Nomad Hybrid

GIANTS

By Neil Rowlands (Drag-5)

Ambidetr was a grand city, situated in the midst of trees at the base of mount minokum. The trees were mostly cedar trees and the road cut a wide path past the lake right up to the gates. There were numerous settlements surrounding the city and many spread up into the boughs of the trees. The city itself though was a gargantuan beast of stone and slate. The walls were fortified and guarded night and day. This city would not fall to its enemies and it's lord - "vrinon" would defend it to his death.
This was the capital of ahsiatica. It had stood there for centuries and its lord had lived there even longer. It had seen a thousand battles and each time the city had withstood thanks to the ability to post 'light throwers' in the trees. At the enormous gates, during the day hundreds of carts would pass through. The business was strong and commerce came from throughout ahsiatica. The streets were lined with shops at the fore of the city, further back the inns started and then further back were the residences and then soldiers barracks. It wasn't very uniform and you'd always get a couple of shops dotted in the residence areas and a couple of inns hidden down back alleys.
One of these inns was called the crowing dog.
It sat on the corner of reginard alley and its owner was a large stocky man with a lump in the middle of his forehead.
At this moment he was standing behind the bar cleaning mugs and whistling.
Meanwhile, the cold flames of the fire were staring at a man sat in the corner. To any other person these flames would seem hot but aptom stared back and they remained cold.
His entire world was cold.
He had been taken by chronos when he was younger. He had been experimented upon and messed about with until his body was ruined and he was left sterile. He would never have a family. The only family he could ever have so to speak was his comrades. The people in the same situation as him. Somlum and dyme.
Then one day he was sent out to do battle and his comrades were murdered by Sho Fukamachi.
Aptom was now sitting in a strange world and his only viable means of getting back home was the man, no the BOY, who killed his only family.
He sipped at his ale.

It wouldn't be long now. The procession was about to start and the lord would return to the city. That's when all the people would be in the city centre watching the lord go by. The word was, the supreme lord had come to visit. Well that meant al the more people if that was true. A high concentration of people was his best chance of finding the Fukamachi boy. It was likely Fukamachi would think the same way so he was going to walk amongst the crowd and hopefully spot him.
A man entered the inn. "Looks like everyone's gathering" he walked over to the bar and sat his heavy hind on the now creaking stool.
Aptom pushed his mug aside. Pulling his hood over his head he rose and headed toward the door.
"HEY, where do you think you're going?" the bar keep was leaning forwards both hands on the counter. "It would be Wise to pay up..." he glared forwards. The man who was almost breaking the stool stood up. His frame was twice that of aptom and the bar keep. He was tall and wide. The man walked toward him and grabbed his travel cloak. Aptom looked at he hand and the next thing he knew he was smashing into empty barrels and boxes and when he looked up he was behind the counter. The Barkeep was sneering down on him. "Thought ye could get away without paying?" his breath stank of rotting meat. He took out a long twisted dagger. "Lets see how much gold ye got.." the dagger flashed forwards and stopped at aptoms neck. The rusty tip of the dagger rested on aptoms skin. Aptoms hand rested on the bar keeps. Aptom was currently hungry.

The lord vrinon, rode his horse through the grand gates of ambidetr. The crowd that greeted him was cheering and the noise to celebrate his return fell upon his proud ears. His aide that had come to greet him rode his horse alongside.
"Sir, the supreme lord is in the city. He has come to talk with you about recent events in ahsiatica."
The lord took interest in his words and gave a side-glance to the greasy man. "These events... they will be brought under control, I trust?"
The man seemed uncomfortable at his lords' deep gravelly voice. "Sir, we are doing everything in our power,.. But we lost the renegade in conflict"
"Then find him" the words from the lord were cold and threatening.
The aide fell back and the lord rode on.

Aptom slipped through the crowd. A lady was stood holding her baby. Some kids squabbled over an apple. A man stood smoking a pipe. An old lady waved to an old man the other side of the street. Next to the old man was a young boy with longish black hair. Fukamachi. Aptom tried to push through the crowd and tried to get through to the other side of the street.

Vrinon rode on and was shocked to see a man in a travel cloak run across in front of him. How could anybody show such impudence!?
A couple of moments later a man twice the size and twice the width stepped out, bowed and addressed the lord. "My lord, that man that just passed is a thief and a murderer. I will catch him in your name."
The lord nodded and the enormous man continued on.

Aptom walked down an alley. He was sure he saw Fukamachi go down this way. He then spotted a door. "Doctor of zoalurgy" was printed on the nameplate. He decided to enter. Fukamachi can't go far and even if he did, he was searching for aptom too and he was sure to know that aptom was here.
Twelve burning candles sat on a counter to the right of the door. All around the room were artefacts of similar design to the guyver unit...
One was like a mask with a control medal on it. One was like a pair of pliers and there were others.. A small frail man with grey wiry hair sat behind a desk, looking over his glasses at aptom.
He had a puzzled expression on his face. "Not a graboah, are you? " he looked doubtful.
Aptom approached him. " Not a graboah. I have come from a place unlike this one..."
The old man looked satisfied " ah, a foreign species. You must be from far away my friend. So what is it that ails you?" he picked up an instrument that looked like a mix between a magnifying glass and a pair of forceps. "May I?" he gestured toward aptoms hand.
The man studied the hand very closely while aptom explained the nature of his powers and his recent problems.
The man sat back and sighed. "Never before have I seen an incarnation such as yourself. You must have had a very skilled necromancer working on you!" he gave a slight wink.
" It seems that you have had an outside influence. A power similar to yours but one more forceful."
Aptom thought back to the experiment with the gigantic unit.
" It seems that this more forceful power has changed your soul so that you are more focused toward one beings pattern"
This was very confusing. Why did the man not tell him scientifically?
"Your powers, I am afraid, have been curbed." the man looked sympathetic.
That made sense. He had been getting indigestion after eating a zoanoid. That's why he had to leave the pub in such a hurry after eating the bar keep. It took all his abilities to throw off that large man.
Aptom was not the super creature that he once had been.
"I am sorry, I am not skilled enough to reverse this." the man put down his instrument and removed his glasses.
"Thank you for trying, and thank you for your help." aptom got up and left the building.

Exiting the alley, aptom came upon a square with a fountain. It was completely deserted. There were different types of inn in this area. This seemed like a central place for people to go. Perhaps there were market stalls put here by travelling traders. Perhaps they had festivals and dances here. It was a large area and the floor was dusty. A horse was tethered to a wooden pole at the other side of the square. There was a cart with what looked like melons over to the left. There was an enormous man standing right in front of the fountain.
The man wasn't there a second ago, but the plumes of dust around his feet and his crouched posture suggested he just came from upwards.
"You filthy beast" came the words from the giants' mouth.
" You murdering scum, you cannibal. You will die here today you maggot!" then the giant ran forwards and before aptom could move, he found a fist being driven into his newly shattered nose. Such was the angle of the punch; he was driven downwards and ended up with his head embedded in the floor. Then his leg was pulling him upwards again. The next thing he saw was the fountain. The fountain was a pleasant arrangement of cherubs and demons. There was a nice arrangement of spikes that the water flowed freely over. Aptom did not. He was lucky that he only got skewered by 3 of them. He felt a hand grab his shoulder.
He screamed in agony as he was slowly prised off the spikes and he turned to see his opponent. The giant looked at him and chuckled. The face was like that of an ogre. It was rocky in texture and heavy in features. The eyes were still soft however. Aptoms hand thrust straight into the giants' eye. The monster screamed just as loudly as aptom just had and stumbled back. Aptom dropped down into the red water. His blood flowing freely from his gaping wounds. This thing was going to be tough. Aptom was already badly injured and was not healing as he once would have. The only option for now was retreat.
He jumped up onto the nearest roof and started running as fast as he could. He heard a loud noise behind him. He couldn't chance looking behind him, as it would slow him down. He fled as fast as he could rooftop over rooftop. The bang again. It was closer.
His leg got caught. His foot was crushed. He turned round to see that his foot was crushed by the giants' foot.
The giants hand was then round his waist squeezing. Then he was in the air. All he could feel was air and then the hard slam of ground. He could hear people. Then he felt a hand go around his neck. Colours flashed in his eyes. The hand squeezed his neck even more and he felt breath on his face. He regained focus.
Two eyes looked at him.
The cornea was purple. The iris was yellow.
The hand round his neck made a crunching sensation, pain and then blackness.

A cricket played its song to the moon.
The midnight wind brushed past curtains and around a shadowy figure that was standing amongst them.
"We now have the renegade in our possession" vrinon was addressing the shadowy figure that stood at the window.
The supreme lord always appeared in this fashion. He spoke using his mind like most lords could.
The supreme lord spoke "very good. Make sure that he is 'well treated'. And find out what he was doing for so long with all those naked dogs."
"Yes sir, we have him under interrogation now."
The shadow vanished leaving the words "the isle of unity must fall!"

The Guyver Net