Chapter 26 – Past (side story)

"Atom," Silk shouted. "What's our status." Bullets are reigning down on him, the only reason he hadn't been turned into swiss cheese yet was the high-tech control desk he was hiding behind.

"Not good," a feminine voice said in his ear. "The bloody droids aren't responding to anything I try. Where did the demons even find these things?"

"Probably the junkyard," Silk snapped back.

"Are you serious," the voice gasped.

"Atom, sometimes I don't know if you're are being serious." Silk shook his head and put his head into his hands. He looked to his left to see Bronze holding a hammer ready to pounce, to his right was a man sitting in a meditative stance which was normal for Oak.

Opening his eyes to revealing a startling blue which contrasted with the pale face. "I have a plan."

"Quickly," Bronze yelled over the noise.

"We have a good ninety three percent chance of success."

"We need to know the plan to enact it," Silk shot.

"You don't," Oak deadpanned while leaping over the control desk. Oak was extremely smart, the IQ tests on Earth weren't able to measure his intelligence and he was one of the least intelligent of his species.

"Of course, we don't," Silk groaned. He hated being in the dark.

Silk activated an enchantment splitting the space in front of him and Oak while jumping over the desk. The split space made it impossible for the bullets to pass through, there was nothing to pass through but t the same time nothing could exist in this space.

Suddenly the space ship they were in started doing a nose dive and because they were only circling around the planet right now they could feel it. Silk crashed into the control desk next to Oak, Bronze crashed through the front window but she hung on by snagging her hammer in the ship. The androids had adapted and were standing exactly as they were by somehow digging into the ship.

"What was the chance of us all surviving?" Silk asked Oak.

"Very low, two percent."

"Goddamit," he exclaimed.

Realising he couldn't just let Bronze die he jumped after her and grabbed her pulling her from her hanging.

"What the hell are you doing?" she shouted.

"Do you trust me?" he replied with a question.

"Yes," she earnestly said.

"Well then, does it matter." He didn't have power to manipulate air with this suit. He started to see what was underneath him, it was land. Luckily it was rock though.

"Do you see that rock?" he shouted over the wind.

"Yes."

"Good. I need you to put all your power into melting the rock."

"Okay," she replied with a determined look. Flames gathered around her and Silk, he could only burn on any exposed skin. Fire shot out ahead of them. He gritted his teeth and bared with it, his skin was replaceable but Bronze's life was not.

They were getting dangerously close to the ground. "Stop," he shouted.

Bronze stopped. Activating an enchantment, he managed to make a bubble of water to surround him.

Instead of going splat the molten rock cushioned their fall, the bubbles in it helped. The water was being forcefully kept up by Silk. With a wave of his hand they were propelled out of the ground and onto solid ground.

"That was epic," Atom said flabbergasted.

"I don't really want to try that again though," he said while tearing off the burnt skin to reveal some smooth good skin underneath.

"I will never get used to that," Bronze mumbled.

Just as they thought it was all over robots seemed to materialise from nowhere.

"How?" Atom marvelled.

"My guess, nanotechnology. The robots are made from miniature things that are most likely in the air we breathe." Silk rambled.

"That's bad news." she stated.

"You two dead are dead men walking." Atom murmured.

"Not quite, we would be dead by now if they wanted to kill us." he deduced. "How is Oak doing?" he whispered the question so to not worry Bronze.

"He survived and seems fine," Atom answered.

Before he could say good a hologram was projected from the androids. "Good deduction. If you don't want to die follow me, I need your help." The projection was of a devilishly handsome man that seemed to hold an extremely domineering presence.

"Glad to be of service," Silk smiled.

"Follow the androids," the hologram said.

"Are we just going to do as he says?" Bronze asked surprised.

"Of course, he spared our lives." Before Bronze could say anything else, he started walking in the direction the droids were taking. They were very interesting creations, they were obviously made by quite the ingenious mind.

Silk saw an old but large building in the distance, this was the most likely end point of their journey in this desolate planet. Silk should never have accepted the mission to stop some metallic beings that appeared from nowhere, he was out of his league.

"What do you think he wants?" Bronze wondered out loud. Silk didn't bother answering, how could he know something like that?

After a long and dehydrating trek, they reached the old building. It towered over them but was obviously dilapidated. They entered into a large hall with rubble lying on the floor waiting for them to enter. Nothing looked in good condition, the robots were the only things that looked like they were functional even if they did look deadly with their sleek, dark design.

"You survived," came the flat unsurprised tone of Oak.

"Yes, we did. How did you survive?" Silk questioned.

"Magic," he responded. Most would think he was taking the mick but if you knew Oak then you would know he didn't make jokes. The people that knew him well knew that he didn't use magic much but when he did it was to great effect.

"We need your help," came the voice of the devilishly handsome man. He came out from the shadows, not metaphorically but literally. Three others appeared by his side, they were all armed to the teeth.

"Why?" Silk asked.

"This place is going to blow up and it is an old demonic weapons lab. We need your help to dispose of the threat. I don't need to tell you how cruel and barbaric the demons can be. We have already done preliminary tests and have detected an unusual amount of exotic matter with the ability to breach through space, this could devastate not just this universe but others if it blows."

Silk was very sceptical, the demons were not known for there destructive power. Demons converted people into them, its how they multiplied and this meant they weren't known for their destructive power. They weren't destructive at all but were still powerful.

"What do you want from us?" Oak demanded an answer.

"Disarm the place," the man said and vanished.

"Yay. Now where do we start?" Atom asked curiously.

Silk, Oak and Bronze started scanning the room. It was just as dilapidated as the outside and equipment. The equipment was advanced but meant little to Silk so he was more focused on the bigger picture. The pipes were cold so that meant they hadn't been used for a while except there was some sort of fluid being pumped through them.

"Of course," Silk exclaimed slapping himself. "The pipes are providing coolant," he continued.

"Makes sense," Oak rolled on with this train of thought. "This whole room would make sense if it is a giant temperature control place."

"The question is, what needs this much room?" He asked spinning around to emphasise the fact it was so big.

"Guy," Bronze piped up. "Sorry to interrupt but the pipes aren't dusty and look new."

"New is bad," Oak stated. "That guy was right to be worried, someone is definitely doing some refurbishments to this place."

"Refurbishments is a nice way of potential device of mass destruction," Bronze snapped.

"Why would the demons go through all this trouble to hide this place, they have the manpower so why not just guard it?" Silk asked annoyed because something felt wrong.

"The demons don't always make sense," Oak retorted. "I think I've worked out the right way to the main room if you want to follow me." The tone of voice made it out that it was not up for debate.

"Atom died last time you let hate cloud your judgement. Think before you make a decision." Silk persuaded.

"Don't bring that up." Oak exploded losing his cool.

"Why not?" He shouted back. "You need to learn from your mistakes. Do you know how many parallels I can draw from that situation to this? Many."

"You act smart but your IQ is hardly in the mid one hundred's," Oak retaliated.

"Yes, you're IQ is more than two times bigger than mine. Well done, you are a freak of nature but tell me, if you are so smart than why are you acting so stupendously brainless," Silk argued.

"Can you two stop arguing? This group isn't going to last long like this," Bronze interjected.