NOVPUB
Chapter 49: Timmy! Kill them!
"RUN!"
A split second later,
The bookshelf exploded outward, splintering into a shower of dusty old books and yellowed papers.
A hulking metal machine burst through, nearly scraping the ceiling—a nine-foot monstrosity of rusted metal and whirring gears, its faceless head swiveling with a red scanner beam.
"Intruder! Intruder! KILL! KILL!" Its mechanical voice boomed, reverberating through the cramped room as it locked onto Harris and Rhea’s faces, targeting them with eerie precision.
"Timmy! Kill them!" the old man wheezed, his voice a shrill rasp as he gripped his cane. "They want to take you away from me!"
"KILL! KILL!" the robot roared, its arms clanking as they transformed. Joints clicked and whirred, reshaping into twin SMGs, barrels gleaming under the flickering bulb. It opened fire, a storm of bullets spraying toward them.
Harris dove, rolling behind the sagging sofa with a grunt, the upholstery shredding as rounds tore through it.
He peeked out, heart pounding in his throat, eyes darting to Rhea.
She’d reacted faster—and dirtier.
The old man hung in her grasp like a meat shield, lifted effortlessly into the line of fire. Bullets tore through his frail body, jerking him like a ragdoll.
Blood sprayed across the walls, wet and sudden. His last breath rattled out in a gurgling wheeze, eyes wide in final horror.
Rhea’s hazel eyes glinted with cold pragmatism behind her mask, unflinching as the robot kept firing, relentless even against its own master or as saved in it’s data. It’s ’Father’.
The barrage stopped, the SMGs clicking empty.
Click. Click.
"Reloading! Reloading!," it barked in a clipped, mechanical tone, arms shifting as fresh magazines locked into place.
Rhea didn’t wait.
She hurled the old man’s corpse straight at the robot’s optical scanner, it’s face.
It struck with a wet, bone-crunching thud, blood smearing the lens and throwing the targeting system into confusion.
"Vision compromised! Vision compromised!"
"Burn, you tin freak!" she snarled, thrusting a hand forward.
A wave of fire burst from her palm, a roaring blaze that swallowed the machine and the dead body in an instant.
Heat surged through the room, flames licking across the wooden walls. The dry rot fed the fire hungrily, turning the whole place into an oven.
The robot staggered, its chassis glowing red-hot, servos shrieking in protest as the old man burned to ashes and withered away. Then—
Boom.
It burst through the north wall in a plume of smoke and splintered timber, crashing outside in a heap of scorched metal.
The dust cleared.
And there stood Gator Grip, hunched beside the shed, idly scratching his scaly buttocks with a rusty wrench. He blinked as the smoking robot slammed into the dirt just inches from his feet.
"Hiss~~ Wut the frick is thissss~"
____
Gator Grip jumped, yellow eyes bulging as a nine-foot pile of scorched metal crashed into the dirt just feet from him, steaming like a busted furnace. The air reeked of molten steel and burnt blood. He stumbled back, heart hammering.
Then it clicked—this was the threat they were here for.
"What’s a robot’s weak joint?," he muttered, lunging forward without hesitation.
His jagged teeth sank into the robot’s arm, jaws clamping down like a steel trap. "Gotcha, junkheap!" he growled through gritted fangs, jaw muscles coiled to crush.
The robot’s scanner flickered erratically through the soot and burn scars, then refocused with a blinding red pulse.
"EWW! LIZARD! KILL! KILL!"
Its other arm snapped forward, a blur of motion. Gator Grip barely had time to curse.
"Aw, cra—!"
The robot seized him by the tail, yanking him into the air like a sack of potatoes. Then came the pain.
WHAM.
Into the ground.
WHAM.WHAM.
Three brutal slams. Bones cracked. The air left his lungs in a single stunned wheeze.
On the fourth, the robot hurled him across the yard like garbage, his scaly frame crashing into a brick wall with a sickening crunch.
His tail snagged in a jagged crack, anchoring him upside down as debris rained around him.
"Hey almighty! Lizard gods, take me now..." he groaned, dazed and dangling, eyes spinning in opposite directions. Blood trickled down his snout.
The robot turned, servos screaming, one red eye locked on him like a predator spotting the kill.
It revved up—shoulders bracing, hydraulic pistons hissing—its massive fist cocking back for the final blow.
Gator Grip squinted through the blur. "Okay... any second now... backup would be real nice."
The robot’s fist surged forward, its metallic knuckles glinting in the firelight—
"Not today, tin can!"
Just as the killing blow loomed, a muscular figure in a tight blue singlet thundered onto the scene—Titan Pulse, a walking mountain of muscle and bravado.
He bellowed, ramming the robot with the full force of his momentum. The collision cracked like thunder, sending the machine skidding across the yard in a blaze of sparks and screeching metal.
It hurtled straight toward a woman standing with calm poise, her hair coiled into a massive, fist-shaped bun—Silk Siren. She smirked, already winding up.
"Incoming!" she sang out.
Her hair unfurled and launched forward like a piston. It smashed into the robot mid-slide, launching it skyward with a metallic screech and a trail of shrapnel, vanishing into the black sky with a comet’s arc.
Titan Pulse jogged over to the wall, reaching up to yank Gator Grip’s tail from the cracked brick. The reptilian hero slumped down, groaning.
"You good, scales?" Titan Pulse asked, clapping him on the back with a meaty palm.
Gator rubbed his jaw, wincing. "Yeah... barely. Thanks, big guy. I owe you some ribsss~."
Across the yard, Silk Siren waved brightly, her giant hair-hand uncurling into a peace sign while her real hand fluttered.
"Heyo~! Teamwork makes the dream work, right?" Her voice was light and melodic, completely at odds with the carnage around them.
Titan Pulse and Gator Grip chuckled, starting to wave back—when time slowed.
Titan’s smile faltered. A glint caught his eye—a faint, metallic thing.
A cylinder.Small.Silent.Deadly.
It landed with a hollow plink right at their feet.
There was no time to speak. No time to shout.
They just looked at each other—and knew.
BOOM!
A flash like a newborn sun swallowed the yard. The explosion tore through the air, vaporizing sound itself.
Titan Pulse and Gator Grip’s bodies flew in opposite directions, flung like broken dolls. Their flesh was charred, their limbs twisted unnaturally before they even hit the ground.
Smoke billowed, flames rising, bits of debris raining down like confetti from hell.
Silk Siren stood frozen.
The crater where her teammates had just stood was now a blackened scar on the earth. Her mouth opened, but no sound came. Her cheerful wave now hung in the air like a cruel joke, the smile still fading from her lips.
"No..." she whispered, her voice shaking.
A shriek cut through the smoke—raw, robotic rage.
"KILL! KILL! KILL!"
The robot dove from above, hammer raised in its remaining hand.
Silk Siren barely raised her head before the weapon smashed into her coiled hair-shield with a teeth-rattling impact that drove her to one knee.
"Back off!" she yelled, shoving it back, strands snapping and rewinding on reflex.
But the machine’s other arm shifted—gears whirring, plates reshaping.
Into a shotgun.
Her breath caught.Her hair froze mid-motion.The barrel stared her down—wide, unblinking.The robot’s scorched eye glowed.
"Target acquired."
Bang.
