Post by Tolvur-Q12 on Jul 23, 2021 7:26:52 GMT -8
‘’This is where it all began.’’
Bryce didn't know who said it and where it came from, but as he heard it his mind shot back to him waking up on that cold slab in some medical basement. For him, it began there. For the others, their end would begin there. With every passing moment Bryce was feeling more and more convinced that even with Six, Seven and Eight telling him whatever it was a necessity to end the entire line of androids he hailed from, and that included Two, the man who he used to look up to, or at least that was the thought associated with the 2nd android of the list.
It began there, and it would end there.
The mandroid was able to remember exactly where it was he woke up despite him having been turned off for quite a while, most of his memory dumped into the void. As a result of that he would instantly be making his way over there, not even glancing over the patches of land he left in his wake as he flew over them. If he'd only look he would recognize some of the areas on account of having been there before, but for now the only goal in his head was reaching the start of it all for some reason. A reason he knew but didn't want to know. He both desired for this to end but also relished the chance to prove himself, like with the Duchies.
Flying over trees and empty patches of land with his vision pointing straight ahead he found himself lost in thought as his body seemed to adjust the route accordingly, almost like an automatic pilot. Bryce found himself thinking about mundane things, the things in his own journey that brought him back here while simultaneously showing him a good deal of the world. Nal, Zam, Cade for starters. They were the three that helped him gather his first bits of intelligence about his line. 1 through 11 weren't all the androids in existence, those were just the ones who had this particular flaw, the one Bryce had been struggling with during his little bout with Zam, even.
Then there was also this girl, Caffey, who was his first time ever meeting another person outside of the lab he woke up in. And Savina after that to show him he wasn't the only android around. But she wasn't one of the eleven, luckily for her. Most of them were lost in their flaws, and while some of them seemed to have an okay head on their shoulders it would still prove hard to trust them like an ordinary person.
He wondered where they all were.. and even as his body decided it was time to go in for the landing because he had reached his final destination, forcing his mind to shoot back to the present, he wondered how exactly he thought this would be the end for them if they didn't even know he was there to begin with. For all he knew they were still back where he first met them, aside from Nick, Two and Three, obviously.
As he set down on solid land and walked over to the hidden basement he started his journey in he felt that there was something down there, which was odd because.. didn't he - or someone else - end the people who were looking after him in his first moments? He remembered there was something back then breaking through the wall and ending the doctor responsible for making Bryce what he was. But.. if that doctor was dead, who was down there?
Quickly he found the hole in the wall, now rusting around the edges as the metal protruded inwards as a telling sign of how long it had been since his departure. Something had to have entered through it like before, but this time it was Bryce who would get the drop on whatever was in there. The roles were reversed because after all that time there was no way this facility would have any power left, and if it did he was sure the cameras were all destroyed in the explosion all that time ago. So without anyone being able to sense him, the only thing he had to do to get the drop on whoever was down there was not make a sound, which was as easy as not letting his feet touch the ground.
There was a rustling to be heard, but no energy to be sensed. Yet he felt like there was someone down there, almost like a part of him knew, had a connection. He approached with a sneaking suspicion that whatever was there was not going to play nice once Bryce showed himself, but at the same time there was no real chance of him being found out before that since he was floating and sneaking at the same time.
The only way for someone to notice him was through the use of cameras or some advanced technology that could sense energy being used. But even then he used less than a toaster would, so if the case was that there was something that could sense energy it would likely be written off as a false alarm. Not to mention that something like that would need power to function, and unless whatever was down there had the energy required to power these kinds of things the mandroid was in a safe place.
Assuming there actually was something down there, which Bryce was still skeptic about. He knew and had heard about gut feelings before and how they were rarely wrong, but he couldn’t help but feel it was odd for him to get a gut feeling telling him there was something or someone in the basement of an abandoned Red Ribbon complex.
Slowly he drew closer after calming himself a bit and assuring himself about there being no real threat to him, no threat in the sense of being caught anyway.
‘’This is where it all will end.’’
There was that voice again. Bryce hastily looked around for someone who could have said it, but it didn’t even leave an echo in this hollow structure. This left the mandroid looking for whoever could have said it, but it was to no avail, no one was there aside from him.
Was he going insane and did he hear things that weren’t there? Or did he just repeat his own unspoken words back to himself? Or, did whoever else was down here say that in a manner made to confuse everyone hearing it?
And assuming this was all normal, was the voice talking about this place, or this time? Because if it was the time for ending it there seemed to be a clear lack of androids there. There was one.. Maybe two if he thought about the fact he couldn’t sense whatever was down there, but knew for a fact something was.
‘’Come down here and be a part of the end.’’
That told Bryce he was already found out, but how? Without being able to be sensed and without power in this complex there was no way for him to be found out, was there?
Except there seemed to be, and it had happened. So Bryce dropped the energy he needed to levitate and decided to forfeit the idea of not making any sound to be sneaky. After all, if the something or someone he knew was there had somehow figured out he was there also, taking it easy was not an option anymore.
What concerned him most about this though was the fact he couldn’t sense anything but the lingering sense of deja vu hidden in just about every corner of this place, despite him not even having been there for most of it. It was the slab in the basement for him and nothing else, maybe a small glimpse of everything in there, but he had never gotten a good look at what was now covered in dust and cobwebs.
It seemed that, even if old, there was a good amount of information left on not just the amount of androids from his line but also who made them and why they were acting the way they were. A certain piece of information told him that the ten androids in question were made by three people who apparently had nothing to do with each other, with the first one making One through Four, or what Bryce referred to as the nice batch never even having met Four. But three out of four wasn’t bad, right?
Then the second scientist who went unnamed like all the others, and were likely dead by now considering, made Five through Nine. Bryce called that, again, despite not knowing anything about Five or Nine, the curious batch. They didn’t harm him or anything around him or even tried to do so, they merely wanted to talk and resolve the entire issue diplomatically.
And then there was the third scientist who was only credited with making two androids. Bryce widened his eyes when he saw the name at the top of the sheet that somehow remained and wasn’t wiped off like the other two, his memory racing to grab that name out of the crevices of his mind; doctor B. Modona
That was the guy who, at the very least, oversaw the tests Bryce had to go through when he woke up for the first time, and now, judging this piece of crumbly paper, was also the one who made him. He had picked up the piece of paper and focused on only the Modona part of it all, not failing to remember the part about it listing two androids. Or rather, two numbers. Which kind of shocked Bryce.
Modona had made Ten and Eleven.
He wasn’t sure what to do with that info right now though, and instead kept looking around for other bits of information. Which he quickly found buried in a pile of garbage. Or supposed garbage. It was another file belonging to Modona, except this one wasn’t B. Modona like the first one but A. Modona, so at the very least this was a family business. But what it showed was little touch ups on Ten and Eleven, all dating back to when Bryce was still ‘sleeping’. But that meant Ten was wide awake, and therefore likely to be either playing along with this whole thing to get free upgrades out of it, or he had teamed up with this second Modona.
Wait, which Modona did Bryce get helped by during his first few tests? B or A? Also, what were they, father and son? Brothers? There were all kinds of questions the mandroid asked himself now and none of them really made a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Especially not with this voice ringing through his head, because due to a lack of sound he kept focusing on it.
‘’You know you want to.’’
It went on and on, luring him closer and closer beyond the pile of information still and ended up as loud as a tornado siren. Bryce thought he couldn’t get headaches anymore, but this was definitely giving him one.
Finally he left everything around him alone and just went with the voice, approaching the source of it which seemed to be in a room next to the one he found himself in currently, the wall separating both rooms being broken through recently. In said room Bryce saw multiple computers, as well as some neatly stacked folders. Some quick counting told Bryce that there were ten folders.
The hand that was resting on it was drawn away and the woman that owned the hand turned away from the multiple screens she had been looking at and turned to Bryce, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘’Finally you’ve come.’’ She said with a tone that told the mandroid she had been waiting there for him, to which he in turn responded by slowly walking in circles around her and trying to figure out who exactly she was. Because as far as he knew there were no female robots made, and the lists never stated any gynoids being made.
But if she wasn’t a gynoid, then how did she make the hole in the wall? Unless she wasn’t alone that would not be something a human could do. Maybe a saiyan or one of those Zams or Nals, but not a human.
That bit of inner monologue was quickly silenced though as the silhouette of a man stepped behind Bryce, a hand on his shoulder with a tight squeeze forcing him to stay in place. ‘’You would do well to listen to Modona.’’ The man behind the mandroid said, outing the woman before Bryce as Modona.
‘’But..’’ Bryce began. ‘’Modona died..?’’
The woman laughed, causing the man behind Vandross to laugh as well. ‘’Yeah, my dad died after making you.’’ She said, outing herself as the daughter of the man who had made him and Ten. But.. did that mean the hand on his shoulder belonged to Ten?
‘’Luckily, I did not.’’ She added, lowering her arms to rest at her sides as she nodded at the being Bryce presumed to be the android all the others had to answer to. The mandroid felt the grip on his shoulder release and instinctively his arm went to hold it, the man behind it now moving to stand beside Modona. ‘’My dad made you and this guy here.’’ She nodded to her side and at the man, confirming that he was indeed the android who belonged to the same group as Bryce.
‘’I upgraded him as well as the others over the years.’’ She explained, then added with a shrug, ‘’the willing ones, anyway.’’ A hand tapped on the shoulder of Ten for a moment before finding its way to one of the ten files on the desk before Modona. She took it out and opened it, and showed the entire thing and the page she had it on to the mandroid. It showed the inner systems of Ten.
‘’As you can see, or not-’’ She said with a shrug, returning the file to the desk and closing it while showing Bryce a warm smile. ‘’-this guy over here is.. Amazing to say it simply. My father made him to be improved more than the others. His design is.. impeccable. There is no flaw, no fault that cannot be erased. He truly is made to tower over the others, who I obviously customized to be more accepting of #10. Some weren’t willing to be changed though, but the changes to Ten’s systems are potent enough to stop them all in their tracks.’’
Great, so at least a part of Modona was involved in all this nonsense of the entire lineage trying to destroy itself. ‘’Let me ask you this then, if I may-’’ Bryce began, looking at Ten briefly and then back to Modona. ‘’-let's say this guy here fails to kill the rest, then will you be happy knowing you, in the end, destroyed what your father worked for?’’ He finished, looking at Modona still and expecting a rather dismissive answer. Which he got.
Modona scoffed. ‘’You think there’s a chance he will lose to the others?’’
Bryce shrugged and smiled. ‘’I don’t know what to think. In all honesty, this isn’t about supremacy or being strong with you just peeking into our brains like that.’’ It was the first time he audibly clumped himself in with the rest of the androids, and even if wrong, it felt good to be a part of something even if only for a moment. ‘’It seems to me this is about you, about feeling a need to show your father that he made something lasting. Even if it means manipulating what other people have worked on.’’
Obviously Modona didn’t like that sort of honesty in the least. Despite her being the daughter of a doctor who obviously knew his stuff and might have taught his child some things about the trade she didn’t come across as the most sober of thinkers.
‘’You obviously didn’t get the question.’’ She said. ‘’I asked if-’’
Bryce interrupted with a sigh, sounding pretty defeated in that moment. ‘’-I know what you asked. But if that is all you choose to focus on after my own question, and then answer my question with another question that I proposed as a purely hypothetical situation, then I already have my answer, I suppose.’’ He told the doctor and Ten, who was still idly beside Modona despite looking more agitated by the minute. Maybe there was some kind of link between him and the one who customized him.
Gathering his wits for a brief second allowed him to go on, despite Modona nudging at Ten for some reason followed by a nod. ‘’But if you want me to answer your question, I’ll be honest and tell you yes, there is a chance he will lose to the others.’’
Modona chuckled as Ten walked closer to Bryce, ending up right in front of him with both androids standing eye to eye. ‘’Ten will show you just how wrong you are, isn’t that right, Cad?’’
The mandroid looked on with wide eyes for a bit before shaking his head dismissively. ‘’Even down to renaming what your father made. I hope you know what you’re doing.’’ But even as he said that he knew that he was likely to be attacked by Ten, or ‘Cad’, so the chances of Modona knowing what she was doing were slim at best seeing as he was made by Modona’s father. And so Bryce sighed, assuming he knew what was going to happen next as he felt the intent behind the eyes of Ten. Like a lion waiting to be released from a cage he looked at the second creation of Modona.
Not that Bryce was so much a creation as a modification. With all his whining in the time he had as a cyborg he forgot that the others from his line were even less human than he was. Maybe they were made for that specific reason.
‘’I think it’s time for me to stop clinging to stupid ideas like peace, to stop hoping everything will just.. Improve for me without doing anything to make it happen.’’ He said, focusing on Ten for a moment and ignoring Modona in the background. ‘’Looking at you, I see that my own fate isn’t so bad.’’ He told the robot before him. ‘’At least I am no one’s pet.’’
There was a smile with that one, from both the androids. But Modona didn’t enjoy that sentiment quite as much as two people who were about to fight did.
‘’So, with me seeing the intent here, from both you and Modona, I think it’s best if I choose now to start making it happen.’’ Bryce said, clenching his fist and finally just attempting to slam it into the gut of Ten without waiting for either him or Modona to make a move. Sadly it’d be just an attempt though, because it seemed that Ten was quite a bit faster than the mandroid had anticipated and found the time to catch the thrown fist in his own open palm to negate any damage.
Then the fist closed and Bryce found himself unable to pull his fist free. First time that he had found someone who was able to stop him from moving like this.
‘’Well, this was to be expected.’’ Bryce said as his fist was twisted quite a bit by Ten, forcing him to turn on his feet to allow his fist more space to turn without it being damaging for him. This was taken advantage of though as the mandroid was flung over the head of the robot holding his fist as he felt a palm on his back. He was very able to stop it but decided to see where it went since he had no real idea aside from him hitting the ground where Modona was standing.
Modona seemed to take notice of this. ‘’Not here.’’ She said as Ten then continued to buckle through his knees and run forward with Bryce still held overhead, slamming him into a fresh patch of wall that cracked upon contact.
The feeling wasn’t fun, but the mandroid did get to stress test the limits of his body like this. He had always been avoiding everything while not really being hit with anything worth his time, so for Ten to be able to do this was a good way to find out what Bryce could and couldn’t take.
‘’Did you honestly think you would be a match for Cad?’’ Modona asked as she slowly moved forward, standing in front of Bryce finally. ‘’You’re not like the others.’’ She said. ‘’More human, unable to be adjusted. I can tweak the systems you have, but I can’t add new ones like I did with the others.’’
She mentioned that as she looked at Cad, her hand on the arm he used to keep the mandroid pinned to the wall. ‘’But I knew this and prepared Cad. I could make him strong enough to not have to worry about your allegiance.’’ She moved her head to look at Bryce, her gaze upon the back of his skull as Ten held him in place.
‘’-not even worthy of mention, am I?’’ A new voice rang out without being seen, and with Modona standing in front of the mandroid he was unable to see this new person, and just heard footsteps coming closer and closer. ‘’To our friend? Numer.. 11 if I’m not mistaken? Bryce Vandross?’’
Finally the figure stepped out from behind Modona, showing itself to Bryce. The man looked at Modona and Ten with a grin that said he had unfinished business, clenching his fists in what appeared to be anticipation. ‘’For years I have been hunting you guys down and this is what I get in return? You hurt me, doc, you made me into what I am and you don’t even mention me?’’
The grip on Bryce’s head fell and he was able to get out of the robot shaped indent, getting a closer look at this guy. Tattered pants and a tattered shirt, this guy was either homeless or someone who had gone a very long time without a change of clothes. And judging by the few years he had heard this guy speak, Bryce assumed it was the latter.
‘’It’s been years since I’ve seen you, doc.’’ This guy seemed to know Modona, and even when he looked at Ten and the mandroid it was obvious that his attention was still very much centered on her. ‘’Least you could do is introduce me-’’ His arms widened, a smile on his face appeared as he set one foot forward, only to be stopped by Ten who seemed to prefer protecting Modona over Bryce, going as far as breaking his silence over it.
‘’-do not,’’ The hand belonging to Ten was placed right in front of the newcomer as Ten then continued. ‘’I repeat, do not come close to Modona.’’
Behind Ten Modona stood with a confused Bryce quite close to her. Was this new guy a bigger threat than him to her? Surely the bot trying to protect her should know that with Bryce no longer lodged in the wall he could easily end Modona and get revenge for the suffering she’d put him through, right?
His question was quickly answered though, as Modona opened her mouth. ‘’Tolvur. Fancy seeing you here.’’ She seemed stoic for the time being, not really showing any kind of reaction to this guy being here, but to Bryce, she was terrified and just not showing it. A quick scan of her inner workings told him that her heart rate had increased and her brain was releasing a whole lot of adrenaline to spike the blood pressure. If he was being honest he was impressed with how well she handled herself despite being scared.
‘’I wasn’t sure I would ever see you again.’’ Again. This told the mandroid that the two had some kind of prior relationship, even if it was one of violent intent. But what kept ringing Bryce was that this guy, Tolvur, apparently knew of Bryce and the fact he was number eleven in the series of robots. Was.. this guy involved in all this? ‘’Why are you here?’’ Modona asked, her heart normalizing and her demeanor turning a shade of cold that would cut through most.
‘’Dear Modona..’’ Tolvur cracked a smile at the question as he began moving forward, shoving Ten aside and closing the distance between him and her. ‘’You know I’m here to kill you.’’
A beep was heard behind him that caused him to turn around, but before he had fully done so he would find that Ten, or Cad, had rushed over to Tolvur and put his hand around the neck in an attempt to keep him in place. But.. Tolvur seemed anything but shaken.
‘’Ah, the ever loyal lapdog.’’ He laughed. ‘’I had heard about her making some kind of super soldier to rule the other 10.’’ Turning his head he then looked at Bryce, which made him involuntarily step back a bit. ‘’Yeah, even you.’’ Then, as quickly as he went to look at the mandroid his head snapped back, and his arm was raised so that his hand could rest on the one on his neck. ‘’Shame she didn’t think about number 12, don’t you agree?’’
With this Bryce’s eyes widened as he stepped forward. He opened his mouth to speak, but for some reason Modona stopped him by holding him back with her arm. It was obvious she wanted to say something also, but it was clearly seen that she had no idea what, and instead opened her mouth to say something to Cad.
Except the sound of the first word to come out of her mouth was drowned out by the sound of metal crunching. Both she and Bryce looked in comparable horror as Tolvur clamped down on the arm in front of him, crushing it with robotic strength almost as oil covered his own hand. ‘’I suppose I’ve been running low on it.’’ He said as with a swift pull he tore the crushed arm straight off, leaving Ten/Cad to stand there without an arm, yet still standing as if he was holding on the the neck.
Tolvur peeled the fingers from his neck then and smiled. ‘’Be glad she didn’t make you feel pain.’’ He would reel back after that, cock his arm straight back and drop the arm, clenched his own fist right then and like a shot from the barrel of a gun his hand shot forward, his fist vanishing in the compromised mechanical and exposed joint of Cad.
Meanwhile, as the force of the fist was tearing through Cad from the inside, Bryce looked at Modona. ‘’12?’’ He wondered out loud. ‘’The hell is he talking about?’’
Tolvur laughed as there was quite a bit of energy powering his arm, enabling him to tear the top half off of Cad with one swift tear, before turning to Bryce and dumping the upper half of the torso to the ground as the oil leaking from it now coated his arm. ‘’So she never told you then.’’
Throwing up his arms Bryce huffed. ‘’I just met her! I was looking for her father!’’ He briefly looked at the half torso on the ground as it was swiftly dispatched by Tolvur shifting his weight and crushing the still blinking head of Cad beneath his heel. This, throughout the entire situation, did eventually get a rise out of Modona emotionally.
‘’C-’’ She uttered the start of what Bryce assumed was his name and began to move forward, but soon enough Tolvur inhaled and grunted, a wave of energy surrounding him that actually shot off most of the oil he had on him while also discarding the remains of Cad to the other side of the facility. Modona stopped her movement the minute this was done as her eyes seemed to follow the remains of the one who was supposed to protect her.
And Bryce was also focused on the ease with which Tolvur took care of Cad since Cad had easily been restraining the mandroid. Was this guy that much stronger? And, since this guy, or android or cyborg or whatever, knew about the line of androids Bryce was from, would it mean he was going to try and end the cyborg? Or just Modona for now since he made a comment about hunting them down? That being said, would he just let Bryce go to get some hunting in?
‘’Man, after all these years..’’ Tolvur began and shut Modona right up before she continued speaking, and he also stopped Bryce from wondering too much about what the next course of action was. ‘’You would think something to keep his own line at bay he would be stronger.’’ Wiping the excess oil from his arm as if wielding a katana, he stepped closer to Modona slowly, briefly glancing at Bryce as if to tell him to not get involved. ‘’Didn’t you tell this other guy you upgraded him or something?’’
Tolvur shook his head and didn’t wait for an answer. ‘’Must have been some lousy ass upgrades if that was the best you had.’’
Finally Modona broke the silence coming from her and put her focus on Tolvur, who pretty much had confirmed a few things by new, both for Modona and Bryce. He was an android, though Bryce still did not know what kind.. Was Tolvur like him or was he fully mechanical like Cad?
He’d also confirmed that he knew of Bryce’s line, and that he belonged to it himself.
He also confirmed that his main target was Modona, as indicated by him having hunted her down over the course of a few years.
‘’I did.’’ Modona said, shaking her head lightly. ‘’I never expected you to do the same, considering you didn’t have someone looking after you.’’
To this Tolvur just laughed and shook his own head. ‘’Didn’t I?’’ He asked with a grin, though he ended up answering his own question shortly after. ‘’You’re right, I did not have someone looking after me. But with an actual team of scientists working on me instead of just the second rate daughter of one, do I really need someone watching my every move?’’ This confused Bryce and he opened his mouth again.
‘’So what.. Or who are you?’’ He asked, feeling mightily conflicted about seeing Ten being taken care of by someone he didn’t know the intentions of. ‘’Like she asked, why are you here?’’
Tolvur sighed a bit at the question that was posed for the second time now despite having answered it before, though vaguely. ‘’I’m Tolvur.’’ He simply stated as he had his eyes scan up and down Bryce for a brief moment. ‘’Unlike you, belonging to the same line as those other 10, I belong to an offshoot. They called it the q series. Suppose that answers your question, Modona.’’ As he mentioned her, his eyes were still focused on the mandroid, moving forward just a bit in order to get a closer look, and even going as far as to have a look behind the long tuft of hair that was blocking the scanner in his eye.
‘’The q stands for quantum. Self learning. I don’t need to be improved, I improve on my own.’’ Releasing the strand of hair he turned his eyes on Modona once more. ‘’A vast improvement over your.. Uhh-’’ His hands absentmindedly waved to the legs and the torso behind him. ‘’-attempt at greatness, I guess. Sadly though, that does mean there’s nothing standing between you and me anymore. And I figure you’re not at all capable of fighting.’’
So that answered at least a part of his question, though it didn’t answer the part not spoken. Was he fully android or a cyborg like him? Finally, he shook his head and stepped forward in front of Modona. Yes he had wanted her to stop, but this Tolvur just seemed to want to hunt for the fun of it. ‘’She might not be, but I am.’’ He said, grinning as he couldn’t help but feel excited over fighting this guy.
‘’Oh, look at that.’’ Tolvur said as he looked at Bryce briefly and then back to his original target. ‘’Looks like you have a new guard! Let us hope that this one is stronger than your previous one, yes?’’ Modona was oddly silent once again and turned to Bryce.
‘’Listen, I know we haven’t seen eye to eye but I need you to-’’
Bryce cut her off and clenched his fist. ‘’-you’re still next.’’ He said. ‘’I am going to let you follow Cad.’’
Tolvur laughed and moved past Byce in the blink of an eye, grabbing Modona by her neck and throwing her next to the remains of Cad before Bryce could even respond. ‘’I’ll make sure to honor your last wishes, then.’’ He then turned to the mandroid and grinned, moving forward ominously and placing a single hand on the shoulder of Bryce.
‘’Shouldn’t take me too long.’’ He continued as, with a surge of strength he tossed Bryce into the opposite direction of Modona. ‘’Just.. Last longer than the other guy, okay?’’ Though the fact that the mandroid still got up after this toss meant that he was already lasting longer.
Tolvur quickly walked in the direction of the already standing Bryce and started grinning, moving with an intent close to that of a wolf smelling blood. ‘’Get ready!’’ He said as if he hadn’t already initiated combat with the mandroid by throwing him against a wall. No words were wasted as Tolvur just rushed over to his alleged enemy and threw a ki-enriched fist his way.
Bryce’s warnings went off as this fist having quite a lot of power behind it, and as he dodged it by stepping to the side he smiled widely with a sense of pride, sadly that smile quickly faded as the other withdrew his fist from the hole that had been made, cracking the wall in the process. This strength.. It was nothing to play around with.
‘’My turn.’’ He said, quickly skipping to the side once more before lifting up a single finger to point it at his opponent as if pointing. Energy accumulated rapidly and shot outward in a hail of eight crimson blasts, all aimed for one singular target.
With a grin Tolvur took all of them head on, even dodging into a few just to show he could shrug them off easily. ‘’Something tells me you just get by on speed alone.’’ He mused as he then flicked forward again, this time jumping mere moments before getting close to Bryce. His fist was aimed down and slammed into the ground in front of the mandroid who lifted a single leg and tried to speed away, but before he could do so the cracking of the floor below him shook him a little and Tolvur was able to wrap his hands around the leg that was left on the ground.
He looked up with a grin as if he had Bryce right where he wanted, and started swinging him around by his leg, slamming him into the wall, the floor, and even the remains of Cad next to a frightened Modona. After a few rounds of this blood followed Bryce as he flew through the air as he tried to release himself from the grip.
Tolvur took note of this and began to grip the leg even tighter, crushing the remnant of bone left in it as Bryce screamed in pain. ‘’Pain receptors. Nice.’’ He then focused energy in his arm and slammed Bryce into a nearby wall with force, caving in parts of his face and letting blood flow down the concrete. Then, when Bryce fell down to the ground, the last thing he saw was a boot stomping down on his face. And then it went black for him.
Now Tolvur was able to focus on Modona and grinned. ‘’You have some weak defenses.’’ He said as he squatted and picked up a single chip that fell from Bryce, and was still intact. He studied it before standing up once more and looking at Modona, before turning around.
‘’You’re lucky I like hunting. Go run away and make some new defenses.’’ He said before smashing a hole in the wall outside. ‘’I’ll find you.’’
And like that, a frightened and silent Modona was left surrounded by the corpses of the things she helped create.
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WC: 6,236
Bryce didn't know who said it and where it came from, but as he heard it his mind shot back to him waking up on that cold slab in some medical basement. For him, it began there. For the others, their end would begin there. With every passing moment Bryce was feeling more and more convinced that even with Six, Seven and Eight telling him whatever it was a necessity to end the entire line of androids he hailed from, and that included Two, the man who he used to look up to, or at least that was the thought associated with the 2nd android of the list.
It began there, and it would end there.
The mandroid was able to remember exactly where it was he woke up despite him having been turned off for quite a while, most of his memory dumped into the void. As a result of that he would instantly be making his way over there, not even glancing over the patches of land he left in his wake as he flew over them. If he'd only look he would recognize some of the areas on account of having been there before, but for now the only goal in his head was reaching the start of it all for some reason. A reason he knew but didn't want to know. He both desired for this to end but also relished the chance to prove himself, like with the Duchies.
Flying over trees and empty patches of land with his vision pointing straight ahead he found himself lost in thought as his body seemed to adjust the route accordingly, almost like an automatic pilot. Bryce found himself thinking about mundane things, the things in his own journey that brought him back here while simultaneously showing him a good deal of the world. Nal, Zam, Cade for starters. They were the three that helped him gather his first bits of intelligence about his line. 1 through 11 weren't all the androids in existence, those were just the ones who had this particular flaw, the one Bryce had been struggling with during his little bout with Zam, even.
Then there was also this girl, Caffey, who was his first time ever meeting another person outside of the lab he woke up in. And Savina after that to show him he wasn't the only android around. But she wasn't one of the eleven, luckily for her. Most of them were lost in their flaws, and while some of them seemed to have an okay head on their shoulders it would still prove hard to trust them like an ordinary person.
He wondered where they all were.. and even as his body decided it was time to go in for the landing because he had reached his final destination, forcing his mind to shoot back to the present, he wondered how exactly he thought this would be the end for them if they didn't even know he was there to begin with. For all he knew they were still back where he first met them, aside from Nick, Two and Three, obviously.
As he set down on solid land and walked over to the hidden basement he started his journey in he felt that there was something down there, which was odd because.. didn't he - or someone else - end the people who were looking after him in his first moments? He remembered there was something back then breaking through the wall and ending the doctor responsible for making Bryce what he was. But.. if that doctor was dead, who was down there?
Quickly he found the hole in the wall, now rusting around the edges as the metal protruded inwards as a telling sign of how long it had been since his departure. Something had to have entered through it like before, but this time it was Bryce who would get the drop on whatever was in there. The roles were reversed because after all that time there was no way this facility would have any power left, and if it did he was sure the cameras were all destroyed in the explosion all that time ago. So without anyone being able to sense him, the only thing he had to do to get the drop on whoever was down there was not make a sound, which was as easy as not letting his feet touch the ground.
There was a rustling to be heard, but no energy to be sensed. Yet he felt like there was someone down there, almost like a part of him knew, had a connection. He approached with a sneaking suspicion that whatever was there was not going to play nice once Bryce showed himself, but at the same time there was no real chance of him being found out before that since he was floating and sneaking at the same time.
The only way for someone to notice him was through the use of cameras or some advanced technology that could sense energy being used. But even then he used less than a toaster would, so if the case was that there was something that could sense energy it would likely be written off as a false alarm. Not to mention that something like that would need power to function, and unless whatever was down there had the energy required to power these kinds of things the mandroid was in a safe place.
Assuming there actually was something down there, which Bryce was still skeptic about. He knew and had heard about gut feelings before and how they were rarely wrong, but he couldn’t help but feel it was odd for him to get a gut feeling telling him there was something or someone in the basement of an abandoned Red Ribbon complex.
Slowly he drew closer after calming himself a bit and assuring himself about there being no real threat to him, no threat in the sense of being caught anyway.
‘’This is where it all will end.’’
There was that voice again. Bryce hastily looked around for someone who could have said it, but it didn’t even leave an echo in this hollow structure. This left the mandroid looking for whoever could have said it, but it was to no avail, no one was there aside from him.
Was he going insane and did he hear things that weren’t there? Or did he just repeat his own unspoken words back to himself? Or, did whoever else was down here say that in a manner made to confuse everyone hearing it?
And assuming this was all normal, was the voice talking about this place, or this time? Because if it was the time for ending it there seemed to be a clear lack of androids there. There was one.. Maybe two if he thought about the fact he couldn’t sense whatever was down there, but knew for a fact something was.
‘’Come down here and be a part of the end.’’
That told Bryce he was already found out, but how? Without being able to be sensed and without power in this complex there was no way for him to be found out, was there?
Except there seemed to be, and it had happened. So Bryce dropped the energy he needed to levitate and decided to forfeit the idea of not making any sound to be sneaky. After all, if the something or someone he knew was there had somehow figured out he was there also, taking it easy was not an option anymore.
What concerned him most about this though was the fact he couldn’t sense anything but the lingering sense of deja vu hidden in just about every corner of this place, despite him not even having been there for most of it. It was the slab in the basement for him and nothing else, maybe a small glimpse of everything in there, but he had never gotten a good look at what was now covered in dust and cobwebs.
It seemed that, even if old, there was a good amount of information left on not just the amount of androids from his line but also who made them and why they were acting the way they were. A certain piece of information told him that the ten androids in question were made by three people who apparently had nothing to do with each other, with the first one making One through Four, or what Bryce referred to as the nice batch never even having met Four. But three out of four wasn’t bad, right?
Then the second scientist who went unnamed like all the others, and were likely dead by now considering, made Five through Nine. Bryce called that, again, despite not knowing anything about Five or Nine, the curious batch. They didn’t harm him or anything around him or even tried to do so, they merely wanted to talk and resolve the entire issue diplomatically.
And then there was the third scientist who was only credited with making two androids. Bryce widened his eyes when he saw the name at the top of the sheet that somehow remained and wasn’t wiped off like the other two, his memory racing to grab that name out of the crevices of his mind; doctor B. Modona
That was the guy who, at the very least, oversaw the tests Bryce had to go through when he woke up for the first time, and now, judging this piece of crumbly paper, was also the one who made him. He had picked up the piece of paper and focused on only the Modona part of it all, not failing to remember the part about it listing two androids. Or rather, two numbers. Which kind of shocked Bryce.
Modona had made Ten and Eleven.
He wasn’t sure what to do with that info right now though, and instead kept looking around for other bits of information. Which he quickly found buried in a pile of garbage. Or supposed garbage. It was another file belonging to Modona, except this one wasn’t B. Modona like the first one but A. Modona, so at the very least this was a family business. But what it showed was little touch ups on Ten and Eleven, all dating back to when Bryce was still ‘sleeping’. But that meant Ten was wide awake, and therefore likely to be either playing along with this whole thing to get free upgrades out of it, or he had teamed up with this second Modona.
Wait, which Modona did Bryce get helped by during his first few tests? B or A? Also, what were they, father and son? Brothers? There were all kinds of questions the mandroid asked himself now and none of them really made a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Especially not with this voice ringing through his head, because due to a lack of sound he kept focusing on it.
‘’You know you want to.’’
It went on and on, luring him closer and closer beyond the pile of information still and ended up as loud as a tornado siren. Bryce thought he couldn’t get headaches anymore, but this was definitely giving him one.
Finally he left everything around him alone and just went with the voice, approaching the source of it which seemed to be in a room next to the one he found himself in currently, the wall separating both rooms being broken through recently. In said room Bryce saw multiple computers, as well as some neatly stacked folders. Some quick counting told Bryce that there were ten folders.
The hand that was resting on it was drawn away and the woman that owned the hand turned away from the multiple screens she had been looking at and turned to Bryce, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘’Finally you’ve come.’’ She said with a tone that told the mandroid she had been waiting there for him, to which he in turn responded by slowly walking in circles around her and trying to figure out who exactly she was. Because as far as he knew there were no female robots made, and the lists never stated any gynoids being made.
But if she wasn’t a gynoid, then how did she make the hole in the wall? Unless she wasn’t alone that would not be something a human could do. Maybe a saiyan or one of those Zams or Nals, but not a human.
That bit of inner monologue was quickly silenced though as the silhouette of a man stepped behind Bryce, a hand on his shoulder with a tight squeeze forcing him to stay in place. ‘’You would do well to listen to Modona.’’ The man behind the mandroid said, outing the woman before Bryce as Modona.
‘’But..’’ Bryce began. ‘’Modona died..?’’
The woman laughed, causing the man behind Vandross to laugh as well. ‘’Yeah, my dad died after making you.’’ She said, outing herself as the daughter of the man who had made him and Ten. But.. did that mean the hand on his shoulder belonged to Ten?
‘’Luckily, I did not.’’ She added, lowering her arms to rest at her sides as she nodded at the being Bryce presumed to be the android all the others had to answer to. The mandroid felt the grip on his shoulder release and instinctively his arm went to hold it, the man behind it now moving to stand beside Modona. ‘’My dad made you and this guy here.’’ She nodded to her side and at the man, confirming that he was indeed the android who belonged to the same group as Bryce.
‘’I upgraded him as well as the others over the years.’’ She explained, then added with a shrug, ‘’the willing ones, anyway.’’ A hand tapped on the shoulder of Ten for a moment before finding its way to one of the ten files on the desk before Modona. She took it out and opened it, and showed the entire thing and the page she had it on to the mandroid. It showed the inner systems of Ten.
‘’As you can see, or not-’’ She said with a shrug, returning the file to the desk and closing it while showing Bryce a warm smile. ‘’-this guy over here is.. Amazing to say it simply. My father made him to be improved more than the others. His design is.. impeccable. There is no flaw, no fault that cannot be erased. He truly is made to tower over the others, who I obviously customized to be more accepting of #10. Some weren’t willing to be changed though, but the changes to Ten’s systems are potent enough to stop them all in their tracks.’’
Great, so at least a part of Modona was involved in all this nonsense of the entire lineage trying to destroy itself. ‘’Let me ask you this then, if I may-’’ Bryce began, looking at Ten briefly and then back to Modona. ‘’-let's say this guy here fails to kill the rest, then will you be happy knowing you, in the end, destroyed what your father worked for?’’ He finished, looking at Modona still and expecting a rather dismissive answer. Which he got.
Modona scoffed. ‘’You think there’s a chance he will lose to the others?’’
Bryce shrugged and smiled. ‘’I don’t know what to think. In all honesty, this isn’t about supremacy or being strong with you just peeking into our brains like that.’’ It was the first time he audibly clumped himself in with the rest of the androids, and even if wrong, it felt good to be a part of something even if only for a moment. ‘’It seems to me this is about you, about feeling a need to show your father that he made something lasting. Even if it means manipulating what other people have worked on.’’
Obviously Modona didn’t like that sort of honesty in the least. Despite her being the daughter of a doctor who obviously knew his stuff and might have taught his child some things about the trade she didn’t come across as the most sober of thinkers.
‘’You obviously didn’t get the question.’’ She said. ‘’I asked if-’’
Bryce interrupted with a sigh, sounding pretty defeated in that moment. ‘’-I know what you asked. But if that is all you choose to focus on after my own question, and then answer my question with another question that I proposed as a purely hypothetical situation, then I already have my answer, I suppose.’’ He told the doctor and Ten, who was still idly beside Modona despite looking more agitated by the minute. Maybe there was some kind of link between him and the one who customized him.
Gathering his wits for a brief second allowed him to go on, despite Modona nudging at Ten for some reason followed by a nod. ‘’But if you want me to answer your question, I’ll be honest and tell you yes, there is a chance he will lose to the others.’’
Modona chuckled as Ten walked closer to Bryce, ending up right in front of him with both androids standing eye to eye. ‘’Ten will show you just how wrong you are, isn’t that right, Cad?’’
The mandroid looked on with wide eyes for a bit before shaking his head dismissively. ‘’Even down to renaming what your father made. I hope you know what you’re doing.’’ But even as he said that he knew that he was likely to be attacked by Ten, or ‘Cad’, so the chances of Modona knowing what she was doing were slim at best seeing as he was made by Modona’s father. And so Bryce sighed, assuming he knew what was going to happen next as he felt the intent behind the eyes of Ten. Like a lion waiting to be released from a cage he looked at the second creation of Modona.
Not that Bryce was so much a creation as a modification. With all his whining in the time he had as a cyborg he forgot that the others from his line were even less human than he was. Maybe they were made for that specific reason.
‘’I think it’s time for me to stop clinging to stupid ideas like peace, to stop hoping everything will just.. Improve for me without doing anything to make it happen.’’ He said, focusing on Ten for a moment and ignoring Modona in the background. ‘’Looking at you, I see that my own fate isn’t so bad.’’ He told the robot before him. ‘’At least I am no one’s pet.’’
There was a smile with that one, from both the androids. But Modona didn’t enjoy that sentiment quite as much as two people who were about to fight did.
‘’So, with me seeing the intent here, from both you and Modona, I think it’s best if I choose now to start making it happen.’’ Bryce said, clenching his fist and finally just attempting to slam it into the gut of Ten without waiting for either him or Modona to make a move. Sadly it’d be just an attempt though, because it seemed that Ten was quite a bit faster than the mandroid had anticipated and found the time to catch the thrown fist in his own open palm to negate any damage.
Then the fist closed and Bryce found himself unable to pull his fist free. First time that he had found someone who was able to stop him from moving like this.
‘’Well, this was to be expected.’’ Bryce said as his fist was twisted quite a bit by Ten, forcing him to turn on his feet to allow his fist more space to turn without it being damaging for him. This was taken advantage of though as the mandroid was flung over the head of the robot holding his fist as he felt a palm on his back. He was very able to stop it but decided to see where it went since he had no real idea aside from him hitting the ground where Modona was standing.
Modona seemed to take notice of this. ‘’Not here.’’ She said as Ten then continued to buckle through his knees and run forward with Bryce still held overhead, slamming him into a fresh patch of wall that cracked upon contact.
The feeling wasn’t fun, but the mandroid did get to stress test the limits of his body like this. He had always been avoiding everything while not really being hit with anything worth his time, so for Ten to be able to do this was a good way to find out what Bryce could and couldn’t take.
‘’Did you honestly think you would be a match for Cad?’’ Modona asked as she slowly moved forward, standing in front of Bryce finally. ‘’You’re not like the others.’’ She said. ‘’More human, unable to be adjusted. I can tweak the systems you have, but I can’t add new ones like I did with the others.’’
She mentioned that as she looked at Cad, her hand on the arm he used to keep the mandroid pinned to the wall. ‘’But I knew this and prepared Cad. I could make him strong enough to not have to worry about your allegiance.’’ She moved her head to look at Bryce, her gaze upon the back of his skull as Ten held him in place.
‘’-not even worthy of mention, am I?’’ A new voice rang out without being seen, and with Modona standing in front of the mandroid he was unable to see this new person, and just heard footsteps coming closer and closer. ‘’To our friend? Numer.. 11 if I’m not mistaken? Bryce Vandross?’’
Finally the figure stepped out from behind Modona, showing itself to Bryce. The man looked at Modona and Ten with a grin that said he had unfinished business, clenching his fists in what appeared to be anticipation. ‘’For years I have been hunting you guys down and this is what I get in return? You hurt me, doc, you made me into what I am and you don’t even mention me?’’
The grip on Bryce’s head fell and he was able to get out of the robot shaped indent, getting a closer look at this guy. Tattered pants and a tattered shirt, this guy was either homeless or someone who had gone a very long time without a change of clothes. And judging by the few years he had heard this guy speak, Bryce assumed it was the latter.
‘’It’s been years since I’ve seen you, doc.’’ This guy seemed to know Modona, and even when he looked at Ten and the mandroid it was obvious that his attention was still very much centered on her. ‘’Least you could do is introduce me-’’ His arms widened, a smile on his face appeared as he set one foot forward, only to be stopped by Ten who seemed to prefer protecting Modona over Bryce, going as far as breaking his silence over it.
‘’-do not,’’ The hand belonging to Ten was placed right in front of the newcomer as Ten then continued. ‘’I repeat, do not come close to Modona.’’
Behind Ten Modona stood with a confused Bryce quite close to her. Was this new guy a bigger threat than him to her? Surely the bot trying to protect her should know that with Bryce no longer lodged in the wall he could easily end Modona and get revenge for the suffering she’d put him through, right?
His question was quickly answered though, as Modona opened her mouth. ‘’Tolvur. Fancy seeing you here.’’ She seemed stoic for the time being, not really showing any kind of reaction to this guy being here, but to Bryce, she was terrified and just not showing it. A quick scan of her inner workings told him that her heart rate had increased and her brain was releasing a whole lot of adrenaline to spike the blood pressure. If he was being honest he was impressed with how well she handled herself despite being scared.
‘’I wasn’t sure I would ever see you again.’’ Again. This told the mandroid that the two had some kind of prior relationship, even if it was one of violent intent. But what kept ringing Bryce was that this guy, Tolvur, apparently knew of Bryce and the fact he was number eleven in the series of robots. Was.. this guy involved in all this? ‘’Why are you here?’’ Modona asked, her heart normalizing and her demeanor turning a shade of cold that would cut through most.
‘’Dear Modona..’’ Tolvur cracked a smile at the question as he began moving forward, shoving Ten aside and closing the distance between him and her. ‘’You know I’m here to kill you.’’
A beep was heard behind him that caused him to turn around, but before he had fully done so he would find that Ten, or Cad, had rushed over to Tolvur and put his hand around the neck in an attempt to keep him in place. But.. Tolvur seemed anything but shaken.
‘’Ah, the ever loyal lapdog.’’ He laughed. ‘’I had heard about her making some kind of super soldier to rule the other 10.’’ Turning his head he then looked at Bryce, which made him involuntarily step back a bit. ‘’Yeah, even you.’’ Then, as quickly as he went to look at the mandroid his head snapped back, and his arm was raised so that his hand could rest on the one on his neck. ‘’Shame she didn’t think about number 12, don’t you agree?’’
With this Bryce’s eyes widened as he stepped forward. He opened his mouth to speak, but for some reason Modona stopped him by holding him back with her arm. It was obvious she wanted to say something also, but it was clearly seen that she had no idea what, and instead opened her mouth to say something to Cad.
Except the sound of the first word to come out of her mouth was drowned out by the sound of metal crunching. Both she and Bryce looked in comparable horror as Tolvur clamped down on the arm in front of him, crushing it with robotic strength almost as oil covered his own hand. ‘’I suppose I’ve been running low on it.’’ He said as with a swift pull he tore the crushed arm straight off, leaving Ten/Cad to stand there without an arm, yet still standing as if he was holding on the the neck.
Tolvur peeled the fingers from his neck then and smiled. ‘’Be glad she didn’t make you feel pain.’’ He would reel back after that, cock his arm straight back and drop the arm, clenched his own fist right then and like a shot from the barrel of a gun his hand shot forward, his fist vanishing in the compromised mechanical and exposed joint of Cad.
Meanwhile, as the force of the fist was tearing through Cad from the inside, Bryce looked at Modona. ‘’12?’’ He wondered out loud. ‘’The hell is he talking about?’’
Tolvur laughed as there was quite a bit of energy powering his arm, enabling him to tear the top half off of Cad with one swift tear, before turning to Bryce and dumping the upper half of the torso to the ground as the oil leaking from it now coated his arm. ‘’So she never told you then.’’
Throwing up his arms Bryce huffed. ‘’I just met her! I was looking for her father!’’ He briefly looked at the half torso on the ground as it was swiftly dispatched by Tolvur shifting his weight and crushing the still blinking head of Cad beneath his heel. This, throughout the entire situation, did eventually get a rise out of Modona emotionally.
‘’C-’’ She uttered the start of what Bryce assumed was his name and began to move forward, but soon enough Tolvur inhaled and grunted, a wave of energy surrounding him that actually shot off most of the oil he had on him while also discarding the remains of Cad to the other side of the facility. Modona stopped her movement the minute this was done as her eyes seemed to follow the remains of the one who was supposed to protect her.
And Bryce was also focused on the ease with which Tolvur took care of Cad since Cad had easily been restraining the mandroid. Was this guy that much stronger? And, since this guy, or android or cyborg or whatever, knew about the line of androids Bryce was from, would it mean he was going to try and end the cyborg? Or just Modona for now since he made a comment about hunting them down? That being said, would he just let Bryce go to get some hunting in?
‘’Man, after all these years..’’ Tolvur began and shut Modona right up before she continued speaking, and he also stopped Bryce from wondering too much about what the next course of action was. ‘’You would think something to keep his own line at bay he would be stronger.’’ Wiping the excess oil from his arm as if wielding a katana, he stepped closer to Modona slowly, briefly glancing at Bryce as if to tell him to not get involved. ‘’Didn’t you tell this other guy you upgraded him or something?’’
Tolvur shook his head and didn’t wait for an answer. ‘’Must have been some lousy ass upgrades if that was the best you had.’’
Finally Modona broke the silence coming from her and put her focus on Tolvur, who pretty much had confirmed a few things by new, both for Modona and Bryce. He was an android, though Bryce still did not know what kind.. Was Tolvur like him or was he fully mechanical like Cad?
He’d also confirmed that he knew of Bryce’s line, and that he belonged to it himself.
He also confirmed that his main target was Modona, as indicated by him having hunted her down over the course of a few years.
‘’I did.’’ Modona said, shaking her head lightly. ‘’I never expected you to do the same, considering you didn’t have someone looking after you.’’
To this Tolvur just laughed and shook his own head. ‘’Didn’t I?’’ He asked with a grin, though he ended up answering his own question shortly after. ‘’You’re right, I did not have someone looking after me. But with an actual team of scientists working on me instead of just the second rate daughter of one, do I really need someone watching my every move?’’ This confused Bryce and he opened his mouth again.
‘’So what.. Or who are you?’’ He asked, feeling mightily conflicted about seeing Ten being taken care of by someone he didn’t know the intentions of. ‘’Like she asked, why are you here?’’
Tolvur sighed a bit at the question that was posed for the second time now despite having answered it before, though vaguely. ‘’I’m Tolvur.’’ He simply stated as he had his eyes scan up and down Bryce for a brief moment. ‘’Unlike you, belonging to the same line as those other 10, I belong to an offshoot. They called it the q series. Suppose that answers your question, Modona.’’ As he mentioned her, his eyes were still focused on the mandroid, moving forward just a bit in order to get a closer look, and even going as far as to have a look behind the long tuft of hair that was blocking the scanner in his eye.
‘’The q stands for quantum. Self learning. I don’t need to be improved, I improve on my own.’’ Releasing the strand of hair he turned his eyes on Modona once more. ‘’A vast improvement over your.. Uhh-’’ His hands absentmindedly waved to the legs and the torso behind him. ‘’-attempt at greatness, I guess. Sadly though, that does mean there’s nothing standing between you and me anymore. And I figure you’re not at all capable of fighting.’’
So that answered at least a part of his question, though it didn’t answer the part not spoken. Was he fully android or a cyborg like him? Finally, he shook his head and stepped forward in front of Modona. Yes he had wanted her to stop, but this Tolvur just seemed to want to hunt for the fun of it. ‘’She might not be, but I am.’’ He said, grinning as he couldn’t help but feel excited over fighting this guy.
‘’Oh, look at that.’’ Tolvur said as he looked at Bryce briefly and then back to his original target. ‘’Looks like you have a new guard! Let us hope that this one is stronger than your previous one, yes?’’ Modona was oddly silent once again and turned to Bryce.
‘’Listen, I know we haven’t seen eye to eye but I need you to-’’
Bryce cut her off and clenched his fist. ‘’-you’re still next.’’ He said. ‘’I am going to let you follow Cad.’’
Tolvur laughed and moved past Byce in the blink of an eye, grabbing Modona by her neck and throwing her next to the remains of Cad before Bryce could even respond. ‘’I’ll make sure to honor your last wishes, then.’’ He then turned to the mandroid and grinned, moving forward ominously and placing a single hand on the shoulder of Bryce.
‘’Shouldn’t take me too long.’’ He continued as, with a surge of strength he tossed Bryce into the opposite direction of Modona. ‘’Just.. Last longer than the other guy, okay?’’ Though the fact that the mandroid still got up after this toss meant that he was already lasting longer.
Tolvur quickly walked in the direction of the already standing Bryce and started grinning, moving with an intent close to that of a wolf smelling blood. ‘’Get ready!’’ He said as if he hadn’t already initiated combat with the mandroid by throwing him against a wall. No words were wasted as Tolvur just rushed over to his alleged enemy and threw a ki-enriched fist his way.
Bryce’s warnings went off as this fist having quite a lot of power behind it, and as he dodged it by stepping to the side he smiled widely with a sense of pride, sadly that smile quickly faded as the other withdrew his fist from the hole that had been made, cracking the wall in the process. This strength.. It was nothing to play around with.
‘’My turn.’’ He said, quickly skipping to the side once more before lifting up a single finger to point it at his opponent as if pointing. Energy accumulated rapidly and shot outward in a hail of eight crimson blasts, all aimed for one singular target.
With a grin Tolvur took all of them head on, even dodging into a few just to show he could shrug them off easily. ‘’Something tells me you just get by on speed alone.’’ He mused as he then flicked forward again, this time jumping mere moments before getting close to Bryce. His fist was aimed down and slammed into the ground in front of the mandroid who lifted a single leg and tried to speed away, but before he could do so the cracking of the floor below him shook him a little and Tolvur was able to wrap his hands around the leg that was left on the ground.
He looked up with a grin as if he had Bryce right where he wanted, and started swinging him around by his leg, slamming him into the wall, the floor, and even the remains of Cad next to a frightened Modona. After a few rounds of this blood followed Bryce as he flew through the air as he tried to release himself from the grip.
Tolvur took note of this and began to grip the leg even tighter, crushing the remnant of bone left in it as Bryce screamed in pain. ‘’Pain receptors. Nice.’’ He then focused energy in his arm and slammed Bryce into a nearby wall with force, caving in parts of his face and letting blood flow down the concrete. Then, when Bryce fell down to the ground, the last thing he saw was a boot stomping down on his face. And then it went black for him.
Now Tolvur was able to focus on Modona and grinned. ‘’You have some weak defenses.’’ He said as he squatted and picked up a single chip that fell from Bryce, and was still intact. He studied it before standing up once more and looking at Modona, before turning around.
‘’You’re lucky I like hunting. Go run away and make some new defenses.’’ He said before smashing a hole in the wall outside. ‘’I’ll find you.’’
And like that, a frightened and silent Modona was left surrounded by the corpses of the things she helped create.
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