Libertatem: Origins

Chapter 1: Crystal

I wake up to explosions all around me. I have a throbbing headache so it takes a while for my eyes to adjust; I'm in what looks like an abandoned warehouse. Apparently, they had been in too much of a hurry to clear the whole place; there was stuff everywhere.

"Where the hell am I?" I ask no one in particular, still looking around. Ah, I remember now, I had wandered there in the middle of the night and passed out from exhaustion. The explosions ring out again, this time followed by voices.

"Time to go talk to whoever is making that racket." I think to myself and head towards the voices. Out in the front of the warehouse is a group of three guys, each one holding a gun. On closer inspection I see they each have military grade plasma guns; just my luck. I approach them and clear my throat, catching their attention.

"Excuse me, hi. I'm not trying to be a party pooper or anything but I'm trying to get some sleep here so if you guys would turn down the noise I'd be really glad. Thanks." I turn around to walk away when one of them speaks up.

"Fuck off asshole, you don't tell us what to do. And I don't think you own this place either." I look back to see him walking towards me. He's about six feet, heavy set and quite muscular.

"Not the answer I was looking for." I calmly say and fully turn to face him, staring him right in the eye. "I would hate to get into an altercation with you guys over something as little as this so why don't we just agree to quiet down, huh?" I had just gotten that sentence out of my mouth when a sound from one of the other guys caught my attention. I turned to him only to see a plasma bolt headed in my direction. I was almost too slow to move out of the way, my eyes following it all the way till it just missed me and hit a stack of crates behind me.

"Bad move man. Very bad move." I say, standing up and dusting myself off.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" the first guy replies, "It's three on one, not to mention our artillery."

"How about I just show you?" I'm smiling by now, feeling the power build up in me. Channeling it across my being, I feel my bone density increase as my skin crystallizes into diamond hard armour.

"What the...? Who the fuck are you?!"

Oh, now they want to know who they are dealing with.

"The last being you see before you end up in hell."

These guys were small fry compared to others I had fought but they had shot at me and nobody shoots at Crystal. Nobody.

I'm fully crystallized by now when they start firing plasma blasts at me but with my armour and density maximized I feel nothing. I charge toward the guy who fired the first shot, slapping away blasts in the process and smash into him, sending him flying into the wall ten feet behind him.

"That was for the sneak attack." I growl, then turn my attention on the remaining two, still firing but from vantage positions now, after witnessing what I am capable of. I start making my way towards the nearest one when a rocket slams into me from behind. If my total density wasn't maxed out that would have thrown me a hell of a distance from where I stood. A second rocket explodes in my face when I turn to see who was dumb enough to attack me from behind, clouding my vision for a few seconds. When it clears there is yet another guy standing before me, this one holding a multi-rocket launcher. A low growl escapes my lips as rocket after rocket is launched straight at me. I easily weave in and out of them as my reflexes kick in, making my way toward this new guy. Whoever he was, he was about to learn the meaning of pain. I'm two feet from him when my hand shoots out, aiming directly for his face, and stops just inches from his face, meeting resistance from some kind of force field.