Turmoil Chapter 3: The Past And The Present

One month ago, in the ship of The Valkyrie far away in space, Rico was sitting on the floor, with his uncle Dynamo by his side. Dynamo stood up, carrying a small plate in his right hand and a small cup of milk tea in his left. Setuh was with them, but she had to meet up with a skeletal demon named Infernal somewhere in the ship. And Byrd had to make a call somewhere else on the ship with his fiancee and kid.

This was a time when a great battle began. A great battle that had involved tens of powerful, strong-spirited warriors from across the galaxy. A bloody battle led by the great Collector and three of his daughters against the black, cursed hands of Tronus…

After finishing his tea, Dynamo gazed at Rico, and lightly frowned.

“So… Rico, dear boy…”, he said, “Are you prepared for what’s about to commence?”.

Rico paused for a second, trying to find the words he wanted to say.

“N-No…”, weakly answered Rico, “N-Not quite, Uncle Mo… Not at all...”

“I see… Why?”.

Dynamo looked away and put his cup and plate down, as he said this. As a reaction, Rico hugged himself and held onto his arms. He shook his head in denial.

“I-I… I dunno… I’m… Kind of scared?”.

“Scared, you say? Scared of what?”.

“... Of dying. Me, Mum, you, Uncle Byrd… I-I know we’re actually strong and all that b-but… I’m not sure, Uncle Mo… Really, we- we shouldn’t be here…”

The red man looked elsewhere. He heeded his nephew’s mutters… He just didn’t know a positive thing to reply.

“No. You’re right…”, he admitted, “We ALL shouldn’t be here… We should be in our homes, having a mad laugh for god knows what… But…”

He turned to Rico.

“If we don’t do something about Tronus, our home might as well be immediately vaporised into smithereens…”

He crouched down. He sighed. He still frowned as he stared at Rico’s eyes.

“You may be afraid, Rico. I am too, but… this is just a matter of survival. It’s us… Or them…”

Rico looked back and into Dynamo’s eyes. In there, he saw a large, black void. Aching pupils. Shambling irises. It was pretty obvious for Rico that Dynamo went through a lot more than he could imagine, but that didn’t stop his concerns from continuing. He remembered those 4 words:

“It’s either us… Or them…”

Moving back to the present, we now see the figure charging towards Setuh with the book in his hand. Rico hid behind Setuh, raising his fists for the fight to come. With each step stomping closer to the two, a part of the figure’s frightening facial features could be seen. It was an eye. A red, passionate eye looking for blood and anguish. The figures words return to haunt Rico again:

“You should’ve wished that I was dead…”

The fight has begun. A punch to Setuh’s face had been quickly blocked, while a kick was countered with another. The figure’s limbs were so hard that even she felt something ache in her bones. A few more punches aimed for her face. She blocked again, but this time, the aching became worse, and her arm bones shattered a little. Groaning in pain, she punched the figure in the chest.

Crack!

Her knuckles broke. Blood-filled holes appeared and leaked out crimson. At this moment, it was impossible… Her hands should be able to overpower any kind of metal… Seriously, what is this thing?

The figure finally whacked her in the face, by giving her an effortless smack. It then kneed her in the stomach, making her spew out saliva. It was until then the entity gave her a long combo, involving a direct fist to the face and an elbow to the chest. She stumbled back a bit, covering the injury in her chest with her right hand. Her ribs felt the excruciating pain given to her. Shit… Now, she coughed up blood.

The figure was about to pounce on his mother, but she thought fast and lifted her left hand. She swiped the air to the left, which at the same time telekinetically dragged the entity towards a wall. A loud crash was heard as it rapidly made a hole in the wall.

Then, the scene went quiet. Nobody moved, until an arm erupted out of the wall. The figure brought himself back and aggressively - like a wild animal - jumped towards Setuh… Only to be hit again by her telekinesis. This time, it was being slammed to the ground.

The yellow woman slowly dropped her hands to the ground as she repeatedly slammed the villain to the ground, desperate to crush it, to flatten the merciless being. Her muscles expanded by a little. Her eyebrows furrowed as she struggled to bring the monster down. Little drops of sweat hurriedly escaped the sharp corners of her triangular head.

Eventually, a part of the ground ultimately crumbled, fell apart, and the figure fell through to the floor below. A noisy, jarring clatter had already followed the figure’s fall.

…

It all went quiet again. After the horrendous crash, Setuh rubbed off the sweat of her flipping face. She closed her eyes and took a handful of deep breaths. Opening them again, she felt a pull on her jumper from Rico. Her head slowly turned to him.

“Mum… Are you okay?”, he asked, slightly frightened.

“Yeah… Yeah, I am.”, she breathed.

“But… What about… that… thing- Whatever it is?”.

“Don’t worry about it… I’m sure it’s gone for good-”.

“Oh I’m very sorry but I can’t agree with that!”, a voice much similar to the Collector’s echoed from below the floor.

Then, in swift motion, two metallic hands rose out of the floor and grasped onto her ankles. After that, without excessive effort, they dragged her down. Rico gasped, as he helplessly glanced in horror. Soon, the floor they stood on cracked and broke down. The two fell down, with the figure still grabbing a hold of the woman’s ankles. Rico’s eyes widened with surprise, as her attention was caught by the monster’s eye fixating on him. His head then looked down to see himself about to hit another flo-

THUD!

THUMP!

CLATTER!

CRASH!

BOOM!

The child blacked out…

“Ohhhh, fuсk! My head!”, Setuh’s voice swore in agony, as she tried to stay awake from the bleeding, “Rico, are you okay?".

No answer had been made.

“Rico…?”.

"..."

“RICO! ARE YOU OKAY?!”.

“...”

Pitter patter. Pitter patter. Shake. Shake. Shake.

“Rico! Talk to me, honey! Talk to me please!”.

“...”

“RICO! WAKE UP! I NEED TO KNOW IF YOU'RE ALRIGHT!”.

Although he heard her, he couldn't respond... Her voice and her tone wouldn't wake him up. Instead, they would make him remember the past... The battle that happened one month ago...

He reminisced... and saw...

Fire. There was fire all over the place… Along with it, bullets and lasers were being shot… Explosions occurred almost everywhere with their sound filling up the entire battlefield like the fireworks that appear during a bonfire night (The difference being the atmosphere).

And… There was the poor boy, who ran through the flames, finding his family, screaming out their names over and over again… Panicking, he questioned their destination, their existence. He was lost. He was confused. He just wanted to be safe. While he sprinted, other people scampered in different directions, but none of them were his family.

Whoops! Someone just bumped into him. He yowled like the kid he is. But the stranger didn’t pay attention to him, did they? They just ran forward, while he was left laying on the dirty, war-bitten ground… The f**king idiot…

He tried his best not to cry. He can handle this, can’t he?

“Run, boy, run!”, he kept thinking to himself, “Run, you stupid boy! RUN! MAKE AN EFFORT, SAVE YOURSELF, FIND YOUR FAMILY, AND FLIPPIN’ RUN!”.

He opened his widening eyes, stumbled back up, and sprinted out back into the fire and flames. Heavily hyperventilating, the child closed his eyes, gripped on his hat, taking cover from bullets that may be thrown at him. He knew he shouldn’t be here. The red man was right. It’s just a matter of survival.

Suddenly, he tripped over a destroyed Tronus droid. He looked back to see the droid’s head, and was traumatised. It blew out, exploded. Wires exposed out of its fatal injuries. Oil sprayed out vigorously like one of those garden sprinklers. It was probably one of the first to die too. Well… It looked like it.

It got worse from there. The little, lost boy heard an army of noisy stomping from behind. Another chill went down the boy’s programming and filthy hardware. He slowly turned around, twitching while wobbling his frowning mouth.

“Enemy detected. Prepare to engage.”, the one in the middle commanded in a low, monotonous, robotic voice.

Rico, frightened as ever, rapidly raised his arms and pointed fingers, which their tips soon shone like a full moon on a Friday night. Lasers shot out and caused the robot to stumble back a little. Unfazed by the attack, the droid raised a tightly clenched fist before swinging a powerful whack to his chest. This sent him FLYING off to a long enough distance. He then rolled onto the floor, which bruised his frail body.

The three rushes for him, each ready to tear him apart from limb to limb to piece by f**king piece. It was a fight or flight moment at this point. And of course, Rico decided to fly. He looked at his shoes, and tried to activate them. But, to no avail did they turn on. He had no choice but to stick to his own guns.

By the time the enemy got nearer, he hesitated a little, closed his eyes, and began shooting multiple beams at a point blank range. That chill rolling down his wires became worse. Now that the bright lights illuminated the area, the metal kid had blinded himself More explosions erupted out into the open. The impact of the shots would only send him soaring back by 5 metres.

A fog of smoke rose, before revealing the three droids. Their skin was well-bruised but were still intact, determined to kill their opponent before they even died. Before the kid even had a chance to open his eyes, one of their claws grabbed a hold of his neck, putting him into an impossible chokehold. The droid raised his other hand. Tightening its fingers and knuckles, it was about to give him a beating he would never forget.

But before it could…

WHOOSH!

All at once, a wind-blowing shockwave targeted their way and struck them, forcing them to let go of the boy. The boy fell on his little bosom, coughing from the chokehold he had suffered from. Thank god, he’s saved…

A couple of footsteps ambled towards him, and a certain female voice called and repeated for his name:

“Rico! Rico! RICO!”.

Rico sprung up from the floor. He screamed before gasping for air. A while after, he looked around. He was back in the building.

“O-Oh god… I-It was just a dream…”, he sighed to himself.

To Be Continued…

I DIDNT FORGET BITCH

anyways I like it

Thx man