“Guess brother, got tired of me, probably a lot on him, he’s always trying help mom out, I think she gets overwhelmed sometimes.” Said Zaith as he watched his brother fade into the static haze of rain. “Guess we’ll see who finds the coolest stuff!” Knowing his brother, he could already imagine him bragging about how he always knows where to look to find the best stuff. “Not this time bro!” But he couldn’t help but at least skulk through the library again, and just glance at the title of an interesting book he might pilfer another time. He hurled his legs up the expansive blocks of concrete that only an elite athlete could call stairs, each time wondering if they had gotten bigger or if he had gotten more out of shape. He made his way to the vaulted glass doors of the entrance being bathed by the weather’s barrage, It had the essence of an abandoned coliseum cathedral of books where ideas could duel for his sparse attention. Once inside he glided his gauntlet across the deceptively decrepit table, that was a titanic glossy husk of driftwood. A severed cadaver of Black Atlas tree, revealing the grooves of it’s intestinal anatomy of dendrochronlogical history, who’s rings were mutated into a burst of skewed stripes like the rings of Saturn. He crept through the crypt frozen shelves of book, like a hellway full of sleeping ghosts, relics of diseased knowledge doomed to purgatory, plunged by their own density into the forever raging sea of information. But Zaith saw them as a tragic untapped vault of potential energy that he alone could not utilize, or dispel their curse of invisibility. He climbed his way up the staircase that was centralized withing the library, guiding his glove again around the magnificent handrail composted from the same tree carcasses as the sprawling tables. A traditional ceremony he religiously engaged in when he visited the library on his pilgrimage for spiritual communion with the universe. But today he had an idea eating away at his mind, something he had imagined himself doing, that at first seemed fantastical, that now seemed perhaps doable. A flare of adventure inspired by his brother’s love of a challenge, and competitiveness, even if usually he was only competing with himself. He drew himself over to window on the second story floor overlook an alley between the neighboring building with a fire escape stairway scaffolding attached. He deftly unlocked the corrosion ridden window with an unpleasant screech, being careful not to permanently damage anything in his favorite historical building. “In Theory…” He thought as he imagined himself leaping from the window across to the opposite building’s well lubricated fire escape, like an eagle ninja swooping elegantly across. He did however consider plummeting clumsily into the concrete crevasse below, knowing it wouldn’t be fatal, especially in his suit but it would still “Definitely, fuck me up”. A task that would be trivial for his brother, was a major tribulation for him. Always keen to test a theory, he stood staring at the daring gamble, trying to purge most of the anxiety from his body in preparation for galvanizing acrobatics. He paced over a good distance away before turning around lined up with the open window that was now splattering the floor with a coagulation of abnormally gelatinous droplets. He charged toward it full speed diving through the window throwing himself through it completely horizontally with his hands as the tip of spear, reaching for any solid piece of the structure he could grasp on to. He made contact with an aggressive impact, his arms flew between bars of the grated metal platform, while his helmet banged into them stunning him almost too long to lock his arms around the bars. His whole body from below his torso dangled from the platform as he recovered his attention from the staggering blow. “Uh, I think I miscalculated the landing. Damn Vance , he makes shit like this look so easy.” He told himself sounding like he shouting in a tin can from outside his helmet, wrestling to pull himself up against the slick bars of the metal armrail. He managed to heave himself over the rail on to the platform noticeably breathing heavier, he took a sequence of deep breaths and admired the view from his newly conquered territory that could narrowly overlook the street Vance had set off to. “Damn, I guess I never really explore enough when I’m here, I’m always so obsessed with the library.” He noted to himself feel an exhilarated sense of accomplishment, and he did it because he wanted to , not because Vance coerced him into doing it. “It will be nice to take in some new scenery for a change, lets see what history this building has going on inside of it.”He invited himself in through the fire escape emergency exit with a perilously overcharged shot from his pistol. The building was tall complex of apartments with an open concept common area with a square shaped balcony walkway perimeter that allowed the natural light from the rooftop to scarcely graze down to the bottom floor lobby. He entered into the veil of darkness, that made him feel in a way claustrophobic, like looking into a mirror of cruel truth, it reminded him of the emptiness and nihilism he often felt and tried so hard to distract himself from. He wondered if Vance felt the same way. “But how could he? He’s so positive” he wondered “It’s like really am a Vampire, always trying to feed off his positive energy. Unless he felt the same way? Just going on adventures and challenging himself to kill the void?” But he knew his brother too well, he and his mom were the only people he felt like he actually did know, and he was an expert at hiding how he felt for the good of everyone else around him, he was an authenticity Geiger counter. But he could see the choke darkness was alleviated up at the higher floors, so followed the stairs zigzagging up around the perimeter of the walkway as he ascended. He made his way to the top residential floor before the rooftop access where light could claw it’s way into his magenta eyes, and vines found a way to manifest their legions through the cracks in the top window panels. He gazed down below into the phantom abyss of concrete, unsure if a fall in his suit would be lethal, not a theory he wanted to test. He had an ambiguous idea in mind as to where he was going, trying to find the best vantage point in the city. He made his way to the top corner apartment room that was sealed by a steel sliding door that he did not have an access pass to slide in the kiosk. “Damn it..” he said splashing the kiosk into molten metal with a more precisely executed shot than before, only to see it have absolutely no effect on opening the sealed door. “I was hoping to not have to use plan B” He said moving 4 times his current distance from the door. He held held his pistol now with two hand drifting his aim from the kiosk to the door itself. He reached for his waist and locked an additional battery pack onto the one already inserted on in his pistol, a module design meant to be utilized on bigger rifles, for reasons obvious to their users, but could still be done on a pistol model for impractical purposes. He once again slide his hand back to it’s double grip position, while flipping switch labeled “Overcharge” which had previously been disengaged. He began charging a shot, 1 , 2 ,3 ,4 … 10 seconds had passed, A blinding glow surrounded his weapon and his hands as the weapon now began to sound like a plane turbine with it’s oscillation chamber spinning so fast it began to shoot red sparks. The gun began turning an illuminated red color as if had just been made in flames of a forge, the same red color overtook the entire gun and it was now making a new siren alarm sound signaling that the gun itself was on the verge of completely exploding. Red burning glow began to take over Zaith’s glove taking him by surprise, he briefly released a piercing scream of pain louder than both other sounds as released the shot along with his gun from his hand which was now erupting with steam while held his forearm while rolling on the ground petrified by the pain. Simultaneously the blast impacted to door blasting the door in half with a massive hole, creating a huge wave of smoke pouring from the impact zone. He lied there staring staring at the steam, with the smell of burnt flesh, rolling off his now exposed hand in disbelief. “Damnit, fuck, how can I be this stupid?!” Now more mad at himself for letting his brother’s trust in him seem foolish. He could hide his burned hand maybe a for a week or two if he was really trying, but the damage to his would be discovered in days, His mom was an adept sleuth. He could see her yelling at both of them, punishing both of them twice as much as they deserved. He picked himself up off the ground still holding holding up his permanently injured hand by his forearm. “Well , it is what it is now, I might well see if I can still salvage the day” He told himself determined to somehow find something positive out of the situation, and he would wear gloves the rest of his life if he had to, to avoid his mom’s bombastic judgement, for he too was a good sleuth. He crouched low enough to shuffle through the hole as the cloud of smoke dispersed into a creamy fog. At least he had been right. The apartment had one of the best views of the clock tower and beyond the sea of trees, and arguably the city. He found himself in an opulently furnished living with everything still remarkably pristine, except for the slag shards he had just blasted through he door. “I guess when you’re rich enough to live like a king in the middle of nowhere, you’re probably rich enough to just leave it all behind too.” he thought while examining the room that looked almost, as cozy as his current home considering it’s ancient aesthetics that gave it a vogue vintage mystique. An a historic telescope sat in the corner of the room near the two intersecting glass window walls. He walked over to it appreciating the vista. “Let’s see if this thing actually works” He said as he awkwardly took his helmet off one handed, which was only capable of a blurry digital zoom. He began playing with the revolving array of of glass magnification lenses, try to see the canopy beyond the cloisterous clocktower. He finally managed to align it with some clarity, perhaps he woulds see some unusual elements of nature he hoped. As he canvased the sea of gleaming orange needles, he noticed a black spec on the glass. “An insect? Or a scratch?” He considered momentarily, but after unlocking the telescope, he realized the spec wasn’t fixed to the telescopic lens, the spec was just floating in the sky. “A drone? Or a monitor” but even those were raritys nowdays under maintained by the government’s insatiable metal famine, anything that couldn’t kill was a waste of money. He lined up the telescope centered around the spec, as he took a second to alternate to a stronger lens. “Fuck! It’s a ship!” releasing another profanity his mother and church peer would typically scorn him for using, but in this case it was apt, all but the strongest willed of puritans would be called to profanity by it’s sight. He vigorously scanned the vessel, for any indication of it’s allegiance, which he unfortunately found. A symbol that looked like a zombified bear roaring, next to the name of the ship branded across it’s hull “The Mordant Despair” This was not a flight route for military vessels, he knew. Worse even the ship seemed to be growing closer, not rapidly, just a slow paced hover, which was worse he thought “They’re scanning the area! Not good!” Also not a military practice on already controlled territory. He could see the trees quake below as the ships omnidirectional turbines assaulted the forest below with some absurd air pressure, like an automatic car-wash dryer, filling the air below it with a orange dusty smog with pelting torrents of pine needles. “Pirates” a word his failed to register as anything other that superstitious tales to fear people into compulsory behavior. “They cant be real can they?” He said never having witnessed an actual ship before. But what was wore he thought was the ship’s disturbance of the jungle, which dealing with could prove a hectic nuisance, especially minus one pistol, and cost them precious time. “Guess I better go tell my brother, he’s not gonna be happy.” He made his way to back to the fire escape from the top of the building. But before he proceeded to go down it, now he could hear a weird murmur sound, he was confused as to weather it was a malfunction of his suit from the blast, or something in his local environment so he opened his visor, allowing drops the greasy rain to attach to his face with gravity deifying viscosity. Now he could hear the rain drops, but the humming was louder now, but he couldn’t pinpoint a location. With a slight glance his scarlet fled to see if the spec of ship was still visible, to his instant disapproval it was now fully visible with the naked eye. “Damn! I gotta go tell him right now.” Knowing the vehicle’s approach was imminent roughly toward their general location. “About 3 - 5 minutes!” A Jolt of dark anxiety charged energy gave him sudden burst of clarity and athleticism doubling his power, as a cold clammy sweat mixed with the mutant rain water. He glided down the fire escapee stairs almost levitating his feet as his his hands hydroplaned down the glistening armrail. “Why would they come here of all places? These pirates must be pretty desperate if they’re robbing poor people?” He told himself as he made it down to the bottom of the alley in record time, Vance would have been impressed. He darted up the twisted sidewalk warped from the subcutaneous roots, vaulting over mounds of concrete and asphalt that seemed to be more condensed to his side of the street, scanning for evidence of his brother. Now the faint sound was now and audible distant buzzing, like some giant mechanical bee with a tangled swamp of umbilical electrical wires burrowing into it’s back. He was now panting for air , realizing that he could not maintain his supernaturally summoned level of athleticism for long, given the limitations of more studious physique. Between breaths he caught a glance of Vance’s fiery red hair. “Why couldn’t you just wear your damn helmet and communicate with me? I swear he goes out of his way to make everything more challenging!” He thought loudly almost wishing he could telepathically yell at his brother for making run an olyimpic sprint. Vance froze in front of the entrance of the police station, staring up at the sky also possessed by curiosity of the dull roar that was louder than the combustion of the medium tempo rainfall. Zaith now seeing his brother in sight , a slight sense of relief ran through him as he began jogging across the street. Once in earshot range, he tried to shout over the roar and the rain, his first few shouts “Vance!” had no effect on his attention. He was locked in a trance not believing fully what he was hearing.

“A ship out here?” Vance whispered to himself before finally acknowledging his brother, who he could hear but not react to, everything but the sound of the ship’s howling engines were radio static to him. “Zaith! We gotta go.” He said with cold firm assertion, as shot a stern look towards his brother, who was almost startled out of his frantic shouting state, into momentary confusion.

“Pirates?!” Said Zaith with a hinge of uncertainty, hoping he was wrong about what he saw.

“Pirates.” He confirmed with a tinge of dissatisfaction, knowing their day of exploration was over. “Damnit.” He said throwing his helmet back on, having still failed to notice his brother’s burned exposed hand.

The sound now grew into an oppressive channeling howl, as an ominous unnatural wind caused the might trees to sway as if under a spell of drunken stupor, the flurry of needles was now as loud as the rain as they spasmed into convulsive epileptic shock. “Let’s make sure whatever they’re looking for, it isn’t us.”

“Yeah, they’re probably running some sort of H.D.M.S device, who knows how desperate they are. Would they try to take our suits?” Zaith conjectured.

“Unlikely, that’s probably a drop in the bucket for them, maybe just fuel for the day, ‘but who knows’… if they are truly ‘desperate’ to be way out here in Neo-Nevada farm country. Might be wise to blend in with a building.” Said Vance puzzling their scenario to decipher the best course. They both revolved around the building aligning themselves where the edge of the police build would likely contain a steel support beam. The vessel grew closer, surely they would gloss over the ghost town, hopefully not making it their arrival destination. “What are they after?” thought Vance as the question consumed his imagination, thinking intel surveillance brokerage would be the most benign of motives. An Insane swell of air pressure chocked their body’s natural movements, as if they were suddenly underwater. The whole town shook as if it was being attacked by an earthquake that somehow affected the sky and the rain also. A black veil of artificial night condemned the fragile sunlight to a memory. The monstrous assembly of machinery that’s somehow wasn’t a living being of it’s own accord, stationed itself above what now seemed like a tiny town compered to the dwarfing majesty of the floating colony who’s obscene stature could not even be fully evaluated by humans from below, but was at least 10 times the size of the city. Even Vance was taken back by the sheer impossibility of such a machine of such magnitude, That itself was a historic survivor of the ‘Annihilation Era’ most of which had been blasted to scrap, or slowly mutilated by the slow serrated sawing sword of time. Seeing one alive, inhabited, was supernatural. Vance momentarily considered what effect his newly acquired war weapon would have on the ship, thinking he could perhaps blast at least a washing machine size chunk from the vessel know that would not not have serious impact on it’s absolute supremacy. Vance opened his suit’s visor, and signaled to his brother with a peculiar hand gesture to do the same, now fearing that their suit comm systems could somehow be intercepted by some deviant technological savant.

“What should we do?” Asked Zaith trying not to yell in his brother face, but also trying to surpass the plague of sound from the ship.

“Hopefully, Nothing. We wait, or run if it comes to that.” Replied Vance.

The woods shook as the entity of metal hovered above them, perhaps detecting if there were any valuables worth swinging a cutlass for.

An inhuman pricing shriek sliced through the sound of the engine causing both brothers to wince in discomfort. Just then one of the massive turbines hanging off the side immediately exploded, raining cinder flares down on the shaded street in front of them. “What the hell was that?!” Erupted Vance with more anger than surprise.

“Another ship?! or just an internal malfunction?” Said Zaith

“I don’t like either of those options” Said Vance imagining the metal whale body slamming the entire town into a pancake. The screech of dread came once again this time sounding more distant from them as if coming from the other side of the city. Another engine explosion. “Damn! Another one! This must be an attack?” He said half questioning himself , darting over to the perimeter of the sidewalk near the stoop of the building on the edge of the foliage that was concealing him previously. He gazed an the belly of the ship , but all he could see was a black silhouette of coagulated machine parts and the now two engines raging with fire spewing blobs of molten metal that sounded like metal coins when they hit the ground after cooling on their way down. He knew time was now an imminent concern most ships were outfitted with extra engines for bursts of high fuel consumption mobility, of which, the ship clearly had an excess of, but not unlimited of them, but “How many?” he wondered , and “who in the hell in the middle of nowhere would be brave enough to attack a ship that large on short notice?! Even the game wardens would take at least a day to coordinate a combat response to such an imposing pirate threat.” Even for game wardens it wasn’t as simple as just blasting identified pirate ships out of the sky, unless a high enough bounty would call for such a hunt. They often just kept tabs on them like circling sharks swarms in offshore waters. Even pirates have off seasons between plundering, times of battles and times of hibernation, and given a strict budget on the already economically frugal government, pirate bountys were usually handled on a profit margin cost basis. “Pirates vs. Pirates?” he wondered, and what absurdity could even lead to such an event. He gazed in a hypnotic state staring toward the clearing of canopy at the end of the city that was now more a view of the battleship than the skyline. As he stared his questions instantly were answered. “That’s impossible!” his mind bellowed with the incomputable odds of what he was witnessing, that he himself was actually seeing with his own eyes. Two legends colliding. Just on the edge of the horizon he saw what looked like a black meteor crash into the side of the ship, that was about as big as 1000 washing machines, if they could fuse into some horrific beast with limbs and wings. The true apex ambassadors of the jungle. He couldn’t believe he was actually seeing “A ‘Writhing Raven Roach’” Having only heard the term coined exclusively in early A.A.E. historical documents as mythological beastly incarnations of the boogeyman. Ancient alien agents of aviation, who’s existence proved a threat to the survival of humanity at one time, prayed to be extinct once and for all. Beautiful majestic administrators of carnage and death. He analyzed every attribute of the creature with a morbid curiosity. Summoning every last detail in his memory to the surface to compare the details of the legends with what he could see before him. He sealed his visor back over his face so he could zoom back in on the creature now slamming it’s claws into the side of the ship. He fearfully admired it’s black exoskeleton scaled wings, what would be feathers on a birds wing were black scales with a thin shine of reflected light on them, with the upper body physique of an insect like gorilla with mantis blades where it’s fingers should be, it had cat like shape to is feet that connected to it’s segmented carapace body all of which were made of the same clearly bulletproof insect exoskeleton, evident by the veil of machine fire bouncing off it with a stream of sparks. It’s tail was a thin whip with barbs like a stingray, that it was currently plunging into the ships hull, sawing through it to great success. But it’s head was the most grotesque part, somewhere between mantis and dragons with mandibles alongside it’s jaws full of saber tooth fangs , and armored plates of exoskeleton scales over it’s face and it’s four curled horns sprouting from it’s head and neck, with burning yellow serpent eyes that looked like a moon lit by two suns on a pitch black night, to steal your attention away from all of it’s built in tools for human harvesting. Analyzing the beast for or a minute or so brought back some of the less prominent features of the creature to Vance’s mind, who was too focused to hear his brother try to communicate with him through the intercom. “’It’s icy breath could render anything but a plasma shielded ship or a geyser of magma, into a fragile statue of crystal, It’s tongues were fully articulated lassos to hell. It’s shrill shrieks mimicking a dying creature in agony begging for the sweet release of death, were only a clever ruse to lure an overconfident predator, into the gullible serendipity of a free lunch, only to meet its early demise ’” Some demon diseased relative of the black jay bird, which itself was somewhere between a falcon and a crow. As he watched in anticipation, now joined by his brother who stood with the same statuesque marveling of current events. A second screeching being of horror slammed into the other side of the ship, with enough force to momentarily destabilize the behemoth machine. Two ancient legendary insect bird lizards fighting a giant demon of machinery. “Who would win?” they both thought. Before the second writhing roach raven could harpoon it’s tail through the ship, began glowing with a semi transparent glaze of energy, releasing static discharges of red lightning, one of which jolted directly in the face of one of the creatures to it’s angered howl of disapproval. With a few seconds of delay a charged dome of racing electrical energy formed a perfectly symmetrical barrier around the ship, immediately slicing off the several limbs of the creatures, decapitating the farther one. “It has a plasma field!” exclaimed Vance, amazed that they still had functioning version aboard such an archaic vestige of warfare “Definitely contraband technology.” thought Zaith, given a shield’s ability to bore half a mile into the earth with only one iridium core. The both stood frozen, beholding the event as if it was a cinematic experience, forgetting they were now exposed and in potential danger, as the enraged dismembered beast plummeted towards the town. An arm, a leg , a tail, a wing, and a chunk of one side of it’s jaw had been precisely cleaved off, leaving behind glowing cauterized woulds like the end of a freshly lit cigarette. The creature slammed down into a building across the street from the releasing a much less powerful screech, it exploded into a cloud of dust propelled by the impact wave.

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“Damn! You ok Zaith?” Asked Vance as he recovered from his defensive posture after the fog of dust had engulfed them.

“Yeah! Fine, just can’t see with all this dust.” Zaith Replied.

“We, should probably get out of here for the day.” Said Vance in a disgruntled tone, as if the calamity had foiled his day of tranquil exploration. “But first let's see if we can get a ‘souvenir’ from the roach raven.” The pressure from the engines dissipated as they rotated for forward acceleration. The wounded ship fled with some of it’s engines bleeding magma in disrepair. They heard the ship’s presence depart as the cloud of dirt thinned into mist, returning a radius of 10ft. To their vision. The two brothers crept towards the impact site, which was now a crater surrounded by a steep 6ft. mound of debris. They overcame the edge of the bowl , that seemed determined to detour them, as their boots were swallowed with every step by the extra adhesive mud that was an alien progeny of the rain.

They descended wearily down the slope of the bowl to the edge of the basin, which had in minutes become a medium sized pond that was a starless midnight blue sky color. The beast layed slumped in the pool of soup nearly completely submerged face down with a wing a back leg and the remainder of the tail segment exposed. The fluid surrounding the beast had solidified into a human sized perimeter of ice, so cold its fumes were turning any drizzle passing through it’s ambience to turn into wispy flakes of snow.

“Icy breath! I've never seen anything like that in real life before.” Said Zaith through his intercom with an excited tone layered with concern.

“Be careful, It’s probably still alive.” Said Vance as he waltzed delicately through the mud, taking care not to submerge his leg in it, around to the to other side of the swamp’s halo perimeter. Seemingly while putting himself more at risk, encroaching on the beast’s partially exposed leg and the remainder of it’s tail.

“You’re one to talk!” Implying that Vance was the usual suspect to put them at risk. He curiously walked into the water about leg height, more fascinated by the thin sheets of ice forming on the water’s surface, pushing one like a flat raft across the surface with his still suited finger. Vance saddled the edge of the severed tail and began sawing at one of its cracked barbs with a series of serrated blades that protracted from within his suit on the edge of his palm as if were going to deal a destructive karate chop.

“Yeah! This should be a awesome memento, nobody would believe us that these thing’s still exist we don’t have anything to show for it.” He told his brother already imagining how he would hype up the story when he told people around town. Given the limited interactions, stories were a currency, and almost a social competition. Everyone trying to tell the a tallest tale of their usually hyperbolic weekly endeavors of heroism, and tribulations. But “’Killing a ‘Writhing Raven Roach!’” Was a headline he imagined would be the talk of the town for months, or maybe a legend forever. Or maybe he could sell it to a museum or something, to help pay for some much needed innovations to the farm equipment, that had already become jury rigged representations of their former selves. Vance Struggled to saw even the partially cracked barb off with way more elbow grease than he anticipated putting in, as he had to ratchet his whole body into his sawing motion, to cleave his prize from the lead like carapace of the monster.

“The Ice! It’s cracking!” Yelled Zaith pushing vocal cords slightly beyond their limits resulting in his voice screeching some of his words, as he saw large faults shoot through the rock of ice anchoring the creature to the bottom of the body of water.

“I’m almost done!” Vance yelled back with a suddenly more anxious inflection in his voice. The creature’s villainous face erupted from it’s glacial coffin shattering into several husks of ice, splashing the contaminated water like cannonballs. Now glowing with ache of villainy scathing in it’s double crescent eyes accompanied by a sinister grin of a fanged overlord desperate for vengeance, it glared at Zaith before turning it’s attention to Vance attached to it’s newly disfigured tail. The beast turned it’s regurgitating maw full of dry ice nails toward Vance, firing all four of it’s lamprey like tongues like grappling hooks with two of them connecting on impact, one latching between the plates in his suit’s armor in the torso the other smashing directly through his helmet’s visor slathering blood on the reminder of the jagged glass of his helmet.

“VANCE!” Yelled Zaith in horror not having witnessed so much blood since his mom’s prosthetic malfunctioned. The beast flipped Vance in the air with a whip of it’s tail segment, abducting him from the air into it’s mouth, like an astronaut sucked into the vacuum of space.

“Damnit, What the fuck am I supposed to do?!” he thought as tears began to roll down his cheek. He wanted to cry, but he had to think, he had to do something “but what?!” his mind was running a thousand miles a second but his body was paralyzed with fear. What could he do? Would he be next? He stared as the beast slurped his brother up extravagantly guzzling him as if gulping water in a heat wave. “My emergency plasma knife! I might have a chance!” An idea sparked in Zaith’s mind. An Emergency knife built into a holster in the side torso of his suit, a super heated elongated box cutter with an approximate one minute use time, that is touted to be able to cut through virtually anything, but could he get close enough to it? “I've got to try!” He geared his soul with an aura of fire, the thought of him allowing his brother to die while not doing everything in his power sickened him into righteous fury. “I’ll die trying if that’s what it takes!!” He roared to himself aloud before pulling the blade from his suit with an elite level of dexterity he would have previously thought himself too uncoordinated to preform with such fluidity. The blade heated so fast within seconds it was burning with the white hot glow of a flare, with steam rolling off it from oiling the air and the rain itself. He sprinted full speed around the perimeter of the water, plunging his boots into the mud, while ripping them back out with just as much force after each step. “I've gotta get behind it!” Knowing he would be a second course if he allowed the beast to align it’s face with him. He enclosed on the beast as it was reveling in it’s consumption. Zaith leaped on the wing ridden side of the beast’s back, using two hands to slam the blade into the tops side of the creature’s back above where the believed the stomach would be. He drilled the blade into it’s plates of exoskeleton, possessed with a maddening rage gritting his teeth as he attempted to bore a hole in the metal like substance which was now melting into an iridescent sludge seeping from it’s wound. The beast evoked an accidental harsh screech that it shot up into the trees as it discovered it’s new unexpected pain, it swung it’s head to both sides in futile attempt to remove Zaith from it’s back, firing it’s tongues over him, and reeling them back in with failure. He he gripped his blade like the horn on a saddle, until he began carving into the beast’s side his stance switched to more of a precarious mountain climber, as the monster attempted to shrug him off. An unusual screech began coming from the beast, but this time it was different Zaith noticed, it was more similar to engine he and his brother had heard earlier, only more faint, coming from the be beast, like personal sized turbine on a screamer bike. The sound got louder as the violet light began to crawl from between the seams in the beast’s titanic carapace. Then the engine sound overlapped with the hum of what could only be an industrial bug zapper, a distinct sound he recognized from when he overcharged his pistol. “Can Vance blast his way out with the jagged slice iv’e carved out?” hoping the sound was actually his brother and not just the monster’s stomach acid causing his equipment to malfunction. His thoughts splintered with anxiety as he could tell his blade was cooling becoming abruptly more difficult to drag through it’s mammoth armor, which was even seemingly less dense towards the sides and the belly. Just then 3 explosions that would appear simultaneous to anyone not astutely focused on them, blasted the monster’s torso into massive bricks of shrapnel most of wich were about the size of a car door. Zaith could hear some of them impact on the street adjacent to him but couldn’t process what the noise actually was as the beast’s sudden dismemberment had left him face in the gelatinous stew of mud now glazed with an antifreeze syrup. Remarkably the head of the monster along with it’s elongated neck remained almost completely in tact, at first instinctively reacting with a snapping biting gesture while floundering like a fish in the mud, as if not even realizing for a few seconds that it had been detached from it’s body. Until it came to rest and lookedd like it attempted to draw in breath to no effect.

Vance layed in the mud his helmet flooded with blood and other intestinal fluids. The pain from his gouged out eye lingered but it had become background noise in his adrenaline fueled frantic scurry for survival, not even sure if he would survive the bast from within the beast, which did leave half of the surface of his armor with an uneven more brittle scorched surface, like a ceramic vase.

Zaith awoke from his aftershock stupor, with a frantic confusion, as if awakening from some incoherent nightmare swinging his arms as if fighting off invisible assailants. The suddenly the world came back to him where he was what he was doing “Brother!” He struggled to unshackle his helmet from his suit’s neck piece, which was more difficult for Zaith’s more antiquated ornate suit model, that was now also subdued by globs of mud. He freed his head from his mud clogged coffin of a helmet, casting it carelessly into the muck that immediately engulfed half of it upon impact splattering some on his face in the process. He looked around gasping heavily taking in fresh air, that his suit’s intake ports were to clogged to sufficiently supply, in his more oxygen demanding state of adrenaline. He scanned the area trying to assess what happened during the blast or where it even came from. The air around the pit was even more frozen, having turned into a crystallized mist of flakes he could feel burn his exposed face. Bizarre plumes of clouds that looked more like actual fibrous cotton strands, that appeared too dense to float seemingly defied gravity. They were perhaps some digestive mechanism adapted beast’s freezing breath he quickly assumed, resisting the urge to put deeper thought into it, without knowing if his brother was ok. He scanned for a few moment’s before discovering his brother laying face up depressed into the mud with one of his arms curled up into a stiff position as if a victim of Medusa's gaze. His brother’s suit in state of disrepair so bad, that he had never seen one so brutally dismantled by anything before, with chunks of it missing and raw flesh exposed where it looked like the armor had shattered apart. “BROTHER!” He shouted again mostly to himself, this time out loud, hoping for a response. He propelled him clumsily up from the mud, so hastily that he didn’t even give himself time to evenly balance before he began frantically taking his next toward his brother. He splashed his way into the water now knowing that swimming strait thorough was probably faster than stumbling through the mud. He swam through the pool of sewage that made his bleach white hair into a dirt soaked brown bathed blonde. He stomped out of the water of his brother fighting for traction. “Vance.” He said more intimately, now standing over his brother, this time not even anticipating a response as he was overtaken but mesmerizing horror at the amount of blood slathered on the glass of his brother’s helmet.

“What?” Answered Vance with a subtle tone of annoyance in is voice, as if his brother was waking him up early to do chores before church.

“You’re … ok?” Said Zaith mumbling confusingly, his eyes now pink enough to nearly mach his irises as they almost began welling with tears.

“Of course I am! What kind of older brother would I be if didn’t keep you safe?” Said Vance, as his tone shifted from a tired whisper, to angered sarcasm.

“Save me?” Zaith thought knowing his brother was being a bit hyperbolic, probably not wanting to verbally admit he almost got them both killed. Zaith’s tears now strolled down his face , but they were from joy, relief that his brother would be ok. But if Vance was particularly good at something, it was always solving the problems (that he usually created) for them both.

“well if you could stop standing there and help me up that would be great!” Said Vance knowing his body was in no condition to even exert the effort to pick himself up, but perhaps he could walk , or even limp back home.

Zaith leaned over down to his brother extending his arm for him to grab on to. While pulling him up he glanced at his brother’s face that he could barely recognize except after being submerged in blood, aside from one of his one of his honey gold eyes, distorted by the navy blue ring around the edge of his iris that sent it’s needle like strands halfway to the center of his pupil in some places that looked more dark green the farther from the edge they were. A hybrid concoction of dark version of his mother’s eyes with the radiant glow of his father’s ferocious bright orange eyes. He hesitated to look at his brother’s wound but his eyes glanced over against his will, the looked like it had erupted from a volcano in his face where his other eye socket was now devoid of an eye. Vance could tell his brother was immediately disturbed by what he saw even if he tried to hide the reaction on his face with all his might.

Vance now back on his feet he swayed, clumsily as he tried to collect his cognitive and physical stability. “Brother… you’re wounds, are worse than I thought.” Said Zaith in a soft shaky tone, almost testing to see if his brother would even hear it or wanted to acknowledge his new disfigurement.

“It’s fine. I know you’re too young to remember, but dad always said ‘Scars are Trophies, proof that you contested you’re destiny in this world and survived.’ Because when I was young seeing mom’s mechanical arm always kinda tripped me out. But I guess the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.” He said coolly as if in deep reminiscence having felt the cold breath of death chill his bones.

With his suit aided movement he could still walk. “Guess I got more of a souvenir than I wanted huh?” He said in a rhetorical manner as he hobbled over to grab a shattered shard of the beast’s claw. “Let’s get back , it’s gonna be a rough trip for me.” said Vance.

“Ok.” Said Zaith still in awe of what had happened to them.