Hero Wanted - 18. Chapter Eighteen

“C-Chris?”

Standing in a hunched position with his upper body bloodied and exposed, Chris had the wings of an angel that extended out from a single, large disc that hovered behind his back. The feathers were ellipse-shaped and sleek in design, and the wings all together were at least twelve feet in length. In addition, with the small, circular interface that hovered over Chris’s forehead, both the wings and his body emitted an aura that somehow made his hair move like it was suspended in water. Ryan was in awe from the very sight of Chris and wondered if this was his true form, an angel ready for battle.

Turning around, the nine-foot Colossus faced Chris who had an intense expression on his face with bugling veins on his neck and forehead. When the creature sprinted toward him, the feathers of Chris’s wings flared out and his wings fired out multiple beams of white energy at the Colossus. A piercing shriek was heard as the Colossus’s armor was damaged by the energy beams and caused parts of body to shatter, leaving craters behind.

The creature, shrieking again, unfurled its cracked hand and fired a huge energy beam at Chris who immediately blocked the attack by folding his wings around his body. The wings then unfolded back, causing a shockwave with such great force that it sent the Colossus to fall onto the ground. And before it could get back up, Chris’s wings began to brighten in intensity like it was charging, and then Chris bent forward, allowing his wings to spin at an incredible velocity towards the Colossus that was sliced upon impact. Ryan was in awe as he watched the wings redirect back to Chris’s body like a boomerang and the Colossus decimated.

“Chris!” Ryan shouted out.

Something was wrong. The enemy Champions were still levitating above the ground with those enlarged nodes still protruding from their necks. And the Colossus was slowly standing back up and all the damage it retained from Chris’s attacks were healing as it returned to its original state. And before Ryan could react, the Colossus sped up to Chris who attempted to block the attack, but was hurtled into a wall instead. The place shook, and Ryan slowly stood back up, despite the pain, so he could somehow help Chris by attacking the enemy Champions who must have been the power source of the Colossus since it was clear it had no core of its own after being sliced up by Chris.

Equipping his weapon system’s gauntlets, Ryan launched himself towards the enemy Champions, but he was stopped by an invisible barrier that felt like crashing against a brick wall before he fell back to the ground. Ryan tried to focus through the pain pulsating through his body as he tried to rethink their strategy. The sudden shouts caused him to turn around to see Chris fighting against the Colossus with his wing-like weapon equipped. It was clear that he was reaching his threshold as his veins extended from his neck to the rest of his body and he looked like he was about to implode by the sheer amount of power he was using against the Colossus.

Chris suddenly fell to his knees as he tried to block the Colossus’s energy beam that was continuously being fired from its hand. The wings were blocking the attack, but were quickly disintegrating from the immense of the beam and Ryan knew he had to do something, even if that meant focusing the Colossus’s attention solely on him. So, positioning his feet on the floor and pointing one of his gauntlets at the Colossus, he fired his weapon that struck the back of the Colossus, alerting it to Ryan’s presence. The beam then stopped, allowing Chris to recover as the Colossus turned its attention to Ryan who rematerialized his missing gauntlet and his leg extensions as well.

“Come at me, you fucker!”

Colossus launched itself towards Ryan who successfully dodged the mass of his enemy by launching himself upwards to the ceiling. He then used his leg extensions against the ceiling to send himself back to the Colossus like a missile, using his fisted gauntlet to attack it, which sent it crashing to the ground. And without relenting, Ryan punched the creature with his gauntlets nonstop, breaking its chest armor one fast, powerful strike after another. A cloud obscured his view as he continued to attack, so he could give enough time for Chris to recover before he was ready to tackle the Colossus and the enemy Champions together.

But things turned for the worse when one of the Colossus’s hands sprang from the dust cloud surrounding it and grabbed a hold of Ryan’s arm. Reacting quickly, he tried to punch its hand off with his other gauntlet, but his other arm was soon restrained by the Colossus’s other hand and before he could react in time, it slammed its head against his own. The Colossus then released its hold of Ryan as he was sent backwards against a wall.

His vision blurry, Ryan groaned as he tried to prevent himself from losing consciousness. He felt blood pouring down from his forehead and he knew that the Colossus got him good with its headbutt, but he did not want to give up. But when a bright light appeared in his vision, his eyes widened as he saw the exposed palms of the Colossus’s hands about to fire an energy beam together at him. He tried to move, but he was completely stuck in the wall and the pain throughout his body caused him to remain in place as the light became brighter and more intense.

Ryan wondered if this was the end, and if he would finally meet his mother again as his life literally flashed before his eyes and would be the last thing he ever saw before…

The light was suddenly blocked by a mass that appeared in front of Ryan, and before he could figure out what was happening, a tremendous force was felt, and he crashed further into the wall before everything went dark.

***

Sending a blast of energy against the enemy Champion, Josephine’s attack caused the enlarged node to shatter and the enemy Champion onto the ground, defeated. She smiled when she looked around the battlefield and knew that the final enemy Champion was defeated, and the fact that the remaining Colossus was destroyed only a short distance away should mean everything was over. Her comrades looked weary after fighting so many of their fellow Champions, but thanks to Delilah’s strategy of blocking the enemy Champions’ vision to expose their corrupted nodes, it was a cinch to finish them off.

“You all right there, Kipp?” Josephine said, resting her cannon on her shoulder.

Kipped smiled and gave raised a thumb as he rested on his knees and caught his breath. “Sure am, Josie!”

Josephine was about to message the Command Center that her platoon had cleared their area of the academy when an image of Nathaniel Johnson, the former United States President appeared in her sight who only she could see.

“Josephine! Can you see me?” the former President asked, looking panicked.

“Yes, sir!”

“I need your assistance immediately! My son is currently at the lowest of the academy, which can only be accessed at the building’s elevator of the Command Center. He needs your help and any other Champions who you can bring. Enemy Champions must’ve infiltrated the area right before I lost contact with him. I need you to go there now and save him, Josephine.”

“I will, sir. Don’t worry,” Josephine assured Nathaniel.

“Thank you and be careful,” Nathaniel said before his image disappeared from her sight.

“Kipp!”

“Yes, Josie?” Kipp said as he jogged to Josephine.

“I need your assistance with fighting some last remaining enemy Champions. Everyone else needs to stay here and recover and you’re the only one I can trust to be by my side. Will you come with me?”

His face brightening, Kipp said, “Sure will!”

“Great! Let’s go!”

Josephine did not know what to expect at this mysterious lowest level of the academy, but she knew that Chris was also sent down there and that if he needed assistance as well, it was a dire situation. She quickened her pace along with Kipp as they made their way to the building and prayed to Maria that this war could finally end without any casualties.

***

Ryan choked at the dust that enveloped him and his body felt like it was hit by a truck, though he could still move all his limbs that were still intact despite the worst pain that he had experienced ever in his entire life. He could barely see through the dust and debris, and he wanted to know desperately if Chris was okay. But when he heard a groan nearby, he instinctively knew the sound was coming from Chris. He reached around, trying to find his way through the cloudiness until he felt something soft and human.

“Chris?” Ryan called out.

When the dust finally settled, and Ryan could get a better glimpse of Chris, he lost his breath from what he saw. The sight of Chris’s charred body sent shockwaves of panic within Ryan, and when he saw that Chris’s arms were missing from the elbow and shoulder, he cried out his name. The same gray-blue eyes he countlessly lost himself in were red and looking at him in pain right before Chris coughed out blood that spattered over his bare chest.

“Chris! Oh, my God!” Ryan exclaimed as he realized that Chris was the mass that appeared in front of him, blocking the incoming beam from killing him. “Chris! Can you hear me?”

Chris nodded and grunted in response before coughing up blood again.

“Stay with me, Chris!” Ryan begged as he tried to lift his upper body from the ground.

Chris choked out in pain, which made Ryan instantly regret the move. “D-Don’t...”

“God, Chris! You shouldn’t have done that! You shouldn’t have saved me!”

A small smirk appeared on Chris’s face. “I…I had to… Thought my wings could…block it, but…”

“Stop talking, Chris. I’m getting you out of here,” Ryan said as he tried to hold back his tears from pouring out.

“No!” Chris spat out before coughing again. “Just…Just get out of here before the…”

“Chris! Stay with me!” Ryan pleaded as tears began to streak his face and land on Chris’s body.

“I…I…Lo…”

Chris’s eyes then closed, and Ryan shouted out his name repeatedly, but with no response. His vision became blurry once again, not with light, but tears and the darkness that began to smother his mind as the idea of losing Chris was becoming a reality.

“This…This can’t be.” Ryan rasped.

This war, this damn war just took the one person he truly believed he could forever by happy with, and it was not fair. It was not fair or just at all as Ryan screamed in agony before a light enveloped his vision and he then knew it was not over yet.

Not by a longshot.