Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny's Call ❯ Entry the Twenty-Second ( Chapter 22 )

A/N: So people who still read this, I'm wondering, what's so hard about taking about 2 minutes or less to write up a review. You don't even have to do that survey thingie with the X out of ten, just right a couple words going “this is amazing” or “why am I reading this crap” or “not bad, could use some work, some refining” or something like that. Reviews, I want them, you can give them, so GIVE them. Thankyou, and here is the chapter you've probably already skipped ahead to.

 

Entry the Twenty-second

 

The dogs in question are typical of any compound or similar. Guard dogs. They can see, or smell, the enemy coming long before most humans could. And when they did smell something, they barked. They were barking, LIKE, MAD. So, yeah, win for the good guys, we is having warning?

 

“Sprite, grab a gun, sniper positions. Franky, on the wall with me, Jewels, stay with Rusty, and just stay safe for now, please?” I call as I run. Franky overtakes me as she has always done, not even panting.

 

“Well? Why are you trying to overexert yourself already?” A very subtle hint of bitterness is present, but I ignore it, thinking that so small as it is, I'm imagining it.

 

“I'm not, that's why we're just grabbing guns and manning the walls with the rest. Leave that idiot faker to take the fame or blame.”

 

We take up positions as the others rush quickly to the walls and entrance, shoring it up and preparing for attack. I notice, as does Franky, the ushering of non combatants into a central shelter behind the bar. Jewels appears to have gone in. I'm suddenly very glad we've all got comms now, to keep in touch. “Sprite, see anything?”

 

“No, but Mr. Faker is getting ready to take a pounding from Smith. Guess he didn't expect this place to be attacked while he was here. He's really whiny.”

 

“Heh, serves him right.”

 

“Wait… there.. oh holy shit. There's a lot of them. A lot A lot.” The crack of a rifle is heard, and in the distance, in the dark, something screams. And then suddenly they are at the walls, a wave of raptors, with lizardmen and guns moving in behind them. Fast light troops, nothing heavy. Band of roving destroyers, or band of swift pursuers? It might not matter soon.

 

Shots were fired at the raptors, trying to waste them before they reached the walls. It didn't work, but the defenders were prepared for that. I didn't think I'd ever see it used in real life. Boiling oil. Dear God, they poured boiling Oil! Needless to say, THAT was effective, driving the raptors backwards. Next up, rockets launched into the middle of the formation. Only a couple though. They were obviously being conservative while they could.

 

It wasn't going to be enough. I could see that, already, even as I fired again and reloaded. The Bolt action twenty I'd grabbed at random from their available stockpile, was not powerful enough. The heavier guns, well, there were not enough of the heavier guns, they could make no significant dent. At least regular guns worked, unlike in a certain mmorpg full of knights, witches, wizards, demons, and the 10-20 years from now equivalent of a Spartan 2. Suddenly, the raptors swarmed the walls again. And they were over them. Well, some were.

 

I saw the man next to me go down even as I turned and paralyzed the one atop him to shoot it through the brain. But it took too much effort, my stamina, my body, wasn't recovered. I saw another mount the wall, and I'd had enough. No more charades, no more trying to hide. I'm Corben Cypher, well by God, yes, hi God… I suddenly smiled at my own interruption. God. The Man with the ultimate plan, the one I hadn't even spoken to in months. Some catholic I was… but he was forgiving, as ever, I was suddenly sure.

“Hi God, it's me, Corben. I know I haven't spoken to you, but mind if we save the pleasentries, and everything else, for a little bit later? My friends and I, well, my family now, are fighting for our lives alongside this little, well, you would know what was going on. Care to help? Send a gift, something like that? Thanks.”

 

I'm Corben Cypher, and that could mean a lot. I was the reaper, a living legend, it was time to try and live up to it. My blade was drawn and slashing in the beat of a heart, and the man just a little farther now gasped in surprise as red light severed the head of the beast from the rest of it. “Franky, Go all out, we can't afford to hide. Sprite, shoot them dead.”

 

Two voices responded simultaneously. “You got it.” A sudden flash of the brightest of white lights flared to my right, and Franky soared into the sky before diving down on the poor beasts in her path. Her fight was uneventful, she laid waste to them with supreme ease, lots of fire, and lots of kicks. Sprites was more interesting.

It was almost as though the flyers had been waiting for this. They did not even attempt to go after Franky or myself, they went for the most vulnerable. They went for the sniper.

 

Sprite pulled out his collapsed rifle, specially made for long range, but not a true sniper. For starters, it couldn't hide the beam of light that shot out of it. You couldn't make those collapsible, even Tarius couldn't apparently. He set the scope as he grinned, glad he'd been able to ditch the hunting rifle. He sighted down the scope, grinned as he found the perfect target. The shot went perfectly through the center of a raptor that had only a second ago hopped over the wall top. Dead raptor.

 

That was exactly what the creatures were waiting for. They dive bombed the tree and shot little flares, fire, at it. Suddenly Sprite was in trouble. “Oh Shit!” he leapt out of the tree as it started to come crashing down. Not fire, some kind of… flaming acid? Well it seemed more accurate than just flare.

 

He landed on the ground and rolled, his rifle lying a little bit from the base of the tree. But he wasn't down for the count. Even as the creatures dived, he prepared for them, placing it all into a context that would make things so much simpler. “This is just a game of basketball, and I've got the ball. Well guess what? You aren't gonna get it.” He dodged and spun around and away as the flying pterodactyl-analogs came at him, spitting and trying to kill him. Others were harassing the walls. Franky had diverted her attention to them.

 

It was just a game of basketball, and he was not going to let them have the ball. He pulled out his other gun, his favorite. The shotgun. A collapsible beam shotgun, to be exact. Point and shoot. There's the basket, now make the shot. A flash of light, nd there is very much of the ptera that is no longer around as it crashes to the ground. Let them get close, all you have time for. Get close, no half courts. Nice easy slam dunks. Dodge to the left, spin to the right, still got the ball, Now! Shoot! Score! Two points! Here's another one, oh shit, have to make a three pointer, miss! Shit Shit Shit! This has got to be the most high stakes game of B-ball ever. No exceptions.

 

“I'm gonna win, you little flying monsters, and there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop me.” He growled, scoring a 1 point free throw. He was going to return to his family, With his family in hand. And go back to her. He'd promised that, he'd keep it. So these flying monsters were going to die, regardless of whether Corben or Franky did Anything in this battle, although he knew they were fighting too. He checked the sky. 3 floating, 1 diving, no others out there, cause the scopes would tell. He bent down and retrieved his Long Rifle, grinning. He'd maneuvered over to it, now to use it.

 

“Bye Bye not Birdies.” He sighted and shot in about 1 second, all the time he needed. The diver was no longer controlling his descent. 3 more shots, 3 more scalies falling to the ground. “And now for the walls.” He checked the walls, firing occasionally, but Franky and he assumed Corben, had turned the tide. He also knew either alone could have turned the tide. He had seen the aftermath of Franky's temper when Corben got hurt. Lots of charred corpses… and that wasn't even counting the damage the explosion had done.

 

Sprite turned then, and slinging his long rifle on his back, shotgun in hand, he set off towards where the noncombatants were. He quickly passed through the ranks of the , well, not exactly rearguard, reserves might be a better definition. “They've pushed them off the walls, I'll be right back.” He was going to return to his family, and that definition now encompassed 3 extra people. A new brother, though that wasn't nearly a stretch, and two new sisters. One of them was back this way, and he was checking her. It had nothing to do with me, for once, he was merely concerned for Jewels. He got there and poof, there she was. She smiled. “Hi.” She seemed to be nearly laughing.

 

“I feel like I should be crying, because I was so scared…, but I can't, because this is going to work out so well for both of you, that it's run all the fear away,” she told him. “go back already, I'm fine. There's someone you'll want to see.” He didn't give it another thought. He turned and headed back, running faster this time.

 

When Sprite got back, he started, for the wall were crowded, but not because of a threat. The men were all in apparent awe of something. He could tell that just from looking at their backs. He climbed up the wall, and stared in equal awe, that turned quickly to joy, as you watched Corben walking back, guns in hand, side by side with a cloaked figure, who carried a blood red blade. The hood of the man was thrown back, and there it was, the face of the man he had searched for. David, his big brother.

 

David saw him, and smiled. And laughed his big booming laugh. “Josh!” and suddenly two people were dashing for each other one running even as he landed. Franky walked over, barefoot as tended to be typical of her post combat, and leaned against the tree. “What happened? You look REALLY REALLY happy, and Sprite is probably triple that.”

 

“We found David.”

 

“oh… I should have guessed that, huh?” she glanced at me sidelong, arms folded across her chest and she continued to lean against the tree I was already leaning against.

 

“Probably. But that's ok, not like I was expecting this. As for what happened. Well I don't know about you, but for me, it went something like this.”

 

` “You.. You're the real deal, aren't you? Corben Cypher.” I looked down at the guy I'd just saved, the gratitude and awe etched on his face.

 

I looked back at the battle raging on the ground, and at the sky, and the fury of Heaven's messenger. “Make your own conclusions. If I survive this, I'll let you know if you're right.”

 

I leapt down to the ground blades split, both glowing a fiery red. Some tiny part of me wondered at that. Hadn't they been white when I started this journey? No time for that though, I had lizards to cut. Or saw, or burn, depending on how you like to look at it. Thankfully the end result was the same. Dead lizards, lots of dead lizards. I felt hot, heated, energized, ready to go, even as I felt a little pain from the landing. And they burned and died in pieces.

 

As I spun to slice apart another lizard though, the heat turned suddenly to fire, to an inferno of pain along 15 places on/in my body. And I collapsed. By rights, I was dead, I knew that, I was waiting, preparing to whisper one last apology for another promise broken, when, suddenly, I heard a voice. “You gonna lay there all day, or do you want to go back to whatever it is you're holding onto this world for?”

 

And it was not just any voices. It was a voice I knew, a voice I welcomed, a voice that changed the fire back to heat. I stood. “David.”

 

He nodded, once, and then fired his shotgun at another lizard aiming for my neck. “say, since apparently whatever you did to yourself doesn't want you to go fight like crazy yet, how about you let me do that? You've got guns. Use them.”

 

Like it was some kind of spell, but really it was just the absolute belief in trust in the last face I thought I'd see here, suddenly my blades passed into his hands. He grinned. “Cover me with the guns, and yourself with your, whatever those things are you make.” I didn't ask how he knew about my fields, anybody who payed proper attention would have noticed I did something. I pulled them out, and started shooting, and shooting, and shooting, while he cut and spun and cut and slice and hacked and stabbed and reduced our enemies to smoldering pieces.'

 

“Was he always that good? He sounds like he was, if you don't mind me saying, ten times better than you at least.”

I smiled at that. Some semblance of things, had, well, returned. “It's been a long time since you were worried about hurting my feelings.”

 

She paused at that, and then smiled her own warm smile. “yeah, yeah it has.” And that was it, I was forgiven, or maybe I'd forgiven myself somewhere, but, we were truly and really friends again. I'd missed that. I'd missed it a lot, because Franky had always been one of those people I could talk to, someone I could be me around, and for some reason, I'd been me around very few people…

 

Something, for once, was right in the world, something that was broken was fixed, a piece of the puzzle back in place, and everyone could finally smile.