Rebellion (Zero Series) (16 page)

“That
will not be necessary,” said a voice over an intercom, “I have someone who
would like to meet all of you.” The box at the end of the room began to rumble.
The front panel fell off and revealed a terrifying sight. A large man who was a
wall of muscle stood inside the box still unconscious. He was wearing black
pants, a black t shirt and combat boots. His head was shaved bald and his face
was adorned with surgical scars and marks. It was almost as if nothing on him
was natural anymore. Kraken massacred his body altering it to integrate the
gene spikes. His eyes popped open and revealed yellow irises in mechanical
eyes.

“Meet
Armageddon and prepare to be obliterated,” the voice on the intercom said.

He
stretched his head and neck and caused the bones and joints to crack. Energy
pulsed up and down his arms as he stepped out of the box. The amount of power
stuffed into that one man was mind boggling. He looked around and locked his
gaze on the spikers. A grin crept across his face exposing his teeth which
appeared to be made of metal. A red flame like energy started to emanate from
behind his teeth. I started putting the pieces together and realized that he
was about to attack.

“Run!”
I screamed pushing people out of the way with my power. He opened his mouth and
fired a beam of red fire from within it.

“Zero!
I can get them out of here!” Synapse yelled.

“Take
this!” I yelled running over to her while avoiding Armageddon’s blasts. I
handed her the case containing the healing serum.

“What
about you?” she yelled over the explosions.

“I
need you to take this in case something happens to me. Frost and Flare need to
be cured. Tell Jet that I love her,” I said. I launched myself through the air
toward the spot that Quartz; Nova and Vine were taking cover. I landed next to
Vine and indented the concrete floor with the impact.

“What
do we do?” Nova yelled.

“We
need to distract him until the spikers can escape,” I yelled back.

“It
would probably be better if we just wing it. You spent some time in the Pit and
I was in a tube until you freed me,” Vine yelled. The explosions were deafening
and continued to rattle the room. I tensed up to spring across the room when
the explosions stopped. I peeked over the debris and saw Armageddon’s arms
turning into some kind of metal. It started at his fingertips and spread up to
his shoulders. His hands turned into spikes and began to stretch. They
resembled whips but moved like serpents with minds of their own. They stretched
after us and we scattered. Synapse hurried the spikers out of the room and
closed the door behind her. Quartz leapt from behind a destroyed cryo tube and
pulled concrete casing up around Armageddon. Vine shot a long root from the
sleeve of his armor and wrapped it around the concrete. He continued to force
more root out of the seed in his sleeve. Nova began to project nuclear energy
in the form of fireballs from his chest and hands. I launched myself into the
air and increased the pressure on Armageddon. I tried to crush him under the
intense pressure but he threw his arms up and destroyed the concrete around him
as well as Vine’s roots. He grabbed the roots off the ground and swung Vine
around by them. He hurled Vine into a wall and caused part of it to crumble
around him. The bolts Nova was hurling at him were rolling off of him like he
was a large rock in a small stream.

Armageddon
began to chuckle as he put his arms out to the side and started glowing green. In
no time flat, his nails began to grow into talons and scales formed on his skin
like a lizard. Horns emerged from his forehead and his teeth became long and
razor sharp. Wings grew from his back and his transformation into a heinous
dragon-like creature was complete. His mouth opened and shot red fire that
burned at an unthinkable temperature. He took flight and continued to spew
fire. Vine managed to get out of the hole in the wall and regain his footing.
He loaded seeds into his wrists and shot some sort of poisonous thorns at
Armageddon. Only about a third of the thorns penetrated his skin while the rest
were burnt up by the fire. Nova continued to project energy while Quartz hurled
sharpened pieces of stone at Armageddon. He was taking hits but kept shaking
them off. I was starting to panic. We were some of the more powerful spikers and
we couldn’t even slow Armageddon down. If we failed, he would surely make it to
the city and decimate any resistance.

“What
do we do?!” Quartz yelled.

“We
need to fall back!” Nova yelled. Armageddon stopped moving and began to
transform again. His legs formed into one long tail that ran into his torso.
His arms became that of a tiger and he sprouted spikes on his back. He crashed
to the ground with the loss of his wings but he remained unfazed.

“Now!
Go!” Nova yelled taking off toward a small service hatch. Quartz, Vine and I
followed after him. He blasted the grate covering the entrance and slid into
the vent. One by one we took running slides into the vent after him. I was the
last to slide and I quickly realized that Armageddon had stuck his head into
the vent. He shot fire in after us. I felt the intense heat beginning to singe
my hair. I used a gravity blast to propel us faster. I crashed into the other
three as we plummeted down a vent leading God knows where.

We
eventually spilled into some sort of large boiler room filled with large
furnaces and catwalks. My head was spinning from being knocked around so much.
Vine sat up and groaned in pain. A thorn had pierced his hand directly through
his palm. He pressed gingerly around the thorn.

“Are
you alright?” I asked hurrying over to him.

“It
could be a lot worse. Trust me,” he said ripping the thorn from his hand. Blood
spilled from the hole that remained. “At least I get a souvenir,” he said
holding his hand up and looking through the hole.

“That
looks bad,” Quartz said walking over to us.

“I
have a backup plan in case something like this happened,” said Vine. He pulled
out a seed and placed it inside the hole. He took a deep breath and blew gently
on the seed. It sprouted into wooden bonelike slats.

“That’s
incredible,” Quartz said crouching down.

“I’ve
been honing my techniques for years. I knew something like this would happen
eventually,” he said. Green plant material filled in where his muscles and
tendons would be and yellowish leafy plants grew in as his skin.

“Won’t
having plants in your hand weaken it?” Quartz asked.

“No,
I’ve learned to transmute plant material that’s integrated with my body. I can
turn it into human biological matter,” Vine replied.

“I
wish I could do that with my earth manipulating,” she said.

“If
we can get out of here then we can help you hone your power. You should see
some of the stuff this guy has done,” Vine said tilting his head toward me.

“You’re
Zero right?” she asked me.

“I
am. Do you want to join us?” I asked.

“Of
course. I’ll do anything I can to help,” she replied.

“What
about you Nova?” I asked loudly. There was no response. I stood up and looked
around. I was horrified to see Nova standing with a blade coming through his
chest. Blood gurgled out of his mouth as he fell to his knees revealing
Armageddon standing behind him. He pulled the blade out of Nova and I saw that
his hand had morphed into the sword. It pulsated and changed back into his
normal hand. Nova’s lifeless body fell flat on the ground as Armageddon
chuckled evilly. I felt a rage building up inside me.

“You
think you fools stand a chance against me?” Armageddon said. It was the first
time I heard his voice and the unnatural tone was etched into my brain forever.

“You
two need to go now. The rebellion depends on numbers and they’ll need you two
to help lead. I have to destroy this monstrosity,” I said to Vine and Quartz.

“I
can’t leave you here. Jet would never forgive me,” Vine said.

“Jet
knew that there was a good chance I wouldn’t be back. This has to happen. Go
now!” I barked. Quartz pulled Vine’s arm reluctantly despite his objections.
Once they were out of the chamber I turned my gaze back to Armageddon.

“It
doesn’t matter that they left. I will kill you and then I will kill them. You
have only prolonged their suffering,” Armageddon said changing his hand back
into a blade.

“I am
going to end you,” I said. I clenched my fist and focused my power. I could
feel it charging up inside me and cracking the ground around me. We ran towards
each other at a great speed and collided in front of a furnace. My fist
connected with his right shoulder and his blade sliced right through my armor.
The blade was so sharp. It must have been made by some absurd element thought
up by Kraken if it was strong enough to cut through my special armor. He
crashed into the furnace while I was tossed into a pile of coal. My armor was
tattered and cut to pieces as if it were mere cloth. I ripped it off my body
and stood shirtless. The light of the furnace shone of the sweat on my body. My
skin was dirty from landing in the coal pile. I moved forward a few steps and
quickly tried to formulate a plan. My eyes moved quickly looking for something
to help me stop this monster. I couldn’t help but think of Jet and about the
possibility of not coming back washed over me.

“She
is very beautiful,” Armageddon said snidely.

“What
did you say?” I barked.

“Jet.
I can read your thoughts and see what you are thinking. Maybe once I finish you
off and take all of those rebellion fools out, I can keep Jet for myself,” he
said.

Something
inside me snapped. All I could see was red as I thought of Armageddon going
anywhere near Jet. I started pulling furnaces down on top of Armageddon from
all around the room. Fire sparked out and the heat grew intense as I crushed
the metal furnaces around his body. My hands shook furiously as I pressed the
gravity down on him. A blast of energy came from under the furnaces and created
a hole in the top of them. He sprung out of the shell and rolled on the ground.
He stood up and cracked his neck causing ashes to fall off of his head.

I
launched myself at him and began punching him at a blinding speed. I put as
much force behind each punch as I could. His head jerked in different
directions as I struck. He hurled punches back at me. Each blow felt like a
meteorite striking me at full speed from the atmosphere, but I knew I couldn’t
give in. We each had become punching bags for the other person.

“Enough!”
he finally yelled. He became transparent and leapt backwards. I hunched over
and tried to regain my breath. His body had lacerations and bruises all over
it. He turned his head to the side and spit blood from his mouth. “You are a
formidable opponent. You know that only one of us will walk from this building
alive,” he said.

“I
know. It has to be me. I have people that depend on me,” I said.

“Then
earn it,” he said. We sprung toward each other, blood spilling from our bodies,
fists cocked and ready to strike. Our fists met with such force that a
shockwave was expelled. It crushed through the building shaking the foundation
and exposing all of the weak points. The walls started to rumble and break
apart. Alarms blared throughout the whole facility signaling evacuation. I
looked around at the destruction that was occurring not even thinking that he
would continue the battle. I felt a metal cord wrap around my neck and lift me
into the air. I managed to turn my head enough to see that he had morphed his
hand into a metal cable. I felt the breath being squeezed from my body as the
fiery inferno of wreckage collapsed around us. An evil grin crept across his
face and his eyes glowed red. I knew that he was charging to shoot a beam of
concentrated energy from them. I felt the crushing shame of failure starting to
overwhelm me. Visions of Armageddon standing on a pile of corpses in the middle
of Marsh City, visions of Hades executing all of my friends and acquaintances
in a firing squad flooded my mind. The most intense rage I had ever felt washed
over me and exploded from me. I felt a strange sensation. A black hole ripped
open behind Armageddon and began disintegrating everything it touched as it
expanded. It looked exactly the same as when I had been poisoned in the woods.
The more I strained, the larger it grew and the more it engulfed. Armageddon
looked behind him to see the singularity nearly upon him. He started
disintegrating from the back forward. His skin was first to go, exposing his
muscles and bones. He let out the most horrible scream as his body disappeared
quicker and quicker. I felt my body starting to break apart from the pull. The
building and all of the material around us was being pulled in as well. The
cord loosened from my throat and I pushed myself away. Armageddon completely
disappeared into the vortex taking stone, metal and burning coal with him. I
allowed the vortex to close and fell to my knees. Part of my skin disintegrated
on my chest and arms. I sat in the crater where Tartarus stood and felt the
warmth of the rising sun wash over my body. I felt unconsciousness overtake me.
I lay down on my back in the dirt. Armageddon was gone. We had our army. All
that was left take down Hades.

I
opened my eyes and looked to the sky. It was cloudy out and rain was beginning
to fall. Small drops fell sporadically sprinkling the ground, wetting the dirt.
I sat up slowly and looked down at the spot on my chest where the singularity
had torn some of my skin away. It had healed while I was asleep but there was
still a roundish scar where the injury was. My body was still sore from the
battle and I struggled to stand up. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to use my
power to fly back. I was still too worn out and I didn’t know if I’d even be
able to make it back to Sanctum, let alone the city. Each step I took felt like
I’d just run a mile. The rain felt good on my sweaty back. I wondered how many
people had made it out of Tartarus before I destroyed it. The alarm had sounded
for a while before I brought the place down. I know that there were probably
some people inside who didn’t deserve to be hurt but the probability that
Armageddon and I would leave anyone unharmed in our aftermath was very low.

The
highway I was walking along had cracks throughout it that were most likely
caused by the tremors from the original terror attack with the gravity machine.
The ground was steaming from the rain hitting the hot pavement. I often wanted
to go back in time to see what the world was like before the gravity machine.
We had books and passed down stories but I wanted to see it for myself. This
horrendous looking world wasn’t natural. A lot of the landscape was barren with
no foliage. I wondered if I could work with Vine to try to replace some of the
plant life. That was a plan for another day though. I had to focus on just
getting back safely. The day passed as I limped along like a zombie. I tried to
figure out where I was when I realized that the rain had completely stopped and
night had fallen. The clouds had dissipated and revealed the bright revealing
light of the moon. I needed desperately to sit down and rest. Right off the
road, I found a spot to lie down. I just wanted to sleep and try to regain some
strength. I gathered some broken boards and miscellaneous wooden debris and
built a small fire. I sprawled out on the ground a couple feet away from the
flames and closed my eyes. All I could think about was Jet and what she was
doing. I wondered if Synapse made it back with the healing serum to help Frost
and Flare. I wondered if they assumed that I was dead. I wondered how Jet felt
not knowing my fate. I slipped into sleep and felt a calm relaxation set in on
my body.

I
slept heavier that night that any other night of my life to that point. I was
awoken by snarling around me. Surrounding me was a pack of large wolf and
coyote hybrids. There were a lot of animal mutations and hybrids roaming the
wilds. There were some that scientists had no explanation for. These coyote
wolves were common in our region, though. People took to calling them
shredders. Their claws and teeth had serious shredding abilities and they were
incredibly fierce and willing to attack unprovoked. I slowly pushed myself into
a crouching position as to not trigger an attack. I didn’t know if my power had
returned yet. I hoped desperately that I had some of my energy back because if
I was still drained, I was going to fall victim to the shredders. I closed my
eyes and tried to visualize my power. I felt my fingers crushing into the
ground which immediately made me crack a small smile. I knew that there was
some power in me and I could at least put up a fight. I separated a sharp chunk
of rock from the ground and hurled it into the eye of one of the shredders. It
howled in pain and fell lifelessly to the ground. The other two sprung at me
and I jumped into a back flip vaulting myself over them. I landed behind them
and raised my hands. I threw them downward, slamming force on top of them,
pushing them into the ground. There were a series of crunches and yelps. I ran
the other way not waiting to find out if they were actually dead. I slowed to a
walk after what seemed like miles. I noticed a road blockade with two armed
soldiers standing outside of a truck about two hundred feet away from me. I
squinted to try to make out if they were Kraken. I noticed that each soldier
was wearing a black armband with a white “I” painted on them. A wave of relief
washed over me once it finally clicked that they were friendlies. I approached
the two soldiers and said, “Excuse me.”

Both
soldiers turned and pointed their rifles toward me. One of the soldiers’ eyes
widened when he realized who I was. “Zero! We thought you were dead,” said the
taller soldier.

“Not
yet,” I said back, “Would you happen to have some water?”

“Yeah,
just a second,” he said opening the truck door. He pulled out a canteen and
handed it to me. I unscrewed the lid and took a swig. The cold water was
refreshing. My mouth had been as dry as a desert. The water was like a
torrential rain soaking the sandy landscape that was my mouth.

“Thank
you,” I said, “Is there any news on the rebellion? Did Synapse and Vine make it
back?”

“They
all made it back. The army of spikers have already established a base camp and
taken some action against Kraken. I better radio in that you are alive,” the
soldier said.

“We
can give you a ride back to the city,” said the other soldier.

“Actually,”
I said, “Hold off on radioing in. It may be to our advantage if Kraken thinks
I’m dead. It would be really helpful if you could just take me to the edge of
the forest outside the city.”

“Why
there?” the first soldier asked.

“I
have some gear hidden out there,” I lied. I didn’t want to disclose the
location of Sanctum to anyone other than the people who already knew about it.
“You guys should just go about your normal routine after you drop me there.
I’ll make my presence known very soon.”

“Fair
enough. Don’t wait too long, though. I don’t imagine that Kraken will wait too
long before going all out,” the second soldier said.

I
nodded and entered the truck. The two soldiers entered as well and started the
engine. We drove for a while down the abandoned highway until the forest came
into view on our right. I found myself thinking back to when I was a kid. When
I was ten years old, I didn’t have many friends. I just preferred to be by
myself most of the time. I would go climb this one radio tower that looked out
over the wall and to the forest. I dreamed of being able to go see the dense expanse
of trees for myself. I wanted to go live with nature. Life in the city was
hectic and didn’t make much sense to a kid. I wondered what the ten year old me
would think of what I was doing. I wondered if young me knew about the horrific
things I would see, if he would change his mind about wanting to go outside the
walls.

The
truck screeched to a halt at the edge of the forest near Sanctum. “This is your
stop,” the driver said.

“Thanks
for the lift,” I replied climbing out of the truck.

Before
I closed the door, the soldier in the passenger seat said, “Everyone will be
glad to see you. We sure are.”

I
smiled and closed the door. The truck drove off in the direction of the city. I
waited until they were out of view. Once I couldn’t see their vehicle anymore,
I entered the tunnel that led into Sanctum. We hadn’t been in there in a long
while. The main room was musty and covered in dust. I clicked on the heavy
switch and the overhead lights flickered to life. It was exactly as we had left
it. I started rummaging around through the cases of armor to see if there was
anything similar to my other set. I found a few pieces that resembled my
original set. This one didn’t have a hood, though. I figured that stealth
didn’t really matter anymore. People knew who I was and what we were fighting
for. I reentered the main area and started thinking that I wanted to live here
permanently after this was all over. Jet and I could live here in peace and we
could be close to the city at the same time. This wasn’t the time to think
about that. I had to get back to the city and help the army. I exited the
tunnel and looked up at the sky. The clouds had begun to form in black
clusters. Some areas were beginning to merge and become a large sheet of blackness.
I focused and flew into the air as fast as I could. I soared through the sky
and came upon the city walls quickly. I saw a huge fire spreading in the
western quadrant of the city. Explosions and gunfire filled the air around it.
I shot into the city block in which the skirmish was occurring. I crashed into
the ground in the center of the fire. A shockwave emanated from me and pushed
the fire away. The flares died out a few feet off the ground as I stood up. I
shot force blasts at the Kraken agents crushing them under the pressure and
flinging them in every direction. The rebels stared at me in awe.

“Zero?!”
I heard a familiar voice yell. I turned my head and saw Flare staring at me.
She was wearing the welding goggles that she took from Sanctum. “You’re
alive?!”

“You
can’t get rid of me that easily,” I said as she ran up and hugged me. She
looked different somehow. I could see some of her veins through her skin on her
arms but they weren’t normal. They looked like fire coursing through her body.
Her eyes had become a yellowish orange.

“You
noticed the veins?” she asked.

“Yeah
I did. What happened?” I asked.

“Synapse
brought the healing serum back and Flint synthesized it for us just in time.
Our bodies were starting to change. Frost’s is a little more drastic than mine.
You’ll see soon. Jet is going to be so happy that you’re alive,” she said.

“Let’s
get back. We need to get a plan in place,” I said.

“Yeah
let’s hurry back,” she said running off toward the greenhouse. I rose into the
air and followed her overhead. While she ran, an orange glow emanated from her
body in a trail like fashion.

The
city looked so different. In just a few days most of the city had become war
torn and degraded into a far more unlivable state. Even the richer area of the
city looked to be downgrading in quality. The Echelon, the rich area of the
city near Poseidon tower, had a large amount of the buildings either boarded up
or partially destroyed. It was sobering to look at what I once knew and see it in
a state of complete disarray. We came to the block that the greenhouse was on.
I landed right behind Flare as she walked up to the door. I started wondering
what had happened to Frost. If Flare had changed like that, then how drastic
had Frost’s change been?

I
approached the trap door that led into the bunker below the greenhouse. Flare
pulled open the hatch and we descended down the stairs. The bright fluorescent
light hurt my eyes when I walked into the main room. “Hey everyone, I have a
surprise!” Flare shouted.

One
by one, my friends entered the room and each had a look of surprise and relief
washed over their faces. Jet came in and broke down in tears. She ran over and
threw her arms around me. “They said you were gone!” she cried.

“I
almost was,” I said hugging her back.

“Our
patrols say that Tartarus was destroyed,” Flint said from behind me.

“Yeah
I kind of tore the building apart,” I said shaking Flint’s hand.

“It’s
for the best. The cons of that facility far outweighed the few scientific
advancements they made,” he said.

“What
of Armageddon?” Frost asked entering the room.

I
turned and saw what had happened to Frost. His eyes became a swirl-like mixture
of blue and aqua. He had the veins showing like Flare, only his were and icy
blue pulsing through his skin. His nails looked clear like they had become
shards of ice as well. The strangest thing was that there was almost a mist
coming off of him. It was kind of like when something gets taken out of a
freezer and the heat of the air is causing the steam. “I know,” he said, “It’s
a little shocking. What happened to Armageddon?”

“He
went with the building into the black hole. He almost took me with him,” I
replied pulling up my armor exposing my scar.

“Ouch,”
he said, “Well at least he is taken care of. We need to work on a plan to get
Hades taken care of.”

“Let
him rest for a minute,” Jet said.

“No
I’m fine,” I said, “Frost is right. We need to get after Hades. Since Tartarus
is gone, I have a feeling we have them on their heels.”

“Pan
is out on a surveillance run right now. When he gets back we can start
working,” Flint said. Everyone was dispersing and as I turned to go to my room,
Synapse tapped my shoulder. She and Sky were standing behind me.

“Thank
you again,” Sky said.

“I
was glad to help. I know that if I lost Jet, I would do anything I could to get
her back,” I said.

“There
is no way I’ll ever be able to repay you. You’ve got my help whenever you need
it,” Synapse said.

“Good,”
I said shaking her hand, “We are going to need it.”

“Speaking
of which, I think I have an idea on how to get into Poseidon Tower,” Synapse said.

“Let’s
get everyone together when Pan gets back and we’ll go over it,” I said. She
nodded and took Sky’s hand to lead her out of the room. Jet and I went down the
hallway to our room. I slipped off my boots and sat down on the edge of the
bed. I ran my fingers through my sweaty hair. Jet opened a footlocker on the
other side of the room and pulled out a rations case. The print said “mix” on
the side of the case. She came over and handed me the case which I discovered
had a granola mix inside. I didn’t realize it until just that moment, but I was
starving. I had eaten hardly anything in the past few days. I started eating
the granola ravenously. I realized halfway through that I probably looked like
a wild animal.