Reborn Heart of Steel

I looked into each one’s eyes and saw fear, desire to fight, and despair. They realized as much as I did that this could very well be our one chance.

“Do it,” I said.

Chase nodded grimly. “Okay. Three, two, one, Morris, you strike that thing with the EMP. Brianne, me and you try to pull its attention. Zoe, take Alessandro to the tower. ”

All their mouths were open as if preparing for a fight. Giant machinery constructed of drones rose above us, the arm raised threw something else at us. “Now!” Chase yelled.

Everything happened at once. Morris initiated the EMP, the pulse running through the lower half of the construct. Chase and I exited the car, shooting at the gigantic shape, but to no avail, at least we made the creature focus on us. And Zoe, more or less, pulled Alessandro to the base of the radio tower still in the yard area.

The next few minutes were awful and horrifying at the same time but interspersed with an adrenaline rush. Chase and I were dodging between the construct’s huge feet, barely being able to escape from under its heavy footprint on which it was constantly trying to stomp on us. I got occasional views of Zoe and Alessandro’s advancement, noticing that they climbed the tower gradually reaching the higher stage.

But this can not go on forever. We were just having our best moments and the worst was yet to come. Forcing myself up again from the table, I was suddenly struck in the leg as if by cupping my leg in my hands, I had been slugged by a sledgehammer. Down, I looked and there I had a piece of metal sticking through my left thigh and the pants were wet with blood.

“Brianne!” Chase yelled as he began moving in my direction.

“I’m fine!” I replied, half-throwing this because I wanted to speak to him about the situation. “Keep it distracted!”

I tried to get up, knowing very well that the slightest movement towards my abdomen would make me scream. This time the head of the construct was turning back and forth from Chase to me, as if calculating who to attack first. Then his eyes moved to a new point of interest, observing two forms near the top of the radio tower.

‘No!’ I cried at the top of my voice, some kind of desperate energy coming into me. I shot at the construct’s head for a second time and the shots simply ricocheted off the harsh metal body, but at least this maneuver brought its attention back to me.NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.

Having turned back towards me, the threatening monster of Chase became wider as it realized that I had seen its face. He probably knew from my gesture what I was intending to do.

“Brianne, don’t,” he started saying, but I interrupted and began walking away.

Suppressing the construct’s pain which I felt in my leg, I rushed towards the building at great speed. Its massive hand dropped suddenly towards me and I bent down and rolled over to one side just as I arrived precariously between its feet. And then I started a process of inversion.

The construct’s body was huge, like having its mass of metal and wires, and there were not a few handholds. However, the slightest movement was torture, my leg pulling up with the slightest pull up, and it pained me significantly. The construct turned and rolled, trying in every way to shake me off it, but I clung to it like a vulture.

By the time I reached the top of the rope, I had a clear view of the radio tower. Alessandro was at the top now, the raving man’s hands moving erratically over a bunch of levers. Zoe stayed at a safer distance as she remained vigilant, her features equal parts terror and determination etched on her face as she watched me climb.

When I was close to the construct’s head, I heard it a piercing squeal that went through my ears and into my head. The counter-code was broadcasting.

The effect was immediate. The construct staggered as though drunk and thrown off balance; its movements became spasmodic. Everywhere around us, drones started crashing to the ground and while they had been operating in a highly organized way before, they were suddenly just a group of lost devices.

However, it was short-lived because I was attacked. Duties of the aforementioned construct began to derealize as its systems began experiencing disintegration, and so did my grasp. I was quite certain I was a hundred feet in height and any fall from this height. ..

I saw her look directly at me and I reciprocated the gaze across the car’s space. I saw the look in her eyes when she knew what was on the horizon of her life, saw her lips move and, for all I know, she whispered my name.

And then I fell, or maybe I was pushed, but I can’t recall that and if it was intentional, then it was decidedly malicious unscrew it user.

The world began to turn over as I freely fell to the cold, hard, merciless floor. Those endless few seconds were as if a calm had come over me we had actually pulled it off. The counter-code was broadcasting. Friends, cities, possibly the whole world would be safe.

I shut my eyes, knowing that whatever was coming would have to hit me first.

But instead of the force making me all stiff as I was expecting, I felt another force; a strange paralysis that slid through my body until it covered me like a blanket. Suddenly, my downward movement decelerated as though I were descending into water, not air. I awoke and looked down and saw the dirt just a few inches from my face with my body floating in an aura of almost pure light. And as I lowered my head to follow the motion, a man appeared close to me, his hand directed towards me.

It was The Raven.

He looked different. His body was almost a physical combination of man and metal, the blue light gleamed in his eyes as I always knew it would. But his expression was one I had never seen in him before: The nature of technology continues to be an important source of fundamental and pervasive social anxiety regarding everything that was happening.

“Hi Brianne” he said, and his tone was deeper, louder than before. And so it appears that we have a lot on our talking plate.

When we were deposited on the floor by the energy field, I had further questions in my mind. How had The Raven survived? What had he become? And, perhaps, most importantly was he here to save people, or to announce an even larger danger impending to them?

It appeared very much that everything which we all hold dear still remained uncertain about the final outcome of the war.