Chaos preview: War of the Sun pt 1

War of the Sun

The lush, dark forests below him rapidly approached. The forest was hundreds of miles wide, and it contained many treacherous traps and deadly creatures. However, he was well above that level. He allowed himself a grin; the last city had chosen a well place to protect itself. For all of the rest of this planet was covered with shining cities. Cities that took blood and sweat to build.

Cities that he had conquered.

That was why he was leaving his home in the world capital to fly to the center of the dense forests. He had received information that in the center of the forest, there was another city- and one not bound to his command- that was still thriving. He smiled again, and made a note that he should have seen this coming. There was another city that was somewhat into the jungle, not nearly as far though. Then he remembered what had happened there. He had flown the huge battleship that he was flying right now to the city to negotiate their terms of peace. In response to his generous offers, they blew up the city. He had barely had enough time to jump out of the conference building window, fall two stories, get back into his ship, and pilot it out of the city just in time for it to detonate.

He shook his head. This was no time to bring up those memories, lest he gain a negative attitude about this city. Clearing the bad thoughts from his mind, he flew the same huge battleship towards the coordinates of the final city that had yet to bow at his approach. As he did this, the door to the control room creaked open. A young man walked in slowly, and said in a small voice, "Sir?"
The world conqueror turned slowly around in his chair. "Yes?" he spoke in a deep voice. "Wh-what if the ci-c-cities don't accept your offer?" The conqueror whirled around and shouted, "How dare you suggest that those pathetic miserable fools could harm me!" The young man hurriedly said, "Of course not sir, they couldn't hurt us sir," and slinked out of the room. The conqueror made a mental note to kill him after he was done with the last city.

The city was closer, closer. It must have been less than five minutes away, the conqueror thought. Suddenly the door swung open again, but this time a boy of sixteen entered. "Dad, I think there's something that you should see," he said. The conqueror grinned. "Always straight to the point I see. Very well, Ceraizor, I'll be there in a second." He got up out of his chair and walked down out of the control room.

"You know those ships that you got to follow us here, as an escort?" Ceraizor, the son, asked. "You know very well I know. What about them?"  the dad replied. "Well, you see, they're gone." "What?" "It's true." The conqueror rushed over to one of the windows on his ship, and saw that they were gone. It was then that a huge roar was heard, echoing all around, shaking everything that heard it. The roar lasted about a minute, then died down, back into the jungle beneath them.

Ceraizor remarked, "I think they flew too low."

The conqueror replied, "I think we're not alone in this jungle."

And the ship flew on.
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Cyclone wouldn't join the Regime if they repeatedly shoved a bayonet through his stomach. He was staring on the balcony of his apartment, towards the ship of the conqueror growing closer, the wind rustling his hair. He was young, seventeen, and he had already experienced more suffering than most, all of it coming directly from the Regime.

It was Cyclone whose parents had ruled the last city, the one that they blew up. His parents were prepared to die to stop the Regime, and they did. But was it not better to give up your life for what you believe than to live against your values? Everybody in the city, titled Sun, believed so. That was why he knew that the ruler of this city would never submit to become part of the world Regime. Cyclone wished that he alone could make that decision, but he had almost no power in the government of Sun. However, he was friends with the true leader, and felt confident that she would not accept the demands of the Regime.

Names were a very big deal in this part of the world, and it was for this reason that everybody dubbed the world conqueror Chaos, for he brought it whenever and wherever he came. He preferred to think of himself as Peacemaker, uniting the entire world under his cruel hands. Cyclone was similarly called Cyclone because he was really good at hand to hand combat, blowing away everybody else. It was certainly a strange custom, often newborn's names were changed many times in the first month, a few times the first two years, finally settling down to a permanent name around seven years old. Cyclone knew of only one person whose name was changed less than three times.

Cyclone's best friend was Arrow, being called so because of his use of old-school bows. Arrow was usually way more accurate and advanced than any other guy with a gun, although a few of their group of friends could best him. He seriously doubted anyone else could. He had kept his name from when he was only three, out of his fascination and skill in the bow.

Arrow had first helped Cyclone when he and his mom's friend, Christine, arrived at Sun. Christine had helped Cyclone nearly two hundred miles across the dark forest, to the city. It was a long journey, it lasted almost eight months, and only because they were stalked day and night by the beasts that lived in it. Once Cyclone had arrived at the city, Arrow had taken him into his family, while Christine advanced and became the ruler of Sun.

Even now, Cyclone felt sure that Christine would turn down the offer to join the Regime. However, there was a slight complication. Everybody in the city had prepared for battle. They knew the conqueror would not just let them keep their sovereignty and would either ask them to join the Regime, and if they declined, destroy them and claim the land. Everybody called the conqueror Chaos, for it was what he brought. Although he legally changed his name to Peacemaker, all of his subjects referred to him as Chaos behind his back.

Sun had prepared well for the onslaught of attack that was soon to come from the battleship that drew ever closer. They knew everything about the soldiers that would attack them, since Christine and Cyclone had seen them as they were sneaking out of the previous city. It had a beautiful name, Waternighte, but it had fallen to the soldiers and finally detonation. Right before it had blown up, there were soldiers everywhere; Christine and Cyclone had gotten a long look at them before they had to escape.

The soldiers were almost invincible. They were referred to as drones, because there were thousands, maybe even millions, stocked at the capital. They had three clawed legs that extended as a tripod, two forwards and one back, from the body, which was actually pretty thin. It was about six feet tall, and had a tall, thin head, with one eye that extended around the circumference of the head. Its two arms were nightmares. One had a blade built in to its arm, and with the force that they could put behind the swing, almost nobody could deflect it. The other arm had a built in cannon, bazooka, machine gun, or other various types of weapons, though those were the only ones that Christine and Cyclone had seen.

Cyclone hoped that there would be no need for hand to hand combat, even combat at all, with the drones. That was why a large cannon had been built at the center of the city. It was huge, about the size of a tall building, and it was surrounded by a glass dome that made it look like a type of telescope. Their plan was to hit the ship with the cannon if Chaos decided to drop the drones into the city. Even a few drones were a handful, and that monstrous ship was stocked with around five hundred.

Cyclone pondered at all this as he stood on his balcony, looking at the ship that was drawing closer, closer. As he was about to go in, a short man walked out in the land below the balcony. Cyclone peered down, and shouted, "What do you need?" The short man replied, "Christine wants to see you! It's very important!"

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"What do you need me to do?" Cyclone asked as he dashed into the control room of the city. Christine was sitting on a large, red, felt chair that spun around. Her blue tank top contrasted her dark skin against the felt chair. "You know that cannon in the middle of the city? The one used to ward off invaders?" "Yes," Cyclone responded. "Well I need you to raise it. I already have three men waiting to man the cannon, it just needs to be raised," she finished. Cyclone let out a sigh. "This means that we're not going to accept, right?" "Of course!" she snapped, "how else are we gonna stop Chaos?" Cyclone shrugged and said, "I'll get right on it."

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Of course Chaos knew about the cannon. Of course he had taken precautions against it. As his ship flew almost directly above the city, he let it down in the sandy plains that surrounded the city for about a half mile before fading into jungle. Chaos and Ceraizor lurched forward as the ship touched down. Ceraizor re-entered the control room. "Hey, Dad, the drones you brought with us have all finished charging. They are ready to crush and maim at a moment's notice." Chaos looked down at his son, and smiled. "Don't activate them just yet. Wait until I enter the city. I will take a secret radio with me. If they decline my offer, I will radio you and tell you to release the drones." "Gee whiz, you sure I can handle that?" "Of course, son."

The platform shot out of the ship and lowered slowly to the ground. A huge metal door clicked open, revealing the interior of the ship. At the top of the platform stood Chaos. He slowly walked down the platform, and towards Sun. The city was protected by a huge transparent dome, and though he didn't doubt its power, he was sure his ship could penetrate it like a sheet of paper. He walked alone towards the city, and with surprise noticed that the city was surrounded by a few hundred feet of sand before the flat sand faded into the ominous jungle. As he arrived at the dome's outer covering, two doors, that looked to be part of the dome, swung open. A few guards walked out. "Come with us, Chaos," one said. Chaos glared at him and said, "The name's Peacemaker." the guard chuckled and said, "Yeah, right." They escorted Chaos through the city, toward their command room. When walking around, Chaos was sure to take note of building structures and overall city design. At last they approached the command room. As he entered it, the guards that had been escorting him were joined by a few more guards and the doors were shut tight.

He sat down at one end of a long table that seemed to be the only thing in the room, and at the other end, sat who he presumed to be the leader of this city. She spun around in her chair at the opposite end and faced Chaos. "So, let's get this over with," she said. Chaos smiled. "I couldn't agree more. Do you accept my terms? Once again, they are as follows. If you completely surrender yourself and your city to me, I will not be forced to eliminate every individual in the city who hates me." Chaos extended his hand, but she was so far away it wouldn't have made any difference. Christine slammed her fist down. "See that's just it. Every living thing in this city hates you, and everything around this city hates you, and everything in the jungle wants to kill and eat you. So how about you call it a day and go home?"

Chaos lowered his hand. "So you don't accept my offer?" he let out a chuckle. "Good. Destroying a city is a bit more fun than getting it politically." The guards behind him raised their guns. There were about twelve now, but it was no matter. He turned around to face them and raised his hands. As they slightly lowered their guns, Chaos clenched his fists and darts shot out of his jacket's sleeves and flew straight towards the men. He downed seven, and as the others shot at him he leaped forwards, using his unusual strength and speed. He seemed to be everywhere at once, truly spreading chaos. As he was attacking the guards, he grabbed one of the dead one's guns. The others didn't notice this, until a bullet was fired through two people's necks, in one shot. The other three looked around the room frantically, but they could never get a real idea of where Chaos was. Sometimes they would see a glimmer of his purple uniform, but it would disappear just as quickly. Their panic furthered as another guard dropped to the floor gasping for breath as the bullet exited his throat.

Suddenly a bullet glanced off his left arm. At the other end of the room, Christine had pulled out a small pistol hidden underneath the desk and started firing. He became a faded blur again, but Christine was more alert than the guards had been. Chaos, to lessen the complication of this fight, shot a bullet through the two remaining guards, at the same time. If there were only two, then you could always find a straight line through both of them. Chaos dodged another bullet from Christine, and as he jumped off a wall he fired at her for the first time, hitting her in the right arm. "Augh!" she shouted and she fell down. Chaos left her for now and opened the control room doors.

"Son," he radioed back to the ship, "release the drones."


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Out on the sandy plains, the bottom part of the ship slowly folded apart. From the center of the ship drones were starting to fall out the new gap. One hundred drones in all, they had brought. All the drones started to march towards Sun, as a relentless horde. The guards at the front gate stood in awe for a minute or two but then the commander quickly snapped into action. "Get all the guards in the city out to defend this gate right now!" he shouted to a messenger.

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Cyclone had just arrived at the electrician's room, where the controls to just about everything in the city were stationed. He looked around the room, and found the cannon controls. There was a lever that said 'raise' and 'lower' on either side. Cyclone grabbed it and pulled it to 'raise'. He heard the satisfying rumbling from outside that meant the huge cannon was indeed rising. He knew that the three men would have to be in it now, and were probably already aiming the blast for Chaos' ship or the drone horde.

In the overall city structure, his apartment was pretty close to the command room, where Christine lived, but they were both on the outskirts of the city. In the center was the cannon, and it was surrounded by a large moat that went a few hundred feet deep, though it was not filled to even halfway. Then, on the opposite side of the city, was the electrician's room, which is why it took him so long to get there.

Just as Cyclone exited the electrician's room, he saw the cannon already towering high above the rest of the buildings. He watched as it fired a huge blast towards the city entrance, and as the blast passed harmlessly through the dome and hit a large group of drones that was almost at the entrance. Cyclone couldn't help shouting 'Yes!' to himself but then Chaos' ship rose. It ascended to about the level of the cannon, and the cannon slowly rotated towards the ship. It was if they were at a standstill. Finally the ship fired a blast, and it produced massive shaking as the powerful beam struck the dome. Even though it had held up, the dome was in severe danger of breaking- several cracks spread out like tentacles from the impact site. "What kind of power does this thing have?" Cyclone wondered aloud.

He knew that the back up generator would get up in time to generate another dome, but was it enough to stop the ship? Another sound emerged overhead. This time the ship shot about fifty or so drones out of the ship, hurtling forwards at an incredible speed. The drones impacted the dome, and they started to smash what was left of it with their sword arms. As the final drones hit the dome, they broke through. They all dropped down into almost the heart of the city. However, one grasped the cannon before it fell, breaking inside it. Cyclone heard the screams of the poor soldiers inside the cannon, and then their bodies fell out of it. The drone burst through another section and joined its brethren on the ground, just as the spare generator created another dome.

Cyclone knew their first move would be to find the city gates, kill the soldiers guarding it and then open it for the rest of the horde that was still outside. Somebody had to stop them. Now.

Cyclone ran back into the electrician's room, since there was a speaker system across the whole city in there. He hit the play button, and said, "Attention everybody! There has been a breach in the dome! The cannon is down, and around fifty drones are heading from the center of the city to the main gates! I need everybody capable of fighting to help stop them. We cannot let Sun fall!"

Cyclone rushed towards the exit of the electrician's room, but stopped dead in his tracks. A single drone slowly opened the door and walked in. "Oh, snap!" Cyclone said to himself. He had been caught without any weapons at all. The drone took one long look around it, its eye finally resting on Cyclone. The drone looked at him, cocked its head left and right, and then jumped towards him. Cyclone jumped out of the way, and the drone sliced thin air. It swung down with its sword hand again, and Cyclone made a narrow dodge, grabbing its arm. The drone was confused, and then tried to turn and stab Cyclone with its other hand, a knife. Cyclone moved with it, dodging the stabs. Suddenly the drone did a roll on the ground, throwing Cyclone off of it. It picked him up again, and threw him out the door. Cyclone was lying on the ground, he just started to get up but the drone stamped one of its sharp feet on his shoulder. The drone raised its arm for the final blow to the head, when a long, wooden arrow shot through its neck. The drone shook violently, drawing some blood on Cyclone's shoulder, and then fell off of him.

Cyclone rolled over, and started to stand up. His best friend Arrow was walking towards him, bow in his hand. "Turns out that I save you once again," he said as he helped Cyclone to his feet. "Oh, I was unarmed. If I had my sword it wouldn't have stood a chance," Cyclone replied. "Sure," Arrow laughed, "well it's a good thing I brought it for you." From behind his back, in his quiver with the other arrows, was Cyclone's sword. Arrow drew it out and tossed it to Cyclone.
The two friends chuckled, and then Arrow said, "Let's go bust those drones. We have to move fast because we are on the completely opposite side of the entrance." Cyclone nodded. "Then what are we standing around here for?"

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Christine, back in the control room, just regained consciousness. She shrugged off the bulletproof vest she was wearing earlier, and picked up her pistol. Her right arm was still numb and painfully sore from the wound Chaos had given her. She transferred it to her left arm. "God, I hate working a left handed gun!" She ran outside the control room, and joined the guards fighting at the entrance. Most of them were severely injured, and only a few of the drones were down. The commander of the soldiers stopped for a second and briefed her on the situation. "Christine! Cyclone just sent a broadcast out from the electrician's room! There are drones within the city, heading towards us right now!" She sighed. "Well nothing ever goes right, does it?"

Cyclone and Arrow knew their way around the city, but when the drones couldn't get past something, they smashed it. It seemed that they would never catch up to them when…The wall in front of the drones suddenly fell backwards, crushing a drone that didn't have great reflexes. Two women and a man stood over the carnage and looked down at the drones. The man picked up a huge gun; it was hooked up to what appeared to be air tanks on his back. However when he fired at the drones a huge wall of flame shot out. He torched a few more drones, turning them into melted metal. The drone's confusion was evident and Cyclone and Arrow used this to get ahead of them. They joined the people on top of the shattered wall. The man walked up to them and said, "Name's Flame. That's Vida," he said, gesturing towards the girl with blonde hair, "and that's Star," pointing towards the other girl. Star appeared to be a Sufleni, one of the animalistic tribes that lived outside of the city. They got along well with the other members of the jungle but Cyclone was unsure of why she was living in the city. Cyclone and Arrow introduced themselves. But detailed introductions would have to wait. The thirty or so remaining drones started to climb the carnage, up towards the party of heroes. Cyclone and Star readied their swords, Vida, pulled out a pistol, and Flame and Arrow grabbed their unique weapons. There was a moment of silence as the drones collected themselves.

Then there was a loud bang as an explosion rocked the ground. "Hey, that sounded like it was from the front gate!" Cyclone shouted in horror. The entire crew was shaken from the sound, and the drones took the opportunity to attack.

Cyclone shook off the daze of the explosion just in time to dodge the swing of one of the drones. He jumped back, slicing at its sword arm. The sword came clean through; the arm dropped down to the ground. Cyclone stabbed it through the chest and withdrew in time to impale another drone that had jumped at his back. Meanwhile Flame was torching several drones to his right, and Vida was covering Star on his left. "Where's Arrow?" Cyclone thought for a second. Suddenly a drone sliced at his shins. Cyclone jumped, and coming down put his sword through its neck. "There has to be a better way to kill these guys!" Cyclone shouted amidst the fray. Then Vida shouted, "The cannon! We can use the cannon!"

"Great idea!" Cyclone responded. He looked to his left towards Vida, and the world went still for a few precious seconds. For some reason he hadn't noticed it before.

She was beautiful.

Cyclone snapped out of it. "Towards the cannon!" he shouted towards Flame and Star. "Right there!" Flame shouted back. About fifteen of the remaining drones started to chase after them. It didn't matter, Cyclone would cross that bridge when he came to it. And speaking of bridges, he had to find a way to get across the moat and into the cannon. There was a bridge, but when the last three soldiers had gone into the cannon, they withdrew it- and hadn't gotten the chance to reopen the bridge again.

From the corner of his eye Cyclone saw three drones about to catch up to him. He whirled around and sliced one clean through its midsection. He tried to do the same to a second, but the sword got lodged in its chest. The last drone took the opportunity to attack. Cyclone dodged, jumping around the lunging drone and brought his foot down on the back of its neck. He heard the sound of cheap metal wires snapping from the neck. As Cyclone dislodged the sword from the last drone, he shouted, "Hey guys, over here!"

"I just figured it out. There's a telephone pole to send the communications to the cannon. We can use the wires to cross," Cyclone said to the others. "Only one or two of us should go. The rest need to fight off the remaining drones that are trying to open up the front gate. Then once we get into the cannon, we can use it to hit the drone mass that's attacking from outside," Vida strategized. "So who's going?" Flame asked. "I shouldn't go because my flamethrower would be kind of hard to get across."

"I'll go," Cyclone said. "I'm going with him," Vida piped up. As Cyclone and Vida started climbing the telephone pole, Flame gave Star a knowing look and then turned around to face the drones that were catching up.

The first drone lunged forward only to be blown back in a burst of flame. Star jumped in front of Flame and slashed down two more drones. As she fought she remembered the pain that she had dealt with from her tribe- then snarled and fought harder. Her tail whipped around the neck of a drone, pulling it into her sword. Suddenly a bullet hit her right leg. Star fell backwards, Flame took over. It looked like the remaining ten or so drones were using guns as their weapon of choice. "Damnit!" Flame shouted. "Vida was the only one with a gun!" The drones were about fifty feet off, so any attempts to get close would be futile. Flame glanced back, and looked at Star- clutching her leg in pain. Blood mingled with the fur on her legs, and Flame looked up to her face (which was her only part without any fur) and then became mad. A bullet whizzed by his head, and he jumped down for cover. The drones started to move in closer, feeling that victory would soon be theirs. Kill the rebels, open the gate, and storm the city. Unite the world.

A wooden arrow shot through one of the drone's heads from behind. Arrow! He hadn't left them after all. This was all a game. And for Arrow it was a game of strategy. He fired shot after shot and managed to bring down five before the remaining drones figured out what was going on.

Arrow was back on the wall that had been detonated earlier, about seventy feet away from the cluster of drones. One tried to shoot at him. The bullet whizzed by harmlessly several feet away from him. Arrow smiled, and leased another deadly shaft. The arrow smashed through its head and the drone fell to the ground. "Four left. I can take this."

One runs toward him. He puts a stop to it with the twitch of his wrist. Two start shooting madly at him. He stops one forever. The final two drones start to run away, towards Flame and Star. Eighty feet away. One hundred. He leases another arrow.

Flame looked up in surprise as one of the drones lunged at him, only for it to suddenly be impaled by Arrow's trademark weapon. But there was another. The last drone ignored him and Star- it jumped right for the telephone pole, scrambling up madly.

Meanwhile, Cyclone had made it across the deadly moat, and Vida was almost done. She had actually saved Cyclone at the very start of their perilous journey across the wires. Cyclone had almost put both of his hands down on two different wires, when Vida stopped him. "The electrons flow along the path of least resistance. And it's much easier for the electrons to cross a short distance along your two arms rather than the whole wire," she had said. "I'd bet it wouldn't feel too good."

Now, when she was almost across, the drone jumped onto the wires, touching two at once. The drone's eye shocked out, changing from red to blue to green to blue again. The drone went still and silent, then fell into the moat.

Cyclone wasn't paying too much attention to the drone. His eyes were locked on Vida as she swung gracefully along the wire, until she finally dropped down beside him on the base of the cannon.

Vida had striking blue eyes, and long silky hair that fell down to her waist. She was wearing a fancy yellow scarf that blew in the wind behind her as she climbed down. She was wearing a single piece black jumpsuit that covered from her elbows down to her knees. Cyclone also noted her seductive figure, she had a smooth gait and posture as well when she walked into the cannon. Cyclone shook his head, lovestruck, and started in after her. Just as the door closed, the telephone wires snapped from the pressure of the two heroes, and the snapped wires fell into the water. Electricity flowed around the moat, igniting the water and killing all the fish and bacteria in it.

There was one thing that the electricity surge did not kill.

But of course it never was alive to begin with.

"Great! They made it across!" Flame told Star, who nodded.  "Just in time too! The wires have fallen. Anything in that moat is as good as dead!"

A large splash knocked Flame and Star onto their feet as the drone that had fallen in the water shot out with great, great, energy. Its standard red eyes had now become blue, and as it looked at Flame and Star, it pointed its cannon at them. "Get down!" Flame shouted and pulled Star out of the way. The drone shot out a beam of electricity so focused, that it might as well have been lightning, from its arm. It left a massive crater, and then, ignoring the fact that Flame and Star were still alive, jumped clear across the moat and entered the cannon. Star, lying behind the crater with Flame, pointed to his radio. "Good thinking, Star," Flame nodded, and then dialed Christine at the main gate.

"Yes, what is it now?" Christine turned the radio up to maximum volume as she continued to try to hold off the drone mass approaching. "It's Flame. Cyclone and Vida are in the cannon, they should be able to stop these guys any second now. However, there's a problem. The telephone wires have collapsed, you need to stop sending energy through that wire. The electricity super-charged a drone that had fallen into the moat, and now its crazy pumped up on energy. The thing shot frickin lightning at us!" the voice from the radio informed. "Duly noted. I'll send someone to stop the flow, and after Cyclone and Vida blow the crap outta these drones and the ship, we'll send soldiers to assist with the drone on a sugar high. Got it?" Christine responded, her personality shining through. On the other end, Flame smiled. "Got it."

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The cannon, still at full height, suddenly swiveled. Chaos, who had just gotten back to his ship to watch the city fall, turned around. Once again the cannon fired, and the drone mass, which had almost broken through the city's defenses, flew everywhere as the cannon's blast tore them to shreds. Wasting no time, the cannon swiveled again, facing the ship.

"Ceriazor! Blast the city again!" Chaos harshly spoke out to his son, who ran out of the room and got into the ship's controls. "It's still recharging from the last blast!" Ceraizor shouted back. "Damn!" Chaos swore.

The cannon fired. The blast passed harmlessly through the protective domes around the city, over the sandy fields, and impacted the ship on its left wing close at the base. Back in the cannon, Cyclone and Vida were rewarded by a huge explosion from that side of the ship, and cheered. The inside of the cannon looked quite a bit like the inside of an airplane cockpit, with a glass covering to see what else was going on. Cyclone and Vida nodded at each other, and then Cyclone turned back to the controls. "How about we hit that thing again, and stop it once and for all?!" Cyclone asked. He leaned forward until his eyes were focused on the aiming system.

He heard her words from behind. "That sounds-" she suddenly was cut off. Whirling around Cyclone saw a drone had grabbed her by the throat- luckily her scarf had prevented the thing's claws from cutting open her neck- and then the drone threw her out of the cannon, shattering glass. "No!" Cyclone shouted. He kicked the drone just as it fired some sort of electricity beam at him, and then jumped out of the cannon after Vida.

It was quite a fall, but as Cyclone caught up to Vida in midair, and mentioned towards the moat, she smiled, and as they looked into each other's eyes, the wind blew them closer into a warm embrace.

Their lips met as their bodies entered the water of the moat, which had the wires shut down seconds before entering. Three seconds earlier, and they would have found the waters of the moat quite shocking.

A few seconds later, Cyclone and Vida broke the surface of the water, smiling. "Here, need a hand?" a voice called, and then an arrow with rope tied to the end of it thudded into the water beside them. Arrow, from the top of the moat, looked down and smiled. "There you go. You may begin your climb out of the water, my lovebirds," he mocked. Cyclone and Vida laughed and started to climb out.

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"The ship is down. We can take this opportunity to charge the ship and take Chaos prisoner. Now who's ready to liberate the world?!" Christine rallied the troops as they began to march towards the ship. The sand surrounding the city blew wildly as the almost eighty soldiers finished off the weakened remaining drones in their march towards the ship.

"Well, it appears that we're going to have to kill them ourselves," Ceraizor told his dad. "All our drones are totaled. The ship is down. We're out of options."

"NO! This can't be how it ends! I can't be beaten by one measly city! By eighty people! I have millions of people who follow me!" Chaos ranted. The blast from the cannon had totally destroyed the left wing, and had left both him and his son slightly wounded. Chaos staggered to the ship's radio by the controls, and gasped into it. "Any drones left, report to the ship immediately!"
Ceraizor looked at his broken father sadly. "There are no drones left. The ones in the city were stopped, otherwise the cannon wouldn't have fired. All the drones that marched were destroyed by the cannon's second blast. I fear it's over." "It's over when I say it's over, damnit!" Chaos shouted. He limped towards the entrance to the ship, grabbing a machine gun as he did so.

16 year old Ceraizor looked on sadly as his father went out to face eighty bloodthirsty troops.

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Cyclone gave Vida his hand, she grabbed it and pulled herself out of the water. "Whew! That was pretty cold!" she muttered. Cyclone looked at her, and asked "Are you okay? That last drone had you by the neck, and it shot lightning or something at me!" "I'm fine," Vida told him, "My scarf probably saved me, and I didn't get shocked. I am pretty cold though. Maybe you'll have to warm me up." She moved in closer to Cyclone. Arrow looked at them and laughed. "I'll give you two some time alone. The name's Arrow. And you're Vida, I think?" "Yes, I am, nice to meet you Arrow," Vida responded. Arrow nodded. "Nice to- LOOK OUT!"

Arrow jumped and pushed Cyclone and Vida out of the way as a bolt of electricity slammed into the ground where they had been standing. He motioned to the top of the cannon, where the blue-eyed drone stared down at them. With great speed the drone jumped off the top of the cannon, landed a few hundred feet away from them, and ran to the direction of the ship. "At least it's retreating," Arrow sighed in relief. "That was a close one." He looked back, to find Vida and Cyclone much more interested in the way that they had fallen onto each other. They blushed and got up. Arrow looked at the lovesick couple. "You two should really get together," Arrow suggested.

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Chaos stood alone against eighty soldiers, from about two hundred feet away. He heard Christine shouting at him. "It's over Chaos! You're coming with us!"

"Never!" he shouted, then raised the machine gun and started to fire crazily at the crowd. He downed two, three, five, ten soldiers… then felt a bullet tear through his shoulder. As he fell down he saw Christine put down her smoking pistol and start walking toward him. As she was about ten feet off, she raised the gun again. "As I said, game over, Chaos. Don't start crying or else I'll be forced to kill you." Chaos tried to reach for the gun, but Christine knocked it out of his reach. "You asshole, there's no extra lives in this game, and you just lost."

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGHHHH!!!!"

Christine whirled around to see a soldier behind her disintegrate into nothing but a mere skeleton, then collapse. She turned back towards Chaos, only to find a blue-eyed drone standing in-between them. "What the hell…?" she murmered before the drone kicked her viciously, and Christine flew through the air backwards twenty or thirty feet. She landed with a harsh cracking sound, then coughed up blood. "Damnit…" she stammered as she struggled to her feet. She saw the drone start shooting bolts of electricity at the remaining soldiers, whenever one got hit a charred skeleton took his place, as the soldier faded into dust. "Retreat! Retreat for Christ's sake!" she shouted out to her troops, and was helped back to the city by two considerate soldiers. Just as her damaged body was ushered back into the safe confines of the city, she turned around to see the drone helping Chaos back into the ship, smug and triumphant. "I have a continue!" he shouted, making Christine shake with rage. The two broken leaders turned away from one another and immediately began planning on what to do next.

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