Pseudo (Part 1): Written by Exodus, Original Story by Exodus A long term plan of Morn’s was coming together today, as the newest brand of robotic soldiers were ready, known as Terror-Troopers. Pure robots with silver masks and evil yellow eyes, decorative orange strips of synthetic hair came out the back of their heads, and fell to their shoulders. They had sharp spiked shoulder pads that were part of their main green bodies, with a triangle-shaped hole and a red frame in the centre of the torso which fired laser beams, the robots also had long silver limbs with green claws and boots. Their main weapons were the sharp fingers and beam cannons within the triangular parts of their chests, these robots were quick and deadly, but nothing more than thoughtless killers, this would either work well, or fail totally, Morn thought. He had already chosen the location for the test, seeing as Gear’s and Ruwin’s homes had been destroyed, it was a simple choice to pick between Grautz and Vilem, and quite frankly, Morph would never have been defeated if it wasn’t for Kirie, more than Turok, as he had been able to continue building robots even after the Mecha Knight destroyed his great machine, but Iyaxxl still complained about Morn’s failure at Gaian research, because Kirie had taken all resources away from him. Soon she’d suffer, and the Resistance would be his, thanks to his creations. Luckily for the kingdom’s heroes, the empire had been bugged, and so, news of this got to the Resistors before the attack happened, and they were all waiting for it when the robots arrived. Even Kirie, the one who despised her hometown was there, but she had managed to be posted on the outskirts so that she wouldn’t be seen by the villagers. “Are you sure you don’t want to see your friends, family, Kirie?” asked Gear, concerned for his dear friend, “We’re here now, so-” “No Gear, despite everything I’ve ever done for this village, I’ve always been an outcast because of what happened to my mother, and I can’t face my father as I am.” replied Kirie sadly but firmly. “I thought you’d seen that we look past your scars, that we don’t judge you.” sighed Gear. “Yes Gear, I know you don’t, but I have a feeling the villagers will.” accused Kirie. “No more time for talking, guys.” interrupted Ross, “They’re here.” A squad of twenty or so of the new troopers marched up the grassy hills, brandishing their sharp claws, and triangular cannons glowing with energy. “Identifying targets... Targets identified. Nine of the terrorists known as the Resistors. Destroy them all.” said the leading robot with no real emotion in its robotic voice. The Resistors charged into battle holding up their different weapons, they didn’t need their soldiers for this battle, and prefered to judge the strengths and skills of these new soldiers before even letting their armies take a crack at them. The troopers were more dangerous, but definitely not invincible, as proved by the Resistors. Ross somersaulted over a fired beam and came down on one of the robots, plunging his metal fist into its face, and ripping off the face mask, leaving a twisted mess of machinery, but the robot was still able to attack Ross. Naga attacked a Terror-Trooper like a cat, occasionally running on all fours and leaping around until she could strike the robot with her hunting knives. Dagger rotated around two enemies, floating slightly above the ground with his demonic abilities, swinging his blades at the troopers to deliver several slashing attacks. Edwina was confronted by three troopers, charging their cannons, so she quickly charged up a plasma beam, and fired, and cancelled out the energy drawing process of the robots one by one, she had to quickly switch targets several times as the robots were somewhat resistant to magic, but not invincible, they eventually exploded and shut down. Lucia darted around in the air, avoiding beams and scouting the Resistors’ positions and progress, a second wave of troopers had followed during the battle, along with a shadowed figure between a ring of Terror Troopers and had passed them by, Lucia called out and pointed towards this, and Gear, Samia and Turok dashed into the village, Kirie followed, but wasn’t too enthusiastic about it. Some of the Terror Troopers were breaking into houses, and dragging out villagers while charging their cannons to fire on them. They were intervened by about half of the Resistors, who the robots turned their attention to. While most of the villagers ran back inside their homes, two particular villagers retrieved their weapons, and assisted in the fight. One was Titus, Kirie’s father, the leader of the village, and its protector, although he’d have stood no chance if the Resistors weren’t around. Using an ancient staff passed down by his ancestors, he started knocking over some of the robots, and jamming his weapon into their triangular cannons to destroy them. The second villager was Alan, a tall man with turquoise hair that hung over half his face, he was previously a friend of Kirie’s until the day her mother lost control of her Gaian powers, he despised Kirie ever since, for the loss of his home and his belief that Kirie would turn out the same way as her mother. He tackled a trooper, and then started hammering away with spiked gauntlets. Turok was surrounded by troopers, and was too late to stop them from firing, two of the blasts hit him and knocked him over, but one bounced off a house, hit a trooper, built up in strength, and exploded. Turok called out to his allies of the newfound weakness, that the beams were attuned to lifeforms, not buildings, and that they exploded once they hit a person, or a robot. The tactics changed for the better, and most of the Resistors used the blasts against the robots. Samia cut and cleaved through robots, occasionally deflecting the blasts with her sword to swing them back at the shooter, or towards its allies. Gear had brought a more sturdy boomerang rather than the circular blade and varied between throwing it to cut across troopers’ heads, and deflecting blasts with it. Kirie ran away from some troopers chasing her, into a clearing, she didn’t want anyone to be caught in the battle, but as she turned, it was too late for that, Alan was fighting several troopers at once, but winning. He saw her as she powered up a psychic shield to deflect several blasts, but only one out of four troopers were destroyed by the repelled blasts, and the force flung her veil upwards so that Alan saw her face. “You!... This is all your fault!” he shouted. “MY fault?! I’m here to help!” she yelled back. “You should have stayed at the empire, I know that you left them, and because of that, We’re getting attacked all the time, you should never have come back here, cos everyone knows this is your fault, I knew you were trouble ever since your mother-” “Don’t you talk about her!” intervened Kirie. “All I’m saying is that you have power like her, and you’re disgusting to look at, just as I knew you’d turn out. I guess you know that since you cover yourself up.” explained Alan darkly. “It was the empire that gave me this power, and scarred me, but at least I’m using my powers for a good cause, even if I must save judgemental fools like you and-” “Ha hah!” screamed a psychotic voice, as a dark transparent ghostly shadow shot by Kirie and stole her veil and tiara. “What?” “I thought distracting you would be hard ‘Toots’, but the robots didn’t even have to lift a finger!” grinned a familiar face as it mutated from ghost to solid form. “Morph...” shuddered Kirie, it had taken the combined efforts of Gear, Ruwin, Turok and herself to stop him last time, and they had thought Morph to be destroyed, how could she beat him by herself when he had so many abilities. “You two are so cute arguing like that, wish I had that sort of relationship with my father. Isn’t she ugly?” Morph questioned Alan. “Inside and out, this village is going to perish because of you.” scowled Alan towards Kirie, now able to see all of the horrible violet-coloured scars on Kirie’s face. “Give me back me tiara, my mother gave that to me.” ordered Kirie. “Not to mention, you want to hide your face, well come and get it!” laughed Morph, sinking into liquid and skipping across the ground, with Kirie’s veil in his possession. Kirie growled and chased after him, while the three robots that had waited for Morph to depart approached Alan. He tore into one of them, making it fall backwards, but the other two were too close to him and charging their cannons, Alan punched forward, into the cannons, the beams exploded, blowing up the troopers, but hitting Alan as well. He was unconscious, and half his face was burnt by the fire, and strangely, electricity from the blast was resonating about him. The last remaining trooper picked itself up, and received new orders from Morn, it walked towards the wreckage, picked up Alan, and carried him away... “You want your fashion accessory? Fight me for it!” laughed Morph, standing in solid form. Kirie charged forward, concentrating an attack, but Morph was fast, and punched away, using a rubbery form to hit Kirie in quick succession. He then morphed into a snake-like form and wrapped around Kirie, who quickly activated a psychic explosion, keeping her safe, but splattering Morph all over the field. She picked up her tiara and put it back on, but before she could move again, Morph screamed out, and repeated his previous action, but tightened around Kirie’s arms and mouth to ensure she couldn’t use her magic, he pressed his hands against either side of Kirie’s head, and a wavy aura travelled down Morph’s body. Kirie was released, and tumbled to the floor weakly, before looking up to face... herself. It laughed out loud in her voice before sending a powerful psychic blast towards her, catapulting her into the air. She landed, but she was weakened, Morph had her powers, and wasn’t trying to reduce the strength of them, he was unleashing their full force, something Kirie had learned not to do. “Nice demonstration of the extent of my copycat skills, and disguised as you, I shall get into your precious Resistance Base, and expose its location to the empire!” said Morph, perfectly imitating Kirie’s voice. “My friends won’t fall for a fake, especially Gear...” groaned Kirie, trying to lift herself up, but a hard kick in the guts knocked her down. “Daddy won’t suspect a thing, I’ve got your looks, and your powers, and you won’t be around to prove I’m not the real deal.” Morph loomed over Kirie, about to kill her with, technically, her own hands, but an explosion was heard not too far away, and Morph panicked. “No time to kill her, I can’t let them see the two of us together and-” Kirie had sat up and made a grab for Morph, but only managed to tear away the purple veil, so that the scars that she bare were in sight on Morph’s pseudo body. “Why you little...” Morph picked her up by the head, and flung her away. “You think that’ll do you any good? I can hardly see in that thing anyway!” Kirie hit the door of a shed, and many things tumbled out, including a pile of rope. “Time to tie up this loose end.” joked Morph, binding up the weakened Kirie and throwing her into the shed. “Thanks to you lot nearly killing me, I’ve lost the ability to use my shifting powers when I’m in someone else’s form, only their own, and my pseudo powers.” he/ she explained, picking up on old cloth and gagging Kirie with it. Now she was tied up and silenced, she couldn’t use her powers, move, or call for help. “Now that you’re all tied up I will replace you now, even if you somehow get free, it’ll be too late, I’ll be inside your precious base, I’ll know where it is, and the empire will learn of it soon afterwards. Thanks for the look. Ha ha ha ha ha!” With that, Morph slammed the door shut, and hurried along to join the Resistors. “Yes, yes, yes...” grinned Morn gleefully at his lab, certain Terror-Troopers had enabled him to watch the whole battle, “The scheme is going just as I planned it, and better. The Terror Troopers were never the point of this mission, they were only needed for a distraction. With Morph back up to full health, his unique abilities will get me the location of the Resistance Base, and soon after, the death of those meddlesome kids. Ha ha hah!!!” To be continued... Back to “Mystery of the Pyramid” Click to read the next story: "Pseudo”: Part 2 Back to “The Complete Set” Back to the Library