Chapter 60

Termination 5

-:-

2 Days Later

Just outside the southern Wadiyan Border

World Union Camp

The Democratic Republic of Wadiya was your typical bad guy country

Ruled by a stupid yet surprisingly competent dictator, Wadiya has resisted all calls for it to stop its nuclear program and has effectively suffered the brunt of massive economic sanctions.

The main difference between Wadiya and a certain country in the east was the fact that Wadiya had massive amounts of oil within its lands.

As such, it has ‘sort of’ survived through all the years thanks to its trade with the Jade Empire and other communist/dictator nations.

Theo despised Wadiya with all of his heart.

Its very existence ran conflict with his ideals.

The very fact that he resisted the urge to detonate the Wadiyan nuclear arsenal was an amazing feat.

However, there was a very good reason why Jabir docked his cargo ship in Wadiyan port.

This was because anyone with any ‘suspicious’ cargo can dock without question…. For a price.

With the deep pockets of Jabir and Nosferatu combined, the steep tolls was negligible.

If some Wadiyan authorities decided to extort more money than what was required, Theo, Nosferatu and Jabir could slaughter them in good conscience.

This happened to Nosferatu in the past.

Let’s just say Wadiyan rulers had absolutely no intention of repeating such a massacre.

Thanks to the threat of turning the country into a pool of blood, gore and dismembered limbs, Theo was able to travel through Wadiya without any issues.

After 2 painfully long train rides and an off road jeep trip, Theo had to hike a few kilometers through a deactivated minefield to get to his first pitstop: the World Union Camp.

Naturally, he had a few stealth drones loaded with all sorts of gears flying around somewhere.

The threat of an unknown third party that could derail their plans made Theo a bit more paranoid than usual.

For now, he walked through a predetermined path until he reached a road on top of a hill.

On that road was 3 humvees filled with armed individuals.

3 of those individuals stuck out quite a bit.

One was a man in his late 20s with dark complexion sporting a fancy business suite.

2 others were bald women around their mid 30s with equally dark complexion, red tribal looking garments and wielded very intimidating metallic sword and shields.

A point of interest was their weapons.

Using his Terminator Eye, Theo could see that the unidentifiable metal used in these weapons had a radiation unlike anything he has ever seen.

That’s as bad sign as a bad sign can get.

Based on visual clues alone, Theo guessed that the women were some sort of honor guards for the man.

With great caution, Theo approached the man.

“Theodore Lorne I presume?” asked the man.

“That’s correct. And you are?” asked Theo as he presented his HAA ID.

One of the warrior women suddenly pointed a sword at Theo.

“You disrespectful cur! How dare you speak-” said the woman before the man gently pushed the sword away.

“Calm yourself Falala. It can't be helped if he doesn't know who I am. Barely anyone does in Alkebulan. Much more so if it is someone from the outside.” said the man.

The warrior woman named Falala click her tongue in dissatisfaction but stepped back nevertheless.

Theo reacted in the most sane manner and began backing away.

These guys were obviously big shots of some sort and were obviously from the World Union Camp, but that doesn't mean that they were allies.

After losing an eye, a limb and a fairly big chunk of his faith in humanity, Theo has understood that acts of evil was not limited to villains alone.

Even good people with good intentions perform acts of the most sinister kind. Both intentional or unintentional.

As such, Theo wasn't going to risk his neck on blind trust.

“Wait! Please wait! We mean you no harm!” said the man as he tried to reach out to Theo

“STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!” roared Theo as he drew a Glock G19 from his backpack and pointed it the man.

It wasn't his ideal pistol, but he had to wield a HAA issued firearm for appearance sake.

The warrior women moved in front of the man with shields raised.

The armed soldiers stood alert but didn't draw their weapons.

Unknown to the World Union side, one of Theo’s large drones 1 kilometer away had a sniper rifle trained on the warrior woman that was so gung ho on pointing her pointy stick at him.

“I, PRINCE SA’HEL OF VALALYA COMMAND EVERYONE TO STAND DOWN!” roared the man.

A few tense moments later, the warrior women stood down but remained vigilant of Theo.

“Calm yourself Theodore Lorne. I am Prince Sa’hel of the Valalya Kingdom and a long time ally of the Hero Alliance. I come in peace.” said Sa’hel in a gentle voice.

Externally, Theo calmly continued his retreat with his gun pointed at Sa’hel and his 2 guards.

Internally, he was both praising the sun and cursing his bad luck at the same time.

While he wasn't 100% sure, he may have found their mysterious third party.

Valalya Kingdom?

Never heard of it.

Prince Sa’hel?

Dont know, dont care.

Fancy weapons made of an unknown metal that radiates a mysterious energy like crazy?

Something like that appears in the HAA at least once every 2 months.

However, if you add the fact that an unknown kingdom using an unknown material with a generally likable monarch was in a shit hole like Alkebulan?

To Theo, that was a threat.

Should he try to get close to this mysterious prince?

While that was a viable option, Theo only did it when he had a basic level of information on the target’s background, culture and general behavior.

Unfortunately, Alkebulan was practically alien to Theo, thus any common sense he had was useless here.

This went double when he added the unknown kingdom of Valalya into the equation.

There was simply too many unknowns for Theo to commit to a ‘let’s be friends’ plan.

As such, he kept backing away without any hint of stopping.

“I understand that we got off on the wrong foot. Please allow me to right that wrong.” said Sa’hel as he took a step forward.

In response, Theo ran back to Wadiya.

Was this the right move?

Probably not.

He could probably smooth talk his way in if he tried.

But his gut was telling him that Sa’hel and the Valalya Kingdom were people he had to avoid by all means.

While he put very little stock in ‘instincts’, his gut has been surprisingly accurate when things that would cause him great pain and suffering were involved.

As such, he ran like a wuss.

“Please wait! We need your help! The lives of innocent civilians are in danger!” said Sa’hel as he ran after Theo.

The 2 warrior women ran behind Sa’hel while the soldiers stood dumbfounded at the weird situation they were in.

“I’ve been shot and tortured. Now you want me to get stabbed and beheaded?! Screw this god forsaken continent!”

“We’re not like!”

“Shut it! I’m not going to fall for that shit again!”

Just to be clear, Theo was indeed shot at.

A few Wadiyan soldiers probably didn't get the memo and tried to steal from Theo’s corpse.

The result: Theo shot back and tortured them by breaking their arms and legs, then force them to crawl through the hot Wadiyan desserts.

If they dared to stop, Theo would put a bullet through their asses.

This torture entertained Theo for about 20 minutes before the poor Wadiyan troops died.

It was good fun.

“I beg of you! No sane superhero can ignore the plight of the innocents!” said Sa’hel

“I’m a freaking auxiliary! Not a superhero!”

“Your abilities will be of great value! Please help us!”

“Yeah right! Like I’d trust a bunch of sword wielding lunatics!”

“Like I said before, We’re not like that!”

Sa’hel suddenly sped up and closed the distance in a heartbeat.

Clearly this man was more than what he appeared to be.

He may even be an unregistered superhero.

Theo decided to test this theory

“STAY AWAY!” said Theo in false panic as he open fired.

Though it may seemed that he was firing erratically, he aimed for Sa’hel’s arms and legs in order to avoid potentially lethal damage.

The next thing that happened was beyond Theo’s expectation.

Sa’hel tapped the bracelet hidden on his left sleeve.

Not a millisecond later, Sa’hel was covered in a silver skin tight superhero outfit with a lion themed helm.

The bullets bounced harmlessly off Sa’hel with a metallic sound.

With his Terminator Eye, Theo discovered that Sa’hel’s armor was made of the same material as the warrior women’s weapons, but radiated much more energy.

This lead Theo to believe that the armor was the most advanced version of what the warrior women’s weapons.

It was extremely light, highly flexible and tougher than steel.

But most importantly, Sa’hel and the Valalya Kingdom had the means to create something that easily rivaled Theo’s power armor.

Was the mysterious metal magic or science?

Theo didn't know.

But he now had a very important lead and whatever reason he had for going to the World Union Camp was negated.

Okay… he might fail his assignment in the area, but he was confident that he could talk his way out of that particular incident.

With that in mind, Theo executed his retreat plan A

“HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME! THERE’S A LUNATIC AFTER ME!” roared Theo as he waved desperately in the general direction of Wadiya.

“I keep telling you we’re not like-!” said Sa’hel before an RPG from Theo’s hidden drones smashed into his chest and blew him 10 meters back

As expected, Sa’hel stood up with no particular injuries aside from a mild daze.

Theo took this time to make a break for it.

When Sa’hel’s group tried to give chase, a barrage of bullets and anti tank rockets pummeled them without mercy.

Eventually, Sa’hel’s group retreated allowing Theo a relaxing trek back to Wadiya