The Automated King

The Invasion

How am I suppose to divert their attention? Kino dunga is a buffoon, Arno Tinpolen is the knight, and Rami Fuschia is their mastermind. I’ll go all out to greet them on the front, then Fritz and Maria would have their entrance to the stage. We’ll need to neutralize them as soon as possible, since we have a limited energy to trade ourselves with.

“You two will show some force after they commenced their attack. I’m gonna use my ‘power of words’ to divert their interest.”

“M’kay, Regi. Be wary out there, baby.”

“I will.”

I don’t have realization of being a speech conductor, as expected of my background. Within my years of being a manager, I’ve only need to speak with 2 persons at the most. Holding conversations with three person would be a strong obstruction to kick-start a different life, despite of the amount of profits that would be going to my arsenal to bargain for.

“Hello...”

“That’s the fugitive!! Kino, punch him to pulp!!”

Oh, damn it, a downfall of my career as the motivator.... I have to activate the defense firsthand.

“Huohhh!!!”

Ouch, His punch sprays a bunch of bruise to my hand. It’s lucky that I can initiate my defense faster for this time.

“Haha, You are so weak, Traitor.”

“How about this punch, Mr. Gorilla?!”

Ah, the bad entrance of an old man, indeed.

---

By the time Fritz entering the brawl, Maria is throwing her flurry of stabs from afar with the knife to the remaining spectators of the open combat. Reginald, on the other way around, getting himself close-by to the range of Rami Fuschia’s vital points in his effort to neutralize the movement of their brain.

“Wow, I don’t have information over that elastic hand!! I hate to say it, but..”

“Wrap your tongue and soak this fist, Rami.”

Reginald landed a full engagement of his fist directly to Rami’s head, while Maria keeping his companion occupied with her continuous salvo of thrust.

“Rami!!! Argh, you’ll pay dear for this, Maria!!”

“Sorry, I have to knock you down, Mr. Assassin.”

Maria laid her elongated arms and clenching Arno’s body tight within the grasp.

“Argh.... I can’t.... breathe....”

Before Arno passed himself away by suffocation, Maria is knocking down his consciousness with her elongated punch. Elseways, Reginald is checking on Rami’s pulse to ensure that he is still live on and breathing, since the one-punch-pleasantries made him unsettled with his current enemy's well being. Conversely, the trade of blows between David and Goliath were ended in unfair exchange, as Kino’s fists and legs being smothered by the intense heat of the old man’s body in counter-act to the assault.

“Finish it with thunderbolt, Regi!”

“Aye-aye, sir.”

 Reginald placed his left arm to Kino’s back, given a smooth spark of static current to his entire body as immediate aftermath to the gradient of his pat.

“Okay, move on to phase two! Do your best to ram the door, Regi!!”

“Huh?”

“Use this.”

Frits waving the detached right hand of Kino Dunga to Reginald, while trying his best to shut the laugh.

“Urgh, disgusting. I’ll unlock the door with my elbow, then.”

“Beware of the spiders, Regi. You’ll be bitten again if you’re not do this one carefully.”

“Yeah, I am on my watch, daddy, Chill out.”

Reginald is barging the door with his will-powered kick, wrecking the hinge on the first attempt of his trial.

“Ready or not, here I come.”

“Where are you, Elly? I reckon you are waiting for me, huh...... Hey, it’s empty!!”

“This is their lobby, chieftain. They might be hanging out on the training section or anywhere close, but it would not be here to settle.”

After a few moments of their short-tour, no one were stood guard in the headquarters beside the trio on the front yard.

“What is this? Where are they? I am ready, Elly. Come on, go outside and play tag with me!!”

In adverse to Fritz’ uproar and taunt, Reginald and Maria were putting their caution to every nook and cranny across the room. A small, faint beat of a clock reverberated throughout the area, brought Reginald’s attention to the ceiling as the possible source of the hubbub. On his own perception, he can see that every space above their grounds were strapped with countless set of active time bombs.

“Notify this to the groups, ASAP!! They were probably on the wilderness right this point. As for us, we have to move quick!!”

“Why? We are just arrived in this....”

Reginald averted Fritz’s observation by lifting his head up to see  the danger by the ceiling upwards.

“Oh, my.... to the swimming pool, hurry up!!”

The lapse of beeping sound were pulsated down their venture to the pool. Right in a few moments after they submerged into the cold water, a barrage of explosions crushing the entire establishment to smithereens. Few minutes later, the entire basement were buried deep underground. The entire building were demolished, leaving the three people on their luck underneath the cramped space of a swimming pool.

“Arrgh, damn it. How could we escape, then? We’re stuck inside like a rat down the rabbit hole. ”

“Well, I’ve choose this swimming pool with something to our aid, you know. There’s a secret compartment that would bring us to the surface.”

“Hmm? I don’t know about those, father..... Where would it led us?”

“To my classified amenities, for myself and the former darling of mine.”

Fritz carefully rubbing the floor and the wall to locate the hidden compartment that he mentioned about. However, his memoirs left him in vain, as there were nothing to be found down under.

“You do understand that Ellen is the one in need of this place, right? It would be rational if she barred it shut for a long time, Father.”

“Oh no, how could you betray me, my fair lady?”

Fritz drown into his own resentful whimper, shredding tears by the glimpse moment of the past that stopping by to his mind.

“Calling for help would be better than being disappointed by something so trivial, daddy. Call George or someone strong to lift us up.”

“It’s no use, Reginald. Oh, I suppose I need to utilize my other secret compartment for our break out.”

Fritz is unloading his precious gemstone down his pocket, then placing them inside a peculiar opening over the pool’s northside wall.

“Please do not close this one down, Elly. This might be our last chance to run away.”

As it fits to the vacant space, a small pipe drained the entire pool to be vacate of water. In short time afterwards, The pipe is increasing in size, wide enough for a human to get inside of it.

“Welcome to my fun slide 2.0, my fellow intruders. This place merely designed for cornered situation like this. Be my guest and try them out, Regi, Maria.”

The both of them sliding in as foretold. Under the pipe, they could see a considerable-sized rocket inside the clutch of a small tube. The chamber wall itself were tinted with red and blue colored paint. Repugnare’s flag and a number of monitors could be seen adjacent to the transparent glass that covered the rocket and its booth.

“Tadaa!! This is our escape pod. If somehow our headquarters were pulverized by our enemy, the rocket would secure the only alive members of the dock and the secret of our organization.”

Reginald is shaking his head to such extravaganza that appeared before them. On the other end, Maria seemed angry with the assortment, as her eyes went squint by such sight.

“I can’t believe you’ve got something like these selfish chamber under our nose.... I’m speechless, father.”

“That’s why it’s never need to be used, my dear daughter. We could assess this emergency rocket if the headquarters were under woeful situation. There are detectors of danger within the system to prevent any misuse for this one.”

“Well, set aside the grief, Maria. We need to save our friends out there. Okay, let me go first.”

Reginald is driving himself forward to the escape pod. As Reginald proceed to open the door, He could see a big red button on the other end of the rocket.

“What’s with those button, daddy? Is that your petty trap door like before?”

“Just shut your mouth and push those button, Champ. You’ll be surprised.”

Reginald follows the instruction of his mentor and exerting a speck of his energy to click the button. The rocket twitched a bit, jumbled up and down by the flick. All of sudden, the other door appeared nearby and levered up automatically.

“Ah, this is totally hilarious....... Come to this ‘selfish pod’, Maria, and curb your anger this time.”

Fritz is trying hard to suppress his laugh while Maria forcing herself to enter the pod in her anger.

“Is this stairs? Are you mocking me, father?”

“Come on, Maria, quit feeling so dense. It’s designated to cover up the whole plan. The rocket would still be propelled upwards as a decoy.”

---

After several minutes of going up, the stint of light appeared from the other end of the tunnel. When the three of them ventured outside, they found the shelves of old books and vacate cupboards lying around the room.

“Why’s central library of all place, Fritz? What is so special of this facility?”

“First and foremost reason of those would be the silent readers, champ. They wouldn’t scream or shout even after seeing us popped out of nowhere.”

“You are pathetic, father. Mom would be ashamed to hear this horrible taste of fun.”

Reginald doesn’t respond to Maria’s barrage of insult to her father’s sense of humor. His mind was entangled to the fate of their company and their condition outside.

“Despite your relevant retort, Maria, you have to give a round of applause to this man. How could he think this far to save the secret of Repugnare? Well, I still don’t like the joke, daddy, so please stop grinning. Anyway....”

“Yup, I have to check the likelihood of our fellow friends..... Oh, no... The dots are not moving.”

Reginald, in his skeptical attitude towards Fritz, took over the screen to have himself the proof of the doubt.

“We have to hurry, Maria, Fritz. They might be somewhere nearby!!”

As they ventured outside the library, the library’s front yard were filled with tragedy. A number of Protego’s soldier lying motionless, except of the three persons that blocked their way to go out.

 “Hello there, smuggler. Happy enough with the house party?”