surrounding.

  Charlotte drew two guns from her hips. “I thought you have a counter to his armour.”

  “Massive miscalculation,” the boy replied. “He has a way to turn his armour invulnerable.”

  “I see,” Charlotte analysed the Steel Giant. “Tell me what he’s done.”