Alliance (4 page)

As I lean against the wall, a low hissing
sound emits from behind me. Mobile Database records immediately
match the hiss with that of a Grand Lizard, which makes me turn
around to face the creature, but what I see does not make any
sense.

Standing two dozen yards away from me is a
humanoid Grand Lizard. That is not an exaggeration. It is literally
a humanoid creature that heavily resembles a Grand Lizard. Sensors
indicate that it is no illusion cast by Jornan, because the
creature has two pumping hearts and appears to be breathing.

I run the appearance of this creature
against the thousands of images in the mobile Database, but cannot
find any match. I have never seen anything like it before. I cannot
feel fear, but I do not like not knowing what this creature is. The
Database, even the mobile Database, is supposed to provide me with
complete information on every species on Dela and Xeeo, but it
apparently does not know what this thing is.

My sensors show me that the humanoid Grand
Lizard has blood along the tips of its claws. The blood is dried,
but I can still tell that it is human blood. It probably belongs to
the dead Knight behind me, or perhaps it belongs to one of the
other Knights, who I now assume are all dead, likely thanks to this
creature.

I jump backwards away from the unknown
creature, because logic dictates that trying to fight a member of a
hitherto unknown species is illogical and dangerous. Especially
when it is clear that this creature likely killed the other Knights
even with their metalligick armor to protect them.

The creature, however, does not appear
afraid of me. It advances with its head lowered, the hissing noise
emitting from its throat like a snake. While I do not know the
strength of its bloody claws, as the mobile Database files contain
no information on them at all, they look large and sharp enough to
cut through my metal skin and circuitry with no problem.

But unfortunately, I cannot move away from
it fast enough. With only one leg, I can jump back only a few
inches at a time, while the unknown creature covers several times
that ground with each step. It looks like I will have to fight if I
wish to survive.

I check my power level again. My energy
reserves are at 19%, which reason tells me is not enough to fight
against this monster. Yet I have no way to recharge, because there
are no recharging stations in Dela. I do have a backup, but I doubt
it will do me much good against this creature's might.

The creature, on the other hand, does not
appear at all worried about fighting me. It does not hesitate to
draw closer and closer, hissing and spitting some kind of saliva
that melts through the street as it approaches. My sensors conclude
that this creature's saliva is a form of acid, which makes it even
less likely that I will survive a fight against it.

With only 19% power left, I cannot use my
electrical barrier, because the barrier would rapidly deplete my
energy reserves to zero. Nor can I use my lightning bolt fingers,
because that, too, will drain my reserves fast. Systems indicate
that electrical barrier and lightning bolt fingers are both
inoperable, anyway, likely as a result of Jornan's lightning attack
from earlier.

Therefore, it seems unlikely that I will
be able to defend myself at all. If I was still in Xeeo, I could
simply transfer my memory data to the Database until a new body
could be constructed for me, but right now I cannot do even that
much, so I must defend and care for this body no matter the
cost.

I can only watch as the unknown creature
approaches. While I cannot feel pain, and therefore cannot fear it,
I cannot say that I look forward to being torn apart by this beast.
If this creature destroys me, then it is unlikely anyone will be
able to put me back together, even if by some stroke of luck a J
bot mechanic stumbles upon my remains at some point.

But before the creature's claws are within
reach of me, a loud whistle sound nearby causes it to look around
in surprise. I also try to find the source of the whistling, but my
sensors are unable to pick up anything that could point me in its
direction. All I sense is a sudden spike in skyras energy; not as
powerful as Jornan's, but strong enough to catch my attention.

However, I do not let that spike distract
me. Instead, I take advantage of the creature's distraction to hop
away again, although I hop away no faster than I did before. The
creature, on the other hand, soon notices my attempts to flee and
comes at me again, apparently having lost interest in finding out
where the whistling noise is coming from.

Then, without warning, someone jumps down
from the roof of a nearby building and lands in the street in
between me and the creature. The creature snarls and backs up,
perhaps taken by surprise by the newcomer's sudden appearance,
while I stop hopping long enough to look at the being as she rises
to her full height.

Initially, I mistake her for Jornan,
because she is a female human wearing witch robes and has skyras
rings along her fingers. But then, upon further inspection, I
notice that she has only five skyras rings, rather than ten, and
she is skinnier than Jornan. Her skin is much paler, too, and she
has shorter hair, but I cannot see her face because she is not
facing me. All I know is that she has an immense amount of skyras
energy flowing through her body and rings, if my scanners are
accurately reporting her energy levels, although it is still not
quite as much as Jornan's.

“
Who are you?” I ask,
though the witch does not turn to face me. “Identify
yourself.”

“
Later,” says the witch,
her voice short and to the point. “Right now, we have to deal with
this unnatural beast.”

The creature has gotten over its shock at
her appearance by now. Still, it does not attack her right away,
but instead steps back, its reptilian eyes scanning her like it is
trying to size her up. That made the creature far more intelligent
than a Grand Lizard, which again makes me wonder exactly what it
is.

The witch raises her right hand, which has
three skyras rings on it, red, yellow, and blue, and says, “Foul
creature, why don't ye crawl back into the pit from which ye came?
Be gone!”

Her red ring flares and a hot flame shoots
from it like fire from the mouth of a Dead Lands fire spitter. The
flame strikes the creature in the neck, causing it to yelp in pain,
but that does nothing to put out the fire, which clings to its skin
like a parasite. Smoke rises from the spot as the lizard creature
bats at the fire in an attempt to put it out, but the fire appears
incapable of being put out.

Then the witch's yellow ring flashes and
lightning shoots from it. The blast strikes the creature directly
in the chest, sending it flying backwards through the air, the
flame still affixed to its neck. The creature lands on the street
hard and begins rolling around in pain, hissing and growling as the
flames spread across its body like fire in a dry forest.

Without warning, the witch whirls around
to face me. She has a pointed face, with golden eyes that my mobile
Database records say are common among Delanian humans. She strides
toward me, saying as she does so, “Come on, ye walking scrap heap!
We must flee, and quickly, before the creature's brothers discover
it and come after us.”

“
The creature has
brothers?” I say, hopping backwards as I speak. “And why should I
trust you? I do not even know your name yet.”

“
Because I am a friend,”
says the witch, holding out her hands toward me. “If ye need a
name, then call me Palos. But we must go, because ye are clearly
injured and in desperate need of medical attention.”

“
Actually, as a robot, I
need a certified technician with experience in J bot design to
repair me,” I say, as I run the name 'Palos' through the mobile
Database, only to discover that the name matches none of the
records. “Unless you happen to be one yourself or know how to find
one on Dela, I am afraid I will have to turn down your offer of
help.”

“
Stubborn machine,”
Palos says. “I am your ally, though ye do not know it yet. For I,
too, fight against Jornan, though for different reasons than
ye.”

“
You are not in the
Database,” I say, even though I doubt that sentence means much to
her. “Are you a member of the Knights of Se-Dela? Or perhaps, based
on your clothing and skyras rings, you belong to the Just Order of
Witches and Wizards instead?”

“
I belong to an
organization of which your 'Database' knows nothing,” says Palos,
still holding her hands out toward me. “Come with me, I say, unless
ye wish to suffer the same fate that befell this poor noble Knight
and his comrades.”

She gestures at the dead Knight lying on
the ground nearby. Considering how she mentions his 'comrades,' I
assume that my original theory is correct, that the other Knights
have also been killed, likely by that strange humanoid lizard
creature.

Before I can respond to her, a familiar
hissing noise behind my back forces me to look in that direction.
Another humanoid lizard creature is walking toward me, though I do
not know where it comes from. While its partner continues to hiss
and burn to death, this one simply keeps walking forward, as if it
is not afraid of either of us.

“
There are more of these
creatures?” I say, though less out of shock and more out of
curiosity. “How odd. The Database has no information on this
species at all, but there are apparently at least two members of
this species here. This doesn't make any sense at all.”

Palos grabs my shoulder and pushes me back
behind her. I hobble around on one leg for a moment before losing
my balance and falling on my behind with a clatter, though I look
up in time to see Palos striding toward the humanoid lizard
creature without any trace of fear in her step. That impresses me,
because I know that most organic beings would be terrified of
fighting these kinds of creatures.

“
That's because,
machine, these creatures are not natural at all,” says Palos
without looking at me as her yellow ring flashes with power. “These
are native neither to Dela nor Xeeo; therefore, they must be
destroyed.”

I do not understand what she means by any
of that, but I decide to ask her later when the situation is not as
tense. Instead, I try to stand back up again while also watching
Palos and the lizard creature approaching each other rapidly.

The lizard humanoid looks like it is going
to pounce, but then Palos throws a lightning bolt at it. The lizard
humanoid, however, jumps to the side, neatly avoiding her attack,
and then rushes at Palos far faster than before. In fact, it dashes
so quickly that even my optics have difficulty keeping up with it,
to the point where it looks like little more than a green blur
now.

Palos does not seem afraid of it. Her red
ring glows and she throws up a wall of fire between herself and the
lizard humanoid. The lizard humanoid veers to the right just before
it runs directly into the wall of fire, which is apparently too
wide for it to run around because through the gaps in the wall I
see the creature head back the way it came. The lizard humanoid
stops about two dozen feet away from the wall of fire and then
turns around to face us, but with the fire crackling between us and
the creature, it seems unlikely to attack us again. It takes a
defensive gesture, crouching low to the ground, although with my
knowledge of the lizard humanoid as limited as it is, it may very
well have been planning to attack us again for all I know.

“
Run, foul creature,”
says Palos, though I doubt the lizard humanoid can hear her above
the roar of the flames, much less understand her words. “Run and do
not look back, unless ye want to die a terrible death.”

Her words are quite silly to me, but
having just seen her kill another one of those lizard humanoids
earlier, I am in no mood to offer my opinion on the subject.

Instead, I run a quick check of my power
level. By now, it is at 17%, which is surprising, considering how
little energy I have consumed. I will definitely need to find a
recharge station quickly. Perhaps this Palos woman knows where I
can find one in Dela, or maybe the organization she works with has
one.

Before I can ask her about that, however,
my systems pick up a spike of skyras energy nearby. In fact,
according to my scanners, the spike is coming from directly above
us, forcing me to look upwards to see what is causing that
spike.

A huge ball of water is falling toward us
at an alarming speed. I yell at Palos, but she notices it before I
finish drawing her attention to it, and thrusts her yellow ring in
its direction.

A lightning bolt—bigger than the last
few—lances out of Palos's yellow ring and strikes the water sphere
dead on. The result: The water sphere explodes with a loud
crackling noise, spreading water everywhere and forcing me to cover
my head with my arms. The water splashes over me, but I do not feel
it, although my sensors inform me that none of the water has soaked
into my interior, thankfully enough.

As for Palos, she is dripping wet, and her
wall of fire has apparently been extinguished, because I no longer
see it standing between us and the lizard humanoid. Instead, there
is a wall of steam, but through the steam, I can already see the
lizard humanoid dashing toward us again.

Palos notices the lizard humanoid, too,
and shoots another lightning bolt at it, but the lizard humanoid
dodges by jumping over it. It lands on the ground with ease and
continues charging at Palos, now too close for her to attack.

Then I notice her gray ring on her left
hand flash and in an instant, Palos is gone. The lizard humanoid
stops before it runs into the spot where she stood moments ago. It
looks around in puzzlement, a feeling I would have shared with it
if I could feel, because I am just as ignorant of what happened to
Palos as it is.