By Howard Donovan & Charles F. Millhouse
Based on ideas created by Lawrence Everett
Based on ideas created by Lawrence Everett
PART ONE
Pain. Twisted metal and death, silence.
The cold, blackness of nothing, but from death, his life was born anew.
Fresh air filled the lungs of Neo Frost. His eyes flung open but his body was strapped down. He could not move and his thoughts were clouded with events that seemed something out of fiction.
Memories of his wife, Rachel filled his vision. Her smile, her hair, and the way she smelled. But good memories became over shadowed by the last moment he saw her. The car wreck came without warning and her face of smiles turned into a horrid bloody mess. Neo wanted to scream, he wanted to roll up into a ball and leave the world to itself. But somehow, for reasons he did not understand, he survived. Or did he? He had felt his life bleed from him and though he should be dead, he was very much alive. It was only when the face of a blue skinned man came into his vision did Neo believed himself to be in Hell.
His vision became filled with more creatures, he refrained from using the term alien, but in his very soul, he knew them to be just that. The room where he lay was bright and shiny; clearly an operating room of some kind, the outlying walls were illuminated with somber white lights that gave the room an atmosphere of tranquility, but the feeling that Neo received was little more than an uproar of horror and he fought to control his fear.
“Are you not impressed Teloka? The procedure went well?”
Neo could tell he was in an operating room of some kind, the beings that stood over him were all dressed in the same kind of uniforms and he could smell a sickly odor in the air.
“Yes Doctor Evalia, his DNA has been successfully intergraded with our own. He is now a complete hybrid,” Teloka told him.
“General Raven will be pleased,” Doctor Evalia said.
“Where am I?” Neo asked in a slurred voice.
“It speaks,” Doctor Evalia, said. Neo could feel his cold hands of the alien doctor on his flesh as he examined him. “Raven won’t like this. Have his memory erased.
Neo struggled, his heart pounded, his head hurt and he did not hear the door of the room open. But it took only moments for him to see the new face in the room.
“General Raven, I’m glad you’re here,” Doctor Evalia said with a nervous tone. “The operation went without complications.
General Raven looked down at Neo. The commanding officer had a ridged face. His eyes were dark and his skin a deep blue. His teeth glistened off the light in the room and he hissed. “We are still in orbit of the human’s planet, have you found me my champion?”
“He is what the Leader has sent us to find. Is he not?” the doctor asked.
“That remains to be seen,” Raven confessed. “Is he the powerhouse the Leader seeks?”
“Please,” Neo said. “What is happening to me? I want to go home…back to Earth.”
Raven looked up at Evalia, “He still has his memories…why?”
“A minor oversight General. We will erase the subjects memories now.”
Raven stood erect. “When the Leader ordered me to search the ten galaxies to find him a new champion worthy of the last, little did I know it would be impossible. Your guarantee of your ability to create me a warrior drove me to create one worthy of the Leader. This creature Doctor Evalia is my last chance to empress our ruler.”
“Do not worry General. The human DNA and our own are quiet similar. The patterns have meshed together perfectly,” Doctor Evalia told Raven. “He will have all the abilities our Leader’s last champion had and much more.”
“But his memories…he needs to remember nothing about his formal life,” Raven insisted. “It is dead and he will never be the same again.”
Evalia agreed: “With an inbreeding of the human and Draconian races the test subject will have powers beyond those of anyone alive.”
“For the love of God!” Neo cried. “Please let me out of this nightmare!”
“Shut it up!” Raven ordered. “Shut it up or I will kill it where it lay.
“My name is Neo Frost!”
“Teloka,” Doctor Evalia instructed his assistant: “Inject him with seven gills of hovaten. That will put him under long enough to instigate a mind wipe.”
Neo’s body tightened, he could feel a whelping of power overtake him. His mind seemed to understand the change that had begun to take place in his body, even if he did not.
“Doctor,” Teloka said with a gasp.
“No,” Doctor Evalia exclaimed. “The final metamorphous has begun too soon. He’s beginning to evolve.”
“Stop it!” Raven told Evalia. “If he is not loyal to me before the transferal he will be uncontrollable.”
“I cannot. Its too late,” Evalia told the General.
Raven, fearful for his safety ran for a communication panel on a nearby wall. “Centurion guards to the lab area…ten fold!”
Neo could feel a change happening within him. His body exploded with power and from it a green hallo formed around him. It was then that he began to understand. He was no longer Neo Frost, but more than he could ever describe.
When he broke the bonds that held him to the operating table, Neo could feel the green protecting him.
“This is incredible,” Neo announced as the hallo lifted him up into the air. “The green protects me, provides me with air, and makes me without a doubt, the most powerful being ever to live.”
When the Centurion guards rushed in, they were stunned by what they saw.
“Don’t just stand there!” Raven commanded. “Kill it!”
“Your weapons cannot harm me,” Neo informed them as weapons fire ricocheted off the green barrier around him. “The green protects me from the projectiles your weapons produce. They are crude…you are crude.”
“What’s happening to him?” Raven asked Evalia.
Evalia paused and did not answer.
“The power that erupts in me is more than you could ever understand General,” Neo told Raven. “But understand this…you will never be able to control me or it.”
“I do not believed that I solicited your opinion,” Raven responded. “I will control you or you will die…its that simple. The Leader wants a champion and I am impressed enough with your ability to give him you.”
Neo landed on the deck of the starship. The green seemed to hum as it encircled him as if it were alive and aware of the danger around its master. “I do not fully understand what has happened to me, or why I did not die with my wife. These are answers that will come in time. But know this, I understand what power I have, for the green has told me. I will never bow to your wishes.”
Raven, with a bold look on his rugged features, stepped close to Neo; the green reacted in a violent manner, shimmering uncontrollably. But Raven did not back down and said clearly: “If I cannot have you, I will destroy you.”
Neo took to the air, the green around him turned dark. He swooped down, attacking the closest of the centurion guards, when he returned aloft; he wore a warrior helmet and carried a guard’s energy pistol. “I look impressive,” Neo, said, “do I not?” He pointed the pistol at the guards and fired. The energy from the blast seemed to be powered by the green and it vaporized the guards into nothing but mist.
“See me?” Neo said as he laughed. “I am Neo Frost: Destroyer.”
Explosions ripped throughout the deck, the fires encircled Teloka and she screamed. Neo without thought for his own safety flew down into the hot flames and scooped her up into his arms; protecting her with the green.
Puzzled Teloka asked, “Why.”
“Because I am not what you think,” he said as he sat her down safely from the fire. “It’s not safe here. You better go.”
“Why?” Teloka asked.
“Because,” Neo told her. “I’m not through.”
Teloka said nothing, as she raced out of the combat area as more guards raced toward Neo, firing their weapons.
Neo, unharmed by the weapons fire, retaliated with a salvo of his own, explosions filled the ship until nowhere was safe.
“You cannot get away with this,” Raven insisted. “I know your secrets, I know how to stop you.”
“Then do so,” Neo told Raven. “For I am not truly alive and I welcome death.”
Raven did not respond, instead he ran from the room with fire on his heels. Neo did not follow. He could hear the green telling him that he would be safe and no harm would come to him. But Neo pleaded to be left alone so he might die along with the ship. But the green refused and when the ship exploded Neo stood in the center of the inferno, only to be left unscathed from the blast.
As the ship disincarnated around him, he watched as the remains of the warship burnt up in Earth’s atmosphere, until only Neo hung over the planet. But before the green could warn neo, an attack from several fighter craft rained down on him and Neo, for the first time felt pain, though not intense, but enough to cause him discomfort.
He fought back, using his weapon to focus the power from the green, Neo was able to destroy two of the attacking ships, but before he could destroy the third, it managed to fire a lucky shot that pushed Neo into the inner atmosphere of the planet and within only moments, Neo had become a shooting star and unable to control his descent.
Neo streaked across the sky, and by this time he had lost consciousness unaware that he had crashed landed into the Earth like a bullet and was smoldering in a crater that he created. He was still protected by the green, but in his weakened state Neo was unable to maintain it around his body. As Neo forced open his eyes he could see two humans looking down into the crater at him. One was only a boy and the other appeared much older.
“What is it Paw?” the child asked.
“Don’t know son…something different…something completely different.”
Neo dropped into unconsciousness.
PART TWO
Neo Frost woke, his flesh trembled and his heart raced. A dream, he thought. He reached over for his wife, but she was not next to him. Neo’s eyes sprung open and in a nightmarish reality he knew he had not dreamt, but he had lived…died with his wife at his side.
When he sat up, his reflection shot back at him from a mirror on a dresser, his skin was dark and hollow and his eyes he could see were not his own. He remembered everything. Dying in the wreckage of glass and steel, being woke aboard an alien craft and his very humanity ripped from him. He had become a hybrid, a fusion of his human DNA and the DNA of a Draconian.
Oh, Rachael. Why didn’t I die with you?
“I see you’re awake.”
Startled, Neo turned toward the voice of a man who sat in a tall back rocking chair. On his lap he held a shotgun. Instantly, the green around Neo came alive, as if to protect Neo at all cost. On a table next to the stranger sat Neo’s barrowed pistol.
“Who are you?” Neo asked; his voice was a bit shaky.
“I’m Holland, you’re in my home.”
Neo scanned the area with his alien enhanced eyes. The room was finely decorated, pictures of family covered the wall; there was a smell of apples in the air.
“How long have I been here?” Neo asked.
“Nearly sixteen hours,” Holland told Neo.
“Why?”
Holland shifted in his seat. “I don’t know. Guess cause you needed help, though I’m not really sure what you are.”
“Me either,” Neo confessed. “You live here alone?”
Holland seemed hesitant to answer. “I sent my wife and son into town when I found you.”
“You have noting to fear from me Mr. Holland.”
“Just Holland, and I’m not sure I can believe you.”
The green shimmered around Neo in protection.
“Then I’ll go,” Neo said and the green floated him off of the couch where he laid.
Holland stood and raised his shotgun. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he said.
The green shot out from Neo and grabbed the shotgun as easily as a hand picking a flower and tossed it aside.
Holland stumbled back in surprise.
“As I said…I mean you no harm but the green will see no harm comes to me.”
“My apologies,” Holland said. “You have to understand, I only...”
Neo shook his head. “I understand,” he said. “I’ll be going I don’t wish to cause you anymore trouble.”
Holland nodded and stepped aside.
Neo’s steps stuttered. “Might I ask,” he said. “Where am I?”
Holland seemed surprised at first. “You are on my farm.”
“What part of the planet?” Neo redefined his question.
“You’re in the United States, Virginia to be precise, near the city of New Miller Town.”
“Virginia,” Neo mumbled. “Thank you…I’ll be…”
“Wait,” Holland said when the sound of vehicles pulled up outside. With a quick look out the window, he told Neo: “Stay here. I’ll get rid of them.”
Neo waited inside the home as Holland stepped outside. While he could not see faces he could hear the voices of several men one voice in particular stood out clearly from the rest.
“Hello, Holland,” the deep dark voice of the man said.
“What do you want here, Reynolds?” Holland asked.
Neo saw the shotgun lying on the floor where the green had tossed it. He wasn’t just frightened of me, Neo thought and the green almost agreed with a light shimmer.
“Now you know why I’m here,” Neo could hear Reynolds. “I’m wondering if you’ve decided on my offer yet?”
“Oh, I’ve decided on your offer Mr. Reynolds. I’ve decided against it,” Holland did not appear frightened.
“Well that’s too bad,” Reynolds said. “I’ve been patient for far to long. Everyone else around you has sold to me. What makes you so stubborn?”
“My family has been farming this land since before the revolution, Reynolds. I will not spit on their legacy by selling out for a shopping mall.”
Neo could hear footsteps on the front porch.
“I saw your wife and son in town Holland,” Reynolds said. “I’ve been waiting for a time to see you alone. Though I didn’t believe today would be that day.”
Neo heard a struggle and Holland saying: “What are you doing? Get your hands off me.”
The green around Neo roared. Neo went toward the back of the home but paused for a second as the green lashed out for the energy pistol, placing it in Neo’s hand. He could hear the struggle out front become more violent.
As if he had done so many times before, Neo took to the sky and flew up high above the home. In the distance he could see the small town that Holland mentioned.
Out front of the home however, Neo saw Holland laying in the gravel driveway, surrounded by several men.
Swooping down through the group the men, the green expanded around Neo like a balloon knocking them all to the ground. Turning Neo fired several salvos of red energy bolts from his pistol igniting the ground between the men and Holland.
One of the attacking men, who still had his shotgun fired toward Neo, but the green dissolved the buckshot like warm water on ice.
Holland took to his feet and slugged Reynolds in the face before he could run.
“Don’t be a fool, Holland,” Reynolds said; blood gushed from his mouth. “Think of your wife and boy.”
Holland stood back.
Reynolds regained his footing and pointed his finger at Holland. “Call off whatever that thing is or so help me to God I’ll take this fight to the next level!”
Holland looked at Neo, who easily held the men at bay. “I don’t have control of that thing. “I’m not its master.”
“I think you’ll find,” a cold empty voice that came from outside the conflict drew everyone’s attention to it. “That I am its master.”
Neo froze; he glided into the air above everyone. “Raven, I thought you were dead.”
The dark skin Draconian smiled; his white teeth glistened with saliva. Standing with him were Teloka and Doctor Evalia. “Come Destroyer,” Raven said. “It’s time to go home.”
PART THREE
Neo Frost was unsure if he still had a heart, he was unsure what they had done to him on that alien ship, but he could feel something thumping against his chest. The arrival of General Raven was unanticipated and Neo, who hovered several feet from the ground, felt the rage of murder in his soul. He gripped his gun, but refused to pull the trigger; he remembered the last time he used it, it disincarnated two soldiers.
“What the hell is going on?” Reynolds asked with a confused tone.
“Shut up Reynolds,” Holland said. “I’m not sure what’s happening.”
“I’m surprised I picked someone like you from such a primitive race Destroyer,” Raven said ignoring the humans.
“My name is Neo…”
“No longer. And if I had had time, you would have had your memory erased. You wouldn’t care about any of this.”
Neo wanted to pull the trigger on his gun, especially when he saw Raven holding one, but still he refrained from it.
“I’ve had enough of this. Kill them all!” Reynolds ordered his men.
Holland dove for cover, the green around Neo turned a brilliant emerald and Teloka shouted. “Your green won’t protect you from Raven’s XO gun!”
Doctor Evalia slapped Teloka down. “Traitor!” he said.
Raven fired his weapon; two of Reynolds’ men turned a shade of silver and then folded inside out.
“Raven!” Neo commanded. “This has to stop. No one else must die because of me.”
“You blind fool. You were created to command the army of the Leader! The most powerful army in the known universe, it’s sad that you must die before your destiny can be realized!”
“Reynolds!” Holland shouted chasing Reynolds and his last thug toward his car. As the car raced away, leaving Holland in the dust, it dawned on him…”My family!” Running toward his pickup truck he looked back at Neo, but did not pause as he jumped into his pickup and raced after Reynolds.
Neo did not see Holland leave, he flew around the blasts from the XO weapon, but still he did not use his gun.
Rocketing skyward, Neo peered back to see Teloka lying in the grass. Swooping back toward the earth, he picked the Draconian female up into his arms and again he flew up out of range of Raven’s weapon.
When Teloka opened her eyes, Neo looked down at her. “Thanks for the help back there.” He told her.
Teloka held her blue forehead. “The XO weapon is not a gun to kill,” she told Neo. “It will convert your molecules into energy…and keep you locked up like a prisoner until he releases you. Not even your green can protect you from it.”
“It sounds like a weapon I ought to have,” Neo said.
“Raven can’t take a chance of killing you. The leader wants a warrior.”
Neo landed in a crop of trees and set Teloka down. “You stay here. I’ll come back for you.”
Teloka reached for Neo, but withdrew when she knew the green would not let her touch him. “You won’t forget me…will you?”
“I told you I’d come back for you. I promise,” he said and flew back up into the sky.
When Neo returned to the farm, Raven had not moved from his spot. “I thought you’d be back,” he told Neo.
“We have unfinished business,” Neo replied.
“Yes,” Raven responded but added, “I doubt this will be our final battle.”
“We shall see,” Neo said. The green extended itself outward encompassing a large tree. It pulled the old hierarchy from the soil and tossed it across the yard crashing only feet from Raven and Doctor Evalia. Neo flew fast and hard before Raven could recover.
Landing on top of the General, the green encircled them both. Raven raised his XO gun and pulled the trigger but it did not discharge.
Raven gave his gun a look. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“Teloka told me that the green could not protect me from your XO gun Raven,” Neo said. “But the Green has been teaching me…it has been ever since I woke with it. With the XO gun here inside the green, it becomes nullified, like all weapons.”
Raven punched Neo in the face, but he did not affect him.
“Do I still bleed?” Neo asked. “Am I still a man, or am I your creature your Frankenstein?”
Raven smiled, “You are my creature of circumstance.”
Neo responded to Raven’s punch and slugged him across the face. While stunned, Neo tore the XO weapon from Raven’s hand.
Neo’s skin glistened, fluttered and radiated like the stars in space. “While I no longer look like a man, I am still human. And though I want to kill you, the human in me questions my thoughts.” He tossed Raven out of the green to the ground and pointed the XO gun at him. “Find mercy in your heart Raven because sadly the next time we meet you will die.”
From above Neo and Raven a small ship shimmered out of nothingness. Neo looked aloft, “Evalia,” he said, and within seconds Raven faded in an electrical haze.
But when Neo took to the air to give chase, the green gave an alarm, warning Neo of danger in New Millers Town. Clenching his face in discuss, Neo let the ship go. He had forgotten about the doctor during the battle it would be a mistake, he promised himself, he would not let happen again.
When Holland stopped his truck in front of his sisters home he saw Reynolds’ car parked partly on the front lawn. A knot whelped up in his stomach as he approached the home; the front door stood open.
Lying just inside the home, Holland saw his brother-in-law. Quickly checking his pulse Holland breathed a sigh of relief to find him alive. It was then he heard the struggle upstairs. Wasting no time he sprinted up the stairs to find his son cowering in the corner of the hall.
“Are you alright?” Holland whispered. The boy nodded yes. “Stay put,” he said and entered the room to find his wife pinned against the wall by Reynolds’ thug.
“It’s about time,” Reynolds greeted Holland with a smile. “Another minute and I was going to let George here have his way with your wife.”
“Let her go,” Holland ordered.
“Or what?” Reynolds asked. “Sign your land over to me and I’ll let her go. If not your son is still in the hall.”
“Ok, ok I’ll sign just don’t hurt them,” Holland begged.
“There, you see. Every man has their price,’ Reynolds said as he handed over the contract.
Holland scribbled his name at the bottom of the paper not taking time to read it. “There,” Holland tossed the paper at Reynolds; his teeth were clenched.
“Fine, fine. George,” Reynolds paused and then pulled his gun up pointing it at Holland. “You can have your way with the Misses.”
Holland took a step forward.
“You’re going to watch Holland. Then I’m going to kill you as your wife watches. As for your son…well lets just say that he’ll get his turn.”
Neo busted through the wall of the home. The green protected him from Reynolds’ gunfire.
Holland leapt toward Reynolds and fought to pull the gun from his hand, but he failed.
Holland’s wife escaped from the hired help and raced over to Holland who lay on the floor, his mouth was bleeding.
More gunshots were fired at Neo, who simply shrugged off the bullets. “You had your chance Reynolds,” Neo said pulling the XO gun from its holster. “You’ll find this more humane than what you were trying to do here.”
“Hey, listen,” Reynolds, said. “I could use you, I wouldn’t need anyone else. Not with your abilities.”
Neo sighed. “You’re no better than Raven,” he said. “It appears stupidity isn’t just a human trait,” and without thought Neo fired the XO gun and in an instant, both Reynolds and his hired hand glistened into digital oblivion.
“Are you alright?” Neo asked Holland.
Holland nodded as his son rushed into the room to be with his parents. From outside sirens could be heard.
“I can’t stay,” Neo said. “But I will see you again Holland.”
Neo exited the house the way he came, just seconds before police burst into the room.
“What happened here?” one of the officers asked.
Holland shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure you’d believe it Jack. I’m not sure I do. ”
EPILOGUE:
“I took me some convincing but the police are convinced that Reynolds and his thug high tailed it out of town when they heard the police sirens.” Holland told Neo as the two walked through the hills of Virginia.
“I want to thank you and your family for keeping my secret Holland,” Neo said. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy to understand, what has happened to me. I’m know I don’t understand it.”
Holland pointed up the hill. “Your friend is up there waiting for us.”
“Teloka and I appreciate you allowing us to live on your land,”
“After what you told me about your creation Neo, and how you suspect it will only be a matter of time before these Draconians come looking for you, it seemed only the right way to pay you back for how you helped us. This cave will make a fine listening post. There’s no higher point in the whole state higher.”
Holland led Neo into the cave.
“And with what equipment Teloka and I salvaged from the Draconian warship we should know when they come within range long before the Earth authorities do.” Neo showed Holland the computer layout and power grid he and Teloka set up.
“Yes,” Teloka said as she joined Neo and Holland. “Because when the Leader sends someone to come and collect you Neo it will be an entire fleet of warships and he won’t leave a stone on this planet unturned until he locates you.”
“And I’ll be waiting Teloka. I’ll be waiting.”
End.
Pain. Twisted metal and death, silence.
The cold, blackness of nothing, but from death, his life was born anew.
Fresh air filled the lungs of Neo Frost. His eyes flung open but his body was strapped down. He could not move and his thoughts were clouded with events that seemed something out of fiction.
Memories of his wife, Rachel filled his vision. Her smile, her hair, and the way she smelled. But good memories became over shadowed by the last moment he saw her. The car wreck came without warning and her face of smiles turned into a horrid bloody mess. Neo wanted to scream, he wanted to roll up into a ball and leave the world to itself. But somehow, for reasons he did not understand, he survived. Or did he? He had felt his life bleed from him and though he should be dead, he was very much alive. It was only when the face of a blue skinned man came into his vision did Neo believed himself to be in Hell.
His vision became filled with more creatures, he refrained from using the term alien, but in his very soul, he knew them to be just that. The room where he lay was bright and shiny; clearly an operating room of some kind, the outlying walls were illuminated with somber white lights that gave the room an atmosphere of tranquility, but the feeling that Neo received was little more than an uproar of horror and he fought to control his fear.
“Are you not impressed Teloka? The procedure went well?”
Neo could tell he was in an operating room of some kind, the beings that stood over him were all dressed in the same kind of uniforms and he could smell a sickly odor in the air.
“Yes Doctor Evalia, his DNA has been successfully intergraded with our own. He is now a complete hybrid,” Teloka told him.
“General Raven will be pleased,” Doctor Evalia said.
“Where am I?” Neo asked in a slurred voice.
“It speaks,” Doctor Evalia, said. Neo could feel his cold hands of the alien doctor on his flesh as he examined him. “Raven won’t like this. Have his memory erased.
Neo struggled, his heart pounded, his head hurt and he did not hear the door of the room open. But it took only moments for him to see the new face in the room.
“General Raven, I’m glad you’re here,” Doctor Evalia said with a nervous tone. “The operation went without complications.
General Raven looked down at Neo. The commanding officer had a ridged face. His eyes were dark and his skin a deep blue. His teeth glistened off the light in the room and he hissed. “We are still in orbit of the human’s planet, have you found me my champion?”
“He is what the Leader has sent us to find. Is he not?” the doctor asked.
“That remains to be seen,” Raven confessed. “Is he the powerhouse the Leader seeks?”
“Please,” Neo said. “What is happening to me? I want to go home…back to Earth.”
Raven looked up at Evalia, “He still has his memories…why?”
“A minor oversight General. We will erase the subjects memories now.”
Raven stood erect. “When the Leader ordered me to search the ten galaxies to find him a new champion worthy of the last, little did I know it would be impossible. Your guarantee of your ability to create me a warrior drove me to create one worthy of the Leader. This creature Doctor Evalia is my last chance to empress our ruler.”
“Do not worry General. The human DNA and our own are quiet similar. The patterns have meshed together perfectly,” Doctor Evalia told Raven. “He will have all the abilities our Leader’s last champion had and much more.”
“But his memories…he needs to remember nothing about his formal life,” Raven insisted. “It is dead and he will never be the same again.”
Evalia agreed: “With an inbreeding of the human and Draconian races the test subject will have powers beyond those of anyone alive.”
“For the love of God!” Neo cried. “Please let me out of this nightmare!”
“Shut it up!” Raven ordered. “Shut it up or I will kill it where it lay.
“My name is Neo Frost!”
“Teloka,” Doctor Evalia instructed his assistant: “Inject him with seven gills of hovaten. That will put him under long enough to instigate a mind wipe.”
Neo’s body tightened, he could feel a whelping of power overtake him. His mind seemed to understand the change that had begun to take place in his body, even if he did not.
“Doctor,” Teloka said with a gasp.
“No,” Doctor Evalia exclaimed. “The final metamorphous has begun too soon. He’s beginning to evolve.”
“Stop it!” Raven told Evalia. “If he is not loyal to me before the transferal he will be uncontrollable.”
“I cannot. Its too late,” Evalia told the General.
Raven, fearful for his safety ran for a communication panel on a nearby wall. “Centurion guards to the lab area…ten fold!”
Neo could feel a change happening within him. His body exploded with power and from it a green hallo formed around him. It was then that he began to understand. He was no longer Neo Frost, but more than he could ever describe.
When he broke the bonds that held him to the operating table, Neo could feel the green protecting him.
“This is incredible,” Neo announced as the hallo lifted him up into the air. “The green protects me, provides me with air, and makes me without a doubt, the most powerful being ever to live.”
When the Centurion guards rushed in, they were stunned by what they saw.
“Don’t just stand there!” Raven commanded. “Kill it!”
“Your weapons cannot harm me,” Neo informed them as weapons fire ricocheted off the green barrier around him. “The green protects me from the projectiles your weapons produce. They are crude…you are crude.”
“What’s happening to him?” Raven asked Evalia.
Evalia paused and did not answer.
“The power that erupts in me is more than you could ever understand General,” Neo told Raven. “But understand this…you will never be able to control me or it.”
“I do not believed that I solicited your opinion,” Raven responded. “I will control you or you will die…its that simple. The Leader wants a champion and I am impressed enough with your ability to give him you.”
Neo landed on the deck of the starship. The green seemed to hum as it encircled him as if it were alive and aware of the danger around its master. “I do not fully understand what has happened to me, or why I did not die with my wife. These are answers that will come in time. But know this, I understand what power I have, for the green has told me. I will never bow to your wishes.”
Raven, with a bold look on his rugged features, stepped close to Neo; the green reacted in a violent manner, shimmering uncontrollably. But Raven did not back down and said clearly: “If I cannot have you, I will destroy you.”
Neo took to the air, the green around him turned dark. He swooped down, attacking the closest of the centurion guards, when he returned aloft; he wore a warrior helmet and carried a guard’s energy pistol. “I look impressive,” Neo, said, “do I not?” He pointed the pistol at the guards and fired. The energy from the blast seemed to be powered by the green and it vaporized the guards into nothing but mist.
“See me?” Neo said as he laughed. “I am Neo Frost: Destroyer.”
Explosions ripped throughout the deck, the fires encircled Teloka and she screamed. Neo without thought for his own safety flew down into the hot flames and scooped her up into his arms; protecting her with the green.
Puzzled Teloka asked, “Why.”
“Because I am not what you think,” he said as he sat her down safely from the fire. “It’s not safe here. You better go.”
“Why?” Teloka asked.
“Because,” Neo told her. “I’m not through.”
Teloka said nothing, as she raced out of the combat area as more guards raced toward Neo, firing their weapons.
Neo, unharmed by the weapons fire, retaliated with a salvo of his own, explosions filled the ship until nowhere was safe.
“You cannot get away with this,” Raven insisted. “I know your secrets, I know how to stop you.”
“Then do so,” Neo told Raven. “For I am not truly alive and I welcome death.”
Raven did not respond, instead he ran from the room with fire on his heels. Neo did not follow. He could hear the green telling him that he would be safe and no harm would come to him. But Neo pleaded to be left alone so he might die along with the ship. But the green refused and when the ship exploded Neo stood in the center of the inferno, only to be left unscathed from the blast.
As the ship disincarnated around him, he watched as the remains of the warship burnt up in Earth’s atmosphere, until only Neo hung over the planet. But before the green could warn neo, an attack from several fighter craft rained down on him and Neo, for the first time felt pain, though not intense, but enough to cause him discomfort.
He fought back, using his weapon to focus the power from the green, Neo was able to destroy two of the attacking ships, but before he could destroy the third, it managed to fire a lucky shot that pushed Neo into the inner atmosphere of the planet and within only moments, Neo had become a shooting star and unable to control his descent.
Neo streaked across the sky, and by this time he had lost consciousness unaware that he had crashed landed into the Earth like a bullet and was smoldering in a crater that he created. He was still protected by the green, but in his weakened state Neo was unable to maintain it around his body. As Neo forced open his eyes he could see two humans looking down into the crater at him. One was only a boy and the other appeared much older.
“What is it Paw?” the child asked.
“Don’t know son…something different…something completely different.”
Neo dropped into unconsciousness.
PART TWO
Neo Frost woke, his flesh trembled and his heart raced. A dream, he thought. He reached over for his wife, but she was not next to him. Neo’s eyes sprung open and in a nightmarish reality he knew he had not dreamt, but he had lived…died with his wife at his side.
When he sat up, his reflection shot back at him from a mirror on a dresser, his skin was dark and hollow and his eyes he could see were not his own. He remembered everything. Dying in the wreckage of glass and steel, being woke aboard an alien craft and his very humanity ripped from him. He had become a hybrid, a fusion of his human DNA and the DNA of a Draconian.
Oh, Rachael. Why didn’t I die with you?
“I see you’re awake.”
Startled, Neo turned toward the voice of a man who sat in a tall back rocking chair. On his lap he held a shotgun. Instantly, the green around Neo came alive, as if to protect Neo at all cost. On a table next to the stranger sat Neo’s barrowed pistol.
“Who are you?” Neo asked; his voice was a bit shaky.
“I’m Holland, you’re in my home.”
Neo scanned the area with his alien enhanced eyes. The room was finely decorated, pictures of family covered the wall; there was a smell of apples in the air.
“How long have I been here?” Neo asked.
“Nearly sixteen hours,” Holland told Neo.
“Why?”
Holland shifted in his seat. “I don’t know. Guess cause you needed help, though I’m not really sure what you are.”
“Me either,” Neo confessed. “You live here alone?”
Holland seemed hesitant to answer. “I sent my wife and son into town when I found you.”
“You have noting to fear from me Mr. Holland.”
“Just Holland, and I’m not sure I can believe you.”
The green shimmered around Neo in protection.
“Then I’ll go,” Neo said and the green floated him off of the couch where he laid.
Holland stood and raised his shotgun. “Don’t make me hurt you,” he said.
The green shot out from Neo and grabbed the shotgun as easily as a hand picking a flower and tossed it aside.
Holland stumbled back in surprise.
“As I said…I mean you no harm but the green will see no harm comes to me.”
“My apologies,” Holland said. “You have to understand, I only...”
Neo shook his head. “I understand,” he said. “I’ll be going I don’t wish to cause you anymore trouble.”
Holland nodded and stepped aside.
Neo’s steps stuttered. “Might I ask,” he said. “Where am I?”
Holland seemed surprised at first. “You are on my farm.”
“What part of the planet?” Neo redefined his question.
“You’re in the United States, Virginia to be precise, near the city of New Miller Town.”
“Virginia,” Neo mumbled. “Thank you…I’ll be…”
“Wait,” Holland said when the sound of vehicles pulled up outside. With a quick look out the window, he told Neo: “Stay here. I’ll get rid of them.”
Neo waited inside the home as Holland stepped outside. While he could not see faces he could hear the voices of several men one voice in particular stood out clearly from the rest.
“Hello, Holland,” the deep dark voice of the man said.
“What do you want here, Reynolds?” Holland asked.
Neo saw the shotgun lying on the floor where the green had tossed it. He wasn’t just frightened of me, Neo thought and the green almost agreed with a light shimmer.
“Now you know why I’m here,” Neo could hear Reynolds. “I’m wondering if you’ve decided on my offer yet?”
“Oh, I’ve decided on your offer Mr. Reynolds. I’ve decided against it,” Holland did not appear frightened.
“Well that’s too bad,” Reynolds said. “I’ve been patient for far to long. Everyone else around you has sold to me. What makes you so stubborn?”
“My family has been farming this land since before the revolution, Reynolds. I will not spit on their legacy by selling out for a shopping mall.”
Neo could hear footsteps on the front porch.
“I saw your wife and son in town Holland,” Reynolds said. “I’ve been waiting for a time to see you alone. Though I didn’t believe today would be that day.”
Neo heard a struggle and Holland saying: “What are you doing? Get your hands off me.”
The green around Neo roared. Neo went toward the back of the home but paused for a second as the green lashed out for the energy pistol, placing it in Neo’s hand. He could hear the struggle out front become more violent.
As if he had done so many times before, Neo took to the sky and flew up high above the home. In the distance he could see the small town that Holland mentioned.
Out front of the home however, Neo saw Holland laying in the gravel driveway, surrounded by several men.
Swooping down through the group the men, the green expanded around Neo like a balloon knocking them all to the ground. Turning Neo fired several salvos of red energy bolts from his pistol igniting the ground between the men and Holland.
One of the attacking men, who still had his shotgun fired toward Neo, but the green dissolved the buckshot like warm water on ice.
Holland took to his feet and slugged Reynolds in the face before he could run.
“Don’t be a fool, Holland,” Reynolds said; blood gushed from his mouth. “Think of your wife and boy.”
Holland stood back.
Reynolds regained his footing and pointed his finger at Holland. “Call off whatever that thing is or so help me to God I’ll take this fight to the next level!”
Holland looked at Neo, who easily held the men at bay. “I don’t have control of that thing. “I’m not its master.”
“I think you’ll find,” a cold empty voice that came from outside the conflict drew everyone’s attention to it. “That I am its master.”
Neo froze; he glided into the air above everyone. “Raven, I thought you were dead.”
The dark skin Draconian smiled; his white teeth glistened with saliva. Standing with him were Teloka and Doctor Evalia. “Come Destroyer,” Raven said. “It’s time to go home.”
PART THREE
Neo Frost was unsure if he still had a heart, he was unsure what they had done to him on that alien ship, but he could feel something thumping against his chest. The arrival of General Raven was unanticipated and Neo, who hovered several feet from the ground, felt the rage of murder in his soul. He gripped his gun, but refused to pull the trigger; he remembered the last time he used it, it disincarnated two soldiers.
“What the hell is going on?” Reynolds asked with a confused tone.
“Shut up Reynolds,” Holland said. “I’m not sure what’s happening.”
“I’m surprised I picked someone like you from such a primitive race Destroyer,” Raven said ignoring the humans.
“My name is Neo…”
“No longer. And if I had had time, you would have had your memory erased. You wouldn’t care about any of this.”
Neo wanted to pull the trigger on his gun, especially when he saw Raven holding one, but still he refrained from it.
“I’ve had enough of this. Kill them all!” Reynolds ordered his men.
Holland dove for cover, the green around Neo turned a brilliant emerald and Teloka shouted. “Your green won’t protect you from Raven’s XO gun!”
Doctor Evalia slapped Teloka down. “Traitor!” he said.
Raven fired his weapon; two of Reynolds’ men turned a shade of silver and then folded inside out.
“Raven!” Neo commanded. “This has to stop. No one else must die because of me.”
“You blind fool. You were created to command the army of the Leader! The most powerful army in the known universe, it’s sad that you must die before your destiny can be realized!”
“Reynolds!” Holland shouted chasing Reynolds and his last thug toward his car. As the car raced away, leaving Holland in the dust, it dawned on him…”My family!” Running toward his pickup truck he looked back at Neo, but did not pause as he jumped into his pickup and raced after Reynolds.
Neo did not see Holland leave, he flew around the blasts from the XO weapon, but still he did not use his gun.
Rocketing skyward, Neo peered back to see Teloka lying in the grass. Swooping back toward the earth, he picked the Draconian female up into his arms and again he flew up out of range of Raven’s weapon.
When Teloka opened her eyes, Neo looked down at her. “Thanks for the help back there.” He told her.
Teloka held her blue forehead. “The XO weapon is not a gun to kill,” she told Neo. “It will convert your molecules into energy…and keep you locked up like a prisoner until he releases you. Not even your green can protect you from it.”
“It sounds like a weapon I ought to have,” Neo said.
“Raven can’t take a chance of killing you. The leader wants a warrior.”
Neo landed in a crop of trees and set Teloka down. “You stay here. I’ll come back for you.”
Teloka reached for Neo, but withdrew when she knew the green would not let her touch him. “You won’t forget me…will you?”
“I told you I’d come back for you. I promise,” he said and flew back up into the sky.
When Neo returned to the farm, Raven had not moved from his spot. “I thought you’d be back,” he told Neo.
“We have unfinished business,” Neo replied.
“Yes,” Raven responded but added, “I doubt this will be our final battle.”
“We shall see,” Neo said. The green extended itself outward encompassing a large tree. It pulled the old hierarchy from the soil and tossed it across the yard crashing only feet from Raven and Doctor Evalia. Neo flew fast and hard before Raven could recover.
Landing on top of the General, the green encircled them both. Raven raised his XO gun and pulled the trigger but it did not discharge.
Raven gave his gun a look. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“Teloka told me that the green could not protect me from your XO gun Raven,” Neo said. “But the Green has been teaching me…it has been ever since I woke with it. With the XO gun here inside the green, it becomes nullified, like all weapons.”
Raven punched Neo in the face, but he did not affect him.
“Do I still bleed?” Neo asked. “Am I still a man, or am I your creature your Frankenstein?”
Raven smiled, “You are my creature of circumstance.”
Neo responded to Raven’s punch and slugged him across the face. While stunned, Neo tore the XO weapon from Raven’s hand.
Neo’s skin glistened, fluttered and radiated like the stars in space. “While I no longer look like a man, I am still human. And though I want to kill you, the human in me questions my thoughts.” He tossed Raven out of the green to the ground and pointed the XO gun at him. “Find mercy in your heart Raven because sadly the next time we meet you will die.”
From above Neo and Raven a small ship shimmered out of nothingness. Neo looked aloft, “Evalia,” he said, and within seconds Raven faded in an electrical haze.
But when Neo took to the air to give chase, the green gave an alarm, warning Neo of danger in New Millers Town. Clenching his face in discuss, Neo let the ship go. He had forgotten about the doctor during the battle it would be a mistake, he promised himself, he would not let happen again.
When Holland stopped his truck in front of his sisters home he saw Reynolds’ car parked partly on the front lawn. A knot whelped up in his stomach as he approached the home; the front door stood open.
Lying just inside the home, Holland saw his brother-in-law. Quickly checking his pulse Holland breathed a sigh of relief to find him alive. It was then he heard the struggle upstairs. Wasting no time he sprinted up the stairs to find his son cowering in the corner of the hall.
“Are you alright?” Holland whispered. The boy nodded yes. “Stay put,” he said and entered the room to find his wife pinned against the wall by Reynolds’ thug.
“It’s about time,” Reynolds greeted Holland with a smile. “Another minute and I was going to let George here have his way with your wife.”
“Let her go,” Holland ordered.
“Or what?” Reynolds asked. “Sign your land over to me and I’ll let her go. If not your son is still in the hall.”
“Ok, ok I’ll sign just don’t hurt them,” Holland begged.
“There, you see. Every man has their price,’ Reynolds said as he handed over the contract.
Holland scribbled his name at the bottom of the paper not taking time to read it. “There,” Holland tossed the paper at Reynolds; his teeth were clenched.
“Fine, fine. George,” Reynolds paused and then pulled his gun up pointing it at Holland. “You can have your way with the Misses.”
Holland took a step forward.
“You’re going to watch Holland. Then I’m going to kill you as your wife watches. As for your son…well lets just say that he’ll get his turn.”
Neo busted through the wall of the home. The green protected him from Reynolds’ gunfire.
Holland leapt toward Reynolds and fought to pull the gun from his hand, but he failed.
Holland’s wife escaped from the hired help and raced over to Holland who lay on the floor, his mouth was bleeding.
More gunshots were fired at Neo, who simply shrugged off the bullets. “You had your chance Reynolds,” Neo said pulling the XO gun from its holster. “You’ll find this more humane than what you were trying to do here.”
“Hey, listen,” Reynolds, said. “I could use you, I wouldn’t need anyone else. Not with your abilities.”
Neo sighed. “You’re no better than Raven,” he said. “It appears stupidity isn’t just a human trait,” and without thought Neo fired the XO gun and in an instant, both Reynolds and his hired hand glistened into digital oblivion.
“Are you alright?” Neo asked Holland.
Holland nodded as his son rushed into the room to be with his parents. From outside sirens could be heard.
“I can’t stay,” Neo said. “But I will see you again Holland.”
Neo exited the house the way he came, just seconds before police burst into the room.
“What happened here?” one of the officers asked.
Holland shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure you’d believe it Jack. I’m not sure I do. ”
EPILOGUE:
“I took me some convincing but the police are convinced that Reynolds and his thug high tailed it out of town when they heard the police sirens.” Holland told Neo as the two walked through the hills of Virginia.
“I want to thank you and your family for keeping my secret Holland,” Neo said. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy to understand, what has happened to me. I’m know I don’t understand it.”
Holland pointed up the hill. “Your friend is up there waiting for us.”
“Teloka and I appreciate you allowing us to live on your land,”
“After what you told me about your creation Neo, and how you suspect it will only be a matter of time before these Draconians come looking for you, it seemed only the right way to pay you back for how you helped us. This cave will make a fine listening post. There’s no higher point in the whole state higher.”
Holland led Neo into the cave.
“And with what equipment Teloka and I salvaged from the Draconian warship we should know when they come within range long before the Earth authorities do.” Neo showed Holland the computer layout and power grid he and Teloka set up.
“Yes,” Teloka said as she joined Neo and Holland. “Because when the Leader sends someone to come and collect you Neo it will be an entire fleet of warships and he won’t leave a stone on this planet unturned until he locates you.”
“And I’ll be waiting Teloka. I’ll be waiting.”
End.
No comments:
Post a Comment