Steampunk CTs

“Alright, Mr. Haustorian, you slept enough!” I was woken up by a chop to the head and a surprised look. “Oh! He actually woke up!”

I looked around to find that I was in the infirmary. Ms. Natalia, Instructor Matthews, and Ori stood around my hospital bed. Every single bit of pain I felt was alleviated completely. Even my arm from the warhammer fight was fine. It must be thanks to Sunny and Merry.

“How long was I out?”

“A couple of hours.” Ori said.

“You and Trainee Ori here got a D, Trainee. This is due to you guys accumulating points from the defused bombs, but mostly because I had to curve the test. Natalia went a tad bit too far.”

“If you can’t handle me at my best, you don’t deserve me at my worst.”

“People don’t use that phrase when they talk about fighting…” Instructor Matthews shook his head.

“Speaking of that…” Ori said. “What the hell was that? I thought natural light was your weakness!”

“It is! I can only use eternal night for ten seconds! After those ten seconds are up, I’ve pretty much used up all of my stem crystal!”

“I would’ve let you guys get an A if you made it that long, but I don’t even remember a time when someone’s survived Natalia’s Eternal Night.”

“How do you not have a title…” Ori had a concerned expression as she looked at Ms. Natalia.

“I know right?!” Ms. Natalia smiled from ear to ear.

“There’s an obvious answer to that. Based on the way she talks and dresses, the people don’t like ‘the demon queen’ as much.”

“Ten…seconds?” My eyes widened. All of that happened in ten seconds? It felt like an eternity. I was getting beat down left and right and I couldn’t even endure it for ten seconds?!

I ripped the bedsheets off of me and ran out of the infirmary.

“Arno!”

How could I let any of this happen? How could I lose against Hives? How couldn’t I win against the CTs in zone two? How could I be so weak? I hate it when I lose. I hate myself for losing…

I bursted through the double doors and found myself at the academy’s courtyard. The rain was pouring like crazy, but I didn’t care. I stormed into the rain and struck the wooden training dummy. I didn’t let up either. I kept striking it and wouldn’t let up. I released every bit of my pent up anger. I kept punching and punching until my hands were bloody and splintered. As I got drenched in that rain, looking at its attempt to wash away the harm I did, I wondered to myself. Why did I keep pushing through that smoke with a stupid smile on my face…

It was because of him…

===

When I realized I had no home to return to, I ran with tears streaking down my face as far as I possibly could. When I couldn’t run anymore, I found myself at my elementary school. When I walked through the double doors, I expected to find my friends or a teacher. There were probably still people here for afternoon activities.

But when I opened the door, I found nothing but the corpses of my classmates and teachers. They laid lifeless on the floor but I didn’t know that at the time. I was just assuming that they were playing a prank on me. I ran up to my teacher and tried to shake her awake, but no matter how much I pushed her, she wouldn’t wake up. Only when the blood began to pool around my knees and get on my hands did I realize that they passed on. I ran back outside and began to ball up and cry. I cried my heart out until I couldn’t cry anymore. I heard the doors open behind me and looked up to see a man in a clean suit holding a machete. He then locked eyes with me and started a conversation.

“Hey, kid!”

“You…you hurt all of my friends!” I ran up to him and tried to punch him, but he moved out of the way.

“Woah there! If I were to do all of that, then how would I not get a drop of blood on me?”

“Magic!” I stared daggers at him.

“Beeep! Wrong!” He made an X with his arms, but when he realized I wasn’t buying it, he sighed and crouched to my level. Now I could properly see his face. He had a kind smile, but I wasn’t gonna break easily. “What’s it gonna take to convince you that I didn’t hurt a soul in there?”

“My mom makes me pinky promise when she thinks I’m lying.”

The man began to chuckle. “Well that’s a natural lie-detector! Moms are smart like that, huh?”

“They are…” I looked down. I was hoping that my mom was okay.

After we pinky promised, I stuck with him because he promised to protect me from the bad guys ‘like a superhero,’ as he put it. He never let me out of his sight, fed me when he found food, and when I would get tired of walking, he’d give me a piggyback ride. On one of those rides, I decided to ask him some questions to get to know him better.

“What should I call you?”

“My name isn’t important.”

“But everyone has a name!”

“My mom never gave me one!”

“Liar!” I playfully hit him on the back of the head and he laughed to avoid my question.

“My name’s Arno!”

“...”

“Fine! If you’re not gonna give me one, I’ll make one for you! From now on you’re…Mr. Fancy! Because you’re wearing fancy clothes!”

“Fine…”

Silence fell over the both of us as we kept walking through the mist, but I decided to break the ice again by asking him where we were going.

“Hm….probably to leave the country. Everything’s gone down the drain, so there’s no use for anyone, especially a kid like you to stay here.”

“I don’t think my mom would like me to leave the country with someone she hasn’t met. But you’re nice, so I’m sure when we ask her she’ll say yes!”

“Arno…” Mr. Fancy made me get off of his shoulders, rubbed my head, and told me with a soft smile “Your parents are probably dead, Arno. You probably won’t ever see them again.”

Being told by the only adult I’ve seen since the fall that I would never be able to see or hold my parents again triggered something in me that made me run away from this man. I wanted to run away from the reality that he wanted me to believe. This hellscape and everything in it felt like some nightmare anyway, so maybe if I kept running, I’ll reach the end of it! I’ll wake up in bed! Mom would’ve made some breakfast for me to eat and dad would’ve called me out to train! That’s right! If I keep running I’ll reach the end—

“Oof!” I fell backwards as soon as I bumped into a tall figure. When I looked up, I saw two men in black armor and piercing red lights where their eyes would be. They carried rifles and looked nothing like the police that patrolled our town from time to time. These guys were way more scary.

“You would think the kids would stay away from gunfire.”

“Just blow his head off. He’s probably an orphan. And in that case, who’s gonna miss him? His parents?”

“Ha! Fair point.” He aimed his sight down on me and my fight or flight kicked in. Something in me refused to die here. I punched him as hard as I could in the stomach and turned the other way to run as he toppled over. As I ran away, his friend chased me and started firing shots. I was dodging most of them, but one hit me in the leg and made me fall over. The bullet wound made it so that I couldn’t run anymore and I had to resort to crawling. That’s when the man in black armor caught up to me.

“Little pest! I’ll pump you full of lead!”

I couldn’t do anything but scream for help. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to run from it, but this world was my reality. Why did it have to end up this way?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Multiple shots rang out through the thick mist and pierced this man in his helmet and into his skull. His body became lifeless as it fell onto the floor next to me. As blood began to drip out of his helmet, Mr. Fancy ran to me and immediately began to treat my wound.

“Can you walk?”

“This is nothing! Besides I’m still mad at you—” I was scolding him, but stopped as soon as I saw the look on his face. He wasn’t his usual happy-go-lucky self. He showed a face of worry and concern for my well being.

“I can’t. It hurts too much to walk.” I muttered.

“Okay then. Get on my back!” He turned around and waited for me to get on his back and once I did, he ran faster than I’ve ever seen him run. His tie jumped back and forth and I’m pretty sure his suit wasn’t made for running so he might’ve tore something. As he ran, he explained to me the sin I’ve made. The sin of existing.

“Listen, Arno! Those men are part of a big group! Bigger than anything you or I have ever seen! Big enough to take this country down! Just us running into them means that we’ve shortened our lifespan significantly! Their friends are gonna notice they’re taking too long to regroup and get to the bottom of this! When they do, we’re dead!”

“How do you know that?”

“Because when this all started I hid out at the school with the faculty and students. One of those guys came over and as soon as he saw there were people in the building, he brought back an army! An army! You know what Mr. Fancy did when he saw that?! He hid in the supply closet like a coward! Do you understand, Arno?!” Mr. Fancy stopped at the entrance of a junkyard.

“That’s why I don’t want to tell you my name, Arno! It’s because I don’t deserve to be remembered! I deserve the worst death imaginable! I deserve to be in an afterlife of eternal flame for what I did…”

Maybe it was because of my age at the time, but I didn’t feel any anger towards this man. I didn’t even feel any sadness. It’s twisted to say, but my selfishness made me feel relieved. I was happy that he survived long enough to meet me. I would’ve probably died way earlier if it wasn’t for him. I would’ve felt lonely if it wasn’t for him. And for that, I held onto him as hard as I could and with a strained voice said “Thank you for living.”

When I told him this, I could feel the drops of his tears fall onto my arms.

As we were having our moment, we heard a stampede of footsteps approach us. Mr. Fancy put me down and told me to run. He told me that there was a hole in the fence at the back of the junkyard and that he’ll distract them while I ran away. I begged and pleaded for him not to leave me alone. I didn’t want to be alone. This month with him made the fall not as bad as it could’ve been alone. He wasn’t hearing any of it, though. He yelled at me to get moving if I wanted any of the suffering in this world to have meaning. When I heard that, I decided to run. But before I did, he told me…

“Arno, you’re a strong kid. It’s not easy to knock the wind out of someone wearing heavy duty armor. Now if I had to lead you with any piece of advice going forward, it’s to find someone worth protecting. When you find that person, don’t let them go for a minute. Always protect them with a smile! That’ll give your life meaning more than all the money or fame in the world could ever do! Smile through your pain and tears, Arno!”

When he told me those things, it made me realize why he was smiling through everything. Through the pain and sorrow, he found meaning and hope in this messed up world through me. And he wanted me to feel that as well.

When I managed to escape the junkyard undetected, I ran for my life. And as I ran, the mist finally began to clear. A sliver of hope was finally beginning to shine down on me.

Although this ray of sunshine came down on this country, there was still a looming darkness at almost every corner. Even though those men with black armor were gone, the government completely collapsed. Factions fought against each other over and over to gain supremacy. I had to loot very carefully and when I was found out, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill to survive. As I did, I tried my best to make my way to a boat or anything I could use to escape. That’s when I heard the shrieks of a little girl.

I climbed onto the ceiling of the shack that the noise was coming from and peeped through a hole to find an adult cornering a little girl that looked to be around my age. He raised his sword to kill her and she braced herself for her death while screaming. At that moment it looked like she needed saving, so I leapt down and overpowered him in a struggle for this girl’s life. Once I stopped, I looked over to the girl to see if she was okay and she was. No marks or wounds. At that moment, we locked eyes and I realized that I had to smile for her.

“Why?” She asked me why I would go out of my way to save her.

“Why? Because my mom said if a girl needs help, to help her. What’s your name by the way? Mine's Arno!”

===

“You said you didn’t want to be remembered, but you changed the course of my life forever…how could I ever forget you?” I said as the rain kept pouring down.

This rain didn’t even start here. Ever since that day all those years ago, it’s been pouring down on me. I’m still that same kid wandering and crying in the deep mist. I’m not strong enough to pursue or protect anything that I care about. I should probably just accept this. Accept the fact that I’m weak…

Before I knew it though, the rain stopped falling. When I looked up to see why, I saw an umbrella over my head and Ori was towering over me. When we met eyes, I quickly sprung up and wiped the debris off of my body with a smile on my face.

“Wow! What a fight! Ms. Natalia didn’t hold back a single punch! Let’s get going though. You’re probably hungry.” I started to walk off and as I did, Ori followed me.

“Arno…”

“This world is so big! I never thought we’d meet such strong people! It’s like every time I go bursting through a wall, there’s several others in front of me that everyone’s fighting at.”

“Arno.”

“But don’t worry! I’m gonna get stronger! So strong that I’ll catch up to everyone and protect everyone from harm—”

“Arno!” I stopped and shuddered for a moment. She used a serious, yet concerned tone of voice that I couldn’t ignore.

“I’m sorry…”

I turned around and wondered. Ori…what are you apologizing for? It was my fault that we lost. I wasn’t strong enough to protect you, so things ended up going south. That’s how it’s been ever since we got here so why are you apologizing?

“I should’ve seen what was going on in zone two and have a better plan for it. I should’ve also expected that Natalia would have something up her sleeve. I should’ve done more in the Hive’s fight, and I also should’ve expected that CT would’ve came back to zone four to burn it down. What I’m trying to say is…” She walked towards me and when she stepped close to me, the rain stopped falling on my head again thanks to her umbrella. “We’re a team. So when one of us is at a loss, the other has to pick up the slack.” She looked up at me with those eyes and it made me realize that she has a point. We’re a team. I was getting so caught up in the things that were happening, that I forgot that I’m not in this alone anymore.

“Right…”

Ori’s face started to turn red as she began to walk off. “Well, you were right about one thing: I’m hungry as hell! Let’s go get something to eat. Everyone’s waiting for us.”

“Who’s everyone?”

“You’re kidding, right? Our friends, Arno.”

It only hit me when we stepped away from the academy and walked into that restaurant. How did I ever think that I had to fight these battles alone?

“If it isn’t the parasite that could.” Although he still looked angry, Derris worked up the courage to tease me with a warm smile.

“A new Holy Power Force chapter came out today, Arno! You wanna read it before we eat?” Rono held up the issue.

“I wonder if they have anything spicy here. They don’t really make the sauces here like they do at home, so I’d have to get it way spicier than usual.” Anna sighed.

“Well…just be careful. We wouldn’t want you biting off more than you can chew…” Gollie tried to warn her.

“I’m just here for the free food. Ori’s paying, apparently.” Jack said, but I could tell he was hiding his excitement.

How could I ever forget about the people I’ve met here at the academy? When I’m lacking in any department, they’ll be there to pick me back up. Because they’re my friends. Maybe Ori and I are closer to our goal than we thought. Neither of us would ever guess that we’d be eating side by side with Holians all those years ago.