Chapter Text
A figure strode down a steel hallway. He was clad in a green sleeveless trench coat, a light green jumpsuit, and green open-toed boots. He walked upright like a man but had the features of a wolf. His body was covered in thick brown and tan fur. Alert triangular ears adorned the top of his head. A fluffy tail swayed back and forth behind him. On the ends of his fingers and toes were sharp claws. The lupine humanoid, a therian, stepped into a dimly lit room.
“You called for me, father?”
A white-furred wolf-therian sat on a throne on a small platform with stairs leading up to it. His outfit was much like his son’s but far more embellished, and in black and gray. “Yes. My intelligence network tells me that the body of Dynamo had been recovered and taken to earth by smugglers five years ago. Your mission is to locate Dynamo and destroy him. Understand?”
“Yes, father. I will not disappoint you,” the brown wolf-therian assured with a gleeful grin full of teeth.
“You’d best not,” his father warned, flashing his own fangs. “Now… assemble your Elite and go. It’s already been five years; there is no time to waste.”
“Yes, father.” The brown wolf-therian left the room, traveling down the hallway. He activated his comm-link, which was hidden in his ear, concealed by the fur. “Azura, Neva, Jaron, Kyrie. Be ready to leave. We’re going to earth.” A chorus of affirmation, some eager and some not, came through the comm before he turned it off.
“Five years, huh? Sounds like father needs to get a new intelligence network if it takes them that long to find out something that important,” Randor mumbled to himself. “The resistance is probably involved; they’re a tricky bunch, especially with that Rubi. She’d make a fine addition to our team.” A pause. “It’s strange, though. It’s been five years and Dynamo hasn’t returned to finish what he started. Hope he hasn’t gone weak on me.”
The Martian terrain was calm without a dust storm in sight. The normally orange sky shone blue as the sun set. A lone building stood on the surface, a large storage facility. No roads led up to it but there was a path worn in the dirt. It was surrounded by a barbwire fence and guards that stood around it.
An explosion blew out part of a wall, and then another and another. The structure started to crumble and burst into flames. Guards ran screaming, not knowing what to do. Some were crushed under the rubble or consumed by the flames.
“Where is she?” A figure was overlooking the demolition from a cliff through a pair of binoculars. He was dressed in rusty camouflage and wore a short cloak. His long, slender tail flicked back in forth in anxiety.
A cloaked figure burst out of the collapsing building; a bushy red tail was all that could be seen clearly. She quickly made her way up the cliff and crouched next to the other to watch her handiwork. The fox-therian wore a black kitsune-styled mask with magenta markings that covered her face, the eye holes filled with orange glass.
“Another victory, another weapons depot the Empire won’t get to use. Good work, Rubi,” he congratulated her. “Unfortunately, they can rebuild faster than we can take them down.”
Rubi looked around the cliff, pointy ears shifting in all directions.
“What is it?” the gerbil-therian asked. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Marin,” Rubi responded in a whisper. “Where is she?”
The gerbil joined in her search. “I don’t know. She was here. Maybe she… wandered off.”
The corner of Rubi’s lip curled up, and her ears turned backward as she heard a strange but familiar noise. She turned to see a five-foot midnight purple disc hanging in the air just above the ground, seeming to distort the world around it. A therian woman with blue fox ears and three blue fox tails stepped out, dragging a small badger-therian girl with her.
“Marin!” Rubi exclaimed, raising a fist in front of her. “Let her go!” Her fist promptly burst into orange flames.
The blue fox girl wagged a finger at her. “You know better than to threaten me with fire.” A small flicker of green flame danced on her finger before going out. “If you want her, you’ll have to come get her.” She jumped backwards back into the portal, yanking the badger along with her.
Rubi wasted no time running after her.
“No! Rubi, wait!” the gerbil shouted, but it was too late. Rubi had already disappeared into the disc, which shortly disappeared itself.
“No…”
Red dust blew across the Martian landscape. The sun was setting, a blue glow in the otherwise tawny sky. An armored figure wrapped in a rust-colored cloak stood against an army of therians decked out in protective gear and armed to the teeth with advanced weaponry. The armored figure gripped the hilt of his sword, itself an advanced weapon, preparing himself for the onslaught. He leaned forward, readying for battle as the creatures neared his position.
“For earth.”
He bolted; sword held out at his side.
“For my family.”
He swung his sword, slashing a blaster in half, the barrel hitting the ground. He made a fist with his free hand, electricity dancing around it, and slugged the soldier in the abdomen. He slashed at another.
It wasn’t long before he was surrounded, completely overrun by the enemy. They were starting to get in shots. His cloak was full of holes. The integrity of his armor was failing. It had been failing, having faced hoard after hoard.
He fought on, ignoring every blow. Enemy after enemy fell to his blade. All their numbers weren’t enough; enough to stop the android.
Dust blew over the fallen bodies, the armor-clad android still standing. Surveying the scene, he walked on, using his sword as a cane. For how long he walked, he didn’t know. His internal clock had long ceased working.
The android could see nothing but the barren landscape. He was far from any civilization. His vision became hazy, fading in and out.
“I did it.”
He wobbled, losing his balance. His vision faded further. The android fell forward onto the red dirt. His vision flickered out, now seeing only blackness.
“I did it...”
An android modeled to have the appearance of a young man was lying in bed, a space-patterned sheet half kicked onto the floor. A power cord was plugged into a spot on his chest, the other end in an outlet beside his bed. His eyelids blinked open, revealing crimson eyes. He ran his fingers through his jet-black hair and groaned, “Why didn’t I set my wake time to an hour later?”
After a few moments of debating whether to return to sleep for another hour or not, he sat up. He sluggishly reached for the plug in his chest and pulled it out, tossing it to the side. He grabbed a circular flesh-tone disc that looked almost like a thermos lid and screwed it into the short cylindrical hole in the center of his chest, covering the port that the charge cord had been plugged into.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself onto his feet. He turned around and made his bed, smoothing out the creases on the sheet. Satisfied with that, he stepped into the bathroom. An android had no real use for a bathroom, but the house came with one adjoining every bedroom. In any case, he could store things there rather than have it take up space in his bedroom.
He quickly combed his hair and changed out of his pajamas. He threw on his clothes for the day: a pair of cargo pants, a T-shirt, and a light jacket. The android left his room and walked down the large stairs that led into the entrance room.
This room was littered with trophies and awards for achievements in the field of robotics lining the shelves and framed on the walls. The carpet in front of the door was the only spot that showed any signs of dirt. Shoe racks were next to the door, one on either side of it against the wall. The android selected his shoes and plopped them on the carpet. He slipped his feet into them and left the house.
He ambled over to the garage, only attached to the house by a canopy over the walkway. He stepped inside the man door and pushed a button on the wall to open the garage door. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and hopped onto a red magcycle, a motorcycle that was propelled by electromagnetic force, having dynamos in place of wheels which also enabled the vehicle to hover above the ground.
He started it up, pulled out of the garage, and hit the button to shut the door. He pulled out onto the road and drove on. After about maybe twenty minutes, time which he made pass quicker by listening to the radio, he arrived downtown. Shops and restaurants lined the road on both sides. Cars were parked all along the side of the road. People were walking down the sidewalks, busy on their way.
The android parked his magcycle and made his way to a café. Once inside, he scanned the seats. His gaze stopped on one where a young woman with cobalt blue hair and caramel skin was sitting.
“Marcus!” The woman waved as he walked over. “Just a little bit late, as always. So much for having a clock in your head.”
Marcus just laughed, well aware of his ironic habit of showing up fashionably late. “Yeah, well, we’d better order before they run out of muffins.”
“Oh, well, we wouldn’t want that, now, would we?” She stood up and followed him to the counter, placing her order. Marcus placed his after hers and paid the cashier. They moved along the counter to wait for their order.
“One iced coffee, one cappuccino, a chocolate chip muffin, and a cherry muffin?” the man behind the counter at the pick-up spot asked.
“Here,” Marcus answered. He and Azura took their muffins and drinks, then returned to their table. The android took a sip of his cappuccino before asking, “So, are you going to the convention tomorrow?”
“I suppose. Don’t see why you’re going, though. It’s not like you’re going to be on display.”
“Well, no. Not, like, officially anyway,” Marcus agreed. “But it’s more than just a bunch of tech displays. There’ll be venders and food and… well, it’s just a big social event. You’ve had to have heard of it before.”
“Of course, I’ve heard of the Mecha City Tech Convention. I’ve just never been,” Azura said, “and they only focus on the tech displays on TV.”
“Ah, I’ve never watched it on TV.” Marcus took another bite of his muffin before remembering that he wanted to tell her something. “Oh, yeah! I had this weird dream.”
“Hmm? Go on.”
“I was… well, someone was on Mars; I’m not sure who it was supposed to be. Anyway, he was in battle armor and had a sword, and he fought against this huge army of Chimera and beat them, but he collapsed later from the damage he took in the fight.” His hands gestured wildly as he told the tale.
“Dreaming of being a battle ‘bot, are we? I thought you wanted to be a starship captain,” she teased.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Our ships don’t travel far enough for that to even be a real job yet.”
“Yet,” she repeated. “You’re an android. Maybe you’ll live long enough until they invent deep space travel.”
Marcus chuckled. “Yeah, maybe.” His attention turned to a vibration in his pocket. He excused himself and pulled out his phone, reading the text sent to him. “It’s Mom. She wants me to help set up the booth at the convention center. Sorry.”
“We can resume another time,” she stated, her way of telling him not to worry about it.
Marcus put his phone away, grabbed what was left of his muffin and drink, and stood to leave. “See you tomorrow then?”
“Tomorrow,” she agreed with a wink and a grin.
He turned and left the café, leaving Azura behind. She watched him leave, waiting until he was out of sight to pull out her phone and typed out a message, sending it. Azura remained there to finish her breakfast.
It was well into twilight, rain pelting down on the city from the ashen sky above. An armored red figure darted down the sidewalk and into an alleyway, metal feet splashing through the puddles. He halted, looking over his shoulder, fists ready to defend against whomever was following him.
“Where did they go? And what do they want?” he muttered; his voice drowned out by the rain.
The armored figure thought back to a few minutes before, recalling what had happened. Two people had ambushed him: a wolf-therian and a hybrid fox-therian with three tails. The attack had triggered some protocol inside, which had resulted in the armored form he was now in, the same armored form that was in his dream. He had defended himself by generating a large amount of electricity from his body, like in the dream, and fleeing while they were distracted.
I transformed again, he thought to himself as his body relaxed, thinking he had lost them. Is it triggered by danger? No, I’ve been in danger before. Maybe not quite like this, but… He looked around as he continued to contemplate the matter. Something’s different.
An unexpected sonic boom knocked him right off his feet. He could feel shockwaves throughout his body from the incredible sound. He landed on his back, too shocked, and disoriented to get up right away. Then a high-heeled boot found its way onto his chest.
“Who are you and what do you want?” he managed to get out as he lifted his head to see who it was. It was the three-tailed fox-therian who was leaning over him, with blue fox ears, three blue fox tails, and caramel skin. The sense of recognition was overwhelming.
“Oh, don’t be that way, Marcus,” she replied in a sultry voice, the grin on her face exposing sharp canines. The soft demeanor he was used to was replaced by a sinister one.
“It can’t be,” he uttered, his voice full of disbelief. “A… Azura?”
“In the flesh,” she confirmed, removing her boot from his chest, and taking a step back.
“But,” he started. “Why? What’s going on? Why did you attack me? And who was that with you?” It was too much to comprehend all at once. “And… how are you a therian when you looked human before?” Being attacked by therians was one thing, but Azura being one of them? It was like he was in a dream; no, a nightmare!
“I could be asking you questions as well,” she countered. “Like why do you have that armor? Why were you dreaming of slaughtering therians, Chimera like me? Do you even know?”
“Chimera?!” he burst in an accusatory tone through gritted teeth. “You’re one of those animals?! Why date me when you’re one of them? They hate androids! And why hide what you are in the first place?” Marcus’s shock faded away, replaced by anger and the sting of betrayal.
“You don’t have a clue, do you, “dear”? What better way to get close to someone and make them let their guard down?” she taunted. “As for hiding what I am, would you have trusted me if you knew I was the enemy?” Then the fox-therian bent over, getting in his face. “Satisfied?” she asked with a toothy grin.
“Hardly,” Marcus grumbled. How could he be satisfied with the revelation that his girlfriend was associated with the enemy of earth and had only pretended to care about him this entire time? He felt like a great fool.
Azura stood back up, the wolf-therian from earlier showing up behind her. He wore a pleased smirk, showing off his fangs, like he had just cornered an elk and was about to feast. This one appeared like a regular therian, fully covered in brown fur and sporting wolf ears and a tail.
“Name’s Randor, head of the Chimera Elite,” he introduced himself nonchalantly as if he hadn’t just attacked Marcus only a few minutes earlier. Then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he snatched Marcus by the neck and held him up at arm’s length. “And heir of the Chimera Empire!” he boomed, purposefully deepening his voice.
A little theatrical, Marcus thought as he glared at him and snarled. He raised his own arm and unleashed an immense blast of electricity that knocked Randor off his feet.
“You?” Marcus mocked. “Don’t make me laugh!” There was no way the Chimera Empire’s heir would be on earth, let alone taking an interest in him. This had to be just some punk with delusions of grandeur.
Randor had landed on his face. He struggled to get up, claws digging into the pavement. His eyes showed the pain he was in and the rage of being taken off guard so easily.
“Randor!” Azura exclaimed, leaping toward Marcus immediately and unleashing a fury of emerald flames from her hand. He instinctively threw his arms up in front of his face, an electromagnetic shield forming in front of him.
Another sonic boom came and knocked Marcus off his feet, this time slamming him into the wall of a building. It cracked from the force of the impact, pieces falling to the ground. Marcus fell, landing on his hands and knees. He was even more irritated now. The sonic booms, which he had figured came from Randor somehow, were messing with his systems and made it hard to reorient himself.
When his hearing righted itself, he could hear sirens approaching fast. “Freeze!” someone shouted. “What’s going on here?!”
Thinking quickly, Marcus deactivated his armored form, reverting to his normal human-like appearance. This was not something he wanted to explain to the police, especially considering he didn’t have an explanation whatsoever. Even though he could see his brother among them, it still would likely be a hassle, and he had dealt with enough already.
Both Randor and Azura turned, now in a panic that three police androids had arrived. One of the androids warned, “Freeze!” once again, his arm having turned into a cannon and was at the ready to fire. Azura hastily unleashed a flurry of flames, engulfing the androids. Randor leaped forward as the flames dissipated, jabbing a knife into the android’s arm cannon.
“We don’t have to deal with those tin heads!” Azura’s voice came from the roof of a nearby building. There was an eerie, glowing purple disk behind her. Marcus hadn’t a clue what it was, nor had he even noticed Azura escaping the fray.
“I agree!” Randor concurred as he jumped onto the fire escape ladder that Azura appeared to have used. Plasma blasts hit the wall near him as he scrambled up. Azura had already disappeared into the purple disk, Randor leaped into it as he arrived at the top. In seconds, the disk shrank and disappeared in a flash.
“Are you okay, Marcus?” one of the officers asked as he grabbed Marcus’ hand to help him up.
“Yeah, and what about you?” he asked his brother.
“This?” he questioned, pointing to the long cut on his cannon. “It’s just a scratch.”
Marcus gestured to a cut on his arm, just below the shoulder; he had gotten it right before he transformed. “What I got is “just a scratch”. You might need repairs.”
“Eh, maybe later,” his brother dismissed, switching his cannon back into an arm.
Marcus crossed his arms and smirked. “And Mom is always worried about me.”
There’s a reason for that, his brother thought as he turned and started walking away. He seemed distant for some reason. “My shift ends soon. You can ride with me.”
“If you insist.” Marcus felt that it would be nice to not have to walk home after what had just happened. With that strange portal, they could reappear at any time at any place. Could the police even catch them?
Shortly after, Marcus and his brother were on one of the police maglev cycles cruising down the road on the way home. Marcus was silent for a while but then decided to speak up. “What if I… spontaneously found a battle mode?” he posed. “Hypothetically.”
“I don’t know…? I have one, you know. It wouldn’t be that odd.” His brother seemed focused and overly tense.
“You were built for battle. I wasn’t.” Marcus pointed out.
“I don’t know,” he repeated. “Maybe it’d be a “just in case”.”
“Then why wouldn’t I be told?” Marcus asked, the hypothetical part of his question seemingly forgotten.
“How should I know? Look, just don’t worry about it!” His brother knew there was nothing hypothetical about this. Marcus was not one to be subtle about anything. “As long as you keep it a secret, you’ll be fine!”
Marcus looked down, unsatisfied with the answer. They rode the rest of the way in silence. Neither wanted to continue the conversation or face what it may mean.
When they arrived home, Marcus just went off to his room after depositing his shoes in a rack in the entrance room. He stared at the floor on the way there, deep in thought.
I don’t know about keeping this secret. What if I transform in public and people see it’s me? They’ll probably think I’m dangerous and unstable, especially if they know it’s as much of a mystery to me as it is to them. This is actually happening, right? The pain sure feels real…
He sat down at his desk and opened his laptop. I’ll just let my arm heal. It doesn’t hurt that much. I’d rather not deal with Mom right now. He logged in and opened a messaging app. I wonder if Zeke is on.
He typed, “you on?” into the text box and hit enter.
“yep! what’s up?” came in reply.
Marcus typed, “you will not believe the night I had” and sent it.