CHAPTER FIFTY

HELP HAS ARRIVED

Daedalus crashed into Grimm, removing him from Caden and the rest of the group. He needed as much space as he could get. Grimm, obviously, did not like the unwanted contact.

Grimm roared and swiped at him, and he ducked to avoid it.

“RAPID KILL BARRAGE.”

Daedalus unleashed blows and kicks, landing them on Grimm's already cracked armor. His skin might be tough, but he didn't need to cut skin, he just needed to break the already broken part of his body. Grimm roared out in pain.

Daedalus had taken them a considerable distance away, and delivered one last punch that sent Grimm hurtling through the air and crashing into the ground.

“I don't know if you understand language at all, but it'd be in your best interest if you stopped fighting.”

A roar came, and Daedalus understood that it didn't understand language. Or that it didn't want to stop fighting, there was that.

Grimm charged at him and Daedalus deployed the thrusters in his back and feet, taking to the air. He flew backwards as Grimm came swinging at him, dodging left and right to avoid the attacks. Grimm swiped over and over again but it was futile; Daedalus moved with grace and skill, staying just out of his reach.

Grimm roared in annoyance - the only sound he was capable of making - and slowed, glaring at Daedalus with its fiery red eyes. He took a deep breath and roared, as loud as possible, and a wave escaped from him, traveling through the air and colliding with Daedalus.

His thrusters went out and he fell to the floor.

Grimm made a sound akin to laughing as he approached Daedalus’ body, bearing his weight down with each step and causing the cave to tremble in response. In his mind, he'd won another trophy for his master, Caden.

He got to the body and knelt to pick it up when…

“Rocket Knee.”

Missiles emerged from the body, flying straight at a confused Grimm. They flew around his attempt to protect himself - raised hands - and collided with him, in the head and in the cracks in his armor. They exploded on contact.

Daedalus stood and dusted himself as more projectiles emerged from his body and fly themselves towards Grimm, who staggered backwards, his vision obscured by the explosions from the missiles.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but your energy-cancelling attacks won't work on me.”

Grimm swiped and waved his arms around, attempting to scatter the missiles that flew straight at him. Daedalus took this chance.

“QUANTUM CHEST CANNON.” He shouted out, and the panel in his chest parted, revealing a gun. He fired off bullet after bullet, just as soon as the last missile had detonated.

The bullets ricochetted off Grimm’s skin, not even doing so much as bothering him as he wiped his face clean of soot and smoke.

“Tch. Not even that's strong enough for you?” The gun retracted back into his chest and the panel closed. He slammed his hands together, “Let's see how you like this.”

At once, the metal on his hands began to morph and change, growing and interlocking with each other, until a cannon manifested.

“QUANTUM ERASURE CANNON. 40%”

There was a whirring sound as the cannon charged up, gathering more and more power. The air around it shimmered as large amounts of heat began to radiate off it, an effect of the excess energy he was gathering at a single point.

Poor Grimm only had enough time to look and see what all the noise was about.

The cannon fired off, blasting straight into his chest, and at the cracked armor and Daedalus had to deploy anchors from his legs to keep him in place. The force from the cannon was so much that the backlash started to eat away at Daedalus’ clothes, revealing his cybernetic torso. He gritted his teeth as he braced himself against the pressure of the cannon.

Grimm took the hit and stood…only at first. He then quickly realized how much more powerful the cannon was than him but by then it was too late. He howled as the blast from the cannon chipped away at his armor, piece by piece, until what was left was a pink, squishy under-skin.

Grimm stumbled around, dazed, then fell flat on his face.

Defeated.

Vents in the back of Daedalus' arms opened, releasing the excess heat that he'd generated, and the cannon dissolving back into his regular arms.

Daedalus looked down.

“Hm. I should've brought a spare shirt.”

***

Dante flew through the crowd of murderbots, who'd been still whe he got there for some reason. Now though, they were more than active, clamoring over each other in a bid to get a chance to fight Dante himself.

“Don't worry! There's enough of me to go around!”

Dante landed in their midst, eyes glowing and a smile on his face. He cut through the air, bulldozing and shattering the murderbots in his way. Blades of fire formed around him and, with a wave of his hand, he sent them forward. They cut through murderbot after murderbot, causing them to explode.

Dante joined them in their journey of destruction, fists on fire and punching through metal after metal.

He'd gotten the easiest job of the three. Then he remembered his other objective…

Dante dashed through the forest, one that they had somehow ended up in on their way to the portals that would be taking them home. Daedalus followed closely behind, letting Dante take the lead so that he wouldn't have to deal with low-hanging branches, prickly stems, and wet leaves, but Dante didn't mind.

He was no stranger to the wonders of the wild green. The forest had been one of the most effective tools of the resistance from when he was back home. Even more ironic considering he was a user of fire. One wrong move from him, and the whole forest would've come burning down.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Halcyon had a fair share of forests too, or at least it used to, before Bellum and his forces decided that it was too valuable of an asset to the resistance. Under his leadership, they’d managed to save as much forest as they could, moving them to secure remote locations, so that at least the planet could fight for itself again.

The cover of leaves, the smell of mud and dirt, the chirping of insects, and the mating calls of unidentifiable species…

He almost thought he was home already.

Daedalus spoke, bringing him back to reality.

“The river's just up ahead. We should hurry!”

“Right!” Dante replied, needing to shout to be heard over the sound of the winds rushing past them as they cut through it with their superhuman speed.

They surged on, with Dante at the front, bulldozing through the shrubs that stood in their way. A few minutes later, they emerged from the forest, and in the distance before them, there was a river, just as Daedalus had pointed out.

The trees opened up to a star-filled sky, its twinkling lights mirrored in the river’s surface.

The river itself was important to them as they were meant to use it as a guide. The mysterious floating figure hadn’t given them precise coordinates but instead, an entire area, and this river spanned the entire length of it.

The plan was ‘if they moved around long enough, they'd see it’.

Obviously, that was Dante’s idea.

They came to a stop by the river’s edge.

“Whew,” Dante said, glancing around to make sure they weren't being followed and were well and truly alone, “That was a workout.”

“Not much of one,” Daedalus answered, “if you ask me, I still think we should've flown there.”

“That would've drawn too much attention. Did you never have to sneak around in your world? It's like, rule number one. Don't stand out. A robot and a pyrokinetic flying together stands out.”

Daedalus ignored him, mostly because he didn't feel like arguing, and pulled out a small scanner with a blinking red dot and a yellow triangle on it. “If we head downstream, we should get to the location. The portals should be waiting for us.”

“Yeah, if the flying mysterious figure was right.”

“I believe he was. How many flying mysterious figures do you know? And how many of them would use their powers to lie randomly?”

Dante shrugged, casually walking closer to the edge of the river, “Back home, we didn't trust anyone we didn't know until we knew them, so except for you guys, who I only trusted because you both wore my face and name, this is new territory to me. If he'd tried appearing to me back on Halcyon? I'd have probably fought him.”

“Somehow, I'm not surprised.”

“Hey, is this water safe to drink?” Dante crouched down beside the river and scooped a handful, sniffing it. As far as looks were concerned, the water looked clear enough that it wasn't immediately disqualified for being dirty.

“Let me see,” Daedalus crouched beside him, scooping a handful of the water. He ran a test on it, searching for diseases or anything harmful and it came back negative, “You're good to drink.”

“Thanks,”

Dante drank from the water of the river, grateful for the refreshment. Now that he was resting, he finally had a chance to think about this whole situation, while Daedalus sat by the river's banks, fiddling with a new gadget that he'd pull out of himself.

He was finally going back home. After all this time, he was going to fulfill his promise to Anthea…but he was doing so at a cost.

“Hey,” he said after a while of drinking, “do you think they're alright back there?”

“I think they'll be fine. This world’s Dang is pretty strong and Daniel and Megan are so much stronger now than they were when we first arrived. What's wrong? Are you worried?””

Dante stared at the water flowing fast down the river, “I’ll be fine.” He got up and dusted himself, “Let's get a move on, we don't know how long those portals will stay open.”

The two set off once more, running the length of the river but also keeping to the inside of the treeline. It was better that way if they didn't want to be seen.

Again, Dante led the way with Daedalus calling instructions from behind.

“We should be approaching the area any second now! Keep your eyes out for any that looks like a portal! I imagine it’d be hard to miss!”

“Roger!” Dante called back. He pivoted and dashed off sideways, deeper into the forest to cover more ground in their search.

Daedalus forged on, his scanners feeling the air around him for any spikes in multiversal energy. He didn’t know if he was excited to be going home or worried. Apart from his friends, there wasn’t much for him to go back to in that world and he suspected the same for Dante.

The scanner beeped, drawing his attention to it

Dante’s came back to him, having circled the entire area by himself, “Hey, Da-”

“Shhhhhh!”Daedalus shushed him, “Listen, the portals are here and the scanner has picked up on it.”

The scanner in his hand beeped again, and he held it steady while taking little steps forward. Dante followed closely behind. They trudged through the forest and burst into a clearing in its center, and there was what they were looking for.

Two large-sized portals stood in the clearing with the names of their home planets written at the foot of them.

Dante walked up to the portal marked ‘Halcyon’. “Well Daedalus, I guess this is it. We step through these portals and that is it. Our lives return to what they once were before this.”

“Yeah…” Daedalus stood in front of the other portal, staring directly into it. Maybe if he looked hard enough, he could see what was going on on the other side. He had no such luck.

“Are you ready?” Dante called out.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Alright then, see ya!” Dante moved to enter the portal but stopped just before he headed into it. She was right there, on the other side of the portal…yet he couldn’t do it. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did.

He sighed.

“Daedalus…”

“I know, buddy.”

“I just…”

“Trust me, I know.” Daedalus pulled out a device that resembled…the Waymaker?

It was a small device with various dials and switches. He began adjusting it carefully, and soon the mini Waymaker started drawing energy from the portals. The device emitted a soft hum, and a faint glow began to emanate from it as it siphoned energy.

Dante watched with curiosity, eyebrows raised. "What is that thing doing?" he asked.

"It's gathering energy," Daedalus explained, not taking his eyes off the device. "I wasn’t able to fix the actual Waymaker, so I created a backup plan, just in case."

Dante looked puzzled. "Backup plan for what?" he asked, stepping closer to get a better look at the device.

Daedalus finally met Dante's gaze. "In case we both decided to come to our senses and stayed to help our frinds," he said

Dante smiled and nodded slowly, absorbing the information. "So, what should I do if I run into another portal like these?"

Daedalus tightened a knob on the Waymaker and nodded in satisfaction as the device continued to hum. "If you encounter another portal, contact me immediately. We need to be ready for anything. This device might be our only hope.”

More murderbots came, and he was excited. He mowed through their ranks, his blades of flame helping to thin out their numbers, and he did it with the biggest grin on his face. He thought about all the fun he was having and he felt a pang of guilt.

Anthea’s face flashed in his mind.

Make sure you come home. No matter what.

Dante felt bad. He'd had the opportunity to get back home, to her, and had chosen not to instead. He was actively breaking a promise that he'd made her.

A murderbot dodged one of the blades and jumped towards Dante. Dante snapped his fingers and the murderbots burst into flames.

It incinerated immediately.

An idea popped in his mind.

“Follow me, you glorified trash cans!” He called out and he took to the skies. Sure enough, the murderbots followed.

He shot upwards, then arced, zigzagging around the stalacites that hung down. The murderbots were unable to match his fitness and a bunch of them crashed into the ceiling, exploding on impact. More followed him through the maze of stalacites, some unable to avoid all the stalacites and crashing into those too.

Dante dropped into a nosedive and the murderbots followed. The goal was to get every single murderbot in the air, and so far, it was working. The ones that hadn't followed him up initially, saw him coming down and decided to go up to meet him.

He jerked sideways, moving slow enough to keep the murderbots on his heel. Then he jerked upwards again. Then sideways. Then downwards. Sideways. Upwards. Sideways. Downwards. Around.

Now all the murderbots were airborne, and chasing after him.

“Perfect.” He murmured.

Flames shot out of his arms as he stabilized himself midair and concentrated. The heat inside him began to gather and build up. It compounded, more and more came but he forced it inside. The flames keeping him airborne went out too, the heat running inside him instead.

He roared as he let it all out.

A bright light filled the cave, accompanied by searing heat. All the murderbots instantly came to a boil, their skin melting and their circuitry going haywire.

Dante dropped to the ground, amidst the rain of molten metal. He stretched his tongue out, catching a few drops and swallowing.

“Now, THAT one was a great workout.”

He took off sprinting through the cave, his eyes scanning the rough walls and shadowy corners for any sign of a portal or anything related to it. Every second counted, and Dante knew he had to be quick if they were going to have any chance of success.