CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHASE AND CALEB

Tiger led the way through the caves, sprinting down the path carved out by the murderbots with Wombat in tow.

“Chase! Caleb!”

They screamed the names of the twins as they passed multiple rooms, filled with metal and scrapped decommissioned murderbots, but they got no response. Wombat pulled up beside them, matching their pace.

“Hey, you think Dang’s going to be okay? That was a lot of murderbots.”

“Yeah, he’ll be fine.” They responded, “He’s Dang after all. What we need to be focused on is finding the twins and getting them out of here. That’s the mission.”

Of course, the mission. They knew it was selfish but a part of them hoped that they’d run into ‘Kai’ again. This time, they were ready and they could take revenge for Anna, but they had a feeling that Dang would beat them to it.

They continued down the cave corridor, passing many more cave rooms filled with uninteresting things; spare heads and other body parts, Tiger figured that this part of the cave was used for storage, and a part of them wondered whether or not they were going in the right direction.

They slowed to a stop and Wombat did the same.

“What’s up?”

“I don’t think they’re here.” They answered, “We’ve not seen any movement since, not even from stray murderbots.”

“Probably because Dang drew all of their attention to himself.”

“But with our kind of luck, you don’t think it’s weird that we’ve not encountered anything? Not even one?”

Wombat thought about it for a while. “Okay, do we go back? Search another place?”

“Yeah, let’s-”

They stopped mid-sentence, cut off by the figure standing at the front end of the hall. Their vision focused and she noticed a second one beside it. Human definitely…not robots. And they were short.

Kids.

“Twins?” they called out, and started making their way towards the figures.

It was them. It had to be…but something was off about them. There was an eerie air about the way they were stood. They didn’t make any movements or act like they were happy to see Wombat and Tiger. They didn’t recognize them at first.

Tiger started to slow down but Wombat hadn’t noticed what they’d noticed and he pushed forward.

“Finally, guys. We’ve been looking all over for you.”

One of the twins raised his arm and outstretched it at them. Wombat still didn’t realize what was happening.

“Daniel! Wait!” Tiger called out but it was too late. An invisible force slammed into him and thrust him back, into them. They willed the wind behind their back to slow him and set him down beside them.

“You okay?” They asked Wombat, who was rubbing his head.

“I’m good, but that one got me good. I didn’t even have time to react.”

They helped Wombat to his feet and regarded the twins, who were now walking towards them. They moved unnaturally and in sync.

“Megan…I think they’re-”

“Yup,” they cut him off, “they’re brainwashed.”

They both assumed defensive stances.

“So, what are we going to do?

“I have no idea.”

One of the twins, Caleb, raised his hands toward them and they reacted.

“This hallway is too narrow there’s nowhere to dodge to!” Tiger shouted.

“Then we’ll make our own.” Wombat responded. He raised his fists and fire engulfed them, then slammed down into the earth, pouring a hot stream of fire. The ground crumbled and gave way instantly, dropping the four of them into a completely different room.

It was some sort of arena, probably used for testing the battle capabilities of the murderbots, and Tiger was thankful for the open space. She felt like she could breathe better as opposed to suffocating in the narrow hallway that they were just in.

Also, now she could move around better.

The both of them landed safely with the use of their powers but the twins still fell.

Tiger looked at Wombat. “You get Chase. I’ll get Caleb.”

“Which one’s Chase?”

“Just catch the one on the left.”

“Roger.”

They dashed forward, Wombat propelling himself with his flames and Tiger summoning the power of the wind, narrowly making it in time to grab the kids before they hit the ground. Wombat skid to a halt, the soles of his shoes catching on the rough earth.

“Hopefully, you guys have come back to your sens-”

WHAM

Tiger watched Wombat get flung through the air and into a wall on the far side of the room. They quickly distanced themself from the twin they’d caught, narrowly avoiding an attack to the face.

“This is ridiculous.” They called out to Wombat, who was recovering from the hit and taking to the air, “How are we meant to rescue them if they think we’re the enemy.”

“I don’t know, but we can try beating the brainwash out of them.”

“Yeah, let’s not beat up the kids we’re trying to save, how about that?” Tiger called out as they dodged another attack from the twins, backstepping several paces. Technically she was hovering just over the ground.

“Then I’m out of ideas. And no, don’t suggest singing lullabies to them in attempt to trigger a nostalgic memory because I’m not doing that.” Wombat landed beside Tiger.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Well, we can’t keep dodging forever.”

Wombat sighed, “Okay, fine. But you’ll have to teach me the words…and the tune…, “ he thought about it for a while, “basically you have to teach me the whole song.”

They dashed in opposite directions to dodge a simultaneous attack from both twins. One of them began to summon a blue orb of energy in their palm.

“Daniel, take this seriously!”

“I am taking it seriously,” Wombat called back, “the only way to reach them is with our fists or with our voices, and we decided not to hurt them, so unless you have a third, better option, I suggest you pick a song.”

Tiger searched for an answer, racking her brain. They hadn’t really come up against brainwashing before now and neither did Wombat; He was getting most of his ideas from movies. They’d faced off against mind control before, but their power was weak and only worked on animals.

This was much different.

The twin pitched the blue orb at Wombat, who was flying through the air. Wombat noticed it and slowed down, waiting until the last second before diving out of the way. The blue orb whizzed past him, stopped midair, re-corrected its trajectory, and flew straight for Daniel.

“Damn.” He muttered to himself as he shot away from the orb, which was now starting to grow bigger.

Wombat raced through the air and at the walls of the cave. He flew along the length, dragging the blue orb with him. Once again, he slowed down, allowing the orb to gain more distance on him.

“Gyro Pyro Sphere!” He called out and a huge ball of flame materialized directly in front of him. It blazed with an intense flare and Wombat thrust his hands under him and rapidly increased the amount of fire he was putting out, forcing him upwards.

The blue orb collided with the ball of fire and together, they exploded.

“I’m out of ideas!” they called out to Wombat.

Wombat flew behind the twins and flew straight at them, hoping to catch them off guard but slammed straight into an invisible wall. He recovered and flew up into the air. “I keep forgetting, but what are their powers again? I knew it had something to do with their eyes but the telekinesis, that’s new to me.”

Megan dashed to the side to avoid an invisible punch to the face, “The telekinesis is an extension of the eyes, I think. They’re connected.”

“Is there a weakness there?”

“Doubt it.”

They continued like this, Wombat making futile charges at the twins and being denied while simultaneously dodging their attack, and Tiger continued to use the power of wind to dodge, thinking of a third option.

“Wombat! I want to try something!” Tiger yelled to their partner. He obeyed and dashed through the air, landing beside them.

“What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to try and restrain their arms.”

“How does that help? The eyes can still see us.”

“They’re using their arms to focus their powers, to direct it at us.”

“So, you’re saying we take away their ability to aim a dangerous weapon? Is that a good idea?”

“They probably won’t try to use the full extent of their powers, they’d risk putting each other in harm’s way.”

“’Probably’?”

“Uhhh…very likely?” Megan shrugged, “Look, it’s a gamble, but I’m pretty confident about it.”

“Alright then,” Wombat’s eyes glowed a bright orange and a smile spread across his face, “say less.”

Wombat shot forward, focusing jets of stream behind him to boost his speed, and headed straight for the twins. As expected, he collided with an invisible wall. He shot upwards, into the air, and yelled,

“Inferno Barrage!”

Balls of fire formed around him and fired themselves straight towards the twins. Both twins outstretched their arms and the balls of fire collided with invisible walls and extinguished, except for one, which made it further than the rest before colliding with a wall.

Wombat smirked, “Tiger! I figured it out! When they protect themselves, it’s not one big barrier, they have to focus on the attack itself! So that means…”

“Hit ‘em with enough attacks, and one’s bound to slip through,” Tiger muttered. Even if they was never going to say it to his face, they had to admit that sometimes, Daniel came up with the best ideas.

They gathered wind in the palm of their hand and compressed it, adding more and more wind until they were sure it was too much. The air swirled around them, complying with their intentions, and their eyes started glowing.

“Tempest boom.”

They launched the compressed ball of air at the twins and it exploded as soon as it came into contact with the invisible wall. The explosion sent out shockwaves in every direction, disorienting the twins and pushing them back.

Wombat followed her lead.

“Wombat parade!”

Stocky marsupials with short legs, just about the size of a teddy bear and made entirely of fire, emerged from him and flew at the twins, circling them, flying into the telekinetic shield and flying into it at random and exploding on contact. The twins’ attention was focused on trying to defend themselves from the Wombats, so Tiger used this opportunity to attack.

“Windy Slash!” they yelled as they waved at the air. The air obeyed their command and a sharp arc of wind was sent flying in the twins’ direction. It merged with a couple of the fire wombats in its path and caught on fire, creating a hybrid wind-fire slash attack and cut through the air with incredible force.

A twin noticed this and turned his attention to it, spreading his arm outwards, trying to block the attack but it was futile. The slash collided with another invisible wall and exploded, generating way too much power for the twin to handle.

The flames pierced the invisible wall and hurtled towards the kids. Tiger saw them get scared and put their hands in front of their faces for protection and at the last minute, they directed the wind upwards, displacing the flames.

“Wind spring.” they muttered, and the air gathered under the sole of their feet, giving them the boost they needed. They dashed across the arena, at the twins, grabbed them both, twirled and flung them up into the air. “Wombat!”

“On it.” Wombat responded, and shot for the confused airborne twins. He splayed his arm in front of him focused, just like Dante had taught him, and flame constructs shot out of them in the form of chains.

They wrapped around both twins’ torsos, securing their hands in place. He landed and placed them gently on the ground.

“We might be the best babysitters ever.” He said to Tiger as they approached. He raised a hand in the air and they high-fived it.

“Heroic Heroes, back at it again.” They grinned.

“Were we ever not at it?” Wombat glanced at the bound twins, who made no reaction to the chains of fire wrapped around them. They didn’t squirm or struggle, or even looked annoyed that they lost. They simply sat there, and stared with soulless eyes.

“Mission accomplished, so let’s go get Dang and then get the hell out of here. We’ll figure out what we’re going to do about the brainwashing later.” Tiger suggested, looking around trying to figure out what part of the cave they were currently in.

“Yeah, if Daedalus were still here, he might’ve been able to help. Too bad…”

Wombat didn’t have time to finish his sentence as Tiger had thrust themself into him, shoving him with all her might and sending them both to the ground.

“Megan, what are you-?”

Something whizzed past his head and struck the earth beside him, creating a small explosion that threw them both aside. In the chaos, Wombat had lost concentration on the chains and let go of the twins, who immediately recovered and attacked, throwing invisible punches at the duo.

Wombat got to his feet immediately and jumped in front of Tiger, taking the blunt of the force and getting sent flying across the room for a third time tonight.

Tiger got to her feet and sped to him. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I am. What was that?”

They traced the path of the bullet and saw the source: floating in the air with the use of rockets in their feet, were six peculiar murderbots, much bigger than the average size and much different from the average look.

Tiger felt their heart sink.

Six eyes and cable-like hair.

All six murderbots were versions of the Prototype that they and Wombat had fought not even up to 24 hours ago. Their body throbbed as a reminder of all the physical pain that she’d gone through when they’d fought it earlier.

Wombat’s left arm throbbed.

“Great, here I was wishing that that was the last time we fought something that evil.” Wombat said as he stood and dusted the debris and dirt from his clothes.

“Well. It could only get so much worse in one night.” Tiger said back.

All six of the murderbots physically looked exactly like the original one that they’d fought in the city earlier, except all of their eyes were different colors.

Red. Purple. Green. Blue. Yellow. Pink.

The Prototype in the middle spoke, its eyes glowing a distinct shade of red. Different from the one they’d fought. Angrier, more dangerous, “Targets Tiger and Wombat identified. Initiating revenge operation. Commencing annihilation.”

“Revenge? What, for your friend?” Wombat laughed.

“He was the first of us,” another Prototype spoke. Blue this time, “The original prototype.”

“He was also the original lost-to-the-Heroic-Heroes prototype! Add that to your obituary!” Wombat called out.

“Dude, nice.” They fist-bumped each other.

The Prototypes began to descend from their position in the air, together.

“It is still incomprehensible that it was you two who defeated him. Our brother might not have been as strong as us, but he was still considerably powerful.” Red eyes spoke.

“Is being condescending just a permanent part of all of your ‘murderbot’ coding? Because that’s why he lost. He underestimated us.” Tiger retorted.

“Oh, you do not need to worry. We analyzed the data that our brother sent us on the two of you. We are stronger than he was, we’re different. We know all your moves…we’re assured victory.”

“You all look the same to me. Just as easily breakable.” Wombat raised his fists and his flames engulfed them.