Chapter 12: The King of the Reaper Squad
2406 Words
“What… what is that doing here?” Isrina pointed at the bird-shaped trash buddy.
“Whaddya mean?” Niode chuckled. “This is Lansen! I brought this adorable little bot as soon as the UICA sponsored your cute invention!”
“Konnichiwa!” Lansen waved his puny wings to Isrina. “Me, Lansen! Hajimemashite!”
“Get that thing out of here!” Isrina demanded.
“C’mon, why? He’s our trash buddy!” Niode made obnoxious laughter.
“Dr. Niang, can Lansen stay? Please?” Tetsuyin placed her hands together, giving Isrina a sad puppy face.
“No!”
“Please?”
Isrina felt a vein popping out of her forehead as Niode whistled to the runner’s cockpit. However, how could she say no to Tetsuyin, whose eyes sparkled with innocence?
“Fi… fine,” Isrina groaned with an eye twitching.
“Yay!” Tetsuyin clapped. “We love our trash buddy!”
Isrina groaned.
“Mrs. Niang! Mrs. Niang! You must be my creator! My creator!” Lansen waddled his way towards Isrina.
“It’s, doctor!”
“Thank you! Thank you for making me. Arigato. Arigato, Desert robin!”
“Desert card…argh! Shut up! Oh my gosh. Why did I even bother to make you? Wahhhh! Nobody respects me anymore!”
Niode drove the sleek runner across the town to look for the Murhavs.
“Alright, if I’m not mistaken,” Niode steered the wheel. “My good neighbor, Rahim should be, oh my god!”
The sleek runner made a sudden stop, sending Isrina, Tetsuyin, and Lansen flying.
“Niode-Kun!” Tetsuyin exclaimed. “What happened?”
“Get off me you stupid trash can!” Isrina kicked Lansen off her leg.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Lansen transformed back into his cylindrical trash can form.
“Niode! What’s wrong with you?”
“Um, what’s that?” Niode pointed.
The two ladies walked to the cockpit to spot a gigantic purple portal ominously opening in front of them.
“Oh no,” Isrina thought.
“Whatcha mean, oh no?” Niode questioned.
“Ow!” Isrina jumped, feeling someone bump her leg.
“Sorry! Gomen nasai!” Lansen rolled through the cockpit. “Need help? Need help?”
“Yeah, sure! Go away!” Isrina kicked the poor trash buddy off the cockpit.
“Owie! Itai! Itai!”
“I can hear something from that purple thing!” Niode pointed out. “It sounds like, metal?”
Isrina looked at the portal, hearing mechanized grinding. She knew what was coming out.
“Niode, turn this runner around, now!” Isrina shouted.
“But this is the fastest way to Rahim!” Niode mentioned. “I can-”
“Just do what I say!”
Something gray and enormous was coming out.
“Holy crap!” Niode swiveled the runner in a u-turn.
Niode frantically sped the vehicle away from the mechanical object. He then quickly parked behind a corner away from the portal’s path. The group gulped, witnessing a shark-shaped warship squirm out of the purple miasma. Its large tail swiped buildings in half as the fin cannons rotated. The mechanized behemoth shone white lights all around the streets filled with confused people.
“What the hell is that?” Niode panicked. “Oh my god! Call me crazy! What the freak?”
“Niode-Kun!” Tetsuyin held her husband close. “What’s going on?”
“Calm down, you two,” Isrina said. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Just wait. Wait!” Niode parked the runner, pointing his shaking finger at the droid frigate. “Did that… did that thing... just happen?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What was that? What was that?” Lansen walked behind the cockpit. “Look like a big shark.”
“That was a chimaeriforme battlecruiser.”
“Whoa, okay, time out!” Niode shouted. “You, you saw that gigantic thing during the Niang Chronicles.”
“Y… yeah. Not quite the best memories.”
“What do we do then?” Tetsuyin felt her legs shiver.
“Hmmm,” Isrina thought for a moment. “Any… any other ways to Rahim?”
“Well,” Niode hugged Tetsuyin close. “We could swing around to Rahim from the back.”
“Let’s do it.”
“Guess so,” Niode shrugged as he hopped back to the steering wheel.
“We got to be careful though,” Isrina noted. “See those lights?”
The group looked at the chimaera warship’s white lights turning red.
“It’s scanning for any enemies of the Federation,” Isrina continued. “We need to be far from the chimaeras if we ever hope to survive.”
“Wait, there are more?” Niode froze.
“Yes! It’s the invasion!”
“Nani? Nani? What happened? What happened?” Lansen stared at the group. “Can I help? Can I help?”
“It’s… it’s okay, Lansen,” Tetsuyin patted the trash buddy.
Niode turned the steering wheel around. The group saw more chimaeras emerging from purple portals as Niode wildly detoured across the town. The runner barely dodged a chimaera’s large fin.
“I didn’t sign up for this!” Niode shouted as he made an abrupt stop.
While everyone was sent flying with Niode’s stop, another chimaera frigate passed by in front of them. A group of attack helicopters fired a barrage of rockets and missiles at the massive behemoth. However, the warship flew out of the smoke unscathed, firing its missile salvo at the air force.
“Were those Boeing AH-64 Apaches?” Niode turned the runner around the chimaera’s tail.
“Uh-huh,” Isrina looked at the flaming choppers pummel down the ground.
“You’re kidding! Apaches are like the best attack choppers around! Seriously, that shark thing wiped an entire fleet of Apaches like water!”
Niode continued to make detours away from the monstrous machines. The chimaeras’ red scanners were turning people into red dust. They saw a woman holding a baby.
“Wait!” Niode recognized the lady. “That’s-”
The lady and the baby were spotted by the white lights. An electric alarm sounded. The lights became red, disintegrating both the woman and her child.
“That was Seffran,” Isrina closed her eyes. “One of our scientists.”
“People… people are dying!” Tetsuyin trembled at the violence. “This isn’t right! Why is the Federation doing this? Does Fanghui care if people die?”
“No,” Isrina shook her head. “He doesn’t. The Kneapexists believe everything in the world is expendable, even people.”
“That’s… that’s so bad…” Tetsuyin sniffed, feeling tears trickle down her face.
“Shuruuko-chan! No cry! No cry!” Lansen snuggled himself close to Tetsuyin. “Daijobudayo! Me here to make your day. Happy! Happy!”
Isrina looked at the trash buddy, an invention that people ridicule her for. Lansen struggled to hug Tetsuyin with his tiny wings. Isrina didn’t have the heart to kick Lansen again. Instead, she smiled at Lansen.
“Almost there, ladies!” Niode almost hit a car. “Whoops! I think we’re clear from those sharks. Rahim should be on this street.”
“You hear that?” Isrina rubbed Tetsuyin’s back. “ Your husband has this in the bag.”
“Y… yes,” Tetsuyin nodded a bit.
Lansen climbed onto Tetsuyin’s shoulder to wipe her tears.
“Look, Mrs. Shuruuko!” Isrina pointed at Shien and Mivangeline. “Our kids are safe and sound! We’re going to survive!”
“Woah!” Niode said. “Something black just passed by.”
“Where?” Isrina walked to the cockpit. “I don’t see anything.”
They saw a man land at a distance in front of them. The spiky-hairedKunn wore a gray metal mask, black suit, and a dark cape. He drew two large pistols, g*n spinning them with finesse as his mask’s seven red eyes gleamed with evil intent.
“Hell no! Not him!” Isrina jumped on Niode to swerve the vehicle away.
“Huh? What in blazes do you think you’re doing?” Niode felt Isrina squishing him on the glass.
The shadowy man’s pistols turned into a long cannon as he bent his knees. It was too late, a plasma bolt flared out of the cannon. The runner was hit, sent flying over the man’s head. The man spun his pistols back into his holsters.
“Ouch!” Niode felt his seat pushing him onto the floor.
Niode kicked the seat away to find the runner sideways.
“Tetsuyin?” Niode shouted through the smoke. “Dr. Niang?”
“Ugh!” Isrina felt Lansen shivering in his box form on top of her. “I’m good! Tetsuyin?”
The two could hear Tetsuyin mumble from the floor full of broken glass from the windows.
“Hey! Tetsuyin!” Niode ran to her.
He picked her up to see her face cut by glass pieces.
“Ugh,” Tetsuyin felt the glass pierce her skin. “N… Niode-Kun…”
“Crap. Hang in there!” Niode exclaimed. “Dr. Niang! There should be a first aid with bandages in the cockpit.”
Isrina nodded, brushing Lansen off. She grabbed the small case from the cockpit and gave it to Niode. She then unbuckled Shien and Mivangeline from the inverted orientation, sitting them down as Niode tended to his wife.
“It… it hurts a lot,” Tetsuyin muttered. “Niode… my head is dizzy.
“I know, but I got you!” Niode told her, rummaging through the medical equipment.
“Me help! Me help!” Lansen jumped from his square form, flapping his puny wings.
“Okay, hmmm,” Niode blankly stared at the equipment. “I assume I would have to remove the glass first.”
“Glove first! Glove first!” Lansen smacked Niode’s hands from the tweezers. “For safety! For safety!”
“R… Right?”
Isrina looked around cautiously for the man in black. He was nowhere to be seen.
“What?” Niode felt Lansen slap his hand from the tweezers again.
“Use this! Use this!” Lansen shook his wing at a small bottle of alcohol. “Apply tweezer with this. Disinfect. Disinfect.”
“Whoa, Lansen. How do you know this stuff?”
“I…” Isrina turned back to the others. “I installed emergency medical programming in the trash buddies to save lives when possible.”
“Sweet!” Niode smiled. “You glad Lansen’s here, huh?”
Isrina couldn’t help but chuckle.
All the time everyone joked about my invention, I never thought it would be able to help someone, Isrina observed Lansen. I guess my trash buddy isn’t as bad as I thought.
“Ya hear that, my lovely wife?” Niode shook Tetsuyin. “Lansen’s helping too!”
“Mmm,” Tetsuyin murmured, feeling lightness in her head.
“Rest! Rest!” Lansen flapped his wings.
As Niode listened to Lansen’s instructions, Isrina spotted something black swing by the windows. The group heard a loud stomp on the runner.
“Uh oh,” Isrina’s eyes enlarged with fear. “He’s here.”
“Wait, who?” Niode questioned.
“The King of the Reaper Squad.”
The g**g spotted a cigarette fall through the cracked windows. It rolled next to their kids.
“God, no!” Isrina jumped over Lansen and grabbed the ticking cigarette.
She threw the bomb out a cracked window. The cigar made a rumbling explosion outside the runner
“Holy crap!” Niode screamed. “What was that?”
“Stay here with Tetsuyin!” Isrina drew her red blade. “I will handle this.”
“What’s going on?” Niode saw Isrina slice through the runner. “Dr. Niang!”
Isrina rolled out to find the masked man laughing.
“Heh,” The man’s voice scrambler blared. “Not bad, Desert Cardinal!”
“Hernamidos!” Isrina pointed her blade at the tall man.
“Why the long face?” Hernamidos gunspinned his pistols. “You still have that cute Taiwanese face! Been a while since the last time we had a b****y dance!”
The two walked in a circle as the chimaeras ravaged through the town.
“What are you doing here?” Isrina demanded. “Have you and Fanghui caused enough destruction?”
“Nothing like setting a playground on fire!”
“You haven’t changed,” Isrina gnashed her teeth.
“Neither have you,” Hernamidos’ bottom half of his mask opened. “Always eager to fight, hm?”
The Reaper Squad leader snapped a self-lighting cigar onto his mouth.
“How’s your little chickadee? Heh, that’s adorable. Shame, I didn’t get the chance to put a bomb in his crib, as I did to all the future Niangs!”
“You monster. I swear you won’t get away with all you've done!”
“Aww, what are you gonna do, red birdie? Hide behind Forroway? Cower behind talky politicians that don’t do a damn thing, hmm?”
Hernamidos puffed through the pleasure of nicotine. Isrina glared at him as they continued to walk around their standoff.
“Perhaps if you Niangs joined our CKP during our revolution,” Hernamidos held his cigar. “Maybe Jinhai would still be alive.”
Isrina screamed, cartwheeling at the Reaper Squad leader.
“Heh, time to burn some kids!” Hernamidos’ mask closed as he activated his jet-powered shoes, colliding his aerial kick with Isrina’s underkick.
- Writer
