Relic-Verse: Champions of Hope

Chapter 20

-- Part 1 --

The wall burst open, sending rubble debris into the blank white halls of Section 6, followed by Ziro, Sage, Netri, and Creola jumping out and pointing their guns in different directions. The four stood in silence as the dust settled, revealing to them the completely empty hallways.

"Dammit! We were too slow!" Netri growled and slammed his foot into the ground, only for Creola to shake his head and step forward.

"We need to find them, and quickly! If Garvel is allowed to escape then this is all for nothing!" The bounty hunter turned to the others, receiving quick nods from Ziro and Sage as they holstered their weapons.

The group rushed forward, running almost aimlessly through the halls and searching for any sign of life, only to find nothing. Their footsteps echoed off the walls, until they heard the faint sound of someone struggling. They picked up their pace, running towards the noise, weaving through the halls with a unified goal. Finally they turned one last corner and were met with Garvel, who was gripping Alice with his wrist pointed at her head, while her eyes were widened in fear.

"Take one more step, bounty hunters! I dare you! One more step and Alice here gets zapped!" His visor displayed a set of dark red eyes as his wrist glowed yellow. "One more step, and she dies! Now drop your weapons!"

Creola grit his teeth, smoke pouring from his mouth as he dropped his gun, quickly followed by Ziro and Sage doing the same while Netri dropped his knife. "Now give her back."

"Not gonna happen, punks! She is mine! With her alone we can pick up right where we left off!" Garvel chuckled, "Go ahead and tear this place down! I don't care! The future is right here! We can make the next generation! The next step in evolution! Our goals are within our reach, and if you think that a few grumpy bounty hunters and some botanist can stop me, you're sadly mistaken!"

"My eyes may be a little busted, but even I can see your vision is shit!" Ziro glared at the CEO, his eyes flickering to punctuate his statement.

"My vision?! It was never my vision! It was the vision! The only way to preserve humanity! Like you! Cyborg! You would never have amounted to anything, but then we found you! We fixed you! We used your brain to make something amazing! I know you met it! Parebelle! A way for our soldiers to continue serving beyond death, by being put into machines!"

"Wait... You-" Sage stared in shock as Ziro's eyes twitched.

"You did this to me?" The cyborg's voice was oddly calm for the amount of malice within it. "You stole my life and dumped me on the street?"

"We didn't dump you! We never just dumped you! We fixed you! A thank you gift for donating your brain to our future!"

"You stole my humanity?"

"You never seemed to care about that before! We made you better! We removed you from your body and replaced it with a new one, a stronger one!"

"You displaced my life!" Ziro's calm tone vanished as he glared at Garvel, "You tore it away and dumped me out without my memories!"

"Yet it never mattered before it was staring you in the face, did it? You got your memories back, you got your life back!"

Sage gently grabbed Ziro's shoulder, holding him back as he stepped forward, "You truly are twisted. You steal lives and use them up as you see fit! Has it ever dawned on you that people had families?"

"Sacrifices must be made in the name of science!"

"You're right, but they don't have to be innocent people!" Netri opened one of his pouches and threw a set of seeds at Garvel's feet, causing the man to stop before bursting into laughter.