Memories of Mechanical Mayhem

"Memories of Mechanical Mayhem"

Ch. 1: Lamentations of a War Machine

 

“I'm sorry.” The last words that entered the mind of a young, blue-haired half-human, half-machine hybrid as he flew off, leaving a slightly older man, wearing what looked to be a torn up lab-coat and something to hide some “questionable features” on the ground, his eyes looked on at him, the man called “Tim” the only person he could remember knowing somewhat and they told him everything he needed to know.

 

>Name: Tim

>Status: Alive

>Race: Beast Shifter

 

He took him away from what looked to be a hazardous area, his memory still shaky as to what caused the hazard in the first place, but it didn't matter to him, the man was safe from harm. He looked behind him to see a burning building in the distance, his scanners locked in on it.

 

>Subject: Outback Science Facility.

>Status: Destroyed

>Signs of Life: Negative

 

His scanner quickly told him what he needed to know, without any kind of knowledge as to what the heck was a “Outback Science Facility” or why he needed to care about about the signs of life, he quickly remarked to himself.

 

“What a shame..” the young cyborg said, his tone solemn over seeing a building like that up in flames. Although it did fit in well with the rest of what was going on outside the area. Firefights were happening around every corner of his eye, explosions and screams could be heard and seen for miles, his mind raced, what on earth kind of place had he been in?

 

Trying to get his barings, he landed down on the least torn-up area to calm himself, try and figure out what was going on and why everything was supposedly going to shit, but before he could even try and get any kind of information of sorts, he was greeted with a set of men yelling behind him.

 

“STOP!” One of them yelled, realising he could be the only one they were referring to, it was best to do as they said. “Turn around!” Following the man's orders the cyborg turned around, seeing what looked to be a squadron of 6 men in fully blackened up army gear, carrying what appeared to be the latest of high-tech special forces weapons, their squad leader was no different.

 

“Well men! It looks like we've got quite the gold mine here! We've found the Outback Army's secret weapon!” Secret...weapon? The cyborg questioned himself with that statement. What on earth could they mean by secret weapon or for that matter what the hell was the “Outback Army”

 

“Men! Secure the prize! We don't want old man bone's newest treasure to be hurt, do we?” As he said that, he signalled for half the platoon to make their way towards the cyborg. Scared and fearing for what may happen next, he lifted up his right arm and willed it to shape-shift back into the arm-canon he has used to escape previously.

 

“D-Don't shoot!!” He said, his semi-robotic voice shaking as he lifted it. “Don't shoot!! Or...or I'll shoot all of you!” The general and his men laughed at that notion, not even hesitating a moment to mock being scared at him.

 

“You really think we're that green kid? Do you not realize what we've been doing out here for the past few months or even years? We've taken greenhorns like you out like it was nothing, heck we've even destroyed more than our fair share of bases. And you wanna know how we did it? Without fear.” The general said, pointing for his men to stand down as he continued to verbally abuse the cyborg.

 

“Now back at you, Greenhorn. Look at your stance, you're shaking like a man who's taken one too many cups of coffee, your voice is getting squeaky and you're shouting and trying way too hard to be menacing, not to mention your little pea-shooter on your arm can't really do much if you're just gonna aim it all willy nilly like that! Son, do you really think we're gonna back down from you with all that?” The general finished, signalling for them to continue walking towards the cyborg.

 

“I-I mean it! I will shoot! Don't you tempt me!!” the youth said, backing up as much as he could to try and gain distance. “I'll shoot each and every one of you!!” He started to panic, his laser almost seeming like it was about to charge and fire, the general and his men just continued to move towards him easing along slowly.

 

BANG! A muzzle flash and gunshot came from the platoon, silence was heard afterwards as the youth slowly but surely crashed onto the ground, his eyes going blank and a smoking hole could clearly be seen on the forehead. The platoon general was understandably very upset.

 

“Goddammit Soldier! I told you not to harm him! We have to take him back to our leader ALIVE you hear me!!” The general said, berating a trigger happy soldier in his group.

 

“I-I know sir! B-But, I couldn't help it this time! My f-f-finger slipped on the gun and I couldn't get a grip onto it in time to stop it!” The nervous soldier told his general. Obviously anxious over the repercussions of what would happen.

 

The men who went to go and capture the youth moved forward to check up on him, to see if he was still of any worth to take in, they checked every source they could, even looking in at the hole in his head. And then, without a seconds notice, the machinery started to whirr up again, the circuitry and power began to flow into the youth's systems once more. But only, it wasn't the same nervous youth that they had faced off previously, it was something different.

 

The eyes powered up and instead of the regular green on the scanner, the colour was replaced with a more menacing red. The cyborgs screen then said.

 

>EMERGENCY PROTOCAL: “LIFESAVER” ACTIVATED

>WARMACHINE MODE IS NOW ACTIVE

 

And then, without any time to react, the arms of the cyborg lifted up to grab both the men by their necks, choking and squeezing them as he got himself up, the general still pre-occupied by berating his men did not notice this.

 

“Um...sir?” The nervous soldier said to his leader. “What?!” The general said angrily. But all the underling had to do was point behind him and the general turned around. And in shock, he immediately called out; “FIRE AT WILL MEN!!”

 

What happened next became a blur of bullets and fire-fight, the cyborg crushing the necks of the men he had in his hands like they were soda cans, throwing them to the ground as he rammed through the barracade of men that began shooting at him, pounding his metal fists into the bodies and faces of the men that were shooting at him, his thoughts being conducted by what was said on screen for him to do.

 

>HOSTILE SOLDIER

>KILL

>HOSTILE SOLDIER

>KILL

>HOSTILE SOLDIER

>KILL

 

Those orders repeated on his screen at an almost abnormal rate, looking at the men as prey for him to slaughter, like it was some kind of video game and his objective was to kill all of them and they'd just respawn.

 

Except, they never did re-appear, they remained there in the bloody mess that the youth had made, until every last soldier became super-imposed into that bloody mess of a pile. Until one lone man remained, the general that led the charge to get the cyborg soldier. And while he knew that he was the only one left standing, he knew better than to run away, so he tried his best to charge and get the youth off his balance.

 

But the youth didn't appreciate that. And as the general charged towards him with a yell, the youth simply choked him out, sending him to the ground. The General could be heard yelping and begging for his life, the choking making it hard for anything to be heard. But the emotionless cyborg didn't hear it and did the worst thing to him.

 

First, he pinpointed his fingers onto the neck, The General feeling it on his neck as he cried out “I'm Sorry” over and over to no avail, silence was then heard as the blue-haired soldier tore out his vocal chords, so nobody could hear him scream and then broke his back so he couldn't walk away. And as he tried to crawl away, the youth simply used the tiny “pea-shooter” that the general called his arm cannon, and used his to dead-eye shoot him in the head. The blue-haired cyborg looked on at the body, confirming his death before lunging off into the battlefield once more.

 

The cyborg, still stuck on “WarMachine” setting, simply rushed off, getting out of the bloody mess that he had made and tried to get away from this area. But all he could see around him was the same thing as before. Dead bodies, bullets and explosions flying everywhere, screams of men and women dying all over the place. It kept him in that war setting with everything setting off the alarms of his mainframe.

 

“There he is mates!” A voice shouted out in what appeared to be the distance. “That's the test subject that apparently escaped and destroyed our facility! The one those madcap brainiacs told us to look out for! Let's take the 'ol fella back!” The accent and the different kind of Militia-styled uniforms they all wore, it was shown that they were representing the Outback's army.

 

His programming however, didn't recognise them. Since the scientists had left the programming of determining who was okay to kill and who was not when it came to soldiers til after the youth had recovered from the experiment, it didn't show that they weren't hostiles, all the screen said was.

 

>MILITIA SQUAD DISCOVERED

>HOSTILE ENEMIES

>KILL

 

 

Complying with his programming, the youth proceeded to power up everything he could against them, lunging forward like a feral beast against them, pounding and beating away, firing sureshots against the ones shooting from far off distances, leaving no trace of any of The Outback's forces in the area with even a small significance of life.

 

It was at that moment, as the youth left the pile of destroyed and bloodied up soldiers, that he became an enemy of both sides, he had relentlessly slaughtered both Empire and Outback soldiers, all in the name of survival. Both sides knew he had to be destroyed.

 

But even then, the young youths rogue programming had him going after any soldier he could see, his programming told him they were all hostiles, anything wielding a gun or any weaponry that he saw needed to be destroyed. And he complied, every soldier he saw, everything with a gun or a weapon he could find, he lunged at, killing without remorse, almost to the point of monotony, after all, it's what he was made for.

 

His role as a killing machine on the battlefield was made apparent with all this. And the youths human mind was slowly waking up and realising what was happening. His programming was still in control, so he could only sit inside his shell like a ghost and experience it. Mentally, he was screaming for his body to stop it, but it did no good, he was locked out of his own system. And nothing he could do could shut the protocol down.

 

It was like something out of a horror movie, only the youth had to experience it first hand. Until suddenly, a strange, yet familiar voice, could be heard getting closer.

 

“Bradley! Stop it!”

 

 

It had been a long night for the half-human, half-feling hybrid. After witnessing the facility that he had spent the last 2 and a half years of his life working for, seeing countless experiments fail and succeed before his eyes, spending so-many sleepless nights wondering if it was ever doing any good...all to see it go up in flames by the facility's last experiment.

 

Looking over at the now smouldering ruins of the place, Tim looked at the ashes that once contained various experiments, many scientists whom lived there and the generals who took control of the place once the war truly kicked in. He looked around every stretch of it, trying to see if he could find something of use.

 

But there was something that stood out amongst the ashes, the rubble and the rest of the ruins, something seemingly untouched by everything else around it. A metal door on the ground, seemingly welded in.

 

On the side of it was a touchpad which was hooked into it, with a symbol indicating that it needed an ID Card in order to access. Tim frantically searched his pockets, hoping he was lucky enough to not throw that away, he searched every single one until, voilla! The Card appeared in his back-pocket. Not wanting to make a quip about it being in the last place to check, he quickly scanned his ID Card in and with a distorted sounding voice, the door said; “ACCESS GRANTED.”

 

The metal door then opened up, revealing a ladder down a dimly lit pipe. Getting more and more curious by the second, Tim began his descent down into the depths of the facility's secret vault. The sound of dripping could be heard as Tim made his way further down, a mysterious stench filled the air, quickly getting on his nerves as he continued, the lights getting dimmer and dimmer, obviously a result of the destroyed facility.

He finally felt the ground. It was the same kind of feeling that the door was made of, the whole place felt of it, it was as if the underground facility was built soley to last a blast and attack like what happened before. Tim trudged on, going through the underground portion with ease until he hit another door. This one didn't require an ID Card, but it did scan Tim's body for access. As it finished up on Tim's body, the door's slowly opened, and what was inside left nothing but a bad taste in the Beast Shifter's mouth.

 

The place was a mess to start off with, it looked as though the room had been the home of a maniac scientist, something out of a monster movie. The walls and floor were covered in blood, the tables filled with samples and rusty equipment, he even found some blueprints and notes regarding the Overman Project that he stashed in his pockets for safekeeping but that was all cosmetic. The true disgust came from what he found in the corner of room.

 

It was a rack and hanging on it were all of the experiments that came before Bradley, human soldiers with deformed appendeges, bloody splotches all over and sewn up cuts all over of different stages could be seen as it showed how closer and closer they got to creating and perfecting the Overman Project. Every single face, every subject, every body he saw before him, he knew them all, he saw them all doomed to their fates and never to be seen again, much like how he had pictured Bradley before he became their Overman

 

The vision of the kid in the waiting room, a scrawny lil wannabe soldier wanting to be made of use, looking up at Tim, smiling at Tim. It flew through his head as he looked at them all again, appalled at seeing their mangles messes of bodies hung up like that, he scrambled quickly outside of the sickening room and into the war-torn battlefield, looking on at the facility one last time before heading off into what he knew as the unknown.

 

The piles of bodies and pools of blood didn't look like anything he'd see in a regular warzone, the injuries didn't look like bullet holes nor did most of the bodies, whatever was left of them, seem to be killed by regular means. They looked, abnormal for a warzone such as this.

 

“It's him...he's already been through here.” Tim said, piecing together what may have happened when he was still asleep following the escape. He recalled something he skimmed over at he ruined facility's underground vault about his programming called the “WarMachine Mode”, he tried to remember what he could about the subject, pulling out the documents he recovered, looking over at the notes, the scientists made this part of the programming a central key feature in what would be apart of the Overman Project.

 

What he read was that the mode turned the subject into a near-unstoppable killing machine, focused on taking out any kind of enemy soldier that they can see, it was to be apart of it's programming that the generals could activate at any time, allowing for The Outback to be set on the path to dominance in this war.

 

“But...these aren't just Empire soldiers. I can see some of The Outbaaaaa-ck.” he said to himself, covering his mouth as he accidentally let out a sheep noise at the most inopportune time. But he knew what this meant..

 

“The programming must've gone awry.. Which means..' Tim stopped himself as he tried to figure out what may have happened, too scared to even come up with a conclusion to what Bradley could've done.

 

 

 

All Tim could do was follow the trail of blood and destruction, it didn't seem like there were many soldiers to try and take him down, any that were still barely alive were only on the verge of death, it was a depressing thought to try and swallow as he continued on, slinking into the darkness as the sounds of screaming men and bones cracking began to sound off, Tim looked on as the scene that played out in front of him left him with nothing but shock.

 

It was Bradley or rather, it looked like him. No matter what was happening next Tim had to remind himself that it only LOOKED like Bradley, but it wasn't him. He was pounding away furiously at a group of scared and paralyzed rookie soldiers, pounding away at them as if he was tenderizing meat at a supermarket meat freezer.

 

His body, once clean and freshly done up, was now covered in all kinds of blood, mixed in with his mechanical structure, it was hard to look at it, comparing what he saw that first time in the waiting room, the smiling face of an innocent kid soldier to the bloodied up, expressionless face that was pounding on those rookies. It tore up Tim a bit.

 

He couldn't stand it, the image of that innocent kid smiling flooded his head once more, he needed to find a way to bring it back, this wasn't his Bradley, he didn't want this monster that seemed to be posing in his body. With all those thoughts in his head, he couldn't stop his actions.

 

He lunged forward with as much velocity as he could and ran towards Bradley as fast as possible and then, in one moment, tackled into the hard body of Bradley screaming; “Stop it!!”

 

He looked at the face, the face of the kid that he saw what seemed like a long time ago now, gone was any kind features that could maintain his innocence, lost in a sea of blood and dirt on his face, his hands covered in red as well as his chest. His body looked like he was sent from hell itself. But even still, Tim looked into him and said.

 

“Bradley, it's me... Tim. I know that your programming is probably telling you that right now but I need to tell you who I am.” He said, trying to keep himself as focused into Bradley as he could. “Somewhere in that head of yours, there's a human memory. That memory should have something relating to me, to before you became this, before they experimented on you...” he continued, holding back whatever emotion he could to stay focused.

 

“In that memory, should be me...and you. Meeting and talking and just getting you ready to be tested and experimented on...” His voice shuddering, shaking a little bit as he continued on. “You telling me, how you wanted to be useful, how you went through all of your training with your unit...you telling me why you joined the Overman Project..”

 

Tim couldn't hold it back as he reached the next bit, his voice shuddering even more as he remembered that smile. “You said I was a good person...And I believed you...” he looked dead into the cyborgs eyes as he said that next part. “I believed I was a good person...and I came looking for you to tell you...” He said again, trying to make out the words without breaking.

 

“Thank you..”

 

 

The cyborg kept scanning Tim as he said all of that, all that came up on screen was from before.

>[Name: Tim]<

>[Side: Outback]<

>[NOT HOSTILE, DO NOT ATTACK]<

 

The cyborgs programming told him not to attack, but hearing all of what Tim was saying set off something within the now fully awoke human part of his mind. Something that was previously blocked out, something that he was able to faintly make out, but it seemed so familiar to what Tim was saying.

 

“We--, g--ss that's -t, h--? T-h-ks for list--ing to -- th--e pa-t few w--ks. You're a good guy.”

 

The last few words were the only thing that could stick out. The blurry image of a black haired scientist talking with him started to come into focus, revealing the familiar face of the man known as Tim.

 

“T-Tim...” Brad said, in an almost human voice. His system beginning to shut down again following that. “I-I'm..sorry...” The youth said before planting onto the ground in another powered down state.

 

Brad's limp, mechanical body laid flat onto the ground in which Tim stood next to, Tim completely dismayed as to what just happened, reaching down and trying to shake him or anything just to get him awake again.

 

“Bradley! Bradley for the rainbows sake! Not here!” Tim said, screaming out to try and wake up the cyborg youth. It didn't appear to be doing much however, the frightened Beast Shifter just kept on shaking his friend, knowing that at any moment there could be fire-fights from either side waiting to take them both out, even if it meant killing the Overman Project.

 

What felt like an eternity left Brad powering back up, however slowly, back into his original state, the lights of his systems began to glow and the scanner returning to it's usual Green. With a quick jerk up, accidentally hitting Tim on the way up, Brad was awake.

 

“T-Tim..” The cyborg said, looking over at the former scientist with a timid tone. “I remember who you are now...” He continued, looking with a face of confusion. “You were apart of the project that turned me into....this.” he looked at his arm, slowly moving his hand.

 

“I'm sorry Bradley... I should've told you when you woke up..but there wasn't enough time.” Tim said, trying to comfort Brad as he thought he felt somewhat betrayed over everything. “Remember? We had to get out of there...or something worse would've happened for sure..”

 

“Tim...” Bradley said, stopping Tim mid-sentence. “I'm not upset at you. My scanner says you were only a lab assistant, you didn't have any part in making me who I am right now other than to check in with me every week or so before the procedure happened, you couldn't do anything except play your role.” he said, looking over with that expressionless look as he said that, but saying it all with a sense of relief to Tim's head.

 

“The ones who I should be angry at are the ones I've spent the past...however long I've been rampaging, killing off and blowing up. Those damn Outback scientists are nothing but burning charcoal now, their soldiers primarily are already dead.” He tsk'd, looking over at the rookies he previously beat up. “And that damn Empire as well! Those two factions made me this because of their ongoing war that never seems to end!” he yelled out, his anger finally getting the best of him.

 

“And for what?! Just some territory?! Defending their land?! Expanding the world?! What the fuck kind of dark ages philosophy is that?! I mean, if the Outback did something wrong, I could understand! But the Empire just wants to wipe them all out just because they can!” Brad said, continuing his rant. Tim looking on as he see's the first hint of pure anger come from him, not forced.

“And the Outback isn't any different! They see many of us as expendable! They guilt us into giving up our lives just so that they can hold onto a piece of land?! Killing off so many innocents just so that they could create me?! I feel disgusted even thinking about that!!” he said, angrily kicking the ground in a fit.

 

“Well, I've had enough of playing their game! Being their pawns! Being manipulated! Being forced against my will to become a monster just for the sake of victory!!” As he said this, he grabs Tim's arm and pulls him towards himself. “You're coming with me, we're escaping this damn wasteland. This fucking hellhole!”

 

Tim looked at the kid he saw evolve over the past few days, seeing the determination and anger in his face, knowing that having seen all of this and knowing that he had to be forced into everything he had witnessed. But he also thought about his own way of returning to his life, now that the facility had been blown up he no longer needed to be an assistant. He could return to being a shepard.

 

“Tim.. I know, what I'm asking of you is a lot. But I wouldn't be asking for you to come and help me if I didn't need your help.. You're the only person whom I would really call a friend with everything that's happened... I need you..” Brad said, his voice calming down to try and convince Tim to join him.

 

“Bradley..” he said, stopping himself hesitantly. Looking away from Brad to think about what might happen next. Until finally.. “I'll come with you.”

 

Brad simply smiled, looking over at the scientist he had come to know as a friend. “Let's get the fuck out of here then.” Brad said, powering up his rockets and keeping Tim close as they began to fly off, a small crater of where they took off being left behind as they legged it out of the warzone.

 

But before they could make it far into IGNOLand territory, they were greeted by the view of a whole new barrage of Empire soldiers, waiting for them to arrive. Knowing they'd both be sitting ducks if they continued flying, Brad set down in the nearest possible cover he could, just for the moment. He had to think fast, there were so many of those soldiers and he couldn't take them all on by himself, Warmachine mode wasn't active so he couldn't go ballistic on them like before.

 

“Tim.. We gotta leg it. If we get caught, get behind any cover you can. I'll take 'em.” Tim simply nodded as they both slunk into the darkness, trying their best not to be seen. The soldiers kept on searching every kit n caboodle trying to find them. The radio's constantly getting word of “a blue-haired warmachine and a beast shifter ex-scientist who were last seen at the main battlefield.” They were wanted by the Empire and they knew nothing would stop their soldiers from trying to find them.

 

“Quick, we gotta get outta their sight as soon as possible.” Brad whispered, dragging Tim along at this point, trying their best to not make any sudden movements or sounds when they heard the voices of the Empire's men. Tim's heart was racing, Brad was going hectic. They both knew if something went wrong, it'd be game over.

 

And almost as if on cue, a soldiers cry as he called out; “Hey! I found something odd!” as he looked inside where Tim and Brad were currently hiding out. Brad panicked, he said for Tim to leg it, knowing what he'd have to do.

 

“But, what if I can't get out? What if you die?! What if-” Tim worried, knowing full well they'd both be fucked over if something went awry in this panic mode situation.

“We'll regroup okay? There's a hut a few miles away from here, recon there. If I don't make it outta here in about 45 minutes, go on without me. And that's an order.” Brad said, giving Tim the order to get out of there. “And Tim, if I don't make it. Thanks for everything.” he said, giving off a smile of encouragement as Tim ran off.

 

Now all alone, Brad had to fight off the gunmen all by himself. His blaster charged and ready to fire, he leaped out of the hiding spot, a shot being fired from the soldiers gun, barely scraping the side of Brad's head, lunging at said soldier and disarming him before and shooting him in the legs, instinctively grabbing the high-tech rifle he had on his person. “

 

All that boot camp training's coming to good use now.” He quipped, not giving himself much room to make snide remarks as he looked forward at the large-sized army that laid before him, the Empire's best men were sent to bring him back, but he didn't want to fight, all he wanted was to get out of here. So he did what he thought he could only do. Negotiate.

 

“Legions of the Empire! I am not here to fight! I only wish to move forward and escape this endless cycle that you all call war. I have only disarmed and crippled one of your soldiers as an act of defence, but if you do not let me pass I shall not hesitate to take you all out if it means I can pass.” He said, looking on at the mass soldiers who began to swarm, all of them shouting at him in retaliation.

 

“Consider this your first and only warning, either let me pass and you all leave with your lives. Or you all wind up like this poor soldier right here, maybe even worse than that.” His now cold and emotionless tone resonated with them, as if to tell them; “It's been hell for me today, I don't want anyone else killed.”

 

But the soldiers couldn't care less, their orders came straight from the Konungur himself to eliminate the Beast-Shifter and bring the cyborg back to the Empire, even if it meant the human part was fully dead. As such, they refused his offer of surrender and went back into the fray, charging at Brad and readying themselves.

 

“Suit yourselves. I tried to save you.” He said, the cold tone returning as he charged himself and the weapon he obtained ready to fight, wasting no time to spare as they charged to go balls-deep into the group, he may not have the animalistic instinct of WarMachine mode any more, but it didn't stop him from using his new-found strength to go in on the assault physically.

 

The rampaging cyborg from before may have been gone, but it allowed for Brad to think more strategically, as he rammed through the huge army, the charge on the rifle and his arm cannon allowed for him to strike enemies on the side who were trying to swarm onto him. The Army kept on coming though, they needed to bring him back no matter what. Swarming and overpowering him at every point

 

Brad kept pushing on though, he needed to get out of here no matter what. Then suddenly, as if a sign of help, a flashing symbol appeared on screen that read;

 

>[BLASTERS AT FULL CHARGE: SHOULDER CANNONS READY TO FIRE]<

 

Shoulder cannons? He then noticed the large metal spike shoulder guards on his sides, thinking over what could happen now. He got an idea that could get him outta here. Pushing through the ever swarming army men and zooming off into the air, he left enough distance to the ground, opened up the cannon's shielding and aimed them straight for the rest of the soldiers on the ground.

 

Gritting his teeth for what he knew he had to do, Brad fired on all the Empire's men, with a shot so wide it took out a fair majority of the men who were going after him, frying them in almost an instance into tiny grains of ash, the ones who got missed by the shot were lucky, but too shaken up to do anything more given the lack of numbers now.

 

Having exhausted his charged up power, Brad simply shouted out; “If you wish to continue attacking me I will not stop until you are all like that! I will be leaving, to those who wish to follow in the fates of those fools, I will not stop you. But you will have sealed your fates.” he said before flying off once more to meet up with Tim again at the hut he mentioned earlier.

 

The beast-shifter waited inside, shivering like nothing else after everything that happened. Seeing all those bodies, the people he sent off to die in that underground part, Brad being a monster and having to escape and slink away from those army men, it all seemed so surreal and too much for him. Brad entered, out-stretching a hand to the shaken up former scientist, Tim grabbed it, knowing it'd be safe now to try and get out of there, while they still could at least. Exiting the hut and flying off once more.

 

What appeared to be a long night for the both of them had seem to come to an end, the sun beginning to rise within the distance, as Brad flew into the main territory of IGNOLand, someplace where he had never been before. The chillier breeze of the place left Brad feeling the difference almost immediately as they flew in, Brad let Tim off at a small little town in the outlands, telling him he was gonna try and find somewhere they could hole up for a while, maybe even permanent, before flying off solo.

 

After flying around IGNOLand's main area for a while, Brad discovered something...interesting. It was a huge, metallic-silver temple, with strange designs covering it's outside, it looked as though it had been here for centuries. Chinking his fist against the temple, the ancient structure recognised a being of it's same element and opened up it's large structure. Brad backing away as the door slowly opened up, revealing something different than what he was expecting.

 

Inside the large structure, there seemed to be a large ancient temple with years old tech scattered throughout. Circuit-boards and wires covered up the insides of it in patchwork, every wire that was glowing with electricity was frayed, strange markings surrounded the inside, it was almost impossible to decypher, it seemed to have not been active for years. And in the middle of the temple, was a station with two O shaped ports.

 

Brad, moving forward to it, noticed how large enough it was that it could fit his arms into it. “Maybe...if I...” And without any asking he plunged his arms into the station. A large yell could be heard as his body began to become one with the temples mainframe, his arms acting as the connector between the two parties, his screaming went on for several minutes before finally, something started to work in his head, the body arching forward.

 

Inside Brad's head, he saw a bunch of jumbled up code, looking like an ancient language, much like the markings in the temple, it almost seemed like it was trying to communicate with him and slowly, but surely, he began to understand what they were saying..

 

“We've...been...wait.iing...for...someone...to..open up...the...temple...” It began translating into his head. “Our knowledge...of...mechanical expertise...has been...locked up..for eons......As a gift...for finding us...we...will transmit...this knowledge...to you...” And without a millisecond more, the shocks began again, transmitting whatever knowledge the ancient machines had within their mainframes into his databanks, the overload of knowledge causing a strain onto his body once more.

“....” Brad stopped shocking, but the strain of so much knowledge made it hard for him to recover following it. “...your name appears in this unit as 'Bradley', it is the identity that your human creators called you by...” Brad knew this, he remained silent, still trying to format all the new knowledge into his systems.

 

“...we as a unit are call Arkios. And as we have passed on our knowledge to you Bradley, so must you become a merger of us.” Arkios said to him. Now delving into his system, into the vast core of his unit. “From this day forth, the humanoid machine that you were no longer exists, you are now part of the ever growing Arkios system, you are our new unit and our first master to fully take in our data.” Arkios said, re-wrtiting Brad's name from inside the system now, deleting the name Bradley and...

 

“From this day forth, you are the amalgamation of the Unit Bradley and the Arkios System. You are, from this moment forth, the Arkios Master System Unit OO: Bradios.” Brad said, now fully aware of his system once more. Still plugged into the Arkios System's Mainframe, knowing everything they have in their banks.

 

“Now. Bradios, what is your will.” the Arkios system declared into Bradios' mind. And without hesitation, he declared; “Create a flying fortress of the land around us, set me away from this land of war and terror!!”

 

And without a second's pause, the Arkios system used it's ancient systems to create anti-gravity generators in the roots of the ground, the land around them beginning to crack open with a large rumble, enough that the nearing cities could notice what was happening, the will of Bradios and the Arkios Systems ancient tech, allowed for it to dig it up from the ground and bring it up slowly, the system beginning to make the land below them rise up into the sky.

 

He couldn't believe it, everything was flying off the ground, he had been able to make this large temple create these strange gravity defying machines to send it up all while he kept concentrating as he knew if he lost even one part of focus it could end up failing. He kept on concentrating and focusing as the land flew up high, until finally it stopped, reaching to a fair reach above IGNOLand.

 

“This is as far as I can go without it being dangerous to our health.” Bradios said, having exhausted a fair majority of his power by now into getting them up there.

 

“You seem drained master system, let me fix that.” And once again the shocks began, this time they fed right into Brad's power cells, recharging them while at the same time causing a major shock to the rest of him, until finally, his body felt charged up enough.

 

Unplugging himself finally from the mainframe, charged up enough to properly function, Bradios stepped outside to see what it looked like to be up this high. And after being blinded by the morning rays of light, the sunrise and dawning blue skies became more than enough of a beautiful sight, it gave Brad a slight smile after everything.

 

“Tim would love this..” And that's when he remembered he left Tim back down at the small village. Realizing he needed to get his new compadre up here as soon as possible, he flew back down to the mainland of IGNOLand to pick up his beast-shifter buddy.

 

“A floating island? What on earth are you going on about, Bradley?!” Tim said in disbelief, even though he was a scientist, he couldn't believe that he had found such advanced technology from something so ancient.

 

“My names not Bradley, it's Bradios.” Brad said to start off with. “And secondly, the reason why you can't fathom it is because I willed it into creation using the Arkios System's Metal Temple Station to create it.” he elaborated, grabbing Tim and flying him back up into the floating isle.

 

Tim was surprised by what he saw, the floating island sustaining itself in the air, the morning sky view, everything that no man or woman could see from down below, it was a wonderful sight that Tim never though he would see in his life. And it was all due to “Bradios'” newfound ability of tech creation. All that was left was one burning question.

 

“What do we do now?” said Tim, looking over at Bradios, Brad just staring off into the sunrise as he replied;

 

“We build a sanctuary, a home for outselves, but at the same time. We build some place where people like us, who detest this war-infested land, who hate the ideologies of both the Outback and the Empire can live in peace, without any kind of hatred or worries. We build ourselves. A Neutral Nation.”

 

Tim replied with a smile, knowing that the Cyborg and himself had been through hell the past few hours, recalling Brad's meltdown previously, he replied with a question.

 

“Will we fight against those forces?”

 

Brad instantly replied; “No. I'm done fighting, maiming, killing. All in the name of endless war.” He said, fighting back his rage from previously. “From now on, we only arm ourselves as a means of defence, never to assault directly or provoke those who seek war.”

 

He stood, looking into the sunrise and then looking down at the still warring Outback. “For while men, women and children still live in fear of meaningless wars, there will be no peace. And if we can't be a direct solution to the problem, we will be a means to finding a new one.”

 

With determination in his heart, a vision of peace in his mind and the memories of what he had done in his mind. He set himself at the sunrise for a little bit longer, he knew that he had a lot of work to do...

 

--------------------------------------------------END CHAPTER 1-----------------------------------------------

 

Ch. 2: A Nation of Neutrality

 

IGNO City, 10 months after the end of the Outback/Bones Empire Conflict, with the Outback supposedly surrendering on the grounds of it not having enough soldiers to try and defend themselves and their team members dwindling down after a mysterious incident crippled them indefinitely.

 

The people of IGNO City had to integrate with the people whom came in due to losing what they had in the conflict, they were given low-level housing, barely enough benefits to get by and given bottom of the barrel in terms of jobs. Supposedly befitting their roles following the conflict. But ever since the end of the conflict there was a legend that began to surface amongst the people of the city.

 

A floating island above the sky, many people of IGNOLand would often talk about this legend. Of a blue-haired man/machine hybrid of eternal youth who would whisk away those ravaged by conflict to a better place. Some people fabricated it into a fairy tail for the children, some used it as the basis of urban legends. Some even thought of it as a metaphor for death.

 

But nobody knew the reality of the youth, his floating island in the sky and the fate of those he “whisked away.”

 

Up high in the sky, above where any mortal being could see, there was indeed a floating island. It remained in the air due to high-tech creations beyond the times. The island that nearly a year ago was sent high up into the air through sheer willpower was now constructed into a semi-occupied haven. Small little housing units for people stretched along the farther end of the floating isle, allowing for people to live more comfortably than down below.

 

In said housings were people who had been affected by the Outback/Empire Conflict and felt jaded by both sides, those who wished to no longer support their sides but not favor the other, those who had even lost everything. They were given a chance to live a better life, free from their homelands actions and the people leading said land's agenda's of war and battle. Many people who became part of it wondered if they had truly died

 

On the other side of the Island however, there was a large mountain that looked upon everything the island had to offer, inside it, laid a still constructing base of operations and living quarters for the people who run the island. Inside one of the base's rooms a human with cat features can be seen working on a medical facility and working through the paperwork of the new refugee's that enter the base on a nightly basis, some come in pairs, some come alone, but it always means more paperwork to sort out in order to maintain life.

 

But down below, in the lowest possible floor of the mountain base, there laid an ancient temple made of metal that was fully connected to the entire base and the island as a result. And within that temple, a familiar youth can be seen converging with the systems within the temple. The base rumbles as it continues to grow and build again, the denizens of the island ignore it as the mountain continues to construct itself.

 

The youth, a cyborg known as Bradios, is using the collective system of his mainframe in collusion with the system of Arkios, the keeper of the Metal Temple. It became a near daily occurrence since the creation of the island many months ago, his body once worn out after fifteen minutes of taking the pressure of overflowing electric currents in his body and sending the power of his will to create the islands strongholds, could now go for hours upon hours while he built his refuge, his haven, his home.

 

“Master System Bradios, you've been at the creation process for nearly twelve hours, do you think we should stop so that you don't over exert yourself?” The Arkios programming communicated with him, while it was more or less a glorified program inside of a temple, it did have the wisdom and compassion of a human sage. And the last thing it wanted was for it's newest host to be destroyed because of an overflow of power.

 

“N-No.. Arkios.. I'm fine.. My body can stand... A little more..” Bradios said, trying his best to mask the strain that the creation process did onto him. Arkios knew better than to trust his words, delving into his system he knew that his damage capacity had nearly reached it's limit and Bradios didn't want the system to know that.

 

“Master, I'm looking at your vitals right now, if you do any more today your body will reach it's damage capacity and maybe go over it's limit. I am not asking, I am telling you now, we are ending the session today. Take some rest and repair yourself and then we will continue when you are not in a bad condition.” Arkios said, trying his best not to scold the cyborg youth, despite his good intentions, he didn't know when to stop himself until told otherwise.

 

The sentient system then proceeded to eject it's host form the ports it had out for access, closing them up and lowering them down as a way of saying that Brad should go. Bradios, fortunately, knew when to take a hint and left, stumbling a bit due to exhaustion.

 

And who would be waiting for him as he made his way up to the main area of the base but his beast-shifter partner, Tim. Ever since the creation of the base and starting up the compound, Tim took responsibility for not only taking care of all the new people coming in, but making sure to take care of all who inhabited the island, including Bradios.

 

“I see you've spent another session of creation down there again, Brad?” Tim said, looking over at the cyborg youth's mechanical body, checking for any external damage as there would be hardly a way for him to tell of any internal ones. “You really need to stop doing that, your system may be able to power itself for long periods, but that doesn't mean you should use it all on creating this base.”

 

“Sorry Tim.. I just...can't help but want to keep improving this place..I mean, how many did we get in on our last pick up again? Ten? 15?” The cyborg said, shambling over to his charge station, with a little help from his partner to make sure he'd get there safely.

 

“Only seven, silly.” Tim replied, a parental tone coming across as he said it, still thinking Brad as that scrawny teen whom he met ten months ago. Despite how big he became. “And even then, it was the biggest set we got.”

 

“But...still...” Brad drowsily replied, his battery obviously going low.

 

“Shhhh.. You get some rest okay? We'll worry about this when you're charged up.” Tim said, a more motherly tone coming across as he plugged Brad in and let the cyborg rest. As he turned around to see the now sleeping cyborg, he thought back to what happened in the ten months and before it and as he left him to go and focus on his duties again, he could only think to himself.

 

“You've come a long way kid.”

 

Meanwhile, down below on the main island of IGNOLand, in a castle made to the shape of bone, a group of men were sitting around a table, the men were split into two differing camps. They were getting themselves ready for the annual quarterly meeting and the room was filled with tension.

 

On one side you had the men formerly representing the Outback government, feeling uncomfortable at having to work alongside, or rather in service to, the men who basically forced their hand for a surrender. They were anything but happy as they sat beside the men who more or less mocked their very continued existence by keeping them under their thumb.

 

The people on the otherside of the table were dressed in royal garb, chatting to each other about trivial things regarding the current state of the world whilst they waited for their leader to arrive, they all sat surrounding a seat made specifically for the head of the castle and subsequently the land of IGNOLand.

 

And soon enough, that very man entered the room, the doors flying open to signal his arrival. His long brown hair and crimson red cape flowed as he walked in, a golden crown laid upon his thick hair and his royal green garb labelled his leadership, this was the appearance of one Olaf E. Bones, the man who lead the Empire to victory against the Outback and ruled with an Iron Fist but promised “fluffy hugs” as Konnuger of IGNOLand.

 

“Apologies gentlemen, I had some urgent business to attend to prior to this meeting, I'm sorry if it kept you all waiting so long.” He hated being so formal, coming from a life of piracy and into royalty via divine intervention was anything that he expected, it came with perks, but with meetings such as this it bored him to tears. The only times he truly enjoyed was when he could use his authority to silence his cabinet once it got too heated.

 

As the meeting drove on and on, the Konnuger grew impatient and finally capped it off by telling his men what he had found out before the meeting.

 

“I've recently discovered that a portion of our citizens have been going missing recently, without any circumstances to confirm what is happening I am asking for a full investigation to happen immediately.” He turned his attention to the Outback's former leader for his next statement. “A lot of these citizens have been your former Outbackians, see to it that you check yours thoroughly.”

 

The Outback leader pannicked, nodding his head meekly to the pleasure of Bones. The konnuger then turned and left the war-room, effectively ending the meeting without a word. Retiring to his throne, he prepared the order to search the citizens for any suspicious activity 24/7.

 

“First we lose The Overman Project. Then a part of our land is taken from us mysteriously one night. And now this!” His anger began to boil, clenching his fists hard as he said these words. “I need to take hold of my land and I can't have this be happening while I do so!”

 

He immediately gave the order to his men to search the cities for any kind of suspicious activity and be on watch around the clock and in his own words to; “Eliminate any Anomalies on sight.” citing what he would call his; “No Mercy” policy upon this issue.

 

“Whomever is causing these occurrences to my land is certainly becoming a sore spot. And if it's the last thing I do as ruler of this land, I will have them eliminated.” he muttered, his men beginning to give the orders out and amassing into the streets.

 

His words would go on to breed a witch hunt, one of which would change the face of IGNOLand forever and change the way people would see him, just not how he would expect

 

Two days passed. Having gathered up enough people as it is, the floating island doesn't go for any new refugee's into it's haven for the time being. Brad finally was able to wake fully after nearly draining himself fully of his power cells from his last session with Arkios. Unplugging himself and groggily awaking, he made his way over to Tim's office to get an update from him on what happened while he was out.

 

Unfortunately, he entered his office to the surprise that he was in the middle of a meeting with one of his patients, a middle aged man who looked like hell.

“Oh! I'm sorry Tim! I thought you weren't busy since the door wasn't locked!” Brad pannicked, thinking it rude that he would suddenly come into the office like that.

 

“It's okay Brad, I'm just finishing up right now with Jonathan here.” Tim said, handing the man his generic branded pills before sending him on his way.

 

The patient known as Jonathan looked at Bradios on his way out, many of the people on the floating island had yet to actually see the man who built it face to face, as he always kept himself below, continuing to build their safe haven while they lived in peace. The look was a mix of fear out of what he was looking at and respect over what he had done for not only him but for many of the others alongside himself in the housings.

 

As the middle-aged man walked away, Bradios entered Tim's office, looking over at how spiffy he had made it before getting back to what he was here for.

 

“Again, sorry for interrupting you, Tim. And...thank you for helping me out the other day.” Brad said, meekly smiling at his partner for what he did to assure he would be safe.

 

“It's nothing. As the head of the medical facility of this compound it is my duty to make sure everybody here is in good condition. And that includes your cyborg butt!” He said, giving the youth a smirk as he patted his head happily.

 

Brad just looked at him and smiled over that last comment, he couldn't help it, although the head pat was a little much in his opinion, he still appreciated that as well. But his thoughts quickly divulged back to what he was thinking about when he powered up again.

 

“What's happened in my absence? I've been out for two days, right?” Tim's look slumped as Brad said that, he knew full well he'd have to tell him what was happening, but he was afraid of the response to what happened.

 

“I was afraid you were going to ask that, I'll get it up for you.” He said, pulling out a very futuristic looking tablet and bringing up some kind of projection of grainy video footage. “One of our watch-droids sent us this bit of footage, I think it speaks for itself.”

 

The footage was grainy to start with and featured two sets of feet standing up above the droid, the two men looked decked in military gear as the droid was picked up and examined by them. Both men commentating on how; “We've never seen technology like this before.” “Where on earth did someone find something like this?” “Nobody knows how to make stuff like this in IGNOLand.”

 

The men then began to open up the droid, the only evidence of it being opened on the footage being a loud sound of prying metal, the footage starting to become distorted as they looked inside the machinery, looking confused at what they were seeing before saying; “This looks like something that the Konnuger would approve of, let's see what he makes of it.”

 

As they said that, the footage went to static, leaving the fate of the droid and the technology that Brad had made a mystery.

 

That last statement left the Cyborg standing still. His face shocked, this body unmoving, trying to process what had just happened. One of the droids he used to keep watch down below had been found and taken by the Empire's men, this was something he never fully expected to happen.

 

“Oh..god..” He said almost instantly. “This...this isn't good Tim..”

 

“I know, Brad. When I saw the footage myself I almost worried for what you would respond with. And for good reason as well.” Tim calmly responded. Trying to reassure his partner to what was happening.

 

“No!You don't understand! That droid was to send footage immediately back here to the base via it's internal systems! If the Empire finds out about that, they might be able to re-direct it so that they can find out about here! And then....and then...” Brad pannicked, knowing full well that if it did happen it would be game over for them all.

 

“Yes, but who's to say they even know how to do that kind of thing? I mean, compared to ours, their technological advancements are very minimal!” Tim replied, further trying to calm the worrying cyborg.

 

“Yes but...what if they do? And we just don't know?!”Brad said, his fears starting to get the better of him as he tries to assess it.

 

“Yes, that might happen, but the chances of that are too low to even think of that happening.” Tim responded again, once again trying to keep the worries and whatnot of his partner to a low. “Look, if they manage to try and figure that out, maybe it's time we start the plan?”

 

Brad looked back over to Tim, his eyes widened by the sudden idea from Tim, but they weren't in the good sense. “No! We can't! The Banks isn't even ready to handle something of that level at it's current state! We can't afford it!”

 

“Not now, yes. But what if we gave it..two weeks. By then, we should know if they've found us out or not.” Tim said, a confident smile appearing on his face. “You have the power to create it, Brad. You can't let me or any of them down, can you?”

 

The smile on the face of his partner gave him confidence that he could do it. Looking back at the elevator that went down to his little facility. He went back to Tim with a smile of his own.

 

“You know what you gotta do. So go on and do it.” Tim said, letting his Cyborg partner go off, a new-found sense of encouragement coming off from him as he saw him walk and elevate himself down. Once he left the line of sight though, Tim walked over to his charging station, knowing full well what was about to happen. “Just don't kill yourself trying to make it happen, Brad...”

 

Down below, Bradios walked back to the machine terminal, importing his hands into it with reckless abandon, being greeted once more by the Arkios system.

“Master, welcome back. How may I assist you?” the electronic spirit within the system said to him, Brad looking down at his position and bracing himself.

 

“Arkios, we have a long period of working ahead of us, from now until I say so we are not to stop building this place and upgrading it's liveability until we can accommodate even a quarter of what is living down below!“ Brad said, determination in his eyes and his thoughts dead set on getting his paradise perfected.

 

“You are not to stop me, even if my body feels like it could collapse, understand? Time is not on our side and we need to keep it from going against us!” The Arkios system could only comply, it could not go against it's master unit's orders. As it did so and overwrote it's protective programming, it replied.

 

“Whenever you're ready, Master.”

 

Brad responded without a hint of hesitation in his voice, already feeling the shocks being drained from his system. “Let's get to work.”

 

…..

 

Down below, in Bone's Domain. The two men who secured the security drone had been called in, Bones was scowling, looking at the futuristic piece of technological advancement with disgust. He knew not where it was made or who built it,but he knew only one thing that could have created it with.

 

“Take this to our advisor and our science division, have them decode it and find out what lies within it's...mystical containments.” Bones said coldly, looking on at the men with a look of enticement and stoicism.

 

“But Konnuger.. We don't even know point one about this thing, how are we supposed to find out anything about it's...containments when we barely know a thing about it?!” one of his guards responded, knowing full well he was out of line with the comments, but they needed to be addressed.

 

“That is not my concern! My concern is making my people believe that nothing is wrong and keeping the peace in my land by any means necessary!” He responded loudly, but the cold, harshness of his voice remained.

 

“It happened with the Outback Rebellion and it will happen to this threat which will brace itself upon our land if dealt with like an unknowing disease. And we all know what to do with diseases, right?” His face didn't falter, his coldness of the reality of ruling over what would be known as IGNOLand was reminded to his men.

 

They both just stood there and nodded, turning away to look into the matter further. Leaving bones in his mighty room, alone. There he stood, pondering the reality of the situation. He continued to think over the evidence of what has occurred so far, looking over a map of his land, he noticed something...odd.

 

The big chunk of land mass that had been taken nearly a year prior, it fell very close to where one of the many elemental temples had been said to reside. The temple which legends once said held many secrets of advancement that the world would yet to have discovered for eons, which if conquered would had advanced his lands technology into a new era.

 

Looking back at it and with the evidence that was placed before him by his guards. His face widened with shock and mixed in with further hints of anger, as he knew that whomever stole that chunk of land stole a vital resource of IGNOLand's advancement.

 

“Whomever did this...they are going to rue the day they decided to steal property from Olaf. E Bones...” His hands crumpling the fragile paper map in his grip, throwing it away as he stormed from his room to follow along behind the men from before, once he caught up, he stormed in with a huff as his men turned in shock.

 

“I want you to find out whomever made that...thing! By any means necessary! I don't care if you need to use up the resources you have! Just find out whomever did this at any cost!” his anger showing fully at this point to his men.

 

“The people who created it used the Metal Temple's secrets in order to create it! So get cracking on it! And find a way to counter it as well! I want to see whomever did this tried by my hands and burned for their sins against me!” He stormed off again, once again to his chambers where he gave all of his men another order on top of the which hunt already established.

 

“This is a message to all public servants under rule of the Bones. As of today, you are all to report any suspicious sounding, looking or any variety of evidence of something out of the ordinary to the Bone Empire's men. Anybody falsifying information to save themselves shall suffer a consquence based on the severity of the claim.” He announced, slumping into his throne as his men, his public and his cabinet were all thrown into hysterics by this.

 

He didn't care though, to him he needed to eliminate this threat to his rule any way possible, if it meant it needed to affect his throne he would take that risk, after all, his rule was with an Iron Fist...

 

 

For weeks, both men were busy with preparing themselves for what would become an encounter that would shape them forever.

 

Bradios continued tirelessly working in the bowels of his nation, building it more and more from the literal ground up as he prepared it for an expansion of epic proportions and what would be the genesis of his Neutral Nation, with Tim continuing to juggle keeping tabs on him and making sure he did not collapse and the people currently on board the Banks.

 

Brad's body, as it continued to work with Arkios and build his haven to it's perfection, began to sync more and more with the system, he began to feel it's coding reach more into the mainframe of his system, the pain of creating the Banks began to feel less and less there, almost like the pain was being numbed slowly by the Arkios systems injected into his mainframe.

 

The Banks expanded, more housings were made to accommodate more people, supplies were doubled, soon to be tripled. And a housing unit for creation of sentient Android life forms were being created. The massive undertaking drained Bradios of his system power almost daily, requiring charging cables hooked up to him day in and day out until he was finished.

 

He knew he had to continue, for the good of the Banks and the plan they had in store. A Nation was being built.

 

Back down in IGNOLand, Bones' witch-hunt turned into an extremist level, days went on and not a single one wasn't filled with orders shouting from the castle at the level of a crazed lunatic, Bones from his throne continued to direct traffic as he tried to find out just who took his land, his prize of the Metal Temple and above all else, been spying on his land.

 

When news got back that not only had they been unsuccessful in deciphering the supposed “alien language wrapped in riddles wrapped in thousands of enigmas” that was the scrap heap they took in. But that word got loose of something the people were calling “A Nation of Peace” that was set apart from the landbound isles of IGNOLand, Bones took to it with great anger.

 

He went on the speakers daily to denounce this “Nation of Peace” as; “Nothing but a figment of somebodies imagination, if you want a nation of peace look no further than the shoreline of where you live, to think otherwise is an insult to the very land you live on.”

 

Going on to further declare that whomever would speak of this land in public that would be found out, would be jailed immediately. Once again doing himself no favours, but in his mind, it was for the best.

 

“I have to keep the peace here, at all costs...”

 

He had no idea that his ideologies would spiral his reign into chaos. An uprising was at hand.

 

 

Many weeks passed, nary a mention of the Nation of Peace had been uttered in public, upon fear of being subjugated to prison. Many people of IGNOLand were beginning to fear the worst was over. But others knew the truth.

 

And one night, their beliefs would ring true, as a mysterious message would be posted to all who spoke of this Nation of Peace, to meet in the middle of town under cover of darkness, the time was at hand.

 

Bradios, having finally set his plan into motion with Tim, had spread the message of his Nation to the people that spoke about it on forums, scouring out day in and day out with help from the Arkios system and his hivemind droids. The newly formed battlestation, which now held the mainframe of the Arkios system within it, sent a massive overload of messages to those that spoke of it.

 

“It's time Tim.” Bradios said, his eyes glued to the screen which hosted aerial views of IGNO City, showing many people as they began to flock into the centre square of town. “The droids will accompany you down into the city, once there they will disperse until the time comes, stay hidden until our message is given.”

 

Tim nodded, covering himself within an old shepherds cloak which he had kept from his days at the farm, it still fit him after all of this time with it's nostalgic warmth, but this time he wore it for a different purpose. “I am their shepherd. Leading them to safety.”

 

Brad turned, looking at his partner with a smile before he departed alongside the droid fleet. “Lead them into the Nations warmth.”

 

Unbeknownst to them, Bones had tapped into the IGNOLand connections and knew full well about this meeting in town, instead of having his men take care of the situation alone, he followed along behind them.

He knew he had to make an example of this situation, to show them all once and for all that this “Nation of Peace” is nothing but a joke, a fantasy or much worse a cult. They all must learn the hard way and as their unquestioned leader, he needed to set that example for not just them, but for all of IGNOLand.

 

The clocks in the city were nearing the stroke of midnight, the group was beginning to form, all chattering amongst themselves, talking about what they thought it would be about, how they found out about the nation...

 

And then suddenly a marching squad of what looked to be Bones' men, led by the Konnuger himself, a fixed glaze ahead as his men shone lights upon all of the people that were called out by the message, looking upon them as he stood tall above them and said;

 

“I know why you are all out here tonight, you were called here to be delivered a message by some...”Nation of Peace”, well I am here tonight to dispel those rumors and give you a real message! There is NO Nation of Peace! There is NO such fictional paradise! And the people who started this are tricking you all into believing such notions!”

 

He said, his men beginning to surround them, cuffs in hand as they looked to detain them.

 

“What you have all done tonight is an act of treason against IGNOLand and it's people and especially myself as your Konnuger. Maybe a few months in prison will help set you all straight.” he said coldly, looking at his men to cuff them all up...

 

When suddenly, as if by knowing, all the power in IGNO City was cut, lights and all. Bones was left bewildered, asking his men what was going on, unable to see any of them until suddenly...

 

A flash of blue light appeared and in the centre of IGNO City, a figure could be seen, of a familiar looking cyborg youth, the one that Bones had been told of. His mind clicked for a second before the light began to move and some kind of visual began to work

 

The vision in the middle was powered by Bradios, who hooked into IGNOLand's power supply to make this portable vision work thanks to Tim, the projection coming from a strategically placed projector during the blackout, the message began playing, directly from Brad in the system as he feeds though the visuals, his mind fully in synch with the Arkios system enough that he is able to manipulate such things to the point where he can easily work the visual for just this short burst.

 

His eyes glowing a pale blue in his sockets, his voice sounding out with a mix of his own and of Arkios' own voice, the message began to play.

 

(Writers Note: For maximum effect, listen to this while reading this next bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCaIMzyjIwI)

 

“We are the Neutral Nation, a Nation without borders or geographic boundaries. We are all bound together by our belief of a world without war. We are all sovereign people, looking for a paradise free of conflict. Free of pain, suffering, death and cruelty. We mean no harm. But we only wish for peace. We welcome all who wish for this peace into our arms.”

 

Bones was in shock, his men where dumbfounded and the people who gathered for it were even more surprised, the Nation of Peace really did exist! The followers were overjoyed, the soldiers could not believe what they were seeing, while Bones seethed the entire time afterwards, the Nation of Peace were the ones that took his technological advancements from the Metal Temple away from him!

 

“What are you all waiting for?! Cuff them all up! A spooky floating head isn't going to stop you!!” he barked at his men, instructing them to continue their job from before and round up the followers before being interrupted again.

 

“5....4.....3.....”

 

A countdown had started, for what they had no idea, but Brad's juice at the Bank's station was running dry fast so he needed to double time it to make sure it could work. He had to immediately set the plan into “Auto” so he could recover...

 

“2.....1....”

 

Blackout again, this time it was only for a few seconds, but once the power came back on the followers were divided between the mercenaries by a set of droids, armed with small, metallic rifles matching their shiny metallic bodies, the followers were scared, but knowing they had protection between the mercenaries eased their thoughts.

 

At the banks, Brad collapsed from the strain of using the “100% Sync” ability to it's limit, auto-powering down his system so that he could recover, droids at the battlestations taking him to the charge port in order to recover in time. He knew they could only last for so long...

 

Bones pushed on with his orders, yelling at his men once more; “Get them you idiots!!” But as they moved towards them again, the droids fired, but they didn't fire bullets or plasma rounds like you would expect, instead they fired off waves that threw the mercenaries back and disarmed them in the process, the droids were programmed to “Never kill unless it is vital to survival, otherwise, disablement is the plan.”

 

Bones and his men were dumbfounded again, they had never seen such tech before, angered once again by the lost prospect of technological advancement, he ordered his men back into the fray to take out the droids. Said droids creating a barrier around the followers using their rifles to keep them back, all the while the cloaked Tim entered and emerged from the crowd, like a Shepard to herd the sheep, he began speaking.

 

“Fear not those who have come this night! You will not be harmed by the tyranny of Bones and his men! You will be protected by the metal soldiers and armaments of the Neutral Nation!” He proclaimed, shouting out the “gospel” of the Nation's beliefs to them as they were protected from harm. The soldiers nary making a dent or scrape into the droids casing. Bone's continuing to become irritated by this.

 

“For all those who have expressed interest in what you all call the “Nation of Peace” tonight you get to make the choice to join it! Those who have come tonight, are you all not looking for a better way of living, not out of fear, but in the security of knowing that you are not under rule by a king that smites any that stand against him?!” Tim continued to exclaim, Bones continuing to listen and be riled up by the comments made by the former scientist turned messenger.

 

 

“Will you not join this land of peace? Will you not join this Nation? Will you not free yourselves from this tyranny?!” He continued to exclaim, asking for their approval before they were “sent away” to the nations land.

 

As he continued to shout out to them, many others began hearing in as the loud ruckus had been creating quite a commotion for citizens of the city, instead of falling back into their rooms like they normally would, they all felt...strangely enticed by this.

 

As soon as he finished speaking the men and women that arrived that night exclaimed cheers and cries of approval, their salvation from this land had arrived and they would be willing to take it. Tim smiled as he rose his hands, the droids then turned around, directing their weapons at them, the followers then felt confused, what were they about to accomplish from where they were pointing?

 

Tim then directed at them to fire at the followers, the waves coming together to surround them all and transported them all up into the banks, all except Tim who stayed behind, continuing to spout the Nation's ideologies, while many others continued to look on with surprise.

 

“I see many other in this city who are looking in, if you are wanting to be free from this monarch and his evil ways, come forth and I shall have you saved!” Tim began once more, knowing the protection from the droids would keep him safe, he continued to look around.

 

Many of the townsfolk only looked on, many were afraid of making themselves known, under fear of being harassed and tortured by Bones and his men if they did so, which would most viably happen considering the situation. But one man came forth, running from his house and to the bubble, on his knees as if he was offering himself.

 

“Please! Take me!” he pleaded, his face looking like he barely knew what sleep was, his body weak and his hair scraggled, tears welling within his face as he looked ready to beg for his life.

 

Tim kneeled down, directing two droids to fire at him. “The Neutral Nation accepts your life as one of our own, you need not fret anymore.” he smiled kindly as the man was sent away.

 

Bones, seeing his opportunity within the break in the barrier, to order two of his men in silence to capture Tim, seizing him by his defenceless body and dragging him out from the barrier. The mechanical soldiers began to turn themselves to the men dragging him away, Bones looking on as they started to charge.

 

“If you Mechanical Menaces even THINK about firing at my men, I will have your “Shepard” killed!” he said, a bone weapon placed directly above Tim's head as a threat.

 

“I know you're here somewhere leader. Otherwise why would you send out your little guardian to be KILLED like this?” Bones said, trying to call out the supposed leader of the Neutral Nation, grabbing Tim by his shawl and showing him off to the entirety of the city.

 

“You see this man? This scrawny little man is a false prophet! A man who comes to deceive all of you into a fictional paradise!” Bones proclaims, trying to dissuade anybody who wanted to come out and join the others who had gone to the Banks.

 

“See, the place that they are promising does not even exist! It's death, the afterlife! The only “Nation of Peace” they give you...is a peaceful eternal sleep!” Bones continued, tightening his grip onto Tim's shawl.

 

Brad, who had been resting up all the while this was happening, had finally started to regain conciousness, unfortunately it was at the worse possible moment that he could have awoken at, as he saw the visual of Bones holding Tim by his shawl, the droids standing down and all the while whilst Bones spouted on about the Nation being nothing but lies.

 

Brad looked on, barely holding on conciousness as he continued to charge up.. his meter barely reaching top the 10% mark before he finally fully understood what was happening, the situation had gone completely grim.

 

“No....Tim...” he groggily muttered as he looked on, trying hard to get up, but his body continued to deny him that as his legs and feet all gave out on him.

 

11%......12%.....

 

He begged that the charging would just go as fast as possible before it was too late..

 

13%.....14%.......

 

“Where are you, you coward?!” Bones exclaimed again. His cries to try and get his enemy out becoming somewhat desperate. Clutching at Tim tightly.

 

“Oh... I see.. I haven't done enough to call you out yet!” Bones says, directing his men to surround him as he shoves Tim to the floor. Each soldier pointing their weapons to Tim, citizens at this point screaming out at him to stop.

 

“If you so wish to stop me, be my guest. But I shall have you all know I do not keep filthy traitors around in my keep!” he proclaims, taunting at the world now.

 

“If you want to save your friend, I will give you five minutes to show yourself, otherwise your little “Shepard” will be joining the other of your followers.” he taunted once more, knowing he'd call out Brad.

 

 

….29%....30%

 

Brad slowly got up as he saw this, he knew he wasn't fully prepared for the assault, but he had to do SOMETHING, anything to stop what was happening from continuing.

 

Turning on the droids of the banks into an auto-pilot mode, he covered himself within a shawl of his own and left the main base of floating island, beginning to descend, he knew exactly where they were at and he had to finish off this conflict happening before it was too late.

 

Bones continued to taunt, counting down more slowly to keep the suspense. “20 seconds Leader!”, he exclaimed, when a sudden crashing to the ground heralded the arrival of the person he was wanting.

 

“Heh, it took you long enough, I was beginning to think I actually had to kill this scrawny scientist.” He said, showing Tim to the hidden cyborgs face.

 

“Let go of my advisor, Olaf. This is between you and me.” Brad responded, knowing he didn't have much time and he needed to make the most of it count. His levels already starting to diminish.

 

Bones however was shocked, releasing Tim from his grasp as he heard his birth name being called by someone he had never met before, walking over to Brad to look at him for himself.

 

“Just who...or rather what the hell are you?!”

 

Brad smirked, uncovering his arm canon to reveal he had been charging a shot long enough to fire at Bones, letting it loose once he got close enough and sending him flying back. Only when Bones had crashed to the ground a few feet away did he uncover himself.

 

“Someone you may remember from a previous conflict.”

 

Bones looked on. The metal arm, the plasma cannon, the scouter, the blue hair, all of it reminded him of a description of...

 

“The Overman!” Bones looked on with horror and hatred in his eyes. He had been duped all along! The Outback Empire probably knew about this in his mind after all! And if not then they were just as incompetent as he had believed.

 

“Get him! Take him whether he's alive or dead!” The guards Bones brought with him charged right at Brad, not even breaking a sweat, Brad charged right back at them to incapacitate the soldiers, sending them to the ground.

 

Bones looked at what just happened, ordering his men to get back up and defend him. Sending more of the troops he had with him to the overman in a crazed hurry, the guards trying their best to outnumber Brad, he only looked at them and tsk'd in annoyance, hoping to have this over sooner at get Tim back to safety.

 

He wasted no time this time around, pulling the plasma gun out again he fired a stun shot at each of the guards, sending them each down to the ground with the others, then turning his attention to Bones.

 

“I told you Bones, this is between YOU and ME!” Brad said, more harsh with his delivery this time as he stared dead into Bone's eyes. “I'm not going to ask you again, either give Tim back. Or I'll TAKE him back by force!”

 

Bones just laughed, composing himself as he stood back up. “You really have no idea, do you? You're in MY city, MY territory, MY RULE. And you think you can come in here, intercept my technology and declare orders like that just because you took down my men?!”

 

Bones moved forward, throwing off his cape, his appearance slowly began to change. Skin slowly started to ripple as bone begins to slowly rise up from his skin, as well as his eyes began to glow a hellish red.

 

“You know my name, correct? Olaf E. Bones! My lineage is of royalty, but it is also of a great burden, for people like you. You see, my bloodline has a certain, quality to it for situations like this! For naïve, foolish, enemies of the state such as your neutral kind!” Bones continued on, his skin tearing apart as pale white bone began to show itself on every crevice of his body, and encase it within the pale confides of his newly made “armour” eyes fully engulfed by the red hell.

 

His weapon, the axe that he had brought to the scene, splitting it clean in half with each pair in each of his hands,

 

“I am the ruler of IGNOLand, The King of Kodenschast. And I shall give you no quarter for what you've done to my kingdom tonight, Overman!” Bones declared, his voice becoming more engulfed by the hellish form he had become, putting aside his royal attire he charged right for Brad.

 

Brad charged for Bones in return, both of them colliding in the middle of IGNO City, a clash between the two could be seen throughout the cities main area, nobody knowing who to cheer for, deciding to keep silent throughout the ordeal as the two leaders of the opposing factions go right for each other.

 

Bone's skeleton frame goes right for Brad's metallic structure, both bodies clashing and fighting to off balance each other, Bones looking deep at Brad with his reddened eyes to intimidate him, Brad just staring right back, giving bones no lean way to try and out-do him, the pressure coming from Bones' newly done form overwhelming Brad.

 

Brad tried to power back against Bones, but despite his more bulky appearance the body of Bones was still as unbreakable as he made it believe it was. Bones being fully able to throw him to the ground and push him to the side. “Do you understand now what you've gotten yourself into?”

 

“Yeah... I do.” Brad retorted, looking back at a wounded Tim behind Bones, angrily looking back at Bones and exhausting a fair bit of power to try and blast him back, but it was no use, Bones just stood there, looking more angry now as he lunged at Brad, the cyborg quickly trying to get out of the way of any kind of attack.

 

Making an absolute mad dash with his opportunity, Brad dashed to Tim, glomping onto his body to keep him safe, the recoil hitting hard he tried to stabilise himself enough to get to the barrier of robots and transport back to the Banks. Bones saw this and without any kind of haste, slashed at Brad's arm, the synthetic skin being breached and his arm dealing damage which forced him to let Tim go, crashing to the ground hard.

 

Brad only looked as Tim hit the ground hard, trying to go over to him before Bones' axe cut him off between the two. “Not so fast, Overman. We still have business to settle.” Bones retorted, flinging his other axe to Brad as he made another dash away, this time noticing a small detail of how long it took for Bones to get him this time.

 

Brad, thinking it through a bit with the added gap, took another blast at Bones, aiming for his leg this time to see if he could even make a dent. The blast distracted bones for a single second, but not enough to make a dent or even slow him down. Bones just flinging one of his axes at Brad, barely scraping his skin again.

 

As the axe landed, Brad dived for it, grabbing it in his hand to use back at Bones, his twin axes clashing from both men, Brad tried to once again power back but only barely giving himself room to power back, sweeping down and striking at Bones' legs again, not even leaving a scratch on his bone armour, the reverb causing more pain to Brad more than Bones.

 

Bones just grinned, kicking Brad away again and collecting his other axe, once again slowly making his way to Brad to try and get him down again, Brad noticing this once more and then realising...

 

“Wait...could it be that...?” And he put the two together, his form and the slower movement of this and made the connection. Grinning, he got back up again and went straight for Bones, manuevering around him at the last second as Bones swung his axes.

 

Brad continued to tire out Bones with the dodging and weaving, his own power levels beginning to give out, he hoped he had enough to keep Bones draining out. The skeleton king continuing to barely attack the cyborg before finally landing a blow to his chest, the skin leaving a very clear X shaped scrape on his chest as Bones pinned him down.

 

His breathing was heavy and despite how tired he was, he was still able to pin down the cyborg. Looking like he was ready to deal what would be the final blow, he lifted up his axes before suddenly, his arms gave way, dropping the axes at each side as his body fell over to the back.

 

Brad slowly got back up, seeing Bones exhausted on the ground, the armour started to crack all over his body, grunts and painful sounds being heard all over from Bones as his armour began to crack all over and slowly dissolved from him, leaving nothing but a naked man, fully exhausted of his power.

 

Standing over him, he could only look at what they had both done to the city square and then look down at Bones. The king only looking up and saying; “What are you waiting for then? Kill me.” he said solemnly, knowing full well that he was resigned to his fate there and then.

 

The cyborg looked at the helplessly resigned, fully drained Bones, stared at his plasma gun for a long while, realising he could easily shoot him in the head and end it all now, no more wars, conflict or anything that plagued his mind for nearly a year. But as he went to draw it, he just said one word.

 

“No.”

 

Brad then walked away from the defenceless Bones, picking up his royal garmets and throwing them onto his naked body.

 

“What good would killing you do? Nobody would learn anything. If I kill you here and now after my talks of peace and whatnot, I'd be no better than what you've done to this city. Someone else would come for me and do the same and the cycle would continue for the rest of time.” Brad said, looking down and staring at the exhausted Bones with disdain, walking away again and going to Tim.

 

“I'm not going to kill you, but I want this to be a lesson for you, Olaf. I built my nation based on the principle of peace and freedom from this hell. If you wish to better yourself from this, be my guest. But if your foolish pride will not allow you to do so, then so be it.” Brad said, his voice growing colder as he stepped into the barrier once more, the droids shooting them up to the Banks once more.

 

Bones just laid there, his body unmoving, but his pride completely shattered by what had happened. He just stared up, a single shot of light passing into the darkened sky, his face snarled and just looked up, lying there in his defeated state, knowing full well he'd get him back again.

 

Back at the Banks, after what would be an exhausting night, Brad and Tim were finally safe. Brad, immediately noticing how badly done up Tim was after everything, concussion withstanding, took him to the infirmary of the base to make sure he was fine, panicking badly over the second-in-command and the person he spent nearly a year with, he needed to be sure that he was okay.

 

“Tim!! Tim! Fuck, Tim! Wake up!” he said, checking to make sure he was still okay after everything that had happened. The poor somewhat frail beast-shifter was still hanging on, but still Brad didn't know if he was alive until he saw him wake up.

 

“Tim...Come on buddy... I...I can't do this without you!” He said, mirroring the words and sentiments given to Tim nearly a year ago, clutching his body and looking on as he awaited Tim to wake up. “I need you!!”

 

Tim, as if he heard that himself, slowly woke up from the concussive strike he suffered, as soon as his eyes even opened up a peek, Brad immediately hugged him tight, thanking anybody that would listen that his advisor managed to survive such an encounter.

 

“I'm...glad that you're here, Tim...”

 

 

Two weeks later.

 

The news was reeling for weeks about the clash between the two in the dark of night. Any and all witness' to the subject were bribed to keep quiet about the ordeal by the council and Bones and everyone involved was told under strict orders and penalty of imprisonment that any speech of the King being out-bested by a neutral scum was forbidden.

 

Bones made his first public appearance since the encounter in the City Square, his body still reeling from the assault and his mind still bitter, he addressed the public and told them all a fabricated story about how he “drove the neutral army away” and “left them quaking with fear as they ran off''.

 

When asked about the members of IGNO City whom had been missing since that evening, Bones quickly said of how they were all kidnapped by the evil neutral leader and made to be brainwashed as more soldiers for another attack. The audience and citizens ate it up. And thus began the politcal dragging through the mud of the neutrals that would last for years to come....

 

 

Meanwhile, back up above on the Banks, Bradios and Tim, finally fully recovered from the encounter, both look over the vibrant, ever-expanding realm that was the Neutral Nation. Brad, still banged up and trying to repair his synthetic skin, smiled happily as he finally felt a sense of...normality within his daily life.

 

Tim, however, was very much not as calm as Brad was, he looked on with a solemn face, which was easily noticed by him, it drove quite the ire from him, mainly because he had been slowly showing more of it as the days went on since the confrontation. It gave him much anxiety, but it had to be asked;

 

“Is something the matter, Tim?” Brad queried his advisor, his tone sounding as innocent as ever, Tim hesitated for a second before he responded.

 

“I've been thinking about my place here, Brad. About why I am here, why I'm doing this.” Tim responded, looking at Brad with that same worried expression he's always had. “Ever since the beginning I've had my doubts, but seeing you take it upon yourself to slowly build up this haven for what we now call the “Neutral Nation”, has truly astounded me.”

 

Brad looked on as he said this, his face questioning about why Tim was talking about all of this so suddenly.

 

“But recently, ever since that night, the thoughts of my personal belief of being here have begun to falter. Even more so than before. That one operation was good, but how it got botched at the end left me worried Brad, about myself more than anything.” Tim continued, his face growing pained now.

“I mean, I was lucky with getting out of there with only a minor concussion given what happened. But next time I might not be so lucky.. Which is why I've made a decision.” Tim stopped, taking off his lab coat and the badge Brad had hand-made for him to signify his status as his second-in-command of the Banks.

 

“I hereby resign as a staff member here.” Brad was crushed by those words. He had known Tim and trusted him longer than most people he had ever met in his life, he was the first person whom he could call a “true friend”, a partner...and even more than that. And in some cases, the same could be said for Tim, but with his words sinking in and starting to make sense, the cyborg slowly understood why he was doing this.

 

“Do you need to leave?” The cyborg responded, obviously not wanting his most trusted friend to leave him. “I mean, you don't need to be apart of the staffing anymore if that is what you want, you can still live here!”

 

“Brad, it's not the responsibility of being here, it's being here in general. To be honest, it's too hectic for my tastes.” Tim replied, solemnly looking at him as he spoke the honest truth of how he felt. “But I didn't want to leave until I knew for sure that you could handle this place by yourself. And now, I know you can and then some.”

 

“But, I don't know a lot of things still.. What if I can't handle certain things? What if things get too hectic here again?! I don't know if I'd be able to do it, Tim...” Brad responded, obviously letting out a lot of how he felt despite his demeanour as leader of the Nation.

 

Tim just moved up close to Brad and took his worrying hands in his own, looking up at the man that he had seen him grown up into.

 

“Brad, you've done so much since I first saw you. I know that you can do it because you've gone from that scrawny little recruit that I saw nearly a year ago and you've become this confident leader of an entire nation of refugees. If anybody can do it, I know it's you.”

 

Tim looked into Brad's eyes deeply and told him all of that, basically showing him a certain sign of trust that he knew Brad could do it. “But if you ever need my help on stuff like that, I will always be of contact to you.”

 

Tim then leaned in close, his lips meeting Brad's, to the cyborgs surprise. Tim keeping himself close to him as he left his “parting gift” on Brad, Brad reciprocating a little bit before Tim finally let go. Looking once again into the cyborgs eyes as he left one final word for him.

 

“Now go, be the man I've seen you grow into, your nation is waiting.”

 

And with that, Tim took his badge as a reminder, left the coat with Brad and exited the Banks' Base for the last time as a member of it's staff. Brad immediately turned around, trying hard to keep his feelings in tact as he ordered some of his droids to accompany Tim back down to the ground, advising them of a small remote farm area that Tim always looked at with glee, directing them to send him there.

 

Brad looked on in his seat as Tim was escorted off the Banks, his emotions going haywire as his systems tried to keep him from crying, only a single drop escaping before he wiped it away.

 

“This wouldn't be what he would want me to do..” He said, rising from his seat and going to the communications systems to make an important announcement to the people.

“Attention residents of the Neutral Nation, this is your leader, Bradios. I come bearing a message to all who live here. As of today, Tim has resigned as a part of the Neutral Nations staff, as of today only myself remains as the only humanoid staff member on board.” He said, delivering it to them straight.

 

“As such, I would like to make an additional announcement. As of today, the Nation will be asking for any volunteers to help out with any kind of tasks that the Banks asks of them, be it staffing or helping out on the front lines should we ever go to such lengths, I will not draft any of you into this, unless you personally want to help.” He said, not wanting to force anybody into doing something against their wills.

 

“Your continued support alongside living here helps keep the Nation grow. And for that I eternally thank you.” The highest of sincerity coming forth in his voice. Knowing full well he'd need all the positivity he could get from them all during this time.

 

“Today begins a new era here on what we now call “The Banks”, an era of uncertainty, an era of unknown prospects. But one thing will always be certain, no matter what happens down below, we will be safe until the day comes where we are made to defend ourselves. And until that day comes I promise to keep you all safe here, but for those that choose willingly to help defend your family, friends and comrades, I will forever remember you as heroes, even if the world will hate you for what you defend for.”

 

Stopping for a second, he composed himself as he continued to deliver a message of good-will to his would be troops-in-training and a promise of shelter to those who continued to live on this vast floating island. His uncharted haven of peace, his shelter for those like him. He stood with pride, holding Tim's coat in hand as he proclaimed to the denizens of the Banks.

 

“Today, we celebrate, our right to be free from terror and the horrors of war. We celebrate our right to say no to a generation of messed up children who have suffered the loss of parents, loved ones and many others too soon.. Today, we celebrate, our neutral freedom day.”

 

The denizens of the neutral nation all cheered for Bradios' speech, many of them feeling confident in their leaders position and a few went following this to talk to Brad about helping out, Bradios just slumped into his throne, looking on as a lone camera got a shot of Tim, looking directly at the camera mouthing the words “They believe in you, like I did.”

 

Brad just teared up again, feeling more confident than ever that he could provide himself and the many others on the floating island peace. It would be a long road for sure, but he was prepared for anything that would stand in his way from now on.

 

“Today, is a new day.”