Many weeks passed, nary a mention of the Nation of Peace had been uttered in public, upon fear of being subjugated to prison. Many people of IGNOLand were beginning to fear the worst was over. But others knew the truth.
And one night, their beliefs would ring true, as a mysterious message would be posted to all who spoke of this Nation of Peace, to meet in the middle of town under cover of darkness, the time was at hand.
Bradios, having finally set his plan into motion with Tim, had spread the message of his Nation to the people that spoke about it on forums, scouring out day in and day out with help from the Arkios system and his hivemind droids. The newly formed battlestation, which now held the mainframe of the Arkios system within it, sent a massive overload of messages to those that spoke of it.
“It's time Tim.” Bradios said, his eyes glued to the screen which hosted aerial views of IGNO City, showing many people as they began to flock into the centre square of town. “The droids will accompany you down into the city, once there they will disperse until the time comes, stay hidden until our message is given.”
Tim nodded, covering himself within an old shepherds cloak which he had kept from his days at the farm, it still fit him after all of this time with it's nostalgic warmth, but this time he wore it for a different purpose. “I am their shepherd. Leading them to safety.”
Brad turned, looking at his partner with a smile before he departed alongside the droid fleet. “Lead them into the Nations warmth.”
Unbeknownst to them, Bones had tapped into the IGNOLand connections and knew full well about this meeting in town, instead of having his men take care of the situation alone, he followed along behind them.
He knew he had to make an example of this situation, to show them all once and for all that this “Nation of Peace” is nothing but a joke, a fantasy or much worse a cult. They all must learn the hard way and as their unquestioned leader, he needed to set that example for not just them, but for all of IGNOLand.
The clocks in the city were nearing the stroke of midnight, the group was beginning to form, all chattering amongst themselves, talking about what they thought it would be about, how they found out about the nation...
And then suddenly a marching squad of what looked to be Bones' men, led by the Konnuger himself, a fixed glaze ahead as his men shone lights upon all of the people that were called out by the message, looking upon them as he stood tall above them and said;
“I know why you are all out here tonight, you were called here to be delivered a message by some...”Nation of Peace”, well I am here tonight to dispel those rumors and give you a real message! There is NO Nation of Peace! There is NO such fictional paradise! And the people who started this are tricking you all into believing such notions!”
He said, his men beginning to surround them, cuffs in hand as they looked to detain them.
“What you have all done tonight is an act of treason against IGNOLand and it's people and especially myself as your Konnuger. Maybe a few months in prison will help set you all straight.” he said coldly, looking at his men to cuff them all up...
When suddenly, as if by knowing, all the power in IGNO City was cut, lights and all. Bones was left bewildered, asking his men what was going on, unable to see any of them until suddenly...
A flash of blue light appeared and in the centre of IGNO City, a figure could be seen, of a familiar looking cyborg youth, the one that Bones had been told of. His mind clicked for a second before the light began to move and some kind of visual began to work
The vision in the middle was powered by Bradios, who hooked into IGNOLand's power supply to make this portable vision work thanks to Tim, the projection coming from a strategically placed projector during the blackout, the message began playing, directly from Brad in the system as he feeds though the visuals, his mind fully in synch with the Arkios system enough that he is able to manipulate such things to the point where he can easily work the visual for just this short burst.
His eyes glowing a pale blue in his sockets, his voice sounding out with a mix of his own and of Arkios' own voice, the message began to play.
(Writers Note: For maximum effect, listen to this while reading this next bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCaIMzyjIwI)
“We are the Neutral Nation, a Nation without borders or geographic boundaries. We are all bound together by our belief of a world without war. We are all sovereign people, looking for a paradise free of conflict. Free of pain, suffering, death and cruelty. We mean no harm. But we only wish for peace. We welcome all who wish for this peace into our arms.”
Bones was in shock, his men where dumbfounded and the people who gathered for it were even more surprised, the Nation of Peace really did exist! The followers were overjoyed, the soldiers could not believe what they were seeing, while Bones seethed the entire time afterwards, the Nation of Peace were the ones that took his technological advancements from the Metal Temple away from him!
“What are you all waiting for?! Cuff them all up! A spooky floating head isn't going to stop you!!” he barked at his men, instructing them to continue their job from before and round up the followers before being interrupted again.
“5....4.....3.....”
A countdown had started, for what they had no idea, but Brad's juice at the Bank's station was running dry fast so he needed to double time it to make sure it could work. He had to immediately set the plan into “Auto” so he could recover...
“2.....1....”
Blackout again, this time it was only for a few seconds, but once the power came back on the followers were divided between the mercenaries by a set of droids, armed with small, metallic rifles matching their shiny metallic bodies, the followers were scared, but knowing they had protection between the mercenaries eased their thoughts.
At the banks, Brad collapsed from the strain of using the “100% Sync” ability to it's limit, auto-powering down his system so that he could recover, droids at the battlestations taking him to the charge port in order to recover in time. He knew they could only last for so long...
Bones pushed on with his orders, yelling at his men once more; “Get them you idiots!!” But as they moved towards them again, the droids fired, but they didn't fire bullets or plasma rounds like you would expect, instead they fired off waves that threw the mercenaries back and disarmed them in the process, the droids were programmed to “Never kill unless it is vital to survival, otherwise, disablement is the plan.”
Bones and his men were dumbfounded again, they had never seen such tech before, angered once again by the lost prospect of technological advancement, he ordered his men back into the fray to take out the droids. Said droids creating a barrier around the followers using their rifles to keep them back, all the while the cloaked Tim entered and emerged from the crowd, like a Shepard to herd the sheep, he began speaking.
“Fear not those who have come this night! You will not be harmed by the tyranny of Bones and his men! You will be protected by the metal soldiers and armaments of the Neutral Nation!” He proclaimed, shouting out the “gospel” of the Nation's beliefs to them as they were protected from harm. The soldiers nary making a dent or scrape into the droids casing. Bone's continuing to become irritated by this.
“For all those who have expressed interest in what you all call the “Nation of Peace” tonight you get to make the choice to join it! Those who have come tonight, are you all not looking for a better way of living, not out of fear, but in the security of knowing that you are not under rule by a king that smites any that stand against him?!” Tim continued to exclaim, Bones continuing to listen and be riled up by the comments made by the former scientist turned messenger.
“Will you not join this land of peace? Will you not join this Nation? Will you not free yourselves from this tyranny?!” He continued to exclaim, asking for their approval before they were “sent away” to the nations land.
As he continued to shout out to them, many others began hearing in as the loud ruckus had been creating quite a commotion for citizens of the city, instead of falling back into their rooms like they normally would, they all felt...strangely enticed by this.
As soon as he finished speaking the men and women that arrived that night exclaimed cheers and cries of approval, their salvation from this land had arrived and they would be willing to take it. Tim smiled as he rose his hands, the droids then turned around, directing their weapons at them, the followers then felt confused, what were they about to accomplish from where they were pointing?
Tim then directed at them to fire at the followers, the waves coming together to surround them all and transported them all up into the banks, all except Tim who stayed behind, continuing to spout the Nation's ideologies, while many others continued to look on with surprise.
“I see many other in this city who are looking in, if you are wanting to be free from this monarch and his evil ways, come forth and I shall have you saved!” Tim began once more, knowing the protection from the droids would keep him safe, he continued to look around.
Many of the townsfolk only looked on, many were afraid of making themselves known, under fear of being harassed and tortured by Bones and his men if they did so, which would most viably happen considering the situation. But one man came forth, running from his house and to the bubble, on his knees as if he was offering himself.
“Please! Take me!” he pleaded, his face looking like he barely knew what sleep was, his body weak and his hair scraggled, tears welling within his face as he looked ready to beg for his life.
Tim kneeled down, directing two droids to fire at him. “The Neutral Nation accepts your life as one of our own, you need not fret anymore.” he smiled kindly as the man was sent away.
Bones, seeing his opportunity within the break in the barrier, to order two of his men in silence to capture Tim, seizing him by his defenceless body and dragging him out from the barrier. The mechanical soldiers began to turn themselves to the men dragging him away, Bones looking on as they started to charge.
“If you Mechanical Menaces even THINK about firing at my men, I will have your “Shepard” killed!” he said, a bone weapon placed directly above Tim's head as a threat.
“I know you're here somewhere leader. Otherwise why would you send out your little guardian to be KILLED like this?” Bones said, trying to call out the supposed leader of the Neutral Nation, grabbing Tim by his shawl and showing him off to the entirety of the city.
“You see this man? This scrawny little man is a false prophet! A man who comes to deceive all of you into a fictional paradise!” Bones proclaims, trying to dissuade anybody who wanted to come out and join the others who had gone to the Banks.
“See, the place that they are promising does not even exist! It's death, the afterlife! The only “Nation of Peace” they give you...is a peaceful eternal sleep!” Bones continued, tightening his grip onto Tim's shawl.
Brad, who had been resting up all the while this was happening, had finally started to regain conciousness, unfortunately it was at the worse possible moment that he could have awoken at, as he saw the visual of Bones holding Tim by his shawl, the droids standing down and all the while whilst Bones spouted on about the Nation being nothing but lies.
Brad looked on, barely holding on conciousness as he continued to charge up.. his meter barely reaching top the 10% mark before he finally fully understood what was happening, the situation had gone completely grim.
“No....Tim...” he groggily muttered as he looked on, trying hard to get up, but his body continued to deny him that as his legs and feet all gave out on him.
11%......12%.....
He begged that the charging would just go as fast as possible before it was too late..
13%.....14%.......
“Where are you, you coward?!” Bones exclaimed again. His cries to try and get his enemy out becoming somewhat desperate. Clutching at Tim tightly.
“Oh... I see.. I haven't done enough to call you out yet!” Bones says, directing his men to surround him as he shoves Tim to the floor. Each soldier pointing their weapons to Tim, citizens at this point screaming out at him to stop.
“If you so wish to stop me, be my guest. But I shall have you all know I do not keep filthy traitors around in my keep!” he proclaims, taunting at the world now.
“If you want to save your friend, I will give you five minutes to show yourself, otherwise your little “Shepard” will be joining the other of your followers.” he taunted once more, knowing he'd call out Brad.
….29%....30%
Brad slowly got up as he saw this, he knew he wasn't fully prepared for the assault, but he had to do SOMETHING, anything to stop what was happening from continuing.
Turning on the droids of the banks into an auto-pilot mode, he covered himself within a shawl of his own and left the main base of floating island, beginning to descend, he knew exactly where they were at and he had to finish off this conflict happening before it was too late.
Bones continued to taunt, counting down more slowly to keep the suspense. “20 seconds Leader!”, he exclaimed, when a sudden crashing to the ground heralded the arrival of the person he was wanting.
“Heh, it took you long enough, I was beginning to think I actually had to kill this scrawny scientist.” He said, showing Tim to the hidden cyborgs face.
“Let go of my advisor, Olaf. This is between you and me.” Brad responded, knowing he didn't have much time and he needed to make the most of it count. His levels already starting to diminish.
Bones however was shocked, releasing Tim from his grasp as he heard his birth name being called by someone he had never met before, walking over to Brad to look at him for himself.
“Just who...or rather what the hell are you?!”
Brad smirked, uncovering his arm canon to reveal he had been charging a shot long enough to fire at Bones, letting it loose once he got close enough and sending him flying back. Only when Bones had crashed to the ground a few feet away did he uncover himself.
“Someone you may remember from a previous conflict.”
Bones looked on. The metal arm, the plasma cannon, the scouter, the blue hair, all of it reminded him of a description of...
“The Overman!” Bones looked on with horror and hatred in his eyes. He had been duped all along! The Outback Empire probably knew about this in his mind after all! And if not then they were just as incompetent as he had believed.
“Get him! Take him whether he's alive or dead!” The guards Bones brought with him charged right at Brad, not even breaking a sweat, Brad charged right back at them to incapacitate the soldiers, sending them to the ground.
Bones looked at what just happened, ordering his men to get back up and defend him. Sending more of the troops he had with him to the overman in a crazed hurry, the guards trying their best to outnumber Brad, he only looked at them and tsk'd in annoyance, hoping to have this over sooner at get Tim back to safety.
He wasted no time this time around, pulling the plasma gun out again he fired a stun shot at each of the guards, sending them each down to the ground with the others, then turning his attention to Bones.
“I told you Bones, this is between YOU and ME!” Brad said, more harsh with his delivery this time as he stared dead into Bone's eyes. “I'm not going to ask you again, either give Tim back. Or I'll TAKE him back by force!”
Bones just laughed, composing himself as he stood back up. “You really have no idea, do you? You're in MY city, MY territory, MY RULE. And you think you can come in here, intercept my technology and declare orders like that just because you took down my men?!”
Bones moved forward, throwing off his cape, his appearance slowly began to change. Skin slowly started to ripple as bone begins to slowly rise up from his skin, as well as his eyes began to glow a hellish red.
“You know my name, correct? Olaf E. Bones! My lineage is of royalty, but it is also of a great burden, for people like you. You see, my bloodline has a certain, quality to it for situations like this! For naïve, foolish, enemies of the state such as your neutral kind!” Bones continued on, his skin tearing apart as pale white bone began to show itself on every crevice of his body, and encase it within the pale confides of his newly made “armour” eyes fully engulfed by the red hell.
His weapon, the axe that he had brought to the scene, splitting it clean in half with each pair in each of his hands,
“I am the ruler of IGNOLand, The King of Kodenschast. And I shall give you no quarter for what you've done to my kingdom tonight, Overman!” Bones declared, his voice becoming more engulfed by the hellish form he had become, putting aside his royal attire he charged right for Brad.
Brad charged for Bones in return, both of them colliding in the middle of IGNO City, a clash between the two could be seen throughout the cities main area, nobody knowing who to cheer for, deciding to keep silent throughout the ordeal as the two leaders of the opposing factions go right for each other.
Bone's skeleton frame goes right for Brad's metallic structure, both bodies clashing and fighting to off balance each other, Bones looking deep at Brad with his reddened eyes to intimidate him, Brad just staring right back, giving bones no lean way to try and out-do him, the pressure coming from Bones' newly done form overwhelming Brad.
Brad tried to power back against Bones, but despite his more bulky appearance the body of Bones was still as unbreakable as he made it believe it was. Bones being fully able to throw him to the ground and push him to the side. “Do you understand now what you've gotten yourself into?”
“Yeah... I do.” Brad retorted, looking back at a wounded Tim behind Bones, angrily looking back at Bones and exhausting a fair bit of power to try and blast him back, but it was no use, Bones just stood there, looking more angry now as he lunged at Brad, the cyborg quickly trying to get out of the way of any kind of attack.
Making an absolute mad dash with his opportunity, Brad dashed to Tim, glomping onto his body to keep him safe, the recoil hitting hard he tried to stabilise himself enough to get to the barrier of robots and transport back to the Banks. Bones saw this and without any kind of haste, slashed at Brad's arm, the synthetic skin being breached and his arm dealing damage which forced him to let Tim go, crashing to the ground hard.
Brad only looked as Tim hit the ground hard, trying to go over to him before Bones' axe cut him off between the two. “Not so fast, Overman. We still have business to settle.” Bones retorted, flinging his other axe to Brad as he made another dash away, this time noticing a small detail of how long it took for Bones to get him this time.
Brad, thinking it through a bit with the added gap, took another blast at Bones, aiming for his leg this time to see if he could even make a dent. The blast distracted bones for a single second, but not enough to make a dent or even slow him down. Bones just flinging one of his axes at Brad, barely scraping his skin again.
As the axe landed, Brad dived for it, grabbing it in his hand to use back at Bones, his twin axes clashing from both men, Brad tried to once again power back but only barely giving himself room to power back, sweeping down and striking at Bones' legs again, not even leaving a scratch on his bone armour, the reverb causing more pain to Brad more than Bones.
Bones just grinned, kicking Brad away again and collecting his other axe, once again slowly making his way to Brad to try and get him down again, Brad noticing this once more and then realising...
“Wait...could it be that...?” And he put the two together, his form and the slower movement of this and made the connection. Grinning, he got back up again and went straight for Bones, manuevering around him at the last second as Bones swung his axes.
Brad continued to tire out Bones with the dodging and weaving, his own power levels beginning to give out, he hoped he had enough to keep Bones draining out. The skeleton king continuing to barely attack the cyborg before finally landing a blow to his chest, the skin leaving a very clear X shaped scrape on his chest as Bones pinned him down.
His breathing was heavy and despite how tired he was, he was still able to pin down the cyborg. Looking like he was ready to deal what would be the final blow, he lifted up his axes before suddenly, his arms gave way, dropping the axes at each side as his body fell over to the back.
Brad slowly got back up, seeing Bones exhausted on the ground, the armour started to crack all over his body, grunts and painful sounds being heard all over from Bones as his armour began to crack all over and slowly dissolved from him, leaving nothing but a naked man, fully exhausted of his power.
Standing over him, he could only look at what they had both done to the city square and then look down at Bones. The king only looking up and saying; “What are you waiting for then? Kill me.” he said solemnly, knowing full well that he was resigned to his fate there and then.
The cyborg looked at the helplessly resigned, fully drained Bones, stared at his plasma gun for a long while, realising he could easily shoot him in the head and end it all now, no more wars, conflict or anything that plagued his mind for nearly a year. But as he went to draw it, he just said one word.
“No.”
Brad then walked away from the defenceless Bones, picking up his royal garmets and throwing them onto his naked body.
“What good would killing you do? Nobody would learn anything. If I kill you here and now after my talks of peace and whatnot, I'd be no better than what you've done to this city. Someone else would come for me and do the same and the cycle would continue for the rest of time.” Brad said, looking down and staring at the exhausted Bones with disdain, walking away again and going to Tim.
“I'm not going to kill you, but I want this to be a lesson for you, Olaf. I built my nation based on the principle of peace and freedom from this hell. If you wish to better yourself from this, be my guest. But if your foolish pride will not allow you to do so, then so be it.” Brad said, his voice growing colder as he stepped into the barrier once more, the droids shooting them up to the Banks once more.
Bones just laid there, his body unmoving, but his pride completely shattered by what had happened. He just stared up, a single shot of light passing into the darkened sky, his face snarled and just looked up, lying there in his defeated state, knowing full well he'd get him back again.
Back at the Banks, after what would be an exhausting night, Brad and Tim were finally safe. Brad, immediately noticing how badly done up Tim was after everything, concussion withstanding, took him to the infirmary of the base to make sure he was fine, panicking badly over the second-in-command and the person he spent nearly a year with, he needed to be sure that he was okay.
“Tim!! Tim! Fuck, Tim! Wake up!” he said, checking to make sure he was still okay after everything that had happened. The poor somewhat frail beast-shifter was still hanging on, but still Brad didn't know if he was alive until he saw him wake up.
“Tim...Come on buddy... I...I can't do this without you!” He said, mirroring the words and sentiments given to Tim nearly a year ago, clutching his body and looking on as he awaited Tim to wake up. “I need you!!”
Tim, as if he heard that himself, slowly woke up from the concussive strike he suffered, as soon as his eyes even opened up a peek, Brad immediately hugged him tight, thanking anybody that would listen that his advisor managed to survive such an encounter.
“I'm...glad that you're here, Tim...”
Two weeks later.
The news was reeling for weeks about the clash between the two in the dark of night. Any and all witness' to the subject were bribed to keep quiet about the ordeal by the council and Bones and everyone involved was told under strict orders and penalty of imprisonment that any speech of the King being out-bested by a neutral scum was forbidden.
Bones made his first public appearance since the encounter in the City Square, his body still reeling from the assault and his mind still bitter, he addressed the public and told them all a fabricated story about how he “drove the neutral army away” and “left them quaking with fear as they ran off''.
When asked about the members of IGNO City whom had been missing since that evening, Bones quickly said of how they were all kidnapped by the evil neutral leader and made to be brainwashed as more soldiers for another attack. The audience and citizens ate it up. And thus began the politcal dragging through the mud of the neutrals that would last for years to come....
Meanwhile, back up above on the Banks, Bradios and Tim, finally fully recovered from the encounter, both look over the vibrant, ever-expanding realm that was the Neutral Nation. Brad, still banged up and trying to repair his synthetic skin, smiled happily as he finally felt a sense of...normality within his daily life.
Tim, however, was very much not as calm as Brad was, he looked on with a solemn face, which was easily noticed by him, it drove quite the ire from him, mainly because he had been slowly showing more of it as the days went on since the confrontation. It gave him much anxiety, but it had to be asked;
“Is something the matter, Tim?” Brad queried his advisor, his tone sounding as innocent as ever, Tim hesitated for a second before he responded.
“I've been thinking about my place here, Brad. About why I am here, why I'm doing this.” Tim responded, looking at Brad with that same worried expression he's always had. “Ever since the beginning I've had my doubts, but seeing you take it upon yourself to slowly build up this haven for what we now call the “Neutral Nation”, has truly astounded me.”
Brad looked on as he said this, his face questioning about why Tim was talking about all of this so suddenly.
“But recently, ever since that night, the thoughts of my personal belief of being here have begun to falter. Even more so than before. That one operation was good, but how it got botched at the end left me worried Brad, about myself more than anything.” Tim continued, his face growing pained now.
“I mean, I was lucky with getting out of there with only a minor concussion given what happened. But next time I might not be so lucky.. Which is why I've made a decision.” Tim stopped, taking off his lab coat and the badge Brad had hand-made for him to signify his status as his second-in-command of the Banks.
“I hereby resign as a staff member here.” Brad was crushed by those words. He had known Tim and trusted him longer than most people he had ever met in his life, he was the first person whom he could call a “true friend”, a partner...and even more than that. And in some cases, the same could be said for Tim, but with his words sinking in and starting to make sense, the cyborg slowly understood why he was doing this.
“Do you need to leave?” The cyborg responded, obviously not wanting his most trusted friend to leave him. “I mean, you don't need to be apart of the staffing anymore if that is what you want, you can still live here!”
“Brad, it's not the responsibility of being here, it's being here in general. To be honest, it's too hectic for my tastes.” Tim replied, solemnly looking at him as he spoke the honest truth of how he felt. “But I didn't want to leave until I knew for sure that you could handle this place by yourself. And now, I know you can and then some.”
“But, I don't know a lot of things still.. What if I can't handle certain things? What if things get too hectic here again?! I don't know if I'd be able to do it, Tim...” Brad responded, obviously letting out a lot of how he felt despite his demeanour as leader of the Nation.
Tim just moved up close to Brad and took his worrying hands in his own, looking up at the man that he had seen him grown up into.
“Brad, you've done so much since I first saw you. I know that you can do it because you've gone from that scrawny little recruit that I saw nearly a year ago and you've become this confident leader of an entire nation of refugees. If anybody can do it, I know it's you.”
Tim looked into Brad's eyes deeply and told him all of that, basically showing him a certain sign of trust that he knew Brad could do it. “But if you ever need my help on stuff like that, I will always be of contact to you.”
Tim then leaned in close, his lips meeting Brad's, to the cyborgs surprise. Tim keeping himself close to him as he left his “parting gift” on Brad, Brad reciprocating a little bit before Tim finally let go. Looking once again into the cyborgs eyes as he left one final word for him.
“Now go, be the man I've seen you grow into, your nation is waiting.”
And with that, Tim took his badge as a reminder, left the coat with Brad and exited the Banks' Base for the last time as a member of it's staff. Brad immediately turned around, trying hard to keep his feelings in tact as he ordered some of his droids to accompany Tim back down to the ground, advising them of a small remote farm area that Tim always looked at with glee, directing them to send him there.
Brad looked on in his seat as Tim was escorted off the Banks, his emotions going haywire as his systems tried to keep him from crying, only a single drop escaping before he wiped it away.
“This wouldn't be what he would want me to do..” He said, rising from his seat and going to the communications systems to make an important announcement to the people.
“Attention residents of the Neutral Nation, this is your leader, Bradios. I come bearing a message to all who live here. As of today, Tim has resigned as a part of the Neutral Nations staff, as of today only myself remains as the only humanoid staff member on board.” He said, delivering it to them straight.
“As such, I would like to make an additional announcement. As of today, the Nation will be asking for any volunteers to help out with any kind of tasks that the Banks asks of them, be it staffing or helping out on the front lines should we ever go to such lengths, I will not draft any of you into this, unless you personally want to help.” He said, not wanting to force anybody into doing something against their wills.
“Your continued support alongside living here helps keep the Nation grow. And for that I eternally thank you.” The highest of sincerity coming forth in his voice. Knowing full well he'd need all the positivity he could get from them all during this time.
“Today begins a new era here on what we now call “The Banks”, an era of uncertainty, an era of unknown prospects. But one thing will always be certain, no matter what happens down below, we will be safe until the day comes where we are made to defend ourselves. And until that day comes I promise to keep you all safe here, but for those that choose willingly to help defend your family, friends and comrades, I will forever remember you as heroes, even if the world will hate you for what you defend for.”
Stopping for a second, he composed himself as he continued to deliver a message of good-will to his would be troops-in-training and a promise of shelter to those who continued to live on this vast floating island. His uncharted haven of peace, his shelter for those like him. He stood with pride, holding Tim's coat in hand as he proclaimed to the denizens of the Banks.
“Today, we celebrate, our right to be free from terror and the horrors of war. We celebrate our right to say no to a generation of messed up children who have suffered the loss of parents, loved ones and many others too soon.. Today, we celebrate, our neutral freedom day.”
The denizens of the neutral nation all cheered for Bradios' speech, many of them feeling confident in their leaders position and a few went following this to talk to Brad about helping out, Bradios just slumped into his throne, looking on as a lone camera got a shot of Tim, looking directly at the camera mouthing the words “They believe in you, like I did.”
Brad just teared up again, feeling more confident than ever that he could provide himself and the many others on the floating island peace. It would be a long road for sure, but he was prepared for anything that would stand in his way from now on.
“Today, is a new day.”