Festering Evil: Shattered Past Book 4

Zamboni of Doom

David just burst out laughing, causing Upgrade to stop the machine from moving for a second. "Why are you laughing?" Upgrade asked the boy.

"I'm sorry, it's just the name. Death Zamboni? Pfft, hahaha! It's just, Oh no run from the Death Zamboni; It's gonna kill us all!" He laughed slapping his knee. "I mean, come on man, you couldn't think of something more threatening?"

"Don't mock the Death Zamboni!" Upgrade yelled with the machine roaring to life again.

"What the heck do I do here?!" He asked.

"Survive.." Upgrade replied menacingly before he shut off the loudspeaker. David jumped on top of a crate looking at the machine. Two cannons faced him as more SIVA fallen headed out of the ground that was close to him, dregs mostly this time. "Disable the guns." He thought to himself looking at the hulking machine as it advanced. He focused his solar energy into his hands again and put on the binoculars in his helmet to get a better shot. However, the fallen who were nipping at his feet were making it difficult for him to aim. David then got an idea, he took some solar grenades and tossed them around him, creating a pseudo forcefield around his body, preventing the fallen from attacking him.

With these precious few seconds, he fired two solar light beams out of his hands and into the cannons destroying them. The center exploded exposing a large glowing core at the center. "David! Bright means destroy!" Geneva shouted to him.

"Right!" He replied firing a blast of solar energy into the center of the device causing a portion the vehicle to explode exposing a part of the platform on the back of the Death Zamboni. David ran up to the back of the vehicle as it plowed through the rest of the enemies that were in its path. The vehicle smashed into the wall that was behind him earlier. Upgrade looked at the vehicle from his bunker; the boy was much more impressive than he could have ever predicted.

"Upgrade this is madness! He's just a kid!" Cameron cried.

"But didn't you tell me that he was a fifth battery that I could exploit?" Upgrade replied turning around to face her. "You threw your own son under the bus, and if he dies, it will be on you." He said putting his finger on her chin. "And that, my dear, is the greatest pain anyone could ever feel." He said with a sadistic smirk. Cameron's eyes began to fade into grief and sadness as tears started to come out of her eyes harder. She raised him from the day he was born, and now she was about to lose him forever.

James was struggling against his bonds to try to get free fighting with more ferocity than ever. "RELEASE ME NOW!" He screamed.

"No, you're in here until I see what your son can do if he doesn't die that is."

"I'LL PULVERIZE YOU!" He replied with tears going down his face.

"Awwww, look, he cares." He said with the second half of his sentence being more caustic. "Big surprise." He said walking back up to the monitor and pressing a button sending the engines of the Zamboni into overdrive. David could hear the metal wall ahead of him begin to creak and break as he hid behind cover. The wall detonated sending shards of metal and soot through the air, covering David's armor. The machine then came to a literal screeching halt.

"Now David here's the deal, you have about ten minutes to get those parts at the end of the pathway, there are three parts that need to be put into the machine so that it will get to the end," Upgrade said over the loudspeaker as a SIVA skiff flew overhead dropping off some troops along with the components.

"And if I fail?"

"You come down with a bad case of the explosions. Good luck." Upgrade said deactivating the intercom. David sprinted off towards the components, using his glide ability to get across the gaps in the pathway. "He made this impossible," David whined as he tossed a few grenades at the SIVA creatures that were guarding the pieces. He tried picking up the smallest piece and struggled to even pick it up off the ground. He was never known for his absurd strength, even when he was a kid.

"Geneva, what do I do?!" He exclaimed panicked.

"Create solar energy clones! Create a bunch of them! Hurry!"

"Ok ok ok!" He said quickly trying to get himself to focus. Shapes made out of solar energy began to formulate out of David's body. Upgrade, and his prisoners looked on as more of these shapes started being created and becoming more defined. Upgrade chuckled, impressed by his nephew again with how powerful he was. "Hahaha! Damn! That's impressive!" He said looking at his brother and sister in law. "Holy crap, I mean, who had those genes in your family? I mean, give that kid some concubines, you have a real winner here!" He said crazily.

James and Cameron looked at each other for a moment then back up to the screen. Both of them could tell what the other was thinking; it was bewildering to them both. His power was far past what they could have ever expected. "James, did you know he was that strong?" Saladin asked him.

"Well, the Speaker and I could both feel the power that he held when he was born. But I never knew he'd be able to do anything like this." James replied to him.

"Well Mom and Dad you certainly made an impressive kid," Nova told her father before she looked back up at the monitor that showed David still creating more solar clones. "Come on little bro; you got this, I believe in you." She muttered to herself. David crossed his legs on the ground as he created nearly sixteen clones out of solar light, with four of them sprinting to each of the components and moving them forward with ease. The process put a massive strain on his mind as it often did when he would do anything strenuous with his light.

The clones began taking a lot of fire from the many SIVA fallen who were close by, taking some damage from them. "David, you need to increase their threshold of tangibility, make them indestructible!" Geneva called to him.

"I'm.....trying." He said gritting his teeth. The clones made their way to the ramp that was heading up to the Death Zamboni, and David looked around hoping to find somewhere to place them. Thankfully he did, there were three empty spaces for each of the components to go into. The clones were starting to become more corporeal as David struggled to keep them in existence. One team of four after another they placed the components into the vehicle.

"Okay David, you're good!" Geneva called to him, David collapsed to the ground in exhaustion as the machine started lurching forward. "David! Get up!" Geneva shouted. David sprang to life looking around to see the machine heading towards him at full speed. He got up on his feet and headed over to the side of the vehicle that was exposed for him to climb to the top of it. He made it up to the back and sat down breathing heavily. Geneva floated to the upper part of the vehicle.

"Uhhhh, David, you may want to get ready to jump!" Geneva screamed.

"What?!" He exclaimed heading up to the top of the vehicle, and his eyes went wide as he saw what Geneva was talking about. It was a drop that was nearly fifteen stories high into a body of water. There was an entrance to a cliff that was nearby at the very bottom. The vehicle was getting to the final meters of the wall, David sprinted toward the end of the tank, going off it and jumping over the edge. The wind blew the bottom half of his robes up as he sped down to the ground using his glide to slow him down as he approached the ground. David turned around and saw the vehicle slam into the nearby ocean. David huffed as the water splashed all over the place.

Upgrade looked at him through the viewing monitor from his chamber. "Well, that was something!" He said eating another handful of popcorn. "I mean, wow! haha! I honestly thought he'd blow up!" He said watching David get up and head towards the cave entrance. "I can't wait until I get a turn with him." He murmured to himself.