GuNNhead

“We are the first generation on a new planet. One swarming with danger. We are not children of explorers but of evacuees. Our parents’ planet was under attack, and while our city had a purpose, it was incomplete when it was launched. Millions rushed to it. Billions more did not make it. No one knows exactly how we made it through an anomalous force of density around this solar system, but none could follow us, and we had no way of ever leaving again. The City settled upon a seemingly perfect world, and we were told it was once called Loameria; named after its fertile soil. Many of our parents were working in The City at the time as scientists or construction workers – roles deemed valuable. But others, like mine, were merely passengers. Like many born of this city – descendants of the evacuees – we are from two worlds.

Life was not easy. Growing up here was always a backdrop of dread, we were all just waiting for the axe to fall. It was kept hidden from us when we were young, but by grade school’s end, every child knew that the horror our parents feared was real. A spaceship was discovered not far from where we landed. It belonged to the sole original denizen of this planet. But where were they now? No one knew. But that didn’t stop the rumours. One day, it was theorized, they would return and reduce all of us to nothingness. The executives, those in charge, studied the ship. Not long after the discovery, work was diverted from the completion of the Outer City to build a research facility. For the protection of everyone. Once it was built, no updates came from it, and construction of the Outer City did not recommence.

Most citizens simply continued to push forward. To work. What other choice did they have? There was little point in being afraid of existential threats, a ticking clock without numbers. It made no difference if the end of the world was tomorrow or 100 years from now. 

Time passed, and I grew up tough from my time living in the unfinished zone. There, we were a community, a close nit one. But I had higher aspirations than the cobbled-together streets I called home. I had always looked to bigger and better things. And one day I decided to strive to become a top member of the security forces for the Inner City…“

Even as a child, Andrea rarely looked up at the stars. Instead, she was consumed by the enormity of her existence in the vast universe. The reality of her situation constantly sat upon her brow. As such, she had always set her sights forward, only towards things within reach. Her focus grew as the things she believed she could change grew. The world right in front of her was filled with hopelessness and despair that was greater than her. But by doing small personable deeds, helping out here and there in her local area, she saw the difference just one person could make. That was how it started. 

Andrea’s home life was a bustling one, with her mother, aunt and several cousins often vying for space and attention. It was safe to say they didn’t all share her driven nature and a strong sense of justice. While her cousins were commonly derisive, insulting her kind nature, her mother supported and encouraged her altruistic tendencies. To her, she was her little angel. She was friendly with most residents of the Outer City, getting to know them through her good deeds. They also saw her as a godsend – the spritely, benevolent teen who helped grow crops, look after the neighborhood’s kids and even help with constructing shelters for the many who’d been abandoned by the Inner City. 

As she matured, Andrea continued to be a beacon of hope for her community. She wondered how else she could improve the lives of the people around her. After much consideration, she realized a career in Security was calling to her. Though it was organized by the Inner City, and many believed they had no right to a presence in the Outer City after abandoning development, she knew that she could make a difference in people’s way of life with the resources at their disposal. So, as soon as she was old enough, she applied. Her unwavering commitment to fitness and academic excellence proved to be key assets in her new role. And so, she was subsequently accepted into the Outer City Security Force.

“Ahahahaha! You’re far too reactive, you dumb animal, have you ever even wondered why your blood boils? Or examined it? It’s primordial ooze!”

I reform my arms and fire a Gravity Sphere at him, but he simply catches and dissipates it with one outstretched arm, then points his fingers towards me.

“My turn again, yes? PSYCHO BULLETS!” his hand begins to spin rapidly, releasing a gatling fire of energy blasts. I run and dodge them until the building obscures his vision. Jumping to the floor below him, I reach through it, grab his legs and drag him down, smashing him into the stone of the floor below. He pushes me away and holds me suspended in the air, crushing me. It’s taking all of my strength to not be turned into paste.

“All the power in the universe, and you hit me against a floor? We can crush a starship in orbit, destroy galaxies! Well, I can. You have been limited by your own idiocy. A super-condense field around a solar system? So no harm could come to your special little planet? You could be ruling the universe! Instead you’re stuck here, cut off from billions of galaxies of power, mingling with these common castaways. You believe you are immortal, but I wish to test this theory, by pulling you apart atom by atom and ridding every last iota of you from this universe. Then I will finally be able to leave this wretched planet and assume my destiny!”

“Just shut up and do it.” With that, he makes good on his promise, life as I know it stops instantaneously and every molecule in my body explodes at the speed of light.

Bolts of electricity fire across the unfinished site and I feel the first firing of synapses as my consciousness comes back into being. Psychoflexor is nowhere to be seen, until he comes crashing through the floor above. A shadow passes the hole he made, and I see the telltale shine of The Angelguard. She bellows from above.

“I was designed to handle the Gravity Surge, did you think I’d not be able to thrash your pale imitation, Doctor? You practically burnt your core out destroying them, and now it is my turn for revenge. You took my mind, made me kill my friends. Today is the day you pay for the life you’ve lived.” Before either of us can react, an onslaught of missiles takes out the structure, bringing it down on top of us. We crawl out of the debris at the same time, but I see him first, and activate my Gravity Blades, attacking in a flurry. He is able to parry all of my blows, but with his damage he’s definitely on the backfoot.

“You dim-witted wretch! Immortal, returned from absolute nothingness, and yet your first act is to engage me in hand to hand combat! I hate everything that you are! I will–” A golden wing pierces through his body, slicing him nearly in half. His right side slides off as the remainder collapses. The Angelguard gently lands.

“I thought for a while there that he might have actually killed you, thanks for distracting him, with his mind focused on fighting you, his defenses were nonexistent.”

“Did he… really have my powers?”

“Somewhat, but nowhere near as integrated. As you can see, he still had organs. Although no amount of electrical current running through any material was going to cancel out a fundamental property of the universe, manipulation of the forces of nature isn’t exactly difficult to do for advanced enough science. Mainly, he tapped into your ship’s power from his laboratory deep within the bowels of the city. We have a crew down in the substructure now turning his lab upside down. But that brings us to a much larger concern…”

I step out from the alley into the morning light of the sunrise. Loameria’s suns. As the warmth covers me, I, for the first time, consider that once again Loameria is full of life. I begin to simply walk the streets towards the tower. There are so many people around, living their lives. The majority are from another world, but so many were born here, would they not be Loamerians? Perhaps it does not matter to me if they stay. My desire to kill them all feels somewhat muted. Then, as I pass a park, I hear the laughter of joyous life, and comprehend that my drive to annihilate life will never waver. I ascend above it all, but before I can take off back the Krokodoplis Labs, I am contacted by those at the tower at what is now re-named Gravity Square. There is a villain in the Outer City that Security cannot handle, they’ve locked down a newly opened construction zone and are specifically requesting me by name.

I float down to the unfinished building covered by a translucent purple pyramid forcefield. I ask those on the scene why I should care about some loser and a barely began structure. They point to a flattened pile of rubble next door, and explain that that was once a comparable site. I walk toward the pyramid, and it opens for me. I am then greeted by what appears to be a mechanically replicated version of my original suit, though with inverted colors, triangular theming.

“Gravity Surge! It was so long ago that you first destroyed my life, my mentor’s beautiful chimerical creations on a planet of ice and snow. But that was not enough, no no no, you couldn’t stop there, you went after my home world, destroying my beloved Protectrobot at the same time! Then, finally, you take my mentor’s life and destroy all of our hard work against you! Decades down the drain! Co-opting this research station, acquiring your skull from Celdrdrrun, setting up a planetary-wide attack just to come to this backwater shithole of a planet to set our trap, the spire, all of it, just to be foiled in a matter of days.”

“Is that all?”

“Far from it, you, you damnable thing! You’re nothing but a tornado in a humanoid suit, too stupid to realize you’re piloting a corpse! A cosmic mistake that I alone will correct. “Gravity,” -tt-! You couldn’t even name yourself properly. The control you hold over the very forces of nature… all of it is limited by your stupid little puppet’s brain. So reductive… Now that I, too, can bend those forces to my will with but a thought, I will destroy you with my psychoflexitive powers! PSYCHO SPHERE!”

Lulled into boredom by whatever they were saying, I am caught unprepared. I place both my arms in front of my chest, attempt to guard against it, push back against it with all my might, but it’s not enough, both my arms explode trying to stop the attack. The stumps bleed out onto the ground as I focus on repair.

Hovering above the flowing water, I silently follow the creature and their captive until a door is shut and locked behind them. I press my hand against the large metal hatch and know that if I concentrate and focus my powers, I will be able to manipulate the locking mechanism. I smash the door in, and lunge at the creature, grabbing the woman away from it with one arm, kicking it into a wall. I continue to pummel the creature around the space, smashing it into furniture and appliances before I am halted by the woman screaming once again. She is struggling against me, and so I drop her. She collapses in a heap and crawls over the creature, shielding it from my assault. She explains that it is innocent, and was once human, and was helping her after one of the rat-monsters damaged her leg. I observe that it is reptilian, and notice my surrounding are quite residential. Not at all like the sort of nest I would expect from those mindless beasts.

She had continued speaking while I was making my observations, and was able to say that she was a reporter who befriended numerous mutates that dwell down here while attempting to help this one, with which she had a prior connection – before I stop her, informing her that I do not care about sentient, helpful mutants. I only care about the murderous ones.

Instead of telling me exactly where their nest is so that I may obliterate them, she speaks of their previous nest, much deeper within the city’s substructure. That they had only recently relocated, but no-one has gone down far enough to find out why, and finally that the mutates will be back shortly, having conglomerated allies to discern a strategy. I stop her again as she had began to describe their allies, and I directly ask where the new nest is. Finally the information I need is given to me. It is followed up with requests for patience and too many sentences beginning with “but” as I walk out of their abode.

I slaughter scores of the creatures making my way towards the nest, their numbers increasing as I get closer. My Gravity Blades now easily slicing through bone once more. Before long I arrive at the tunnel’s egress. Water flows past me and cascades downward, joining hundreds of others in a massive drainage pool at the bottom. Dozens of the creatures crawl about the walls and ceiling, but I see a large group of them all huddled together off to the side on a large platform. I charge two Gravity Spheres, enough to eradicate the vast majority of them without too much structural damage, and fire. Both connect perfectly, exploding blood and bone, painting the wall. However, it seems my target was not quite what I thought it was, it was not a group of these creatures, but a massive undulating mass that spawns them. Before I am able to charge more attacks, I am pushed out of the egress by a wave of these beasts, and fall into the whirlpool below. Nearly pulled into the grinding filter beneath, I fly up and out of the water, once again taking aim at my target. Creatures leap from the walls and latch onto me, preventing me from firing another volley at their progenitor until it strikes me, slamming me into the wall, and grabs me with its recursive hand of hands and fingers. As it brings me over its mouths I cut myself free, kicking it, and back flipping onto its platform. I tear open my chest, and charge for a flash-burst of the Quantum Destroyer. After a brief moment, I fire, completely enveloping the creature, vaporizing it. With only minimal damage to the wall behind it.

I turn, prepared to deal with the remnants, but see only the reporter and a few small groups of mutants of various animal species. They rush towards me and thank me for saving their homes from that threat, but continue speaking, boasting of aiding me by fighting the beasts so that I had time to charge my final attack; wondering aloud as to the reason behind the creature’s recent relocation. As I begin to leave they directly ask me if I am also curious as to the cause. I tell them that I care neither for the reasoning of thinking and unthinking creatures alike, and take my exit through the tunnels.

Over the following nights I deal with the threats that emerge from Techrider’s absence largely on my own, I even patrol the city. In doing so I discover that this city has its fair share of vigilantes spread across the grid split from fractured factions. One aided my return to normal size after I was shrunken by one of their nemeses. Another transformed by the moon’s light, and yet another still tracked down a petty thief who used holographic hard-light cubes to disguise their exploits. One night I am standing solitary in the penthouse office in the center of the downtown core plotting a path to transverse the city. I watch the rain run up the window in random patterns. Manual repairs upon my craft are complete, all the pieces are assembled in the correct order, but still weeks remain upon the countdown. Only other options besides waiting it out is to fully disassemble and try again. At least it is still counting down. So, here I wait, so that I may optimally kill. It is so pointless to expend my energy on these benign beings in my current state. They will all die with time.

One of them enters the room. They begin talking about a string of murders and disappearances. A monster still on the loose. They ask me to get off of the ceiling and to allow the rain to flow normally, as it is disconcerting to them. I oblige. They continued that there was a hope and plan that either the Techrider would be on the trail of the murderer, or that The Angel could have taken care of this, but since both are not able, the request falls to me. The last time the City Security Forces encountered whatever this is, their vehicle was torn in half, and what they found of their bodies did not fare much better.

We take the elevator down to the sublab to observe the camera feeds and discuss a plan. There are more diagnostic screens of my craft, but with nothing to diagnose, they’re now showing additional city monitoring. I study the shadows of the city while I am informed of the ongoing patterns.

Leaving the tower, my route covers the main locations where bodies have been found, plus last known locations, all combined with security’s reports on their own losses. I stand on a wall near the ground and observe. Six or six hundred stories makes little difference when I see them going about their lives, it is all so infinitesimal, so pointless. Dominoes pushed by fate, conscious only to experience the fall, and believe they are the driving force of it. In their deaths, only a fraction of an avalanche of consequence set forth at the beginning of time. Time that will end. It always ends.

A scream emanating from a darkened alley sets my course in action, running along the wall I see some creature, captive in tow, dart down an open manhole. Not wasting a second, I leap in after it. The familiar feel of bones breaking beneath my heel cushions my landing. I cannot quite make out what it is under a foot of water as the rain from above splashed in a circle around me. Luckily, I do not need to ponder long, as I am immediately besieged by two other ones, offering up a much better look at their rodent-like appearance as they bite and slash at me. But I have already uncovered one of their weaknesses.

I grab them by their throats, and compress them against the steel side of the storm overflow tunnel. As the spines shatter, I hear the scream again. Turning towards the source, I see the figure turn off into a side tunnel. Dropping the limp corpses, I give chase.