Loaded

“You’ve got to be kidding me, right? You’re only giving me a knife to defend myself?” I yelled out to 24. “Well, it’s better than nothing, I can’t give you any guns until I get your systems back online. Why are you so worried anyway 8351 uses a weapon like that.” Replied 24 with a smirk. “Really now? He does? I hate you so much, you know he uses a six-foot-long dual-sided ultra-light fire sword. You just gave me the knife from your kitchen. It’s not the same thing!” I yelled back at him angrily.

You’re probably wondering at this point who am I, well I’m 88 the deadliest of my brothers despite what they may say about me. But at the moment, my Nanites need to be updated, which means my weapon systems are offline. And like the jerk he is 24 decided to give me a kitchen knife instead of giving me one of my guns. Then decided to tell me how he can’t do the upgrade if I have any of my guns on me for exactly twenty-four hours. The problem with that is I know he can just do the update in his lab, and it will only take a few minutes. But he wants to do it and upload it to me while I’m on a mission, so he can test his new remote update system.

Well, this mission better be an actual delivery like he said it was, or I’m going to make him pay when I’m done. I thought as I walked away from 24, then a rift opened in front of me and out walked Ten Thousand, he must be here to send me to the planet that the delivery is on. I don’t get why he doesn’t do it himself, after all, he was a delivery boy before. But now he’s the big dog Ten Thousand, he’s too important to do the little mission. Him and 24 are always looked down on me thinking because I have a low rank, it means I’m not strong, they’re so full of themselves. “Hey 88, what are you doing sleeping over there.” Ten Thousand said with a laugh in his voice as he waved for me to walk into the rift. “Relax I’m going already.” I said as I walked over to the dark rift, I couldn’t help but wonder what was on the other side. I wasn’t use to using the rifts he made, and the few times before now that I did use one, I was able to see what was on the other side, but this time, all I could see was darkness.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot the package you will be delivering is not so much an object but more of a person you’re escorting to a safe place. I knew I forgot something important, I think that’s all though.” 24 said, then pushed me into the rift. “Wait, she’s a princess…” Was the last words I heard from 24 as I fell through the rift and it vanishing from behind me.

I knew it. That jerk always has something important that he doesn’t tell us until the very last second. I mean come on for a guy with a brain the size of a planet, it’s like he doesn’t even have one… My thoughts were quickly interrupted when I realized where I was, or rather where I wasn’t…

That was the ground way over there, no wonder I didn’t see anything before. God only knows how high up I am. All I see below me is what I’m hoping is water. I fell faster and faster, and the closer I got to what I thought was water, the more I got a sinking feeling that it wasn’t even liquid. About a minute passed, and I was now a few hundred feet from the surface, and I figured out what I was falling towards. Well, I don’t exactly know its name, but I like to call it soft ground because even though it’s as solid as a rock, it bends and warps like water but stays in one piece. And therein lays the problem. When you hit it, it still hurts like hell.

I hit the ground like a brick, and sunk into it quickly going down about fifteen feet, before I was shot back up as the area, I hit equalized itself with the ground around it. I flew out of the ground into the air, then came back down, landing flat on my face. “I hate you guys, you’re all horrible!” I yelled out as I pulled my face out of the ground. I fixed my cloak and looked around to see where this princess I was to escort was, and just as I expected, there was no one as far as I could see. Which wouldn’t be a problem for most of my other brothers, but unfortunately for me, I couldn’t fly! “I am not walking! You better get her here, or I’m just going to sit here till it’s too late. I know you can hear me 24, so don’t act like you don’t.” I yelled into the air while shaking my hands at the sky.

“Oh, quit your whining already, I know you’re not going to go looking for her I wouldn’t expect you to be able to find her anyway. She will be flying over here soon, so just wait, and you’ll see her transport in a few minutes.” His voice played in my ear, which is so creepy. I sat down on the ground, looking around for her transport, and after about half an hour, I was fast asleep.

I felt something wet on my face… I woke up to a small face in front of me, blurred by something wet. Then it hit me. There’s someone drooling on my face! I jumped up, wiping at my face frantically. “Hello, my name is Coco, and I’m five years old, and it’s very nice to meet you. My mommy said you’re taking me to the kingdom of the fallen to get married.” Said the small voice of this little girl.

I looked at her in her pink dress and thought about what she had just said for a minute or two before what she had just said really set in. I guess they are starting young these days, but wow, getting married at the age of five is just crazy. This might actually be easy cause who would want to hurt this little girl anyway, maybe I won’t even need this kitchen knife 24 thinks can hurt anyone.

I took her little hand and shook it as she smiled away as if she was the luckiest girl in the world. Whatever she had in mind must be the greatest thing in the world, but it sure wasn’t what was in store for her. I thought as I picked her up and threw her on my shoulders to sit, maybe I’ll try and make her trip as fun as possible before she has to get married to some random guy she’s never meet.

“So, we are going to be headed to the north side of the planet, into the neighboring ruler’s territory, is that correct little one.” I said to her, looking around trying to figure out which way was north. “Yes, you have to get me there in a few hours, my transport will be getting here soon so we will be able to ride in that. It’s very fast and fun to ride in. I think you will have fun. I always do.” She replied to me, catching me off guard by the fact that she knew more than I did about what was going to be happening. Made me wonder why she needed me as her guard and not one of the people in her kingdom, seeing that they’re already transporting her there. I smiled at her, looking around to see where the transport would be coming from. “We march that-a-way.” She said, pointing to the left of me. I looked to where she was pointing then headed in that direction, after all, I was trying to keep her as happy as possible, not to mention being clueless about everything on this planet.

I was walking, carrying her for about ten minutes when I heard the sound of a vehicle coming up from behind us, it was moving quickly as if it was trying to catch us off guard. Then before I knew it, it flew up next to us and stopped suddenly. I was a bit surprised by its design, it looks very similar to the old Earth car that they used before teleporters were invented, but it was much longer, and it was bright pink. For some odd reason pink was a symbol of power and strength on this planet and only this planet. The doors opened, and I put her in and then got in myself. It took off flying just above the ground moving at a very high speed in a direction I could only guess was north. I looked down at Coco, and she was just having the time of her life bouncing up and down on the chair.

I closed my eyes and relaxed, this was going to be a piece of cake. As I thought about how easy this was going to be, I drifted off to sleep. As I slept, we sped along heading for the home of the little girl’s husband to be.

Slap. I jumped up. “Why did you hit me? I just closed my eyes for a bit, I’m still awake.” I said to her dazed by the slap I had just gotten across my face from such a little girl. “We are about to be attacked, you big head now wake up and get to work.” She said to me as she pouted. What she said hit me like a bullet, I jumped up and looked around then outside. Then I sighed in relief, I didn’t see anything. I laughed and fell back into the chair. “That’s not funny little one. You actually had me going for a while.” I said to her while patting her on the head, she just smiled, then suddenly she pulled her head down and rolled up as if she was hiding from something falling on her head. Crash… Boom!… I went flying through the air with her little body right behind mine. I landed and quickly moved so that she would land on top of me and not get hurt. “Well, that was some crash, I wonder what caused it.” I said, getting up and dusting myself off, holding her behind me as I scanned the area.

My question was answered within moments of me asking it, by a rocket heading right at Coco and me. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Where did that even come from.” I said, then realized I should be moving out of the way before it hit, seeing that my Nanites were currently off. I grabbed her and jumped out of the way rolling as I hit the ground. The explosion went off right next to us, sending us flying through the air, we hit the ground, and I covered her as debris came raining down all around us.

I turned, and I saw a group of heavily armed men standing in the distance, they looked a shocked at the fact that we were still alive. But I had a feeling they would be trying to fix that very soon. Which means it was time for me to get serious with them. “I’ll give you one chance to give up, and I suggest you take it, or you’re not going to be around much longer to see what happens when you go up against me. Will 88 the most heavily armed member of the Brothers Will.” I yelled out to them with a smirk on my face. They looked over at us then talked among themselves for a while. then what seemed like the leader began to speak. “Ha Ha, you think we are afraid of you, come on bring it, we can take you.” The person said, I didn’t know if it was female or male it sounded like it was female, but looked male, but then again, they were all purple with what looked like 3 arms each. So that little fact they didn’t seem very important at the moment, I thought then replied. “That was a bad idea, you should be afraid of me. In fact, you should be terrified of me.” I replied with a huge smirk on my face, I was going to show them who was the boss and I was going to go all out on them for laughing at me.

“Activate Nanites 100 percent!” I yelled out with a smile. “Nanites are currently in maintenance mode, please wait until the maintenance period has elapsed, or until any and all problems with the Nanite interface have been fixed. Thank you.” A soft female voice said, coming from me. And with that, I realized what I had just done, and I realized how much of a predicament I was in now. Not only did I forget that my Nanites weren’t working at the moment, but I just told the bad guys I was coming for them, when all I have is this stupid kitchen knife! “Oh man, what did I just do.” I said as I slowly picked up Coco, scanning the area for some places to hide while I thought of a way out of the mess, I had just gotten us into. But seeing that the ground on this planet didn’t have a defined shape, this would be a problem.

I looked around the vast flat empty fields all around us, then I ran for the wreckage of the transport to take cover while I tried my best to figure out how we were going to get out of this. “There is a forest two miles from here where we can take cover.” Coco’s voice said shocking me, but at the same time, she was right about everything else, so I wasn’t about to take what she just said lightly, that and this is her home world.

Now the problem wasn’t what to do for cover but instead how to get to cover. Seeing that we were pinned behind the wreckage, and the second I got my head up, they would shoot at it till there was nothing left. “What to do, what to do.” I mumbled to myself as I looked around at the burning transport piece around us. “The engines in the transport still works if you think that could help us.” She said again while holding on to my hand. This was yet again a solution to a problem that now possesses a different, even bigger problem. The one thing that could help get us away from the mess we were in was currently between us the bad guys and lots of bullets.

“Well, seeing that you have had so many unusually good ideas to help us out, maybe you have one to get to the engine also.” I said to her as I tried carefully to peak over the edge of the wreckage without getting my head blown off. “The engine has its own power source, and connecting the blue and pink wires will turn it on.” Coco said while covering her head. This was very useful information that I just so happen to be unable to use at the moment, but I guess it would be asking for too much if she told me how to get to the engine also. but I had a great idea for that, one that would totally work… I hope. I jumped up and then fell right back down so that I could see how many of them they were, and where they were. I saw that they were all close together, but the how many part. Well, let’s just say it wasn’t good for me at all. I looked at the parts behind me, grabbing anything that had a wire on it, then taking the knife I had I cut all the wires off. Then I cut holes in the soft part of the transport’s door that was in front of us. I ran the wire through the holes and wrapped them around Coco, tiring her to the door. I then kicked off the rest of the wreckage so that the only thing left to attach to the engine was the door and the part that was laying on the ground now. Hopefully the part touching the ground now would just slide and not turn over. However, the problem now was pointing the engine in the right direction, then getting it started without being pumped full of holes.

Good thing I couldn’t die, or we would be totally done for. I took the knife I had then reached my hand around the side of the door to the engine. I could feel the control cup that rotated the engine’s thrusters based on the direction the vehicle needed to go. The problem with this was, it was spring-loaded, and it would rotate back down automatically once the wheel was let go. And seeing that there was nothing left to rotate it up in the first place, I would have to hold it in place the whole time. I pulled my hand back around then stabbed into the engine to get to the wires. “I hope this works.” I said as I twisted the knife to expose the wires beneath.

I cut the two wires that connected to the engine’s power, then gave them to Coco. “Go ahead and start the engine when I tell you too alright.” I reached around the side of the engine with the knife in my hand. I grinned for a moment, then reached half my body around the side of it. “Do it now!” I yelled to her to connect the wires. I grabbed the engine’s control cup, turned it and stabbed the knife into it just in time. The engine started and sent us moving. I had gotten shot about fifteen times in that second it took me to turn the engine and for it to turn on. And as luck would have it, we still had a problem. We were going in the wrong direction, we were going north when we should be going south to the forest. However, the real problem was the forest was behind the guys that we were trying to get away from.

We flew on the surface, bouncing up and down as we went, Coco tugged on me until she managed to pull me back from the side facing the guys trying to kill us. They were bullet holes all over me, and I was almost gushing blood. I was on the edge of passing out, but I knew I had to do something about the direction first, or God knows where we would end up. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my pen. Then I stabbed it into the ground behind me, tilting the door and changing our direction to the forest. I moved as much as I could to cover Coco as we flew right at the guys shooting and in an instant, we blew threw them. They jumped out of the way and quickly started firing at us again. But the speed we were going only got faster and we were too far in seconds. I held onto the door covering Coco tightly as red filled my vision.

The next problem was we didn’t have any control or way of stopping the engines, so we would go straight forward until we hit something or ran out of power. I realized this as I faded away. I remained unconscious all the way to the forest, where we bounced from one tree to the next until Coco got the wires that were tying us to the door off. Then she pushed both of us off of it, managing to land on me safely somewhere in the forest.

I woke up a few hours later in pain, my body cold, and my mind drifting from place to place. With my Nanites undergoing upgrades, my body no longer healed instantly. Instead, it healed at the same rate you would expect someone who is over 2000 years old to heal. Which just so happens to be, not at all. I tried to get up, but I realized that the shots that I had taken to my back damaged my nerves to the point where the bottom half of my body was no longer working correctly. I moved my head from side to side to see where I was. I was a bit surprised by what I saw, but at the same time, I knew we had made it to safety into the forest.

I was someplace in a forest with trees high above my head, I checked to see where the piece of the transport we were riding was, but it was nowhere in sight. “Are you awake mister lazy, or are you actually hurt. Cause they told me you wouldn’t get hurt no matter what.” A voice said from above me, I looked up at her sitting on a branch behind my head leaning over to look down at me. I couldn’t help but be annoyed at 24 for sending me here. “Well little one, I can get hurt just like everyone else. I just don’t die.” I said slowly, trying my best to get my pain under control. “How long ago did we get here?” I asked her, moving my hands and fingers to see what I still had control of. “I don’t know, it was a while ago. Shouldn’t you know how long you were asleep, you’re bigger than me, you know.” She replied to me with an innocent smile, I pulled myself up on the tree and looked down at my legs and stomach to see if I was still bleeding.

“You’re ok now mister, I put leaves on the cuts to stop the bleeding. But we do have to move they will be finding this place in about an hour.” She said while I was checking the cuts on my body. Yet again surprising me by what she knew and confusing me even more. How was it she could know how long it would take them to find us, but not how long I knocked out.

I looked around at the huge leaves that were on the trees and then pulled one down that was just above my head. It was well over ten feet long and almost four feet wide. I rolled over onto it, laying on my stomach. “So, tell me how high up do you think we are right now?” I asked her, she just smiled then hopped onto the leaf pushing it off the branch we were on.

And off we went down the side of the tree and onto the forest floor. We slid on the floor for a few hundred feet before we stopped completely. I pulled myself up and looked around to see which way we should go next to hide. “We need to go that way, or they will find us.” Coco said, pointing to the right of us. I just smiled. “Well, little one, can you be a big girl and help me? My legs aren’t working very well at the moment.” I said to her, pulling myself up onto one of the trees that were close by. Then break off a branch that I could lean on to support my weight. She pushed up to me to help keep me standing up so I could walk, we headed through the thick forest like this. Making our way threw heavy forest stumbling from time to time.

Before long, there was no light at all left in the forest. “I think it’s time we stop here to rest, there is no light at all, and we don’t want to end up falling into a trap or being eaten by anything.” I said to her. Then I pulled myself up to a large piece of the ground that was lumped up like a rock, then I pushed myself into it to form an impression.

I looked around to get a feel for where we were, but I couldn’t get much of one, it all seemed so much alike. However, that might not be why I was having trouble, my body was now feeling as if it was on fire, everything burnt, it hurt more than I thought possible. I tried to get my mind off the pain by watching her. She was looking around as if she knew something I didn’t, then she sat down across from me and just looked at me. After about twenty minutes of her, just staring at me, I had to say something. “I have a question for you little one.” I said to her, she just nodded her head to me not saying anything. “Who are you really? And why am I protecting you instead of your own people?” I asked, hoping she had an answer.

It was something I had been pondering since I first saw her. “I am the leader of my people. I’m a princess. That’s what they told me, and they said my people were the ones I’m being protected from cause I’m B.B.B… betraying them, I don’t know what it means, but that’s what they said.” That explained some of what was going on, but I was still confused about what she was, and how she knew about what was going to happen the way she did. “Oh, my mommy said I was a special girl too, she said I had the power of the ages. But I don’t feel old, so I don’t think she was telling me the right thing.” Her answer shocked me completely to the core. I had heard of the power of the ages from my travels, but I had never seen anyone with it before, and I didn’t think there was anyone with it that was so young. “Why don’t you try and get some rest little one, no one will be coming after us when it’s this dark.” I said to her, thinking about what she had just said.

I couldn’t believe it, she just said that she had the power of the ages, something I knew of but never actually thought was possible. The power of the ages wasn’t something magical like most people thought it was but instead, it was something of a sickness of the mind. It was caused by a temporal shift in a few cells in the brain that controls logical thought and sensory information. This shift, shifted the cells in time, causing them to become fully developed and linked with their brains in the future for just an instant, giving them knowledge and memories of the future for a moment before shifting back. However, in the case of little children like Coco, it causes an instant jump in intelligence for a moment. Then when it ends, they went right back to normal without the memory of what just happened, not knowing why they did it or what they were even thinking. I had never actually seen someone with this illness in all my years, I had just assumed that it no longer existed.

My thoughts were pulled away as the pain grew throughout my body. I began to think of a way out of this without getting her killed in the process. After all the power of the ages was an illness caused by the Brothers Will, when a strain of the common cold was accidently fused with the Nanites that were being developed to upgrade the time hacking abilities of one of my brothers. It got out of 24’s lab and into the air of a few planets. After that, it started affecting the more human-like races in bizarre ways. Mostly affecting the aging process in one out of every 5 million infected, and giving the power of the ages to one in every 50 million infected. We always thought they were only a few people that it affected seeing that without a Star-core near by the Nanites went inactive and soon returned to being ordinary matter. So how was she able to still have it active while living on a planet with no member of the Brothers Will around? My thoughts soon stopped as the pain grew even more, and I lost continuousness for the night.

I woke up to her once again, sitting behind my head leaning over me, drooling all over my face. “Come on little one, don’t do that. You should have woken me instead of just staring at me.” I said, trying to sound nice as I wiped my face off. She just smiled and wiped her mouth. “They will be here in one hour, and your upgrades will be done in one hour and 58 minutes.” She said to me while she got up and ran to a pile of fruit that was by my feet. “Here, take one Mr. Lazy. I picked them out for you when you wouldn’t wake up.” She said, then handing me a large square like thing I only assumed was a fruit. I took it and bit a little off of it and was shocked by how good it tasted. I must have been out longer than I thought, if I only had two more hours of my Nanites being inactive, I thought as I ate.

I sat up and looked at where I was bleeding from the night before. But The wounds had all closed up. They hadn’t healed fully or very much. However, my Nanites had repaired the severely damaged parts of my spine and back they also stopped the bleeding, but that was it. I was still very badly hurt and I could still feel about twenty bullets in me.

I managed to pull myself up to my feet, which hurt like being shot all over again, but I could stand on my own, so this was a big plus from the night before. My legs were working somewhat, and I had a plan now, it was to distract them and annoy them to the point where they would just give up. Never said it was a good plan. Now to get my plan started, I got Coco’s help to set up traps all around where we were camped. To her, it was just a big game, which was good. It helped her have some fun and helped me not reopen all my wounds.

The time came for them to find us, and I heard them coming through the forest, not even trying to be quiet. I figured they knew I was hurt, and that there wasn’t much I could do to stop them. But I was going to do something to stop them, one way or another. Hopefully, my first plan would work because I didn’t have a second plan at the moment.

They came out of the dense forest and into view, right in the path of one of the traps I had set up. Bang a boom… The trap went off and sent them flying through the air. The leader quickly got up and looked around to see what was going on. “That got them off guard like I planned, now they will move to us slowly.” I said to Coco taking her hand and walking through the large branches away from the group that was after us. After a few minutes, I realized that they would be catching up to us in no time at the rate we were moving. I pointed at a very dense group of trees to the left of where we were headed. “Listen Coco, they will catch us at this rate, so I want you to go to that bunch of trees and hide. I will keep going straight so that they follow me ok.” I said to her, looking back at them, getting closer, and then down at the blood that was running down my leg.

I stumbled along, trying to move as fast as I could to get away from them. I knew there was no way I would be able to outrun them, but I could keep them off me for a few extra minutes, and that’s all I really needed to do, which actually happened. I managed to stay ahead of them for almost an hour, which was awesome, but at the same time, it hurt like there was no tomorrow, I also reopened most of my wounds in the process.

They finally caught up to me, but my Nanites were still upgrading, so I was in deep trouble right about now. The good thing was that Coco was still safe where she was. They opened fire on me. I jumped and rolled through some of the bushes avoiding the bullets as best as I could. After what seemed like an hour, but was actually just a few minutes, they finally stopped firing for a few moments, and I decided to use that time in the best way I knew how. “Hey, guys come on let’s talk about this, as you can clearly see I’m by myself and shooting me won’t help you one bit. So, I think we should talk about this, and you should stop shooting at me. Then we can find a way to make everyone happy.” I said to them with the hope that they would see things my way and decide to talk about things.

Alas, I was wrong, very wrong. I found this out as they opened fire on me once again. “We don’t care that she’s not with you because we can always find her later, or better yet, we kill you, then there’s no way she’s going to get out of this forest alive.” Oddly enough, they had a good point, it didn’t really matter if she died, if all they wanted to do was keep her here, they could just leave her lost just the same. A sudden feeling of doom and chills came over me, or maybe it was the blood running down my spine.

I fell to the ground rolled out of the way, and off I went crawling my way through the thick bushes to one of the other traps I had set up. I passed one of the traps, and I kept going hoping they would follow me and walk right into it, and they did. It sent them flying back, and into the last trap I had set up, this one would hold them off for a while, at least I hoped it would. Then they did something unexpected, they started randomly firing out of the trap in all directions. This wasn’t so much of a problem for me, but it would be if one of the bullets hit Coco. I got up and headed to where she was, making sure to stay in the path that any bullet would take to get to her.

I got hit a few times before they stopped to figure out a way out of the trap. Once out, they didn’t fire at me. Instead, they came carefully to me. Edging closer until they were about twenty feet away, then I decided they had gone far enough. “Hold it right there, I have had it with you guys, it’s time for you to stop and just go home already.” My words didn’t have the effect I thought they would at all. “Ha-ha, who do you think you are. Telling me you’ve had enough. I tell you when you’ve had enough and not the other way around.” The leader replayed to me laughing.

This would prove to be a problem if they attacked again, I was already injured to the point where I couldn’t do anything but stand, but I had one last bluff that I think I could still try before they attacked me again. “I am giving you the chance to surrender now before things get out of hand.” I said to them, then tried my bluff. I pointed my finger at the leader like it was a gun and smiled.

They froze for a while, not knowing what to do, I had them where I wanted them and decided to give them a reason to be afraid. “I’m guessing you have heard of me. I am the most heavily armed and most powerful member of the Brothers Will, yes that’s me, so you better get going before I decide to change my mind and not let you live.” They looked at me, then the leader smiled as if he knew I was bluffing. “Is that so? Well, I guess we will just have to make sure you don’t get a chance to change your mind.” He yelled to me then opened fire followed by his men.

The bullets ripped into me, knocking me down, but they didn’t hurt as much as I expected them to. I hit the ground, and I felt something moving inside me. I knew it could only be one thing, my Nanites were coming back online. I felt my bones crack as they were pulled back into the place, then the pain faded as the bullets that were still in my body dissolved.

I heard them coming closer to me, it was my time to do something. I slowly pulled myself back up to my feet, blood still dripping from my body, took aim at them as if I was actually holding one of my guns with my finger on the trigger. “I think you guys have gone far enough, it’s time for you to stop. Activate Nanites 100%!” I yelled out with all the confidence in the world.

I could feel them working, then I felt my weapons begin to build themselves. “Weapons mode cannot be activated at this time. Only regeneration mode will be activated.” The computer voice of the Nanites rung out in my head. “You have got to be kidding me!” I said as I turned and ran through the forest to get Coco. I couldn’t fight them, but at least now my body was restoring itself like it should, so I was no longer bleeding everywhere, and I could actually move. “Activate Star-core 10%.” I said again as I grabbed Coco from where she was hiding, I pulled her over my shoulders and took off running as fast as I could, doing my best to avoid running in a straight line, so I wasn’t an easy target.

With my core active, I would have extra power to speed up the healing process, and within a few minutes, I was fully healed. Now my body was dissolving the bullets as they hit me and closing the wounds the same time. Which made it very easy for me to keep running as fast as I could to get to a safe distance. Once I was someplace safe, I put her down and broke off a big leaf from a tree, then wrapped it up in Coco’s coat and held it like it was her. “Go straight, keep running till you get to the hill. Once you see the hill climb it and then turn to them and aim, they will stop then.” Coco said, holding the back of my coat then letting go once she was finished talking. Then she ran and hid in some fallen branches. I didn’t see a hill, but I would do what she said, after all, it couldn’t get any worse than it was right now, all that was left was for things to start getting better.

I head off in a straight line to the hill like she had said, though I didn’t see any hill anywhere in front of me, but I figured it must be there if she said it was. I kept running for almost half an hour before I saw a hill with a cliff face. That must be what she meant. I saw nothing else around so it must be that. The face of the cliff was about thirty feet wide, and about fifteen feet high, and the back of it was a slow slop. It made the perfect place for me to make a stand, but I still had some time before the Nanites were supposed to be finished updating, and I had already learned the hard way my weapons won’t be back until then.

I climbed up the cliff face quickly, then stood there facing where I came from. They would have to come this way to get to me, and within a minute, I saw them approaching. I guess it was time for me to see what was going to happen. I smiled as they all came out from the thick of the forest. I raised my hands and took aim as if I was holding my guns with my fingers on the triggers ready to fire. I closed my eyes and prayed this would actually work.

“Come any closer, and I will fire!” I shouted in the most threatening voice I could muster. They looked at me, stopped and raised their guns. “No, I think we will be the ones firing on you, and this time we aren’t holding back boys.” The leader said as they all pulled out enormous weapons, that for some reason they hadn’t used before. This didn’t look like it was going to end well for me at all. So, I did the only thing that I could do. I pulled my fingers back like I was firing my two handguns.

My guns materialized in my hands as my fingers pulled back on the triggers. The sound of my guns firing shocked me more than it shocked them honestly. I opened my eyes and saw my two handguns smoking in my hands. “Basic guns restored, upgrade is complete, changes are being applied, it will be 2 minutes and 35 seconds before full armament is restored with upgraded functionality.” The voice said in my head. I didn’t really care what it said now, I had my guns, well I had two of them anyway, and that was enough for me.

I switch them to automatic mode and just held down the Triggers. They went running for cover as my bullets hit all around them. A grin crept across my face, I had them on the run now, and this time it was over, they were trapped, and I had the high ground, there was no way they could do anything now. Then all I saw from behind one of the trees was a huge barrel of a gun pointed right at me. “Oh, come on, that’s not fair.” I said as I jumped for cover. The gun fired like a cannon right at me and just missed me. I rolled and tried to get back to my feet to return fire when I saw more of them popping out from behind more trees. Now they were just trying to show off I thought, as one of the shots exploded just under me, sending me flying back.

I rolled and fired as I did, but it was useless, they just kept firing at me. Though they weren’t hitting me, they were starting to get very close to it, and even closer with every shot. The explosions sent me flying all over, which kept me from aiming straight at them. Then Boom right in front of me, knocking me off the part of the cliff I was trying to stand on, and as I fell to the ground below, I started to get a little bit concerned. “30 seconds to upgrade completion.” Said the computer voice, almost mocking me.

“I don’t think I can wait that long… This is going to suck so much.” I said, then dropped down covering my head. They continued to fire on me, I rolled around like a crazy person trying not to get blown to bits. Somehow, I ended up in a hole that was made from them firing at me, luckily it kept me from being blown completely apart.

They stopped to reload after about a minute. I jumped up and started patting myself all over. “Oh oh oh oh yes yes I’m still all here oh my God I am still here yess!” I yelled excitedly, almost dancing as I felt nothing missing. Then I turned my attention back to them, a smile came across my face that just screamed it’s time for some payback. “Now it’s my turn for a little payback don’t you think?” I said, walking towards them as they reloaded their weapons. “It’s too late for that now you had your chance now it’s time to pay up.” I said, walking forward to face them then raising my two guns.

“Activate Nanites and Star core to 100%. Activate weapons mode fully loaded!” My voice echoed out across the area almost shaking the ground with it, my eyes glowed a metallic color, my coat stopped moving in the air and dropped down like it weighed a ton. Then my pants changed color to a chrome black color. My two handguns doubled in size, then two huge guns appeared barrels down strapped to my legs, going from my ankle all the way to my waste. I looked down at them, with my smile returning, and spoke. “Run… Run as fast as you can.” My voice was carried ominously on the wind like a hand reaching out from the darkest hole and grabbing their hearts.

I started to laugh as they finished reloading and took aim. “Bad idea.” My words triggered actions instantly. My cloak opened and showed the guns that were attached to every inch of it. They looked at me loaded down to the toe with weapons, then they opened fire first, trying to stop me.

I jumped back, and my weapons aimed forward following my hand guns target, the first click was heard, then everything opened fire all at once in one single shot. The blast carried me straight back as if I jumped. I landed about fifty feet back on my feet, sliding back as I touched the ground. It was my turn to show them how it was done. First things first, I had to get rid of all these things in my way, so I could bring them a little closer to really get the fight started.

“Come on I thought you guys wanted to fight me if that’s all you can do, this fight is going to be much easier than I thought. Weapons to clear mode!” I said then stood both hands aimed straight forward, I smirked as they took cover while fumbling their guns trying to reloading. My fingertips touched the triggers, and as they did, my coat rushed back. My guns were aimed all forward, but each one had a slightly different trajectory. I smiled and pulled the trigger, and with that, every gun on me fired. “Five, four, three, two, and one.” I spoke, counting down with each shot moving my hands apart with each shot till they were pointed straight out from my sides. Then lowered my hands and dropped the two large guns that I held, now this fight was about to get interesting.

The guns fell but were pulled into my coat in a quick movement right before hitting the ground. Click! The sound of my gun snapping back into their places in my coat echoed loudly across the area, and with it, everything came falling down. All the trees fell leveled with the ground. My smile grew as it began to turn sinister, I looked around the area, with all of my enemies now in the open. “Hey guys I think your plan is backfiring, do you want to quit now while you still have a chance to walk away?” I yelled out to them, hoping they would just give up so I could go home. But of course, as you would expect, that didn’t happen.

The leader stood to his feet, then spoke. “Is that all you got? I thought being a member of the Brothers Will meant that you were an unstoppable force to be recanted with.” I walked out and stood in the middle of the clearing so that I could be seen easily, then I spoke. “Ha-ha, very funny, I am Will 88, the heaviest armed member of the Brothers Will. But that’s all I have, so I guess you’re right. I am very weak on my own I’m not even all that fast to be honest. However, you have seen some of what I can do with my guns, and I think you should quit while you’re still able to.” I stood smiling, almost sure they would give up this time.

“Send in the ships! Wipe him out, he’s a weak member, he won’t even be able to get out of the way.” Their leader said, pointing right at me mocking me. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it was an answer they couldn’t back down from. So, it was time to make them see why I wasn’t one to be fooled with.

The skies turned dark after a few seconds as ships filled the skies. “You may have a lot of guns, but that won’t do anything against our attack ships.” I heard the leader’s voice say with a laugh. I grinned as my guns vanished. The ships above me took aim, then red, blue, and green glow of lasers charging lit up the skies. “You think all I have are guns still, I don’t think you get it. I welded 88 weapons of my choice, anything I can think of I can use as a weapon, and you just became outnumbered.” I said as I looked up at the ships that were now all ready to unleash all hell on me.

“Activate heavy artillery mode!” My words echoed out, then Rocket launchers formed in my hands, then as I aimed them up more appeared all around me, then aimed straight up, spreading out in all directions. I smiled as I squeezed on the trigger, the first shots came from the two in my hands. Then as the first two rockets left the barrel, all the other guns fired in every direction straight up. Rockets filled the skies heading sight for the charging ships that floated above me.

My aim may not be perfect like some people, but it doesn’t have to be. Even with only a few heading for a direct hit, and even more that would fly right by the ships without even touching them I was still going to win. My rockets flew by the ships as they flew to avoid them, making it look as if I was just firing at the space between them. However, just as the last one was about to fly right by them, their weapons finished charging, and they could return fire. Too bad it was too late for them.

One of my rockets hit the wing of one of the smaller ships, and with that first explosion, the chain reaction started, all the rockets I fired exploded within seconds of the first one detonating, setting the skies ablaze with fire and smoke. Their ships opened fire, but the fire and smoke from my rockets meant that they couldn’t get a lock on me, which meant it was now time to end this battle.

I opened fire on fully automatic, firing hundreds of rockets every second, straight into the air on random paths. I may not have the best aim. However, at the rate at which I was firing it didn’t matter. I kept firing as I ran back, trying to avoid getting hit by anything they managed to fire back at me.

The laser fire stopped coming from the cloud of fire in the skies, and I stopped firing. My rocket launcher barrels were red hot and smoking from the barrage they let out. I lowered them and waited for the skies to stop burning. I looked around as I waited, but I couldn’t find the leader and his men that were on the ground moments before I opened fire. WUSH! A burning piece of metal fell right by my ear, I looked up to see the remains of the fleet of ship’s falling to the ground. I laughed as I raised my rocket launchers. “Armor-piercing mode!” My rockets launchers changed to a set of large chain guns aimed vertically and pointed slightly towards me. I watched as the falling debris got close, then I fired. My guns opened fire at two thousand rounds per second with armor-piercing bullets two inches long. The falling debris above me was blown away in an instant. My bullets became an impenetrable shield as spent shells formed a smoking ring around me. I stopped firing a few seconds later as the rubble stop falling around me, then lowered my guns to let them cool.

Then I saw one of them trying to run out of the corner of my eyes, but I wasn’t having any more fun, it was time to end this battle and get out of here. “Activate rapid-fire mode!” My guns got smaller and changed, from single barrel weapons to having up to six barrels. They all aimed forward as I raised the two seven-barrel guns that materialized in my hands and aimed them forward. A grin stretched across my face that was bigger than all the rest, almost seeming to go from ear to ear.

“Come out, come out where ever you are. The big bad Will wants to play.” I said with a sinister voice that crept through the rubble that lay all around me. I saw no movement anywhere, but just in case I was going to flatten everything, to make sure nothing was there. The Princess was safely behind me, which meant everything I could see in front of me was my enemy. I looked back to see if I could see her and she was standing about fifty feet behind me. She was walking towards me like she wanted to tell me something. I looked in front of me and couldn’t see anything but trees scattered among the burning rubble, I walked backward while still keeping my guns aimed forward. I lowered just the guns I was holding as she pointed, then spoke in her normal creepy way. “Two of your miles that way, the castle will be under attack in 25 minutes, it’s time to stop messing around, we need to move now.” She said then smiled at me.

I just laughed, then turned my back to her and got down on one knee. “Get on, it’s time to go little one.” She grabbed my shoulders, and I stood to my feet, gripped the two seven-barrel guns in my hands as my other 86 lifted and aimed forward, then I opened fire with all of them. Over a million rounds per second came rushing out from my guns as I turned to clear a path in front of us. My bullets ripped threw everything, completely destroying everything in their path, creating a massive cloud of dust as they cleared away the piles of rubble and ripped apart the remaining trees. “That should do it, we better get going now. Deactivate Nanites and Star core.” I said to Coco, as all my guns vanished from around me, Coco just smiled and held on to me like she was playing a game and I was her car.

I started to run as fast as my legs would carry me, heading straight for the castle in the distance under the cover of the dust cloud I had just made. I did my best to stay inside of the cloud even though there was no one to hide from after the storm of bullets I had just let loose, but I couldn’t be too careful with her on my back.

I do have to admit it’s a bit hard to run two miles, and I am starting to have my doubts that I would even make it. After almost twenty minutes of running as fast as I could, I was at my limit, I was about to pass out. “One minute and there will be a slope. The castle is inside the slope.” Her voice came from behind me as I ran. Finally, there was some good news.

I gave it everything I had left to try and hold out until I got to the slope. Then I saw it, a massive slope in the ground about five hundred feet wide, I had made it just in time. I smiled, laughing and coughing as I ran up to the slope. “I ma…” The sudden realization that this wasn’t a slope, but a cliff hit me as I fell. And just when I thought things were going so good too. But I didn’t have time to mope, I had to do something quickly, I spun in the air, so I was falling straight back, then I pulled the princess off my back and just as I was going to hit the ground, I pushed her off as hard as I could. The impact sent pain threw my body, but I managed to catch her just before blacking out.

SLAP “Wake up, you have ten seconds left before the attack begins.” Her voice said. “Attack! What attack are you talking about?” I said as my eyes opened to see something I didn’t expect. The cliff I had just fallen off of wasn’t a cliff. Instead, it was an opening at the top of a dome that held the castle and the city. But I had no time to take in the scenery before I saw what Coco was yelling about. The entire 500-foot-wide hole at the top of the dome had an army completely surrounding it all aiming their weapons in. “They have decided to kill me, and all my followers at the same time by destroying the royal city and burying it here.” Her voice said then she just smiled and fell. I grabbed her just before she hit the ground, then shook her gently to see if she would wake up, but there was nothing, I checked, and she was still breathing, but her breath was very shallow, and her heartbeat was almost at a stop. I had to get her help, but the only way to do that was to finally end this battle. Making sure to leave them with no hope for another attack.

I stood to my feet, took a deep breath, and looked up at them. “Drop your weapons and leave now, you have five seconds before I take things seriously!” My voice echoed throughout the dome, shacking the whole thing. I looked around and spoke again. “Four, three, two, one. Wrong choice!” I closed my eyes and breathe out slowly, cracked my neck and stretched my fingers. “Activate Nanites 100 percent. Activate Star-core 100 percent, Army defense mode, transfer power from regeneration to weapons, and activate overdrive.”

The Nanites computer voice responded to me. “Activating overdrive with regeneration deactivated can cause serious bodily damage, it may also make it hard to use weapons systems. Are you sure you wish to continue?” I clenched my hands in a fist and got ready for the pain. “Do it.” My words were met by instant pain as the computer voice spoke. “Five seconds to overdrive being fully active, you may cancel at any time.” Then it started counting down. Those five seconds felt like five minutes, the pain grew as my eyes burned bright. Lines of light stretched across my body as the energy from the Star-core was channeled into my weapons systems and out of the Nanites that regenerated my body. My fist were pulled open as the lines ran over them, then the pain grew to an unbearable point. I screamed out as the counter hit three. Two more seconds and I could attack, but the army above wasn’t going to wait that long, they were going to fire now.

My scream stopped as the computer hit one. “Overdrive is now active Good luck.” The pain lessened but didn’t stop. However, I could handle it. My hands moved, closing down on my two large eight-barrel handguns that appeared the instant my palms clenched. I aimed straight up in one quick movement, causing my cloak to open. I pulled the trigger on my guns, and bullets came flying from me heading in every direction as my guns appeared all around me already aimed up and firing.

All the weapons that floated around me began to disappear as new ones appeared. Every weapon that I could imagine started to appear and fire as others disappeared. Everything appeared and with them came lasers, rockets, and even grenades flying out from my weapons as they appeared and disappeared. The rim of the dome light up as my weapons bombarded it. I began to run to the center of the dome and away from Coco as their return fire started to get closer to me. I had to make sure that she wasn’t at risk of being hit.

I kept firing for almost a minute as I ran to the center of the dome. Their weapons fire followed me, shooting everything they had at me, but they couldn’t land a single hit. I finally made it to the center of the dome, I stopped and stood in one place while turning firing everything I had at them. Then their first shot made it through and hit my right arm. It wasn’t a direct hit, and I kept firing, if I could hold out a bit longer, I should be able to get them on the run. Then I felt another hit, this time it was a direct hit to my stomach. I felt the blood begin to run down my waste, this was bad another one like that, and it would all be over. “You have sustained a critical hit. Without regeneration you will lose consciousness in seven minutes.” The Nanites computer voice said in my head. “Not useful information, now stop talking unless you have something useful to say.” I said as I staggered forward, trying to find something to lean on.

BEEP. “Situation update, army defense mode is proving to be ineffective.” I heard in my head. “Didn’t I tell you to shut up already, I can see that!” I yelled out angrily, losing my balance and stumbling forward to a ledge that was sticking out of the ground. BEEP. “Useful information update, a new mode has been added with your recent upgrade called Total Defense mode. It is an upgrade to Army defense mode. it has a one thousand percent increase in weapons fire rate would you like to activate the new mode now.” It said, and I could almost hear 24’s smirk attitude in it, but at least this was useful. “Yes, that’s useful now activate it.” I said back to it hoping it would activate and not have any glitches in it.

“It is recommended that total defense mode be used at the center of the attacking force at the highest point you can find.” The system said, then I felt something pulling at my chest like it was trying to pull my Star-core right out of my chest. I started to move to the top of one of the buildings so I would have a clear firing path to all the enemies. Then the voice came back as I struggled to move, trying to fire and climb at the same time.

“Activation beginning, increasing the maximum number of active weapons.” This is new. I thought as I reached the top of the building I was climbing and started running to the next one so I could get even higher. “Maximum active weapons increased from 88 to 125.” The voice said as I limped from building to building. I could see new weapons appear and start firing all around me, but none were disappearing. I could get used to this, I thought. “Maximum weapons now at 175 accessing all available weapons from army defense mode and enabling them.” I was almost there just a few more buildings to go, then I would be at the highest one in the city and I could stop. “Active weapons increased to 200, now starting weapons rotation. Please release main weapons now.” The system’s voice said.

Now I was a bit confused. I always held my main guns in order to aim and fire the rest. But if it’s part of the new mode, I’ll do it. I just hope it works. I open my hand and dropped my two guns. As I released them, all the others stopped firing and fell to the ground all around me. “Yep glitches. Just like I thought, I hate testing new upgrades in a battle.” I said, watching the rain of weapons fire heading right for me. “Weapons rotation engaging, maximum active weapons increased to 225, resuming fire now.” Just as the rain of weapons fire reached me, my weapons lifted off the ground, started firing, and then began to spin around me in rows, each spinning in a different direction. “Weapons increased to 300 active weapons; rotation speed increased to three rotations per second.”

I looked all around as my weapons spun around me firing, with more of them appearing with each passing second. “Active weapons now at 400, total defense mode is approaching Fifty percent activation. Would you like to disable overdrive mode now?” The voice went off in my head, I looked around at the army above. They showed no signs of stopping, so I was going to give it everything I had until they were all destroyed or they ran off this planet altogether. “No, keep overdrive active.” I answered.

“444 active weapons now reached, 50 percent activation now reached.” They still weren’t on the run yet. In fact, I could see more ships coming in for an attack, which meant if they got in range, they would do some serious damage to the city. “Warning total defense mode can only remain active for 30 seconds at 100 percent activation, would you like to active to 100 percent or remain at 50 percent activation.” This was bad now if I could only fight at full power for a few seconds, I might risk the city if they held out. But if I don’t, I risk the city now.

I took a deep breath and spoke, hoping it was the right choice. “Activate to 100 percent.” BEEP “Removing all safety limits, releasing energy limit output, warning this is going to hurt.” The Nanites voice said in my head, then it hit me, knocking me to the ground, then instantly pulling everything out of me. “500 weapons active, rotational speed slowed to one rotation per second. Firing speed has double.” I could no longer see out of the hundreds of guns surrounding me, all I could see was a faint light coming from where they were firing to, and the light from their barrels as they fired. “600 weapons active, releasing final safety and drawing all energy from Star-core. Damage to Nanites will begin to occur in 45 seconds.” The system voice said, and with that I knew this wasn’t going to be fun.

Pain ripped through me worse than the pain of being shot, I was approaching my limit, and all I could do was hope it was working. “700 active weapons, Nanites will begin to be damaged in 20 seconds.” The pain increased more than I thought possible, I lost it and began to scream out. The armies began to flee as the ships let loose with everything they had all aimed right for me. “800 weapons are now active, activating Nanites ejection fail-safe. 100 percent activation in five seconds.” Those five seconds moved by slowly as if time had come to a stop just to wait before the end. My screams grew even louder as I floated off of the ground in the center of the dome of weapons floating around me. Energy was pulled out of me in huge bolts of lightning into my weapons as the final 88 appeared.

“100 percent activation reached, 888 weapons are now active, weapons are now entering overdrive mode. 30 seconds remain until Nanites reach critical damage levels.” My weapons spread out more and began firing faster than ever before, as I did my best to hold out for the thirty seconds. “Firing rate has reached its maximum at 20 million rounds per second. Incendiary range has been set. All incendiary rounds will now detonate once at rage. They are 15 seconds remaining before shut down.” The voice said as the skies light up as if the sun was at the rim of the dome as the rounds exploded and destroyed everything. The armies fled, and the ships that had opened fire were now being ripped out of the skies. Even the dome that covered the city was being ripped away.

“Five seconds remain, Nanite ejection fail safe is now prime for use.” All around me my weapons were glowing with heat as they fired, I could see out from behind them, and all I saw was a cloud of fire pushing out in every direction. “Nanites have reached critical damage, control has been lost of all weapons, Nanite ejection will now commence. All systems will be unavailable until Nanites have been restored, have a nice day. Goodbye.”

A sudden shock went threw me and then a blast from all around me, sending all my weapons flying out. I hit the ground and heard a massive explosion as my weapons exploded, wiping out the rest of the attacking fleet and blowing away the dome over the city. “Coco are you…” Everything went black as I blacked out.

“Systems have been restored, regeneration systems coming back online.” The voice woke me, I felt the hole in my stomach close, and the pain faded. I opened my eyes, and there in front of me was Coco. “Hey Mister sleepy, did you have a good nap. They said you save us, but I don’t think so because I was there and you were just sleeping like always.” She said with a smile on her face, I just laughed and patted her on the head. Then I pushed myself up to see that I was in a room surrounded by the people of the city, all carrying gifts in their hands.

“Hello I’m Coco’s mother Neil, I can’t thank you enough for keeping my daughter safe.” A tall woman said to me, grabbing me and hugging me, with tears in her eyes. “Hey, come on, it’s ok, it’s what I do, but I do have a question for you. What is so important about Coco that your enemy would send such a large army after her?” I asked her mother, she just looked at me as if I was making a joke with a lost smile. “They didn’t tell you, Coco is the future ruler of this entire system, once she is married, she will have controlling power over five-star systems.” I knew it! This wasn’t simple at all; they always do this to me. I thought as I looked over at coco then back at her mom, who seemed to have a look of fear in her eyes that she was desperately trying to hide from everyone.

Now I could just leave seeing that my job was done, but I remember that look from many years ago. The look in her eyes was just like the look in her eyes that day I had to leave, the last look I ever saw on her face. Never again will I let anyone feel that fear when I’m around, never again.

“Tell me, why is your daughter getting married at such a young age, she can’t be older than six.” I looked at her, and I could see she didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone. I smiled and fell over. “Ahh, my stomach, the wounds didn’t finish healing, can you get me something for it.” Neil jumped up, I grabbed onto her hand and looked at her with a quick smile. “Ahhh get something for my stomach please, make it warm to.” I said. She figured it out. “Everyone out, quick go and get some hot water and find the doctor.” Neil yelled to the others in the room. Sending everyone out in a hurry.

“So, tell me what’s really going on here, it doesn’t look like this is peaceful marriage.” I said to her, she jumped forward, hugging me and crying. Not all that shocking to me from the way she looked earlier, but she eventually explained what was going on. It wasn’t so much a marriage between kingdoms that would leave Coco the ruler of the systems. Instead, it would make her a figurehead for the king who would be ruling in her place. But it gets worse if the wedding didn’t happen the king would go to war with the other systems. Seeing that the king had a large army, this would be one filled with bloodshed and could destroy one, if not all of the systems. Knowing this the king had killed Coco’s father when she was born and decided she would be his bride when she was still only a year old.

After the death of Coco’s father, much of the kingdom had split apart due to the only heir to the kingdom being a one-year-old girl. That was the reason we were contacted. Neil had agreed to allow Coco to marry to save the people that helped them and to keep Coco safe. If she didn’t, the attacks would keep coming until Coco was dead and all the people that protected her. It seemed the king had a plan that forced everyone to do as he wished without having to start an all-out war. What made it more cunning was he knew the Brothers Will would not interfere unless a war broke out between systems. Planetary conflicts were the only wars that we intervened in, anything else was up to the people of that world to fix on their own.

I sat deep in thought, wondering what I could do. Because of the rules of the alliance, I could do nothing until a war started, and preventing Coco from marring would start a war, so I couldn’t prevent it. Beep Beep. The sound of my Nanites called me. “What is it 24?” I said. “24 is not available at the moment, your systems have been damaged beyond expected levels, Nanites will now undergo complete system rebuild all Nanites will be purged and reset. You will not have access to any of the functions for 48 hours. Star core will be activated to 1% for this time to power the rebuild.” Great, I was stuck here with no powers, even if I thought of something to do, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. My thoughts of despair were interrupted by the system once again. “Correction access to assisted construction will be available during rebuild.”

Well, this must be a joke, I can get help making stuff, but I would still have to do most of the building myself a lot of good that does me. “Come on, what am I supposed to do, build a big gun or something?” I said in frustration. However, it seemed as though that wasn’t such a bad idea. Well, at least Neil thought it wasn’t from the look on her face. “You can do that? You can build us a weapon to protect us?” She said, holding onto my hand and looking at me with excitement. “Well, yeah I can if I have what I need to build it, but what good will that do.” I replayed to her a bit confused. “We don’t have any weapons that can keep us safe, and if we tried to get one, the King would just declare war using the weapons we acquired as the justification for the war. He knows that no one knows how to build weapons in the systems that supported my late husband. We have a small population on the planets, so there is no reason for large weapons, and the population on each planet is far too small to actually go to war with each other.” She said then waited for my answer, hoping for a yes.

I thought about what she had said and remembered something from my travels years ago as she showed me the plants in the system on a star map. Two of the planets in this system were mining world that supplied resources to many other worlds in exchange for technology. It explains why the city was so advance with such familiar technology, but at the same time, the people lived so simply. It was because they didn’t build most of the technology, instead they were just using what other races had made for them as payment for the ores they mined.

This was just what I needed to help them. Their entire society depended on borrowed technology that they had no way of making. The best part about this was they got it by proving the rescores required to create that technology on a scale much larger than their population could ever use. This meant any technology and weapons I gave them, even if it tipped the balance of power, would not mean I interfered with the system’s balance of power. Because they do not have any original technology of the own. Using the technology of other races is what their whole society is built on in the first place. Anything I gave them would only have to be built on the planet with their resources like everything thing else on this world. After all, it was the way of the Brothers Will to live as the people of the world they were on lived, even if they were only on the planet for a few days.

“So, are you going to help us sir?” Neil asked, waking me from my thoughts. “Yes, I’m going to help you, but I’m going to need a few things.” I replied to her looking around for something I can write on. I had an idea for a new weapon a while back, and even though it was very powerful, it used a large amount of ammunition, but considering that these people had the resources to supply as much ammo as it would need this would be a perfect weapon for them.

I gave her the list of parts I needed for the weapon, and within an hour I had everything neatly organized in an area for me to work, talk about being able to get anything I wanted in no time at all. But I had no time to marvel at the speed at which they worked; I had a lot of work I needed to get done fast myself. “Hey mister, what are you doing with all of this.” Coco asked me as she picked up random things that lay around where I was working. “I’m going to make something to protect you little one.” I answered her picking her up and putting her on my shoulders. “Really? But you do a good job of that so why do you need to make something else to do it, do you not want to keep me safe anymore?” She replied, leaning over to look at my face. I laughed a little. “Well, I will come and protect you whenever you need me, but I can’t stay here all the time. I have other people to protect to, so I’m going to leave something to keep you and your mommy safe till I can come stop all the bad guys.” I said to her with a smile walking over to a pile of parts I had already made. “Oh, I understand now you’re making something so you can be lazy aren’t you.” I couldn’t help but burst out laughing, I keep forgetting that she is still a child.

I spent almost two days working none stop making all the parts that I needed, though my Nanites helped a little, I only had limited access to them, which meant I still had to do most of the work the old fashion way, good thing all the tools I needed and more were on this planet. Granted, they were a bit dusty, it seemed as though they were only used once, but hey they were working. More to the point I was now ready to put it together, I found a nice clear spot in the center of the city just in front of the castle. Well, it actually wasn’t clear, it was a beautiful open garden, but it was a perfect place to put my new gun. It took a few hours to do, but I managed to put all the parts together and by the time I was done there was a crowd of people looking to see what it did.

I walked around it making sure I didn’t miss anything. “Are you finished Mr. Lazy.” Coco asked. “Actually, I think I am. It just has one last thing before it is ready to be used.” I said as I patted her head. I walked up to the console on the back of the massive 100-foot-long gun. Patted down my coat and smiled, then pulled out the knife I was given at the start of the mission. “I guess this will actually come in handy after all.” I opened my palm and slashed it with the knife and quickly moved my hand over the console, making a tight fist. “Come on, just one drop.” A single drop of blood dripped from my hand, and as the second was leaving my hand, all the blood pulled back into my fist. “Sometimes I feel these things work a little too well.” I opened my hand. The blood and cut were already gone healed like it was never there.

“Well, one drop should do, now to finish everything up. Let’s see.” I closed my eyes, the drop of blood on the console sunk into it like it was a drop on water. “First, to build the circuits inside, then to wire everything together and check everything is tightly put together and finally to activate its power source.” As I spoke small sparks came from the gun, then the seams in the barrels vanished. The console lit up, then code ran across it. “Now to link it into the Brothers Will protection network to add its last bit of programming, and finally.” I opened my eyes and touched the console. Under it a draw opened. It had a ban with a blue diamond shape in the middle. I picked it up and walked over to Coco. “This is for you little one.” I took it and wrapped it around Coco’s head, once I did the diamond in the middle light up, then it morphed into a small crown.

“What is it?” She asked, looking up at me. “Well, you’re going to be a queen, so I think you should have a special crown. And as long as you’re wearing it, I will always come when you’re in trouble.” I said with a smile, then look at Neil. “This is the Maximus. It’s a rail gun I’m leaving here to keep your city safe. The band I just gave Coco is linked to it as the primary protected. It will keep her safe until I can get to her. The best part is the only thing you need to keep it running are basic rounds. Oh, one last thing it only has a range of one hundred miles, as long as Coco stays within that area, she should be fine. However, that means no leaving the city for any weddings anytime soon.” I said, then winked at her. I watched Coco play for a few minutes, then walked over to her. “Now you be a good queen ok, I have to get going now, but I’ll come back and see you when I can ok.” I said to her then patted her on the head.

She smiled, hugged me then spoke. “I’ll see you next year Mister Lazy, and don’t be late. My birthday party starts early.” I laughed and wave to her then, started heading out of the city, which looked much different from the short glimpse I had gotten of it when I first came to it. Which might just be because it was no longer covered by the dome.

I got out of the city after about an hour and started heading in the direction I thought was the direction of my pick-up point. As I walked something felt different somehow, it was like I was changed. “Wait a minute, does this mean I have body enhancements, Activate Nanites 100 percent.” I said, then started to run as fast as I could.

Two minutes later, I was out of breath, and I knew I didn’t get any. “Deactivate Nanites. Well, this sucks I guess that new mode was all I got.” I said as I leaned over panting for air. “Ungrateful are we, what do you mean that’s all you got, I shouldn’t have upgraded your Nanites at all.” Said the voice of 24, it was loud, but strangely it didn’t sound as though it was in my head like it usually does. I looked up, and there he was standing in front of me. Something seemed strange but, mostly when did he get here. “Don’t start with me, you almost got me killed with your little experiment.” I yelled at him, he just looked at me and laughed. “You can’t die I would think after the first thousand years that would set into your head. But anyway, this was the purpose of the upgrade nice right.” He said while spinning around in a circle floating in the air.

I was shocked, but at the same time, I completely expected this from him. “Just get me out of here already I’m tired of walking.” I said, waving my hand threw the projecting of 24. A rift opened behind the projection to where 24 and Ten Thousand were, I walked through and came out right next to the two of them in a wide-open field. They stood there with smirks on their faces like I was the biggest joke. “I didn’t want to come here can you just send me home already, after the week I’ve had I want to get away from you guys especially.” I said angrily with that strange feeling that something was different still nagging at me, but I still couldn’t put my finger on what it was. “We will have you home soon enough, I just have to run a few tests on your systems to see if the upgrade took first.” 24 said, pointing at a circle in front of me. I stepped forward into the circle that was on the ground, it began to glow then I lifted off the ground as laser scanners ran across my body.

“Tell me, did you know what was going on before you sent me on the mission.” I said, looking at 24. “We might have known some of the details of what was going on but not the whole story.” 24 replied, not looking up from the screen that appeared in front of him. “So, I take it you sent me because I had a daughter at one point in time.” 24 smiled a little and looked up. “Well, you are the only member to have had kids, adopted or not she was still your child.” He replied and looked right back at the monitor. “You know I haven’t forgiven you for letting the planet she was on get destroyed. You should have never called me away.” 24 just looked up at me. “It’s been like 2000 years, and did you not get to save the little princess this time you should be thankful.” Ten Thousand said walking up to me. “My wife wasn’t as lucky, and I don’t want to hear anything from you destroyer of armies, or was it Mr. Shadow of death. You ever put me in a situation like that again, I will break your rules to save who I see fit.” I replied.

The light under me shut off, and I dropped back to the ground, and I felt it. That strange feeling was my handguns, I still had my main guns even though my Nanites were inactive. This was new, I wasn’t use to having any guns on me unless my Nanites were active. I looked up, 24 looked at me, and smiled. “See, you have your main guns on you all the time now, aren’t you happy about that at least. Don’t you think it was worth it now?” He said to me in his normal stark tone of voice, I just smiled a bit. “Just get me out of here, I’m done with the two of you and this weird deserted planet at least put a building on it jezz, you guys are so weird.” I said back to him turning to walk away.

A rift opened in front of me back to the world I spent most of my time on. “You know you guys really suck. Just because you’re the most powerful people in the universe, doesn’t mean you get to act like the rest of us are nothing you know. We are your brothers after all, the least you could do is be nice to the rest of us.” I said, then I started to walk towards the rift. As I walked into it, I heard Ten Thousand’s voice as he started to speak. “Well, we are nice to you, we didn’t have to give you Nanites so you could look normal, then you would look like a fifteen-thousand-year-old mummy instead of a twenty-year-old.” His voice almost screamed that I should be thanking them for putting me through what they just did.

“You know I’m not as weak as you think, I should be in the top fifty and not the bottom fifty.” I said back to them stopping with one leg through the rift, they just laughed at me, and then rushed at me both appearing right next to me in an instant. I just smiled with my hands in my cloak. “See, you didn’t even see us coming, how can we put you in the same group as the most powerful of us if you couldn’t even move to block us.” Ten Thousand said with his blade to my neck, drawing a single drop of blood, I couldn’t move without him taking my head off and 24 pushing his hand straight through my stomach. “You’re right, there is no way I could have reacted to that.” BANG! Their headless bodies fell to the ground as my hands moved from my cloak holding my guns, smoke coming from the barrels. “But who said I was trying to block anything.” I said as the two holes I just shoot through my cloak closed.

I stepped through the rift right as it closed with a smile on my face from ear to ear. “Let’s see anyone else do that.” I said, laughing putting my guns back in their holsters on my waste as the rift resealed itself.