Fatal Light: Part 2

Fatal Light: Part 2 is an episode of Tech 10: Rebooted.

Episode
“Okay everyone, stay calm!” The inspector yelled through the now-working communicator. “Once reinforcements arrive, we’ll be able to get everyone here supplies! Just calm down!”

The inspector had actually had a relatively good amount of success calming the evacuees down, though there was clearly only so much he could do. As he was yelling to the crowd, a Plumber officer ran up to him.

“Officer Brega reporting in, Sir!” He yelled. “We’ve been able to evacuate over twenty-four hundred thousand civilians and counting!”

“Already?” The inspector asked. “Granted, that’s only about a twelfth of the inhabitants, but still, every person counts.”

Officer Brega opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the arrival of a yellow blur, which abruptly stopped in front of the inspector and flashed away in a green light, revealing Tech.

“How’s the evacuation coming along, gumshoe?” He asked. “I passed a lot of people on the way here, so I’m assuming you managed to get some of them out alive.”

“Oh, very funny, kid.” The inspector rolled his eyes. “Actually, the evacuation is going extremely well, thank you very much, and if we keep up this pace, we should be able to evacuate everyone by tomorrow evening.”

“Uh, sir?” Officer Brega asked.

“What is it, Officer?”

“What is that?”

The inspector turned towards where Brega was pointing, seeing a humongous glowing light coming from above the center of the city. His eyes widened considerably.

“I...I don’t know.” He stammered. “Tell the investigation unit to survey it, but approach with caution. We need to find out what it is before we-”

The inspector was interrupted by an impossibly large beam of energy striking down upon the city center, causing a short rumble. A single moment of tense silence passed.

Then everything went to hell.

A huge ball of all-consuming light shot out from the area the beam had struck, destroying everything in it’s wake. The entire city was consumed in seconds, causing an earth-shattering roar of destruction. After about a minute, the light faded, allowing the disoriented and frightened crowds to get to their feet.

The sight that awaited them wasn't pretty.

The entire city that had loomed above them mere seconds before had been reduced to dust, leaving nothing but a giant crater where momentous buildings and awe-inspiring structures had once stood.

A hushed silence fell over the area, enveloping the atmosphere as the crowd tried to process what had just happened. The inspector fell to his knees, his jaw dropping open.

“No...” He whispered. “This...this can’t be real.”

Tech, who was still standing next to the inspector, slowly held up the SpecTrix and pressed the call button. After a few seconds of ringing, a bit of static was heard and Aquadilus could be heard on the other end.

“Tech, I was just about to call you!” Aquadilus said. “What was that massive energy spike?!”

“They...they’re all...” Tech stammered, trying to get a hold of himself. “They’re all...dead, Aquadilus. They’re just...gone.”

“What? What are you talking about? Who’s ‘they’?!”

“Just like that...gone...” Tech continued, seemingly not hearing Aquadilus’s inquiries.

“Y’know Tech, this would be a lot easier if you would stop playing the pronoun game!” Aquadilus yelled in frustration. “Just tell me what happened!”

“You know the city Warlord Kroz wanted help in?” Tech replied, having been snapped back to reality by Aquadilus’s shouting.

“Yeah. What about it?”

“It was attacked. We only got out a small fraction of the population.” Tech gulped. “Everyone else...everyone else is dead.”

“...”

“...”

“Oh...wow.”

“Is...is there anything we can do about this? Some sort of...I don’t know, time controlling alien, or reality warping alien, or resurrection alien, or...just...just anything?!”

“I’m sorry, Tech, but you just don’t have any forms with those abilities.”

“Fine, if not those, then something else!”

“You don’t have anything else that could help.”

“But...I...just...just give me something, dammit!” Tech shouted, dropping to the ground. “I’ve always had something! Always! Now that millions of people are dead, I don’t?! Are you shitting me?!”

“Tech, calm down.” Aquadilus responded. “Losing it like this isn’t going to help anyone.”

“I know! I just...I...I was supposed to...I...I...”

At that moment, something strange happened. Something almost completely foreign to someone like Tech, someone who had felt nothing for the people around him for years. Something that he had honestly never thought could happen again.

At that moment, Tech cried.

--

Cries of fear and despair rang through the area, drowning out the Plumber’s attempts to calm the crowd. The inspector simply stared at the ruins of the once-great city, trying to make sense of it all.

“How could anyone...how could anyone do something like this?” He whispered. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Meanwhile, Tech had left the area, walking a good few hundred meters away, then flopping down onto the grass and staring up into the sky, which the looming sunset had bathed in an ominous red light.

“What now?” He muttered to himself. “What am I supposed to do? Just go home? Leave the planet like this?”

The SpecTrix crackled as Aquadilus piped in.

“Well gee, I don’t know, maybe find out what the heck just happened over there?” He snarked. “It’s not like bomb-level light beams just randomly fall out of the sky.”

Tech snapped to attention, quickly sitting up.

“That...that is a very good point.” He replied. “Something had to set that thing off.”

“Congratulations, you successfully figured out the most basic of investigation tactics. Now do something about it.”

Tech ignored Aquadilus, simply springing to his feet and running back to the crowd. He found his way back to the inspector, who still hadn’t moved from where he had seen the explosion.

“Hey, inspector!” Tech yelled, snapping his fingers a couple of times. “Up and at ‘em! We need to figure out what just happened!”

The inspector briefly turned his head to look at Tech, then back to the ruined city.

“I think it’s pretty clear what just happened, kid.” He weakly replied.

“No, it’s not!” Tech snapped. “Yeah, yeah, everything went boom, we know that. How about what made everything go boom, huh? How about we figure that out? As far as I know, giant laser beams of death don’t usually come falling out of the sky. It’s pretty clear someone did this on purpose.”

“Who, kid?” The inspector said. “Who would do this? Who...who even could do this?”

As if in response to the inspector’s inquiry, there was a loud crashing of what seemed to be thunder, though the skies were perfectly clear. A bright, shining, ball of light appeared in the air far above the area. Slowly pulsing, it sent out a beam of light towards the ground, creating a somewhat unearthly glow.

By now, the crowd had noticed the light, and had slowly quieted down, staring at the light with hushed awe. After a few moments, a figure obscured by the light appeared, floating down the beam until it met the ground, softly being placed on the grass by the glow. Almost immediately, the light dispersed, revealing a humanoid figure clad in golden armor, with wings of light that shone brilliantly. It’s face was obscured by a simple, mouthless mask that nonetheless gave off an air of importance and intimidation.

The figure turned towards the crowd, spreading out his wings and arms in a wide arc.

“Behold, O ye vain and prideful people, the fate you have wrought upon yourselves!” The figure said, it’s voice ringing through the air with deep boom. It turned to point at the ruins of the city.

“This is the fate that awaits all those that allow themselves to be herded and exploited!” It continued angrily. “You became thoroughly corrupt, trapped in a wretched hive of your own creation!”

The crowd stared at the figure, thoroughly confused and frightened. Tech, on the other hand, though certainly confused, was less afraid and more...thoroughly ticked off.

“Hey, bling-head!” He yelled, picking up a rock and bouncing it off the figure’s helmet. “You mind telling us what’s going on here, or are you just gonna stand there and keep pissing me off?!”

The figure’s head snapped around to face Tech. After a few moments of silent tension, it slowly began marching it’s way over to Tech, stopping no more than a foot away from him. On any other day, seeing as the figure towered over Tech by a good few feet, Tech would have drawn his sword by now. However, as this wasn’t any other day, Tech simply glared at him, adrenaline bursting through his veins, which, though certainly useful for life-or-death situations, did not exactly help with complex decision making.

“Congratulations, you moved.” Tech snapped. “You moved more slowly than my arthritic grandmother, but you still moved. You know what else would be great? Answering the damn question.”

The figure eyed down Tech for a few seconds before speaking up.

“Who are you, child, to make demands of such as I?” It replied, enunciating each word with a tone that would have made most people question the wisdom of pressing the subject further.

Tech proceeded to press the subject further.

“Me? I’m Teknois Neferus Logical, occasional hero and full-time non-taker of your bull. So, to counter your question, who are you to refuse my demands?”

The figure narrowed it’s eyes, staring down at Tech with a murderous glare. Tech heartily returned the glare, though as there was nothing particularly flammable in his line of sight, no fire started this time.

After a few moments of this, the figure stepped away from Tech and towards the crowd, once again raising it’s arms.

“Listen well, ye children of mortality, for I shall not repeat myself!” It yelled in the same booming voice as before. “My name is Dethrouge, and I have come down to thee bearing a great burden!”

Dethrouge snapped his fingers, causing large portals of light to appear around the crowd. Out of the portals came an army of the large, demonic creatures that had terrorized the now destroyed city.

“The burden of loosing thy immortal souls from the socially inflicted bondage of mortality that ye call ‘authority’ and ‘power’!”

The crowd began letting out a panicked murmur, questioning this odd ultimatum. Meanwhile, the army of creatures quickly surrounded them, circling the group with an unnerving uniformity.

“You have forced my hand, allowing yourselves to become as lambs to the slaughter!” Dethrouge yelled. “That is what you have chosen, and now, the time for the culling has arrived!”

The creatures surrounding the crowd closed in, their hollow, red eyes intensifying in their ominous glow.

“Feed, my Death Hounds, and purge this world of its people’s foolishness!” He roared with finality.

Immediately, the Death Hounds circling the crowd leaped into the sea of people, ripping and tearing apart their helpless prey with the ferocity of a school of piranhas. Tech, who had been cautiously watching Dethrouge’s speech, immediately sprang into action with a yell of rage you would expect more from an angry bear than a human being. He quickly slammed down on the SpecTrix dial, transforming into Rockoustic and slamming himself into the nearest Death Hound, causing a sickening snapping sound as the creature bent into a highly unnatural shape. He then grabbed it and threw it into the air, likely causing it to burn up in the atmosphere.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Aquadilus yelled suddenly, static surrounding his voice. “No Rockoustic! This is a heavily populated area, moron! If you want to pick off these things one by one, I would recommend Sandrill. Or, you know, anything other than the barely controllable rock creature that can punch a mountain in half!”

Tech, not taking the time to respond, quickly switched to Sandrill and began weaving his way through the crowd towards the next Death Hound, which he quickly dispatched by forcing sand down it’s throat and into it’s lungs, quickly suffocating the murderous creature. Wasting no time to process what he was doing, he immediately set off towards another Death Hound.

Before he could reach it, however, a flowing red fist slammed into the back of the creature’s neck, causing it to fall down dead. Tech quickly reformed his head to the proper shape, looking up to see Warlord Kroz floating in the air above him.

“Kroz?!” Tech yelled. “Weren't you in the city when it...you know...exploded?!”

“Yes, though seeing as how my body is made up of millions of independently functioning cell groups, being blown apart was not nearly as damaging to me as it would be to most other species.”

“Point taken.”

“Look, we don’t have much time. You fight this...Dethrouge, whatever he is, and I’ll take care of these beasts.”

“You sure you have enough energy to keep doing that...instant kill punching thing?”

“I’ve not conquered seventy-two worlds by being unable to live up to the task, Tech. Now go!”

Kroz flew off, leaving Tech in the middle of the panicking crowd. Forming into a thin tower, he spotted Dethrouge watching the chaos from afar, having moved from his previous location. Quickly transforming into Electrolite, he zipped towards Dethrouge, slamming into his armor with a large explosion of electric feedback. Unfazed, Dethrouge grabbed Tech’s neck and slammed him into the ground, pinning him down.

“Just what do you hope to accomplish, child?” Dethrouge hissed. “Your transformations were unexpected, true, but there is no form you could ever take that could even hope to match my power.”

“Yeah, see, I’m going to have to disagree with you there.” Tech responded, twisting the SpecTrix dial and slamming it down, turning back into Rockoustic.

The flash of green light momentarily blinded Dethrouge, allowing Tech to throw him off. Jumping up, he quickly slammed his fist into Dethrouge’s face, a blow that would have caused most targets to respond with a rather messy explosion of flesh.

Dethrouge, unfortunately, was not most targets.

Absorbing the blow without so much as a flinch, he responded with a blast of light that sent Tech flying across the plains, landing a good ways away. Tech got up as quickly as possible, only to be met with another blow from the unnervingly fast Dethrouge, which sent him soaring into the air, only to have his flight arc interrupted by Dethrouge speeding past him and slamming a fist into his skull, sending him back into the earth with a huge crash. Dethrouge floated back down to the ground, a huge dust cloud springing up from where Tech had hit the ground. After a few seconds, the cloud dispersed, revealing Tech standing high and apparently unharmed.

“Well, it appears we are at an impasse.” Dethrouge noted. “Neither of us seem to be particularly vulnerable to mortal blows.”

“Eh, point taken.” Tech said,  reaching for the SpecTrix dial. “Of course, you’re assuming brute strength is my only attribute.”

Tech pressed the dial in an ‘X’ pattern, causing it to beep twice, after which he proceeded to twist the dial for a few seconds, then slam it down. Another green flash filled the area, dispersing to reveal a tall, armored alien that resembled Rockoustic to a point, but with an extremely different body shape.

“For the record, my other two attributes are strategy and reckless endangerment.” Tech continued matter-of-factly.

“I care not for what your pathetic abilities include, child.” Dethrouge said. “You can hardly so much as touch me.”

“Good point.” Tech replied. “Counter point: “

Tech slammed his leg into the ground, causing a huge sheet of rock shaped as a half-dome to spring up around him. He then slammed his fists together, creating a huge blast of sound that, boosted in power by the rock dome, shot at Dethrouge, knocking him of of his feet. Tech took the opportunity to create a full dome of rock around Dethrouge, then punching a hole in it just large enough to squeeze his arm through and letting out another explosion of sound. The rock dome began to crack apart under the sound pressure, prompting Tech to pull out his arm and slam his hands together in a clapping motion, causing the rock wall to implode.

A few seconds later, Dethrouge sent out a pulse of light that decimated his stone prison, only to find himself surrounded by more huge walls of stone. Before he could react, Tech slammed through the walls and grabbed a hold of his arm. Instead of throwing Dethrouge as expected, Tech tightened his grip and grabbed onto Dethrouge’s face with his free hand. Immediately, Dethrouge started being unable to feel his body, the numbness spreading out from where Tech was gripping. Though no longer able to move his neck, he managed to catch a glance of what was happening before his eyes froze into place: Tech was turning his body to stone extremely rapidly, something Dethrouge truly had not expected.

“Well played, child.” He managed to think, before his head became fully petrified. “But not well enough.”

Tech wasted no time in running back to the crowd, hoping to help Kroz in protecting the remaining survivors of Lintroth.

As it turned out, his concern was somewhat misplaced.

Kroz had swept through the huge group of people with incredible speed, killing each Death Hound with unmatchable precision, and was now simply tending to the wounded. Tech had no proper reaction to this except to stand in place with his jaw hanging open. (Though this was somewhat difficult to see through his faceplate.)

“How the heck did I fight this guy to a tie?” Tech mused aloud. “This isn’t a battle so much as an utter massacre!”

The SpecTrix crackled to life as Aquadilus’s voice came through the speakers.

“Well, for one thing, in your duel, he was rather actively trying to avoid killing you.” He pointed out. “If he wanted to, he could have easily smacked you dead with one hit and declare Earth his. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be his M.O.”

“Yeah, thankfully.”

After a few seconds, Aquadilus spoke up again.

“You think you should go, oh, I don’t know, help him out a bit?”

“Oh, right!” Tech replied. “Say, what would be my best form for healing peo-”

Tech was interrupted by a rather annoying burning sensation in his chest, followed shortly by the appearance of a beam of light emanating from the same area. Feeling somewhat light-headed, he glanced down to his chest, noting a worryingly large hole that had been burned clean through it, even burning off some of the SpecTrix.

“Oh, right.” Tech said woozily. “Rock and steel. No pain receptors.”

This statement was quickly followed by him collapsing. A few moments later, one very large and very angry light-clad being walked up from behind him.

“Well, child, it appears we have reached an end to our little impasse.” Dethrouge said, with an air of unmistakeable mockery. “Unfortunately for you, one of my attributes happens to be complete immortality.”

Tech had no response other than a weak attempt at a very rude hand sign. If Dethrouge even noticed this, he certainly didn’t seem to care.

“You see, child, I am more than a man. More than a king. More than the gods themselves!” Dethrouge shouted. “I am the physical manifestation of life’s ultimate truth; entropy.”

Dethrouge began pacing back and forth, seemingly having forgotten about the dying metallic being lying in front of him.

“Of course, you may wonder why the universe would need a manifestation of this truth. After all, things decay and rot all the time, all by themselves, no sapient interference needed. However, there is one small, yet terrifyingly effective, exception to that rule. Do you know what that exception is, child?”

Not waiting for a response, he cast his arm towards the group of survivors.

“Them. Us. Sapient life in all of it’s forms!” Dethrouge began to rant, his head twitching in odd directions. “All of us, the sapient drive to, to, to create! To build! To restore! To improve! To create systems of government that further these goals! These are our nature, and it is this very nature that has corrupted the universe, child, and I am one of the enlightened few that dare to stand against it! I will restore this universe to it’s pure and unbuilt beginnings, do you understand me?! All those that stand in my way must, and will, be killed!”

Dethrouge whipped around to face Tech, a crazed look in his eye.

“Your foolish attempts at stopping these plans have forced me to expend too much energy, child. I must wait for it to be restored before I can continue my holy mission, and, for that disgrace, you...will die.”

With that less than convincingly sane statement, Dethrouge teleported away in a bright light, leaving Tech’s body lying alone in the grass.

‘So...I’m dying.’ Tech weakly thought, his vision beginning to blur. ‘Man, my parents are going to kill me.’

Tech attempted to laugh at his own morbid joke, but only ended up letting out a small gasp of air.

‘Oh. Right. Hole through the lungs. Not good for breathing-related activities.’

As the sun fell further over the horizon, Tech’s life flashed before his eyes.

‘Well, that was...disappointing.’ He snarked to himself. ‘I was sort of hoping I had accomplished something worthwhile in fifteen years.’

Suddenly, a wave of calmness and peace overcame him, slowly lulling him into closing his eyes, for what seemed to be the last time.

‘Mom...Dad...’ He thought, desperately trying to hold on. ‘Everyone...everyone I couldn’t save...I’m sorry.’

With that, Tech drew his last breath.

And all was still.

“Hey, look who it is! Can’t say I was expecting visitors.”

Tech stirred, eventually opening up his eyes to see a familiar gray landscape. Looking upwards, he caught sight of a floating group of three circles.

He was in the Void.

“Sorry about the mess.” The Void said. “If I had known you were coming, I would have put away the body.”

“The what?!” Tech snapped to attention, bolting up to his feet.

Looking around the area, he spotted a mostly-formed human body covered in strange clothes floating in the air. Strange purple threads surrounded it, coming seemingly from nowhere. The threads led to the empty parts of the body, slowly being converted into organic tissue and cloth.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” The Void asked, floating towards the body. “It’s been something of a pet project these past few months.”

“Should I be concerned why?” Tech asked warily.

“Not at all. Well, maybe. You actually gave me the idea for it.”

“...Excuse me?”

“Yep! I figured, ‘hey, this guy can exist in my plane of existence, so why can’t I exist in his?’”

“And you decided to make the body because..?”

“Because it’ll be far more convenient to use a human body in your plane of existence than the one I currently have. I mean, have you looked at me? I’m circles! Circles!”

“Point taken. Next question: why am I here?”

“Well, when a mother and father love each other very much-”

“No, I mean here. As in, where I am standing. At this moment.”

“Oh, you mean the Void? Well, that’s where you go when you die.”

Tech raised an eyebrow.

“This is where people go when they die? I thought you said someone being here was rare.”

“No, this is where you go when you die. Others, I really don’t know.”

“Okay. Why do I come here when I die?”

“Eh, I’m not entirely sure, but if I had to hazard a guess, it’s probably because of how screwed up the whole ‘death’ thing is by that fancy little watch you like to wear. Your current body dies? Whatever, you’ve got like twenty backups, and your mind needs somewhere to chill while you’re waiting. Death is cheap.”

“Yeah, just one little problem with that.” Tech pointed out. “The SpecTrix was just half-disintegrated by Dethrouge. I don’t exactly have any more backups to return to.”

“Well then, what happens next is going to be difficult to explain. Three, two, one.”

“What are you-”

Tech was abruptly cut off thanks to disappearing a violent flash of light.

The Void floated still for a few seconds before turning around and moving towards a different spot.

“Man, it gets lonely in here.”

--

Tech shot up into a sitting position, gasping desperately for breath. After taking a few seconds to regain his composure, he noticed that he was back in his human body, sitting in the same spot he had died in. Warlord Kroz was sitting next to him.

“Hm, so you are alive.” Kroz noted. “I was beginning to worry.”

“What...what happened?” Tech asked. “How am I back?”

“Well, when I found you laying here, you were still in your transformed state, with a rather large hole through your chest. Considering how the device works, I gambled on the chance that deactivating the transformation would restore your initial human state.”

“Oookay, but how did you detransform me? You don’t know how to work the SpecTrix, not to mention the fact that it has a giant hole in it.”

“The device seems rather sensitive to percussive maintenance.” Kroz replied. “In other words, I punched it.”

“Oh. Well, thanks, I guess.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I need to get back to the survivors and start setting up plans for relocation.”

Kroz got up and started walking away, before suddenly stopping and turning back around to look at Tech.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Since your method of transportation has been assumedly disabled, I would recommend talking to the Plumbers to get a ride home.”

With that, Kroz continued away. Tech took the opportunity to examine the SpecTrix, or at least what was left of it. Over half of the dial and main body was gone, as exposed wiring and fried circuitry sparked and pulsed weakly. The remaining chunk of the dial flickered, and the touch screen had gone completely dark.

The SpecTrix was thoroughly broken.

Tech sighed and stood up, then cracked his neck and started walking back towards the crowded area of survivors.

“This has been one heck of a day.” He groaned.

---

After a few hours of speaking with officers and waiting, a Plumber ship had finally picked up Tech and was flying him back home.

“So, kid, what was a human like you doing on Zentroth?” The officer piloting the ship asked. “Not too many of your kind even leave your planet, much less your solar system.”

“What, the inspector didn’t tell you?” Tech asked. “ I was there to help figure out a case.”

“A bit late on the draw there, weren’t you?” The officer chuckled. “Oh well. At least that city exploding musta been pretty dynamite.”

Tech narrowed his eyes.

“Joke about that again.” He snapped. “I dare you.”

“Man, chill.” The pilot waved him off. “You humans are so sensitive, I swear.”

Tech’s eye twitched as he was overcome by a sudden desire to deck the pilot out the windshield. Trying to calm himself down, he looked back at the SpecTrix. After a few seconds of staring at it, a thought popped into his head.

“Say, do you know who Ben Tennyson is?” He asked.

“Duh, of course! Everyone knows who Ben Ten is!”

“Okay, so, do you know who made his Omnitrix?”

“Azmuth, of course. Come on, you seriously don’t know this?”

“Well, excuse me, princess.” Tech grumbled. “Look, do you think you can take me to him?”

“Take you to Azmuth?” The pilot laughed. “Yeah, but why would I? He’d just turn you away as soon as you got there!”

“I’ve got something on my hands that says he probably won’t.” Tech countered, quietly tapping the SpecTrix. “Now, will you take me to him or not?”

The pilot sighed.

“Fine, whatever, kid. Just let it be known that if he does turn us away, I’m giving you a hearty ‘I told you so’.”

“Just shut up and drive.” Tech said, leaning back into his seat. “Besides, if he doesn’t help me out, I’m going to have significantly bigger problems on my hands.”

Protagonists

 * Tech
 * Aquadilus
 * Warlord Kroz
 * Inspector Henjix

Antagonists

 * Dethrouge
 * Death Hounds

Normal Aliens

 * Rockoustic (x2)
 * Sandrill
 * Electrolite

Combined Aliens

 * RocklES