Reformation (30 page)

After listening to
Hastelloy ramble on about the past for over an hour, Mark decided he had heard enough.  Listening to the stories gave him a good feel for what made the man tick; now it was time to put that knowledge to good use. 

While Hastelloy paused to take a drink of water
, Mark began laughing.  Softly to himself at first, but the laughter soon bounced between the office walls drawing awkward stares from Dr. Holmes and his patient.  “Let me paraphrase everything that I just heard.  The Alpha are pure evil while the Novi are the source of all things noble and good in our world today.”

“That is a bit simplistic don’t you think?” Hastelloy countered as he placed his drinking glass back on the coffee table
.

Mark tossed his hands out wide and shrugged his shoulders.  “What can I say, I’m a simple guy.  Though I must point out that you killing millions of Chinese farmers to incite your little rebellion, or the poisoning of the nobles to unite that rebellion
under one leader does not sound all that noble or good to me.”

Hastelloy shift
ed his weight to lean on the right armrest of the chair and brought his hand up to cup his chin in contemplation.  “Well, not such a simple man after all.  You of all people must realize that no one is always bad or always good all the time.  Everyone lives within the boundaries of black and white in various shades of grey.”

“Those actions
, along with your man leveling the city walls of Constantinople allowing it to be sacked, look awfully dark to me.  In fact, I don’t see any white at all in that picture,” Mark observed.  Hastelloy was trying to sell himself to Mark and his brother as some sort of guardian angel.  Mark wasn’t buying it and now it was time to make sure Jeff was not tempted to believe it either.

“If you want to judge those individual actions outside the context of the bigger picture
, you are free to reach that conclusion.  By those rules then, I am free to condemn your acts of water boarding suspects and murdering Valnor’s wife in Berlin as acts of evil also,” Hastelloy responded with an intense and hateful glare.  “Or am I to assume you are a decent man whose despicable actions are performed to safeguard the lives of others for the greater good?”

Mark felt a cold shudder electrify his body with both panic and rage. 
The last thing he wanted mentioned in front of his brother was the unfortunate necessities of his job.  Jeff was an idealist; he would not understand.  A glance toward his brother told Mark he needed to cut off this avenue of discussion, but Hastelloy beat him to it.

Hastelloy casually looked over at Jeffrey.  “Doctor, you are an impartial observer here.
Why don’t you be the judge?   Was your brother’s torturing of Valnor’s wife to death in order to gain information about the supposed threat my crew poses to this entire planet of seven billion people good or evil?”

Mark jumped in
before his brother could even draw a breath, let alone answer the question.  “If there were any truth to that accusation, then the answer would of course be my actions were for the good.  Working to safeguard billions is by definition working towards the greater good.”

“Now then, can you claim the same noble cause?” Mark continued.  “You and your men control a weapon capable o
f destroying this entire planet inhabited by some seven billion people.  All so you can try and safeguard those twenty million Novi lives housed in that Nexus device of yours.  The greater good tilts away from you I’d say.”

“Good or evil also depends on one’s perspective,” Hastelloy responded without missing a beat.  “Until now the fortunes of humanity and my crew were intertwined.  Defeating the Alpha saved humanity from an eternity of slavery and the Nexus from destruction.”

“And now?” Mark prodded.

“Now
, in addition to the Alpha threat, the safety of the Nexus and my crew are pitted against your leadership’s fear of the unknown along with their obsessive need for control,” Hastelloy answered in a frigid tone.

Mark
paused the debate to assess his brother’s situation.  One look said it all; he was in complete shock by what he had heard and sat as a mute observer to the exchange. 

Mark looked back at Hastelloy and release
d a skeptical smirk.  “You and your men are still around now.  Stands to reason you were successful in defeating the Alpha back then.”

“Some of us are still
around,” Hastelloy corrected.  “If I ever fail at stopping the Alpha, and you have the misfortune of meeting one of them, you will learn very quickly that they do not go down easily.”

“
You make it sound like they still might be a threat today,” Mark said with genuine concern.  “Would you mind telling me how things wound up with the Alpha back then?”

Hastelloy slowed his
brisk jog to an apprehensive walk as he approached the opened doors of the burial chamber.  The continued flashing of blue light past him as he ran along the nearly mile long tunnel gave him hope that Gallono was finding a way to hold off the reanimated Alpha relics. 

He approached the door with
light footsteps, placed the deceivingly heavy hand cannons against the wall, gripped his sledge hammer with two hands and hoisted the heavy end overhead.

“It appears those Novi are putting up an adequate fight,” a feminine voice standing just inside
the doorway said in the harsh Alpha language.  “That makes six reanimations so far.”

“Let me know when it gets into t
he thousands, then I’ll start worrying,” a domineering male voice responded from deep inside the chamber.

Hastelloy heard the female
sigh in frustration and used that brief distraction to the fullest.  He burst in through the doorway and demolished the unsuspecting clay figure with a crushing downward swing of his hammer.

The glowing relic inside faded away
, but then Hastelloy noticed the vibrant glow reappear above a stone altar along the far wall fifty feet away with copper wires extending to it from a nearby clay vase that stood over seven feet tall.  A moment later the relic drew upward into the ceiling and shifted from a glow of deep red and yellow to an electric blue hue.  Then the light rushed past him down the tunnel toward the soldier pits.

Hastelloy’s
preoccupation with the Alpha reanimation process did not serve him well.  An Alpha warrior caught him momentarily by surprise and leveled a shoulder led tackle that left them both crumpled on the floor.  The Alpha warrior was the first to recover.  The beast rose to its full height, towering over Hastelloy with an open hand bearing razor sharp claws ready to strike.

Hastelloy rolled toward the Alpha to bring his hammer up
with as much force as possible, devastating the creature with a well placed strike to the groin.

The Alpha stumbled back with a high pitched howl that could have woken the dead emperor still resting in his ornate casket at the center of the room.  A
second Alpha warrior leapt into action.  Hastelloy managed to dodge three punches, but a vicious snap kick connected with the wooden handle of his sledge hammer, breaking it in half and leaving the business end on the floor.  The Alpha warrior prowled forward to continue the attack, but was called off.

“No.
I’ve waited three thousand years for this moment, and I will have it,” a clay soldier commanded as it strutted forward toward Hastelloy.  It stopped momentarily over the Alpha coddling its genitals and then looked at the other.  “You two guard the altar.  That is your duty.  I will secure victory over this enemy Goron was never able to defeat.”

Unarmed and nursing a set of cracked ribs from the Alpha’s bone crushing tackle, Hastelloy backed away toward the center of the chamber.  He looked around for options.  His
objective was clearly the stone altar and connecting clay vase, but it was now flanked by the two Alpha warriors. 

Off in a dusty corner
, far from the revered altar, sat five vibrant relics swaying slowly in the air. Their unceremonious position led Hastelloy to conclude these relics chose not to violate their cultural rules and reanimate.  Running through the arithmetic in his head gave Hastelloy a moment of relief.

He assumed every relic would be coming after Gallono dow
n in the soldier pits.  With two Alpha standing guard, the clay soldier stalking him, and five relics resisting reanimation, Gallono was left to fight against at most six clay soldiers.  It was still not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination, but within the commander’s abilities.

“Looks like some of your
crew still have a shred of self-respect; enough not to violate their most sacred laws at least,” Hastelloy said as he walked backwards over a bridge spanning a five foot wide river of mercury.  “Having trouble keeping the troops in line there, Kuanti?”

“A frustratingly selfish choice, but i
nconsequential in the end,” Kuanti barked.  “Cora and the other five are more than capable of sending your man back to that Nexus device of yours.”

Kuanti chuckled softly as he lumbered his heavy body across the bridge to join Hastelloy on
an island surrounded by rivers of mercury, housing the solid copper sarcophagus of Emperor Qui Shi Huang.  It stood four feet tall with a lifelike rendering of the man inside engraved into the lid.  Hastelloy stepped around to the other side to keep the immensely heavy barrier between him and his stalker.

Kuanti strolled up to the sarcophagus and casually scraped
a hand over the smooth metallic surface.  “It’s funny when you think about it: you and the Nexus, us and these earthen bodies.  Two sets of immortals locked in endless combat.  I suspect the superstitious creatures inhabiting this planet would consider it a battle between gods.”

“It’s evident you crave power and recognition, Kuanti, but you are not
a god.  The universe was not so poorly designed,” Hastelloy said while circling around the copper barrier which brought the relic altar into clear view for him.

The chamber grew noticeably brighter with the arrival of
four glowing relics on the altar.  One immediately began rising up toward the ceiling to reanimate again, but then returned to the altar.

“Hmm, immortal no longer it appears,” Hastelloy mocked.

Kuanti glanced over his shoulder then back to Hastelloy with a self-satisfied grin.  “The process does take quite a bit of power.  Give it a few minutes and my men will be back in the fight.  If your man goes down, will he be back so soon?  No, I suppose not.  You probably have that Nexus device tucked away somewhere on the western continent.”

“
Something like that,” Hastelloy acknowledged.  “Trick is you have to bring him down first.”

“Pretty soon that won’t be a problem,” Kuanti said
slamming his shoulder into the coffin separating him from Hastelloy.  The copper fixture groaned and resisted, but eventually gave way.  The sarcophagus toppled over sending Hastelloy scrambling to get out of the way.  The entire chamber shook with the impact, and a minor tremor followed when the exquisitely sculpted lid fell open upon impact.

Hastelloy took a running jump onto the capsized coffin
, then delivered a flying side kick to the head of Kuanti.  The painful sensation of kicking a brick wall raced up Hastelloy’s leg, but it was worth the price.  Kuanti fell backwards onto his back with another reverberating crash.

He half expected the momentary victory to entice the Alpha warriors to rejoin the fight, but they simply looked on with all the morbid enthusiasm of fans watching a gladiator duel.

While Kuanti casually got back to his feet, Hastelloy looked past the red clay figure and noticed a subtle movement among the shadows near the chamber door.  He was careful not to look directly at the disturbance to give it any undue attention.  Through his peripheral vision, Hastelloy recognized Gallono as the source of movement.  He was sneaking along the wall keeping to the shadows, and carried the two hand cannons Hastelloy set near the door before charging into the chamber.

Kuanti was back on his feet again.  Hastelloy moved
in behind the toppled sarcophagus, but Kuanti leapt on top of the fixture to clear a direct path to Hastelloy.

Kuanti stepped down from the coffin and methodically backed Hastelloy in against the river of mercury.  “You are out of places to hide.  It’s time to face your defeat like a man.”

Gallono looked poised to step out of the shadows and blast Kuanti apart with a hand cannon, but a barely perceptible shake of Hastelloy’s head waved him off.  He flicked his eyes toward the relic altar guarded by the Alpha warriors and Gallono got the message.  All Hastelloy needed to do now was keep the show interesting enough for the audience to allow the commander to execute his orders.

Hastelloy briefly considered jumping over the five foot wide river of flowing metal
, but opted to keep the spectacle confined to the sarcophagus island.  Wandering eyes might spot shadowy movements he did not want noticed.  Unarmed and cornered, Hastelloy did the only thing he could; lowered his shoulder and charged.

Kuanti stepped backwards and to the side to absorb the hit.  He looped his arms down underneath Hastelloy’s armpits and flung him across the island to land against the coffin.  Hastelloy scrambled to his feet, jumped up onto the
sarcophagus to dodge a punch, then jumped onto the back of Kuanti and held tight with a headlock grip.

Hastelloy stole a sideways glance to check on Gallono’s progress while Kuanti swung his waist from side to side attempting to shed the excess baggage.  Gallono was twenty feet away and still unnoticed.

A grasping hand finally caught a piece of Hastelloy’s shirt, another hand quickly found purchase on his left arm.  Kuanti bent forward at the waist and yanked Hastelloy off his back like he was removing a tight fitting shirt.  The clay warrior slammed Hastelloy to the ground, then picked him up and threw his limp body down two more times before stopping to put his heavy foot down on Hastelloy’s sternum.

“Game over little man.”

A sharp snap and sizzle coming from near the altar let Hastelloy know he was free to respond, “It is for you.”

Kuanti looked back in time to see Gallono anchoring
a lit hand cannon against his foot and pointing it directly at the seven foot clay vase.  He took two instinctive steps toward the scene yelling, “Stop him,” but it was too late.

Hundreds of metal shards exploded from the hand cannon into the vase filled with the most potent acid known to exist.  The aftermath left the nearby Alpha warriors drenched in boiling acid
disintegrating their flesh on contact and rendering them wailing pools of pus and blood within a few short seconds.

Hastelloy sprang to his feet,
slammed into Kuanti from the side and drove with every ounce of strength he had in his legs until the clay form fell over the river’s edge into the mercury, dragging Hastelloy down with him.  He managed to draw a quick breath before entering, then found himself completely submerged in a cool, heavy substance that barely allowed him to move.

It was impossible to tell which way was up or down.  Hastelloy frantically flailed his arms and legs about in slow motion until he finally felt his left foot hit something solid
.  He moved his right leg alongside and then pushed off the solid base to bring his head, chest and arms above the surface.

The mercury was about four feet deep and attempting to move around in it was nearly impossible.  It took everything he had to shuffle his feet along the bottom just a few inches, making the two foot journey to climb out the side seem like
a walk to the moon and back.

Behind Hastelloy, Kuanti rose up out of the silvery liquid like a ferocious sea monster and attempted to give chase
, but failed to budge even a single inch.  The clay figure swung wildly with its arms to reach Hastelloy, but came up a foot short.

“Frustrating isn’t it,” Hastelloy chided.  “Victory is so clo
se you can almost touch it, yet remains out of reach.”

“If I don’t get to finish you off, the others will,” Kuanti shouted while still attempting to move his heavy frame through the
extremely dense liquid.

Hastelloy glanced over at the stone altar and observed no new relics
had appeared following the gruesome deaths of the two Alpha disintegrated by acid.  “That doesn’t look likely to me.  There were fourteen of you.  Two are now gone, I count eleven relics on the altar or banished in the dark corner.  That leaves just you, and not for very much longer.” 

“Truer words were never spoken,” Gallono said from the river’s edge
as he lit the fuse to the last hand cannon.

“Death is only the beginning,” Kuanti defiantly declared
before he was blasted to pieces.  His relic momentarily hovered over the mercury with a radiant red flame straining to remain above the surface, but then slowly sank down until it lightly touched the mercury.  The dull silver liquid drew up into the red flame and snuffed the life force out of it and eventually receded back down into the river once more.

“I’ve heard that befor
e,” Gallono mocked while offering Hastelloy a hand to drag him out of the mercury. 

The heavy
substance stubbornly clung to its prey, but eventually Hastelloy came free and lay face first on the floor.  He took a moment to catch his breath, then rose to his full height.  They both walked toward the altar and the six relics resting upon it.

“You take care of these
; I will handle the ones over in the corner,” Hastelloy ordered.

Gallono regarded the flames with a menacing tilt of his head. 
“With pleasure.”

To their credit, the relics met their end with quiet dignity.  No screams, no begging for mercy, simply resignation to the reality of the situation.  It still didn’t stop Gallono from relishing the moment with one last barb.  “Same opponent, same result.”