Pt. 2

As I stood in the street covered with some kind of black and beige goo waiting for more challengers a drone popped out and displayed a hologram of a figure similar in stature to the others. It stood formally on its three legs and a had a long beige almost fish like face with four slitted emerald eyes. “I believe the translation nanites are functioning?” It asked expectantly in a AI default style voice.

I nodded with a very confused look on my face, not really sure what this was about. “We are the Granar people of Marturus.” It looked at me proudly like I was supposed to know who that was. “We did not intend on any hostilities with your people, our initial scans of this deathworld did not reveal your species”.

I sighed “Well your scans are correct at least, I’m the only one of my species left. Everyone else has destroyed themselves in war or was destroyed by the world itself.”

“So this wasn’t a deathworld for very long then? This apocalypse has happened recently?”

“No no, this has been an ongoing event throughout our long history. We destroyed ourselves in an effort to advance even further beyond. I know that there are others of my kind out there in the stars somewhere but they were sent on a one way trip. I’m the last one here.”

“Well…” the alien bowed their head in reverence. “…Your planet is one of the greatest death world planets that has ever been discovered to have intelligent life. The radiation, the heat, the cold, the gravity, the terrible conditions, how did your people survive it?”

“Well we endured. One of the things about my people is that, we just don’t give up. Some of us see a impossible challenge and work towards it just because it was thought to be impossible, or too dangerous. Sure a lot of people might die in the process but we constantly learn and adapt.”

“Well if you wouldn’t mind…perhaps your people don’t have to go extinct. Perhaps, you don’t have to be the last human on earth.”

My ears perked up “ What do you mean by that?”

“Well, our species has developed cloning technology. We can alter and edit a genome of a creature to be as good as it can get. We are out our evolutionary apex yet, you a simple human best us unequivocally. If you let us clone you and develop your genome, you could be the forerunner of your species, the direct descendent from which all humans from now on will descend from.”

For the first time I was given a shot toward greatness. My species as a whole depends completely upon my decision right here, right now. “I accept your offer, but there’s a lot of things I have to tell you about humans”.

My partnership with the Granar began. There were a lot of problems due to the incredible diversity of humans as a baseline. Humans are very original and creative and voraciously horny. There were incredible disagreements, differing ideals, and mindsets. With our help the Granar built a galactic empire which we stood at the right hand of.

Humans become the forefront of the galaxy and were considered to be one of the greatest species of the modern times. Our power intellectually and physically was unmatched and I got to be the father of it all. Anti aging technology is only so power, and you can only hold on for so long before you loose your grip on life.

I died happy, knowing that I went from a nobody to one of the greatest humans in modern history.

Pt. 1

Here I was standing on this desolate planet alone, disappointed that I wasn’t dead yet. I lived a quite and depressing life of simplistic mediocrity were nothing ever happened. It wasn’t even so bad that it was interesting it’s just that you could write down all thirty years of my life down in a paragraph. I wandered around the desolate city I once lived in, ravaged by war and natural disasters I was the only person left on this shitty planet.

Eventually I sat down at a diner I would go to every day. I ordered the same thing, a well done burger with onions and mustard with a side of thin cut fries. Add in a vanilla milkshake and that was my lunch since I was in my early twenties. I sat there for what must have been an hour on those bar chairs when I heard something I hasn’t heard before. The roar of engines Burt’s through the air and I hid behind the bar looking out the windows.

Outside a medium sized space craft landed right in the middle of the street. A orb like drone popped out and began scanning the environment as it floated around emitting a low hum. After a few minutes of scanning around it it popped back into the craft and a pressurized door opened. Two creatures vaguely humanoid with three muscular legs and short stout bodes in modern style armor entered the street.

They only seemed to be three feet tall as they set something on their gauntlets which turned into the equivalent of a sub machine gun. The taller one also had what looked like a blade on its hip. I hid from them as I heard them step closer into the dinner. Their armored footsteps crunching the broken glass beneath them which they looked at inquisitively.

I tucked myself into one of the cupboards and closed the door behind me. I could hear their footsteps growing closer as I held my breath as the door opened. They pointed their gun at me and I raised my hands in surrender. Apparently that sign isn’t universal as the loud sound of firearms echoed through the room. I saw my life flash before my eyes but…I wasn’t dead. It hurt like I was being shot by a pellet gun but none of their shots broke the skin.

I banged my forehead on the cupboard as I crawled out of it while the solider kept shooting at me with no affect until he landed a few shots on my neck. That certainly left a mark and I charged the solider and tackled it. As soon as I had wrapped my arms around it I heard a crunch of the armor bending under my weight. As soon as we hit the ground I felt the creatures whole body squish like one of those yoghurt tubes.

I got off of it and was worried for a moment that I might have actually just killed it when I saw from the corner of my eye the other solider aim their gun at me and begin firing. I charged it again and managed to grab the firearm out of its hands without any issue. Before I could turn the gun on it I felt the gun crinkle and deform under my grip and threw the ruined the firearm to the side.

The solider unsheathed their blade so I picked up a nearby chair for some kind of defense. As it took a swing at me I swung the chair and not only dented the blade but deformed it into a sad looking “U”. It dropped the useless blade and ram back into its ship and flew away. I returned back to the solider I had tackled who was just as deformed looking as the sword was and looked like I had just stepped on a snail with its beige body leaking out from the change in pressure.

Soon enough a dozen or so more soldiers in similar uniforms showed up and fired at me on sight. I charged them as the hail of slightly painful bbs hit me and haymakered a soldiers head clean off. I felt like a super human as they started backing off but still trying to take me down. I kept coming after them again and again killing them in different ways. One I kicked their legs off and curb stomped them, Pile drivers, RKO’s, And Bane Knee slamming people in half.

They started switching to darts coated with something that I believed to be some kind of tranquilizer. Either way my adrenaline was pumping and whatever they were doing just wasn’t working. Their armor did nothing to stop me and their fire arms had zero stopping power against me. For the first time in my life I was unstoppable.

Annihalatus stomped down the marble halls of his lair, each footstep echoing out as if it was the only chance of mercy to whoever would step in his way. He was known to be ruthless but cunning. He was incredibly aggressive and powerful but had more than enough intelligence to back it up. His power was that he was able to shift earth, minerals, metals, and stone to his will and owned a massive mining and steel company as his legitimate business.

Standing at a imposing 8’6 with a powerful build resembling more of a golem than a person, Annihilatus marched down the hallway into the meeting room. His metallic power armor covered him from his toes to his neck with a stone mask obscuring his face. As soon as he entered he heard the snickering and not so hidden jeering of his comrades in evil. Though bald, Annihaltus sported various dry erase marker drawings his daughter had created as well as “customizing” his power suit with drawings of her father ruling the world and fighting people to death and most importantly, glitter…lots of glitter.

Annihilatus narrowed his eyes behind his mask which everyone understood as a command of silence. “If anyone has an issue with my beloved daughter learning to be creative and expressing herself please step forward” his trench deep voice rang out to the council who all collectively decided that today. just like everyday, was a bad day to challenge him and decided to remain seated.

As the meeting started most of the snickering ceased or at least an attempt was made to make it less audible. They ran over their meeting last minutes but a villain three seats down from Annihilatus started cracking up and through tears said “I I I I I’m so sorry but I just can’t do it. I just can’t take you seriously”. Annihilatus shifted his gaze towards the villain “Firestorm is it? You ignite the oxygen around you to create fire is that correct?”

The relatively new villain from Arizona was well tanned and had slicked back black hair and wore a plan white shirt with a black jacket was on the ground laughing. Firestorm was only able to give a thumbs up in agreement as he gasped for air. Annihilatus calmly marched towards firestorm and grabbed him firmly by the throat, his hand reaching all the way around his neck. “Here’s a free chemistry lesson for you. Now tell me firestorm. What are the three components to keep a fire alight?”. Firestorm in a panicked voice tried to mutter out “I don’t know” as Annihilatus’s grip squeezed tighter. “A fire needs three things to stay alight, Heat, Fuel, and Oxygen”.

“Now tell me Firestorm. Do you know what happens when any of those three things are removed from the equation?” Gasping for air as his throat is totally collapsed, Firestorm begins to try to pry Annihilatus’s hands off his neck. “A fire is extinguished, that’s right. Fire needs oxygen just as much as you do. Isn’t that right Firestorm?”

Moments away from blacking out Firestorm is resorting to trying to use his powers to burn Annihilatus’s iron hand so he will release him. Annihilatus unfazed by the flames attempting to burn him puts a little extra pressure on the spinal cord before dropping the near unconscious villain to the ground with a heavy thud.

Firestorm begins gulping down as much air as he can on the floor as Annihilatus looms next to him like a Monolith. Annihilatus reaches down to the disobedient villain and pick him up by his collarbone to eye level and says “If you ever think about making fun of my daughters excellent artwork again, just remember our little chemistry lesson” and drops him back onto the floor.

Annihaltus walks back to his chair as if none of the previous moments had transpired and there wasn’t a man gasping for air and mewling in pain on the ground. He motions his hand to signal for the meeting to continue and it goes off without another distraction.

I just finished engineering school on the east coast and my family and friends families all wanted to come together and celebrate our graduations when we came home. Everyone chipped in for booze and pizza and for a solid hour everything was nice and calm until people started to get their drink on.

Liquid courage caused two divorces, multiple counts of felony property damage, a drunk car crash with both vehicles ending up vertical in a Gazebo, Arson, and one family being banned from Dave and Busters for life. Funnily enough most of the damage was caused by the parents except for the Dave and Busters thing, that was my fault. The very next day while I was recovering from my hangover my apparently sober dad took me out into the mountains “Just in case” he said.

My dad was a doomsday prepper, made sure all of the equipment was up to date and the shelter was stocked full of water and food. He taught me how to survive by myself from a young age and taught me to hunt and all that. I never would have thought I would ever use these skills. We laid low in the mountains for a few days enjoying the crisp air when my dad went out to a nearby town for some supplies.

I wandered around the shelter aimlessly for a while. Because my dad installed shock absorbers to the shelter if it wasn’t for the bang I wouldn’t even know bombs were being dropped. By the time I managed to look outside everything was burning and massive craters lined what little of the horizon I could see. My dads drilling kicked in and I shut the shelters doors. Twenty years later they’ve never been opened.

I’ve been breathing the same recycled air for the past twenty years, drinking the same recycled water, eating recycled food.For the first month I used the satellite phone to see if anyone was still alive but it quickly became a way to still hear my families voices again. You never really think about how if someone has been gone for long enough you forget what they sound like until you accidentally ring a friends voicemail that you forgot the number for.

Life for a while really sucked, especially when you ring someone and their voice mail is “Hello, Hello. This is Kate, how are you?” And it really brings you how that there’s someone out there and that you’re talking to a real life person until the automatic operator takes over. Those were the most devastating times of my life

For twenty years it was the same routine over and over again and ended up creating a small phone book of the numbers I managed to call up. I would write stories about how they would look and what their average day would be like. I kept the bad thoughts away and passed the time which is really all I could ask for.

As my day was winding down and I made my last call for the night I heard a ringtone that I had never heard before. After a moment of shock and sprinted over to the phone like my life depended on it but the call was dropped. “I need better signal, I need better signal” I looked towards the sealed door. The moment I unseal it there’s no going back, there’s no way of knowing what’s outside waiting for me, for all I know I’m just floating through space but this life isn’t worth living. If I don’t try now I may never get another chance, and if I die, then at least for the first time in two decades, I lived.

I walked over to the controls, only used once. I input the override code and placed my hand on the switch. I closed my eyes and whispered “This is it” and pulled the switch. The seals opened and the door slowly pulled itself up. Instantly the smell of fresh real air almost overpowered me, the sight of real green vegetation, and real sunlight almost blinded me. I had lived everyday in a concrete box with a single led light separating me from darkness and here everything was , waiting for me just like it was twenty years ago.

I stepped outside and the dew covered grass hugged my calloused feet and I will without shame in my heart admit I dropped down to the ground like a dog and rolled around in it crying. I had to steel myself, I raced up the mountain calling the number back over and over as I climbed higher and higher. As I hit the top of the mountain where the satellite antenna stuck out I got a clear enough signal. After a few seconds the other phone picked up and in a act desperation said “Hello?”.