Chương 67: Episode 12: Cyber Struggles

Prince was slumped against a tree, arms behind his head, snoring peacefully like he hadn't a care in the world. Nearby, Ella sat by a small campfire that Archie had accidentally started just by sneezing. Demaurion, meanwhile, was arguing with a squirrel. Loudly. Archie sat on a log beside the fire, staring into the flames. For a moment, they reminded him of Azure. Just a flicker of a memory, before he blinked it away and looked up at the darkening sky. Ella noticed.

"You fine, Archie?" He shook his head.

"Thinking about Azure." Demaurion, still mid-fight with the squirrel, yelled out after another failed trident stab, "HE'S A VILLAIN! DON'T BOTHER!" Archie chuckled.

"Yeah, but… Azure is like— so freakin' badass. It makes me wanna be badass too." Ella leaned forward, raising an eyebrow.

"You're jealous of a villain?" Archie glitched.

"NO! That's not—I mean—LOOK, DID YOU SEE HOW HE FOUGHT?!" He ranted, "Combat intelligence! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Ella snapped her fingers, grinning.

"Yup. Jealous." From across the camp, Prince mumbled, half-asleep, "It's cool to be inspired by a villain, Archie. It happens to a lot of us." Archie pointed.

"He gets it!" Ella just shook her head, brushing her cat tail with a small smile.

"If villains inspire you, you might start becoming someone else. Someone not a Hero." Archie's wings flared dramatically.

"C'mon, Ella, don't be a mom—you're twelve! Villains are just cool right now. Meanwhile, I blow up kitchens like it's a hobby." She giggled.

"It wasn't just the kitchen. It was a quarter of the school."

"RIGHT—UH—DAMN IT!" Meanwhile, Demaurion was still fighting the squirrel like it had personally insulted his entire bloodline. He kept missing. Badly. The squirrel started showing off, dancing around the trident, doing flips, and even kicking Demaurion in the foot.

"OH, THAT'S HOW WE'RE PLAYIN', HUH?!" he shouted. The squirrel ran circles around him like it was in a Looney Tunes episode while Demaurion cursed, sweating and swinging wildly.

"COME HERE, YOU FURRY LITTLE DEMON!!" And then— in the most anime move possible —the squirrel lifted Demaurion's trident, flipped him over, and slammed him to the ground like a pro wrestler. Suddenly, the dirt under Demaurion exploded. BOOM! A silver cyborg girl launched into the air, screaming in high-pitched beeps, boops, and robotic static. Everyone turned as she descended in rage, transformed her hand into a metal fist, and clocked Demaurion across the field—straight into the tree Prince was sleeping under.

SMACK! Demaurion crashed so hard, birds evacuated the area.

"I HATE ROBOTS!!!" he screamed. Prince rubbed his eyes and looked up. Then he looked at the girl. Full cyborg. Her body shimmered in silver with sleek, metallic blue legs. Both arms were chrome, but one forearm glowed pink, the other blue. Half of her face was artificial, with a glowing pink LED eye. The other half was human, though her second eye glowed blue. She had no mouth. No hair. Just two curved metallic horns—one pink, one blue—arching back from her head. Her chest had a glowing, heart-shaped emblem.

She crossed her arms, turned around, and started to descend back into the underground hole she'd launched from… until—"HOTTIE ALERT!!!" Prince shouted. Ella blinked once. Then again. And by the third time she looked, all the boys were wearing tuxedos. Prince now had on sunglasses.

"GUYS!" Ella screamed.

"I TOLD YOU TO SAVE THAT LOOK FOR THE NOMANITE FESTIVAL!! THIS IS A FIELD TRIP!"

"But there's no Nomanite Festival anymore," Archie said, adjusting his tie.

"Don ruined the trip. So now we pull." Prince slid past the cyborg girl holding a blue flower he somehow conjured from thin air.

"Lightning Lavender, best flower in Avangard."

"WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET THAT FLOWER?!" Ella hollered.

"I'm the richest kid in Avangard," Prince said with a wink.

"I got everything covered." Archie pulled out a card that read in glittery ink:"Will u be the luv of my life 4ever?"

"Archie, you were born broker than a busted vending machine!" Ella screamed, veins bulging. Then Demaurion appeared, tuxedo crisp, scrolling on his phone.

"You're the full package. Already booking us a hotel." Ella lost it.

"YOU SAID YOU HATED ROBOTS!" Demaurion blinked.

"I said that?" The same squirrel he tried to kill earlier held up a walkie-talkie and hit play: " I HATE ROBOTS!" Demaurion's voice echoed from the device. Demaurion chucked water at it, making it spark and explode.

"Weird. I don't recall saying that." The cyborg girl looked increasingly confused. The situation had clearly devolved. She backed up, lost her footing, and fell back into her hole with one last long, mechanical screech—" BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!" BOOM! She crashed below the surface. Ella rushed over, trying to de-escalate the situation.

"Wait! What's your name?" From the edge of the hole, the cyborg reached up and handed over a small metallic sign, painted with bold blue letters: BITE The night wind whispered through the silent forest as the bus rumbled forward between thick leaves and tangled bushes, tearing through vegetation and jolting over rough terrain deep within the jungle.

Its headlights flickered through the darkness as it burst out from the dense greenery and entered a wide valley overflowing with tall grass and towering stone formations. Dinosaurs roamed the open land—Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and massive Brontosaurus wandering beneath the moonlight.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The bus rolled down the slope. Inside, the entirety of Class 101 was asleep. Bodies were slumped across seats and floors in every direction. Ryan was sprawled out near the aisle, completely unconscious, snoring loud enough to sound mechanical. Mason sat near the window with his head resting against the glass, one of the few still awake. Up front, Angel kept both hands on the wheel, eyes fixed on the road.

Outside, huge Gallimimus sprinted alongside the bus, weaving through the grass faster than the vehicle itself. Mason held up the tube filled with glowing pink chemicals, rotating it in his fingers while staring at the strange liquid inside.

"Angel," he called lazily.

"What do you think the slimy pink ooze is?" Angel barely glanced back.

"No clue. Looks like alien drugs." Mason snorted.

"If it came from Rack, he would've stolen it back already. Dude notices everything." He paused, staring at the tube.

"I honestly expected this from Madman." Angel sighed through his nose.

"Madman's weird enough to invent strawberry-flavored destruction." Mason nodded slowly.

"Only Madman would make some chemical that smells edible and probably melts your organs."

"Science, baby." Angel tapped the steering wheel.

"The universal language of bad decisions." Mason leaned farther into the aisle.

"So why's he even in the Lost World?"

"That's the problem." Angel's eyes narrowed at the valley ahead.

"Madman's never anywhere for normal reasons." The bus continued deeper into the valley while dozens of herbivores stampeded past them. Something had spooked the entire ecosystem. The roaring outside ripped through the air hard enough to make Mason cover his ears. Dinosaurs thundered down the hills around the bus, shrieking and roaring while the ground trembled beneath their feet. Even the massive Brachiosaurs were moving far quicker than creatures that size should've been capable of. Mason looked out the window.

"What are they running from?!" Angel slammed a hand against the dashboard.

"NOPE. I DON'T LIKE THAT."

"ARE WE RUNNING INTO RACK AGAIN?!"

"WORSE!" Angel yelled.

"THIS IS A FULL PREHISTORIC PANIC ATTACK!"

"TURN THE BUS AROUND THEN!"

"WE CAN'T!" The bus sped through the grass while moonlight washed over the valley. Mason looked ahead. Blinking red lights. Hundreds of them. His eyes widened.

"ANGEL—TURN THE BUS AROUND RIGHT NOW!"

"WHAT?!" Angel whipped toward Mason before snapping his attention back to the windshield. His face dropped. The valley ahead was swarming with flashing red lights.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me." He yanked the steering wheel hard. The bus drifted sideways across the grass before violently correcting itself, bouncing over rocks while Mason rushed toward the back window. More blinking lights flooded in behind them. Then— CRASH! A window exploded inward. A tiny skeletal robot burst through the glass and slammed onto the floor, tumbling through the aisle. Its head twitched sharply from side to side while it spat rapid bursts of robotic gibberish.

Then it lunged straight at Angel. Angel shrieked.

"GET IT OFF—GET IT OFF MY FACE!" The creature latched onto him while the bus swerved wildly across the valley. A nearby Triceratops nearly clipped the side of the vehicle as Angel blindly tried ripping the robot away. The bus fishtailed toward a Stegosaur. Mason groaned.

"Man…" He stretched his arm down the aisle like elastic dough, grabbed the robot by its leg, and casually flung it straight out the busted window. BOOM. The robot exploded outside in a burst of orange sparks. Angel grabbed the wheel again.

"STAY IN YOUR SEAT!" BAM! A Stegosaur tail smashed against the side of the bus. Windows cracked instantly.

"SHOOT!" Mason yelled, grabbing onto a seat for balance.

"WHAT EVEN HIT US?!"

"DON'T ASK QUESTIONS RIGHT NOW!" Angel barked. Outside, Gallimimus shrieked while swarms of tiny cybernetic creatures tackled dinosaurs to the ground. Mason stared in horror.

"GO! GO! GO! GO!"

"I'M PUSHING THE PEDAL TILL IT FILES A COMPLAINT!" Angel shouted back. The bus tore around another sharp curve. Dinosaurs flooded past in every direction. Then an Ankylosaurus smashed directly into the front side of the bus. Metal screamed. Glass shattered. The beast's armored body scraped across the roof before tumbling away into the grass. Mason launched upward onto the roof of the bus, landing hard against the rusty metal. From above, the valley looked completely insane.

Prototype CyberBots swarmed across the landscape like insects. Some flew through the air while others crawled at horrifying speeds through the grass. Mason stretched one doughy arm toward the back of the bus, anchoring himself while still clutching the pink tube. His dreads whipped behind him in the wind.

"I'LL HANDLE THE SCRAP METAL!" he shouted.

"JUST KEEP THE BUS MOVING!" Then he launched himself off. His body slammed into the ground before rebounding through the tall grass. He flipped over the charging swarm and landed behind them. Dough-covered arms stretched outward, smashing through clusters of robots with rapid strikes. He twisted mid-spin and launched another barrage of elastic kicks into the air, blasting bots apart in chains of orange explosions. One of the creatures leaped onto his back. Mason staggered.

"Oh nah." The robot tried dragging him down while more shots fired toward him from the swarm. The blasts struck his dough body and bounced harmlessly away. Mason grabbed the creature attached to him by the leg and slammed it into the ground. BOOM. Orange sparks burst across the grass. He looked up. More were charging.

"Okay, there's WAY too many of you little gremlins." Dinosaurs thundered past him while he locked onto a charging Triceratops. He stretched his arm toward one of its horns and swung himself around it like a grappling hook. The Triceratops roared in confusion as Mason launched high into the night sky. He spun through the air. Then fired rapid dough blasts downward. Explosions ripped across the swarm below him one after another.

"DUMB CHAOS BOTS!" He latched onto the neck of a running Brachiosaur next, swinging himself forward again before launching toward the swarm. Mason stretched downward, using the ground itself to catapult higher into the air. Dough inflated around both hands. The material twisted and compacted together until it formed a massive grenade. He fipped high over the swarm and dropped it. The dough grenade hit the ground. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! A massive orange explosion consumed the field.

Fire erupted outward in every direction while the shockwave ripped through the valley hard enough to throw Mason backward onto the dirt. For a moment, all he could hear was ringing. Burning grass crackled around him. Dinosaurs continued stampeding through the valley while smoking robot remains littered the battlefield. Mason slowly stood. Breathing heavily, he walked toward one of the destroyed Prototype CyberBots and crouched beside it. The machine was disturbingly thin. Tiny.

Its glowing red eyes still flickered weakly through the fire. Mason waved smoke away from his face.

"Huh…" He stared at the wreckage.

"Madman definitely made these." He looked around the burning valley.

"How'd he even find us?" Clap! Clap! Clap! Theatrical. Mason froze. Through the fire and smoke, a figure approached while calmly applauding. Madman emerged from the flames wearing a sleek black futuristic suit, button-covered gloves, polished shoes, dark shades, and perfectly combed hair paired with a thin mustache. The dude looked like an evil fashion designer with a PhD.

"You know," Madman said casually, "it's refreshing seeing someone your age wandering around the Lost World at night. Especially while giant lizards are having a collective mental breakdown." He tilted his head and smiled.

"It's nice seeing you again… Mason." Mason's fists tightened.

"Nice seeing you too, Madman." He narrowed his eyes.

"What evil nonsense are you sniffing around for now?" Madman physically recoiled.

"That sentence was horrifying." He adjusted his gloves.

"But nothing major. I'm simply examining things." His eyes kept drifting toward the pink tube behind Mason. Mason never noticed. Madman chuckled softly.

"Step back, Mason."

"From you?" Mason scoffed.

"Do my feet look like they're moving?" Madman sighed.

"I suppose I'll help them." A hologram suddenly wrapped around Mason's ankle. CLANG. A gigantic weight materialized instantly.

"OH COME ON—" The weight slammed into the ground, dragging Mason down with it. The pink tube shattered beside him. Gas exploded outward. A sweet scent flooded the air—strawberry cookies, milkshakes, candy. Way too sweet. Way too wrong. Mason covered his nose and frantically waved the smoke away. But the gas seeped into his skin anyway. Madman turned around and casually walked through the grass, snapping his fingers to a tune.

"MONSTER! MONSTER! DANCE DANCE! MONSTER! MONSTER! DANCE DANCE!" The song echoed through Mason's head. Every word made his blood boil harder. He growled, clawing at the grass while his body trembled violently. Then his eyes snapped open. Pink cracks spread through them. Muscles expanded. His arms swelled wider and larger while dough rapidly spread across his skin, hardening into monstrous forms. His hoodie ripped apart. His back broadened.

Veins bulged beneath layers of living dough as his body grew larger and larger. Madman kept singing. Completely unbothered. Claws burst from Mason's fingertips. He staggered upright and roared into the night. The sound tore across the valley hard enough to scare the dinosaurs into an even bigger frenzy. A Triceratops charged past Madman, nearly flattening him.

"AH—GOOD LORD!" He dodged sideways before looking back toward Mason. Now the kid stood over ten feet tall. A hulking dough-covered monster. Pink glowing eyes. Sharp pastry-colored claws. Massive muscles twitching beneath hardened dough. Mason wasn't Mason anymore. He glared down at Madman while his chest rose and fell with heavy growls. Veins pulsed across his arms and face. Madman squeaked.

"EEK." Then teleported away instantly. The monster stomped through the burning field surrounded by destroyed Prototype bodies. Pink energy crackled around him. His blood boiled. His rage spiraled higher. Then he threw his head toward the sky.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHH!!!"