Jaison returned to the commons with all the fury in the world. Two droids in his path were brutally knocked to the side. Those students captured by him ran as far away from him as possible. They have seen how brutal Jaison’s method could be toward those who annoyed him.
Jaison didn't waste a second to go to Selena and yank her up by the hair.
“Congrats. Your boyfriend is here to save you.” He smiled when he saw the pain on Selena’s face. “He must love you a lot. Honestly I thought he would just turn and run after our last battle.”
Selena found herself smiling. That seemed to have anger Jaison, who punched her in the face, leaving a serious looking bruise.
“By all means, smile all you want. I hope you can still be this happy when I bring my brother’s severed head to you.”
With that said, Jaison turned and left the commons.
----------------------------------------
Brandon stood in front of the three mutilated corpses.
He heard footsteps coming from behind.
“They don’t deserve to die.”
He commented without even turning. At this time, this place, this could only be a single person.
“By human standards, maybe, but right here, I am the law.”
Brandon sighed and turned back around, facing Jaison.
“When I dealt with Henry Dirvin, I had a chat with Mark.” Brandon voice was low. “He apologized for what he did to you. He told me how his father regularly beats him up. He went to Killian High School to hide, but still his father ordered him to rough other students up, otherwise he himself would be punished. There were Henry Dirvin’s eyes and ears all over the school, so Mark had no choice.”
Jaison bit his lips.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I tried to. Remember the time I tried to talk to you? The day after dad came home from the hospital? You shut me out. You have been shutting me down ever since then.”
The two men in white armor stood there for a few seconds. Finally, Brandon looked up.
“It’s over. If we fight again, I will not hold back. Put down your weapons and I will deal with the government. No more innocent people have to die here.”
Jaison suddenly grinned.
“Put down my weapons and act as if nothing happened? No thank you, brother.” He swiped his hand on the watch, warping in two white blades in his hands. “What happened with Mark was...unfortunate, but the thing is I don’t give a damn. Now, are we going to fight or what?”
Brandon sighed again before suddenly tossing something on the ground.
Before Jaison knew it, a wave of electromagnetic wave exploded from where Brandon was and washed over the entire school. All the droids in contact with the wave immediately collapsed. Their circuits were fried.
The students trapped in the classrooms were taken by surprise as their mysterious guards fell, but that surprise was immediately turned to overwhelming joy when several figures in black broke through the windows of every classroom. They turned out to be fully armed police officers. They secured the door while the students fled.
“You’re just a distraction!” Jaison immediately knew what was going on, but he either didn't want to admit being tricked or he simply didn't care. “Gotta say, I’m surprised you’re working with the government, given how dangerous you thought they might be.” He suddenly leaped forward. “Or was that another lie to keep me from competing with you? Have you wanted to team up with the government all along?”
Brandon raised his blades and deflect Jaison’s strikes.
“I never intended to lie to you, I can swear that, but that is not a justification!”
“Oh shut up!” Jaison suddenly kicked Brandon in the chest, sending him falling back. Brandon could’ve landed a cut on him, but he hesitated for a second, and that was all it took for him to lose the opportunity.
But Jaison wasn’t done. With more distance between the two, Jaison drew his blaster and shot Brandon in the chest four times.
“It’s fine. It’s really fine! I will just take those sons of bitches back after I kill you! In fact, I might not take them back at all!”
Brandon coughed before pushing on the ground and getting back up.
“Don’t make me kill you.”
“Hahaha! Kill me?” Jaison suddenly jumped into the air. He never came down. Brandon frowned. It must be some sort of cloaking device. While his assets and those of Jaison were extremely similar, there were some differences. Maybe it was because the previous owners of the watches had their own preferences, or maybe the two explored their watches in different directions. Brandon had some cloaking method, like the one he used to save his father, but it was nothing at this caliber.
“You can’t defeat me. You know why?”
Brandon suddenly snapped around and threw a dagger out. The dagger bounced on the walls twice before sticking.
Missed.
“Because you are soft! Even if you have your blade next to my throat, you can’t deliver the killing blow!”
Brandon turned to the direction where the sound came from and sent another dagger flying. Again, nothing.
“That’s smart of you. A dagger sticking out of me can definitely give my trace off. Of course, that’s assuming you can hit me.”
Another two daggers hit nothing.
“Look at you! Waiting! Doing nothing!” Jaison’s voice was so close up one second and so far away the next. “If you’re just gonna hold this pose, maybe I should go back to your girlfriend and have some fun with her, don’t you think? I wonder if you can stay right there with your girlfriend screaming!”
Brandon bit his lips. At this moment, CPD SWAT teams have infiltrated the building. He could sense some men heading toward the commons. Before long, they would take the hostages kept there out of this battlefield and to the safety of police perimeters.
But that wouldn’t happen if Brandon doesn’t do something about the fifty droids that just appeared out of nowhere.
In frontal combat, Brandon could mutilate these droids in seconds, but these droids weren’t coming for him. They were going to secure the hostages. Brandon raised his weapon, ready to blast these killer robots to pieces, but before he could pull the trigger, Jaison jumped on him from behind. His white blade was lit up.
Brandon’s rifle fired. The blast hit the side, blowing a giant hole in the wall.
He turned around as Jaison landed another strike on his armor, further depleting his energy storage. Even now, the orange crystal that powered Brandon’s armor was getting dangerously dim.
Before Brandon could retaliate, his attacker disappeared again, and so did the droids. Brandon could sense them heading for the commons, but he himself had no chance of pursuing. The moment he moves, he becomes vulnerable to Jaison’s attacks.
All he could do was warn his comrades.
“Captain Marshall, a group of droids is heading toward the commons!” He glanced around. “I am tied up. Your team needs to fend the droids off for as long as it takes.”
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“Copy that.” Marshall’s voice was hardly excited. Human police officers v.s. metal killer droids was never a pretty sight, but he, just like Brandon, knew there was always a price to pay in situations like this. Sometimes, this price was nonnegotiable.
The bad news was quickly passed to the officers in the field.
“Move! Move! Move!” The squad leader demanded anxiously as he waved his hand fanatically. Twenty officers were spread across the commons, but they looked insignificant among hundreds of fleeing students. The students were trying to get out as quickly as they could, but there were only a handful of exits. It took a lot of time and energy just to keep the retreat in order and prevent a stampede from occurring.
Unfortunately, that order disappeared when a red blast ripped the closed and locked door of the commons to shreds.
Two officers at the door were gunned down before they could do anything.
“Provide cover fire!” The squad leader ordered as he and his men opened fire on the metal droids that were making their way past the breach. He was scared as well, but as soon as he put on this suit, he has received a responsibility. There were hundreds of innocent young lives at stake. It was something worth fighting for.
It was something worth dying for.
As the students ran and the officers fired, the droids continued advancing. Metal bullets bounced off them with little effect. Their return fire, on the other hand, were deadly. Advanced targeting systems meant that they, quite to the contrary of battle droids in Star Wars, never miss. Within seconds, eight officers were shot. With the droid blasters, shot meant killed.
Among them was the squad captain.
An officer took out a grenade. Just after he pulled off the pin, a shot came in from one of the droids and killed him. The grenade fell on the ground and exploded into a ball of shrapnel, killing two other officers and raising a wave of blood among the students.
In the students, Selena watched as a piece of shrapnel barely missed her and took off the head of a girl in front of her. Sweat came down from her back. If she was a second faster, it would have been her head that popped like a watermelon.
Suddenly, she reached a conclusion.
“We can’t make it out!” She grabbed onto a boy in front of her and shouted. She was right. Already, the rest of the SWAT team, a handful of officers, were trapped behind their cover with storms of blasts landing all around them. It was only a matter of time before the droids turn around and either massacre the students or return them to prisoners.
Selena didn't know about the others, but she knew she couldn’t go back to under Jaison’s thumb. Jaison has made it clear that she would have a terrible fate due to her connection with Brandon. She wasn’t going to try and see if he was feeling merciful.
The boy in front realized the situation as well. His eyes widened as Selena turned back and picked up a rifle from one of the fallen officers and started firing at the droids. Once again, bullets bounced off the metal plating.
The few last officers fell one by one. Finally, the SWAT squad was wiped out. The students tried to escape as quickly as possible, but even as their last protector fell, there were still at least thirty of them in the commons. In other words, there were thirty students under the guns of the droids.
The droids readied their weapons. They were ordered to exterminate these hostages. The students knew this as well. A couple of the ones closer to the door pushed forward, trying to squeeze their way into the world of the living. Others simply stood there, waiting for the inevitable.
Suddenly, Selena moved between the droids and the students. She has dropped her weapon, not that it would make any difference. Her arms were open as if welcoming death.
Only death didn't come. The droids never fired their blasters.
Selena’s smirk could barely be covered. She knew she made the right bet. The droids might be happy to turn the other students into corpses, but from what Jaison told her, Brandon was coming. Even someone as arrogant as Jaison wouldn’t kill one of the few leverages he had against such a powerful foe. The droids wanted to take her alive. They must have.
Of course, there was always the possibility she was wrong and the droids were ordered to kill everyone, but she was willing to go for it. There was no way she could watch dozens of her fellow students slaughtered without doing anything.
“Go!” She whispered while standing there.
The other students started running as fast as their legs could carry them. The droids didn't try to stop them. Their first priority was to take Selena. Eliminating the other students was just a side job. Finally, one of them fired a tranquilizer dart into Selena’s neck. She could still see, hear, and feel, but her control of her body was gone.
As she collapsed, she was glad to see the other students have fled to safety.
Good.
----------------------------------------
Jaison’s blade clashed with Brandon’s armor again. Brandon answered by throwing out another dagger. Again, it went into a wall.
At this point, the walls were covered in Brandon’s daggers. The situation would’ve been ten times better if half of those daggers were on Jaison.
Jaison exited cloak mode. A piece of orange crystal crumbled to dust between his fingers. He has already exhausted all its energy with all the cloaking and decloaking.
At least that was some good news.
But Brandon wasn’t exactly in the best shape either. His armor was out of energy as well. He has ran out of daggers, and he was facing an enemy who has barely been struck.
Plus…
“Look at that. Who do we have here?” Jaison turned at an entrance, where a dozen droids carried a blonde girl in. “You know what the problem with loving someone is? Anyone can use it against you. Now,” He turned back to Brandon. “give me your watch.”
“Don’t…” Selena silently whispered. “Don’t do it…”
Jaison was a madman. With a single watch, he was already willing to slap the government in the face and fill the school with corpses. What could he do with two watches unchallenged? Selena has never considered herself a self sacrificial person. In fact, she has mocked movie characters who have sacrificed themselves for the greater good countless times. But now, she really felt like she wasn’t worth risking the whole world for.
Brandon suddenly tilted his head.
“Sentinel battle droids. Are those S-1 types?”
Jaison glanced at his battle droids.
“Maybe...why?”
“Well,” Brandon started backing off, “the thing is, S-1s are just cannon fodder. If you have listened to your AI, you would’ve known they were used in the billions to overwhelm poorly defended dimensions. A handful of them...not that much of a threat.”
“A handful of them is still enough to kill your girlfriend.” Jaison frowned. What was his brother thinking? “Of course, they’re nothing to people like us, but you’ll never make it to them in time...not with me here.” He silently got ready. The moment Brandon tries to go for Selena, he would jump on him.
That was when Brandon smiled.
“Oh no...that’s not my point. My point is, they are just the basic Sentinel units, and there are hundreds of more superior types capable of massacring them...you found some units in your watch. What makes you think I didn't?”
Jaison’s eyes widened. He turned to his droids, and what he saw made him want to scream. Four humanoid droids appeared out of nowhere and chopped their way through the S-1s with plasma swords.
The S-1 carrying Selena was beheaded. As that droid fell, one of the four droids knelt down and kept Selena still.
“S-X droids. Slightly fewer in numbers, but far superior.” Brandon explained quietly. “Also, your cloaking field...I also found a few sets of my own, which I put on my droids.”
“What…that’s impossible! You let me take her?”
“I needed you to feel in control. This false sense of security will make you weak. Vulnerable.” Brandon suddenly tapped something on her arm interface. “I needed to keep you here...willingly.”
The next second, all the daggers Brandon threw into the walls went into action. They burst into waves of yellow energy, which formed a sphere around Jaison and started pushing in toward him. As the sphere got closer and closer, the space covered by the sphere was frozen in place. Air was frozen. Elements were frozen. Light was frozen. Space was frozen. Time itself was frozen.
Jaison screamed, but his voice couldn’t be heard through the yellow sphere.
Brandon watched his brother as the walls closed in. He had no idea where his armor came from, but some of its abilities were beyond his comprehension. For example, how the hell did he saw Jaison through an area where light and time couldn’t even pass through?
Not that it was on his mind right now.
The moment Brandon set foot into the building, he knew what he has to do. Jaison must be dealt with, but there was no way Brandon could bring himself to kill his own brother. After all, he was partially responsible for Jaison’s descension as well. Killing him would be a cheap solution.
That left one option left: Sealing him.
It wouldn’t kill him, but it was enough to imprison him for theoretically forever.
Brandon has tools capable of sealing entities in his watch the entire time, but they took a long time to put in place and activate. That was why when Jaison started striking him down with his cloaking device, he only passive used daggers to retaliate. Those daggers contained the power of the Seal. By tossing them out, Brandon was putting them in place. Jaison tried to play badass and dodged all of them cleanly. It was a mistake on his part.
As for Selena...Brandon could only say he was sorry. His four S-X droids have been following the Jaison’s S-1s around the entire time. Brandon wanted Jaison to think he has won by having Selena. This way, he was more likely to ignore the mistakes Brandon made and remain in this battlefield. Brandon knew his plan wasn’t perfect, so appealing to Jaison’s arrogance was a must.
What happened to the police officers was unfortunate, but he didn't have a choice. He couldn’t risk having his entire plan collapse and potentially doom thousands just to save a dozen lives.
Jaison screamed again as he slammed his fist into the yellow power of the Seal, but it was of no use. The power of the Seal wasn’t a physical force. As Jaison’s armored fist dug into the yellow energy, he hit nothing. The energy, on the other hand, infiltrated Jaison’s arm. Before long, the Watcher realized he has lost control over his arm. Even worse, the yellow energy was advancing across his body by the seconds.
All he could do was stare at Brandon with absolute hatred.
Brandon turned away. He couldn’t bare to watch the rage in his brother’s eyes. He silently knelt down beside Selena, examined her, and fed her a dose of antidote.
As Selena got back up, Brandon turned back to Jaison.
The Seal was completed.
Jaison Bai was Sealed.
He was victorious.