Steampunk CTs

I woke up and noticed a bright red light leaking into my room after hearing the shriek of an old woman. As I ran out to see what was wrong, I saw the entire marketplace on fire. As entire rows of stands burned to ash, and vendors burst into flames, the owners of these businesses stood by in despair as the flames rose.

Who? Who would do such a thing?

I scanned the area and saw none other than the CT from earlier burning down our shrine, wearing a smile whilst doing it.

"W-why?"

That's when he turned around and made eye-contact with me. When he did, he directed a cloud of gas my way.

As I was completely submerged in the gas, I remembered that horrible scenery once more.

The dense fog that muffled the blood curdling screams, the countless decimated buildings I walked past, the dead bodies I tripped over, those memories began to flood back to me.

It made me feel small. Like a helpless child. Still lost in that deep mist.

However this time, I wasn't all alone.

Ori tackled me right out of the gas the very moment it ignited.

As we fell to the ground, the flames roared and engulfed my home.

"DON'T JUST STAND AROUND!" Ori yelled at me.

"R-right…" I said as I recovered and looked onto the CT causing the destruction.

"It's a damn shame! I was hoping to take you out with one use of my stemata. I guess getting rid of you rodents is going to be harder than I thought!" The CT said.

"Rodents and parasites are a bit far from each other don't you think?" Ori snapped back.

"Rodents, parasites, insects, blights, SCOURGES, STAINS, THEY'RE ALL THE SAME! YOU ALL ARE A PLAGUE TO THIS COUNTRY! NO ONE WILL MISS YOU PEOPLE!"

"Sounds like you're just mad that a parasite outperformed you at your own job! Why don't you run along before an actual counter-terrorist comes to stop you—"

"No one's coming, rodents! I'll burn this entire terrorist den to the ground and not a single Holian will bat an eye!"

This is all my fault...I stuck my nose where it doesn’t belong and now everything I care about is going to get burned to the ground.

“Arno!”

I made eye-contact with Ori and found nothing but her determined glare staring right back at me.

“Keep him distracted. I’ll get us out of this.”

“But he’s a CT—”

Before I could object, she already took off running. As she ran to her home, the CT pointed his gauntlet at her. He was going to kill her. At first he was only targeting property. At the end of the day, things like that could be rebuilt. But when a life is taken, it’s gone forever. I just couldn’t stand by and watch him hurt someone I cared about.

“LEAVE US ALONE YOU BASTARD!” I screamed out.

Before I knew it, I was rushing in with my fist raised to attack him. I shouldn’t be doing this. Obstruction to a CT’s job could give someone a punishment of death. I can’t help it though! Ever since that day, I told myself I would help the Haustorians in any way that I could! So that they would never see a tragedy like the one they saw. I kept up a mask with a smile and said “there’ll be better days,” but nothing’s changed! This is the same exact scenery!

My fist connected with the CT’s abdomen and I was shocked to find that he didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even flinch.

“Let me tell you something, parasite. My first stemata couldn’t do much, but this one right here is perfect for your inhuman strength!”

He presented his torso to reveal a skin-tight long sleeve that began to glow red.

“This stemata holds kinetic energy wherever it is hit and repurposes it. Combine that with my gas gauntlet, and I won’t have a single issue incinerating everything around me!”

“You’re gonna need to use smaller words with me, friend. I’m not all that smart. ” I joked.

“I’m not your friend…” The CT snapped back and raised his gauntlet to my face, gas already leaking from its palm.

Before he could do anything, I redirected the gauntlet towards the sky with a quick movement of my hand. However, I wasn’t fast enough.

An explosion of gas came rushing out in a cone that made contact with the top of a nearby building. That gas quickly turned into flame and set the top of that building ablaze. My goal at this point is to keep him busy while doing the least amount of damage possible. At least until Ori gets back.

Other Haustorians were about to step in to help, but I immediately warned them.

“DON’T COME ANY CLOSER! THIS MAN IS VERY DANGEROUS!”

They backed off and I continued my defense by redirecting his moves. That’s all I could do, after all. If I tried to hit him, he would just send my attack right back at me.

“STOP IT!” I yelled to him as I pinned him to the ground,

“WHY SHOULD I?! YOU PARASITES CAME RUNNING TO OUR COUNTRY TO TAKE OUR JOBS, OUR LAND, OUR FOOD! GO BACK TO YOUR RUN-DOWN COUNTRY AND DIE THERE!”

I don’t think of myself as a negative person. I would never say that I hate someone. But this person.. .I was certain that for just a brief moment, I held hatred in my heart for them. The moment I noticed this feeling, that hatred quickly washed away and turned into sadness.

“What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with us wanting to seek happiness? Everything was taken from us, so what’s wrong with us picking up the pieces and wanting something better? I didn’t ask for my family to be killed...I didn’t ask for my country to be slaughtered in a month’s time… Why don’t you get that? What’s it gonna take for you to understand?” With my face wrought with pain and strife, I begged for him to meet me halfway in understanding.

The counter-terrorist stared blankly at me. It was as if he tuned me out and was thinking of a way to get out of my grip.

“Hey, terrorist. I don’t even care anymore...I let out all of my rage. It’s over for me. The BCT is definitely going to come to kill or imprison me for life. Besides…”

The CT’s gauntlet and armor began to glow and swell. This can’t possibly be good.

“You wouldn’t know this, but if someone uses multiple stematas, the stematas will become incompatible with the user and cause a massive explosion. This place is gonna blow sky high. Hehehehe…”

There’s no way! He already burned everything to the ground and he wants to blow it all away too?! I won’t let him!

I was about to pick him up and move him out of the ghetto, but he would just cause harm to the Holians around the place. If I want to minimize damage, It would be best to just stay here.

But that just leaves another problem! Everyone in zone four will get caught up in the explosion and die.

“EVERYONE! GET AS FAR AWAY FROM HERE AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN! HE’S ABOUT TO BLOW UP! I’LL KEEP HIM HERE SO JUST SAVE YOURSELVES!”

The Haustorians took my message and stampeded away from me as fast as possible.

Even if that means dying with this jerk here, I’ll keep him pinned and make sure everyone is safe—

Pwish

In an instant, a bullet came flying out of nowhere and passed straight through the CTs head. Once it did, the swelling and glowing stopped. I checked his pulse to make sure and realized that he was dead. He must have died on impact.

“Why were you wearing a face that said you were ready to die, Arno?”

I looked to where the voice was coming from and realized that it was none other than Ori. As she paced towards me, she moved a piece of her hair behind her ear and scanned the area in a nonchalant manner. That’s Ori for you. She diffused the situation with ease and doesn’t even seem fazed by it. Not long after, I noticed she carried a weird gun with a long barrel and spyglass on top of it.

“Where did you find that?”

“I didn’t find it, I made it.” Ori told me.

That’s when I remembered the conversation with the overseer and the accusation he made towards Ori.

“So you were stealing parts!” I called her out, but she ignored me and continued to scan the area. I followed her gaze.

The both of us looked at the damage around us and noticed that everything was destroyed. Thankfully nobody died. However, a lot of people were hurt.

We heard a loud sound and looked up to see the Elizabeth a bit ways in the sky. Not long after, a large silhouette crashed onto the scene and created a wave of smoke on landing. Once the smoke cleared, the silhouette was revealed.

One was an inhumanly muscular man that wore a full suit of armor from head to toe. If it wasn’t for the CT emblem displayed on his arm, I would assume it was another robot.

Not long after, a slender woman with metallic arms walked onto the scene. Both of her arms had many spheres attached to them that detached themselves and grew small tubes for legs once they landed. They then began to walk off and put out the fires that were still spreading. It didn’t matter where the flames were, the little bots made their way to them by scaling the buildings if they needed to.

“Look at this mess.” The woman shook her head and began to look around. She noticed the CTs dead body and Ori’s gun. “W-what the hell?! I thought parasites weren’t supposed to have weapons! And is that Alvin on the floor?! This isn’t gonna look good in the paper...TC, what should we do?”

“TC…TERROR CRUSHER?!” Ori recalled the man’s name and yelled out.

“I’m confused. Who is this?” I asked.

“I read about him. He’s the number one counter-terrorist. Crime dropped to an all time low five years after he graduated from the academy.”

The man began to walk towards us. With each step he took, my heart began to sink as I wondered: is he with us or against us? At the end of the day, we killed a counter-terrorist. We killed one of his colleagues. We’d be lucky to make it out of here with our lives.

That’s when the terror crusher took off his helmet, grabbed the barrel of Ori’s gun and pointed it at his head.

“S-sir!” The lady was going to stop him, but he raised his hand to her in objection. She reluctantly stopped in her tracks.

“I deeply apologize for this. We are meant to keep the peace, but one of our own was the one that disturbed it. I fully understand your pain. You all witnessed the tragedy of the fall of Haustoria and now you have to deal with this. I know that nothing other than my life would suffice. You’re free to take it…” He kneeled on one knee as he gave Ori the go-ahead to kill him.

He had a deep voice like sandpaper and a face that looked as if he had seen better days. Every Holian I met until now either seemed to be living the high life or going through their own battle but this man...looked like he had a war he was fighting every day.

With her finger on the trigger, Ori stared down at the CT. Her eyes darted around the burnt down ghetto one last time before she made her decision.

She lowered her weapon and scoffed.

“As if I would let you take such an easy way out. I have a better idea. You’re gonna let us become counter-terrorists.”

She took her sniper away from the Terror Crusher’s head. The lady in the back’s jaw dropped upon hearing this. I was certainly surprised to say the least.

“You’ve got some nerve! You’re asking the number one counter-terrorist to pull some strings and get two Haustorians enrolled in the academy?! If this is to get out of your ghetto, I hate to break it to you, but you’ll be treated the exact same.”

“It’s not to get out of the ghetto. Isn’t that right, Arno?”

“Huh?” That's when I realized I’ve been quiet for most of this.

“Counter-terrorism is the field that pays the most in this country. After all, terrorism just keeps getting worse and worse. Even with the law cutting the pay of Haustorians, we’ll be able to make way more Dol than any other profession.”

The Terror Crusher stood back on his two feet and began to chuckle in response.

“What if they reject my request at first?”

“You’ll have one year! I’m seventeen and Arno here is eighteen. You have to be an adult to enroll so it only makes sense. We’ll train up at your place and until then. If you can’t get us enrolled in the academy within a year, then I’ll gladly take your life.”

“What about the other Haustorians?” The Terror Crusher asked.

“Either way, they’re living in your mansion until their homes get fixed. I already know you have one, Mr. Number One. And we'll be living there until we get residency in the Elizabeth as full-fledged CTs.” Ori motioned to both me and herself.

She then reached her hand out to seal the agreement and he immediately returned the gesture.

“I feel like I’m making a deal with the devil.” He joked.

At this point, the lady recovered Alvin's stematas. I was still completely shocked. Ori was able to turn this entire thing into something that could have great potential for us. It almost doesn’t even seem real. I poked her and asked to confirm.

“Hey Ori, weren’t you against me trying to get land outside of the ghetto?”

“Well...yeah. It was unrealistic and I myself couldn’t think of any way to help everyone. It was like I was trying to find a path when there was none available and shooting you down when you tried to make one. But that doesn’t matter now that we found a way.”

“Hmmmmmmm….” I narrowed my eyes.

“Besides, this plan is different from yours. In my plan, we’ll just improve on zone four using the money we make from this.”

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…”

I must’ve been making a distinct face, because Ori snapped at me as soon as she finished saying that.

“Do you still not believe me?!”

“No.”

“What’ll it take, Arno?!”

“A pinky promise.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

She sighed and held her pinky out. I received it with my very own. At the break of dawn with a beautiful, colorful sky, we made our promise.

“I promise that from this point forward, we’ll work our asses off to create a place where everyone can laugh and smile without the fangs of discrimination. We’ll create a paradise for parasites!”

“Well said!” I couldn’t help but smile at the positive direction we were going.

Although I didn’t know what discrimination meant.

“Hey it’s time to leave, you two.” The lady called out to us.

“We’ll be right there!” I told her as I motioned Ori to come.

And thus, our journey to create a better ghetto began. Little did we know at the time, we would be making a better world in the process.