Project M78

As the door opened, Nicholas felt an awareness of a vast space beyond. His flashlight barely touched the darkness as he stepped inside.

Then, suddenly, he heard machinery starting up - some of it shakily, as if complaining at having its slumber broken. As he looked around with a mix of wonder and fear in his expression, lights came on across the room. Some of the banks of lights were guttering and one was dark but the entire space was suddenly illuminated. The entire chamber seemed to be the same size as the gymnasium at his school, but it also had glass-fronted rooms along two walls, and what looked like a power generator in the distant left-hand corner. At the center of the room was a large table. The floor had several burn marks around this table, but otherwise was covered in a layer of dust at least an inch thick. Nicholas took a tentative step towards the table.

Nothing happened.

Another step. Again nothing.

Five more steps and he was halfway to the table. At this point he heard a distant rumble of some sort, turned back, and saw a cloud of dust billowing into the room. He ran back to the door, and found that rubble now closed off the stairs - unless there was another exit here, he was trapped!

Furthermore, he had no idea what had caused the stairs to collapse - he briefly hoped the other students were OK, especially that cute but annoying Sandra girl, but then his thoughts returned to his own predicament.

Considering his situation for a moment, Nicholas decided he should see what was on the table first, and then investigate the rooms, mainly looking for a way out, but also for some new treasures to take back to his teachers if he did manage to make it out.

He approached the table, a little less cautiously than before, avoiding the charred sections of the floor. On top of it, he saw a bunch of tools - most ancient but some better than the ones he had - and something that looked like a backpack made of metal. He touched the backpack and found it far lighter than he had expected. He picked it up and tried to find a way to open it, but there did not seem to be any. He shrugged and slid his arms through the straps to carry it out, planning to turn his attention to the remaining contents of the table, when he heard an odd ‘click’ and felt the arm bands tighten. Then another, louder click and a mechanical whirr as something fell over his head. He screamed.  For a few seconds he could see nothing, and then it seemed that panels opened up over his eyes, but his field of vision was now somehow wider, and he could see something in the walls - electrical current perhaps?

Then he felt a sudden, sharp pain in his skull, pain almost strong enough to make him black out. As the pain began to fade, he realized he was now hearing a cold, mechanical voice:

“Greetings candidate. I am unit Emm-Seventy-Eight, of the Earth Titan Project. You have been accepted into the Ultimate Warrior Program to be Earth’s last line of defense against all threats, terrestrial and extraterrestrial!”

The next words were accompanied by matching text in green visible in the corner of his eyes:

“Level One unlocked.

“Armored Warrior Mode Unlocked.

“Turbolasers Unlocked.

“Do you wish to enter test mode?”

“I wish to get out of here!” Nicholas replied.

“The second chamber to your left holds the lift controls. Those will get you out “

Nick walked towards the indicated room. His body felt heavier, clumsier than it had been, for the first few steps, but then something seemed to fall into place, and he was moving with a fluidity and speed that surprised him. He crossed the distance in seconds and entered the indicated chamber. There was a bank of controls on one wall. “How do I access these?” He asked.

“Accessing for you. One moment. Need to clear rubble off of the exit point. Done. Stand in the center of the chamber and wait.”

Nicholas shook his head but complied, and saw several switches move and lights flicker on the wall. Then he heard a low rumble and felt the floor shudder and start to lift. As it did, the ceiling began to slide open, slowly, almost too slowly; Nick feared he might slam into it. A lot of dirt and rubble fell through the opening, and just as he got close enough to touch it, the movement of the panels sped up. Sunlight streamed in.

“At last, I can recharge. Reserves were almost depleted after being dormant for nearly three hundred years” the mechanical voice said.

Nicholas was about to ask some of the many questions floating through his head when two things happened; first, he noticed the kaiju Blastcrow above, and less than a second later, the distinctive head of a Drillgar nearby.

Second, he heard two unusual chimes, the first followed by the odd green text at the edge of his vision and the voice reciting: “Quest assigned: Defeat Blastcrow to access Gargantua Mode.” The message after the second chime was: “Quest Assigned: Defeat Drillgar to reach level two.”

“Great but how on Earth do I do that? I’m just a kid!” Nicholas complained.

“The Turbolasers should make short work of the Blastcrow.”

“Wonderful. How do I use them?” the boy wailed.

“The training should have …”

Panic warring with frustration in his voice, Nicholas declared: “This was a bit rushed. I have not been through, ah, the full training. How do I access the freaking Turbolasers?”

“Ah. Clap your hands together to unlock, then spread them apart to prime. Aim along your fist noting that there is about a three-degree angle of deviation. Weapons fire on mental command “

“Excellent,” Nicholas said, slamming his hands together. As he did so, he realized he now seemed to be encased in some kind of silver suit, and as his hands connected, panels on the sides of each arm of the suit opened up and odd little multi barreled guns popped out. As he spread his arms apart, he heard the guns click into place and grinned. “At least Geometry is the one form of math I understand.”

He was about to aim at the flying creature when something struck him from the side and sent him sprawling.

“Ugh, forgot about the big guy,” he realized. The Drillgar’s stubby tail was still long enough to catch him in its sweep and bowl him over. Nicholas leapt to his feet and realized he had jumped nearly ten feet into the air and almost twice that distance horizontally as he did so. “Okay, that part was kind of awesome,” he admitted.

What was not awesome, however, was the fact that his impressive leap had caught the attention of the Blastcrow. He felt an odd change in the air and remembered what he had heard about such beasts. He saw energy building inside its head and crouched down, hurling himself into the air as the blast of electricity burst from the flier’s crest.

His leap took him higher into the air than he had expected; he was naturally athletic, though not very strong, and used his momentum to twist into position and fired the weapon on his left arm mid-leap. Perhaps predictably, he missed, but he now had a better feel for aiming the weapons; as he fell to the ground, he performed a roll, and came out of it a little shaken but he rose into a stable firing position, took careful aim at the Blastcrow, which now was heading very quickly towards him, and opened fire with the gun on his right arm. As with the first time, the six barrels of the gun each fired a golden beam, one barrel after the next, in two volleys. This time, all but one of the dozen shots hit its mark, and each burned a deep hole into the monster’s head and torso. It crashed to the ground, literally at his feet, and the neck - as he had blown the head up completely - struck his chest as it skidded to a halt, knocking him over.

“Quest complete. Gargantua mode enabled. Activate?”

The defeat of the Blastcrow drew the Drillgar’s attention and it was now looming dangerously close. Nick fired the left mounted gun at the thing and hit with all six blasts, but they impacted the creature’s body harmlessly.

“If it will give me a chance against this thing, absolutely!” he shouted.

Suddenly Nicholas felt a strange rushing sensation, unlike anything he had ever felt before - and realized he was looking directly into the eyes of the enormous beast - as it was trying to ram him with the now rotating drill mounted on the bony plate protecting its skull!

Relying on the martial arts training he had back in grade school, he attempted to deflect the blade with his left hand and strike with his right.

He was successful with the deflection, though the impact jarred him and left his arm feeling numb, but his attack failed to connect, and the creature slashed at him with its upper arms.

“M78, I seem to be stronger in this mode, are the guns stronger as well?” Nicholas asked.

“In theory they should be, but this mode has never been adequately tested, Candidate.”

“Wait, WHAT!” Nicholas cried, barely remembering to move back out of the range of the Drillgar’s slashing claws.

“I am an experimental prototype, the first of my kind,” the mechanical voice replied. “Even I am not completely aware of how all my functions operate, beyond the initial system drafts.”

Nicholas did a backflip to avoid being hit by another lunge from the giant drill, landed in a crouch and said: “Now is as good a time to find out then,” as he lined up blasts from both of his guns.

The blasts from his right hand gun hit the creature’s skull plate and had no effect, but the ones from the left hit it on its upper shoulder, cutting into the slightly softer flesh and entirely burning off the kaiju’s upper right arm!

Then, before Nicholas or the monster could react, the Skylance came roaring up from behind the Drillgar; now, instead of a gun and the discarded lance, it had a gleaming energy shield on the left, and a large sword in its right arm. Though the Drillgar dwarfed the fighter craft, the pilot had been trained for such situations and plunged his sword into the soft flesh at the base of the monster’s skull!

The nightmarish kaiju spun around and hit the airship with its remaining right arm, sending the ship spinning away, towards the factory walls.

Nicholas decided that the pilot may have just saved him, so he should return the favor, and ran to intercept it - he underestimated his speed and size and almost overshot his target, but just barely managed to catch the ship and keep it from crashing at the last possible second.

Nicholas saw the pilot salute him and felt a slight surge of pride - and then he saw the Drillgar again attempting a charge.

He quickly aimed both guns at the creature’s lower body as an alarm sounded: “Energy levels dangerously low. Gargantua mode to end in five seconds!”

Cursing mildly, knowing this was the all-or-nothing moment, he expended the last of his energy reserves in blasts from both guns and felt an odd, vertigo-like sensation. Suddenly he was normal sized again, stuck in the shifting rubble of the factory - just in time to see the giant monster crash to the ground, one leg severed, and serious injuries inflicted on its lower body.

“Quest complete. Rewards will be … will be … need to recharge.”

Nick heard some odd mechanical noises and suddenly realized he was seeing the world normally again. He looked down and saw not the strange silvery armor, but the sleeves of his school uniform.

High above, two more Skylances arrived, and the first one shifted out of combat mode back into its normal fighter jet configuration to communicate with them.

Nicholas realized he was very tired but also felt exhilarated as well. He reached back and realized the backpack seemed to be gone, but there was an odd, tiny metal plate attached to the back of his neck; he realized it would be barely concealed by his hair. Faintly, the voice of M-seventy-eight came to him: “I am in standby mode. Must recharge.”

He shifted a large piece of metal to the side and tried to dig himself out of the rubble, when he heard a voice: “I told you I saw someone here - look!”

He looked up and saw a teacher, one he vaguely recalled as Mister Haynes, standing there, reaching down with one hand. “You were right, Peter,” the teacher called back, and then turned to Nick: “Are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so, but I could use a hand,” Nicholas replied. He heard the sound of running feet as he grabbed the teacher’s hand and felt the mechanical systems in the teacher’s arms boost the man’s strength enough that, together, they could get him out. A handful of students were standing around, including the red-head Sandra, and Peter Maxwell, a squirrely little brown-haired boy with a knack for getting into trouble through impulsiveness, and out of it through charm.

“You’re okay, Nick?” Sandra called out.

“A little shaken up, and very tired from climbing out of those stairs,” Nick called back, “but unhurt.”

“Hold still,” the teacher commanded, and moved his right arm over Nick’s body. “No bleeding detected, no broken bones, no sprains. You seem fine. Looks like you missed all the excitement, though.”

“Excitement sir?” Nick asked.

Several voices chimed in at once, excitedly relating all that happened after he had been separated from the group.

“Three kaiju attacked!”

“A Skylance took them all on and defeated one but lost its energy lance!”

“The transports were attacked but fought back!”

“A teacher gave his life to save three students!”

“A giant man appeared and defeated the Drillgar!”

“Whoah, whoah!” Nicholas replied, “I can’t take all of that in at once. A giant man, you say?”

“An Ultimate Warrior,” Peter said. “Like in the comic books. A real-life Ultimate Warrior!”

Nicholas remembered the comics - they featured a superhero from another world who could change size and fought both normal sized criminals and giant enemies. He had liked the book at first, but grew tired of the hero always finding exactly the new power he needed at the last second of almost every fight.

Was he now that hero?

***

Interlude:

In a dark chamber lit only by display screens, a few flashing lights, and a row of thin glowing panels at the base of a large throne, a figure paced around in frustration. The form was roughly humanoid, though it had two short but sharp horns growing from its forehead, and two tentacles on each side of its waist. The creature had dark flesh, though the exact color was impossible to discern in the room’s lighting, and he wore a vest that appeared to be of some strange leather-like material edged in metal, and a skirt or kilt of matching material. Massive boots covered its feet. It had six fingers on each hand, and three eyes set in the front of its head.

As it paced, five of the monitors in the room came to life, each showing a shadow humanoid figure. Some had oddly shaped heads, others seemed completely human, but all were cloaked in shadow.

“Sector Boss Kao, I have just received some disturbing news. Please tell me it is not true or explain your failure at once!” the pacing figure demanded, not pausing to look at any of the screens.

One of the screens grew brighter. The figure there pulled off a human mask to reveal a gray face with three eyes similar to that of the pacing figure. This creature also bore a second mouth below the one that talked, one filled with razor sharp fangs. “High Lord Xiaren,” it replied, a slight lisp in its oddly echoing voice, “I wish I could. It appears the intelligence our operatives unearthed is true and the Prototype exists. Unfortunately, either one of them betrayed me - us - or the humans found and activated it first. I am investigating and expect to know the truth soon. If we were betrayed, I fully intend to bring you the head of the traitor before the week is up. If not…”

“If not,” the being called High Lord Xiaren replied, “You will fight the user of the Prototype and you will bring me his head, and be forgiven your failure, or you will perish in the attempt and your legacy cleared. Am I understood?”

“Absolutely, High Lord!” the gray figure on the monitor replied, saluting with an upraised palm.

“If it is, indeed, a human who unlocked it, and this human can bring the full power of the Prototype to bear, what resources do we have that we can reposition to deal with this threat?”

Another monitor lit up slightly, but the figure depicted remained in shadow. It seemed to be wearing a hood of some kind. The voice was feminine, but commanding: “I have nothing to spare at the moment - though the Europeans lack the raw technology of the Americans or the Asians, they are far better at coordinating their defenses, and we have been stuck in a stalemate. If I shift anything out, the balance of power will be lost for a while.”

Another monitor lit up, and what appeared to be two men in the monitor turned out to be a single being with pale blue skin and two heads. “Ghios has grown tired of the challenges here in Africa. They will gladly go wherever needed, just give the word, High Lord,” it said, each head speaking a different word; the effect was oddly poetic in sound.

The next monitor to light up revealed a being with a truly monstrous visage, dominated by red but with jagged black stripes running from its broad, pig-like nose back in a star-like pattern. It had eyes mounted on short stalks on the sides of its head, just above and in front of its broad, pointed ears. It’s voice a low growl, it said: “The Asians have developed another weapon that is giving us trouble, but we should have it contained within a week. They have also ramped up production of the craft the Americans call ‘Skylances’ - they are useless against our greater servitors but can cut through our rank-and-file troops and the lesser beasts with ease. We are primarily engaged in finding and destroying these factories and have managed to remove two in the last three days. We should have production shut down within a week, two at the worst.”

“Accelerate your search,” the High Lord commanded. “This is a blow that must be dealt to those who would defend this world.”

“It will be as you command,” the monstrous figure replied.

The last monitor lit up. If the figure there did not have a third eye in the center of its forehead, it would have looked like a normal human with a light brown complexion, black hair and dark brown eyes. At least until he talked and revealed a mouth full of fangs: “Father, research into the virus has been promising. We have used it to reduce entire villages to rubble in days and are prepared to test it on a larger city as soon as we have some better protective measures in place - I lost one of my best lieutenants to the virus last time, sadly,” it replied.

“Though I dislike such subtle methods of warfare, I am pleased by your progress. Be prepared to move operations to America to assist Lord Kao; that region does not seem to pose a significant threat.”

“Understood Fa… High Lord. It shall be as you command.”

“You have your orders. Glory to the Exerians!”

In unison, the figures in the monitors replied: “All Hail the High Lord. All Hail the Emperor. Glory to the Exerians!”

With that, all the screens went dark. The figure resumed its pacing for a moment, then moved to the throne and sat down, resting its head in one hand. “I do not like this development at all,” it said to nobody in particular. “I just hope I have a good report to give to the Emperor soon.”