“Soul in the Machine” Part 3 “When the People on Your Shoulders Fight” By Revenger On a vast green checkered plane in a sea of black, a purple humanoid figure slowly works it way to its feat. Where its two eyes should be, red egg shapes appear and where its mouth should be an uneven red square fizzes into existence. “It”-Where am I? The thing turns slowly and looks around at its surroundings. Ray of yellow and blue speed by him at phenomenal rates. It snaps out its hand and snatches one of the rays. The ray rips out it hand, cutting small glowing red lines across its fingers. The purple figure grabs another ray, thrust it on the ground and put both its knees on the middle. The purple figure brings it head down and read the inscription on the ray. <release plasma blast at placement 15-8>
“LET GO OF THAT!” Booms a voice from the “sky” above the pane where the figure is on. The purple figure’s “fingers” ease their grip on the ray and it rips out of the figure’s hands. Napoleon-So now the creation surpasses the creator, eh X-51? It happened to Pym, it happened to Magnus, now it happens to you. Machine Man looks down at his “body” and looks back up at the voice, a troubled look on his “face”. Machine Man- Where am I? Or for that matter, what am I? Napoleon- One of the many abilities I have over you is intelligence. Could your calculator of a brain have created a software which converts all sentient programs into “souls”. That of which they can inhabit any unpopulated machine. If Machine Man could see Napoleon, he would see the sinister smile that crosses his face. Napoleon- Of course, these being program’s soul, if they were to be harmed in a physical...no that’s not right. Harmed by energy...no that doesn’t fit it either. I guess the best way to describe it is to show you. There is an inhuman scream as brown dressed Victorian woman crashes onto the ground, parts of her body are simply not there and as the seconds go by, she vanishes even more. Machine Man rushes to her side. Machine Man- Elizabeth? What has he done to you? If Elizabeth still had a mouth she would plead to him, but her mouth has vanished so her only means of expression are her scared eyes. In seconds she is gone. Napoleon- I hope that got the point of across. Machine Man rises to his feet and scowls at the abyss in front of him. Machine Man-If I’m your chief adversary then why have you kept me alive? Napoleon-Why to show you, spineless sissy, the destruction that I have inflicted and the destruction that is to come. In the distance, a yellow ray comes into. Before Machine Man realizes what it is, it surges in front of him and creates a square. Inside the square is an image of the mall Machine Man saved from Davis before. But now his efforts have proved futile as it is now a smoldering mountain of rubble, with bodies strewn all over it. Machine Man squints his eyes and see’s the manager who attacked him with a bat (Machine Man’s protection of the mall and subsequent attack by the manager happened in our first part folks-rapscallion Revenger). His eyes squint in anguish and small blue sphere’s crawl out of his eyes, tears. Napoleon-Oh, and one more thing. You know how you took Davis’s time travel belt... Machine Man eyes pop out in horror. Napoleon-...Well I integrated it into my body, so now I can travel in time and complete the second to last part of my ascension plan. Remember how the X-Men fought those alien/machine creatures, the Phalanx (Back in the ‘94 X-over The Phalanx Convent) They were made up of techno-organic substance which could increase its mass, shape shift and download instructions to transform it self into hundreds of kinds of machinery. Imagine what I could do with that. Panic covers Machines Man face while sinister happiness cover Napoleon’s. Napoleon-Good bye X-51. And with that and several rainbow colored lights above, Napoleon’s presence is gone. Machine Man kneels onto the floor sobbing at the consequences of his actions. As the thousands of command rays for the time jolt come roaring towards and past him, he begging to desperately think of a way to stop Napoleon.
-Hours later- Machine Man lays on the green checkered plane, covered by blue spheres. All hope is lost for him. He cannot stop Napoleon, he’s not even sure where he is.
Machine Man- He could be right above him, he could be right below, he could be on the other side of the machine’s program. The most likely place would be above, since that was where his voice and lights came from. Now, how do I get up there. Machine Man looks around at the rays. Machine Man-Of course! Machine Man raises to his feet and stands, ready to pounce. He looks carefully at the rays. It takes a few minutes, but he finally sees the perfect ray coming onto the plane. He waits until it is a few feet in front of him and pounces on top of it and slams it onto the ground, placing all his weight on top of it. He then turns towards where it came, takes most of his body off and lunges it diagonally to the ceiling. He clutches onto it as he rockets up off the plane and tears through the ceiling. On the other side of the ceiling, Machine Man erupts out in a storm of black shards. He struggles to keep the ray down onto the ground, once again putting all his weight onto. Slowly, he looks up and sees where his plan has taken him. The area is like being side an egg, rainbow wire like object come from both the ceiling and the floor towards a large sphere in the middle. The wires pulse with electricity, as if they were alive. Inside the sphere in the middle is the catatonic figure of Napoleon. The ray continues to try to rip out Machine Man’s hand. He lunges it several degrees to the right of the sphere direction. He flies forward in an arc and smashes through the sphere, smashing Napoleon into the floor. They prop up, but Machine Man kicks Napoleon in the chin. He staggers back and Machine Man uses his free left hand and punches him in the gut. He brings his hand back and lunges it forward. Napoleon parries it and spins his foot leg into Machine Man face, knocking him onto the floor. The ray escapes his hands and burrows thought the floor. Napoleon-Hah! Yet another demonstration of your inferior intellect, you programed me with the strategies of histories greatest fighters, including some’s martial art abilities. Machine Man grabs the ray out of the hole it has made swings it upwards as Napoleon lunges at him. It slices of Napoleon’s arm, accompanied by an “argh” on his part. Machine Man swings the ray at Napoleon’s knees tripping him into the hole. He uses his remaining hand and feet to prevent himself. Napoleon-Hah! It’ll grow back, right after it kill you very slowly. Machine Man hesitates for a minute. He had this plan in mind right when he knocked Napoleon out of the sphere, but now he’s not sure if he can go through with it. Napoleon advance up from the hole, Machine Man frowns a depressed frown. He hasn’t any choice. He ease his grip on the ray entirely, allowing it to rip out of his hands. The ray speeds to Napoleon and pounds him in the stomach forcing him back in the hole. He grabs onto the edges of the hole, trying to force the ray back up but to no avail. He screams as the ray burrows through his stomach. Machine Man turns away, aghast. He hears Napoleon scream, and scream, and scream, and scream, and stop. Machine slowly looks back at the black shards that used to be Napoleon as they burn up into nothing. He walks slowly back, frowning in sorrow. He climb up the wires and into the spherical womb.
-In the tangible world- It is pouring down rain. The body that Napoleon just occupied, Machine Man’s, cocks it head up, exposing it dead white face and blood red eyes. Machine Man looks down at his body, it covered in uneven yellow-brown machinery. The Phalanx disease. Machine Man pushes a red button on his belt, slowly he is emerssed in red light and vanishes.
Epilogue Outside of the mountain of rubble that used to be Ruth Mall, a news reporter talks to the lens on a camera about the tragedy that has unfolded hear. Meggan Mclaren-...a robotic monster, identified as the Avenger Machine Man first came to Ruth Mall three day ago fighting a kind of techno pirate claiming to be from the 13’th century. Witnesses say that the pirate came very close to destroying Machine Man. The day after that, apparently he came back seemingly more advanced and almost beat to death the pirate. Later that day, Machine Man returned, this time his intentions more evil. He destroyed Ruth Mall and slaughtered it 116 customers, 10 of which were children. However many people from the town have volunteered their help in fixing the damage inflicted on the rest of town. A tall, muscular walks behind the camera unlike his co-workers who are dyeing to be on T.V. He’s had enough time in the spotlight. In each of his hand he carries five wood planks, at feat which many of his fellow volunteers have been astounded by. In side the man’s head, he comes to conclusion of where his life is heading.
Journal Entry# Date-December 24, 1999 >From this experience I have learned that I inflict more damage then good I do. I am clearly not worthy of the powers that I possess, otherwise I wouldn’t have become so obsessed with killing Davis’s, and wouldn’t have let Napoleon kill all those people. As far as I’m concerned, X-51 and Machine Man are dead. If I become Machine Man or any robotic entity similar to him I will be hunted by either the government, bounty hunter or super heroes, which would eventually lead to more deaths of innocents. From now on, I will use my power entirely for the people, solving hard problems by using my abilities, but I will do so not in such a flamboyant way as in the past. The Phalanx disease allow me to shape shift, so I can use my powers in a discrete way. I still don’t know if I’m protected from being consumed by entropy in two years. If it does come, then at least I will know I used my time here in the best way possible. *CLICK* Machine Man places the six boards next to a black table. He walks up an old man sitting in the table, eating the warm apple pie his wife gave him. Man-That’s some arm you got there sunny. Machine Man-I guess you could say that. Man-Would you like some apple pie? Machine Man-Yes. Thank you. The slices a pieces out of the pie , places it on a plate and hands it to Machine Man. Man-What was your name again? Machine Man-Aaron sir, Aaron Stack. -The end-
*WHEW* Its finally done. I hope you liked my story, it’s been really fun. Please write and tell me what you thought at nltpinchuk@worldnet.att.net. So what am I going to do now? Well be sure to watch out for my Big Hero 7 series to launch soon at the 4Corners section of MV1 and the Avengers: The Legend mini-series at the Avengers wing. Bye!