The Minerva Prophecy

04: Defining Moment

The side of the door frame crumbles to the ground and the heavy oak door swings wide open and slams against the wall.

Crystal tightens her grip on the antique lamp she was holding as she leans against the wall, away from the moonlight and into the shadows. She loves this lamp. Originally from her grandma's house, it moved with her from place to place, through college, into her first tiny office, to her corner office, and then finally settled in at her home office. Damn it's such a waste to break it against someone's skull.

But whoever is here for whatever reason, she's not going to be taken down, captured, or killed without a fight.

A tall black figure enters the room. From the soft moonlight outside the window, Crystal could make out his shadow to be someone very built.

Tall she could handle. She's quite tall herself. But muscular? That's a different story. Hopefully he's slow.

He cautiously walks into the spacious office, his head turning from side to side, scanning the room.

Crystal sees this as her opportunity, runs towards him and aims straight at the male intruder's skull. With a loud bang, the glass shatters and the blow create a dent in the steel part of the lamp.

The sheer force sends pain from Crystal's right hand up her arm. This blow was like hitting metal with metal.

However, the shadowy male figure expresses no pain from this. He turns his head around and faces her direction.

Crystal looks at him with utter shock. How is this possible? So, she hits him again, this time right in the face.

Again, there is no movement from him. No response. Not even a flinch. But this time, Crystal could see why. She is standing only at arm's length away and can see clearer. Against the moonlight, the area of his face that she hit is damaged and now exposes metal.

Crystal gasps from the shock, loosens her grip on the lamp, standing frozen as she tries to process this information. This is a robot?

With latex skin hanging off the side of his face, his expression turns from indifference to anger and responds to Crystal's two hard blows to the head with a punch to her left cheekbone.

Stumbling backwards from the sheer force, Crystal starts seeing stars and feeling like she is about to pass out.

She falls to the ground, gasping for air. The side of her face throbbing. Is this where she will die?

He grabs her by the collar of her pajama top and drags her across the room. Crystal could barely recognize her surroundings anymore. Her arms fumbling around for anything she can grasp, she finally finds a bundle of cords for her TV and entertainment system. She yanks it as hard as she can, sending electronic devices flying on to the floor.

Whatever she can grab, she throws it towards his direction. He pulls her by the collar of her shirt off the floor and onto her feet, tightening his grip around her neck until she starts to choke.

Gripping a large piece of glass she seized from the ground, she takes the shattered glass from her favorite lamp and stabs it straight at his right eye.

A few sparks flew out as the eyes happen to be his weakest point.

She can tell he is now furious. His jaw clenches, very human like, and grabs her by the neck and slams her body against the wall. He lifts her off the ground by the neck, her body pressing painfully against the wall.

This is it. Is she going to die? Crystal could feel a tear rolling down to her chin, dripping to the ground.

Fighting to ease the hold he has on her neck, she kicks him as hard as she could between his legs. He looks down to check. No pain. He turns his head back up and smiles, part of his latex face still hanging. Okay, not his weakest part.

He pulls her away from the wall and slams her body against the wall again. She reaches out and starts to pull the latex on his face.

"Stop it, Ares. We're not supposed to kill her." A male voice intercepts.

There is a grunting sound from Ares. Then the hands around Crystal's neck loosens and lowers her down.

Finally feeling her feet back on solid ground, Crystal's knees can no longer handle it. She falls to the ground while gasping for air.

"Who are you?" She finally musters, her voice faint and raspy. Still on the ground, Crystal turns her head up to look at the second person now in the room. "Are you all robots?"

"They are. I'm not," says the man who stopped her from imminent death by robot. He has a distinct baritone voice.

"And who are you? What do you want?" Crystal continues to cough.

By this time, the third and fourth shadowy figures she saw from her surveillance cameras also enters the room.

"For information." The man responds.

"What information?"

Crystal can't imagine what information they would need from her. Her company did acquire a company specializing in robotics last year but by the looks of this "Ares", they are far more advanced than anything she has ever seen. And other than being a founder of a company, she's just a normal civilian.

"That's not for you to know. The only thing you need to know is that you'll be coming with us."

"Where am I going with you?" Crystal is scanning her office with her eyes, wondering how she can escape without getting killed in the process. They seem to need her for something and need her alive. Can she possibly use that to her advantage to escape?

Suddenly, a soft whistling sound can be heard. Barely audible in the beginning but getting louder and louder by the second.

Then a loud bang. Something came smashing through the windows.

Pieces of glass spatters to the floor. Crystal looks around but can't see what object broke the window.

"Ares, hold on to her. Make sure she doesn't escape. Someone from Orion is here."

A pair of cold hands grabs on to Crystal's right wrist, a very firm and tight grip. A subtle warning that if she tries anything, he will break her wrist.

Then, a figure jumps in through the window, crunching shards of glass as his feet lands firmly on the ground. His shadow also shows a tall muscular figure, similar build to "Ares". Crystal wonders if this is another robot.

Themis had said that there are people who want her alive and there are people who want her dead. Well, if these four aren't supposed to kill her, does that mean the one from "Orion" does want her death?

The likelihood of her escaping keeps diminishing. She's sure she is either going to be captured or killed here.

Is this it? Are the people from Orion the ones looking to end me? Crystal couldn't help but to continue wondering if she is ever going to make it out of her office alive.

Trust me. I'm the one here to save you.

Crystal's jaw drops wide open. It's that male voice. That familiar voice that keeps bothering her for the past two weeks. And the owner of this voice is now in her office.