The Isolator

Prologue

In the year 2400 there was a great war. Britain had risen to power, and controlled all of Europe, and most of Asia. This caused tension between Britain and America. Eventually, Britain became suspicious of America when they built up forces, and attacked Canada. Because of this, an all out war broke out between America and the UK. After many decades of war, the planet was eventually laid to waste. After this, the people decided to elect one leader, who was the ex-prime minister of the UK. They lived in towns and villages, much like 1800’s America, but with the weaponry and technology of their age. With no borders, and no countries, conflict was kept to a minimum. Bounty hunters claimed contracts on enemies of the Lord. When time travel was discovered, crime went up rapidly. Radicals went back in time and tried to change the war, and help either side win. As technology advanced, a select few of the best bounty hunters, soldiers and mercenaries were employed to stop these criminals as quickly as possible. They were given the ability to move outside of time. Not matter what happened in the past, they remained alive, the same age, skill and physically the same. Any things that changed in the past from time travel never affected them. This allowed them to analyse what had changed, and decide whether it should be left, or changed back, by whatever peaceful, or forceful, means necessary. This caused a lot of outrage, but was eventually accepted. For the past 100 years, this has been used to stop time being changed for the worse, only for the better. It has been told that there are some renegade isolators, and of some going mad. Now less than half of the original isolators have gone missing, or been killed in uncertain circumstances.

Chapter One

The explosion sounded over everything. The bells, the cars, even the roar of a fighter jet on a test run high above the city itself. Through time and space, until it reached the ears of one man. Several people around him disappeared, but no one seemed to notice. First a few, then more and more. Slowly, a crater appeared where the market once stood. No one was left but the man, the wind blowing his long brown cloak. Despite the now dim light, the man wore dark sunglasses. Slowly, he raised a hand to the small black sphere on his ear.

“Where was it this time?” he asked, his broad english accent cutting through the wind.

“An all-Asian night club in Leeds, 2010.” A slow voice drawled.

“Repercussions?”

“The destruction of the club enraged Asian leaders. They joined together, and waged war against Britain. Britain won, but a munitions warehouse that stood where you are now was blown up, destroying the small town. The town has been desolate ever since. Present loss toll, 100 and counting. Time to get to work.”

The man nodded. “Prepare the equipment.”

“Warp in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

The voice cut off, and the world seemed to be ripped apart before his very eyes. He didn’t even blink. He was Hawk Anderson, an isolator. Thanks to modern science, he does not age, and is never effect, physically by any events that people from his time change in the past. It was his job to put right any disastrous changes that are made to the past, and leave any beneficial ones. It is, or was, the year 3050. Time travel was discovered, and the isolators were modified to be able to see any changes in time, and prevent them happening, or prevent events being stopped.

Slowly, the world put itself together again, and he was standing in the dark, outside a nightclub in Leeds, the year 2010. He now knew that in about 20 minuets, someone from his time was going to go back and destroy the club. He was to find them, using his time displacement tracker, and stop them by any means necessary. He heard a bleep, and immediately turned to his right. Although still wearing his sunglasses, his modified eyes still saw perfectly. What they saw was a shadow. With a gun. And a bag of C-4 explosives. Enough to take out the club, and then some. He quickly, but silently, ran into the alley. The shadow turned and saw him, and ran past him in a blur. Great, he thought, the last thing I need is a confrontation in the open. However, the only people who would be out at this time would be drunks. He’d just have to not use a gun.

He turned and ran after the shadow. Although the man was fast, Hawk was faster. He ran, and landed a well-aimed punch onto the mans spine, and his fist contacted metal. The man stopped, and turned a half human, half wire and skull head towards him. He took off his coat, and showed a ribcage, with metal webbing over it. The arms were made of thick metal, and had rusted, nasty-looking blades for fingers.

It threw a lightning fast punch at Hawk, but it punched merely thin air. No matter how fast mechs are, they are no where near as skilled as humans. Hawk grabbed the arm, and stuck a large knife in the elbow joint, rendering the arm useless. The machine cried out with an inhuman scream, and yanked its arm back, but Hawks grip was strong, and the arm weak. It broke off at the elbow. Hawk used the arm as a weapon, and put all of his strength into one large blow at the robot's ribcage, but to no avail. It punched him in the face, sending him flying into a wall. The bastard! He thought.

“Well” he said, through gritted teeth, “Hand-to-hand skills are all well and good, but against mechs, nothing’s better than good old hot lead.”

He pushed aside half of his cloak, revealing a gun holster holding a large pistol. A .44 Colt Magnum. One of the originals, and still, after 1000 years, still one of the best small projectile weapons.

He held the gun with both hands. Despite enhanced strength, the recoil from the gun could still seriously injure him. He levelled the gun with the mechs head.

“Hey” he said, grinning, “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? No? Well the moon is pale,” he looked up at the moon, and started to put pressure on the trigger, “And this is the last dance you are going to have, and you’re about to meet the devil. Go to hell!”

The large metal slug exited the guns long barrel, and entered the head of the mech, causing it to explode in a mass of meat and metal. He quickly grabbed the body and remains, and sent out a beacon through time to his base, informing them that he was ready to return to his time. However, he was replied by the sound that all time-travellers dreaded. The slow, low tone and the red light on his receiver could mean only one thing. Something was wrong at his base. The time-travel line had been cut off. The base had been attacked, and the equipment destroyed. His blood ran cold. Never had this happened to him before, in his 100 years of service. He typed in the time to his one-use emergency transmitter. The receiver was in place, in time, and intact. He pressed the send button. For the first time in a century, Hawk Anderson was afraid of what he was going to discover. He was travelling into the unknown, not knowing who, or what, he was or was not going to encounter when he got there.

Chapter 2

When the world once again pieced itself back together again, what he saw was like a steel dagger to his heart. He looked on in dismay at the smoking husk of a large steel warehouse that had been his base for the past decade. About 500 years ago, its smoking wouldn’t have been unusual as napalm bombs destroyed it. What was strange was that now, 500 years on, it was smoking again, and that could mean only one thing. Hawk drew his magnum, and crept in through the large iron doorway. He looked towards the apparently destroyed door. He kicked it down, and jumped back as a great burst of flame shot through the doorway.

“NOOOOOO!” he cried. He ran in, regardless of the searing flames. He grabbed at the extinguisher, and tried to set it off desperately, although he knew that it hadn’t been full for years. He heard a cough from the corner. One of his partners, the only one of them not now burnt to death, was huddled under a fireproof blanket.

“What the hell happened?” Cried Hawk.

“The night-club in Leeds was a distraction. Something else happened. Mace Ackland has become leader. He has banned all time travel, and is hunting down all isolators.”

“When did he gain power?

“About 50 years ago.”

“How?”

“In the year 2500, someone changed something. Big time.”

“What did they do? I’ve got to go back and change it!”

“They (cough) t-t-they killed the Prime Minister. Lord Dalakors ancestor Lord Anthrow. And you can’t go back. All time travel transmitters have been confiscated by Ackland.”

“Then there’s only one thing I can do. Kill Ackland.”

“I-I-if you’re going to his citadel, you’ll need the weapon that I’ve developed. But you can only use it once. Use it on the citadel, and you’ll wipe it out. But with one drawback.”

“What’s that?”

“If you don’t get out in time, the backfire will rip you apart.”

“Jesus, what does the gun do?”

“It, it, no, run! Ackghh!”

His anguished cry rang out like a death toll. Hawk turned, and saw a mech holding a bio gun. The bio gun stopped the targets heart right out. Before the mech could even raise the gun again, Hawk had lunged at it, knocking it back out through the door. Hawk got up slowly, a new anger, a power that he had never before experienced rose up inside him. He grabbed a metal pole that was embedded into the ground, and ripped it out. He threw it with such force that it pinned the mech down. The loud whirring of its motors as it tried to rise was drowned out by Hawks loud cry. It was a cry of anguish at so many friends lost, at anger at Acklands deeds, and the idiocy of the man who caused it, and pure bloodlust at wanting to kill anything that stood in his way. He raised his fist, and smashed the mechs head in a crushing uppercut, sending it spinning across the floor. The machine let out a few convulsions, and finally stopped. Hawk was crouching. His long hair covering his insane grin. There was only one thing on his mind revenge. But first, he knew that he must rest. He left the warehouse for the last time, leaving the flames to cremate his age-old friends in a holy explosion.

After two nights sleeping in a gutter, a slow drum waked Hawk. Soldier mechs were marching in an unnaturally straight line. Despite his welling anger, his common sense retook control of him, and he waited to see what was happening. He looked at the back of the march, and he saw a prisoner. Not just any prisoner, an isolator. His mind was set. He could not, and would not let another isolator die at the hands of Mace Ackland. He turned, and ran into the doorway behind him, and hidden from view, he waited. The man was roughly dragged up to a steel cross that was set upon a mound of metal skulls. A mechanic voice sounded above the shouting crowd of mechs and people.

“For disobeying the mighty Lord Ackland, and for killing an imperial mechanik, we sentence the isolator Andrew Blackhand to death by electrocution and Crucifixion.”

The man was chained to the cross, and the generator powered up. Metal prongs were nailed into his hands. The crowd screamed with a frenzied bloodlust as he let out a cry of anguish that would have been heard miles away across the desert. As the executioner reached for the switch, Hawk took aim, and shot the generator, blowing it sky-high. He ran in, his cloak whipping around him, his torn jeans being grabbed at by mechs and Satanists alike. He shot the mans restraints, and grabbed him. He smashed a nearby soldier mech in the face, and took his electric gun. He fired on the mass of soldiers, cutting a path of debris through the crowd. He ran through, and into the desert, easily outrunning the mechs. He jumped in a truck, and hot-wired it. After taking out two mechs in front of him, he sped off towards the desert, back to the warehouse.

After letting Andrew recover, Hawk introduced himself.

“I’m Hawk Anderson, and isolator like yourself. You are Andrew Blackhand, I presume? No need to look so surprised, the executioner announced it. Now tell me, what the hell happened.”

“Well, firstly, let me say how relieved I am at meeting another sane person. Everyone is insane! Satanists everywhere, and fanatics!” Replied Andrew. He was about 5ft 5, and had long blonde hair. He was quite skinny, and wore small round glasses. But his voice had a sense of meaning to it, as if even though he looked weak, he would always back up what he says with force if it is needed. It was a voice of age, and of seeing and knowing as much action as any soldier.

“In the year 2500, someone from this period went back and killed the Prime Minister who was to become the Lord of the world. Because of his death, one of the ancestors of Mace Ackland took the throne, and it has been in the Ackland rule since. We have to do something. All sane people, and all isolators are being systematically hunted down and killed, and all forms of time travel confiscated for his own use. Only Christ himself knows what for. We must kill Ackland. And if we can’t do that, then we must find a way of going back, and stopping it happening. If it was a normal person. ” Andrew trailed off.

“What?” Hawk enquired

“Oh, nothing. The point is. We have to do something. Now.

“Too damn right.” Hawk said. His voice now low, and tinged with the bitterness of revenge. “And I know just what.”

Chapter 3

Hawk smashed down the now burnt door, and entered the blackened room. He forced himself to look straight ahead, and not look at the charred corpses of his former colleagues strewn about the room. He walked to the far wall, and ran his hands over the still smooth surface, until he found the hair thin crack in the wall. He pressed it, and it glowed a faint red colour. He spoke into the light.

“Hello B32. Damage report on the lab please.”

A female voice replied.

“Damage report is as follows. Labs 10-30 are normal. Labs 30-39 are inaccessible except by force.”

“What about lab 40?”

“All information except for visual has been cut off from lab 40. Reasons are unknown.”

“Bring up visual.”

A small screen opened up on the wall. What he saw on the screen shocked him more than the most grotesque image could have. What once was a lab full of junk, scrap, and various thrown together pieces of technology, was now nothing but a clear room with bleached whit walls, and one steel chair sitting in the middle.

“What the hell is this?” asked Hawk.

“About 15 hours ago, there was a massive power surge from the room. When I checked the data, I was cut off.”

“Right then. Open doors to lab area. Password BETA-2727.”

“Doors open. Warning, unknown life form detected in entrance hall. Proceed with extreme caution.”

As the doors slid silently open, Hawk raised his gun, ready to shoot anything that moved. The shining silver walls of the hall were a stark contrast to the black charred walls of the room. He walked slowly forwards, gun always raised. The doors slid shut behind him, causing him to frown. He spoke out loud.

“Open the doors.”

“I am sorry, the doors have been cut off from my power supply, and I am unable to operate them.”

Hawk turned slowly around. The main power cable to the door was hanging from the ceiling. It was neatly sliced in two, as if by a precise, sharp blade. He turned and proceeded down the corridor. What he saw round the corner made him stop dead in his tracks, for what he saw was a thing of mere rumour. Something that all isolators feared becoming. A ‘Wraith’. An isolator who had become totally overwhelmed by the loneliness, and who’s body couldn’t contain the powers of the isolators. The creature turned and looked at Hawk. Its face was long, grey, and drawn out. It had a sorrowful look, and it let out a pitiful wail. Then its face twisted even more, and became one of absolute anger and bloodlust. It put its hand to its hip, and drew a long samurai blade out. Always one to make a fight fair, Hawk threw his gun onto the ground, and raised his fists. He could tell that this isolator was younger, and it had not as much experience and training as he did. It lunged at him with the sword, but its movement was so slow and clumsy that Hawk easily side-stepped

it, and landed a crushing blow on the creatures wrist. Although it crushed the wrist and crippled the hand, the wraith didn’t react, as if it couldn’t even feel it. Few people know that the actual case is that pain caused by injury is insignificant to the pain caused by the overrunning power, and the madness that this caused. Hawk yanked the sword out of the creatures’ limp hand, and threw it across the floor. He knew that it was a great dishonour to any swordsman to be killed by his own sword. He swung his fist, and it contacted soft flesh, and went straight through. He kicked at its legs, crippling it. He then aimed one, final, fatal punch at its head, and stopped. The creature was silent. Then, suddenly, its eyes rolled back and its mouth opened wider, and wider, until half of the face was ripped open. It let out a blast of pure energy from its face that barely missed Hawk. Then, it finally laid still. Hawk got up, picked up his gun, and left the corpse. He continued down the corridor, until he reached lab 40. He tried the door, but it was locked. He shot the handle, and the door flew open, revealing the bleached white room. He looked inside, and then walked in. he sat in the chair, and the room around him dissolved, leaving the image of another place. It was the docking bay of the labs. He tried moving his left arm to look at. What he saw wasn’t his own arm, but a mechanical one. It was gleaming black, and had some sort of trigger on the hand. He pulled the trigger, and his whole hand lit up, firing out a ball of energy, totally obliterating the bay doors. He tried pulling the trigger on his other hand, and felt himself slowly raise off the ground. Tilted left and right, and turned left and right. When he tilted forwards he accelerated, and when he tilted back, he decelerated. He also saw a red mark in his vision. Slowly more marks and numbers appeared in his vision. His sight went fuzzy, and the words “Alpha AI system and auto-diagnostic program initiating. Frame Robot name: Bladerunner.” Appeared. Then, the screen returned to normal, and he saw a bar in the top left corner of the screen, the word ‘ground’ in the bottom left corner of the screen, and a crosshair that moved wherever his hand pointed. There was also a red dot that he pushed. Immediately, he was back, standing up in the white room. He ran out the door and down the corridor to the bay.

When he entered, the black machine loomed about 7 meters above him. He went back to the room, and found that there was a suit lying on the chair. He put it on, and he was back in the machine. He exited, and took the suit with him. He searched a few other labs, and found some C4s, and another magnum. He also took the sword and scabbard with him. When he got to the door to the warehouse, he placed the C4, got a safe distance back, and shot it, blowing the door off. He walked back through to Andrew, and told and showed him what he had found. He also found some old clothes of his own, and gave them to Andrew, as well as the Magnum.

“What’s this?” Asked Andrew, who obviously knew little of guns that he himself hadn’t used.

“It’s a .45 magnum. Bloody powerful handgun, can even take out a mech.”

“Well, if we are going to go to the citadel, we’ll need these then. As well as that thing you found.”

“I want to try something. Just bear with me.”

Hawk put on the suit, and took the Bladerunner through the bay doors, and round to there they were. He reached his hand to his back, and found two things. A hatch for him and partner to be stored in, so that it could be run manually. And a huge broadsword. Both him and Andrew got in the ‘runner, and piloted it in the direction of Mace Acklands citadel.

Chapter 4

When they reached the citadel, they both looked up in awe at the size of it. Over 3’000 meters tall, and surrounded by what must have been a 40 meter high wall, the citadel seemed impregnable. Or it would have been, if they were attacking on foot. However, they could fly. The flew up to be level with the top of the wall. It looked about 10 meters wide, and was guarded by huge cannons, one of which turned to face the ‘runner, and started to charge up. The ‘runner nimbly dodged the shot, and ran right next to the cannon. It forced the barrel to turn up, despite the obvious size of the motors that were working against the ‘runner. Hawk then drew the 'runners sword, and stabbed it deep into the mechanisms of the cannon, stopping it moving. He then moved the ‘runner back, and held down the trigger. For some reason, though, it didn’t fire, but caused a ball of light to start getting bigger around its hand. Hawk smiled.

“Hell yeah!” he grinned. Andrew gave him a puzzled look.

“Watch and learn” Hawk said in reply. Once the ball was about 3 times the size of the ‘runners hand, he let go of the trigger, sending it hurtling towards the cannon. The cannon erupted in a ball of flame and blinding light. When the light dimmed, the cannon was gone, and there was a huge crater in the wall, well over half as deep as the wall was high, and much wider than it.

“Well, so much for sneaking in, eh?” smiled Andrew. “Never mind, let’s see what this baby can really do. Here, give us a go!”

Hawk handed the manual controls over to him, and Andrew immediately drew the sword.

“I’m more of a sword man than a gun man.”

5 mechs, all as big as the ‘runner, approached them, with dirty great blades in their hands.

“Be careful what you do…” Hawk started to say, but before he finished, Andrew had done a flip over the mechs, and had, almost gracefully, sliced the first one into pieces. The second one lunged at him, swinging its sword. Andrew merely raised the ‘runners arm, and the swing that should have crushed it, merely glanced off. Andrew then grabbed the mech, and with one hand, snapped its neck, and then ripped it clean off. He then threw the head at the final mech, and punched a hole clean through the head, and the mechs body. He then brought both the mech and the ‘runner to the ground, threw the mech down, and stamped on its head, killing it almost instantly. They then approached the main citadel structure. They tried blasting at the walls, but not even a fully charged blast could penetrate it. They knew that the only option was to exit the ‘runner. The land between the wall and the citadel was vast, and desolate. It seemed totally devoid of not just life, but anything at all. They walked towards the citadel, and began to circle its massive base. Although there was no way in that was visible to the naked eye, Hawks advanced eyes saw a small red light at the bottom of the wall, near the floor. He pressed it, and a thin beam of light appeared in the wall, and got wider. There were three shadows in the light, each one about 7 feet tall. Hawk and Andrew jumped to either side of the door, Hawk with his gun, and Andrew with the sword that Hawk had got. When the figures had come out, they saw that they were two armed human guards, and a prisoner. As one, both Hawk and Andrew moved. Hawk shot the head of one of them, and Andrew cut off the other ones head. He then knocked out the prisoner. They took the guards uniforms, and put them on. They realised that, despite their obvious skills, they were never going to take on the entire citadel alone. They would have to sneak in. They Picked up the prisoner, and walked back in through the doorway. They passed many mech guards, each one as soulless as the last. They eventually reached what looked like an elevator. They pushed an upwards arrow, and went in, leaving the prisoner behind. They pressed the highest level number, and waited while the lift slowly ascended. When they exited the lift, the place they saw was totally different to the place that they left at the bottom. They had entered a place of rusted metal, huge piles of scrap, and dangerous looking machines. One of these machines turned its head a complete 180 degrees, and its eyes turned red.

“Face unidentified. Intruder! All systems red alert!” It boomed in a metallic voice. The room was lit up with red light, and all the machines turned towards them. Hawk and Andrew both took a defensive stance, both believing that this was the end of them. Then, The suit that Hawk was carrying started to pulsate, and they heard a low noise outside, as if something was burning into the wall. All the machines turned their heads at once, and the ones near to the wall had just enough time to glance the bringer of their destruction. The ‘runner smashed through the wall, its arms glowing red, and another 2 pairs of arms protruding from its back. One arm had a shield like thing attached, the other had a large, smoking rocket launcher. The 3^rd arm had a rather nasty-looking circular saw, and the 4^th arm had a black hand, inscribed with images and patterns that were glowing yellow.

It sped in, and totally obliterated the machines, and then landed, kneeling down, in front of the two gob smacked isolators.

“What the hell happened?” whispered Hawk.

A voice came from inside the ‘runner.

“I sensed that you were in danger, and so I activated my personality, and came to the rescue!”

“Who’s in there?” Shouted Andrew, furious.

“There is no-one in the ‘runner.” Sighed the voice. “Because, I AM the ‘runner! It was decided that there should be some way of the ‘runner being controlled if the proper controller was killed. So, they decided to let it control itself, with an AI with a pleasant personality.”

“Great. Anyway. Can we still control you? And if we can, will your personality still be active?”

“You can control me, but unfortunately, you’re stuck with my personality! I can give your useful info on other enemies, and good strategies.”

“Good” said Hawk. “Now, can you tell us how to get up to the main chamber?”

“Can do” and with that, the ‘runner started to glow with a bright yellow light. Then a beam of energy emerged from it, and blasted upwards, burning a hole right through the roof of the citadel.

“Before we go up, what’s your name?” enquired Hawk

“I am Series number 37-27-Zone. But you can just call me zone.”

“OK then zone, lets go.”

“Might I say that the entity above this citadel is very high powered. It would be safer if you controlled be remotely.”

“Ok. Will you be Alright?”

“Yes. If I become too damaged, then I will teleport myself and you two to safety immediately.”

“Do you have the same powers as isolator?”

“Yes, and more.”

Hawk put on the suit, and the display came up.

“You ready?” he asked Zone.

“Lets kick some ass!” He replied.

“He flew the suit through the hole, and landed it in the room above. He saw nothing in the room, but a small man huddled in a heap on the floor. He approached the man, and the man got up. His face was covered by a mask. The man, who looked about 75 +, looked up at him, and let out a shrill laugh.

“Ha ha ha ha! You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, have you?”

Hawk ran towards the man, and slashed at him with the sword. The man crumpled instantly. Just as hawk turned his back, the man got up again, and began to hover above the ground.

“I am the great Mace Ackland” boomed a voice from the old man, without his lips moving. He bent back, and a black beam emerged, striking zone in the chest, and sending him smashing through the citadel wall, and outside.

“Damn it! We’re out of here!” Shouted Zone. A beam of light appeared around all three fighters, and they were instantly teleported away from the citadel, back into relative safety.

Chapter 5

“Well” Sighed Andrew “We definitely failed at that. Which leaves only one thing to do.”

“Go back in time, and kill the person going to kill the prime minister.” Replied Hawk. “Zone. Where is the nearest Time travel device that works?”

“About 30 miles south of here.” Zone replied “In a small house in what was east London.”

It took them no more than 20 minuets to get there in Zone. The house was in perfect condition. They exited zone, and knocked on the door. There was not answer, so they went straight in. The sigth that greeted them was horrific. The bodies of three children, a man and a woman were hung from the ceiling, their limbs all torn off. There was a strange noise in the far room. It suddenly stopped, and they heard a sniffing sound. The ‘thing’ walked into the corridor, its footsteps joined by the hiss of hydrolics. The mech was about 7 feet tall, and was made of shining metal. It had obviously eaten the limbs of the bodoes, as its ‘mouth’ was covered with blood. It raised its arm, and let out a rapid volley of nails.

“Jesus!” cried Hawk. “what the hell is THAT?”

“Let me deal with it.” Said Andrew, surprisingly calmly. “One of these bastards killed my family, and I ended up having to take it apart, bit by bit.” He drew the sword, and the machine let rip another volley of nails. With lightning fast reactions, Andrew deflected every one of them with the sword. His walk became a run, and then a lunge at the mech. He plunged the sword right through its neck, and sliced it either side, decapitating it. He then cut its limbs off, and cut its power cable, disabling it. Andrew turned around, and began to walk back, when a large spider-like shadow appeared above him, and, silently, reached down to him. Hawk levelled his gun, and shot the spider, causing it to retreat into the shadows. With that, Hawk said:

“Lets get the machine, and get the hell outta here!”

“Too damn right!”

They systematically searched every room for the machine, but found nothing. Nor did they find any sign whatsoever of the spider-like machine that they had seen. They then walked back into the hall, and saw the machine scuttling away. They followed it, and it led them down a tight hole. If something were to attack them from the other end, then they would be screwed. They got out safely, and the other end was just a black room. They could see the time machine lit up in the middle. Hawk lit a lantern that was near them, and the room lit up, revealing thousands of scuttling spider mechs. They attacked the isolators immediately, and as one huge tidal wave of machinery. They smothered them, and began tearing at cloth and flesh. It seemed that the isolators journey had come to an end, when there was a huge explosion, and the roof was ripped off. Zone let out a cry of anger, and flew into the mass of mechs, sending body parts flying this way and that. They eventually began to cover even him, and started to drag him down. Then, once again the markings on his arm, and now on the rest of him, began to glow. There was a huge shockwave, but strangely no sound. All of the mechs just collapsed. They were clearly still active, but it was as if they had lost the ability to move.

“What the hell was that?” enquired Hawk.

“That was the best move I have against mechs. It deletes their hard drives, rendering them incapable of even knowing what they are.” Replied Zone, his voice weary.

“You sound tired. I never new runners could get tired.” Said Andrew.

“That attack was a huge drain on my batteries, and I will need time to recharge.”

“Right. While you do that, we’ll go into the machine, and try to go back and stop this ever happening.” Ordered Hawk.

They both stepped into the machine, and inputted the time and date into the panel. Once again, the world split apart before them as they once again went back in time to put right what had gone wrong.

Chapter 6

The world pieced itself back together. It was a cold winter day, and the biting wind whipped around their flapping cloaks. They looked around. The street was packed with people, all flocking to see the two challengers for the Lord of the World. Thanks to detailed accounts of the killing, they knew where the shooter would be positioned. They made their way to the block of flats, and began to go up the steps, weapons drawn. They systematically checked every level, until they reached the roof. The man was laying down, his body draped with webbing. Hawk put a gun to the mans head, and cocked it.

“Get up” he growled, through gritted teeth.

The man rose, and put his hands up. He then span round, and tried to hit Hawk with the barrel. What he didn’t expect was for hawk to grab the barrel, and wrestle it out of his hands with the minimum of effort. He then proceeded to break the mans arm, and pushed him forwards, just catching him as he teetered over the ledge.

“You have no idea what you were going to do, did you?” grunted Andrew.

“You have no idea about what you’re going to let happen, do you?” said the man, grinning an insane grin. Suddenly, Hawk saw the flash of light reflecting off of a scope on the opposite building. He drew his gun, and with pinpoint accuracy shot at the sniper. He knew that he wouldn’t hit him, but hoped to scare the guards below into stopping the Prime Minister from coming out. Luckily, he succeeded. The parade ran in all different directions, and the guards ran to the building where Hawk and Andrew were. Hawk knocked out the man, and shot a zip line across to the other building, and they both started to climb across. By the time the guards had reached the building that they were on, Hawk and Andrew had escaped to the other one. The other sniper, however, had somehow managed to jump off of the building into the alley behind, and still survive virtually unharmed. Luckily, so could Hawk and Andrew. What was strange, is that the only people who could do that were isolators. That could only mean one thing…

Andrew drew his sword, and threw it with expert precision at the mans back, but the man span around, and caught it by the blade. He barely grimaced as the blood trickled down his arm. He then threw the sword back with lightning speed, and it embedded itself into Andrews shoulder.

“Aghhh!” grunted Andrew “You take him down, I’ll be no use now.”

“Get back to our time, and stay in Zone!” ordered Hawk. He pulled the sword from Andrews shoulder, and let him go. He then turned to face where the man was, but he was gone. He ran down the alley, and came to a brick wall, and no visible way of a normal man getting around it. That settled it, the man was a renegade Isolator. Hawk jumped up, and cought onto the ledge. He pulled himself up, and peered over. The man was running at a pace fast for even an isolator. He jumped over the wall, and ran after him. . the man suddenly stopped dead, and turned to face hawk. He was holding up a gun.

“Lets see if you can live up to your reputation.” Drawled the man, in a voice that sounded familiar. Then it all came together. It was the operator, the one who had told him of the explosion in Leeds. How else could Ackland have known about the position of their base?

The man fired twice at Hawk. The gun wasn’t very powerful, and Hawk deflected them with the sword.

“Traitorous bastard!” he growled, ran towards him, and took a swing at his head. The man then showed his other arm. It had been cut off, and replaced with a mechanical one, with a blade attached from the elbow to where the hand should have been. He swung it up, and effortlessly blocked the attack.

“Come on hawk, you don’t need to use a weapon do you?” the mans arm seemed to become liquid, and then reshaped into an arm. Feinted a punch to the head, and then punched the man with a crushing blow to the ribcage. He could feel, and see the mans ribs crack. He then punched the man in the face, and broke his nose.

“Is that the best you can do?” sneered the man.  He kicked hawk in the stomach so hard that Hawk could feel his stomach starting to bleed. He got up, and drew his gun.

“Oh, aren’t you going to play fair?” said the man, in mock sadness.

“I only play fair against humans. You’re not even that.” Hawk blew the mans head off with one shot from his magnum.

Then, another shape began to form in front of him. It was Acklands body, but it had huge arms sprouting from behind it. Then, the human body was gone, and replaced bu what looked like a giant black moth with arms. The darkness that emanated from it seemed to envelope the whole alley, and finally the alley had disappeared.

“Ackland?” Hawk said.

“Yes” said Ackland’ voice. “I never expected you to get this far. You may now return to your own time, and fight me.”

For the last time, The world split apart as Hawk began to travel through time.

Chapter 7

When the world pieced itself together, Hawk immediately asked Ackland what was going on, and who he was.

“I am a traveller. I travel dimensions, gaining control over them, and then devouring them. I also travel time, make what changes necessary for me to gain control. Then, when enough inhabitants have been killed, I devour the dimension. This gives me the power to move onto the next.”

“You, you monster! All those people dead, just so that you have the power to kill the rest of us. You will die!”

Hawk lunged at the creature, and stabbed him. What surprised him more than the fact that he went straight through him, is the fact that behind this Ackland, was another one. This one grabbed Hawk, and picked him up. Just as he was about to stab him, a hole was blasted in Ackland torso. The creature screamed with pain, and dropped Hawk. Flying up from behind Ackland, was Zone, controlled by Andrew. But Zone was bigger, and was now totally white. He picked up Hawk, and put him in the control seat. Andrew gave the controls to hawk.

“It turns out that this runner was created for you, and for this fight.” Andrew told Hawk.

“What?”

“The creators were time travellers. They saw that this fight was going to happen, and saw that you would need a runner to beat Ackland. They were from the future, and had sensed Ackland coming. So, they created Zone, using the best of their technology, in the hopes that you could use him to fight Ackland.”

“Who told you this?”

Zone Finally piped up “I did, but we’d better get ready, because here he comes!”

Ackland raised a fist, and brought it smashing down on Zones head, but zone dodged the attack. He brought up all four arms, and fired a huge volley of energy at Ackland. Ackland now frail body split apart, and crumbled.

“At last, It’s all over.” Sighed Andrew.

“Its never over.” Grimaced Hawk. “no matter what we do, while there is time travel, people will abuse it. And it’s the job of the three of us to stop it, no matter what the risk to our lives, and no matter what the cost.”

The End