The Fall of the Society

Chapter 17: Forced Training

         Debris showered across the room as the wall exploded inward. Blood and viscera sprayed; Devastator had smashed into the room directly where Dr. Silmot had been standing, crushing her instantly. He stopped and stared around. "Ha," he chuckled as he noticed he had smashed her. "Who are you?" he rumbled in a deep voice.
     Sid smiled, "Thank you sir, saved me some work on that one. Now if you stand down, I will see myself out."
     The rumble of a deep laugh shook the room, causing more debris to fall around the destroyed wall. "I do not stand down, I do as I please, and I like to crush things!" Devastator continued to stare at Sid, "You know, you are a thing." Swinging his massive arm, Sid jumped backward as Devastator's massive fist collided with the wall and a large portion of the observation room crumbled into the training area. Sid took the opportunity and jumped out of the room to the floor below, careful to avoid the debris that was there.
     Staring up at the large man, Sid still had his smile spread widely on his face. "You know they are using you, right?" Another massive hand slammed into the ground directly where Sid had been standing only moments before. "Why the hostility? I had no intentions of even engaging you. If you continue attacking me, I will have to take measures to ensure the safety of my suit."
     Devastator stopped and locked his eyes on Sid. Deep laughter echoed around the massive room, reverberating off the walls. "The safety of your suit?" he asked incredulously. "Why would I care about your cloths! Besides, I have an idea, how about you fight the training droids in order to access if you are even worth my time. Also, since they are "using" me, this will keep you from having to possibly die by my hands. Instead you will die by machines designed for my training." He then strode across the room and pressed a button on the wall. A warning siren sounded, and a flashing red light announced that the wall was opening. Once the door was open, several drones appeared and looked ready to accept orders. Devastator looked at them. "Destroy the intruder!" he commanded. The machines hummed as they crossed the room quickly, drawing long blades out of what appeared to be their arms. Slashing wildly, yet calculatedly, they closed the distance in a tight combat formation.
     Sid smirked as the first one made it to him. It brought both blades slashing from his right. Bending backwards he ducked under the attack, in a smooth motion he slid his left foot away from himself and pivoted his body, coming up facing the automaton that had just passed him. Two more were directly behind him as he jumped and did a looping backflip, landing on the shoulders of one of the approaching drones. He flipped once more, landing in a kneeling position with a dagger drawn in his right hand as well as a small black object in his left. The drones came around and spread out their formation, trying to encircle him. A drone had worked its way behind him and now approached as quickly as it was able. Sid spun low, dragging the tip of the dagger across the cement, leaving a deep groove. His blade began to vibrate lightly as it contacted the automatons metal form, slicing easily through it while causing sparks to shoot from the damage. Continuing his spin, he ducked under the outstretched blade of the damaged drone as it sputtered forward, flailing slightly and came to a stop, its circuits destroyed.
     Another drone had started in at him, hoping to get a surprise attack in before he had finished the first automaton. He parried an incoming blade attack and planted the small black object on its casing. The automaton's cameras focused down at the small object as a light amount of smoke began issuing from around it. Suddenly, electric arced all over the drone as smoke began pouring from its joints, its eyes flashed red, and it convulsed violently. As quickly as it had begun, the drone now stood motionless, with small amounts of smoke still coming from it.
     Two more drones came for him, blades swinging wildly. He parried and dodged each attack easily, as if he knew where the attacks would be coming from before they were thrown. Sid quickly drew a second blade from the back of his jacket and used it as fluidly as the first. Sliding the blade in his right hand up the sword of one of the attacking drones, he swung the second blade from the other side and swiftly removed the sword with a quick twitch of both wrists. The sword clanged to the ground as the drone swung its remaining sword directly for Sid's neck. Swinging his head to the side, Sid ducked and brought his right-handed blade around and caught the drone in the top of its left shoulder, sinking it deeply into the metal. He swung himself over the drone's other shoulder and drug his blade in a circular motion, nearly severing its head completely. The drone collapsed forward as Sid jumped backward to avoid an attack from the drone's partner.
     The remaining of the two drones pulled its right arm back, intending to swing its blade downward forcefully, but Sid spun and kicked the drone square in the center of its body, crumpling its thick armor and throwing it backwards where it crumpled to a heap on the floor. At this point there were two remaining drones standing, one to his left, the other to his right. They began moving at the same moment, but Sid just smirked. He spun and let both blades go, soaring directly into the chest of the drone to his left, which sputtered and stopped. Continuing his spin, he came around to face the drone to his right as it had its right blade pulled back to swing downward. Just before it contacted Sid's forehead, he slammed both hands together on the sides of the blade, stopping its motions, before sweeping his hips and planting the tip of the blade into the ground as he kicked hard into the shoulder joint. The arm came away with a violent crunch, but the drone seemed to not even notice as it swung its other blade low aiming for his body. Sid pushed himself into the air with the leg that was still remaining on the ground and flattened out his body, allowing the blade to pass cleanly beneath him. Upon landing he knelt and scooped up the sword that had been separated and swung it upward, cutting deep into the center of the drone. The drone flailed and swung its remaining blade wildly, unable to move toward Sid.
     Sid casually walked across the open arena to regain his blades as the drone he had kicked regained its combat abilities, the damage he had done completely gone. He also noticed that wires were extending from the drone he had just damaged, they were moving from its shoulder to the blade sticking out of it, hoping to reattach it. Before the renewed drone could make it to him, Sid moved over to the drone trying to repair itself and jammed his blade directly into the top of its head.
     He turned and faced the sole remaining drone, standing in a casual stance, blades to his side. The drone shot forward; blades poised to strike. Slashing wildly, Sid danced easily out of the way of every strike without moving his blades from their position. The machine was pushing itself so hard that its joints began to whine and grind, before beginning to slow down. As the machine slowed even more, Sid smashed his blades into each of the machine's blades, breaking them in half, before jamming a blade into each of its shoulders. Its camera eyes went dark as it stopped moving and shut down.
     Placing both blades in one hand, facing opposite directions, he withdrew a cloth from his pocket and wiped them both clean, before sheathing them. A loud slow clapping drew his attention back to the giant standing on the opposite side of the arena. He was laughing softly as he pulled himself off the wall and began walking slowly toward Sid, kicking debris out of his way as he went without noticing.
     "Very good, you definitely have some skill, I will give you that," the giant said with a maniacal and toothy smile. "That was a very good performance indeed."
     "I am not sure how you get good practice from those things," Sid smirked. "They are only slightly faster than you, and their sword skills where abysmal." He kicked a piece of one of the drones to the side, "Really I did you a favor. Now they will have to design better training equipment for you."
     Devastator scowled at him, "Those were top of the line, nothing better has been made yet. Once they do make something more, I will crush those too."
     He had not expected the giant to get so upset with him insulting the training drones, but it did make sense. Devastator's fragile mental state probably related that the machines were his friends, especially since he likely did not have much human interaction with his mood swings. The giant surveyed the room, looking as though he expected the drones to repair themselves and join him.
     "What did you do to them?" Devastator said with worry in his deep voice. "Why are they so still?"
     Sid did not take his eyes off the man, "You gave me no choice, I had to defend myself. Your actions forced my hand."
     Tears formed in the big man's large eyes, "You killed them! What's worse is you are blaming it on me!" He roared and dust fell from the rafters. Sid had imagined it would come down to this, but he was hoping that he could avoid engaging the giant in combat. He had failed to properly read the situation; he should have known his opponent had been attached to the drones. Standing perfectly still, the giant raged loudly across the open arena, any moment he would attack, his mistake on this day would cost a life.