Slaine stood at the skatepark with Riley as they watched others skateboard and do tricks.
"How can I help you?" Slaine asked him.
"Do you remember you used to stay with us all the time? What happened now? I heard you switched to gaming." Riley asked as he chewed his gum.

"I'm bored of skateboarding," Slaine said.
"Then why skateboard now?"
"I just do it sometimes. Never mind that-What did you want?"

"For now, I just wanted to talk to my old homie. Wanna grab something to eat?" Riley asked as he put his arms around Slaine's shoulders. He pushed them away "What do you want, Riley?" This time, he stressed more on his words so Riley decided to be straightforward.
"We've got a new bait. We want you to go since you're the best that I know."

"What's the bait?"
"Just beat another skateboarder from the west in a game of tag."
"Just that?"
"He's very good-Don't think it'll be easy."

"I'll do it."

"I knew you would." Riley smiled.
"I'll go now-"

"Why are you in such a hurry? Got people waiting for you? I'd love to meet them."

"No, I just want to be around your ass,"
"Come on, now. Come skateboard with us, Slaine." Riley passed him a lollipop.
Slaine thought that it wouldn't be so bad to stay at the skatepark for a while. He'd just skate for a while and then go back to the bar. He took the lollipop and went down the slide. He kept it inside his pocket and decided to skate around.

Riley stared at him as his friend, Frank, stood beside him.

"He's good," Frank said.
"He's the best gamer and the best skateboarder in NYC. What would you expect."
"He really is something."

They were all teens or people in their early twenties-basically young adults. They hooted as Slaine did the tricks. It had been a while since he went to a skatepark. He liked the feeling- Being with others like himself and skateboarding. He was at full speed when suddenly a kid appeared before him on a scooter.

"And there he falls," Frank said.
"You think?" Riley smirked. Slaine grabbed the kid with his scooter and kept going straight. He climbed a ramp and dropped the kid at its top. Then, he held his skateboard "Why are you here? Where's your mom?" He asked.

"I came without her today!" He said proudly. He seemed about the same age as Axel, or maybe younger.
"Do you live nearby?" Slaine asked.
"Yes."

"How old are you?"
"Nine."
"Alright kid. Don't come here alone. There are dangerous people around here." Slaine warned him.
"You don't look dangerous."

"You trust what you see. That's why you're a kid. Now go home." Slaine threw his skateboard and jumped on it, sliding down the ramp. He stared at Slaine and climbed on his scooter. Slaine was back to his tricks again and he heard loud hooting noises every time he landed a trick smoothly. He decided to do a kickflip next and went ahead at full speed. The kid suddenly appeared in front of him and bam, both of them went down.

"Ow"
"What the hell, kid!"
"Where's yo mommy? Stop quacking around here. Go to your mommy."

The audience shouted.

Slaine got up with a friction burn all over his back and a big bruise on his leg. He looked at the kid who was crying like there was no tomorrow.
"I told you to go back home." He said as he picked him up. "Stop crying." The kid immediately stopped and Slaine smiled "Now, go straight back home. You get me?". He nodded as he wiped his tears with his hands.

"Great. Now off you go."

Slaine picked up his skateboard and went up to the ramp "Slaine, you okay man?" One of the boys asked.
"Yeah, just a few bruises." They all were skateboarding for the next two hours until Slaine got tired and decided to leave.

"Leaving already? It isn't even dark yet. Tired?" Riley asked.
"Nah, but I should leave now. I've got a game too."

"I see. See ya on Monday. Right here."
"Sure." They shook hands and he left.

'Maybe he changed after all these years. I want to trust him again. I'll give him another chance.' Slaine thought. When he reached the bar, he walked down to the basement which was now a highly modified computer room filled with wires and a large platform was built at the centre of the room and a huge screen in the front. The screen had many wires connected to it which all assembled inside a pair of black glasses.

"Is this a gaming parlour?" Slaine asked, surprised by such a change.
"Mr James," Asselyum said as she approached an old man with grey hair and spectacles."He is an agent from the future. He will provide us with everything we need."

"Hello." Slaine greeted him "What is this place?"

"We call it a control station." Mr James explained "It is like Asselyum's control room. The technician and the coordinator stay in here when she fights while the controller and mechanical support go with her to the field."

"What's a field?" Axel asked.
"Anyplace where the battle takes place."
"We still don't have a runblaster. I don't know where are Mike and Norman. I told them to get me one" Asselyum said.

"You must have some other amulets?" Mr James asked.
"I just have this... third-grade pistol." She took out the gun from her pocket.

"What is a runblaster?" Jimmy asked.
"It's a kind of machine gun which was made by Mr Howley S. Timbre to especially kill X-DROIDS," Asselyum said.
"X-DROIDS?" Slaine said.

"That's what we call the thing which attacked you the other day," Asselyum said. Lupin looked at Slaine.
"So, what're we gonna do now?" Mr James asked.
"Do you have some guns on you?" Asselyum asked.
"Yes, but they are from the present world. Will they do?"
"Yes, they will."

Mr James went inside a room and brought two pistols and two rifles with him along with one huge knife and a sting gun. She took everything and hid some guns under her shirt, the knife was inside her socks covered by her boots and some guns were inside her short's pocket.

"Boys, assemble at the bar. We've got loads of things to talk about. Now that you all are here, let's start." They all went up to the bar and took a seat. Mr James had closed the bar for a while.

"In the future, we had a scientist called Dr Nicolas Frank, who implemented the theory of genetic recombination in humans." Asselyum started the explanation to make her team less confused.

"Humans have a vast genetic code. Scientists believe that if we put our genes in proper order, then they can form a path to the moon-- That's how huge our DNA is. But, Dr Nicole found the way to deal with it and came up with a completely new branch of genetic engineering where you can modify the entire genetic code of a person by modifying one part of his body, that was called "Homogeneticolocous". This study could provide humans with animal traits like night vision, sensitive hearing, physical strength and much more. So he started testing his experiments with animals on rats that substituted humans"

"But that's crazy!" Slaine shouted.
"That's what the United World Government also believed," Asselyum said.
"The United World Government?" Jimmy asked.

"In the future, you don't have different governments for different countries. We have a huge World government which takes decisions for the entire world led by president Dexter. Their word is absolute. It has four tiers under it."

"That's a little bit..." Slaine was deep into thoughts as to how this system worked. He had never even imagined something like this could happen.

"After his experiments went successful, Dr Nicole went for the human specimens. But while he was working on the different genetic codes, he made something else. He was able to transfer the characteristics of a certain mysterious animal species to the human species. Heard of Tasmanian wolves?"

"They're extinct now," Jimmy said.
"They are back in the future. Thanks to doctor Nicole's experiment."
"What?"
"Crazy!"

"It was a huge success-- Until the third world war-- wherein this amazing invention was exploited and used as a biological weapon. The mutations increased due to uncontrolled breeding and finally came a breakout of the deadliest disease-- Antex--Caused by Kaukatio virus found in the body fluids of X-DROIDS. These were the former humans who fed on human flesh. They had modified bodies and could easily breathe underwater.

Soon, these X-DROIDS spread throughout the entire world. Whoever they bit and had their blood in contact with their blood, got infected--after all blood is a body fluid. Either that person died out of infection or they became X-DROIDS themselves, this continued from different countries to different continents till the entire human species was infected. It became a pandemic. This was a biological weapon created by a human that lead to humanity's downfall"

"So, this has no cure?" Jimmy asked.
"If there were, then the conditions of making ANDROIDS won't come in the first place," Asselyum said.
"So, then?" Axel asked.

"So then, within two years, the world population dropped from 12 billion to 12 hundred. The lifespan of an X-DROID is 40 years at the best. So, people who were infected died as soon as they reached their forties. The death rate surpassed the birth rate.

Dr Nicole was a close friend of the biggest creator of robots-- The founder of Imperial Mechapolis- Beta Enhancement National, or what the general population calls him--Ben. He asked for help so that the military couldn't exploit people and people would be free of this deadly disease. Ben was an old friend of the most powerful man in the future, Dexter. Dexter was a cunning man and he knew that Ben would come to him for help. So, before Ben could do that-- He played his politics by sending all the 14,000 X-DROIDS to the past through the time machine. Eventually, he had built isolation chambers so we weren't needed here in the past.

Until '5th oblivion' broke in and destroyed the cells-- Freeing all the X-DROIDS" Asselyum said.

"What's 5th oblivion? The main villain I guess?" Jimmy asked.

"You could say that. A group of 5 extremely powerful X-DROIDS. They have a thinking capacity like us AI. They are the reason we ANDROIDS exist. I don't know what they were thinking, but they decided that to save the future, they will send these X-DROIDS to the past on a longitude of the timeline and create a parallel world. The one in which X-DROIDS exist and the future one in which they don't. So, your world is that parallel world where X-DROIDS exist."

All of them were dumbstruck.

"They sent a time-travelling satellite to space which detected all the X-DROIDS on earth and decided to teleport them to the past. When this decision was announced, some people were happy that they were saved but some were against it, Ben was one of them. He created five robots representing the five codes that will save humanity- CODE X111 CODEX333, CODEX555, CODEX777 and CODE X999. I am the primitive model. The first android ever made to kill X-DROIDS. The other four are also sent to the past to fight the X-DROIDS but my radar hasn't been able to detect them so far and the signals here are bad so I'm facing communication difficulty.

He sent me here to find and kill him once and for all"

"Why would a man send someone to kill the past him?" Jimmy said.

"I don't know. I trust him-- He always gives the best alternatives. Ben will save us all- He is our God."

-To be continued

Lupin Kuznetsov
5500 Rebellion