Miscalculations

Rosayan was still a young reptile, and though his intellectual capacity was higher than that of the smartest earthling, his plans were not always perfect. After he had finally located the boy’s location, he needed to defeat him, and then bring him to his clonology lab in Taklimakan. He would use his nemusian genes in order to try and create powerful beasts with it. Defeating him was once the problem, but when he saw the boy’s unawareness about his Birth Powers as he went face to face with him, it was just ridiculous. The rest was simple, and everything would have been okay if not for that damn midget wyvern that made him drop the kid down into the jungles of Brazin Island. That complicated everything, and now there was the second problem: Experiment Jaw was the ultimate machine for one nemusian, but not for two! Where did the other boy come from? He was fully aware of his father’s demand to kill the only remaining nemusian, but now there was this other boy who was clearly nemusian too. He saw the whole fight from his rolling computer chair down in his main base, and the third problem was the worse. It wouldn’ have been surprising to find out that the nemusian king’s son also had two Birth Powers, but from what he saw, he had a lot more than two, and that was only the beginning of the boy’s growth. The nemusian had yet to understand and control his powers, and up to now all his discovered powers were by accident, so how many did he have? Was there a limit to his power? Many questions rose in his mind, and his mission would not be as simple as he had expected. The boy seemed relatively weak when he met him, but now he understood that he needed to kill him before he would start mastering his Birth Powers.

It all started a year ago, when the lizaard started to travel the world in hopes of finding the nemusian. Rosayan had spent a lot of time on the Internet, reading the news of many different countries from Asia and the Middle-East, expecting he’d eventually find an article about a sudden alien discovery or something. Instead, there only seemed to be reports about war, terrorism, corruption, kidnappings, rebellions and coup d’états. The media had convinced him that the planet was filled with violence, and he couldn’t wait to get strong enough to share his own violence with everyone. In the meantime though, he couldn’t find the boy neither in Europe, nor in Asia. He got discouraged really fast after realising how big the world was. “What if he isn’t even on this continent?” He often asked himself. The nemusian could possibly be living in Africa or even in one of the three Americas, who knows? He had never even been on those continents yet and he didn’t know much about them either.

It was during his researches about North America that he learned about this nearly uninhabited area called Greenland. To Rosayan’s eyes, it looked like a very useful place because from there, he’d have much easier access to both Europe and North America. He was able to settle there with the suit he had created to resist Siberia’s climate, and he constructed a small shed that had electricity, Internet, and a couple of computers. The place would be used to show footage from the cameras he was planning to install in Europe and in North America.

 A month later, it was finally the day where Rosayan would make his first trip in America, so he headed back to his base in Greenland. From there, he would cross the ocean and start his trip in Canada. He left at night so it could permit him to pass over Europe more securely. He went by jetpack, as usual, taking roughly the same route as every other time. He passed east of Iceland, preferring not to fly over islands when possible, but on that night he went just a little further east than usual before heading back north, and that’s when he came upon a small island that he had never noticed before. It seemed like he discovered something new every day. Once he’d arrive, the first thing he was going to do was search the name of that island on Google. The curious lizaard decided to take a little detour and fly over the island before going to his base, simply because he found new discoveries to be interesting. As he did, his PUG beeped for the first time of his life, and it startled him. “What? For real?” He asked out loud, dazed and a little confused. “This is it…this is the place!” He said, disordered and unready for this sudden turn of events. He was trying to sort things out in his head and that’s when he realized that he really needed a plan before diving into the unknown like that. He promised himself to only take a look. He needed to go back to his base and adjust his plan to this new situation before doing anything risky.

“I’m just taking a small visit, nothing more…” He told himself as he descended to the dark area below. The whole island seemed to be a vast jungle with trees, bushes and hedges everywhere. The darkness of the night made it difficult for him to clearly determine anything else. “Just taking a look, I’m only taking a look…” He repeated to himself as he obsessively followed the sound of his device. He had no plan yet on how to kidnap the boy. He also wanted to kill him real bad, but he needed to resist those violent urges for the sake of getting his DNA. If he killed him now though, his mission would be done once and for all and nothing would stand on his way to rule the world. On the other hand, the nemusian’s DNA was maybe the key to world domination! “I mustn’t kill him right now,” he concluded, “I gotta go to the base first.”

 The PUG beeped faster and faster as Rosayan approached the target and all he wanted was to take a look, but he couldn’t snap out of it, as if he was in a trance. He walked through tall grass that completely blinded his view, but that did not matter because his PUG was the Northern Star that would guide him to happiness. The gadget’s beeping was increasing slowly but constantly, until it went so fast that the young lizaard was starting to get nervous. “I can’t kill him right now. I gotta go to the base first.” He repeated again, to convince himself not to do anything stupid. He went to the left to follow the PUG’s sound, and then suddenly he heard it. He heard the sound of moving grass. Something, someone was coming towards him. His PUG was beeping louder and faster so he turned it off, fearing that whatever was near would find him. He was convinced that what was arriving was the nemusian himself. “I’ll kill him, I want to kill him, I need to kill him!” The bloodthirsty alien let out as he followed the sound of shuffling grass. He then clearly heard two people chatting, and one of them sounded like a child. It definitely was the person he was looking for. “I’m ending this right here…” Rosayan told himself, unable to resist the urge of accomplishing his late father’s mission.

            “Hey, shh, you hear that?” the voice of the child said.

            Instantly alarmed, the lizaard froze, trying to calculate what would be his next move.

            “Huh? You heard something?” Said another voice.

            “Yeah… from right there, I’m sure I�"oh, look Cloudy! It’s right there! What is that?” The boy pointed in Rosayan’s direction and it was now obvious that he had been spotted.

            “Where? Stop running I’m gonna lose track of you.” The other answered.

            “Cloudy, what’s that big ugly creature? I’ve never seen that before.”

It was at that moment that Rosayan realized he had done exactly the opposite of what he had intended to do. Now he looked smart; He had no plan.

            “A creature?”

“Yeah, come and see!”

Rosayan had to do something and fast. Should I run away and wait until I can capture him? Should I just simply get rid of it right now? That was the internal struggle that was messing with his head.

 “I don’t see anything in this darkness. Let me light up the place…” Cloudfire said.

I won’t run away. I’m gonna kill them both right now. It was decided.

“Can I kill it? Please please, I want to eat it.” The excited boy pleaded to his mentor.

 “Let me examine it first. You know, some things aren’t good to eat.”

“What?” the lizaard said in disbelief. He wants to eat me?

“I wanna eat it, I’m hungry! Let me kill it then you can examine it alright?”

That was simply deranged. He had no idea nemusians were such savage beasts. Frightened, he shouted: “Hell no, you are not gonna eat me.” And then blasted off to the night sky. He had changed his mind; he was going to elaborate a plan first.

“Hey, my supper’s flying away! Come back here!” Pascal shouted as he took off after his prey.

Rosayan was flying over the Atlantic Ocean. He let out a sigh of relief and then took out his compass to determine which way he was going. He looked behind him, just in case, and the case happened as he saw the boy rise up in the air and come his way, pretty fast.

“Nemusians can fly? Yikes!” Rosayan shrieked, feeling the panic rise within him.

“I’m coming for you…” Pascal chanted in a creepy way while he was catching up to him.

“You’ll never catch me!” Rosayan hollered and then he flipped a switch on the shoulder strap that kept him fastened to his jetpack. The jetpack’s radiator spat a huge flame of blue fire and the lizaard blasted off at maximum speed. Fortunately, the nemusian’s flying wasn’t advanced enough to keep up with him and in a matter of minutes, Pascal was far behind and out of sight. Rosayan was so scared that he never even dared to look back. He just jetted right ahead, not even knowing where he was going until he started passing over some land so huge that he thought it had to be a continent. He dove down into an unlit area of the continent, which happened to be a forest, and he hid himself in it. He turned his PUG back on and pointed it frantically at the sky. It wasn’t beeping, so that meant the nemusian wasn’t near. He had successfully fled. Next time he would be ready. He couldn’t wait to at least find out the name of that darn island.

Now, what was important was to find out where he had landed. He took off in the air, anxious and watching in every direction because he was still disturbed by the last event. “This isn’t Europe… and with all these lights, it definitely isn’t Greenland either.” He said while examining the shape of the land below him. “Hmm…then it figures that I must be somewhere in North America.” Knowing how big North America was, he wasn’t very encouraged. He’d have to sleep somewhere for the night because in this darkness, he would only increase the chance of getting lost even more. He flew over the land, looking for civilisation so he could at least have a comfortable bed and Internet, and then his PUG beeped again! Confused and terrified, he plunged back down to hide anywhere possible.

“Goddammit! This creep followed me all the way here?” He complained. Rosayan was tired and all he wanted to do was find a place to rest. He felt like crying. All of this because once again, he couldn’t control his impulses. He managed to hide in the small shed of someone’s backyard. He had squished himself between a lawnmower and a snowblower, where lay a pile of three truck tires that he found to be more comfortable than the cold concrete ground. He stayed there unmoving for at least two hours, shivering continuously not only due to the chilly weather, but also because he was stressed out of his mind. The PUG beeped all night, always at the same slow pace, but in spite of it all, the lizaard was so exhausted that he fell asleep right there. He woke up the next day to the sound of his device that had never stopped beeping since yesterday. The PUG always kept the same tempo, which meant that the nemusian hadn’t moved since last night. “He’s hiding somewhere and waiting for me,” He concluded, “That cocky b*****d.”

The door of the shed opened and a big, warm beam of sunlight covered him. “Who’s there?” A voice asked harshly. The owner of the shed had a baseball bat and he was ready to f**k s**t up with whatever entered his property. The way Rosayan had positioned himself while he was sleeping had left him stuck in a very impractical manner between a tire and the snowblower, and he had no choice but to kill the man with his bone extrusion or else he would have gotten clobbered. After doing so, he unstuck himself from his uncomfortable situation, shoved the dying man to the side and flew off, insulted that he couldn’t even have five minutes of peace after waking up. This was the human world. A cruel and dangerous world.

Rosayan was fed up and he deemed all this to be the nemusian’s fault. “Enough of this! I won’t run away this time,” He said, “I’ll track you down and kill you.” Since the nemusian went so far away from home to come and get him, that meant he was likely alone. He could do this. “If he tries to eat me, I’m gonna eat him first.” He stated to motivate himself as he descended to a house below. The lizaard started by murdering the whole family of a house so he could at least stay somewhere safe for a couple of hours. One of the first things he did was look at the clock: it was 7:00 A.M. He was able to hack through the family’s computer and go on Internet. That was when he found out that he was in a Canadian region called Abitibi. He felt a whole lot better now that he knew where he was, and what time it was. Rosayan reasoned that the nemusian was most likely hiding somewhere in this region. While he was there, he took the time to search on the world map to find the island he had discovered yesterday. It was called Brazin Island. He typed the name of the place on Wikipedia and he only had to read that the island was famous for this controversial UFO landing ten years ago and he was satisfied. That was enough information for now. He was starting to get scared that the cops would arrive and catch him so he fled high in the clouds, holding the map of Abitibi in his memory.

 “So according to Google, I’m in this town called Amos…” He took out his PUG, pointed it at various directions until it emitted a faster beeping when he pointed it at a specific direction. He then took out his compass and determined that the direction in which the PUG was reacting the most was to the south. Having memorized the map by heart with his superior cognition, he knew that the nearest towns to the south were Preissac, La Corne, Malartic, and Val-d’Or. It took Rosayan a whole day to discern that the nemusian was in a town further ahead than Preissac because no matter where he went, even after traveling around the vast forest that surrounded the area, the tempo of his PUG hadn’t changed at all. The next day he went farther south from the small village and his device started ringing at a slightly faster pace. His next targets were La Corne and Malartic, and after spending another day searching he came to the same conclusion. At the end of his tour in Malartic, he broke in a clothing shop to dress himself accordingly to this country’s fashion. With this hoodie sweater that covered his head, he would only look like a simple kid taking a walk downtown.

 It was on the third day when he arrived over Val-d’Or that his PUG started reacting violently. “This is the place.” Rosayan declared with a smirk. It was too risky to fly slowly over the town, so he decided to take the rest of the path by foot with his hood on as concealment. He landed on top of the St-Hubert restaurant’s roof to have a good look at his surroundings. His PUG beeped faster when he pointed it down 3^rd Avenue, so he knew that this was the street he was going to take. He strolled down the 3^rd Avenue and turned right after the Giant Tiger, which led him to the large building that his PUG had been beeping at all along ever since he had arrived in the country. “So that’s where the brat is hiding ey?” He went to the front of the building and read the big insignia that read: Golden Valley School.

 His PUG was beeping at a very fast tempo and it was evident that the kid was waiting for him inside. The problem was how to get in without getting shot, stabbed, hit or arrested. He had learned the hard way that since he wasn’t an official earthling resident, he was forbidden to enter any building. It was unfair but he had to cope with it. He needed to do this either extremely fast, or in a very clever way. He walked to the back of the building, analyzing every entry and exit of the place. To the back was an open yard with a basketball court and several structures. Having never seen slides, teeter-totters and monkey bars before, he found them to be very intriguing and couldn’t determine what their function was. He climbed up the ladder of the slide while examining it curiously, and once he got to the top, he sat on the metal slope before him. He slid down and instantly, a rush of gratification invaded him. “Wow, how awesome is that?” He asked, astonished by this pleasure-providing machine. He rushed back to the ladder for another shot at it, but then his PUG started beeping even faster. His attention was immediately brought back to the matter at hand. “The nemusian better be ready because I’m not scared anymore.” He affirmed as he walked up to the Basketball court, looking at the door farther ahead and trying to elaborate some sort of plan. After three days of ceaseless searching, it was finally time for the battle of his life. The PUG’s tempo kept increasing, making Rosayan a little nervous. Is he gonna come out here? Did he see me from inside? He pondered.

A small boy with brown hair came out the door, holding his forehead with one hand. As soon as the boy saw him, he stopped in his path and just stared at him, looking shocked. So this is the savage boy that wanted to kill me and eat me? He thought to himself. Rosayan was surprised by how puny he looked. He couldn’t recognize him because when he had met him on the island, it was so dark that he hadn’t been able to determine what he looked like. Nonetheless, this had to be the very same boy because as soon as he came out the door, his PUG reacted strongly. It had to be him. The lizaard turned off his PUG, put down his hoodie and asked the boy: “Who are you?”

“I should be the one asking you that.” The boy replied provokingly.

“Tell me your name or I am gonna kill you.” Rosayan refuted. He had no more time to waste with this cocky kid. He opened his mouth and revealed his sharp yellow teeth.

“Tony!” The visibly terrified boy yelped.

“Tony what?”

“Tony Gardens, it’s my real name, I swear! Please don’t kill me I’ll do whatever you want!” Tony pleaded.

That’s it. He got scared for nothing. The boy looked so weak that he didn’t even feel like killing him. “So that’s whom they call the Hero! Looks pretty scrawny to me,” Rosayan let out, almost looking deceived. He knocked the boy out, grabbed him from behind by the waist, and blasted off. “Now let’s go back to headquarters.” He said as he flew over the clouds in excitement. Getting his hands on the boy had actually been a lot easier than he had expected. He couldn’t wait to arrive home. As he crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he purposefully passed over Brazin Island just to see what it looked like during the day. “Say goodbye to your homeland little boy, because you’ll never see it again! Ha-ha-ha!” He said to the unconscious boy that he was carrying, and that’s when the spitfire ruined all of his plans. He only had the time to see several big balls of fire coming his way and he was so startled that he accidentally let go of the boy before dodging them all. Flabbergasted from this unexpected turn of events, he flew home at maximum speed.

 As soon as he arrived to his main base in Taklimakan, he ordered one of his strongest creatures, Jaw, to bring back the nemusian, dead or alive. He could have sent him to the place by submarine, but after discovering that Jaw had lied to him about having lost the old jetpack, he forced him to go there with it. After Jaw’s very harsh landing on Brazin Island, the jetpack was broken and that was what screwed him over when he had tried to run away. “I should’ve sent him by submarine.” Rosayan stated after seeing him die on live camera. The lizaard king had been watching the whole scene on Brazin from his main base due to the micro-camera implanted in Jaw’s neck.

It was while he grew tired of watching Jaw getting lost in the jungle that he looked up for more information about this mysterious island. According to that site he had found, the rumor about Brazin Island was that a UFO had landed on the island, but the governments of the surrounding countries tried to keep it secret in order to prevent mass confusion and fear. Ever since ten years ago, humans weren’t allowed to enter the island because supposedly, the wildlife was too rare and fragile. Having human installments on the island would disturb the ecosystem, and anyways, the animals living there were simply too dangerous. According to this conspirationist article, it was all a lie and the real reason they only let specific research teams on the island is because there were still traces of extraterrestrial activity left and the group of researchers that worked there were hired to erase and hide all those traces.

After seeing the whole battle and ultimately, Jaw’s defeat, Rosayan headed to Brazin to at least get the siren that Jaw had stung Pascal with. When he arrived at the scene of the crime, he found the siren but it had been broken and emptied, undoubtedly by one of the boys. “Well, this mission really was a failure.” He declared, staring at the remains of Jaw. He had called upon Chickle to come join him on the island so he could give him the orders about what to do next. Rosayan’s servants were always a mix of his own DNA plus the genes of other animals he could find around the Earth. By mixing and experiencing, he could analyze which races mixed well together for which task. Jaw, for example, was the mix of an alligator, a snake, and a bit of Komodo dragon to add more strength, robustness and overall superiority to the blend. It was an excellent creature that was ferocious but guileful, senseless but smart, almost like a lizaard. The seemingly perfect hunting machine, but for only one nemusian. Chickle was a blend of an eagle and a chicken. It had the keen observation, predatory skills and swiftness of an eagle, with… the fact that nothing else was near but a chicken so Rosayan just added chicken genes to the solution. With Chickle’s ability to fly, he was one among the other flying minions to search, hunt, and gather anything that Rosayan wanted. The lizaard bent down to pick up Jaw’s sword. He pointed the sword up in the sky and yelled: “Chickle!”

            The scream of an eagle echoed through the sky, and then with a thump, an anthropomorphic, muscular eagle landed behind its master. “Yes, sir!” The creature’s head was that of a chicken, but with the beak of an eagle. Small but sharp teeth disorderly came out of all the sides of the bird’s beak. He had baggy pants with bare chicken feet at its ends, and a rooster’s tail. Feathery arms had taken the place of the wings he had an instant ago.

            “Kill the blond boy; he’s been causing trouble since the beginning.” Rosayan ordered.

            “Ay ay, sir. And the other one?”

“Bring him back alive to one of the bases if possible. But I wouldn’t count on it. I’d suggest trying to avoid him to make sure not to render him back to his stronger form. What I really want you to focus on is the blond one.”

             The lizaard king handed the sword to Chickle. An improvement to Jaw was Chickle’s more refined martial skill. Not only he was an advanced grade in Kradda, but he was one of the first to undertake Taekwondo courses and he even took some sword-fighting courses on Internet during his free time. Chickle put the sword in its holster and attached it to its back. He then made a harsh swing downwards with his arms, and it made them flatten and shift into wide wings. He cried like an eagle, choked, and then crowed like a rooster and flew off.

The two heroes were heading home, but Rosayan wouldn’t let that happen. There’s no way he’d let Tony discover the potential inside him. Now that the kid lost the only person who could have helped him, another one rose in the form of Pascal. That was the next target.

            Chickle knew he was going to fly for a long while, so he decided not to go too fast so he wouldn’t tire himself out, especially since he knew that his master was always watching him no matter where he was, and he didn’t remember hearing Rosayan talk about a midflight break. After several hours, the day darkened and became night, where only half the moon was ruling over the world. As the creature soared the night sky, an infinite reassembling of stars gazed at him in a glittering fashion. He was now drained from fatigue, but it did not matter. His mission was to track the kids down. He personally hated night travels because of the lack of any other bird he could fly along with. Usually he’d team up with a flock and share some chirps and crows of empathy, but at night, birds were very rare, and owls were very boring to talk to.

Above him appeared three flashing stars, one green, one red and one blue, all attached together and moving very quickly in a straight line. Upon seeing this, the bored creature grew a smirk and rose up even higher than the helicopter that emitted those three flashing lights. He ascended far above the helicopter’s helixes, and after gauging himself, he held his wings together upwards as if gathering energy from the moon. He let himself fall down into the spinning helix below, wings still pointing at the sky, and before his feet could touch the booming propeller, he thrust his wings downwards, pouring down a rain of whooshing silver feathers through the propeller. There started to be sparks, and then smoke, and then the propeller completely stopped, with every wing of it twisted, damaged and distorted. The whole machine went bombing down, but Chickle’s satisfaction was already there, he didn’t even need to see the crash. He dashed onwards, with a little more energy under his wings.