Makorai Saika's Story

From where he was, perched betwixt the decorative railing of the Artisan Building, he could /just/ make out the end of the west district skyline. He could see where this place of liberal arts and literature ended, and where the sprawling megalopolis of the district capital started. What a view. You couldn't even make out the debauchury from here. Probably how the scholars liked it. He thought. Easier to separate the sin from the learning like that. Green grass and an impressive architecture. Green grass for him was a nice place to lay down, and have a drink in good company. Also a great place to get a clear shot on a target. Easy to target in fields, great duality. This elevated position was for his own safety, or so he had been told. Something about strength and lightning. A God in a machine. He wasn't paying attention. He had put a bullet in one Wanderer, and his newfound doubts wouldn't stop him from putting a bullet in another. Makorai caught the tail end of Knight Commander Botrelle's skirt twirl.

Can't take the city out of the girl, right?

"Yesss yesss Knight Commander Lulu , Viceroy Varren this dude." Chuckling, he re adjusted the the sight on his scope, watching Rick and Lulu phase in and out of focus. The window he was looking through was a large one, and by his calculations when and if they did leave, his blind spot would only last a second. "Hm." A quarter mile didn't justify the use of a scope from Makorai's perspective. Iron sights would have been more then efficient to land a kill shot, but he had be tasked with watching them first. Their exchange had him feeling like a voyeur more then a sniper. Like he was watching future lovers during their first meeting, both still figuring eachother out. Still trying to see where the hirzon ended, and the boundaries begun.


The young man nonchalantly checked the 'non lethal' rounds he'd been instructed, rather strictly, to use by the quartermaster. A few very lethal, depleted uranium rounds had been mixed in by accident. Don't drink and load kids. "Hmm?" Makorai watched as a third body walked into the mix. A rather mournful looking fellow with an air of self importance that came from just truly not giving a fuck about much anymore. The sniper related to that feeling. He acted on it too, by biting the top off of a small clay flask, and quickly sipping the contents. There was a very strict policy against drinking while on duty, one that was no doubt, compounded by the fact he was drinking during a high risk situation. Makorai, like this mounrful bastard, didn’t give a fuck.


“Mmm..Mmmm, Ronin hasn’t even noticed Tall Red and Firey, back there. He’s keeping his eye on that carnivorous snake pit.”

A few seconds later, and Ronin was..on his knees.


“Wow..she worked him down to his knees already I figured a fella would be a bit starved outhere in the Wasteland but gattdamn.”

Makorai touched a finger to his earpiece. All this time ands he had forgotten to switch it on.


"Otherwise, get your arrogant ass on the goddamn floor in the next ten seconds and or I'll be hauling it out of the doors and branding your face like I did the last one of your gang that pissed me off."-Kora

Makorai had been impressed she had stuffed Mr Great Hair so resolutely. Outdid that headshot he scored on the other one with the flippy hair and the dragon wings.

The sniper touched the earpiece, broadcasting his message to all deployed Erubescian troops.

“Yeah, and tell him if he moves I’ll put a bullet in his head like I did dragon boy.”
On second thought..
“Or..or don’t. That might just piss him off. Make him uncooperative. Scratch that.”

“Or just say it, I mean,”

Makorai took another large gulp of his bottle.

“Totally your call Red.”

'Great. She thinks she knows me now,' Rick thought in response to Kora’s quip about his feeling about killing. She was approaching him at a causal pace. It was official, Rick wasn’t as feared as he thought. Which made no sense unless the things he remembered doing were also untrue.

‘What if I never blew up those cities with my lightning power?’ he asked himself. There was hope, it was small but significant. Maybe his nightmares would subside. Maybe he’ll be able to have some peace.

Kora kept talking shooting down his request with zero fear in her heart. She mentioned that he was a terrorist again and that he wasn’t special. It was a series of words that didn’t belong in the conversation to Rick’s opinion. So naturally someone was speaking those words. There is a certain level of predictability to the unpredictable nature of life. Or so it seemed.

Being on his knees with his arms holding him up was bothering Rick. ‘If I had my super strength I’d be standing,’ he thought to himself. The earlier thought he had rang true in his mind once again, ‘If I don’t have my powers then I’ll have to be strong on my own.’

Rick rocked himself back onto his heals. It was a start, his lower legs still didn’t want to respond. He leaned to one side and used his hand to pull out his opposite leg straight out. With one hand pressing hard on his kneecap and the other pushing hard off the ground Rick was able to push himself into a standing position perched on one leg. As Rick started to tip over he was able to straighten out the other leg with his hand. He held it in place with constant pressure against the kneecap.

Rick had to keep himself leaning forward and push his hands against his kneecaps with all the strength he had but he was able to stand. It was only a few seconds in that Rick’s arms started to burn, the strain on his muscles was already too much. Rick toppled over backwards landing square on his back a smile on his face.

‘I did it,’ he thought to himself. It only lasted a few seconds but he counted it a win. One not fueled by his super powers.

From his vantage point Rick could clearly see the leftover gashes on Kora’s face. He couldn’t help but think that if he’d been there she’d have a hole clearing all the way through her face.

“What did you expect? You all attacked them so they fought back. Stop attacking them and they’ll stop. Besides, the deal hasn’t gone through yet,” Rick explained. Though he was confident in what he was saying there were doubts in the back of his mind. Have the Wanderers changed since he last saw them? With Spire’s influence who knows what was possible. His lust for murder was inexcusable and yet he was accepted and Rick wasn’t.

Rick rolled onto his stomach so he could reposition himself back onto his knees so he could “sit” straight up. At Kora’s next statement Rick scoffed.

“So Erubesco called dibs on fucking with anyone they want? You call me a terrorist and yet all us Wanderers want is to live free of Erubesco and Liberty and both terrorize us because of it. What makes that sooooo much better? Answer it doesn’t,” Rick spat.

Rick took a breath and calmed himself a touch before speaking again, “The favor was for me and your city. Do you really think that a fight between us wouldn’t result in this whole city being destroyed? Do you want that on your head if you survive? Do you really think you’d become a hero just because I killed you?” Rick was sick of talking. Talking never got him anywhere. He was always wrong and everything he said and did was wrong. He might as well skip to the part where they fought.

Rick looked up with unflinching eyes at Kora with a chuckle. “You know what I just realized? Your comment about dying a hero, your strength, your power, your expendability, it all points to the fact that you are the Erubesco version of me. Let me help you figure out your fate because like me it’ll take you a long time to figure it out on your own. Erubesco doesn’t care about you, you’ll never be a hero to them, and no one will ever care about you. You will share the same fate as me because you are the Rick Ronin for Erubesco. A terrorist monster with a Erubesco paycheck.”

‘There, that should get things started.’

Kora drew one hand deftly inwards and up to her chest, where here mjolnir had once hung, then extended it out sideways. The blood vessels in her forearm began to light up a dull red shade.

"We are nothing alike Rick Ronin. I am a Knight. A soldier. I fight people who will fight me back. I don't put citizens in danger, and I know how to reign my abilities in when fighting in built-up areas. Because I'm a soldier. Not a thug.
You use innocent civilians' lives as bargaining chips and still kid yourself into thinking that whatever heinous shit you do is justified.
You haven't the smallest fucking inkling of morals so you just think picking a side is the same thing. Everyone else is just fodder to you. It's sickening. "

She splayed her fingers, hand glowing and rippling with heat.

"Fortunately. You're going to have plenty of time to reflect on your actions when you're locked up in the citadel. And you can tell all of this to a tribunal."


Taking her time she planted her feet and wound up.
"You can also see for yourself how different we are. When they drag you out and execute you for your crimes. If rabid animals like you have gods then you better take some time to make peace with them."

It was time to end this.
Her fist flared and she swung her full strength into a punch to the side of Rick's head.

Clenched jaw to hold back the anger. Kora is as small minded as anyone else. She spewed the same rhetoric that helped cause Rick decades of nightmares, low self esteem, and self hatred. It was that same talk that caused everyone to hate Rick without bothering to hear his side of the story. That speech was the very thing that Rick hoped to have hardened himself to.

He didn’t. Still Rick is a monster to everyone. Still people believed that he was without a soul. Still no one understood the pain he felt every day and night for the things he’s done. Still no one cared. Why should anyone care? It’s just best to destroy the things you hate and easily justify it as “for the good of the people”.

No one imagined that Rick had been able to be peaceful thanks to a person with a tremendous heart, a strong understanding to his true feelings, and an unbreakable desire to help him.

Rick’s earlier comments came out of his butt to goad Kora into attacking him expecting, and hoping, that she’d just strike him out of rage. Instead she lashed out verbally before doing anything else, seemingly unfazed by his words. Again, Rick’s words failed him.

The only thing Rick can count on is his ability with violence. How could he hope to be more than a weapon of destruction if he had no other tools that work?

Rick’s hands tightened into fists. Kora pissed him off but it was a controlled anger. The part of him that considered just giving up without a fight shrank out of existence while the part of him that thirsted for battle grew.

Kora splayed her fingers causing them to glow. Rick’s narrow eyes noted it. His peripherals took in his surroundings. She continued to speak but she stopped to plant her feet. There was no rush in her movements. She wound up preparing to strike.

Kora kept talking, Rick only half heard what she was saying. His mind recalled the video he just watched of the pro kickboxers sparring. They didn’t move during the fight, they flowed like water away from the opponent’s attacks whipping back with their own attacks. It was like watching a delicate dance disrupted by occasional strikes to the body and face. It was beautiful and graceful in its own way.

Rick positioned his knees slightly different. She stopped talking, her eyes flared, and her fist started to uncoil. Instantly Rick was ready for it, without thinking Rick twisted his whole body, excluding the disabled legs, to the opposite side of her fist’s trajectory. Rick could feel the heat from Kora’s fist as it passed by his face without touching it. Instinctively Rick mirrored the video throwing a power jab at Kora’s now exposed stomach while he dodged Kora’s punch.

Rick then uncoiled throwing a cross, hook, cross to Kora’s upper body. Had Rick been standing, or if Kora was much shorter, those punches would’ve been able to strike her face. But Rick was stuck on his knees and Kora was exceedingly tall leaving her upper body as the only viable option to attack.

Rick’s ease with the movements proved that somewhere in his past he had actual kickboxing training and that he excelled at it. It was so natural and fluid with a high level of speed. The power of all four strikes maxed out at three hundred pounds of force which is about a hundred pounds more powerful than master kickboxers, without super strength, could strike.

Rick didn’t waste time waiting to see if his attacks hit. The amount of damage he could do to her was minimal, the only way he could beat her is if Rick could hit her enough times without getting hit himself. Being able to fully use his legs would help too.

So he flung himself away from Kora then used his hands and arms as legs to “run” away. Open palms pressed hard against the ground. Rick’s elbows locked into place keeping his body upright, his upper body was up at a forty five degree angle as he quickly traveled across the library. His feet dragged behind him as he moved. Rick traveled behind book cases, support columns, and rows of computers.

His haphazard moves where helpful on two fronts. The movements were less predictable for Kora to read making it harder for her to catch him and a clear line of sight to him from the window was blocked. It offered little more than the occasional blurred movement for the sniper outside to target Rick. The sniper that Rick wasn’t aware of was targeting him.

Finally Rick found a suitable desk against a wall. Rick climbed an adjacent chair then pulled himself up onto the desk, his back against the wall. His hands came up to his face in a proper kick boxing stance. For a second Rick noticed the small sliver of sunshine from the front window. The sunray traced the right side of his body from his head to his waist.

“I was never taught how to use my powers!” Rick yelled at Kora who was probably on his tail. “I had to figure it out on my own! Because of it there were times when I lost control of my powers and people got killed. That doesn’t make me a monster!” Rick wished he'd figured that out years ago.

Though Rick was shouting he was prepared to attack then dodge the moment Kora stepped into his fist’s range.

“I’m not using the civilians as a bargaining chip, I’m using them as a wakeup call! As in don’t rush into a fight with me without thinking about what could happen to them!” Rick continued to yell. There was actual fear in his heart for the civilians of this city.

His powers were gone as far as he could tell but his powers had a way of showing up when Rick needed them the most, to protect himself from getting killed. Usually at the expense of anyone in the way of his powers. Sure, it would be great to knock Kora clear through the solid walls with a single punch or surge thousands of volts of electricity through her but if an innocent person was killed because of it he’d go insane. Or more insane.

“And I didn’t justify my actions, I justified the Wanderer’s actions. I know the things I’ve done are horrible! The only thing I can say about it is that I hoped something good would come out of it.” Rick thought about Dawn and Drake.

His voice softened as he spoke again, “That maybe if I did those things, they wouldn’t have to…” His voice picked up to a louder angrier tone again.

“But you think you’re justified to do terrible things because you’re a soldier. That mindlessly following the evil orders of your master makes you immune from judgment! Guess what? Attacking and trying to kidnap an innocent sixteen year old girl is wrong! It’s evil! And you support one of the organizations who ordered it!”

One last thing he yelled to Kora with hatred in his eyes, “Hate me, kill me, but don’t EVER think that you know me! You don’t!”

Things happened, well, quickly. Makorai saw a flame fist speed toward The Incredible Ronin. The sniper had long trained himself not to blink, even a momentary lapse could lead to a missed window. Any sniper lived for those small moments where the perfect shot lined itself up, where the wind blew right and the earths rotation synced with the marks movement. Mako wasn't just 'any' sniper. Just like he didn't view himself as just 'any' drunk.

He was extremely proficient in both.

"I need more distance..more..let's see." The young man rose to his feet, and hoisted his sniper, placing the long barrel on his shoulder. His finger never left the trigger. "I need a teleporter to bounce me to position 3, mark 5, I'm currently at position 1 mark 3." His general flippancy wasn't shared by the task for that had been deployed to cease the Rick threat. Barely a second has passed and he felt a familiar grip on his shoulder, followed by disorientation. Teleporting was never a pleasant experience for him, something he'd have reminded the teleporter of, had they'd bothered to stick around.

Besides, he didn't have time to waste.

Saika pulled the thin glass monitor attached to over his right eye, and pressed a quick sequence of numbers. "M Saika 69." For voice verification. Their was a brief pause, then, bang, he could see through every security camera in the building.

There was Rick.

He placed the sniper on the stand, perching it on the lip of the low wall ahead of him. He had pulled himself farther away from the building then before. Much, much farther. He was going to take advantage of the prevailing winds that blew through these massive buildings.

Rather then aim for the open window he aimed about ten feet to its left. One eye was in the scope, the other tracked Rick's movements through the lens of his earpiece. A master-eye a piece.

He breathed, held, and fired.

The round whistled from the barrel, first carried by the propulsion of gunpowder, and next by the wind itself, which curled the bullet through the window and towards Ronin at an angle that would have been impossible without it.


The first bullet was an explosive round, which detonated before hitting Rick. Foam exploded from bullet, hungrily flying towards the biomass in front of it.

The second bullet that followed was a depleted uranium round. It whistled differently then the other one, he could tell what it was the moment he pulled the trigger. Makorai lifted his head up from the scope, and gave an appreciative nod.

"Yeah, that was the one,"

An explosion rocked the library but more specifically, Rick. A sniper round arched at him from an unseen location. The explosion went off allowing the bullet’s innards to come spraying out. Foam covered small portions of Rick’s right arm and chest. Rick threw himself down on instinct. A second bullet grazed Rick’s forehead as he was falling. Rick’s head whipped back in the direction the bullet was going. Rick hit the table and rolled onto the floor. A line of blood ran down his face onto the floor.

Rick was down.

The world around him spun, darkness became light and vice versa. A dream convinced Rick that he was awake. Everyone around him was dressed up in fancy clothes wearing the finest large puffy hats money could buy. Everyone’s pinkies were out as they delicately sipped their tea. Rick noticed that all of their pinkies were pointed at him. He looked down, a cup of tea in front of him on the tiny plastic table. Rick looked up, Clockwork stood right in front of him replacing the table. The two of them were all alone with darkness surrounding them. A lone spotlight illuminated the pair. She starred at him with an emotionless face. She pointed at him. The teacup was in his hand. A moment of hesitation before Rick lifted the delicate cup to his lips. He drank the liquid.

The library came into view, he was alive. The bullet hit Rick a fraction of a second too late for a perfect headshot, one that would’ve surely killed him. Rick wasn’t aware that it was a depleted uranium round or even what that would mean for him if it penetrated his skull. As at stood now, the shot he took to the head was plenty painful and debilitating. The foam it sprayed was on him.

No desire to move nor did he feel like he could. He knew he was in trouble. Sure he knew it all along but it was actually happening now. It was different. The reality of going through a situation where you were most likely to die is very surreal.

His legs were shut down, his head was pounding, and his enemies were coming for him. All of his hopes were dashed. Rick didn’t even realize that the foam was growing, feeding off his skin cells to produce more of itself.

Getting killed as easily as this it was unimaginable to Rick. It’s so easy for them. That can’t be right.

“SOLDIER! Get your ass in the game soldier!” Rick’s Sergeant shouted in Rick’s ear. He looked around the battlefield, monsters the size of wolves ripped into the USA uniformed soldiers. Conventional gun fire was bouncing off them like pebbles off of concrete.

“Soldier! We need your lightning power! Electrocute those fucks! It’s the only way to kill those fucks!” the Sergeant yelled again.

Rick adjusted his green helmet, his uniform was covered in grass stains. The wife would surely make him clean his uniform this time. The field of green had stains of red spreading at a quick pace.

“SOLDIER! Your head is up your ass AGAIN! Fucking kill these fucks!”

Back in the real world Rick lay on the ground his eyes staring blankly. “I can’t. I…lo…juss…t…can’t,” he muttered.

“Rick…” the Sergeant’s eyes just looked into Rick’s with overwhelming disappointment. A monster cleaved through his body in a single swipe. The monster took a moment to devour the remains of the Sergeant before turning its sights on Rick. The whole squad was dead, the monsters greedily looked at Rick, slime dripping off them. They slowly encroached Rick. Rick pointed his hand at them. The monsters leaped at him turning his vision totally black.

Light. It emerged painting a picture of a mostly empty library. Rick’s hand was out as a call rang in his ears, “We need your lightning power!” Images of his squad getting killed flashed in his eyes. His hand was out, pointing palm out. The foam continued to grow picking up its pace. Some of the foam had already hardened to a rock like state.

‘Lightning is when a surplus of charges, positive or negative, gets equalized by a spark of electricity,’ he mentally paraphrased. ‘I can’t do that? Unless…’ Rick focused on the air around his outstretched hand. Rick focused on changing the properties of the air, trying to give it positive charges.

Rick searched his senses trying to feel for any change in the air around his palm. Nothing. He focused harder to change the charges in that air. To create electrical charges by filling it with an overload of positive charges. Nothing. Still he held his hand out focusing on positive charges.

He had nothing left to lose. If it worked then maybe, just maybe he could put up a decent fight. If he was even luckier, he might be able to kill one or more of the Erubesco Knights. That would be…bitter sweet. So was his next thought, ‘Maybe I could live through this fight.’ The foam covered Rick’s head, face, his chest, and his outstretched hand hardening essentially freezing him in place. The foam was supposed to cover Rick’s entire body but his entire lower body was completely untouched by the foam plus one of Rick’s arms was free. It seemed like it was a faulty round, perhaps given out as a prank or as payback of sorts.

Kora saw the punch coming.

But Kora was not a dodger.

Kora took hits, and she took them unflinchingly.

The strike to her ribs threw her back and sent her colliding with the window she'd been stood before, the berserker bursting through out into the street in a shower of glass, landing with a sharp thud on the street below.

Outside, numerous Erubescan citygoers were stood at a distance watching the drama unfold, and reacted with gasps of alarm as they saw an erubesco knight pitched out of the building.

The reactions grew in excitement and intensity as they watched the woman stir and pick herself up off of the pavement,and wipe the blood from her bottom lip with one hand.

Distracted by the impact,t he bits of glass in her forearm, and the fact she was pretty sure the wounds under the bandages on her torso were opened again, Kora hadn't really noticed the attention she was getting until a camera flash off to her left took her by surprise, and the berserker looked round to see the gathered crowd.

"Uh. Hey, stay back over there, alright? It's dangerous." she mumbled, not entirely sure how to react to her newfound fame. Several people were clearly filming the whole thing. There were a few cries of 'For King and Country!' from the assembled masses.

After two weeks of feeling entirely worthless, an unmitigated failure, it took a while for Kora to work it out. The people there were cheering for her. For them, the Knights of Erubesco. The protectors of the nation.

"For King and Country." Kora spoke under her breath, before a screaming battlecry escaped her mouth and her eyes flared a luminous red. She charged, back in, up the stairs, boots leaving prints of melted fibres in the carpets.

She skidded round the corner to the place in front of the window once again, extended her hands at the now foam-covered man, and just before she fired, muttered something off that she did hope Rick would get a chance to hear.

"Hope you realize that that shit is flammable."

Then a wave of heat tore up the flooring between them.

Who would’ve thought a normal day like today would become suddenly so exciting? The young woman who assisted Rick a couple times in the last hour or so, found herself caught up in the moment. An enemy of Erubesco had made it into the city was doing battle with Erubesco Knights! She was sure none of her friends would believe that she was here when it happened. They’ll probably be jealous too, maybe next time they’ll come with her next time she wants to go out. Reporters will definitely do a story about this after words; they’ll need to get statements from witnesses. The young lady went over in her head what happened so far, rehearsing what she’d say in her statement.

Reality hit her; there wasn’t much that she could say about the situation. She’d only realized that a battle was taking place when the tall redheaded female Knight came crashing out of the library window. There was an explosion beforehand but that was just confusing and scary. Who was that redheaded Knight? She was a recognizable Knight but the young lady didn’t keep up with the Knight gossip like many people in the city do. Regrettable now. Of course that didn’t stop the young lady from cheering for the redheaded Knight along with the rest of the crowd. Maybe someone around the young lady knew the name of the brave Erubesco Knight. She looked around. A lot of people were talking, some cheered, others were trying to take a closer look. She spotted the young man she talked to earlier and the library. She started to ask about the Knight when she realized that the crowd was much bigger than it originally was. People stopped what they were originally doing to find out what was going on with the library. And yet… that strange man that she gave food to and helped teach how to use the internet was nowhere to be found.

‘Did he leave the scene? Oh my! He’s not still in there is he?’ she wondered to herself, hoping that wasn’t the case. ‘That guy clearly has enough problems to deal with without getting caught in the cross fire of a battle.'
The young man didn’t see him either. It’s possible he was still in the building. Someone needs to tell the Knights to watch out for a potential civilian.

Her earlier excitement turned to fear as it dawned on her that no one else would be up for the task. It was very tempting to forget about it, assume that he was fine, or even pretend that she didn’t care. Deep in her heart the young lady knew that she was going to get that information to the Knights.



Kora sent out a heat wave toward Rick. As the wave crossed the ground it caused the floor to break apart lighting it on fire. The fire grew stretching out beyond the direction it intended to go. The licking flames grasped Rick engulfing the hardened foam as well.

Rick heard Kora’s statement about the foam being flammable. He didn’t care, fire had long since ceased to be a source of fear for him. Thanks largely because of Demon. His body felt warmed by the intense heat. The foam broke down quickly from the heat a moment later became a fuel source for fire. The fire raged on his head, upper body, and outstretched arm.

Rick was completely calm as he lay there on fire. It just now occurred to him how cold he’s been feeling since his lightning powers left him. The internal electrical flow through his system had kept him at an abnormally high body temperature while it also gave him a resistance to heat. He lay there pointing his hand directly at Kora, still focusing on building up positive charges.

It wasn’t working, without actively thinking about what he was doing, he mindlessly changed his tactic on building up potential charges. A shift in his heart, a tingle in his handle, a surge of potential power. Rick applied more focus, energy, and power to that particular tactic causing the tingling in his hand to grow.

The foam was designed to for the purpose of capturing enemy targets not for providing unlimited fuel for a fire. With its low combustion and burn temperatures the foam burned off of Rick rapidly leaving a pinkish red coloration to his skin that was exposed to flame. The fire expanded out like a lower case letter ‘t’ with Rick square in the middle of it. The wooden floor and fiber carpet under Rick was a much better fuel source for Kora’s fire. It became a metaphorical grill and Rick was the meat being cooked.

The intensity of the fire grew along with the heat, the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Thick black smoke rose up into the air from the ever growing carpet fiber fire. The smoke alarm in this portion of the library was silent until now. It’s loud alarm went off just like the one Kora set off in the upper portion of the library.

The young lady who helped Rick earlier meekly stepped out from behind the door into the library. There wasn’t anyone to keep her nor anyone else from entering so getting in wasn’t difficult. The hard part was conquering her fear of entering an active battle area.

“Excuse me,” she called out meekly entering farther into the room.

The fight scene lay out before her now that she was deep enough in the library.

“Umm, I don’t mean to interrupt. But I think a civilian-uh.” the young woman saw Rick on the ground surrounded by fire. Without seeing what happened earlier she couldn’t be sure why Rick was in such a predicament. Her first instinct was to go help him but before she could move it occurred to her that Rick was the person the Knights were fighting. And if the Knights were fighting him then that could only mean that he was the bad guy. The events of the entire morning started racing through her mind, paying extra attention to the things he said.


Rick kept pointing his hand at Kora, the tingling vibrating sensation was growing to an uncontrollable level. He grunted and flinched in pain as fire burned through his shirt leaving bare skin to feel the painful cooking of the flames.

The fire kept growing and so did the pain but relief came in the form of over head sprinklers. Water sprayed everywhere covered everyone and everything with moisture. The fires shrank as if in fear. The licking flames weakened to flickering.

Rick’s back still burned but the water really helped him manage his pain. The heat was dying down. The feeling in his out stretched hand built up to much, electricity sparked from his hand. Rick’s dull pained eyes widened.

‘It worked,’ he thought to himself. The electrical charge had enough juice to become a full lightning bolt. Bolts of lightning don’t stand still. Its automatic direction to travel was straight ahead toward Kora. But with water still streaming everywhere the bolt of lightning branched out in multiple directions. The lightning was completely out of Rick’s control. It was just going.

Some of the lightning bolt raced towards the computers, some of it went up toward the source of the water, the main stream of lightning was still heading towards Kora, others went toward the open window, and the concrete walls. But two other parts of the lightning went directly for human targets; Lulu and the young lady who helped Rick earlier.

The young lady cried out as the first moment the water hit her and now, moments later, lightning was racing towards her.

Rick spotted the young lady from his position on the ground, he could see the lightning bolt going for her and there was no way for him to stop it.

“NO!” Rick managed to yell. This kind of thing always happened to him. Why does this always happen?