Evil in you

Resumed Respect

Standing before his Lord's armour, Antti was almost overcome with emotion. It was just so beautiful.

He did not know much about the armour as it was not his place to ask, but he had been unable to stop himself from overhearing talk of it around the household and so had picked up the odd piece of information here or there about it. No amount of scourging had been able to rid him of this knowledge, though not through lack of trying.

He knew that it was old, though that much was certain even without outside knowledge. The world was fallen and craven, thoroughly incapable of producing such a fantastic artifact anymore. It could only be the product of a better, older world. This was obvious.

 Of course, Antti couldn't be expected to know the true history and origin of the armour. He was a simple, poorly-educated man; the sort of man who would never have recognized a Razem 5/7 Personal Protection Apparatus for what it truly was. He had no idea of the wars that had been fought where hundreds of such units had been hurled into battle against one another, fighting and dying in droves for reasons now utterly incomprehensible and thoroughly forgotten. All he saw was a relic, and one filled with divine power. In some ways he was right; it was certainly a relic, and while powerful its divinity was highly questionable.

Antti, slack-jawed with awe, took step after faltering step forward until he was almost touching it. He could see the scorch-marks where the two heathens lying dead on the floor had clearly tried to damage it before falling victims to divine retribution the nature of which he could barely begin to understand. Again, Antti wasn't to know that it was only the covering of his dead lord's blood coupled with the suit's aged and barely-functioning genetic identification sensors that stopped him from sharing a similar fate at the hands of its on-standby active defence systems. He practically jumped out of his skin when the suit moved.

Falling backwards he scrambled away, afraid he had angered it somehow but then, still being alive and unsmote, he slowly raised his eyes again and let out a gasp. The suit had opened up, unfurling like the petals of a flower to welcome the sun, revealing its interior. It was willing to allow one so low as him to enter into it. Antti wasn't sure he was ready, but then he thought of his poor, put-upon Lord and how he had died with his holy work far from done. Standing, he stiffened his back - with a noticeable and wince-inducing 'crack' - and gingerly climbed into the armour.

Sensing the entry of a pilot the armour closed up, sealing Antti in total darkness. Again he felt the fear of unworthiness, which quickly changed into total wonder as the whole world seemed to come alive around him. The soft yet firm and supportive interior of the armour seemed to shift and morph, taking into account his own frail form and adjusting accordingly so that he fitted perfectly. Where once there was darkness there was quickly light, the suit's millions of sensors - mostly still intact - feeding him information and lighting up the whole interior of his world. It was as though he was still standing outside, fully able to see, hear, touch and smell but he knew he was not. Surely, this was miraculous artifact!

He brought up a hand and looked down. The arm of the suit was brought up and flexing before him, his own arm surely inside. Anttii had some experience with clothes, though his rarely hard sleeves. That he should be inside and be controlling such a device seemed dreamlike and unreal, but as he folded the fingers in one after another the reality sunk in deeper. He was in control. Taking a deep breath and trying his best to keep his burgeoning manic excitement under control, he stepped forward.

And it was perfect. All of the aches and pains that plagued his movements normally - all of the shaking and the infirmity that came with age and the corruption of his imperfect flesh - all of that was gone. His steps were sure and confident, perfectly balanced and without doubt. He felt invigorated.

"Did you hear that?"

The voice was so close and so clear that Antti whirled in place. But he was alone. An image grew in front of his eyes; a wire-frame model spinning and resolving itself into clarity. He recognized it at once. It was a model of the house. There was a white glowing dot that he instinctively knew must be himself in his new vestments, and moving up the main staircase was a pair of smaller red dots, emanating small lines.

"I thought we checked upstairs?"

The voice came again and one of the small dots throbbed, vibrating as it ascended. Antti knew what it meant. The armour was blessed with senses beyond those of mere mortals such as himself. it knew the layout of the house and knew that heathens were approaching even now. It could hear them even from here. Antti couldn't help but smile. He turned to face the door, lowering himself into readiness. He had long dreamed of a moment like this. A moment he could prove his faith and dedication through the purest of service: the eradication of heathens. He practically drooled.

"Lyle and Melody checked upstairs. But I haven't heard from them, now that I think about it. I think they said they were looking for-"

They did not finish their sentence.  The moment they stepped into the door-frame Antti shot forward like a bullet. The man who had been speaking simply vanished. His body became a thin mist of blood and vapourised bone that drifted lazily through the air, settling across the armoured plate of Antti - where it silently vanished as cleansing nanomachines did their work - and falling on the startled face of the surviving heathen who snapped out it quickly enough to fall over themselves stumbling backwards.

"No. No! We killed you! WE KILLED YOU! We walked over your body coming up the stairs! No no no no!"

As they scrambled away from Antti their hands found their gun where it had fallen and they fumbled to bring it up. Reflexively, unused to being an invincible god of battle, Antti raised his arms to defend himself. Bullets sparked inches from his second-skin. Harmlessly. Without him even realizing the armour's integrated Kinetic Manipulation Unit threw up a screen that stopped every single projectile dead.

In a second flat the man had emptied his magazine but his finger remained locked down on the trigger, his hands shaking. Antti lowered his arms and, finding himself utterly untouched, turned the blank and impassive face of the armour down towards the man. He shook his head.

The man did not have time to scream.