By DEMETRIO GONZALEZ
Staff Writer
Yajirobe contacted me on my radio in my helmet and informed me what was going on with the Arc soldiers. I had him go off on his own and try to figure out what was going on. He told me that the black pea-shaped objects falling from the sky attach themselves to the mentally weak. Once they attach they make the person relive their worst moments that have gone on in their lives. While the person is fighting with themselves mentally the roots start growing all over the body eventually taking over the body slowly then kills them off once they are out of power that the roots feed off of. I asked him if there was a way to save the people being controlled by the roots and I got the answer almost immediately. The answer was no. There was nothing anyone could do about it except the person being controlled. They have to face their worst memories head-on without fear. Once the person isn’t afraid anymore the roots eventually will dry out and die from starvation, but if the roots reach the brain then there was no escape. The roots would start to eat the brain which gave it control of the person’s abilities and other personal traits. Not only that but the roots are made up of muscle which adds a power boost to the person once the roots reach the brain. They land on the weakest part of the Arc soldiers’ armor which in our case would be all the joint areas in our suit. The black pea-shaped objects falling from the sky were later known as rooters.
No rooters had latched onto me and I plan to keep it that way. The Arc soldier who had been completely controlled by the rooter kept cloning making about fifty clones in total. As he cloned I informed the Rebel what was going on and what the rooters were capable of. The Rebel chuckled all the information off and turned his attention back to the rooted soldier. All fifty of the clones charged towards us. I dodged about six of the clones and started throwing punches to all the ones around me. The Rebel dodged all the clones and went straight to the real one.
“If you wanna kill a snake cut off the head,” the Rebel said, landing a left-handed uppercut making the rooted soldier fall to the floor. All the clones disappeared. The Rebel wasted no time finishing off the rooted soldier who was on the floor. Orion and Yajirobe met up with us a few minutes later. They both took care of the other two rooted soldiers I left with Orion while me and the Rebel handled the cloning one. As we were catching up on what went down the district eleven general went flying and passed us into a building killing her instantly. A monstrous laugh came from the direction the general flew from. A gigantic beast that resembled a berserker showed up. Something about his presence made me extremely cautious about this monster. It was taller and bulkier than an ordinary berserker and it actually had some pitch-black type of armor on him. The thing that got to me the most is the fact that it had the ability to laugh which confirmed that this was no berserker.
“Everyone get back now!” I shouted as I also stepped back.
“What are you afraid of, scaredy-cat,” The Rebel said as he stepped forward towards the gigantic beast. Orion followed him thinking they could take it on and I believed they could for a second. The monster saw Orion and the Rebel appear near it and it smirked at them.
“Finally some more fresh meat,” The monster said clinching its fist.
“GET BACK NOW,” I yelled at Orion and the Rebel. They turned back to tell me to relax when the monster started to charge just like a regular berserker towards Orion. Orion dodged just like anyone would do against a berserker. As the monster passed by Orion it looked directly at him.
“You fool,” the monster said to Orion while its gigantic left hand grabbed the face of Orion and continued to charge. The monster carried Orion’s body from his head like a ragdoll and held out its arm making Orion’s head go through the walls of the buildings it was passing by. The Rebel used his extremely fast speed to catch up to the monster and landed a right leg kick to its face. The monster threw Orion towards another building, but before he could hit the wall Yajirobe caught him and started to treat his injuries. The monster grabbed the Rebel’s left leg and threw him straight to the floor and then towards me. I caught him and made sure he was breathing, but my eyes never went off the monstrous beast. The kick the Rebel landed had no effect on it. This wasn’t an enemy any of us could take on right now. It was about to charge at all of us once again, but before it did it walked away. It was like someone or something told it to retreat. That gigantic beast would have killed all of us right there if it wanted to, but someone or something told it not to. I knew that wouldn’t be the last time we encountered that thing and the next time I know we won’t get off easy. That was the only one of its kind on earth. We called it the Juggernaut.