Chapter 4 The Thunder Gauntlet

“Now Caren there’s no need to strain your neck like that,” The boy who spoke was gentle and his face was whiter than milk. The brown hair contrasted his sickly apperence and so did his pitch black hoodie and jeans. But his were something else. A sea of bright green lay there. Like emerald. 

“Come on stop straing at me,”
“Ohh but I can’t,” the boy smiled.
“So I assume you’ll let me stay here is that right?”
“I thought we already settled on that?”
“I guess we did. Shall I put on the kettle?”

With a small nod I head off to the kettle. How long will I stay here with her? I fiddled around with the kettle while trying not to revel my metal gauntlets. Soon she’ll die of old age anyway. I would have never thought that I would be staying on my own with an eighty year old woman. With magic. Everything sounds cooler with magic.

Suddenly a knock on the door. My eyes snap to it. They’ve found me. I look around the room for a quick escape until Caren opened the door. My thoughts went to her being killed and me being captured and tortured until my death. And then hundreds of other deaths.

“Sorry to bother you...lady...but can I stay here...for the...night?” My heart began beating again and I sighed.

“Of course!” The woman at the door was drenched in sweat. Her brown cloak draped over her. It looks really heavy. Her boots were covered muck. Guess another cup then.She sat down and looked up at me. Her face dropped.

I stared at her and set down the cup of tea on the table. Caren noticed this and asked “Are you related?” I smiled widely and said “Of course,” I can’t have a fight here with Caren. She’s been too kind to me. “Yeah she’s actually my aunt,”

The stranger didn’t know how to handle this so she just nodded. It must have been a surprise finding the most wanted kid ever and the holder of the most destructive weapons in an old ladys house. “Sorry madam but I want to talk to my nephew for a minute,”

Before Caren could even agree she tugged me out into the hall. She stood over me and tried to talk but was too baffled. “So what are you doing here?” I asked

“Well long story short I- no tell me why you are here,”
“Well...I didn’t agree with Marble,” I added a sly smirk
“So are you now with Steam Od?”
“Ohh no I want to tear down both of them. Limb from limb. Ripping off their rib cage. Pulling out their hearts. Squeezing their eyes in their sockets-“
“Ok...”

There was some awkward silence until I asked again “So why are you here?”
“Kind of...um escaped the army. Now they want to kill me,”
“Which army?”
“Moblie Magical Army Ally. M.M.A.A,”
I thought for a moment and remembered that they use tomes to fight. Like less powerful versoins of the Selectives. “So why do they want you dead?”

“I brought some tomes with me,”
I was about to ask another question but Caren called us back in because our tea was getting cold. “Your my cousin who you haven’t seen in years,” I whispered to...oh I didn’t get her name.

I wondered whether I could try and get her to my side. She was with Steam Od so she most likely hates Marble but also hates Steam Od since she left. A weilder of magic would be nice to have. Now how will the two of us destroy two nations? Getting the Armour will make me invincible but how to get them.

“You know I never got your name young lad,”
“My name is...” ...what is my name? “My name is John,”
No I could’t have forgotten my name. Of all things I remember I forget my name? “What about you?”
“Oh my name is Melissa,”
So should I get a new name? Name myself? Crazy. I’m crazy. Litrally? “Is something wrong John?”
“Yeah. I just need to think on my own,”

With that I sat up and left in a hurry. I went straight out the door and into the rain. The ground was muck. I struggled to lift my foot. I placed my hands onto my face and closed my eyes. The metal gauntlets were cold. What have I done?

If I cut off the Thunder Gauntlet at first I then wouldn’t have to do any of this. I shook violently. Then a sound came. It buzzed. I parted my fingers. Throught blurrly eyes I saw a flying machine. It hovered in the air. It looked like a metal insect with wide dragon fly like wings.

Suddenly a red lazer pointed at my chest and before I knew it I heard a missile. I dashed as fast as I could into the house and sped down to the living room. I grabbed Caren and Melissa. The missile hit the house.

Wood exploded, my hearing were gone and now there was a hole in the middle of the house. “RUN!” I screamed yet I couldn’t even hear myself. I turned around and faced the metal insect. This is going to be so much easier with TWO thunder Gauntlets.

I clicked my finger over and over again. I danced wildly, flinging my wrists and arms. The thunder and lightning hit the hull of the insect. Black marks from the lightning riddled it. If I had time I would ask how lightning can make visable damage against metal.

After a cuple of seconds Melissa took out her tome book and ran hand over it. Suddenly the insect started moving crazily and opened a compartment, in it there was about twenty misslies. It’s red lazer mozed around but before Melissa got a ball of ice and hurled it like a pitcher on a baseball field.

The ice blocked the missiles from firing out. Yet the metal insect fired anyway. One of the missiles exploded and then the others exploded. There was nothing we could do to escape. The ball of fire blasted outward. It launched me away with air and heat.

I hit the wall and broke bones. The pain was so new and foreign I couldn’t get up. I watched as the house burned and my eyes closed.

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I rocked up and down. Wheels went over small potholes in the ground. Something smelt burnt and disgusting. My strength was gone. I couldn’t even lift up my arm. With willpower I opened one eye. Through a half closed eye I could make out a dirt road.

Most likely the road we are on. I groaned and tried to sit up. “Don’t,” croaked a weak Caren. I think. I gave up and spoke but I just wheezed and coughed. Smoke lined my throat. I can still taste it. “We’re going to a village,” she coughed “You better stay under the sheets,”

I hadn’t noticed the hair thin sheets. I didn’t bother asking why. My eyes were burnt as if I stared at the sun for weeks. I tried to think about what happened. Steam Od. How did they know where I was though?

The metal insect was new. Marble taught me about all the older machines but now they’ve advanced so fast that it was useless. Marble also said that Steam Od was making something new. So now it should be ready. Unnerving.

“We’re here,” almost on cue I heard people asking questions. “We just need to go to the nearest doctor,” someone spoke and our cart moved on. Out of nowhere our cart started jumping up and down on the road. It felt like I was on a bed of needles, jumping up and down on it.

I still didn’t waste the effort to speak. After an hour of pain we came to a stop. Caren and someone else started talking. Hands picked me up and we went into the house. Gently the doctor laid me out on a white table. Tired...so so tired...I blacked out.

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I stood in a forest. The trees whispered to each other. “Hhhheee was the one who beeeetrayed ussss,”
“I heard that he’s insaaaaaane. K-Killing vvvvvilliagers and the such,”

I looked around to find an opening. I became claustrifobic in seconds. The trees burst into flames. “HE BETRAYED US,”
“YOU WILL FAIL AND DIE,”

I turned around and saw Caren. Her face began to melt. “WHY BRING ME INTO THIS? WHHHHHYYYYYY?”

My neck snapped back and forth. Looking franticly around. I screamed and dug the Thunder and Lightning gauntlets into my face and tore down. Reaveling a face undernearth. The King.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

I woke up sweating. My breathing quickened even though it hurt so much. I was in a room. I began shaking and wheezing until I seized up. I just rocked back and forth. Someone knocked on the door.

I didn’t answer but they came in anyway. It was a shaggy faced, torn up Melissa. She had a tray of food and she walked over to me. I stared at her. She placed the tray on the table beside me and said “So how are we going to defeat Marble?”

“And Steam Od,” I added. Melissa smiled like something was lifted off of her
“Right are we going to make a new army from scratch?”
“Something like that,”
“So we need to reach the mass of people who hate both nations. Without giving away our position,”

“No no no. We don’t broadcast our anger at all. What we do is wait until Steam Od push into marble hard. Then we move to where the Dial Aegis is and steal it because Marble told me where it is,”
“Wouldn’t they just move it away since you know where it is and your now an outlaw?”
“They can’t it’ll be too hard to move in time,”
“Why?”
“Show me a map,”

With a suspicious glace she walked away to find a map. Once she walked away I lied back onto the bed and lifed up both of my hands. What have I done? Just keep thinking of something else. Not what I did. Was that even me? I don’t even know what my God damn name is.

I tried hard to think about the present but I made myself relive what happened one week ago...