Chapter 4: Then Came The Rain of Collapsing Debris

(Solmonath 28, 56 / 3:30PM)

“Time’s up! Everyone, bring your robots to the bench room near the arena! The arena competition starts in 30 minutes!

Having the megaphone placed onto his lips, the announcer officially wrapped up the building part of the competition. Feeling the baby wolf rustle on top of his head, he had a piece of beef jerky in his hand before raising it up, feeding his pet.

All the rest of the teams walked toward the arena side of the building, with some groups mixed with regular humans and beast humans. With all of them carrying their little killing machines, what about Stan’s group?

“This thing is too heavy.”

“Sighs … I’ll carry it.”

Fred failed to carry the large robot the three of them built, leading Stan to lift it with both his hands. It’s metallic chrome cold and sharp, it contrasted to Stan’s cold and sweaty palms.

Other teams brought with them their robots, with many different variants taking form.

One group built a robot resembling a spider, its legs being attached with obsidian blades which could cut anything and everything. Another group built a robot with wings, the rotor blades sturdy enough to lift the small chunk of metal off the ground. Its arm holding liquid napalm, it acted as a sort of flamethrower.

Another group built … or copied a popular type of robot…

“Hey, you copied Gary’s robot!”

One group pointed to another group’s robot.

The robot had a laser attached on its chest, the laser looking to be stolen from something no teen should steal. Even though Luke didn’t know, everyone else stayed far away from its chest…

“Hey, you don’t see Gary anywhere, don’t you?” Said the group which clearly copied the layout of that teen’s name.

Luke, Fred, and Stan traveled along with the robot in hand, with Stan looking toward Fred with a smirking face.

“Hey, you need to work out those arms.”

“I know, I know.”

“All I do is light exercises and look at me. Pushups, situps, and squats are key to a healthy body.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

While Stan and Fred talked for a good while, Luke glanced around the building with his curious eyes. Seeing the many high windows right below the ceiling, the blue sky bestowed itself to Luke’s red eyes, leading him to see the small clouds floating through the skyscrapers.

But he had to return back to reality. As if Stan was an older brother to him, Luke pondered the thought of both of them being related.

“Hey, I have to ask, but when did you guys first meet?

“Hmm … Should we tell him Stan?”

“You know you don’t like talking about it.”

“But I feel more comfortable when you explain it though.”

All three of them stopped on the outer edge of the crowd, with Stan turning his body around while carrying the robot. Huffing out air from his nostrils, his breath pressed down onto the top of Fred and Luke’s heads, since Stan was half a foot taller than them.

“I don’t know if Fred told you, but he’s an orphan.”

“Wait what?!”

Luke felt a sudden case of whiplash, his eyes widening to the shocked words from Stan’s mouth. Despite Luke never seeing or meeting Fred’s parents, it was still a shock regardless.

“How are you able to afford to go to the Institute if you’re an orphan?”

“They did an IQ test on me. I never checked the results, but they welcomed me with open arms.”

—Wait, just how smart is Fred?

Luke tapped his fingers along his chin, his nails trickling with his pale skin. While doing so Fred averted his eyes from Luke, pinning them onto the cement floor he was all too familiar with.

“At least Stan and his family took me in, so I guess it isn’t all bad.”

“When me and my parents first saw him, he was malnourished … for a six-year old.”

—Malnourished? I thought the country of Ticia was the lowest in terms of poverty…

Luke let his hand drop to his side, his knuckles resting easily on his cotton black pants. Meanwhile, Stan began scratching his right cheek, scraping off dead dirt lodged in his pores.

“He was with another boy. Both of them looked too clean for homeless kids, but we didn’t want to investigate down that rabbit hole…”

“Who was that other boy?”

“His name’s Gary, and he’s—”

The main door to the main entrance opened up violently, causing everyone to perk their heads to the commotion. Jerking their heads, their eyes catched onto a fourteen year old boy with tan skin.

“Gary! About time—woah, what happened to your face?” Said the announcer. This time, he didn’t wield or use a megaphone, his tone feeling as if both boys knew each other on a personal level. Tilting his head to the right, the announcer grabbed his pet wolf and snuggled it down to his arms, while opening his ear holes up.

The teen’s nose swelled purple, with blood squeezing out from his nostrils. Littering his lips and down to his upper chin, his mouth reeked with iron, while glaring at the announcer.

His hands squeezed to the point where his knuckles might break, he yelled back at the speaker.

“Someone dropped a lighter on my face! In front of the Fenix tower!

________________________________________________________________________

Luke’s face went pale.

Gary looked shorter than Stan, and instead of smooth straight hair, he had spiked messed up hair. Having orange tan skin, he was relatively chubby, but not enough for him to be called obese or overweight. Wearing a blue shirt and yellow pants, he wore the same sneakers as Fred.

As the room began to spark with noise, all of the geeks started gossiping amongst themselves. Whispers traveling like the wind, Luke, Fred, and Stan were right on the edge of it.

“Who would do such a thing?”

“To Gary of all people?!”

“He’s the best robot builder in the games!”

Gossips then turned to frustration, as the whispers turned into growled words. Because the mood turned sour, the three of them silently walked back away from the crowd. Lucky for them, the crowd didn’t notice, as Luke placed himself in back of Stan and Fred.

Both boys looking back at him, Luke’s cheeks flushed hard red, with nervousness and guilt swallowing him up like a blue whale.

—That masked man! Why did he do that!?

Fred tugged Luke’s shoulder, his hand causing him to look up. Standing next to Luke, he moved his head close to his ear, the distance close enough for him to whisper.

“Was it really you who did it?”

“It’s not me … it’s … it’s complicated.”

“Don’t tell me …” Stan groaned once he put the pieces together. Turning his body away from the crowd, he towered over Luke with his shadow, his hands curling into fists.

“Did you really drop a lighter on Gary?”

“It’s hard to explain…”

Stan sighed out a long breath out of his mouth. Clearing all his airways from the rusted and dusted air, it plowed and tickled his upper lip. Looking toward Fred, a speckle of sweat formed along his nose.

“Fred, get him out of here before it gets ugly.”

Using his tall body, he blocked the two boys, hoping no one would piece together who Luke is. Both boys silently sneaking off, Stan kept his eyes on the crowd, as well as Gary and the announcer.

“I know a secret exit you could escape from.”

Sneakily running off to the other side of the building, both quietly climbed up a stack of wood as they reached the top. Since the crowd was surrounding the injured Gary, it was the perfect chance, as Fred reached the secret exit he showed Luke.

Both seeing a metal opening, Luke sniffed the metal … and he pinched his nose shut.

“This is a garbage chute.”

“If we take the main door, everyone will notice.”

Giving Gary bags of ice, the announcer tapped his right cheek with his finger. His nail embedded with wolf fur, it tickled his skin, but the thought he sketched was what tickled him more.

“Wait a minute, let me check the list of builders…”

Unfortunately, geeks have ways to solve a problem. Walking to the podium, he settled down his baby wolf near the podium, while taking a look at the ledger. Scanning through the papers, he squinted at every name written on the book.

“I remembered a kid who had a last name Fenix…”

“It's a rare last name, so it must be him!”

His finger stopped when the last group wrote their names on the ledger. Written on the page, it had group leader ‘Stanley King’, Fred’, and most importantly…

“Aha, his name is Luke Fenix! Do we have a Luke Fenix here?!”

Everyone in the building scanned their eyes all across the building, looking through every corner, piece of metal, and dark shadowed area they laid eyes on. Since most geeks don’t remember pointless names or faces they’re going to forget, it brought Luke an advantage in escaping. But the way both Fred and Luke were positioned…

One of the geeks pointed their finger at two boys on top of a stack of wood.

“Why is Fred and some kid next to the garbage chute!?”

““Oh no…””

All the geeks and nerds laid their eyes on both of them.

‘You should’ve taken the lower garbage chute! Not the top one!’ thought Stan. Having his head turned around, his cheeks bulged out a vein, whilst his fists knuckled hard on his thighs. Since he thought both were going to use the lower chute, his body that tried to help Luke escape was pointless.

“Fred! Is that you!? Why are you up there!?”

“Uh…”

“And is that the boy you hangout with? Wait … Is it him?!

“Hold up!” Yelled Stan, as he walked toward the crowd who wrinkled their faces. His hands low, his back was straightened, and he kept his monolid eyes on the chubby tan teen whose nose continued to bleed. “Why do you jump to the conclusion that it is Luke? Why would a 12 year old kid throw a lighter off the top balcony?

“That’s what I wanna know! Wait a minute…” Gary darkened his eyes and pinned his stare on the cement floor, his voice filled with husk smoke. “Before I got struck, I was gazing above at the tower, until I saw a little head peek out of it.”

Luke started to sweat. The more Gary pieced together the wrong puzzle, the more his face clammed with his pale skin.

“And the kid probably saw me, and for some sick prank, he … he … threw the goddamn lighter!

Returning to his anger, he didn’t want to let his chance of revenge slide. Stomping with his sneakers on the cement floor, the rest of the geeks and nerds followed suit, walking in back of Gary like a mob. Looking like a mafia group, they … didn’t look intimidating, at all…

Gary and the announcer being in front of the group, Gary had his red-stained eyes on the boy with light-brown hair. Balling his hands, Gary raised his right hand.

“Get down here now!”

“How about forcing him down?” “Let’s drag his butt off the wood!” Said two of the geeks right behind Gary.

Climbing the stack of wood, everyone else including the announcer stayed on the ground floor. Ignoring Fred’s attempts to calm him down, Gary’s palms splintered with every piece he climbed, leading him to strengthen his anger even more. Being the elder, Stan had to do something, as he trembled in his shoes.

Halfway through the stack, Luke’s breath became frozen once he saw Gary’s enraged eyes. His face was still bloodied, and it looked as if his nose was beyond repair…

“As payback for my nose, how about I smash your face in!?”

“Stop Gary! He said it was an accident!”

Gary reached the top of the stack, facing in front of the two boys who trembled in fear. Ignoring Fred, Gary kept his eyes on Luke’s teary-eye face, his lower eyelids barely holding his cold tears.

But as soon as Gary came any closer, Stan placed himself in between Luke and him. Having a well toned body, the climb up toward them wasn’t hard on him, unlike Gary.

“Calm down.”

“Out of the way!”

Gary placed his palms onto Stan’s chest, his strength dwindled to that of a feather pressing firm on a box. His pushes doing nothing against the immovable Stan, a low growl molested his vocals.

“Out of my way, before I—

—Then came light—

A flash of it shone through the windows right below the ceiling, a light so yellow even a dandelion couldn’t fluster to. In unison, everyone turned toward the flash, as even Gary’s enraged anger faded away into nothing. So bright, and so quick, the brightness was probably a shade darker than the sun—-

—Then came the sound—

A shockwave, from hell itself, blasted and scorned the metal and brick walls of the building. Trembling and molesting everyone’s bones, their ears pierced against the glass-shattering boom, causing them to clench their eyes shut.

It was so quick … Everything happened so quickly …

—Then came the rain of collapsing debris—

As it splattered onto everyone below.