Blaxy floated comfortably in the healing gel. He could feel his ribs straining as everything speedily moved back into place and regrew.
Brae sat in front of him with his 2 younger siblings. They hung on his every word as he recounted the story of the fight in the quad.
Blaxy looked at the capri-homindaes; the only 3 of their kind ever to walk the Earth; the 2 young ones a boy and a girl; Nolan and Layla. They had the demeanour of 10 year olds; smart but still with the capacity to blurt out whatever they feel. Nolan referred to themselves as ‘cheps’ rather than capri-homindae.
“Capri-homindae, Epicurus. C-H-E-P.” Nolan had stated to him. “Plus it’s pretty funny because Kayden has a Kiwi accent and that’s how he pronounces chips. Haha! Call us that. I hate when people talk about us like we’re an experiment.”
Nolan looked like a half size version of Brae, complete with lanky arms and stubby horns. His grin reached almost literally ear to ear as he pictured being in Brae’s position dragging down bad guys from their hover boards.
Layla’s femininity shone through her sleekness of body, her large eyes and the shine in her hair. She was much better groomed than Brae and Nolan. Blaxy hadn’t realised that cheps could scrub up so well. Her shoulders were a lot thinner than the males though they were still prominently gorilla. Her arms were slender with dainty human girl hands. She didn’t have horns like the other 2 but her white and light brown hair that ran down the back of her goat head was filled with beads undoubtedly done by Melinda. She had a large smile that lit up her blue eyes. She looked at her big brother adoringly.
Nolan interrupted Brae. “But why did you let them go!?”
Brae responded softly. “These boys have been brought up different to us, Nolan. The things we value and the things we don’t like are different to what theirs are. But to say what we like is good and what they like is bad is all just individual opinion. Hopefully they’ll learn from all this that I’m not a bad person and thus they should treat me with the decent respect that everyone deserves.”
Nolan looked down. He should have known Brae would respond like that.
Brae patted him on the shoulder. “Everyone with life deserves to keep it, brother. People have no right to say they’re more important than someone else just because their parent gave birth to them on a greener patch of grass than another family.”
A flash caught Brae’s attention. He looked up to the window to see a Bearing laser-head hover-tube pointing its menacing laser right between his eyes. The tube had nuclear-battery powered hover-pads all the way around it for easy roll over maneuverer ability. An alarm sounded and a computerised voice came over the speaker. “Building under attack. Please remain calm and get to the evacuation points.”
This voice was all a blur to Brae as he sprang into action. He grabbed his siblings in each hand and threw them towards the door.
“Run!” He demanded. He jumped in the opposite direction knowing full well that the threatening tube laser would be gunning for him first. He looked up at the window to see the figment of his imagination – the female version of himself – nimbly land on top of the tube. She pointed a small silver and blue gun at the top of the tube. Nothing came out of the gun but all of a sudden they were falling from the sky.
The step shape of the building meant that the pair landed on the 15th floor. The tube was now as useful as a paper weight. Brae watched his female counterpart with fascination as she rolled away from the tube. She barely noticed the fall. Brae caught sight of 2 other tubes rising up the side of the building. She wouldn’t notice until too late.
Brae turned, dropped to all fours and ran towards Blaxy in his recovery pod.
“Brae! What is going on!?” Blaxy exclaimed.
Brae’s hands gripped the floor to spin him in a 180 right before Blaxy. He glimpsed that the pod still had over 3 hours to go. His ribs would still be cracked. No time to evacuate him. Brae had to handle this.
“It’s fine.” Brae responded as he launched himself with his arms and sprung with his legs into a gallop towards the window. His horns connected the glass with such force that the entire wall shook. Shards rained down around him as he plummeted towards the 15th floor. All 130 kilograms of him gained speed fast. The 2 tubes were spreading out and slowly moving towards the girl. The one in front was almost at her. Brae watched the laser charge up as he dove and stole it from the air. It didn’t stand a chance to hold his colossal weight while travelling with such speed. His chest hit it and drove into the ground. It crumpled like a tin can underneath him. He rolled off it slowly. That crash had knocked the wind from his lungs. He groaned loudly as he rolled over.
The 2nd tube dropped to the ground beside him and he looked up to see his female mirror lowering her sleek silver gun. She smiled at him and her yellow rimmed pupils stared into his big eyes.
“I prefer my method of taking them out.” She said in her thick Icelandic accent.
“Asta!?” Brae blurted.
Asta didn’t have time to respond. A 4th hovering enemy appeared over the ledge. This one was different. It hovered ominously on 4 separate helicopter rotors. It was easily 3 times the size of the tubes. 2 missiles were mounted underneath its belly with a wide mouth plasma gun between that. It all aimed straight at Asta. A 50 calibre nozzle poked sinisterly from the sleek body of the machine. She raised her EMP blaster and pulled the trigger repetitively.
Panic struck her face as there was no effect on the quad rotor. It seemed to stare at her like an ancient metallic grey bird of prey. It moved with precision like it new that it outclassed its opponents.
Brae tried to jump up fast but the quad rotor moved first. A loud ‘braaaaap’ intruded on the quiet afternoon as the machine gun unloaded on Asta. Bullets hit her chest and belly like a stampede of bull hooves hitting the ground. It was more than enough to rip a normal human to shreds. She stumbled backwards and fell to her back. Brae’s eyes went wide. Adrenaline hit his bloodstream and in 2 gallops he was launching himself at the quad rotor. His arms splayed wide as he thrust his horn into the front right rotor. His head jolted slightly as it caught and his hands held on to the right side missile on the belly of the aircraft. It held him up but the other 3 propellers were wildly revolving to maintain balance.
There was a beep and the missile Brae held clicked. ‘Oh no.’
Without a thought Brae swung and grabbed onto the other missile and released his horn from the rotor.
The quad rotor launched up as the 4th rotor regained its place. He swung on top of the machine and jumped hard with all his weight on the back. It tilted upwards. All weapons pointing into the open sky. Brae grabbed the back left rotor and tilted it upwards. The missile launched off as the rotor started spinning wildly and dropped towards the 14th floor. The machine gun shot wildly and the hot electric gel shot into the air randomly. Brae hit the roof still holding onto the quad rotor. It’s back 2 propellers breaking off with the collision. Above the noise of the machine gun fire and the floonk from the gel cannon Brae heard a sound that terrified him and made his heart cold.
Beep beep beeeeeep.
The realisation of what was happening hit Brae simultaneously as the quad rotors self-destruct operation was triggered. His hooves just touched the ground as his mighty arms pushed the death machine over the edge of the 14th floor and jumped backwards. His mind quickly registered a sticker on the top – writing with ‘The Badger’ and a large angry badger head underneath. It would never be seen again.
The explosion boomed with an echo that would haunt the Epicurus labs few employees for the rest of their lives.
The 13th floor windows and walls were obliterated in a hot blast of fire and energy. The roof that Brae was still on rose slightly before crumbling down onto the 13th floor. H
e had been immediately knocked out from the heat blast, his fur was singed and he had a lungful of heated air. The roof collapsed with him still laying on it.
*
Asta’s body was limp on the 14th floor. Then she jolted. The nano-bots that were part of her body didn’t allow any organs to be damaged for more than a few seconds. She sat up and looked around. Freyr company engineering made her the first of her kind in the world. She had implanted nano-tech organs alongside her human ones. The nano-bots were part of her. She could download the DNA of a creature and shape shift into it within a few seconds. Adri Freyr watched everything she watched as her brain was booted back to consciousness. He knew as he watched her get shot that she’d survive, yet panic washes over him every time she’s out on a mission.
“Asta!” Freyr yelled. “You have to get up! Raise your C-Bemp! There’s a missile above you!”
Asta flicked up like an acrobat. She raised her controlled-blast-electro-magnetic-pulse gun. She looked through the small screen as it locked in on the target. She fired. The missile that was turning back around to come towards them suddenly lost its propulsion system. It now fell from the sky. She had no fear of it exploding without its electronics. The missile landed a few storeys up and bounced down 2 more; its light-weight plastic casing cracking more with every bounce.
They were safe for now.
She jumped down to the next level, dragged the enormous Brae inside through the wooden debris scattered around the 13th floor. Structurally the building was still fine. None of the thick foundation walls were harmed.
Kayden, Melinda and Brae’s younger siblings walked slowly and cautiously around the corner to grab Brae. Gabby walked around warily after them. Kayden looked to Melinda and gestured to the room.
“Fixed now.” His finger point circling the whole room. “And get the team to search for what’s left on the attack drones and missile.”
Asta slowed down and started transforming back into her human self. Her whole body glowed and reformed leaving steam and a small trail of water at her feet as she shrank. As she emerged from her steam cloud she was her original self. Kayden looked at her curiously. The rest looked at her dumbfounded.
Kayden smiled. “Are you a work of Adri Freyr? I think it’s about time I spoke with him.”
Asta nodded. “I was about to say almost the same thing.”
Her accent seemed to be less prominent now than it had been all day.
Brae roused to life. He looked around startled as they stared at him.
Kayden walked to his shoulder and rested his hand on it while looking into his eyes.
“You’re safe, Brae. But I’m putting you in a healer pod.”
Nolan and Layla got underneath his arms and carried him to the lift behind Kayden and Gabby.
When the door pinged open on level 17 Blaxy almost cried. “It’s fine!?” He screamed. ”It’s fine!? Look at you! You look like someone tried to turn you into roast lamb!”
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