AvA: Domination

Chapter 8: Design 327

Deserved intercepted. His hand met the stick's and he tried to throw them to one side. The sticks didn't move. Deserved tried to pull his hand away, but the sticks held it firmly. All of a sudden, the stick's hand flew to Deserved's neck. Deserved gasped and choked. The sticks punched Deserved in the stomach, and Deserved shot right over the wall, disappearing from sight.

"What the-" Chosen gaped, aghast. Then, he narrowed his eyes. Lighting his fists on fire, he glared at the stick. "How dare you!" he snarled, and blasted himself toward the stick.

Just as he was about to land a blow on the stick's neck, the stick's hand shot up so fast Chosen nearly had no time to react. He feinted behind the stick and kicked it in the back. Again, the stick tried to hit Chosen, but Chosen anticipated the move and shot away, landing a few feet away from the stick.

Chosen breathed heavily. "Excuse me?"

King spread his arms. "Behold... Design 327." He pressed something on his wristband and the stick stiffened. Its left eye lit up with a strange, eerie glow. Electricity sparked around it.

Chosen stared. "Are you serious?"

"Not at all," King replied, "327, destroy him!"

327 immediately shot toward Chosen. Chosen lifted off from the ground and flew away from the fortress as fast as he could. 327 appeared right where he'd just been standing and caught up with Chosen in one leap, smacking him across the face. Chosen extinguished his fire, dazed. 327 punched him in the gut and he vanished from view.

Just then, a white-hot laser beam propelled 327 back a few feet, engulfing it in a column of pure heat. Down below, Kod Eye concentrated, slightly enlarging the beam. 327 saw him and gathered energy to its stomach. The souls residing within shrieked in unison, unleashing a wave of sonic energy.

"Oh no." Kod inhaled sharply as he glimpsed the sonic waves shooting along his laser. "Things are NOT looking good!" he shouted, diving to one side, avoiding the sonic boom.

King chuckled. His eye glowed white as he stretched out his hand, blocking every one of the enemy sticks from his vision.

As 327 was busy tying Stal's scarf around his own neck, Warm landed nearby and blasted 327 with blazing-hot flames. 327 kicked Stal away and turned to look at Warm, with the fire- which had turned blue- doing no damage to it.

327 walked up to Warm and slapped him under the chin. As Warm flew through the air and out of sight, Kod hurtled out of nowhere and tried to punch 327's head, but 327 caught his hand, forcing it to a stop.

"Let... go of me!" Kod growled, trying- and failing- to free his wrist. 327 kicked him in the stomach, and he slammed into the wall behind him, cracking it and bringing down chunks of stone on top of himself.

Cobalt advanced with his sword. 327 dodged his first two attacks and summoned its own sword: a sharp four-foot blade carved from dozens of Echo Shards. Cobalt leaped back, transforming his katana into a claymore, and smashed 327's oncoming weapon to the ground. As Cobalt dragged his sword around for a swing, 327 got up and put away its own sword, preparing for a melee attack.

Cobalt's swing was too powerful for it, however. 327 was knocked backward into the air. Metale, seeing what was happening, blasted herself up and above 327. She stretched out her hand and retracted it just as fast. Three tiny steel shards shot through the earth and 327's flesh. Metale brought the shards around for another go, but 327 anticipated the move and landed, thrusting a Sculk pillar between it and the shards.

Spartan, however, had other plans. The pillar collapsed as Spartan broke through and punched 327. As 327 charged up a sonic boom, Spartan gathered energy to his entire body, forming a shield around himself. As the snoic waves crashed over him, he shot above 327 and kicked it in the neck.

As 327 fell, it saw Cobalt swinging his claymore up at him. It lunged, seizing the blade, and slapped the handle into Cobalt's face. It smashed the hilt into Cobalt's head a second time, and Cobalt fell to the ground.

Metale gasped and hurled a dozen metal shards at 327. They all stuck into its body... but nothing seemed to happen to it. A whoosh startled her. She turned just in time to get knocked out.

Bit clapped. "Excellently executed, King-"

He stopped abruptly, as he saw Metale's body begin to float off the ground. The same thing was happening to Cobalt's, Kod's, and Stal's, and in the distance, Chosen's, Deserved's, and Warm's bodies rose into the air. The villains watched as the bodies slowly floated up to the top of the wall, where a specific green-yellow-and-black stick stood.

Spartan thrust his hand out to his right, and a portal materialized behind him, sucking in all of the bodies. As Spartan turned to leave himself, he felt something latch onto his arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" King asked menacingly, beginning to reel in the strand of code.

"You... won't... stop me!" Spartan shouted. His eye flowed green, and electricity sparked all around him, ripping the thread in two.

Bit chuckled. "Ah... just like old times, Spartan."

Spartan maintained his hard expression. "Excuse me, I don't think we've ever met."

"I don't think you've met me, but I've met you."

"Well, don't mess with me."

"You can stay. We can-"

"No."

"Oh, c'mon, Spartan, we can talk about this."

"No! Stop telling me to stay. I've already said I'm not going to, okay?! You're lucky that I'm leaving of my own accord."

"Well," King interrupted, "You're staying."

The portal imploded before Spartan's very eyes.

"And there's nothing you can do about it."

The enemy closed in.

"Well then..." Spartan's entire body lit up with green fire. "You asked for this!"

And the mountaintop exploded.