A New Night

Battle for the Tower

I woke to what looked vaguely like a hospital room—vital monitors, a fern in the corner, and a desk with jars of basic medical equipment. There was only one entry, a heavy metal door that looked immovable. I felt that I was lying on a cold metal table. There was a clank as padded restraints unfastened from my wrists and ankles. The restraints securing Romalla, Scraa, and Dro all opened as well. Dual metal probes rose from where they had been positioned, touching the backs of each of our necks.

“I was having a nice dream,” Scraa said groggily, looking around with dissatisfaction. “There was a warm lake, so many fish, and a dragon that helped me catch them.”

“Scraa, we have more important things to worry about,” Romalla said, her tone urgent.

Dro nodded, though he could not meet my eyes. He seemed to be staring off a little bit, fazed maybe by something he’s seen. Finally, he shook off whatever it was and said, “It seems the Alpha Predators are not equipped or willing to deal with the Queen.”

“We can though, right?” I asked.

“Of course we can,” Romalla said, brushing off the matter before anyone else could think to answer. This seemed like it was for the best; it wasn’t as if we were going to allow the Queen to continue her attack.

I began to look for a way to open the enormous security door but, when I approached, a series of latches and bolts shifted. The door slowly rolled into the wall, opening into a warm gray hall that did not match the sanitary look of the cold white room we’d woken up in.

Romalla took off into the air, leading us down the hallway. Following her, we ran along a path marked by red exit signs. It seemed she had correctly inferred that they led to an exit.

As we turned and went down a second corridor, doors opened exactly when and where we needed. Once or twice, we saw yellow lights approaching an open doorway, only for that door to shut in their faces. We were definitely getting help from Jackie.

A yellow emergency drone zipped in from a ceiling port that did not shut in time. The drone launched three tranquilizer darts at Dro, whose head was lowered in an uncharacteristically distracted way. I dropped my right arm in front of him, and the darts bounced harmlessly. I dashed at the drone, punched its cylindrical hovering mechanism, and then caught it to drop it gently before it crashed.

Dro shook his head and woke slightly from his daze. At least the close call had woken him up a little bit. Though I was now concerned.

We continued our sprint, passing rooms filled with plants, computers, New Humans, non-humans, and drones. Finally, we made it out a back exit.

Outside, the noon sun was high over our heads. It took a moment for my sight to adjust to the brightness so that I could see the empty streets and closed doors all around us. It seemed that the Queen was considered a much more grievous threat than we had been.

I looked at Romalla and asked, “Which way?”

“Follow me,” Romalla said and began to fly toward the beach, close to where we had first arrived.

I began to feel nervous, like there was static electricity that made me feel like I had a spine and like it was crawling. Even with their powers, how had the Hunters created such chaos in a 5-million-year-old city? I shuddered, already sensing a cloud of energy that made me feel small and helpless.

The building that Romalla led us to was shorter than some of the others, only three stories tall. All around it were dozens of New Humans and extraterrestrial beings in yellow outfits.

We stayed behind the nearest neighboring tower to avoid the attention of both the Hunters and the Triumvirate. I noticed a group of various Triumvirate people stagger out the front door of the building. These had wild expressions, as if they’d been forcibly devolved into a primal state of fear. They began to walk in circles like packs of dogs, looking for something.

An older woman in a yellow shirt tried to grab one of the confused people. As soon as she did, one of the emergency drones stationed inside the building shot her from the window with a bolt of electricity. The attack threw the woman into the grass. She did not move after that; only her breathing indicated that she was still alive.

Dro shook his head. “They’ve taken control of the Alpha Predators that can shoot lightning and venom. I could create another aura of fear to disrupt the Queen’s.”

“Would that be dangerous for the Alpha Predators?” I asked.

Dro shrugged. Either he hadn’t really thought of it, or he didn’t care. I suspected that the answer was both.

“We may not want the Alpha Predators to perceive us as another threat,” I said, pointing up at the dozens of uncontrolled drones flying high overhead. The last thing we needed was to be shot with tasers from both directions. “If Romalla sang loudly enough, could she disrupt their hold on these people?”

Dro thought about this for a moment and then said, “Not from out here … unless we picked them off one at a time. The horrific sound she calls singing only seems to disrupt our influence when in close proximity. If we could gather all her Hunters in one place, it would work. Then, we could destroy them.”

“We need to capture them alive,” I said, unwilling to go to that extreme with the Hunters. They were dangerous … but so were Dro and Scraa. That didn’t mean they were bad. Okay, the Queen was horrifically abusive; that still said nothing for all the Hunters following her, much less what turmoil her people would fall into if she were dead. Killing also seemed unhelpful to our own situation. “We have to make the Triumvirate think that we’re like them, that we’re not a threat.”

At first, Dro looked like he was going to protest this idea. But he paused, scratched his jaw pensively, and said, “To show mercy would be a grave insult to the Queen. It would show our absolute supremacy, that we do not even respect her as a threat. While not intentioned, I appreciate the incidentally vicious nature of your strategy.”

Romalla nodded her agreement with an eerily similar expression. She and Dro glanced at one another, and I sensed a kindred spirit between them for the first time.

Our planning was interrupted by someone walking toward us. The approaching figure was a New Human. Her skin was a bit smoother than the others, making her look a bit younger than the adults trying to deal with the Queen. Like the rest of her kind, she was a bit slimmer and smaller in stature than homosapiens had been. She met my eyes with an unwavering look. Behind her were about a dozen others—four males, five females, and a somewhat androgynous one with light silvery skin and a purple tint in their skin. I guessed that this last one was an AI, though it could have been a human-like extraterrestrial.

“Are you Bassella?” asked the girl leading ahead of the others.

I nodded, a little confused.

“Jackie sent us to help you,” she replied.

“Sure … um … what can you do?” I asked, unsure what Jackie had in mind by sending these New Human teenagers to help us. Granted, they looked older than Romalla and me. But I was a robot, and Romalla … well, Romalla was Romalla.

The New Human girl replied, “If you can stop the Security Drones from shooting us, we can get the people who are being mind-controlled.” She made a fist.

“I … think maybe we can do that,” I said and looked up at the security drones. I tried to swallow.

The New Human girl turned to her friends and said, “Make an even circle around the building. When I give the signal, go in. Soft kicks to the temple and palm strikes only. Don’t knock them off their feet or break bones unless you don’t have a choice.” She lifted a hand, and the others mobilized around the tower. Watching people my age move into action like that made me feel a bit encouraged at our own chances.

I turned to face my own team. “You ready, Romalla?” I asked, my hands shaking a little. I think I was stalling or hoping that she might say no. Of course, this was a silly notion.

“Of course,” Romalla said, baring her teeth at the tower. She immediately crawled onto my back.

“Good, that’s one of us,” I muttered. I looked around at the assortment of objects and debris already strewn about the area until I spotted a discarded flying apparatus like Romalla had chased before. It was like a hang-glider, shaped like an enormous red triangle with the same propulsion system that the drones had. But, most importantly, it was made of thick plastic. I rushed over to retrieve it and then lifted it over my head.

It was now or never.

I took a moment, tried to breathe, remembered I couldn’t, rolled my eyes, and then just ran. Immediately, I felt the impact and nearly fell under the power of repeated blows from the electrical impulses. A strong fume of burning plastic came from the other side of my makeshift shield as it heated up and glowed with each hit. I then saw tails and yellow eyes from the darkest corners of their fortress.

Romalla began to sing. Her voice filled my ears and blocked out the psychic wall of terror that had hit me before.

“Bassella, God of Sleep, traveling through this Hell.

Met two yellow serpent demons, with an awful smell.”

At first, some of the New Humans being controlled tried to get in my way. When they got close, however, they stopped moving. It had to be Romalla’s screeching, waking them just as it protected me. I looked back and saw one of the teenagers approach, making the most of the momentary break in the Queen’s control of those people. They leaped and kicked the New Human closest to me in the side of the head.

I turned back around to look where I was running just in time to see a black cord tail snake its way across the plastic. I braced for it to strike me or try to mess with my mind, but nothing of the sort happened. I looked down just as it flipped a switch, igniting a dull electric motor.

Terror filled me as I felt my feet leave the ground. I grasped the glider with absolute fear as I ascended. Romalla, however, continued her song as if nothing were happening.

“She picked them up over her shoulders, tied them in a knot,

saved a fruit-bat from their clutches, and kicked them in the snout.”

Before I knew what was happening, I was about twenty feet in the air, moving frantically as if holding on to a deflating balloon. The engine began to grind and elicit a clicking noise before it died altogether. The smell of burning intensified. Arcs of light fill the air as the drones—now below and above me—shot ineffectively.

I screamed in terror and looked at Romalla, who continued to sing as if we were not being tossed around in a motorized paper airplane of death. She held tightly to my shoulder with her claws and wings, wearing a vicious and determined expression like someone performing some kind of haka.

The bar I had been gripping suddenly broke on one side. This only left me a moment to see the burning, bubbling plastic being warped from an electrical blast. Then, we went into a barrel roll that ripped the other side of the bar from the plastic—throwing me through a window. There was a loud sound of glass breaking and metal ripping. Then, everything stopped moving.

I shakily stood, looking down at myself to make sure I was still intact. I saw that one of the drones had broken my fall when I was thrown through the window. We were in an office room filled with computers and other equipment. There were two other windows on this floor being manned by tied-up drones.

Romalla fluttered to the ground, having released me at some point during the fall. Then, without missing a beat, she continued her defiant song as if her notes were bullets.

“Traveled through jungle forest, filled with shadows dark.

Until she finally found the demons, filled with foolish snark.”

The drones in the other windows began to rotate toward us! To make matters worse, an office door opened, and a Hunter stepped through. I recognized him as the one whose eye the Queen had slashed. He stared at me, and I at him. He looked like he wanted to seem menacing but was too surprised to see me standing there.

Without thinking, I screamed in the most undignified fashion and charged at him. As I ran, I willed my machetes to stay inside my arms but allowed my black solar panel ears to fall over my face as a face guard. Before he could react, I collided into him with my shoulder, lifted him into the air, and kept running forward. His body became a human shield by which I collided forcefully with every drone, thin wall, and piece of furniture around the room.

I stopped and readied my arms frantically, dreading the battle against the Hunter. However, the Hunter did not retaliate. He had been knocked very unconscious. I stood up and blushed, feeling a bit embarrassed but also relieved.

We went through the office door into the adjacent room. It was pretty much a duplicate of the previous space, comprising the other half of the top floor. Like the other room, it was filled with drones tied in the windows. These, however, had already begun turning to face us.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” I mumbled frantically and grabbed the first thing I saw, an office table. I braced against It feeling a barrage of pulses strike the plastic that was much heavier and more durable than the glider. The only problem was that this makeshift shield had no bar, meaning my fingers were exposed as I held it.

“Good, Bassella, now follow me and cut them free!” Romalla said as she took flight and charged the drones.

I let one of my claws extend, all the while wincing in anticipation of one of my fingers being hit. However, this did not happen. The table effectively shielded us, and I was able to slash the cord anchoring each drone as we passed.

Romalla continued to sing, freeing each drone so they could escape out the windows.

“They took her friend, held her captive, sent her on her way

to hunt the Demon of the Mountain and cause its blood to spray.”

“The drones are down!” someone screamed from outside. This was followed by a series of soft thumps and muffled cries. I could hear a mix of instructions coming from an array of other people.

“Let’s go!” Romalla said and flew toward a busted window. We stepped onto a balcony with glass and metal scattered all over the ground. She landed there and pointed at the terrace below. I knew what she meant for me to do.

Trying to remember that I had done this before, I ran and then jumped ten feet down to the balcony below us. Somehow, I did not fall or cause the balcony to collapse under the impact and my weight. Now, we were on the second floor, with no drones.

I leaned on the glass balcony door to see the Queen inside, her three remaining warriors, and Gar. They were in a room with many beds, unrecognizable devices, and pieces of furniture. There was also a great amount of rubble created by the destruction of all the walls that had previously divided the space, like on the floor above.

As soon as I looked inside, the Hunters looked back at me. Their expressions shifted quickly from utter bewilderment to murder. One of them reached a tail out toward me. I didn’t know why until the tail wrapped around the balcony door and yanked it open, causing me to fall on my face. I looked up and saw the warriors watching me with amusement.

Gar and the Queen approached. “Bassello,” Gar said. He glared at me for a moment, his eyes twitching and his tail dancing behind him. Then, his form became momentarily dark and blurry. It felt like the beginning of my nightmares of the man with the gun.

Romalla interrupted with a screech of “Bassella!” before she continued her song.

“Now she travels to the Mountain, and there’ll meet both our trails,

Else she’ll have to catch these demons and rip out all their tails.”

The Queen pushed Gar aside. She drew her ancient sword and pulled back to swing like a baseball bat. “Let’s see you rip out this tail.” She swung the blade with a heavier strike than I’d ever seen out of Dro or anyone else.

Panicked, I extended both machetes and blocked. The Queen’s sword struck with terrifying power and wedged between my blades with enough force to shatter one of them. Yet, the metal of both my damaged blades became intertwined with her weapon. I twisted, pulled, and yanked the weapon from her grasp, sending it clattering on the floor behind me. I stepped between the Queen and her machete and put my blades up defensively—even as one dangled uselessly.

Gar roared, getting my attention. It took me a moment to realize that he hadn’t roared at me, but at the three warriors who had just been watching. Two of them winced before turning their attention to me. They glared as if I were the reason for their chastisement. Then, they dashed to hit me as one. I saw a flash of green as Romalla darted in front of both warriors’ faces with a screech. After she passed, a singular red line appeared across both their faces. This caused them to freeze, roar in pain, and then turn their attention to chase her.

However, I realized Romalla hadn’t been the only person taking advantage of the distraction. The Queen vaulted over my head, landed behind me as if weightless, and rushed for her sword. I reached to grab her tail but was thrown to the ground by a powerful force. It was Gar! I retracted my machetes so that I didn’t cut him as we rolled on the ground—snapping one of them off entirely.

Gar landed on top and struck at my facial shield several times before realizing they protected me. So instead, he grabbed the face shield and began to twist. His pupils became larger, and he used all his power to try to rend them from my face. The shields, which were two of my solar panels, made a whining noise. He was going to rip them off!

Then, I saw Romalla’s wings rise like a pointed halo around Gar’s head before she kicked the back of it with considerable force. I twitched my own head forward and crushed Gar’s fingers and face with a headbutt. There was a crunch, followed by a pained roar from him.

I threw a left hook into Gar’s chest, knocking him onto his back, and then stood to my feet. I saw blood flow from his nose as he pulled his paw defensively close to his chest. I felt a rush of guilt and said, “Sorry!”

“Don’t apologize; get the Queen!” Romalla shouted as she continued to evade the other Hunters.

The Queen already had her sword in hand. She twirled it with vicious finesse, making me feel unease. My remaining machete blade extended again. But then, I thought better and reached for my ring gun.

However, the Queen hopped close and used her tail to push me straight up into the ceiling. She let me fall hard on the ground before repeating the attack again. All the time, my arms and legs flailed as I tried to land or grab something or gain some kind of control!

“I am so happy to finally end your irritating theatrics once and for all,” the Queen said as she stood over me with her sword. She brought the blade down. But instead of the sound of horrible shattering, followed by nothingness, there was a thunk. Her machete hit a wooden staff that had crossed in front of my face.

The sword and the staff were lifted into the air, and Dro stepped over to stand between myself and the Queen. Then, he raised his staff and let loose a barrage of strikes.

Part of me really wanted to help. However, I felt he could hold his own, so I turned my attention to the other three Hunters. On the other side of the room, I saw that Scraa had also arrived and was aiding Romalla. They were scrambling to keep out of reach of the only Hunter that was still uninjured. When she got close, Romalla kicked her once and then again in the face. Meanwhile, Scraa circled around the Hunter on all fours and slashed at her legs.

The two Hunters with lines across their faces attacked. However, I lunged at them from behind. With one hand, I grabbed a tail and then used the other hand to grab my ring gun from my leg.

The Hunter whose tail I had turned on me. He launched himself straight up onto the ceiling as if weightless, held it briefly with his claws, and lunged at me.

I fired a blast into the Hunter’s chest with as little energy as I could put into the shot. The Hunter went limp and crashed at my feet. I then turned and shot the other Hunter with another low-energy shot, knocking him out cold.

Unsure if the electricity would travel like normal electricity did, I abstained from shooting the Hunter that was still fighting Romalla and Gar to avoid electrocuting them. I got close to restrain her by force. However, I was stopped when I heard a terrifying roar behind me. I turned.

Gar had leaped, brought his elbow down hard on my arm, and then yanked the ring gun away with his tail. He glared at me with absolute hatred and pointed the ring gun at me.

I covered my face and shouted, “No!” Then, I waited for the shot to come. However, nothing happened.

I peeked through my fingers. Gar’s face was wrinkled, and his teeth were clenched as he twisted and pulled on the weapon, trying to find some way to activate it. But nothing he did worked.

“Oh … right,” I mumbled and felt my face turn pink. I jumped forward and punched him in the jaw with the lightest force I could manage. My ring gun flew straight up from his grasp. I tried to catch it but fumbled as it bounced between my hands. Then, I grasped it a bit too exuberantly and accidentally shot the ceiling.

I looked with embarrassment at Gar, sure he would say something mean. However, Gar was on the ground, unconscious from my earlier punch.

I turned to face Romalla and Scraa. When I did, I saw that the Hunter they’d been fighting had collapsed beside a desk with blood on the corner. A small gash on her head told me precisely what had happened, and I touched the back of my head empathetically.

I then turned to see the fearsome battle between Dro and the Queen. Dro bounced his staff in the same rapid patterns he’d used against me in sparring. When the Queen dodged and evaded them gracefully, he gently extended his staff toward her.

The Queen took the bait and used all her strength to knock the staff out of the air. Dro quickly flicked his wrist so the end of the staff went under her blade and slammed her foot. The Queen dropped her machete, howled in pain, and fell onto her front two paws. She looked up with fear, clearly anticipating him to end his attack with one final strike to her temple. But the attack never came.

Dro merely looked at her. Something about his eyes was off. Like before, they looked sad or maybe distracted.

The Queen’s expression of terror changed. A cruel grin grew across her face until all her pointed teeth showed. “What is the matter with you, Dro? Has your time with this walking stone served to castrate you? Make you more childlike. You pathetic-”

Dro struck her temple with his staff and knocked her out cold.

There was a moment of silence while we looked around for any sign of another attack. But there was nobody left. It was over.

“We’ve won!” Romalla said triumphantly through her heavy pants for air.

Scraa nodded proudly, looking a lot more energetic than her.

I looked around to take inventory of all the Hunters. All five were there, minus the ones whose legs I’d broken and the one unconscious on the third floor. There was quite a bit of blood coming from the female who had fought Romalla and Scraa than I had initially seen. Not enough for her to have been dead, but enough to make my stomach churn.

I felt an anxious chill, and I dashed over to her. I lifted the trembling Hunter into my arms and tried not to feel nauseous. Then, I carried her to the window to look for help.

Seeming to have sensed that the Queen no longer controlled the area, or perhaps having watched on a camera or been told by Jackie, the emergency workers were now entering the building from all around.

Two green-striped medical drones saw me and flew in the window. They were shaped like two large squares with propulsion devices mounted on their bottoms. They inspected her with some sort of camera as she remained in my arms. They then lined up side by side. Red arrows appeared on their tops, where I could also see cushioning and straps that seemed to be shaped like an ambulance stretcher. I placed the Hunter on top of them. Belts extended over her body and then fastened her in place. The drones carried the Hunter out the window.

“Did I tell you about the fruit bat?” I heard Romalla ask Scraa.

I nearly said something defensive but was cut off as we were surrounded by two dozen security drones. These did not warn us or try to talk us down; they circled and opened their weaponized compartments.

“It’s okay,” I said, lifting my hands to show we weren’t going to fight. “We came here to help your people.”

The drones did not respond.

Dro squinted his eyes. With a grim tone, he said, “We’ve been betrayed.” Even as he spoke, the drones opened fire.

The last thing I saw was Dro, Romalla, and Scraa collapsing before I joined them.