“I'm sorry.”
The last words that entered the mind of a young, blue-haired half-human, half-machine hybrid as he flew off, leaving a slightly older man, wearing what looked to be a torn up lab-coat and something to hide some “questionable features” on the ground, his eyes looked on at him, the man called “Tim” the only person he could remember knowing somewhat and they told him everything he needed to know.
>Name: Tim
>Status: Alive
>Race: Beast Shifter
He took him away from what looked to be a hazardous area, his memory still shaky as to what caused the hazard in the first place, but it didn't matter to him, the man was safe from harm. He looked behind him to see a burning building in the distance, his scanners locked in on it.
>Subject: Outback Science Facility.
>Status: Destroyed
>Signs of Life: Negative
His scanner quickly told him what he needed to know, without any kind of knowledge as to what the heck was a “Outback Science Facility” or why he needed to care about about the signs of life, he quickly remarked to himself.
“What a shame..” the young cyborg said, his tone solemn over seeing a building like that up in flames. Although it did fit in well with the rest of what was going on outside the area. Firefights were happening around every corner of his eye, explosions and screams could be heard and seen for miles, his mind raced, what on earth kind of place had he been in?
Trying to get his barings, he landed down on the least torn-up area to calm himself, try and figure out what was going on and why everything was supposedly going to shit, but before he could even try and get any kind of information of sorts, he was greeted with a set of men yelling behind him.
“STOP!” One of them yelled, realising he could be the only one they were referring to, it was best to do as they said. “Turn around!” Following the man's orders the cyborg turned around, seeing what looked to be a squadron of 6 men in fully blackened up army gear, carrying what appeared to be the latest of high-tech special forces weapons, their squad leader was no different.
“Well men! It looks like we've got quite the gold mine here! We've found the Outback Army's secret weapon!” Secret...weapon? The cyborg questioned himself with that statement. What on earth could they mean by secret weapon or for that matter what the hell was the “Outback Army”
“Men! Secure the prize! We don't want old man bone's newest treasure to be hurt, do we?” As he said that, he signalled for half the platoon to make their way towards the cyborg. Scared and fearing for what may happen next, he lifted up his right arm and willed it to shape-shift back into the arm-canon he has used to escape previously.
“D-Don't shoot!!” He said, his semi-robotic voice shaking as he lifted it. “Don't shoot!! Or...or I'll shoot all of you!” The general and his men laughed at that notion, not even hesitating a moment to mock being scared at him.
“You really think we're that green kid? Do you not realize what we've been doing out here for the past few months or even years? We've taken greenhorns like you out like it was nothing, heck we've even destroyed more than our fair share of bases. And you wanna know how we did it? Without fear.” The general said, pointing for his men to stand down as he continued to verbally abuse the cyborg.
“Now back at you, Greenhorn. Look at your stance, you're shaking like a man who's taken one too many cups of coffee, your voice is getting squeaky and you're shouting and trying way too hard to be menacing, not to mention your little pea-shooter on your arm can't really do much if you're just gonna aim it all willy nilly like that! Son, do you really think we're gonna back down from you with all that?” The general finished, signalling for them to continue walking towards the cyborg.
“I-I mean it! I will shoot! Don't you tempt me!!” the youth said, backing up as much as he could to try and gain distance. “I'll shoot each and every one of you!!” He started to panic, his laser almost seeming like it was about to charge and fire, the general and his men just continued to move towards him easing along slowly.
BANG! A muzzle flash and gunshot came from the platoon, silence was heard afterwards as the youth slowly but surely crashed onto the ground, his eyes going blank and a smoking hole could clearly be seen on the forehead. The platoon general was understandably very upset.
“Goddammit Soldier! I told you not to harm him! We have to take him back to our leader ALIVE you hear me!!” The general said, berating a trigger happy soldier in his group.
“I-I know sir! B-But, I couldn't help it this time! My f-f-finger slipped on the gun and I couldn't get a grip onto it in time to stop it!” The nervous soldier told his general. Obviously anxious over the repercussions of what would happen.
The men who went to go and capture the youth moved forward to check up on him, to see if he was still of any worth to take in, they checked every source they could, even looking in at the hole in his head. And then, without a seconds notice, the machinery started to whirr up again, the circuitry and power began to flow into the youth's systems once more. But only, it wasn't the same nervous youth that they had faced off previously, it was something different.
The eyes powered up and instead of the regular green on the scanner, the colour was replaced with a more menacing red. The cyborgs screen then said.
>EMERGENCY PROTOCAL: “LIFESAVER” ACTIVATED
>WARMACHINE MODE IS NOW ACTIVE
And then, without any time to react, the arms of the cyborg lifted up to grab both the men by their necks, choking and squeezing them as he got himself up, the general still pre-occupied by berating his men did not notice this.
“Um...sir?” The nervous soldier said to his leader. “What?!” The general said angrily. But all the underling had to do was point behind him and the general turned around. And in shock, he immediately called out; “FIRE AT WILL MEN!!”
What happened next became a blur of bullets and fire-fight, the cyborg crushing the necks of the men he had in his hands like they were soda cans, throwing them to the ground as he rammed through the barracade of men that began shooting at him, pounding his metal fists into the bodies and faces of the men that were shooting at him, his thoughts being conducted by what was said on screen for him to do.
>HOSTILE SOLDIER
>KILL
>HOSTILE SOLDIER
>KILL
>HOSTILE SOLDIER
>KILL
Those orders repeated on his screen at an almost abnormal rate, looking at the men as prey for him to slaughter, like it was some kind of video game and his objective was to kill all of them and they'd just respawn.
Except, they never did re-appear, they remained there in the bloody mess that the youth had made, until every last soldier became super-imposed into that bloody mess of a pile. Until one lone man remained, the general that led the charge to get the cyborg soldier. And while he knew that he was the only one left standing, he knew better than to run away, so he tried his best to charge and get the youth off his balance.
But the youth didn't appreciate that. And as the general charged towards him with a yell, the youth simply choked him out, sending him to the ground. The General could be heard yelping and begging for his life, the choking making it hard for anything to be heard. But the emotionless cyborg didn't hear it and did the worst thing to him.
First, he pinpointed his fingers onto the neck, The General feeling it on his neck as he cried out “I'm Sorry” over and over to no avail, silence was then heard as the blue-haired soldier tore out his vocal chords, so nobody could hear him scream and then broke his back so he couldn't walk away. And as he tried to crawl away, the youth simply used the tiny “pea-shooter” that the general called his arm cannon, and used his to dead-eye shoot him in the head. The blue-haired cyborg looked on at the body, confirming his death before lunging off into the battlefield once more.
The cyborg, still stuck on “WarMachine” setting, simply rushed off, getting out of the bloody mess that he had made and tried to get away from this area. But all he could see around him was the same thing as before. Dead bodies, bullets and explosions flying everywhere, screams of men and women dying all over the place. It kept him in that war setting with everything setting off the alarms of his mainframe.
“There he is mates!” A voice shouted out in what appeared to be the distance. “That's the test subject that apparently escaped and destroyed our facility! The one those madcap brainiacs told us to look out for! Let's take the 'ol fella back!” The accent and the different kind of Militia-styled uniforms they all wore, it was shown that they were representing the Outback's army.
His programming however, didn't recognise them. Since the scientists had left the programming of determining who was okay to kill and who was not when it came to soldiers til after the youth had recovered from the experiment, it didn't show that they weren't hostiles, all the screen said was.
>MILITIA SQUAD DISCOVERED
>HOSTILE ENEMIES
>KILL
Complying with his programming, the youth proceeded to power up everything he could against them, lunging forward like a feral beast against them, pounding and beating away, firing sureshots against the ones shooting from far off distances, leaving no trace of any of The Outback's forces in the area with even a small significance of life.
It was at that moment, as the youth left the pile of destroyed and bloodied up soldiers, that he became an enemy of both sides, he had relentlessly slaughtered both Empire and Outback soldiers, all in the name of survival. Both sides knew he had to be destroyed.
But even then, the young youths rogue programming had him going after any soldier he could see, his programming told him they were all hostiles, anything wielding a gun or any weaponry that he saw needed to be destroyed. And he complied, every soldier he saw, everything with a gun or a weapon he could find, he lunged at, killing without remorse, almost to the point of monotony, after all, it's what he was made for.
His role as a killing machine on the battlefield was made apparent with all this. And the youths human mind was slowly waking up and realising what was happening. His programming was still in control, so he could only sit inside his shell like a ghost and experience it. Mentally, he was screaming for his body to stop it, but it did no good, he was locked out of his own system. And nothing he could do could shut the protocol down.
It was like something out of a horror movie, only the youth had to experience it first hand. Until suddenly, a strange, yet familiar voice, could be heard getting closer.
“Bradley! Stop it!”
It had been a long night for the half-human, half-feling hybrid. After witnessing the facility that he had spent the last 2 and a half years of his life working for, seeing countless experiments fail and succeed before his eyes, spending so-many sleepless nights wondering if it was ever doing any good...all to see it go up in flames by the facility's last experiment.
Looking over at the now smouldering ruins of the place, Tim looked at the ashes that once contained various experiments, many scientists whom lived there and the generals who took control of the place once the war truly kicked in. He looked around every stretch of it, trying to see if he could find something of use.
But there was something that stood out amongst the ashes, the rubble and the rest of the ruins, something seemingly untouched by everything else around it. A metal door on the ground, seemingly welded in.
On the side of it was a touchpad which was hooked into it, with a symbol indicating that it needed an ID Card in order to access. Tim frantically searched his pockets, hoping he was lucky enough to not throw that away, he searched every single one until, voilla! The Card appeared in his back-pocket. Not wanting to make a quip about it being in the last place to check, he quickly scanned his ID Card in and with a distorted sounding voice, the door said; “ACCESS GRANTED.”
The metal door then opened up, revealing a ladder down a dimly lit pipe. Getting more and more curious by the second, Tim began his descent down into the depths of the facility's secret vault. The sound of dripping could be heard as Tim made his way further down, a mysterious stench filled the air, quickly getting on his nerves as he continued, the lights getting dimmer and dimmer, obviously a result of the destroyed facility.
He finally felt the ground. It was the same kind of feeling that the door was made of, the whole place felt of it, it was as if the underground facility was built soley to last a blast and attack like what happened before. Tim trudged on, going through the underground portion with ease until he hit another door. This one didn't require an ID Card, but it did scan Tim's body for access. As it finished up on Tim's body, the door's slowly opened, and what was inside left nothing but a bad taste in the Beast Shifter's mouth.
The place was a mess to start off with, it looked as though the room had been the home of a maniac scientist, something out of a monster movie. The walls and floor were covered in blood, the tables filled with samples and rusty equipment, he even found some blueprints and notes regarding the Overman Project that he stashed in his pockets for safekeeping but that was all cosmetic. The true disgust came from what he found in the corner of room.
It was a rack and hanging on it were all of the experiments that came before Bradley, human soldiers with deformed appendeges, bloody splotches all over and sewn up cuts all over of different stages could be seen as it showed how closer and closer they got to creating and perfecting the Overman Project. Every single face, every subject, every body he saw before him, he knew them all, he saw them all doomed to their fates and never to be seen again, much like how he had pictured Bradley before he became their Overman
The vision of the kid in the waiting room, a scrawny lil wannabe soldier wanting to be made of use, looking up at Tim, smiling at Tim. It flew through his head as he looked at them all again, appalled at seeing their mangles messes of bodies hung up like that, he scrambled quickly outside of the sickening room and into the war-torn battlefield, looking on at the facility one last time before heading off into what he knew as the unknown.
The piles of bodies and pools of blood didn't look like anything he'd see in a regular warzone, the injuries didn't look like bullet holes nor did most of the bodies, whatever was left of them, seem to be killed by regular means. They looked, abnormal for a warzone such as this.
“It's him...he's already been through here.” Tim said, piecing together what may have happened when he was still asleep following the escape. He recalled something he skimmed over at he ruined facility's underground vault about his programming called the “WarMachine Mode”, he tried to remember what he could about the subject, pulling out the documents he recovered, looking over at the notes, the scientists made this part of the programming a central key feature in what would be apart of the Overman Project.
What he read was that the mode turned the subject into a near-unstoppable killing machine, focused on taking out any kind of enemy soldier that they can see, it was to be apart of it's programming that the generals could activate at any time, allowing for The Outback to be set on the path to dominance in this war.
“But...these aren't just Empire soldiers. I can see some of The Outbaaaaa-ck.” he said to himself, covering his mouth as he accidentally let out a sheep noise at the most inopportune time. But he knew what this meant..
“The programming must've gone awry.. Which means..' Tim stopped himself as he tried to figure out what may have happened, too scared to even come up with a conclusion to what Bradley could've done.
All Tim could do was follow the trail of blood and destruction, it didn't seem like there were many soldiers to try and take him down, any that were still barely alive were only on the verge of death, it was a depressing thought to try and swallow as he continued on, slinking into the darkness as the sounds of screaming men and bones cracking began to sound off, Tim looked on as the scene that played out in front of him left him with nothing but shock.
It was Bradley or rather, it looked like him. No matter what was happening next Tim had to remind himself that it only LOOKED like Bradley, but it wasn't him. He was pounding away furiously at a group of scared and paralyzed rookie soldiers, pounding away at them as if he was tenderizing meat at a supermarket meat freezer.
His body, once clean and freshly done up, was now covered in all kinds of blood, mixed in with his mechanical structure, it was hard to look at it, comparing what he saw that first time in the waiting room, the smiling face of an innocent kid soldier to the bloodied up, expressionless face that was pounding on those rookies. It tore up Tim a bit.
He couldn't stand it, the image of that innocent kid smiling flooded his head once more, he needed to find a way to bring it back, this wasn't his Bradley, he didn't want this monster that seemed to be posing in his body. With all those thoughts in his head, he couldn't stop his actions.
He lunged forward with as much velocity as he could and ran towards Bradley as fast as possible and then, in one moment, tackled into the hard body of Bradley screaming; “Stop it!!”
He looked at the face, the face of the kid that he saw what seemed like a long time ago now, gone was any kind features that could maintain his innocence, lost in a sea of blood and dirt on his face, his hands covered in red as well as his chest. His body looked like he was sent from hell itself. But even still, Tim looked into him and said.
“Bradley, it's me... Tim. I know that your programming is probably telling you that right now but I need to tell you who I am.” He said, trying to keep himself as focused into Bradley as he could. “Somewhere in that head of yours, there's a human memory. That memory should have something relating to me, to before you became this, before they experimented on you...” he continued, holding back whatever emotion he could to stay focused.
“In that memory, should be me...and you. Meeting and talking and just getting you ready to be tested and experimented on...” His voice shuddering, shaking a little bit as he continued on. “You telling me, how you wanted to be useful, how you went through all of your training with your unit...you telling me why you joined the Overman Project..”
Tim couldn't hold it back as he reached the next bit, his voice shuddering even more as he remembered that smile. “You said I was a good person...And I believed you...” he looked dead into the cyborgs eyes as he said that next part. “I believed I was a good person...and I came looking for you to tell you...” He said again, trying to make out the words without breaking.
“Thank you..”
The cyborg kept scanning Tim as he said all of that, all that came up on screen was from before.
>[Name: Tim]<
>[Side: Outback]<
>[NOT HOSTILE, DO NOT ATTACK]<
The cyborgs programming told him not to attack, but hearing all of what Tim was saying set off something within the now fully awoke human part of his mind. Something that was previously blocked out, something that he was able to faintly make out, but it seemed so familiar to what Tim was saying.
“We--, g--ss that's -t, h--? T-h-ks for list--ing to -- th--e pa-t few w--ks. You're a good guy.”
The last few words were the only thing that could stick out. The blurry image of a black haired scientist talking with him started to come into focus, revealing the familiar face of the man known as Tim.
“T-Tim...” Brad said, in an almost human voice. His system beginning to shut down again following that. “I-I'm..sorry...” The youth said before planting onto the ground in another powered down state.
Brad's limp, mechanical body laid flat onto the ground in which Tim stood next to, Tim completely dismayed as to what just happened, reaching down and trying to shake him or anything just to get him awake again.
“Bradley! Bradley for the rainbows sake! Not here!” Tim said, screaming out to try and wake up the cyborg youth. It didn't appear to be doing much however, the frightened Beast Shifter just kept on shaking his friend, knowing that at any moment there could be fire-fights from either side waiting to take them both out, even if it meant killing the Overman Project.
What felt like an eternity left Brad powering back up, however slowly, back into his original state, the lights of his systems began to glow and the scanner returning to it's usual Green. With a quick jerk up, accidentally hitting Tim on the way up, Brad was awake.
“T-Tim..” The cyborg said, looking over at the former scientist with a timid tone. “I remember who you are now...” He continued, looking with a face of confusion. “You were apart of the project that turned me into....this.” he looked at his arm, slowly moving his hand.
“I'm sorry Bradley... I should've told you when you woke up..but there wasn't enough time.” Tim said, trying to comfort Brad as he thought he felt somewhat betrayed over everything. “Remember? We had to get out of there...or something worse would've happened for sure..”
“Tim...” Bradley said, stopping Tim mid-sentence. “I'm not upset at you. My scanner says you were only a lab assistant, you didn't have any part in making me who I am right now other than to check in with me every week or so before the procedure happened, you couldn't do anything except play your role.” he said, looking over with that expressionless look as he said that, but saying it all with a sense of relief to Tim's head.
“The ones who I should be angry at are the ones I've spent the past...however long I've been rampaging, killing off and blowing up. Those damn Outback scientists are nothing but burning charcoal now, their soldiers primarily are already dead.” He tsk'd, looking over at the rookies he previously beat up. “And that damn Empire as well! Those two factions made me this because of their ongoing war that never seems to end!” he yelled out, his anger finally getting the best of him.
“And for what?! Just some territory?! Defending their land?! Expanding the world?! What the fuck kind of dark ages philosophy is that?! I mean, if the Outback did something wrong, I could understand! But the Empire just wants to wipe them all out just because they can!” Brad said, continuing his rant. Tim looking on as he see's the first hint of pure anger come from him, not forced.
“And the Outback isn't any different! They see many of us as expendable! They guilt us into giving up our lives just so that they can hold onto a piece of land?! Killing off so many innocents just so that they could create me?! I feel disgusted even thinking about that!!” he said, angrily kicking the ground in a fit.
“Well, I've had enough of playing their game! Being their pawns! Being manipulated! Being forced against my will to become a monster just for the sake of victory!!” As he said this, he grabs Tim's arm and pulls him towards himself. “You're coming with me, we're escaping this damn wasteland. This fucking hellhole!”
Tim looked at the kid he saw evolve over the past few days, seeing the determination and anger in his face, knowing that having seen all of this and knowing that he had to be forced into everything he had witnessed. But he also thought about his own way of returning to his life, now that the facility had been blown up he no longer needed to be an assistant. He could return to being a shepard.
“Tim.. I know, what I'm asking of you is a lot. But I wouldn't be asking for you to come and help me if I didn't need your help.. You're the only person whom I would really call a friend with everything that's happened... I need you..” Brad said, his voice calming down to try and convince Tim to join him.
“Bradley..” he said, stopping himself hesitantly. Looking away from Brad to think about what might happen next. Until finally.. “I'll come with you.”
Brad simply smiled, looking over at the scientist he had come to know as a friend. “Let's get the fuck out of here then.” Brad said, powering up his rockets and keeping Tim close as they began to fly off, a small crater of where they took off being left behind as they legged it out of the warzone.
But before they could make it far into IGNOLand territory, they were greeted by the view of a whole new barrage of Empire soldiers, waiting for them to arrive. Knowing they'd both be sitting ducks if they continued flying, Brad set down in the nearest possible cover he could, just for the moment. He had to think fast, there were so many of those soldiers and he couldn't take them all on by himself, Warmachine mode wasn't active so he couldn't go ballistic on them like before.
“Tim.. We gotta leg it. If we get caught, get behind any cover you can. I'll take 'em.” Tim simply nodded as they both slunk into the darkness, trying their best not to be seen. The soldiers kept on searching every kit n caboodle trying to find them. The radio's constantly getting word of “a blue-haired warmachine and a beast shifter ex-scientist who were last seen at the main battlefield.” They were wanted by the Empire and they knew nothing would stop their soldiers from trying to find them.
“Quick, we gotta get outta their sight as soon as possible.” Brad whispered, dragging Tim along at this point, trying their best to not make any sudden movements or sounds when they heard the voices of the Empire's men. Tim's heart was racing, Brad was going hectic. They both knew if something went wrong, it'd be game over.
And almost as if on cue, a soldiers cry as he called out; “Hey! I found something odd!” as he looked inside where Tim and Brad were currently hiding out. Brad panicked, he said for Tim to leg it, knowing what he'd have to do.
“But, what if I can't get out? What if you die?! What if-” Tim worried, knowing full well they'd both be fucked over if something went awry in this panic mode situation.
“We'll regroup okay? There's a hut a few miles away from here, recon there. If I don't make it outta here in about 45 minutes, go on without me. And that's an order.” Brad said, giving Tim the order to get out of there. “And Tim, if I don't make it. Thanks for everything.” he said, giving off a smile of encouragement as Tim ran off.
Now all alone, Brad had to fight off the gunmen all by himself. His blaster charged and ready to fire, he leaped out of the hiding spot, a shot being fired from the soldiers gun, barely scraping the side of Brad's head, lunging at said soldier and disarming him before and shooting him in the legs, instinctively grabbing the high-tech rifle he had on his person. “
All that boot camp training's coming to good use now.” He quipped, not giving himself much room to make snide remarks as he looked forward at the large-sized army that laid before him, the Empire's best men were sent to bring him back, but he didn't want to fight, all he wanted was to get out of here. So he did what he thought he could only do. Negotiate.
“Legions of the Empire! I am not here to fight! I only wish to move forward and escape this endless cycle that you all call war. I have only disarmed and crippled one of your soldiers as an act of defence, but if you do not let me pass I shall not hesitate to take you all out if it means I can pass.” He said, looking on at the mass soldiers who began to swarm, all of them shouting at him in retaliation.
“Consider this your first and only warning, either let me pass and you all leave with your lives. Or you all wind up like this poor soldier right here, maybe even worse than that.” His now cold and emotionless tone resonated with them, as if to tell them; “It's been hell for me today, I don't want anyone else killed.”
But the soldiers couldn't care less, their orders came straight from the Konungur himself to eliminate the Beast-Shifter and bring the cyborg back to the Empire, even if it meant the human part was fully dead. As such, they refused his offer of surrender and went back into the fray, charging at Brad and readying themselves.
“Suit yourselves. I tried to save you.” He said, the cold tone returning as he charged himself and the weapon he obtained ready to fight, wasting no time to spare as they charged to go balls-deep into the group, he may not have the animalistic instinct of WarMachine mode any more, but it didn't stop him from using his new-found strength to go in on the assault physically.
The rampaging cyborg from before may have been gone, but it allowed for Brad to think more strategically, as he rammed through the huge army, the charge on the rifle and his arm cannon allowed for him to strike enemies on the side who were trying to swarm onto him. The Army kept on coming though, they needed to bring him back no matter what. Swarming and overpowering him at every point
Brad kept pushing on though, he needed to get out of here no matter what. Then suddenly, as if a sign of help, a flashing symbol appeared on screen that read;
>[BLASTERS AT FULL CHARGE: SHOULDER CANNONS READY TO FIRE]<
Shoulder cannons? He then noticed the large metal spike shoulder guards on his sides, thinking over what could happen now. He got an idea that could get him outta here. Pushing through the ever swarming army men and zooming off into the air, he left enough distance to the ground, opened up the cannon's shielding and aimed them straight for the rest of the soldiers on the ground.
Gritting his teeth for what he knew he had to do, Brad fired on all the Empire's men, with a shot so wide it took out a fair majority of the men who were going after him, frying them in almost an instance into tiny grains of ash, the ones who got missed by the shot were lucky, but too shaken up to do anything more given the lack of numbers now.
Having exhausted his charged up power, Brad simply shouted out; “If you wish to continue attacking me I will not stop until you are all like that! I will be leaving, to those who wish to follow in the fates of those fools, I will not stop you. But you will have sealed your fates.” he said before flying off once more to meet up with Tim again at the hut he mentioned earlier.
The beast-shifter waited inside, shivering like nothing else after everything that happened. Seeing all those bodies, the people he sent off to die in that underground part, Brad being a monster and having to escape and slink away from those army men, it all seemed so surreal and too much for him. Brad entered, out-stretching a hand to the shaken up former scientist, Tim grabbed it, knowing it'd be safe now to try and get out of there, while they still could at least. Exiting the hut and flying off once more.
What appeared to be a long night for the both of them had seem to come to an end, the sun beginning to rise within the distance, as Brad flew into the main territory of IGNOLand, someplace where he had never been before. The chillier breeze of the place left Brad feeling the difference almost immediately as they flew in, Brad let Tim off at a small little town in the outlands, telling him he was gonna try and find somewhere they could hole up for a while, maybe even permanent, before flying off solo.
After flying around IGNOLand's main area for a while, Brad discovered something...interesting. It was a huge, metallic-silver temple, with strange designs covering it's outside, it looked as though it had been here for centuries. Chinking his fist against the temple, the ancient structure recognised a being of it's same element and opened up it's large structure. Brad backing away as the door slowly opened up, revealing something different than what he was expecting.
Inside the large structure, there seemed to be a large ancient temple with years old tech scattered throughout. Circuit-boards and wires covered up the insides of it in patchwork, every wire that was glowing with electricity was frayed, strange markings surrounded the inside, it was almost impossible to decypher, it seemed to have not been active for years. And in the middle of the temple, was a station with two O shaped ports.
Brad, moving forward to it, noticed how large enough it was that it could fit his arms into it. “Maybe...if I...” And without any asking he plunged his arms into the station. A large yell could be heard as his body began to become one with the temples mainframe, his arms acting as the connector between the two parties, his screaming went on for several minutes before finally, something started to work in his head, the body arching forward.
Inside Brad's head, he saw a bunch of jumbled up code, looking like an ancient language, much like the markings in the temple, it almost seemed like it was trying to communicate with him and slowly, but surely, he began to understand what they were saying..
“We've...been...wait.iing...for...someone...to..open up...the...temple...” It began translating into his head. “Our knowledge...of...mechanical expertise...has been...locked up..for eons......As a gift...for finding us...we...will transmit...this knowledge...to you...” And without a millisecond more, the shocks began again, transmitting whatever knowledge the ancient machines had within their mainframes into his databanks, the overload of knowledge causing a strain onto his body once more.
“....” Brad stopped shocking, but the strain of so much knowledge made it hard for him to recover following it. “...your name appears in this unit as 'Bradley', it is the identity that your human creators called you by...” Brad knew this, he remained silent, still trying to format all the new knowledge into his systems.
“...we as a unit are call Arkios. And as we have passed on our knowledge to you Bradley, so must you become a merger of us.” Arkios said to him. Now delving into his system, into the vast core of his unit. “From this day forth, the humanoid machine that you were no longer exists, you are now part of the ever growing Arkios system, you are our new unit and our first master to fully take in our data.” Arkios said, re-wrtiting Brad's name from inside the system now, deleting the name Bradley and...
“From this day forth, you are the amalgamation of the Unit Bradley and the Arkios System. You are, from this moment forth, the Arkios Master System Unit OO: Bradios.” Brad said, now fully aware of his system once more. Still plugged into the Arkios System's Mainframe, knowing everything they have in their banks.
“Now. Bradios, what is your will.” the Arkios system declared into Bradios' mind. And without hesitation, he declared; “Create a flying fortress of the land around us, set me away from this land of war and terror!!”
And without a second's pause, the Arkios system used it's ancient systems to create anti-gravity generators in the roots of the ground, the land around them beginning to crack open with a large rumble, enough that the nearing cities could notice what was happening, the will of Bradios and the Arkios Systems ancient tech, allowed for it to dig it up from the ground and bring it up slowly, the system beginning to make the land below them rise up into the sky.
He couldn't believe it, everything was flying off the ground, he had been able to make this large temple create these strange gravity defying machines to send it up all while he kept concentrating as he knew if he lost even one part of focus it could end up failing. He kept on concentrating and focusing as the land flew up high, until finally it stopped, reaching to a fair reach above IGNOLand.
“This is as far as I can go without it being dangerous to our health.” Bradios said, having exhausted a fair majority of his power by now into getting them up there.
“You seem drained master system, let me fix that.” And once again the shocks began, this time they fed right into Brad's power cells, recharging them while at the same time causing a major shock to the rest of him, until finally, his body felt charged up enough.
Unplugging himself finally from the mainframe, charged up enough to properly function, Bradios stepped outside to see what it looked like to be up this high. And after being blinded by the morning rays of light, the sunrise and dawning blue skies became more than enough of a beautiful sight, it gave Brad a slight smile after everything.
“Tim would love this..” And that's when he remembered he left Tim back down at the small village. Realizing he needed to get his new compadre up here as soon as possible, he flew back down to the mainland of IGNOLand to pick up his beast-shifter buddy.
“A floating island? What on earth are you going on about, Bradley?!” Tim said in disbelief, even though he was a scientist, he couldn't believe that he had found such advanced technology from something so ancient.
“My names not Bradley, it's Bradios.” Brad said to start off with. “And secondly, the reason why you can't fathom it is because I willed it into creation using the Arkios System's Metal Temple Station to create it.” he elaborated, grabbing Tim and flying him back up into the floating isle.
Tim was surprised by what he saw, the floating island sustaining itself in the air, the morning sky view, everything that no man or woman could see from down below, it was a wonderful sight that Tim never though he would see in his life. And it was all due to “Bradios'” newfound ability of tech creation. All that was left was one burning question.
“What do we do now?” said Tim, looking over at Bradios, Brad just staring off into the sunrise as he replied;
“We build a sanctuary, a home for outselves, but at the same time. We build some place where people like us, who detest this war-infested land, who hate the ideologies of both the Outback and the Empire can live in peace, without any kind of hatred or worries. We build ourselves. A Neutral Nation.”
Tim replied with a smile, knowing that the Cyborg and himself had been through hell the past few hours, recalling Brad's meltdown previously, he replied with a question.
“Will we fight against those forces?”
Brad instantly replied; “No. I'm done fighting, maiming, killing. All in the name of endless war.” He said, fighting back his rage from previously. “From now on, we only arm ourselves as a means of defence, never to assault directly or provoke those who seek war.”
He stood, looking into the sunrise and then looking down at the still warring Outback. “For while men, women and children still live in fear of meaningless wars, there will be no peace. And if we can't be a direct solution to the problem, we will be a means to finding a new one.”
With determination in his heart, a vision of peace in his mind and the memories of what he had done in his mind. He set himself at the sunrise for a little bit longer, he knew that he had a lot of work to do...