A superhero: that’s what I am. Someone brave, strong, righteous, with a mind set on justice, going out of his way to protect the weak, and stand up to the tyrannical strong. Nothing stops a superhero from jumping head first into danger to do what’s right; to save as many as could be saved!
Or… so it’s supposed to be…
“Waah!” I screamed in fear when a golden beam of burning light passed right over my head.
It was shot by a mounted gun on a wall, inside a large room full of panels that kept popping all sorts of automated weapons. I was lucky enough to not be the target of those weapons, as they were all mostly trailed on the woman that dragged me in here—and dragged me she did!
Althea… I thought she was just some really beautiful girl that could become the potential love interest of my superhero story; someone that was algo vigilant of evil doers during the night, and who kept on working during the day to ensure that nothing could evade her watchful eye but…
She turned out to be a rather powerful woman with different goals, and I really couldn’t be sure about what her intentions with everything she was doing—like, sure, I get that she wants to save the world from some Gods that nobody can say for sure they have seen or whatever, but she was… brutal. Some of the enemies we faced coming up to here, she cut down like butter or blasted to pieces, and she didn’t even appear to be bothered by it at all.
Heh, and I thought that she was heartless for dragging me all the way here…
In here, she was currently the target of the weapons that some old guy wanted to ‘test’ on us. The weapons fired golden beams that would burn just by flying close to me, so I didn’t know how Althea was able to withstand all of that so close. Maybe that black and burning red aura around her was doing something to prevent it?
It was quite the surprising change, too. Her hair flowed almost black with some red highlights that weren’t there before on top of her natural brown color, there were a couple of horns that appeared at the side of her head, and her eyes went from being a greenish brown to a completely red color. Though, the armor, I had seen before. It matched her powers well, though I couldn’t be sure if it just happened to be like that or if it was intentional… my superhero instincts told me that it was intentional.
As I was considering her looks, one of those golden bullets flew right by her side. At first it looked like it was going to hit her, but she somehow managed to dodge it by slightly moving to the side, and following it up by firing a red ball that exploded in red fire right on the gun that shot it.
But man, somehow, there was another gun popping out of a panel from the walls.
She suddenly glanced in my direction, and if I had eyebrows to raise, I would’ve been stunned by that fierce look that she gave me.
“Get down!” she shouted without missing a beat of her swinging movements.
I quickly dropped to the floor, and right after, a black arc that looked like a blade flew out of her sword, right over my head, crashing with a machine gun that appeared behind me.
Shit, that was scary!
That foam that I wear under my clothes to look like I had the muscles of a superhero definitely couldn’t handle the kind of things that were going on here!
Maybe I should get out of here…
No! No! I’m a superhero! I shouldn’t run away just because things seem too scary and dangerous! What would that say about my bravery and my power if I did that?!
With a shake of my head, I tried my best to put aside the thoughts of fear that all the golden beams, bullets, and explosions caused on me, and tried to think of a way to help out Althea. I shouldn’t let her fight alone. If she brought me all the way here, it was also because she believed in me; in something special about my powers and my existence, and I think that this was the perfect opportunity to show it to her, the villain, and everyone around here.
Though, there was only one thing I knew how to do for now… my Beam of Righteous Power!
It was rather simple, really. I believed that power was stored in the head, where the self was supposed to be, so all I had to do was to focus that power and move it through my bones all the way to my hands, and then just launch it in its purest form. It was… the will of the self!
I placed my hands forward together, the wrists nearly touching, and the fingers in the shape of a claw like I was holding on to something. One hand on top and the other one down. Then, I brought them to my right side, the wrists separating, and the palms of my hands facing each other. As for the final step, I just had to use a very famous chant that helped in creating power from one’s vitality—though, I wouldn’t say it out loud, of course.
Kaaaaaa Meeeeee—
“What’s this?” the old man’s voice interrupted as I was thinking about the power. “The dead man wants to join in on the fight? I was planning on capturing you as you were once I was done with this one, but if that’s the case, then I’m more than happy to have you tested too!”
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Three turrets popped out from the floor around me, all of them quickly turning after doing so, and a red laser on top of the muzzle snapping in my direction. Oh fuck! I couldn’t do barriers like Althea and her friends could! I was going to be torn to shreds in a second now!
Then, as I was about to be killed, Althea fell on top of the front gun in a booming landing, piercing the gun with the heels of her armor, before destroying the other two; one with her blade, and the other one with a powerful punch.
She looked at me with a serious gaze, and I thought she was going to say something, but almost immediately, she turned around and with her left hand—which was usually free—and created a dome of that black magic of hers around the two of us. Right after, a bunch of bullets smashed on the barrier and even an explosion followed up.
Althea was… quite powerful…
But it seemed like even with that, her black magic wasn’t a good match with the golden bullets and explosions that hit her, as after a couple of seconds, the dome started cracking.
“Do your magic,” she commanded without looking at me.
“Huh?” I confusedly replied.
“You were about to use it, weren’t you?” she continued, the dome cracking slightly after another explosion hit it. “Well, now’s the time!”
Oh right! I was trying to do that. So once more, I took the same pose as before, but this time, I decided to do it as quickly as possible, so I’d skip the chant and instead focus more on the feeling that the chant gave me.
Power formed between my hands once more, and the dome that she created cracked more and more. There wasn’t a lot of time, but I was ready. “I’m good!”
She clenched her hand, and the dome collapsed into itself. She then quickly opened her hand and pushed it forward, causing the power that she had gathered to follow her movements and shoot like needles in every direction that there was a weapon firing. I took the opportunity that she gave me and pushed my power out as well, going straight for the old man hiding behind a glass window on top of the room.
“Ha!”
My bright purple Beam of Righteous Power flew through the air, surrounded by Althea’s black needles, getting closer and closer to the glass window where the old man was supposed to be.
I felt how power drained from my head down to the bones in my hands, as if something was being pulled, but it wasn’t anything that could cause any issues with me, and if I can defeat evil bad guys, then it was worth the effort or the pain that it might cause. Though, I wasn’t able to sustain it for long, so hopefully, this was enough.
Suddenly, when my beam was about to hit the glass, a golden barrier, not unlike the glow of all the bullets and explosions that were being shot by the weapons, appeared to cover the glass window. My power crashed with it, spreading in every direction on top of the barrier, until I ran out of strength to continue shooting it and my beam disappeared, leaving a thin line of light-purple in the air that eventually dissipated as well.
“Ah…!” the old man’s voice resounded inside the room. “Well that was interesting! Quite interesting, indeed!”
I thought that for sure that would’ve been enough to defeat him, but it seemed like I would have to try it again. However, being able to try it again might not be easy, since there were still weapons all over the room, so I turned my attention to them just to make sure that the old man didn’t turn them on me, only to find out that half of them were pointing down, looking as if they were powered down.
“That drained quite a bit of Holy Magic out of the batteries! Hehehe, it seems like the little skeleton has something special to him after all!” the old man spoke once more, and I couldn’t help but feel like swallowing the saliva that I didn’t have. “But, alas, I can’t continue using all my weaponry like this…”
After saying that, there was a sigh, and every other machine gun, rocket launcher, and turret that was still pointing this way was turned off, before all of them were pulled back inside the panels, turning the room back into what we initially saw when we stepped inside.
Althea lifted her large sword and pointed it at the glass window. “Are you willing to surrender now? I’m willing to spare you if you take me to Eletha.”
“What? Oh!” the old man exclaimed, followed by a chuckle. “No, no, not at all. I just meant that there’s something more interesting for you to test!”
The lights in the room suddenly went red with an alarm going off, and then, from the wall right under the glass window, a door was opened. It was large, at least three times taller than I was, and wide enough to allow a truck to drive through it. From it, the sound of something metallic stomping on the floor could be heard, and I took a step back. This was definitely something that I didn’t expect.
A robot? I couldn’t be sure. But it sure looked like one. The color was a mix of white armor, with golden connections. The torso looked like an inverted triangle, and the front of the chest was jutting out slightly with a few intricate engravings on it, like a plate on top of plates. The waist was small when compared to the chest, and from it, a pair of long, strong-looking legs extended. Like the chest, it also appeared like it was made out of plates connected to each other, though the feet were rather small when compared to the size of the legs. It made me think about it having heels or something like that, but I couldn’t exactly tell.
The arms shared the same aesthetic as the rest of the body, but in them, from the way they were swaying as it was making its way out of the door, I could see something like hinges around the elbows, as well as in between the separations of the fingers. On the shoulders it had a couple of protruding bits that went up to about the same height as the head, which looked not too different from a guy wearing a helmet, even if I couldn’t see any facial features on it… or even a visor. The head was just a metallic front with a golden bit in the middle, and a couple of wings that stretched to the back and up.
Once it was completely out of the doorway, the head turned to look at us, and the golden bit at the front of the head glowed with a golden light.
“Ahhh…!” the old man creepily moaned. “What a beautiful invention… the perfect mix of Holy Power and technology! Those idiots at the other bases were truly stupid not to think of creating something like this!”
The robot then moved its right arm to grab on to a bit that was popping to the side, and after a swift movement, it pulled out a blade. It didn’t look bigger than a short sword on its hand but… judging by the side of the robot, it was probably just as big as Althea’s weapon.
I felt like turning around and leaving, and I glanced at Althea to see what she was planning to do, but she just looked as serious as she usually did, not a shred of fear or hesitation, even when looking at such a robot. Ugh… I could only hope to be able to come out alive out of this…
“Well then…!” the old man loudly said. “Show me what you’re able to do!”
Saying that, from the feet and the back of the robot, some rockets activated, and I could only prepare for what was about to happen.