Chereads / The Awakened Warrior / Chapter 12 - The Corruption of Humanity: Part 1

Chapter 12 - The Corruption of Humanity: Part 1

Star: He stood inside one of the many craters of Earth's moon, staring into its atmosphere. "Okay, so all I gotta do is gather people I think can help. Sounds easy enough—I am sure there are loads of people who can assist us in finding both Lucium and this Alex person." He teleported himself into the center of Greenwood City, "It's kinda funny how they named a city after that ghost town." 

Bystander: A man noticed Star suddenly appear, he scurried away pulling out his phone as he ran away.

Star: He raised an eyebrow, "Huh, that's weird but I guess it isn't normal to see someone appear out of thin air." He continued to walk around the city, using his energy as a compass, pointing him toward any massive spikes of power. He was suddenly interrupted in his search as three large black armored trucks blocked his path, all with "GDA" on the side of the vehicles. "Huh?"

????: A man stepped out of one of the trucks, wearing a black faceless mask, he pulled out a megaphone before speaking. "Star! I am Commander Kuask of the Greenwood Defense Agency and I have been tasked with taking you to a secured facility, so you can either make this extremely easy or semi-difficult, what will it be?!"

Star: He put his hands out, "I just showed up and you suddenly think I'm a threat?! Last I checked, I saved an entire city from a demon attack!"

Kuask: "Regardless of what you did, you are not human which means you do not belong on our planet! We have already taken in the ghost kid, don't make this harder than it has to be!"

Star: Faster than the commander could think, he appeared before him, the other guards exited the trucks surrounding Star as he stood in the face of Kuask. "What did you do with Aiden."

Kuask: He chucked, unphased by Star's sudden moves, "It doesn't matter what I did to him, we have that inhuman bastard in custody and soon we will have you as well. You'd make a mighty fine weapon Star."

Star: His body was overwhelmed with anger, he wanted to punch the human as hard as he could. But, he then paused, coming up with a quick plan, "Alright, I'll go willingly, I wouldn't want to cause any trouble."

Kuask: He smiled at Star's sudden surrender, "Good, this is for getting up in my face by the way..." He swung at Star's face with his metal hand, the impact shattered his mechanical hand, "AGH!"

Star: He smirked, "What did you think was going to happen?"

Kuask: He held his now broken robotic hand, seeing that some of the metal pieces were stabbed into his arm, he shot an enraged glace at Star, "Get this bastard on the back of the truck!"

Guard: "Yes sir!" He escorted Star onto the back of one of the trucks, a few guards piling back into the truck with them.

Kuask: He looked back at his hand, noticing it was perfectly fine again. "You slick bastard..." He swiftly got in the driver seat of the truck that was holding Star and began to drive towards an unknown location on the outskirts of the city.

Star: He looked around the inside of the armored vehicle, noticing a couple of the younger guards were staring at him. "Hi", he gave them a small smile and waved at them, they all swiftly turned away from him, "Oh, sorry."

Guard: One of the other guards gripped his gun, staring Star down, "So you are the Golden Warrior that defeated a demon, I must say apart from the armor, you don't exactly look like the fighting type."

Star: He looked over at the man, smirking and laughing a bit, "And for a man holding a weapon, you don't look threatening in the slightest."

Guard: He shot up pointing his gun in Star's face, "You piece of shi-"

Kuask: He banged on the metal casing, "Shut up back there!"

Star: "That's not a nice way to speak to your comrades", Suddenly he appeared in the passenger seat next to Commander Kuask.

Kuask: While he was startled, he maintained his concentration on driving, "Get your ass back to where you were."

Star: "You don't command me." He crossed his arms, leaning back in the seat, "Besides those seats back there are uncomfortable." He morphed a small packet of crackers into his hands, eating a couple of them.

Kuask: He raised an eyebrow while glancing at Star, "You are one weird creature." The dirt road they were traveling along suddenly opened up, bringing them down into a large garage, where people in black armored suits were walking around doing different tasks. "Welcome to your new home."

Star: "Looks cozy," he said sarcastically, as he anticipated trouble ahead. Suddenly, they stopped, and a couple of guards swung his door open, pointing their weapons at him.

Guard: "EXIT THE VEHICLE WITH YOUR HANDS UP."

Star: "Alright, alright, just quit yelling. It's not intimidating," he said as he stepped out of the truck onto the ground. Glancing around the facility, he noticed that a lot of the people there were giving him weird glances. "Rude," he muttered to himself.

Kuask: He walked around the back of the front of the truck, standing in front of the guards before Star, "Follow me, I'm gonna take you to your private lounge."

Star: "Yes commander." He mocked him, smirking.

Kuask: "Very funny..." He groaned as he turned around, walking towards a large door, and swiping a keycard. "After you oh mighty Star."

Star: "It's not as funny when you do it." He walked down the now open door and the large hallway, staring at the thousands of different holding cells. "Are all of these occupied?"

Kuask: He began walking down the hall with Star, "A lot of them are, yes."

Star: "And you catch all of them on your own?" He looked over at the commander.

Kuask: "Some of them I do, but a lot of them are caught by our private mercenary."

Star: "Of course, you'd need to hire someone to assist you," he remarked casually. He paused by one of the cells, catching the sound of Aiden's cries from within. Despite knowing Aiden was inside, he maintained his composure and continued forward until instructed to enter an empty cell. "So, when can I expect my phone call?"

Kuask: "Like you know how to use a damn phone." He pressed a button, and a red energy field formed in front of Star's cell.

Star: "Oh I get special treatment? This puts quite the image on you commander, you must pick favorites here." He smirked.

Kuask: "One more damn word out of you and I swear I will kill you."

Star: "Sure bud, follow your dreams." He laughed at him.

Kuask: "We have a lot in store for you." He walked away, the main door to Star's holding cell closed on its own.

Star: He turned toward the wall to his right, placing his hand on it, his voice echoing into the cell next to him. "Aiden, can you hear me?"

Aiden: His head shot up, his tears stopped, "Star? Is that you?" He crawled over to the wall.

Star: "Yeah, it's me bud, I came to rescue you."

Aiden: "You came to save me by letting yourself get caught?"

Star: "It was the best way for me to find you, I couldn't sense your energy for some reason."

Aiden: "This place is made of some kind of strange material that blocks out energy completely."

Star: "I never thought humans could go this low, no offense."

Aiden: "None taken, this is exactly what we do, try to destroy anything we don't understand."

Star: "That is a pretty awful thing to live by." He looked around his cell, "Alright buddy, I need you to step away from the wall for a second okay?"

Aiden: Without hesitation, he backed away from the wall. "What are you gonna do?"

Star: He placed his hand against the door, turning a small portion of it into a wooden door, and opening it. "Shift the place around a bit."

Aiden: He smiled, running to Star to give him a tight hug. "Thank you for coming for me..."

Star: "Of course bud, I told you I would look after you." He patted him on the head, "Now let's get out of here, I have some friends I want you to meet."

Aiden: "That sounds lovely, but let's talk more when we get out of here."

Star: "Oh right." He grabbed a hold of Aiden, phasing them through the wall back into the hallway. "Alright let's get going now." Before he could take another step, he noticed a figure at the end of the hallway.

????: A figure loomed before them, his skin resembling dark, jagged rocks. His fiery red eyes fixed on them, while a half mask covered his mouth. His sleek grey and orange suit pulsed around him. He did nothing and said nothing, simply staring them down.

Star: He tucked Aiden behind himself quickly. "You must be the private mercenary I've heard about. We do not want any trouble; we are just trying to leave. If you try to stop us, I will use force." He balled one of his hands up, the golden glow forming around his fist.

????: He tilted his head slightly, and as he closed one of his own fists a blade shot out from his wrist, burning a bright orange. His words echoed throughout the halls, "Is that so Star? Well then...Let us see you try."

Star: "Great..."