(Note: This is a revised draft of an earlier piece featured in the portfolio. If you wish to read the earlier version, check here.)
Thunder boomed. Lightning struck. Light flashed through the tower’s broken windows for the first time in years. Long-shut tower doors suddenly swung open. A hooded man ran out. He ran into the facility’s ruined courtyard of the surrounding facility. Crumbling warehouses and collapsed labs surrounded him. They threatened to trap him at any wrong turn. Something was chasing him in the darkness. There was no time for any mistakes. Fear at getting caught shook the hooded man deep into his core. That fear propelled him to jump over the rusty gate which wrapped around the labs.
The hooded man ran through the nearby streets of a forgotten town. Black and silver energy waves slithered along the flickering streetlights. Soon the waves lunged at the man. He tried to fight, but he couldn’t stop them. They swarmed him and fused into his body. They took control of him. They led the man to his destination.
Under his foe’s control, the hooded man lumbered to the hills just north of town. A small outpost sat there beside a gate. Scanners on the outpost doors made sure only the hooded man could enter. Now his security measures would make his body his enemy’s key. The door opened, and the intruder entered. The fiend began to laugh. Thankfully, the laughter distracted the man’s enemy for one critical second.
The man used all his energy. He broke free and screamed, “Code Red!”
Alarms blared. Metal cables spread over the windows. Laser grids blocked the doors. The hooded man’s enemy grunted and left his body. Black and silver energy waves crashed together. They became a bubbling ball of black liquid. From the liquid, a spiked silver helmet with red goggles formed. The helmet rose into the air to lift the liquid and form a blob with two long, scrawny arms. Some of the liquid dried to form gnarled and razor-sharp teeth.
The blob grinned. “I almost thought tonight would be too easy, Professor.”
The professor struggled to stand against his foe. “You’re done Shadow Glob. You’re not slithering a single step further.”
Shadow Glob cackled. “This place may have decent outer defenses, but I should still be able to tear the inside to shreds. That’s what you humans designed me for, isn’t it?”
Silver waves flowed from Shadow Glob’s helmet. His liquid body hardened into a metal exoskeleton. Shadow Glob knocked the professor to the ground and ripped a window from the wall. The armored parasite slammed the window into a door to knock it loose. He grabbed the door and raced into the hallway. Laser turrets appeared and pointed at him. Shadow Glob smirked. He used the window’s cables and the door’s laser grid to shield himself. They took every blow with ease.
Shadow Glob reached the hall’s end and found a metal vault. He charged power through his arms and used the window and door to smash open the entrance. A large silver pod sat in the vault. The words “PROJECT ZENITH” were stamped on its side. Shadow Glob laughed. He threw the window and door into the pod. He rushed to a nearby terminal where he pushed all kinds of buttons and pulled all sorts of levers.
“Don’t do it!”
Shadow Glob turned around. The professor was struggling to stand along the vault’s entrance.
Shadow Glob returned to pressing buttons. “Why not? I’m just making some new friends.”
Shadow Glob activated the silver pod. Loud noises roared, and bright lights flashed. The terrified professor fell to his knees. Shadow Glob grabbed his foe. The pod soon beeped, and a cloud of smoke surged from the open doors.
Two human-like machines left the pod. The first was tall. He had long metal limbs, a thin green body, and a small red window for a head. The second had a white stocky body with red shoulder pads and blue knee pads. Laser turrets rested on his shoulder pads. His head was a small yellow door with a blue frame. The two new creatures opened the eyes lodged in the center of their strange faces. They saw Shadow Glob holding the professor into the air.
Shadow Glob laughed. “Welcome to the world, fellow Zenites!”
The window Zenite began moving forward. Then the door Zenite stopped him and asked Shadow Glob, “What are you talking about?”
Shadow Glob blinked. He tossed aside the professor. “You must know what we are. The chamber should’ve programmed that information into your cartridges.”
The window Zenite tilted his head. “So, what’s a Zenite? What are we?”
Shadow Glob smirked. “Zenites are the next rulers of the world. Humans made us to be mere weapons, but they could never see our true power. With this creation chamber, we can prove we’re better than them. We can become true weapons for justice and make the greatest empire the world’s ever seen.”
The window Zenite nodded. “That’s good to know.”
The door Zenite shook his head. “Wait. We don’t know the full story here. He may have just told us what he wants us to know.”
The window Zenite shrugged his shoulders. “I know what I see. That’s good enough for me.”
Shadow Glob laughed. Then the window Zenite struck the parasite with an uppercut. In fact, the window Zenite punched and kicked Shadow Glob a few times. One strike even knocked the parasite back a few feet.
Shadow Glob shouted, “What are you doing? Are you really defending a human?”
The window Zenite tilted his head. “Humans never did anything to me. You were beating up a helpless guy right in front of my face.”
Shadow Glob yelled, “Helpless? This is Professor Orion! He’s one of the fools who made us to be mere tools!”
The window Zenite went to punch Shadow Glob again. This time, the parasite grabbed his foe’s fist.
The window Zenite called to the door Zenite, “Can I get some help here?”
The door Zenite paused before finally firing his lasers. Shadow Glob yelped and stepped back to dodge. The window Zenite took this chance to punch a hole straight through his foe’s armor. Silver energy raced from Shadow Glob’s helmet to mend the gap right away. Shadow Glob’s enemies grunted. They wondered how they could win.
Professor Orion shouted, “The helmet! Break it to destabilize him!”
The two new Zenites nodded. The window Zenite ran ahead to distract Shadow Glob. The door Zenite charged his lasers to full power. When the window Zenite managed to back Shadow Glob into a corner, the door Zenite blasted apart the parasite’s helmet. The shattered helmet exposed metal frames keeping Shadow Glob’s liquid body together from the inside. The window Zenite leapt into the air. He slammed his full weight into Shadow Glob’s weak point. Shadow Glob screamed and poured everywhere. His body and helmet dissolved into black and silver energy. The energy swirled around itself. A strange black cartridge appeared. When the two new Zenites tried to get a closer look, the whole thing disappeared in a bright purple flash.
The two new Zenites heard the professor groaning behind them. They ran to check on him and ask what was going on.
Professor Orion raised his hand to stop the two new Zenites. He said, “I’ll answer as soon as I can, but for now, I need to lay down for a bit. I guess I can give you two some proper names first though.”
Both Zenites nodded.
Professor Orion continued, “How about Winzow and Dooz? You’ll each have a “Z” for Zenite. That should be easy enough to remember.”
Like This Excerpt?
It’s actually part of a three-part preview! If you want to see my character who tells this story, please check out Ulysses’ Chapter 1. If you want to see another of Ulysses’ stories, please check out Cubey’s First Day.
This story is related to a blog post about my history revising my lifelong literary project. You can also more about my history with these characters in my blog post, My Earliest Creations.
Also, if you liked my content and want to make sure you read all my new blog posts, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST.