Eidolon Atomic
Chapter Nine: Death Blow

I do my best to keep Lisa from crying, even though she said the creature that eats the light of this place is harmless, it is a claim I still do not wish test. I try to console her, get her to talk rather than release her pent up emotions as tears. This effort works somewhat, but then compels her to tells me about a part of her past. The sad story of an android lost in the dark.

She managed to collect herself she manages to utter it in a passive tone, “I died in an uprising, we both did, I think. It was a revolt against the government that was in control at the time. I was, the first of many of my kind, and I died alone. It; was so hard to replace each other her in this place after I passed, even though we both died for the same cause, for a good reason. A purpose, something I believed would change the course of mankind’s destiny. But I see now, that our light within the universe, is a black one.” Lisa speaks to me in shame, but only after an hour or so of near crying, So determined to be heard, not unlike most of the dead she gives into a moment of bitterness and contempt. “We gave so much, saws are friends and families die along the way, and in the end we failed, we failed; everyone.”

I part of me want to assuage her guilt, but my nature to be burnt is now commandeering my compassion for honesty.“So.” I say.

“So? That’s all you have to say is; So? I died after suffering for years and all you have to say is; So? What do you think this is; a macrame class. So doesn’t undo the violence, the bloodshed, doesn’t fix history or your life. Does it?” Lisa says becoming annoyed.

“So? You tried, you failed, you died. You lived your life and found the end of it. So now, none of the world’s problems your concern. Undertakers, we are complicated. Death for us is only a temporary. A short rest in between record-shattering sprints that go for miles with no end. We are brought back to life, then we never live our failures down. They are advertised, analyzes publicized and replayed for generations to watch. The course of the world’s struggle for power is on our shoulders, and with each passing moment, it gets heavier.”

“You can be, resurrected? My god, what is the extent of this; Lazarus quality.”

“I do not know entirely, but Undertakers can remain dead for years before we are brought back to life.”

“Dear god.”

“You keep using that word, why?

“What word?” Lisa says looking me in the eyes, afraid of my question.

“God, what is that word, what does it mean?”

“You don’t know, what god is?”

“No, that’s why I don’t understand why or how you’re using the word,” I say, Lisa giving me a look as if I were simply insane.

“God? The all-powerful guy who sits at the top of the universal food chain. Big magic guy, has a beard made of stars. You mean you don’t know what, or, who God is?”

“What you are describing is impossible, science has proven such a notion to be false.”

“What? That’s not possible. You can’t replace god with science.”

“You can replace anything with science, even this god you speak of.”

“How? God exists above the notions of science, it’s not possible to prove it otherwise.”

“Not true, to create a science you must be a part of it; the universe may be full of mystery, but this is one thing we now are known for a fact. When certain equations came into existence, some of them were able to answer questions others could not. It was a man named Bullets, an individual with genius beyond measure, discovered that God could not possibly exist. He calculated and recalculated until no mistakes could be found in his method. Now; as it is, god and his powers of omnipotence, have been reduced to nothing more than the flaw in the thoughts of the foolish. God does not exist now, only the government does.”

“Your wrong, I have seen proof of god’s existence.”

“You saw proof of an afterlife, the proof of something powerful, and those things can and do exist without each other. You and I both know that despite our difference in time frame.”

Lisa looks around, the darkness of the ever consuming afterlife making up what is all around her. Then she looks me directly in the eyes, her stance of determination still holding hard against the diamond edge of my logic. “No, you’re wrong. Even as I sit hear peering into the afterlife, I know your wrong.”

“You still believe that there is a god even as the evidence catches you with an unbreakable net.”

“Yes.”

“Then let me continue my story, and maybe you will see why such a belief is futile.”

“Go ahead, but nothing you say is going to change my mind.”

I continue my tale of the past, in my mind I can’t help but feel a small amount of pity for such a being, so kept outside what is fact, and what is simply a fairy tale. I guess we all believe in fairy tales at some point in our lives, but these stories are fabrications made to keep the naive in a state of blissful confusion and easily manipulated nerves.

I skip only a few moments of intrinsic detail as I start back into the story. “We walked through the forest as commanded, following the lead of a man who had very little care for anyone other than himself. As it seems the place of any who manipulate themselves into a position of power, using everything that got them there only a stair step to be muddied and forgotten, and as loud as the steps must be in passing, our followed path was not one to be one of peace and mercy.

We moved quickly, almost running through the tangled vines and ferns of a distant forest. The soldiers could sense creatures coming closer, following our scent of blood that bent around the trees on a path meant to intersect ours in bloody conflict. Something everyone knew we would not be able to outrun in our collective condition.

Raymond knew this, and as we passed by the wreckages of the crash we survived, he suddenly stops and breaks away. With me in his back, Raymond is running at full speed to something that caught his attention.”

“What are you doing!?” I say, quietly alerted. However, the only thing Raymond said I response was a very quiet.

“Shut; up.”

I was in no position to scream or alert anyone else. As to Raymond’s plan of action. So I kept quiet, knowing that this may be the end of both of us. This assumption, however, was not to be made true.

Raymond gets to our crash site with agile haste , then with me still on his back begins to lift up pieces of metal with his one free hand. Holding me from falling with the other.

He would then picks up an object, from the ground, put it into my hand. It was a specialty rifle, one of incredibly high power and caliber. Though a new and experimental device that I could not name at the time, it seems to be fully intact. I was surprised by this, but even more so by what Raymond does next.

He held out his hand to a segment of the crash, and with the radiation his suite allowed him to absorbed was able to create a magnetic field powerful enough to pull something out of the ground that had been embedded by the explosion of the engines. Long, heavy, but incredibly conductive, it is a blade from one of the engines of our carrier.

I was speechless and angry at such an ingenuity. That in these moments Raymond had turned out to be correct. He was smart, no doubt about that, but it was this quality that that made me hate him the most. But only as a replacement for something else in the lack of emotion.

Shots begin to go off in the distance, gunfire of a small arms nature as it seems whatever had been following the group, had passed us both over completely. Raymond heard the signs of the confrontation, then began to focus his ability to magnetize pieces of metal to certain electron mass frequencies of bipolar electro-magnetism. He would then pull as many bullet clips and ammunition’s to his makeshift sword as possible, the collection is impressive.

“Hold on tight.” He then said to me then took a step towards the noise of a battle in the distance, and with all the power he can muster in his arm, throws a blade in a hard arc into the sky.

I see what Raymond plans on doing, and realize I have very little time to secure myself, I fight my way through my own pain and hang the rifles strap from my shoulder. Then as I just barely gain a steady grip of Raymond, we begin to be pulled towards the spot where the blade had land.

Because the blades mass it pulled us hard and fast. Raymond can barely control himself as he dodges and ducks through tree branches and thorns, everything fly’s buy in a blur of green and brown, as he is pulled along the forest floor at a speed exceeding sixty miles to the hour.

I tried to use my ability to create a shield for the both of us, but couldn’t create it fast enough to keep Raymond and me from being harmed. I was, however, holding onto him with the only arm I had. Using a small piece of Raymond’s flesh from his chest in its creation. It hurts him, I know, but at this point, I still had little care for what he felt. Or how badly he was injured, I had little concern for his well being.

We became a powerhouse of force as we travel, cutting through trees with the might of a rocket powered tank, but ii would be soon discovered that Raymond’s throw was an undershot, as we quickly found ourselves in dead center in a sea of claws and teeth as we stopped cold.

The animals turned their attention towards us almost immediately, stunned as to how we both got their so fast. As each of them begin to turn their heads, Raymond spoke only a single word. “Fire.”

I grab the gun that hangs from my back and used my ability to brace the strength of my arm. I aim it directly at the closest creatures face and pull the trigger, and in an instant, five of them are shredded into a paste by the blast of a sixty caliber bullet, pulled by a small implosion of time space inside the barrel that warps a small part of reality every time the gun is fired. The crystal on my arm grows as it absorbs the shock.

Raymond then quickly grabs onto the blade from the carrier’s engine with his free hand. It is a good three and a half feet long in length and made razor sharp by a bolt of lighting that Raymond uses to strip its edge. He removes the magnetic field from it at the same time, dropping the load ammunition it has held to. His ability to create and control electricity one of the more finely honed of any Undertakers abilities, it made him very deadly fighter indeed.

Lightning began to arc in a multitude of directions, every creature near us becoming stunned by its volatile touch and stopped by their own muscle contractions as it interrupts even their insulated bodies. The light Raymonds electricity created was bright enough to scare some of the creatures away outright but only the tougher ones of a mental fortitude decided then to attack.

Raymond skillfully swings his blade as the first creature lunges from less than a meter away, jumping through the air as it fights the electricity coursing through its body. Raymond was quick to react then and saw the creature cut in two pieces with a single swing of his blade. The iron in the blood of the creature now making his weapon that much more deadly as it soaked into the alloy infusion of his sword.

Doing his best, with me on his back, Raymond and I would both manage to travel down the path I had made with my first shot.Killing whatever creature to stand in our path.

Raymond has quick put down anything to exceed the power of his electricity with the swing of his sword. But even so, the fight was long and argues as these unnamed monsters hunted in a massive pack. The leaped and roars from all directions. Sometimes in groups. Long claws on strong limbs and massive numbers, I was sure that we would not make it out unscathed. But, that was when I started to get an idea of how skilled Raymond was in the art of combat, as we would both make it through untouched.

We cut and shot our way to the front of the group, and moved forward, out of a dire situation. We didn’t know which way the soldiers had gone, so we soon replace ourselves running through the forest with little to no sense of orientation or direction other than Raymond’s specific set of senses, an ability to see magnetic poles and field and anything to produce them. The forest thick with vines and large fern-like plant’s, and covered in floating rust, did not make tracking an easier.

Raymond ran for as long and as hard as he possibly could, a distance that spans for miles. For a time, we can hear the creatures as they howled and scream behind us in pain and anger, chasing us with intent to see blood, and get revenge. But something soon becomes apparent as we slowed and stopped in the middle of the thick forest, the howling and roaring’s having suddenly ceased.

There was silence all around us then, as it seems the dark wilderness has precipitously gone dead with a strange hint of a darker ambiance. Like they knew that to let us go would be allowing us a worse fate. Stuck in the now in the silent windless air of the darkness, we soon got an inkling as why that was.

“Something is wrong,” Raymond says as he stops.

“I know, I can feel it too,” I said hoping my companion had a sense of why it was now so quiet, a sign we both knew was never a good one. Many foul and vicious things dwelt behind a vale of silence, spaces of negative energy and stale air.

We both sit there for a moment, listening to the silence as it persists. Staring into the darkness as it seems so thick like wax made to fill in the landscape with vapors of tension. A deafness of sense that dug deep into an Undertakers ability to perceive the world. Though slight, and often unnoticed, by other Undertakers, to Me, and Raymond it seemed. It was an obvious precursor to something, bloodthirsty, and evil.

“I don’t like this, not one bit. I know this feeling and it’s never good. It’s the type of feeling you get before someone dies or something tries to kill you. Dark and cold, thick like ice water.” Raymond says rather astutely.

“I feel it too,” I said, too caught up in the moment to wonder why Raymond is also able to do that same. “We need to evaluate our position for a moment, set me down.”

“Why?” he says questioning my tactical decisions as always.

“So I can cover you with the rifle as you move.”

“I don’t trust you with that thing, besides who is going to watch your back as you aim that cannon.” He said, the both of us pushing our voices to keep them below notice in the silence. “You only have one shot and then you’ll be spotted.”

“I was an officer once, I’m trained in firearms. Even one handed I can handle this thing better than most. Trust me, I’ll only slow you down if I’m on your back.”

“But you can’t move, and you need to focus on using your power when the time comes.”

“If I brace my busted leg with my epitaph, I can move, I think.”

“That not good enough. You’ve lost a lot of blood and I don’t trust your reaction time.”

“It’s not like we have much choice.”

“It’s thinking that way that gets people killed. No wonder why you lose so often.”

Raymond’s statement lets it be known that the was aware of my track record in combat. It is something I took offense to at the time, as it did, in fact, hurt my feelings, but I wasn’t about to show it.” I’ll watch my own back; I don’t need your help.”

“My help is what got you that gun in the first place.”

“Yeah and then it dropped all the ammo you were holding, when it got us caught in the middle of that heard, and now we are separated from our battalion, and in the middle of who the hell knows where, facing down whatever that thing is creeping up on us.”

“You need to calm down, and realize your limitations.”

“And you need to realize that I’ve been through worse than this, and can handle myself.”

“Have you? You’ve dealt with people, but do you know what these creatures will do anything they can get their hands on, if we are separated, even by a few yards, I won’t be able to move fast enough to protect you. Especially if that gun doesn’t do the job.”

“Then magnetize something on me, and pull me from a distance.”

“I can’t,” Raymond said, adding to the lack of advantage in position. “I don’t have enough power reserve for that.” He says, showing me a gauge kept on the glove of his suit. Its level is near empty.

“Shit, really? I swear you pick the worst time to lose your ability’s.”

“Then we need to strategies this better, and quick, it is stalking down our location. I can hear the bushes rustling.”

“It is definitely coming our way,” I said only aware of the motion that moves towards us as Raymond points it out.

We both go silent, watching the darkness and waiting to see where the sound moves to. It slowly got louder as it steps in a uniform pattern. Moving with the light gusts of the wind that manage to replace their way through the thickness of the trees. But we both knew better than to let rustles go as simply just the wind.

I signaled to Raymond in soldier sign language, doing so with a hand I wasn’t used to using. He had a hard time understanding what I was trying to say, but eventually got the overall idea of things, even with my uncoordinated efforts. He knows we have little choice at this point and doesn’t want to go along with my half cracked plan. He calls out “FUBAR” and refuses to follow what I was ordering.

With a lack of time on our hands, I hit Raymond in the back of his head with the but of the gun. He drops me and turns around as I point the rifle directly at his chest, and make the message clear with it as he looks in my eyes; that if given a reason to kill him, I will at a moment’s notice of resistance to his superior commanding officer . A crime that in these circumstances, would warrant his death.

“Where you really willing to kill him that quickly?” Lisa asks

“Yes; without a single thought or hesitation. I would have shot him down in that field and left him to whatever beast to cross the path of his corps. Left him to turn to nothing in the dirt, and scattered in a light breeze. All I wanted to do in that moment, was survive, and someone I didn’t like was simply in my way.

Raymond could see the hatred in my eyes, the absolute loathing I had for any and all of his kind. He Might not have known this, but I had done some research on him and found that he at one time had helped an enemy I once knew, murder many of the only friends I’ve ever had. Raymond’s people where lowlifes in my perception, literally and figuratively, and even to this day I hate many of them. The Distorted as they are called by Perfect Humans. People who’re genes were not made to survive any world, and where there for slaves of the Skull and Bones Republic.

I would later replace out that Raymond, was different than most, However as this story took place I was kept within a thick cage of my own contempt, brought about by life experience and educated hatred.

He would show his softer side in the moment to come. A feature that made him stronger in his own way, as even his compassion were harder and less wavering than anything. I always imagined that Raymond might have literal nerves of steel running through his body as it turned out he was completely in control the entire time, and more full of mercy than I was.

He flinched, and weaved moving so fast that I lost sight of him for a moment, but then appears in the blind spot of my rifle. He grabbed the barrel of the high powered cannon and quickly pulling it from my hand. My after thoughts of this moment, are always that I could have prevented this disarming, as it was a large blunder on my own years of training and discipline, however I in my condition I would come to terms that this small defeat could not have been prevented, as his skills far exceeded mine even if I was in full form or condition.

He held the rifle now in his hands, not even in the fashion in which it needs to correctly be held, order to be fired. However, I was sure that at this moment, he would surely kill me and leave me to die in the forest, knowing that I was about to do the same. for a moment, I was sure the thought crossed his mind. But this was no to be acted upon, as he would prove to be less of a monster than me. Something he would hold over my head for some time.

Raymond then held the gun with the barrel running upside down from a position of sighted aim as if to use it to shield his arm from attack. He stands back and says nothing for a moment as he looks at me, the point of his position is sharp enough to poke through anything I can do or say. With an expression scorning my ignorance directed at my very core, he would then proceeded to turn around and walk away in the darkness.

I figured what the plan was at this point, as Raymond made it so clear without saying a word. I am either to us my power to run or defend the both of us when the time comes. As Raymond would now flush out whatever it was coming our way in the brush. His plan was ideal, except for the fact that he had barely any idea of how to use the firearm at his disposal, making our resolve less than perfect in the case of using what little ammo our rifle had to kill anything. However as brave as he was, it was still a long shot of a plan.

He walked away from me and disappeared into the dark. Not even rustling leaves as he wades into the deep brush of the forest. In the coming moments, nothing but silence was heard. Every so often a breeze would ungulate and lightly shack the surroundings, but this too seemed silenced by the heaviness of the air.

I sit in this stillness, reading into the movements of the dark for signs of trouble, and it is at the height of my watching and wondering, that gunfire suddenly rips through the night like lightning in a warp of immense force. I can hear something running towards me, something massive and fast. Agile as it seems to move seamlessly in its charge.

It comes into my view in less than a second, and roars as it runs. Its red eyes glowing in the dark, three of them visible, meaning it was a monster of immense psychic’s esteem.

“Hold on, you keep saying psychics creatures and animals. Is that true, psychic beasts are common?” Lisa says now getting an idea of a how a shattered world pieces together.

“Yes,” I answer simply.

“What type of psychic abilities are we talking about. Like telepathy or pyrokinesis?”

“All of the above, and then some. Rapid regeneration, the ability to duplicate, create illusion fields of psychic power, even manipulate certain aspects of reality, like stone or water or air, some of them even leech of psychic fields, and feed on mental energy to the point of brain death or organ failure, or worse. Not to mention their levels of strength and speed, are made to survive the other predators of the world. As it was there an evolution of survival that molded, them it seemed, a need to survive other killing machines with psychic powers, made to fight other terrible things.

No one knew exactly when the first of the animals became this way, so vicious and violent full of teeth and covered in razors blackened with energy as they stalk all things below or beside them. Looking like the apparition of the form of darkness itself if exposed to it true form. Fighting off thing like Eidolons or Rogue machines.”

“What is an Eidolon?”

“It is a collection of souls. Powerful enough to bring physical harm to living things. Soaked with radiation as well, they can be very deadly, even to Undertakers.”

“You mean, a Ghost? I a killer ghost?” Lisa indulges, aware that she and I are in fact spirits.

“Correct. As real as you or me. In the past, I heard that they were known but few and far in between. In my time, they are almost as abundant as anything else. Going by a few variety and name’s depending on the form they take. Animals have become psychic to fight off Eidolons it seems, as even they have become aware of the afterlife.”

“But the existence of a soul, doesn’t that prove that god exists?”

“It proves that energy exists. It proves that Consciousness isn’t necessarily being alive. It proves that there is something more to Humanity than a body. But it does not prove the existence of god. Evolution in radiation is the ultimate statement to that.”

“Wait, radiation and ecosystem don’t change animal form, that’s not possible, radiation can only kill, nothing survives the protein degeneration , it just not possible scientifically,” Lisa says trying to rationalize something, trying to bring what seemed like outdated knowledge to the table. “I was biogenetics programmer, I’ve studies animal and human DNA, radiation can’t cause a change like that, it’s just not possible, everything breaks apart, underneath all known wavelengths.”

“There are many types of radiation in the universe that we cannot detect, some of them are only emanated from materials that do not exist on this side of the universe. Somewhere along the way, we were hit with a large blast of this energy, massive waves of the power of a radiation just bombarded the planet, and changed everything with its influence. It’s almost as if the radiation where a life form itself infecting the world like a virus, and now that we know that energy can contain information, it’s not too far-fetched to know that some forms of radiation contain a program for genetic change.”

“Then, we were wrong, how little we actually knew then.”

“How little indeed, how many elements did you know in your time on your periodic table?”

“We knew of only one hundred and five,” Lisa says, and for a moment, I replace myself surprised.

“There are at least three hundred and seventy-four different known elements on the table now. The radiation they emit spans into different spectrum’s of light that we cannot detect, made by stars of a none hydrogen crafting. Stars of Krypton and neon and carbon, all generating different elements of their own. Bombarding particles with odd energy and subatomic growth.”

Lisa is awestruck for a moment, then grabs a hold of her forehead. It takes a moment for her to let sink in how little her understanding of the universe was, and begins to wallow in a pit of her own ignorance. “Over Three hundred elements, that’s, mind boggling, god the possibilities are.... Are.”

“Terrifying, and deadly. With large teeth and fast claws and the means to and end of a species as humans. We are dying out now, humanity struggles to survive, and you say that word that, makes everything so disassociated with our plight as a species. The universe is killing us, and you dwell on the possibilities.

I used to dwell on possibilities, but then I replace that only fact is what keeps you sane. The fact is, we replace ourselves at the end of our rule of the earth. Because the universe simply can’t wait to kill us off. God has nothing to do with the fact, if he did then why this outcome, why the evolution, why the killer ghosts?”

Lisa pulls herself back together for the moment to answer. “I’m starting to understand now, the future that you are from. The science alone is so; vast.”

“Very little is still known to us, but discoveries are made every day. However, with every discovery comes to a new challenge, and as challenges went, the animal Raymond fought was one to consider.

The creature raged with psychic might as they do battle in the dark, I can hear Raymond cutting away at the beast with his blade, making massive swings with his powerful hands. They struggled in the brush and mix of vines and tree’s. He defended himself from as many incoming attacks as possible and managed to strike a few precise blows against it as the creature roared and snapped its jaws loudly. Tree’s would fall in the forest, but somehow Raymond would manage to escape.

He ran towards me, the creature following close behind. It uses its many limbs to move through the trees, slashing and clawing after its prey. It begins to glow in the dark with energy now as it no longer had no need for stealth. Emanating deadly psychic energy made to react violently when struck. It was and Eidolon Eater, a Type of creature to gain power off of the consumption of souls, known specifically by the black energy the produce, however, the creatures exact name is not yet found in any known textbook.

They come at me fast, making their way through the dark with precision. Its determination to catch Raymond, more adamant than that of any tree in its path.

Good five yards away from me, Raymond takes the rifle that he had with him, the strong materials it was crafted from are now scratched with multiple claw marks. But even in its damaged state, it still manages to fire off another round directly into the beast’s body. The shot pierced the shell of psychic power that it has surrounded it, and strips the Eidolon Eater limbs, but isn’t direct enough to put it down for good as its protective field diverts the bullet to the side of its body. It shrieks, and takes the shock from the blow, but still continues to move, attacking more wildly, in its pain. Raymond tries to stay to its injured side, but the beast moves as fast as the dark and manages to land a few glancing blows against the material of Raymond’s suite. Blood spills, but it is only minor in seriousness, slowing Raymond down only a little as he moved with the point of contact to avoid being damaged, however, it throws him off, and he falls to his back in my direction.

Raymond rolls at this point to avoid even further injury from the creature’s long claws. Then replaces himself directly next to me. It was then that I used my abilities to send the creature backward with a towering spike of orange crystal. Extending whatever matter I could get a hold of, in order to force a punch directly at its center. It flies back and hits the broad side of a tree, then gets back to its feet and charges once again.

Raymond, blade still in his hand, charges it with his last remaining electricity, then throws it hard after getting to his feet. Propelled by magnetic force the blade has a strong reaction with the creatures psychic field. A blast of defensive psychic energy would see it diverted at the cost of the protective shell of power.

It jumps hard after a moment of being stunned, now knowing where both of its enemies’s where. As Raymond position, the gun the fire up underneath its body before it could land, something catches it from the side and carries it into a stiff tree a yard to our left.

The creature became stuck in place on a strong vine covered trunk, and struggled for a moment to pull out what has dug so deep into its center, but wasn’t able to accomplish this task before a hail of small arms fire renders it limbless. A death blows that it would otherwise not survive.

A group of Skull Soldiers soon ran in to begin dismantling the creature, pulling off its remaining limb and body parts to make sure it had not chance to regenerate or spring back to live while no one is looking or paying attention. They take their knives and carve off he creatures head, removing it from its body completely, the triad of eyes searching about as this is done, the beast wondering confused as to what is happening to its body, the head snapped its jaws a few times after hitting the ground, then continue searching for the soldier now had it in pieces on the forest floor. Raymond and I watched this in amazement, but, As Raymond still has a high-powered rifle in hand, and me a victim of his a-wall antics, he is soon the focus of a group of soldiers that wrestled him to the ground.

He is once again detained, as the other Undertaker walks to him with a blade in his hand made from an odd energy endowed bone, he has held it immediately to Raymond’s throat.

He spoke about disobeying orders, and the consequences of this action, but as his words are brief and harsh, and destines to end in the punctuation of death, it was I who step in to see that my savior wasn’t made a martyr of in such a desperate time.

“Can the theatrics,” I said. “We need him alive if we are going to make it through this.”

“He disobeyed a direct order. He separated from the group when we were supposed to stay together, four of our men are dead thanks to his decision and, even more, are injured.”

“Yes but now we might have the firepower to make it out of this alive. Thanks to the rifle he picked up, we may actually stand a chance. Sure his call got people killed, but I might save us all in the long run.”

“Are you standing up for this, Neanderthal? Didn’t he just kidnap you and run off, or am I missing something from this picture.” The Undertaker said taking a sarcastic tone. “Deserters must be punished, that is the law, and punishment for desertion; Is death.”

“Yes but that is not for you to decide Funny Bones, that is up to the shareholders. Not you, or me. Take action without their consent and I’ll see you tried for destruction of their property during a time of crisis, need I remind you, that is indeed a war crime.”

“You would do that?”

“After how he saved me from yet another dumb decision, yes.”

“Wait, what is a Shareholder?” Lisa questions to small detail, it seems she is quite intent on the small detail.

“They are the people who own the government.”

“Own, the Government?”

“The independent corporations who own enough property and resources to have a direct say in what the government does. The corporations are the government, and the CEO’s of the biggest most successful companies, make up the representatives within the Skull and Bones Republic.”

“Your government is a corporate mechanism?”

“Aren’t all Governments?”

“I see your point, but, why do they regard Raymond as property?”

" Raymond was born into a slave race, he is a slave and, therefore, is property, very valuable property. The destruction of Combined Corporate property, is very illegal, especially when it’s being used for war activity, like the Undertakers, always are.”

“How it that a corporation get its power if they can simply own people.”

“Slaves have no power, But Perfect Humans cannot be made into slaves. A corporation sponsors the lives of perfect humans, who chose which sponsor they pledge their allegiance too. The more pledges you have, the more property you own, the more power you have within the government.”

“Seems typical, but why the slaves. What makes them different from theses, perfect humans you speak of.”

“Many factors do. Genetics, looks, and average life span. Perfect humans are as described, perfect in almost every aspect of human life. Slaves are different, Malformed, and generally less intelligent.”

“So it doesn’t have to do with race?”

“No, only the ability to survive a harsh world.”

“Please, keep going,” Lisa says after I finish my explanation.

I continue.

“Fine,” the Third Undertaker said, “You know the angles so I’ll try not to bend it out of shape, but keep in mind anything he does from now on is your responsibility.”

“That’s not how this works.”

“Is it now, or haven’t you heard the new rules.”

I looked at Raymond as he sat there. His head pulled up to expose his throat. His eyes are calm but fixed on me as I tried to bargain for his well being. Not knowing what I might decide in the moment. It was his lucky day then, as I had already come to the conclusion that we all needed him alive.

“Fine, Bones, if this is the way you want to play things then I’ll agree, but I’m looking up that rule when we make it out of this.”

“If we make it out of this.” He said, then shows his knife in a small compartment on his suit made to store his biomaterial knives.

The soldiers let Raymond go.

One of them picked up the rifle Raymond was holding and cradles it in her arms. “Holy shit, look at this thing,” She says, “First time I’ve ever seen one of these this close, it finally got approved.”

One of the other soldiers spoke in turn. “Your right, that’s a Tungsten Nail Biter. I didn’t think these were going to be ready for a few more months.”

“I guess not, but how did he know it was in our crash site?” The soldier says before they all fall silent, looking at Raymond. Realizing his choice was the right one to make.

“How did you replace us.” I finally said in the height of the moment.

“We heard your gunshots, and were lying low, then we heard the roaring of that creature and finally decided to move our asses.” Bones said before anyone else spoke up. “We aren’t too far from our first resting point, it’s only a few more clicks to the east. I’m surprised the two of you are actually still alive. We just fought our way through hell.”

“Well it seems you got here just in time, oddly enough you showed up just at the moment when we needed you the most,” I said trying to stand up once again. Using my ability to brace my still damaged leg, being that out of all three of the Undertakers there, my healing abilities were the slowest.

“Yeah, you’re lucky a real hero decided to step in, or the two of you would have been dashed and popped like confetti.” Funny Bones ( The Third Undertaker) moved over to the creature’s body, still stuck to the tree by his flying blade. He then pulls out the long sharp spear of bone with little to no effort, an odd-looking bone of strange color, His Epitaph as I now remember, is known as Energy Bone growth.” I say as more memories now come back to me. Having just fallen into place with the telling of my story.

“Energy Bone Growth?” Lisa asks interrupting once more.

“Because we didn’t know what else to call it, the third Undertaker I remember had the ability to infuse radiation into his very bones. They took on different colors depending on the atomic power he was using, and could do a variety of things once grown from his body.”

“Like what?”

“Like pierce certain hard materials, with a subatomic sharpness, like titanium. As well as extend his range of sense to where ever they are stuck. As well as simply being exploded like knife frag grenades, they allow him a variety of projectiles. The possibilities were almost endless for the shapes his bones could take once grown from his body though it is odd as I can’t seem to remember his real name.

I do, however, remember it was not his abilities alone that made him so cocky, as they had proven to be quite deadly and useful in the right circumstance, but was it was his upbringing as someone with the same privileges that I had, A person who was once a Perfect Human being. I knew him when I was young, but only as we were small children.He was a young tan boy with the most beautiful locks of long dark curly hair I had ever seen. However, something changed him as the years passed.

I remember now, that in some of the stories told about him, it was once said that Funny Bones face, in his prime was for a time, more handsome than any man’s in existence. This was before he got himself into a terrible accident, that took away one of his eyes completely, and left him scarred beyond recognition to the world he once knew as a male model.

It would be now, that his insides match his outsides, making him a truly ugly person in all sense of the word. Filled with hate and malice and the need to manipulate, he was truly a man of a grotesque way of life. But in so much as that, he was aware of his plight, and new how to use it well, as a mask to hide his true nature. As it is, most don’t expect a monster to be hiding behind the mask of an equally terrible monster.

However, it was he who now saved us in the moment of uncertainty, and now lead us to safety.

As we walked still relied on Raymond’s help to get to our resting point, but it seemed that at this moment some of my feeling had changed. I never knew that Raymond’s kind could be so brave, as I had known most of them to be vicious cowards, it was something of a new way of thinking that I was not entirely ready for, and my heart was not either. I had to try hard not to accept it, being that Raymond made the aspect of giving in seem so easy. This was a flaw in my character I had come to know only after a time, but in the end, would make the result almost too good to be true.