The night passed without much happening, which was nice. It was now morning, and everyone was starting to wake up. Of course, some didn't want to get up, but they had no say in the matter. Finally, it was time to move, so everyone was packing their things. Tyrone moved over towards Don, "Don, it looks like we are in the clear. Aside from some Ferals, there isn't much going on." Tyrone said. Don had asked Tyrone to gather some information from the local bugs. So Tyrone asked, passing butterflies and ladybugs. They told him that there was only vicious-looking undead roaming around and that the only threat in the area had moved on.
Don nodded. "Looks like we are in the clear. Let's get a move on." Don stated, and the group moved out. They took the same formation last yesterday. Don was leading the group. Beside him was April, and surround her were the new additions. "So, where are we headed, anyway?" Tim asked. "To our new base," April replied. "Base?" Tim asked curiously. "Yes. We all plan on going home. We need a base to keep us safe from the coming weather. Right now, we are in the middle of summer, but we are still going to need to survive winter as well as any storms that may be brewing." Don spoke up. Everyone in their group was wearing some form of light clothing. Even Ion and Jessica took off their jackets. Ion was pretty much shirtless now, and Jessica was just wearing her black sports bra. The others were either tanktops or sleeves shirts and shorts.
Don's eyes shifted towards the skies. It was bright and sunny and sweltering, but that wasn't what he was worried about. The heat was easy to deal with, but it was the storms. Soon plenty of them would come, and with it came a certain undead that he disliked more than any other undead or mutated bug. It was an undead that could manipulate water flow, but that wasn't all; it could contaminate the water. Poison it, so to speak. Even if the Seed killed the virus, it didn't mean it make them immune. The virus could still overrun the body and ultimately kill the body if the Seed didn't produce enough antibodies.
If that wasn't enough, the undead was sly, fast, and sneaky. It preferred to wear its prey down from a distance before deciding to attack. Due to this, it was able to turn invisible at any moment, which was why Don had a hard time killing them. They had no sound, had no presence, and always attacked from a distance. They were like the perfect assassin. Thankfully, this undead never seemed to come in groups. For whatever reason, they never got along with one another and often kept away from each other. Another good thing was that they only stayed in extremely wet areas. Places that were nearly flooded. The place they were going to would have decent drainage, so they didn't need to worry about a flood, but other parts of the state... well, let's just the people trying to live there better pray they never run into one of those undead.
Don began to think about the Amazoness now. They had based in Downtown. It was one of the worst areas to be in. Later on during the year, he feared for them. If he were able to, he would probably go to their aid. The only thing he knew was that during the final two months, Downtown was already destroyed. Brought to ruin. Even the buildings were taken out, and the place was like a living hell zone. He didn't know what brought about such destruction, but he knew it was inevitable. He didn't hate the Amazoness or dislike them, but at the same time, he didn't cherish them as he did his friends. They were just acquitted, but they still helped him, so he wanted to return the favor if he could.
In the middle of his thoughts, he felt something enter his presence detecting field. Don had put out an invisible space field that detected anything that entered it. Bugs, Undead, People, even gunfire or other objects. Don didn't know what it was. It wasn't like he could tell. The space field just distorted when something entered it, similar to a rippling effect, but whatever it was, he didn't like it. It was heading in their direction.
Don stopped moving and asked everyone else to stop. His eyes shifted towards his left since that was where the distortion came from. That was when he started to hear some kind of mechanical sound. "Umm, what's going on?" Katelynn asked. "Everything good, Don?" Boss asked. "Shh!" Don shushed them.
Their voices seemed to muffle the mechanical sounds, but it was too late. Don couldn't hear it anymore. He was looking down the alley and over several buildings, but then he decided to look up, and that was when he saw some strange-looking machine standing on the roof. It had a humanoid figure, but the entire thing didn't look familiar.
"Targets found. Proceeding with elimination mission." A mechanical and robotic voice spoke from the thing. Its hand, which was facing them, turned into a cannon, and inside the barrel, a red light could be seen starting to form.
"The hell is that!?" Ryan shouted. Even Don didn't know what it was. He had never seen it in any of his runs, but he didn't like that glow coming from the barrel of the cannon. "Move! Run!" Don shouted with a flare of black in his eyes. Everyone listened to Don and ran forward. Don jumped into the air, then kicked off off the air and propelled himself higher. It looked like he kicked off of air, but in truth, he created a platform by hardening the space below him. As a result, the air became solid, much like how he created barriers. He did this several times, and once he reached the machine, he saw it looked like some humanoid combat robot.
The robot had no mouth, and its eye was one sensor line that went back and forth. "Target, Donathan Douglas. Threat Level: Grade 5. Orders: Kill on sight." The robot said and adjusted its arm to angle it at Don, and then it released the charged energy from its cannon arm. Don created a platform beside him and kicked off of it just in time to evade the shot. A massive beam shot from its cannon arm and through the air. Off in a great distance, an explosion could both be heard and seen. The robot changed its cannon arm into a normal barrel gun and readjusted its arm.
It began unloading bullets, and in truth, it sounded like some kind of heavy machine gun. However, Don had activated his Timeless Flow Seed power which slowed down the flow of the bullets, and Don was able to evade them. He landed behind the robot, brought out a Desert Eagle, pointed it at the robot's head, and then pulled the trigger. Don was careful not to touch the robot but be within a good distance so that the bullet didn't stop mid-flight.
However, just as the gun went off, there was a shattering sound, and the robot quickly activated some kind of thrusters on the heels of his feet and swiftly evaded the bullet. Don's eyes went wide. No one had ever actually broken through his Timeless Flow like that. Don only knew three people who could negate some of the effects of his Timeless Flow. They could even negate all of it, but it took time to do so. However, to outright break through it like that was something completely different. The robot dashed towards Don and reached out for him with his hand. Don deactivated his Timeless Flow since it seemed like it would do little to help him right now. In fact, it would only hinder him since it would stop his bullets. Don adjusted his aim and fired at the robot, but the robot swiftly evaded his bullets as if they were going at a snail's pace.
Don didn't panic. He still had plenty of options. The robot had yet to return fire either, so perhaps it was after something. Don waited until the robot was about to touch him, and then he summoned his shotgun from his Spatial Storage. The gun appeared in his other hand, and he pressed the barrel of the gun to the robot's chest then pulled the trigger. The robot was sent flying back from the force but activated its thrusts to keep it from hitting the ground. It also readjusted its balance at the same time.
Don couldn't believe his eyes. The robot wasn't affected. Just a few minor dents, but that was all. It reminded him of something. "Wait... is that some kind of NS plating?" Don muttered. It seemed like the robot could hear him and scoffed as if it had a personality. "It is. Your primitive guns will do nothing to my body." The robot raised its freehand, and in it, a ball of fire started to form.
"So The New World Government is making robots now... I wonder if it has anything to deal with the Paradox..." Don muttered to himself. "I have no idea what you are talking about, but I was created by the two most intelligent people in the entire world. Dr. James Douglas, and Dr. Francine Douglas." Don's eyes suddenly went wide. His teeth grit tightly. "The two most intelligent people in the entire world...." The air around Don started to distort, and the flare in his eyes seemed to bubble. "Ha...ha...ha...haha," Don chuckled slowly. "What kind of sick joke are you trying to pull...?" Don's voice slowly started to change.
"Joke? I do not understand. My creators are the best of the best. Dr. James is the one who created my body and personality; meanwhile, Dr. Francine is the one who infused a Seed Core into my body. She was the one who found a way to bring together all the Seeds known and put them into one special Seed, which she called a Seed Core. So there is no one better than the two of them." The robot stated.
"That so...? Then..." Don would let his guns disappear back into his Spatial Storage and approach the robot. "Let's test you out. Let's see what those worthless parents of mine created!" Don instantly dashed towards the robot. He kicked off the ground and propelled himself further with a distortion of space much like earlier. The robot was an A.I. or Artificial Intelligence. It had a mind of its own but followed the orders of its creator. Even though it was most likely created by R&D and Creation, it was probably ordered to follow whatever orders the General gave it, which was why it attacked them.
However, it was confused by what Don had just said. It sounded like Don was also a creation of them. So why was he angry? Regardless, the robot had its orders. It tossed the fireball at Don that it had been building over the course of their conversation. It was a rather mighty fireball, about the size of an eight-wheeler both in height and width. Don brought his arm out and distorted the space around the fireball. Instead of fling it elsewhere, he tossed it right back at the robot. The robot was surprised. It hadn't anticipated such a thing. Quickly it activated another one of its Seed Powers and created a shield around itself. The fireball clashed with the shield, but the shield didn't hold out. It destroyed the shield, and the fireball connected, giving off a massive explosion.
Don had distorted the space around himself to keep himself from harm and pushed through both the explosion and after-effects so that he could take hold of the robot with his bare hand. Don activated Timeless Flow, but not on the space around him. Instead, he activated it on himself, increasing his personal Flow of Time which created multiple versions of himself. He would toss the robot towards one of the creations, which kicked it to another that punched it to another. He was once again playing tennis with himself, and once he caught up with himself, the robot was in mid-flight over the streets. He summersault kicked the robot towards the ground, cratering it into the ground. The ground quaked and shook from the force.
Don disbursed the dust that kicked up with his Spatial Distortion and approached the robot. Everyone could see him right in front of them, even though he was a little ways away. They were all worried since the first explosion, and April had kept them updated with her Seed Power saying that Don was fighting the robot and whatnot, but she couldn't keep up with the last part where Don pretty much beat the hell out of the robot. So, when it crashed into the ground, she canceled her Seed Power and pointed towards the crater. The dust cleared up thanks to Don, and they could see him walking towards the crater.
The robot's body was sparking all over. Its vision was starting to buzz since it was heavily damaged. "Some creation." Don scoffed. "A trash creation made by trash parents. In the end, they were nothing more than trash." Don's words were cold, hateful, and sinister. He continued to approach the robot, and once he was standing right over it, Don would raise his hand and ball his fist. A massive amount of space distorted around his fist as if he was condensing it, preparing to deliver the final blow.
"Emergency Teleportation Activated!" The robot said just as Don brought his fist down, which crash into the ground forcing the crater even wider and increasing the depths more so than it had been before. Busted sewage pipes could be seen, and what little sewage there was began to pour from the pipes. It wasn't a lot; however, Don had created a space around him which caused the small amount of liquid to move around him. Don could see the robot got away. He doubted he finished it off since he heard something about emergency teleportation or whatever.
'Don!' Melissa's voice could be heard from within Don's mind. Don moved out of the crater, and the distortion around his body dissipated. The flare in his eyes also seemed to shimmer down but didn't dissipate. The moment Don seemed to become enraged was the moment Melissa called out to him. She continued to call out to him over and over, but it was like her voice did not reach him. She had a bad feeling. The black and white space she was in had started to pulsate as if resonating with Don's emotions. It felt offputting, and it worried her.
'What?' Don asked his tone of voice still the same as before. However, his voice echoed within his mind. The black and white space seemed to settle down, but Melissa still had this icky feeling. As if something was still there.
'Those are not your parents. Even if they have the same name, there is no way it could be them. They disappeared years ago.' Melissa said. She had done a little digging of her own into Don's family since she was taking care of him at the time. When she did, she found out that they went missing forever ago. She figured that some gang or something came after them, considering they were always in debt. Don's parents were terrible people, so she figured it was just karma coming back at them for abandoning their child.
"Then why do they have the same name?" Don muttered as he began thinking it over. Melissa had a point. He found out from Rebecca that his parents disappeared forever ago. So he figured that they were killed or something. It was the most logical thing to think at the time, but was it truly possible for two people here; on this planet to have the same name as two other people back on their planet? Sure, if it was only one person, Don might have let it go, but it was both. Both had the same name.
'I don't know...' Melissa responded inside of Don's mind as usual.
The others finally caught up to Don. "Are you okay!?" April asked while rushing towards his side. Don looked up from the ground and saw April's worried expression. Then, he would smile softly at her, "Of course. The robot got away, though. I think The World Government sent it, so we should be careful." Don explained, leaving out the part about who, in particular, created it. "Them again?!" John exclaimed with a growl. Everyone except the three new people knew why he was so upset. They hadn't forgotten themselves either. Even though two months passed, they still remembered that John's mother was taken from them by The New World Government.
"Yes, but we should focus on getting to our base and getting it set up. I doubt that will be the last of that robot." Don expressed. "You'll just beat it up again as you did just now, so what's the worry?" Jen asked. Don shook his head, "I doubt it'll be the same. It was made with NS plating. It had a core as well. I believe that it will get upgrades and be reworked, then come back later. We need to be ready." Don answered.
If Don was saying something like that, it must have been true. Otherwise, why would he say that? Plus, it was the first time anyone had seen Don be so destructive before. Sure, he defeated that Berserker from yesterday, but it wasn't on the sheer amount of destruction as he did now. So they began to wonder if Don was even human anymore. If only they knew how much they were right on that aspect.
The group continued onward. Don was too preoccupied with the creators of that Robot to care for the cannon fodder of undead and bugs that littered the streets like hungry mice. So the others dealt with them; however, April was worried about Don. The others could not see it, but Don had this constant expression of doubt and disbelief. Something was bothering him, and she could see it.
"Don, is something wrong?" April asked, and Don looked towards her. For a moment, it seemed like he had actually been paying attention to everything with how quickly he shifted his attention towards her. But, that wasn't the case. It was simply because Don always reacted to April, now more than ever. "Yes. I am fine, thank you for asking." Don expressed; although, April still felt like something was off. 'Maybe Don doesn't want to talk about it with the others', that's what she thought anyway. She made a mental note to ask him later when they would start up camp. But, for now, they would continue pressing onward. Although, everyone was wondering what that robot was.