A long time ago

The Kingdom of Hilarem was a tiny kingdom of a small continent. The living conditions there were very primitive compared to the more advanced countries of the world. People still made their houses out of wood and even clay for some locations and running water was collected at the well. Despite the primitive lifestyle however, Mackenzie found the little kingdom to be very comfortable and the perfect place for him to train for the day he would reclaim his nation the Empire took from him.

He had just woken up as the sun was beginning to rise and was thinking about eating something when footsteps were heard outside of the house. From the sound of it, it could either be an attack or something urgent. Mackenzie jolted out of the bed and opened the door in a hurry and running towards him was his mentor and former head of the Royal Guards of Servus, Jacob.

“ Sir! I have urgent news for you!” He appeared out of breath and wasn’t giving himself anytime to breathe as he spoke. “ It’s from Princess Sabra.” Princess Sabra was the princess of Hilarem and a childhood frind of Mackenzies.

“ Sabra? What happened to her?” As if on cue, Sabra appeared running from a different direction than the one Jacob had taken. She too looked tired although not so much as Jacob given that she was much younger.

“ Mackenzie…you have to help…the West side of the kingdom has come under attack from the criminals of Dei Messenger.” Dei Messenger was an international terrorist group who believed that the Empires invasion was a result of the people of the world being far too arrogant for their own good. They felt that deconstruction of those in power would put and end to their punishement. “ They’ve already killed all the residents of a few towns and now they’re holding my father hostage!”

“ What do they want?” Jacob asked.

“ They demand that we pay them a sum or they kill him!”

“ Don’t worry about that, we’ll take care of them” Mackenzie said boldly. “ We weren’t a part of the elite forces of Servus for a reason. We’ll give them a fight and save your father!”

“ Ugh, what’s with all the shouting?”

“ yeah, we were trying to sleep” Walking towards the small group in a grumpy mood were the brothers Kane and Abbott. Both were also former soldiers of the Elite Servus forces, Kane himself had even survived the assault on Servus before fleeing with Mackenzie and the others.

“ The Kingdom has come under siege by Dei Messenger” Jacob informed them.

“ Those nutjobs?” Abbott asked in an irritated voice.

“ We shouldn’t take them lightly” Jacob said in his usual no nonsense way.

“ Hey, have any of you seen Dale and Gage?” Asked Mackenzie. Dale was a former guardian of the kingdom, an android built and programmed for the sole purpose of protecting the royals. Gordon was a recent recruit when the invasion took place and was almost killed before saved by Mackenzie and the group.

“ Nah, they’re probably sleeping like we were” Abbott butted in.

“ I don’t think sleeping should be a concern right now” Kane said.

“ Kane’s right Abbott, we all need to organize and fight these people” Mackenzie said encouragingly.

“ I’ll wake up Dale and Gage” Sabra offered. Before anyone could say anything, she ran off to the two small houses where Dale and Gage resided.  Being an android, Dale didn’t really sleep and instead spent his spare time in a special cell. Sabra went inside and found the cell lying on the ground as if it were a bed. She quickly entered the code to open it up and as soon as  she confirmed the code, the door opened slowly revealing Dale.

He still looked the same as when he first came to the Kingdom. He resembled a large and muscular man, much larger than any ordinary man. He opened his eyes and looked at her puzzled.

“ Dale, the Kingdom is under attack. You have to help Mackenzie and the others save my father and the Kingdom1” He looked at her blankly, then stood up from the cell.

“ I will help you” he said in an empty voice and then he walked out of the house with not another word being said. Sabra didn’t take the time to think about anything else and ran to the other house next door where Gage lived. He was the youngest of the bunch and had a habit of falling into deep sleeps. In order to wake him up and get him ready quickly, she yanked open the door and screamed as loud as she could, “ Gage! THE KINGDOM IS UNDER ATTACK SO GET YOUR ASS OUT OF BED!”

Gage woke up in alarm and fell off of his bed in his process. He looked to see Sabra standing inside his house and blushed. He was in nothing but his underwear and found it very awkward being near her looking like he did.

“ Ummm…okay” he said, still confused by everything that had happened. Sabra once again took no time to talk and left while leaving Gage alone to wonder just what was going on.

“ I got them up, Gage just needs to get dressed” she panted.

“ Good,  now once he gets here we should have everyone” Mackenzie said.

“ That’s IF Gage ever gets here in time, the kid takes forever just to go to the bathroom” Abbott joked.

“ He’d better not take long unless he wants me to go in there again” Sabra said.

“ Guys! Guys! I’m here! What’s going on!” shouted a still confused Gage wearing hastily dressed clothes. They could tell because his shirt was backwards and his shoes untied with the strings flopping everywhere.

“ An invasion is taking place” Jacob informed him. “ Now that we’re all together, we must prepare to fight against these terrorists.

         “ What? You mean, we’re fighting now?”

“ Of course stupid, why do you think we’re all here?” Abbott once again remarked.

“ Abbott, please shut up. This is serious” Kane said calmly. Abbott made a face at Kane before holding his tongue. He hated when his brother corrected him on anything.

“ By the way, on my way here I talked to the mayor of a local town and he said that the people were willing to give us money in order to pay for anything we might need”

         “ Excuse me for asking but aren’t you a princess? Doesn’t that mean you don’t have to pay?” Kane asked.

“Yes, but I think it could also be helpful for future fights where my title as princess may not influence a store owner.”

         “ She’s right, I’ll go collect the money” Mackenzie volunteered.

“ I believe we should all come with you. It would be make this battle much more difficult if we were to be separated somehow” said Jacob. Mackenzie nodded and began to make his way toward the town with the others at his side.

         The town itself was located a distance away from where Mackenzie and the others were. They were all living on an isolated area away from nearby towns. The town was really not much different when it came to living conditions. The people lived in houses very similar to those used by Mackenzie and the others, with the occasional wealthy individual owning a house of stone. Waiting outside the gates of the town was the mayor, a pudgy man with blading hair and a wide smile.          

         He walked toward the group carrying a large suitcase that he appeared to have difficulty carrying. He then went up to Mackenzie and handed him the briefcase.

         “ Prince Mackenzie, we’ve all appreciated your kind and caring personality the entire time you’ve been here. We received word from the princess that the Kingdom was under attack and we felt that we could contribute as well as show you our appreciation by giving you some money that the villagers all contributed to.” Mackenzie took the briefcase and thanked the mayor for the money. He felt a little bad for taking it though because he knew the villagers had little money as it was but knew that it was their choice to do what they did.

         Jacob walked over to Sabra and asked her, “ Do you have any idea where these terrorist have positioned themselves?”

         “ They came from the North where they invaded us. Last I saw, they were already making their way toward us which would probably put them somewhere in the center of the Kingdom.”

         “ Good. Most likely, they’re sending a small number of people over to attack the inhabitants while the main force stays to guard the palace. They’ll probably send another soldier or two which will give us the opportunity to slowly taking out their army.”

“ I hope it goes as well as you say it does” Sabra said. His plan sounded like it would work but she herself wasn’t so sure how well it would go.

         While everything else was going on, Kane had been eyeing something he had seen near the old hermits house. Abbott had observed his continuous glancing over and decided to ask him about it.

         “ Kane, what are you looking at?”

“ I thought I saw someone out there” he said while looking off into the distance. “ I think I’ll go and look at it”

         “ What? Didn’t you hear what Jacob said?” Abbott protested

“ Yes, and tell him that I went over to check up on something” And he went off to the old hermits house to see if what he had seen was a terrorist soldier.

         He arrived at the house of the old hermit and the first sign of something wrong was the door. It appeared to have been smashed open by someone, definitely not the sort of thing the old man would do. Cautiosly, Kane walked up to the house and looked around to see if anyone was hiding anywhere. When he made sure it was safe he busted open the door and checked the house for anything.

         It looked like something very bad had happened. Furniture was all over the place, dishes were in pieces, and various places on the walls had dents or cracks in them. Whoever did all this must have been looking for something. Kane stopped his observations when he heard a noise coming from somewhere. Quietly, he followed the noise to wherever the source was with hopes of finding something.

         He did find something and it wasn’t good. It was the old man dead on the floor with his blood dripping out of his head. Above him was a man with a gun and an angry looking face, when he saw Kane he pointed his gun at him threateningly.

         “ Where’s the Prince hiding? Tell me or you end up like the old man” Kane completely disregarded the threat and proceeed to walk right up to the man. “ I said I’d kill you! I’m serious! I’ll do it, you’d better stop!”

         Kane continued to ignore him and was getting closer to him. The man was growing fearful the closer he go because Kane himself was a very intimidating person. Standing seven feet tall, he was already intimidating and his muscular build only added to it. The man realized that if Kane were to come any closer, he would already be dead so he fired at Kane. The bullet struck Kane and bounced right off of him as if it were nothing more than a pop from  a toy gun. The man looked at Kane wide-eyed in terror.

         “ how? What the hell are you?”

“ I am a soldier of Servus” said Kane. He grabbed the gub from the man and crushed it in his bare fist. The man witnessing the feat, attempted to flee but was grabbed by Kane and smashed into the ground where he was knocked unconscious.

         “ Bastard, killing an old man like that. You deserve far less than this” Kane said to the man as he walked over to the old man on the ground. He had always been a bit of an oddball but he was always a welcome face. Seeing his old body lifeless in his blood made Kane feel both sorrow and anger. He carefully picked up the body so that he could bring it outside and give it a burial.

         Meanwhile, the others were still planning an attack when Mackenzie asked, “ Where’s Kane?” To which a frantic Abbott running at them in a panic answered him.

         “ Guys! Kane just went south to the old hermits house by himself! He thought he saw something and if that something turns out to be an attack then we should help him!”

“ How foolish of him to go off like that by himself” Jacob muttered.

         “ I’ll go get him” Sabra said. “ I’ve grown up here all my life and I have heightened senses so it’ll be easier to track him down.”

         “ All right Sabra, but make sure nothing happens” Mackenzie warned her.

“ You don’t need to worry about me, I thrive off of adventure” She started to move in the direction of the hermits house quickly while trying to pick up anything that would lead her to find Kane faster. It wasn’t until she came about a quarter mile into her search that her ears picked up the sound of something, she wasn’t quite sure what though. She continued to run towards the house to find out what the noise was and save Kane if needed.

         When she got there, she saw Kane looking over a freshly buried piece of dirt. She didn’t need to ask to figure out what he’d done. Kane heard her behind him as she approached and gently said, “ They killed him. Poor man didn’t do a thing and yet they shot him in cold blood.”

         “ These people aren’t like us. They don’t see the pain they cause when they kill others mindlessly. To them, it’s all a part of their grand scheme to cleanse the Earth of its evils”

“ Well it’s disgusting. We should probably go now though, I’m looking forward to taking down these madmen.” Sabra looked at Kane with sympathy but then heard something not that far from her. She looked over at the house and saw a figure limping slowly away from the house.

         “ Who are you?” She asked the person. He turned around and saw Sabra standing alongside Kane and he began to shake viciously.

         “ That’s the guy who killed him”

“ Is he?” She began to sprint towards the man who had tried to run but tripped over his crippled leg as he shouted in pain and fear. Sabra took advantage of his fall and ripped his head off with her bare hands, leaving his severed head a couple feet away from his decapitated torso.

         “ You didn’t have to kill him”

“ But he deserved it” Kane thought killing the man in such a brutal way was very dishonorable but didn’t feel like arguing the point.          

         Back up North with the others, Abbott had sperated from the group briefly to see if he could speak with the shop owner there. The shopowner was a very stern and isolated man who despite all that was being spoken about it, knew nothing about the attack.

         “ Excuse me, but my friends and I are fighting against the attacking terrorists. Do you think you could give us some of your weapons to use in the fight?”

“ We’re under attack?” The shopowner said in a genuinely confused voice.

         “Yes, so can you do it?”

“ Sorry, but battle or not, I will always maintain my policy of paying or leaving” Abbott slammed his hands down at the desk in front of the shopowner and shouted, “ Damn it! Don’t you see we don’t have time to do all that? We need supplies now!”

         “ Just for that, I’m doubling the charges” Abbott couldn’t believe it but thought that simply paying would be easier than reasoning with the shop owner. He reluctantly pulled out his portion of the collected money and bought some weapons for the others.

         While Abbott was bargaining with the shopowner, Jacob had proposed an idea.

“ I think we should take the enemy by surprise. To do that we should send out Dale to attack their human forces, and Dale should have no problem with a couple of them being an android and all”

         “ Sounds like a good idea to me. Anyone have a different opinion?” Nobody seemed to object so Mackenzie gave the orders to Dale. “ Dale, you heard us right? Think you can do it?”

“ Of course sir, that is what I was built for after all” and he walked slowly away from the group and into the battlezone.

         “ You sure he can handle it?” Gage asked. He had been so quiet the entire time that the others almost forgot about him.

“ I think so, he hasn’t let us down before” Mackenzie said. Gage thought about what he said but still remained skeptic. “ Oh, well, since everyone else seems to be going where they want I’ll be at my house to get something. Be right back”

         “ They are making this whole thing much harder by splitting apart” complained Jacob.

“ Don’t worry about them, they’re just getting things set up for us” Mackenzie insisted. “ After all, we’re kind of unprepared to face these people so it’s smart that we prepare ourselves”

         “ I still don’t think that Dale can make it that far, these are dangerous people we’re dealing with after all” Gage said to himself as he ran towards his house. Once there, he started pulling out his drawers and taking out all the food he could find and packed it in a bag he carried.

         “ Might as well bring some food if we’re leaving.” He packed his bags with food until he reached the point that anymore would break it open. Satisfied, he left the house while dragging the bag behind him and saw to his right, Dale approaching one of the soldiers.

         “ I’ve got one of them approaching us now. A mechanical looking person…could be an android and judging by the markings, one from Servus”.  The terrorist pulled out a

hand grenade and tossed it at Dale. Dale quickly dodged the grenade and moved out of the way of its explosion.

         “ Quick. I’m going to need backup” His trail of throught was put to an end when Dale enabled his psionic abilities to psischock the terrorist. He grabbed his head in pain and fell to the ground where he continued to latch onto his head.

         “ He’s offline. I think the android overpowered him” A terrorist south of where Dale was said. He started to contact a couple more terrorists from the West side of the Kingdom. “ They have an android and it just took out one of us. Get over here through the shore and bring your electromagnetic pulse guns to stop it.” Receiving the order, they started to march from their position to the East side of the Kingdom to aid the others.

         Jacob had been looking out and could see Dale taking on somebody but couldn’t make out whom.

         “ Mackenzie, it looks like Dale has already clashed with one of the terrorists. They are sure to bring reinforcements to aid them over here.”

“ We should probably go and help them, Gage brought back some weapons and ammunition a moment ago so as far as weapons are concerned, we’re more than prepared”

         “ Good. We should set out”

         At the hermits house, Kane had given the hermit a silent funeral and saw Dale fighting someone across the shore.

         “ I’m going to go and fight” Sabra looked over at him, glad that he was finally taking action.

         “ Don’t be too hard on them” she said with a smirk. Kane immiately rushed off to where the battle was taking place and could see Dale becoming more and more clear as he got closer to him.

         “ Is that Kane running to the battle out there?” Mackenzie asked, seeing Kane running off.

“ It appears so, looks like he decided to run to the action himself once again”

         “ I’m going over there”

“ Be careful Sir” Mackenzie ran over to Kane who happened to be talking with Gage.

         “ Gage? Where have you been?” Mackenzie asked when he saw him.

“ I bought some weapons and ammunition because the shop owner was a dick. Oh, and I wanted to watch Dale fight.”

         “ You should think more before you make dangerous decisions like that” Kane shot at Gage.

“ Says the guy who runs out here by himself”

         “ Quiet! We both need to help Dale out” Mackenzie said.

“ He’s right, let’s go” Kane said as he acted as leader and moved toward Dale.

         Dale had walked past the suffering terrorist and towards two others that were talking among each other.

         “ Shit, he’s coming over here! Where are those reinforcemetns?”

“ They’re still on there way, we need to run”

“ Right, let’s get the hell out of here” They weren’t able to move at all because Dale used his psionic blast to psischock one of them.

         “ Ahhhhh! It hurts! It hurts!” he said as he grabbed onto his head and fell to the ground. The other one looked at him in shock and then at Dale in utter terror.

         “ Ugh…little bastard” the terrorist on the ground said. In an act of desperation, he took out his gun and shot at Dale only to have the bullets bounce off of him. His partner looked down at him and shouted, “ What do you think your’e doing? Now he’s going to kill us!”

Instead of physically attacking the terrorist, Dale merely increased the level of his psischock and made the terrorist suffer so much that he began smashing his head on the ground.

         “ Do not attempt to fight me. It will only cause more suffering” Dale said in a monotone voice that somehow made him sound more threatening.

         Abbott had finally purchased what he needed and walked out with the items and complaining at the same time.

         “ Can’t believe that guy…makes me pay for stuff that could actually help us” He heard the voice of a man screaming coming straight ahead of where he was standing. “ Fight’s already started huh? Finally, it’s ass kicking time” He ran off to where the battle was while holding the giant bag of items on his back. He ran into Kane, Mackenzie, and Gage along the way.

         “ Abbott! You bought weapons?” asked Kane

“ Yeah, but the little prick at the store made me pay for it”

“ don’t worry about it, all that matters is you brough weapons. Thank you so much” Mackenzie said while looking through the assortment of weapons. Gage bashfully walked over and looked into the pile too.

         “ I don’t have time to talk, I’m going to kick some ass”

“ No you aren’t, we need to-“

         “ Yeah and you definitely did that when you went to the hermits house, see ya” and with that, Abbott went over to the terrorist who had previously been in pain. He was getting up when he saw Abbott coming hear him.

         “ Heh, you think I’m defenseless don’t you?” Abbott said nothing as he continued to come close to the terrorist. The terrorist shot him and the bullet penetrated his skin but didn’t appear to do any damage.

         “ The hell? Are all you freaks bullet proof or  something?”

“ Nah, just some of us” he lifted a hand and gently pressed it against the terrorists scalp.

         “ What are you doing to me?”

“ Absorbing your life”Abbott said calmly. Sure enough, the complexion of the terrorists face was slowly losing color and his face was growing thinner as his fluids were being sucked out. “ Don’t worry about all this, I have a use for you so your death won’t be entirely pointless”

         After completely draining his life force, Abbott sent some of his own energy into the dead terrorist and began to semi- resurrect him. He now had a gray and sickly complexion and seemed to be greatly diminished in intellect as he walked in an odd gait and could not speak.

         “ Good, now go help me out okay?” The terrorist grunted and slowly walked away.

“ He’s really violent isn’t he?” Gage asked while watching Abbott draining the life force.

         “ Abbott has always had a violent nature in him, it only comes out like this during battle” Kane said in a tone that sounded a little sad.

“ I wish he would settle down on the whole gruesome killing, but I guess that’s how he manages to stay alive “ Mackenzie added.

         “ Yes, he has the ability to live so long as he is able to drain the life force out of others, this could be anything from people to animals to plants. However, when he gets into a battle he drains lives not for survival but for pleasure” The others said nothing as they took in what they had just been told.

         “ There you guys are! Looks like you already started fighting without me” They all turned to see Sabra right behind them and looking ready to fight.

“ Sorry Sabra but Dale and Abbott have already started the fight” Mackenzie said. She looked a little envious when he said that and said, “ In that case I’m going to have to make up for what I missed”

         “ You’re kind of scary…” Gage said at Sabra. She shot him a glance that would have penetrated his skull if it could kill. He immediately stopped talking but quietly moved the bag of items in her direction.

         “ Where’d you get those?”

“ Abbott bought them from the shop owner”Mackenzie explained. She groaned and put her hand to her face.

         “Didn ‘t I say that you didn’t have to pay for anything here”

“ According to Abbott, he was made to pay by the shop owner”

         “ Of course he did, that man is the most oblivious person I’ve ever met” she said to no one in particular.

         West of them, the terrorists had sent over one of their heavy hitters. These men were armed with more powerful weapons and were shielded in strong armor made of the strongest metals. While they did that, the terrorist who had been confronted by Dale was running away from him when he saw Mackenzie and the other in his sight.

         “Shit, there’s more of them” he said to himself. He was going to head somewhere else when he realized that Mackenzie himself was there with the others. He had been told that the Prince of Servus was staying there and seeing him gave him the idea to kill him so that he could be promoted within the group.

         He fired a shot at an unsuspecting Mackenzie who received the shots in his shoulder. He fell to the ground, convincing the terrorist that he had killed him.

         “ What happened?” Kane asked urgently

“ He’s been shot!” Sabra shouted. Kane looked behind him and saw the terrorist holding the gun. He was about to go and attack but Mackenzie grabbed him arm and kept him from going further.

         “Don’t attack him. I want to be the one to finish him” He took one of the guns that Abbott had purchased and fired two shots into the terrorists legs. He collapsed on the ground and was turning over in a fit to try and ease the pain.

         “ Nice shot” Sabra said.

“ Damn it..they got him” the terrorist who had been psischocked by Dale said. He looked up to see that Dale was paying no attention to him and was getting ready to face the heavy hitter moving toward him. The terrorist saw the opportunity to get up and leave to a hospital where he could get some medication to ease the headache he still had.

         While all this went on, the terrorists armed to face Dale were approaching across the shore. Dale himself had already turned to face the heavy hitter that was coming his way. He attempted a psi schock but it didn’t work because of a specially made helmet that the heavy hitter wore. He was about to use his large gun to attack Dale but Dale used his strength to grab the gun from him and toss it away where he couldn’t reach it. He then punched the heavy hitter so hard that even his armor couldn’t keep him from being hurt.

         “ Hey! Don’t think you’re having all the fun without me” said Abbott. He had a strange looking person with him that Dale could not recognize.

         “ Who is that?” He asked Abbott, pointing to the undead man.

“ Oh him? He’s a new friend I made.” The heavy hitter was now feeling overwhelmed when he saw two others arrive and after his confrontation with Dale, he was afraid to face any more like him.

         “ Don’t worry about me, I’ll just hurt you before he kills you” Said Abbott as he pointed to his undead companion. The heavy hitter tried his best to get up but the pain felt from Dales punch was too much for him and he stayed where he was. Abbott moved at increidible speed and kicked him, tossing him a few feet away. The undead then came proceeded to eat the heavy hitter while he shouted in agony.

         “ I hate to have to do that to you but you did try to kill my buddy” Abbott said smiling at Dale who didn’t return it.

         Mackenzie had patched up his wound with some medical tape. It wasn’t very effective and there was still blood leaking from where he was shot, but Mackenzie insisted that it be taken care of later.

“ Sir, you realize how dangerous it is don’t you?”

         “ I do, but I’m not going to let my injuries keep us from saving the Kingdom” He started to walk away while holding on to his bleeding shoulder.

“ Where are you going?” Kane asked.

         “ I see another one of them out there, I’m going to take him”

“ In your condition, that’s probably unlikely” Sabra said. “ and what about this guy with the legs?”

         “ You take care of him, I need to stop him from reaching that hospital”

“ Hospital? What’s he talking about?” Sabra asked. Kane pointed out to where the hospital was. It was one of the larger buildings in the small Kingdom but its size was only that of two ordinary hosues stacked together. Next to it was a man walking in a strange way that made him look intoxicated.

         “ So that’s what he’s trying to do” Sabra said.

Mackenzie, with a gun in his hand, went over to the terrorist and shot him once in the head instantly killing him. “ Good, now I need to go inside of here and check to see if there’s a way for me to be healed”

         He saw Kane running towards him, probably because he thought he needed help.

“ I told you kane, I’m fine”

         “ That may be true, but I think I could help you get to the hospital faster” He gave Mackenzie no time to answer and lifted him in his arms to carry him to the hospital.

         Sabra had been left alone with the wounded terrorist and was growing more and more resentful of him the more she looked at him

“ You know, you’re lucky you’re alive. If it were me, I would have given you a slow and brutal death” The terrorist coughed a bit and then spoke in a scratchy voice.

         “ You are violent and merciless. It is because of you that the Emporer has reigned. When we kill you and all the other people of this world, we will be saved” Sabra gave him a disgusted look and then stepped on his wounded legs with all the force she had. The terrorist screeched as she did so and began to toss around in a fetal position after she let go.

         “ You people make me sick” She said with growing anger in her voice. The terrorist looked at her with a glare in his eye and pulled out his gun to shoot her. He shot her in the neck to which she didn’t even flinch at. The bullet bounced right off of her neck and landed on the ground. He looked at the bullet and then at her in shock.

“ Sorry, but your toys don’t work on me” She pulled a sword out that had been on her back and sliced off the terrorists head.

         “ You should be thankful I made it quick for you” She said with no hint of sympathy.

         Still located at the far east side of the Kingdom, Jacob was staying back to guard the people from any attacks that might have come that way. He was watching what little he could make out of the battle and was confident that Mackenzie and the others were holding their own. He then had a thought and wondered if the nobles who lived nearby would spare him some medication to apply for any future injuries.

         He went over to the noble house. It was one of the few in the Kingdom and it was made of stone, a sign of wealth in the kingdom. It was surrounded by a tall gate to keep intruders out and usually had a pair of guards outside but they seemed to be missing at the moment. Jacob approached the house and loudly shouted, “ Excuse me nobles! It is I, Jacob of the Servus army! I am here to inquire if you have any medication that you would lend to us!” The door to the house opened up and a man dressed in a tunic who looked like he had been sleeping stepped out.

         “ What kind of medicine do you need?” he asked carelessly.

“ Whatever you have to offer” Jacob said urgently. The man sighed and walked back in his house to collect the medicine.

         “ Stay where you are, I’ll be right back with what you need”

“ Thank you very much”

         “ Don’t worry about it”

         At the battlezone, Gage was hiding from the battle because he was scared to fight. He was only a recruit and even with training, he had never been prepared to face the actual thing when it came. Seeing it now scared him more than ever. He decided it was best to stay in his house with a gun he got from Abbotts purchase and hide there until the battle was over. He was sure the others would understand his fear of fighting.

         Southwest of were Gage was, a heavy hitter was nearing in on Abbott when his undead came and attacked him. He lashed out at the heavy hitter but missed, the heavy hitter responded by taking out his gun and blowing the undead to bits.

“ Well, that’s one way to finish a fight” Abbott said sarcastically at the heavy hitter. Instead of aiding him in the fight, Dale took off in the direction of the palace.

         “ Dale! Why are you leaving me all by myself?” Abbott called out. Dale didn’t respond and continued to walk away. Abbott faced the heavy hitter and said, “ Sorry, but I don’t feel like fighting you right now” and ran in the direction that Dale went. The heavy hitter attempted to shoot him down but Abbott dodged every blow with ease, leading the attacker to give up and direct his attention elsewhere.

         Outside the hospital, Mackenzie had received some medicine he found inside that healed his injuries a bit. They still hurt but the pain was definitely not as bad as it was.

         “ Thanks for helping me out” he said to Kane. Kane nodded and went off to fight, he had always been the silent type who acted based on his moral beliefs and loyalty to the Servus Kingdom.

As Mackenzie stepped outside, he saw a heavily armed man moving toward him. He didn’t seem to notice Mackenzie so he used to opportunity to land a bullet in the mans chest, knocking him over.

         “ They’re starting to send out the big guys now” a voice said behind Mackenzie. He saw that it was Sabra who had arrived just in time to see him shoot the guy.

“ I know, it’s going to make things a little more difficult for us if they keep sending over more of those guys”

         “ True, but I doubt some over muscled strongmen with guns are going to stop us” Sabra said with a grin. She was another one that often intimidated Mackenzie, it was so strange for him to see a beautiful noble lady like herself speaking like a savage warrior.

         Still in his house, gage was hearing the noises of battle begin to soften out. He carefully opened the door to his house a little and peeked through to see if any battles were taking place. None were at all much to his relief. He slowly opened the door and looked out at the now calm area, a strike of guilt overvame him though as he admired the outside. The thought was that he was betraying his friends in a way by staying inside a hosue hiding while they all risked their lives. The more he thought about it, the more ashamed of himself he became. He looked over at the battlezone and attempted to convince himself to join.

         A little west of Gage, the special forces meant for Dale had finally arrived and were approaching towards Kane. He looked up at one of them as a shot was fired from one of their strange looking guns. Instead of bullets, the shot released a strange looking orb that flew towards Kane. He dodged it but instead of disappearing or causing a mini explosion like a grenade, it unleashed a wave of electricity that spread out and shocked Kane. He was taken by surprise at the attack and took the painful attack.

         The surge went through his entire body and made him feel like he was burning inside. He shouted in a mix of anger and pain, than went up to the special force soldier and tackled him into the ground. Another one prepared to shoot him with another one, but kane yanked the gun out of his hand and hit him in the face with it. Behind him, another soldier approached and Kane threw the gun like a spear at the soldier and it hit him in the face and knocked him out.

         Kane looked down at the three bodies, neither were dead but badly hurt. Kane himself was healing thanks to his regenerative ability but was worrying if these were the types of people that the others were going to encounter at the palace.

         Southeast of him, Dale was getting closer to the palace with Abbott following behind.

“ Don’t you think we should kind of wait for the others?” No response from Dale. Abbott was growing tired of Dales silence but all negative thoughts went away him he passed by a nobles house.

         “ Wonder if they have anything to give me” Abbott thought out loud. He decided to give It a shot and went to the fence that surrounded the house. He pulled apart the fence with his hands and proceeded to walk up to the house. “ Do either of the residents here mind giving me some food?”

         No response was heard so he burst through the door and went looking for some food.

         “ Help! We’re under attack!” somebody shouted. Abbott looked to see where the scream was coming from but couldn’t find anyone.

“ I’m not here to hurt you, I’m just really hungry” Abbott moaned.

         “Oh…really?”

“Yes, I’m fighting the terrorists but my stomach was killing me so I thought I’d borrow food”

“ Well in that case…help yourself” out of the bottom cupboard of the sink came a small and chubby man with rosy cheeks. “ You can have whatever you like” he said nervously to Abbott. Abbott smiled and continued to eat the sandwhich he had made for himself.

         “Abbott!” Abbott dropped his sandwhich in alarm and looked in surprise to see Mackenzie standing in front of him and giving him a disapproving look.

“ Where did you come from?” Abbott asked.

         “I’d like to know that too” the noble added.

“ I was passing by here on my way to the palace when I saw the gate to this house torn apart and the door smashed open”

         “ Oh that? I just did that because this guy here didn’t answer me when I called”

“ I apologize for that, I thought you were a terrorist” the noble timidly said.

         “ Don’t worry about it, this pig sitting at your table needs to come with me before he does something else stupid” Abbott continued to eat his food without paying attention to anything Mackenzie had said. Frusterated, Mackenzie grabbed Abbott by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out of the hosue with the noble staring at the two dumbfounded.

         Northeast of where Mackenzie and Abbott were, Kane was battling off the special forces that had arrived and was beginning to worry about himself when one of them attacked the other. He kicked his ally in the stomach and then crushed him with his own weapon. Kane looked at the man in disbelief until he heard somebody speak.

“ Sorry it’s taken me so long to do something…I was just really unsure about all of this” said a self conscious Gage. Kane looked over at him and smiled in admiration.

         “ You decided to come and help despite your fear, a sign that you are worthy of joining us.” The soldier that Gage had manipulated was now snapped out of his state and was about to attack Kane but Kane jabbed him hard at the side of his head and knocked him over.

         Only one was left and he was about to shoot at Kane and hit him, but out of nowhere came Sabra who slashed the soldier in two with her sword.

“ You go anywhere the battle takes you, don’t you?” Kane asked.

         “ Yep, it just wouldn’t be a real fight without me”

         Meanwhile Dale was approaching the Palace when a couple of the terroists spotted him.

         “ It’s got to be that android we sent the special forces over to fight, what happened to them?”

         “ I don’t know but I’m going after him” One of the terrorists said. He marched towards Dale who continued to walk at a casual pace, he lifted his gun and fired two rounds that did nothing to Dale. The soldier looked at Dale in fear and did nothing but stand in place, feeling absolutely helpless against the androied. Dale swung his arm and struck the terrorist across the face where he was sent hurtling away. Another came at him and fired away while reaching him.

         “ Damn machine! You think we’re all just a joke don’t you? Just die already!” None of his shots did anything, except for one that had damaged a part of Dales eye. That damage was only a scratch though and Dale psi shocked the man who fell over in pain. Dale was prepared to storm the palace and save the King.

         A nearby terrorist who was watching over a village witnessed what was taking place and decided to leave the village temporarily to help out the others. He threatened the villagers that if anyone were to leave, he would know and went into the battle. Dale, paying no attention to him, psi shocked him and continued to walk on

         Norhteast of him, Sabra and the others were standing over the bodies of the special forces units.

“ These guys have to be their best, they actually managed to damage me” said Kane.

         “ IF that’s the case then I think I’d better go over through the woods there to check and see if there are any more” said Sabra. Kane looked at her with concern and said, “ are you sure you can do that? It’s going to be dangerous” Sabra laughed and said,

“ Nothing is ever to dangerous for me. You should know that” and left for the forest. Only Gage and Kane were left now together. They looked at Sabra as she left, both thinking about how reckless she was.

         “ We should probably get going. They’re most likely waiting for us” said Kane. Gage nodded and the two moved towards the Palace.

         Mackenzie saw Dale taking on the terrorists and decided to lend him some help. He snuck over to a couple trees near them while they were fighting and shot at one of the terrorists, killing him. Dale looked over at Mackenzie and said, “ Sir, please do not fight. You are putting yourself in danger”

         “ Don’t worry Dale, I don’t intend to die from these people.” Abbott then rushed in and attacked a terrorist by surprise and drained his life force.

         “ yeah Dale, stop worrying about us and let us have some fun too” Dale looked at the two and knew that he couldn’t convince him otherwise. He looked past them to see if anyone else was coming and instead saw the gate of the nobles house torn apart.

         “ Who did that to the nobles house?” He asked Mackenzie.

“ This guy” he said pointing at Abbott.

         “ I already apologized so don’t be making me the bad guy”

“ How irrational of you. I will go help the noble. Please by safe Sir” and with that, Dale went to help the noble.

         “ You know, for an android he’s surprisingly caring of you”

“ I know, sometimes I wish he wasn’t so protective though”

“ Whatever, all I can say is that he’s been a huge help in this entire battle” That was definitely true. It was Dale after all who had paved the way for the others to follow. Suddenly, a sound of something being shot was heard and a force of energy shot Abbott. The blast caught him off guard and dragged him across the ground from the power of the force.

         “ What the hell?” Mackenzie looked to see a man holding a gun that looked different from the kind the others had carried.

“ And who are you?” Asked Mackenzie.

“ I’m the last soldier standing here. You and your vicious friends have killed the rest of us”

         “ Not our fault you guys had to be assholes and kill the people of this Kingdom” said Abbott. He had recovered from the blast but was now angry that someone had made him look weak. In a fit of rage, he lunged at the man who again shot him and sent him back. However, Abbott wasn’t sent as far back as he was before and quickly got up and jabbed the man in the throat. He made a strange guttural noise and dropped the weapon.

         “ That’s for trying to make me look bad” A terrorist who witnessed what happened decided not to fight and focus on the others. He was stopped from moving much further when Kane stood right before him.

         “Excuse me, but I believe you aren’t going any further than this” he said.

Mackenzie was looking at Abbott with an unpleasant expression. “ Do you always have to be so aggressive during these battles?” He asked.

         “ Why not? He attacked me” The man had gotten ahold of himself and quietly reached for his gun while the two argued. He was killed by Sabra who arrived just as he was about to touch the gun and stabbed him in the heart.

         “ You too!” Mackenzie said at Sabra, upset with how she killed the man.

“ Whatever gets the job done, I always say”

         “ I like the way you think” said Abbott. Mackenzie was appaled by their behavior and left the two to talk among each other. He saw a village in the distance and wondered if the people were spared. As he approached it, he saw a shirtless blonde haired man standing outside the village. Mackenzie approached him not exactly knowing what to say.

         “ Ummm…do you live here?”

“ Sure do, name’s RadCliffe. The guy who thought he ran this place ran off and was killed by your guys. I thought to myself, ‘hey I could help them’ and decided to ask if I could join”

         “ Well I-“

“ Thanks, you really are as sweet as they say” And in the impressive time of under a minute, Mackenzie had gained a new fighter in his army.

         Abbott had left the battle field for a while to check on how the residents were doing. He saw two houses south of him and approached them, he already knew something bad had happened when he saw that they were torn and in bad condition. He went to the house and stepped inside, there was no sound coming from anywhere. When he stepped in further, the sunlight revealed something he had missed. The two bodies of the couple that had lived here and were killed by the terrorists. He crouched down and looked at the two, they didn’t look much older than he was. Despite his barbaric behavior in battle, he despised seeing innocents killed over the quarrels of others.

         He took the couple out of the house and started to dig a hole to put them in for a proper funeral.

         “ It is unpleasant to have these people killed. It was the same way in the next house” Abbott quietly glanced over to see Dale also kneeling at the graves he had made.          

         “ I just don’t get how these people could…just…kill innocent people like this” said Abbott sympathetically.

         “ It is difficult to understand but it is those who care that balance out the evil of people like these” Abbott couldn’t help but feel that despite being a machine, Dale really cared about the lives of others.