New Ivy - Part 1

The Creperum leader grunted and clenched the weight bar, slowly lowering it towards his chest. It bothered him greatly that it's been years since he fully recovered and got out of his stasis, and yet he's still having trouble maintaining the strength that he once had. He had a feeling that it would take a few more years before he could regain his full strength. 

Derek narrowed his eyes and began to do a few more reps of the two thousand pound weight. It wasn't long before a ring blared loudly into the gym; drowning out the electronic music the immortal had playing to cover the silence. Setting the barbell on the peg, Derek sat up and snapped his fingers, shutting off the music so he could hear.   

"Answer," he commanded, grabbing a towel by his side. As he wiped his face, he looked up to the ceiling as a small beep called in response. "Yes?" 

"Sir, the war meeting will start in a few hours," the female voice reminded him over the intercom. 

"Thank you, I will be there momentarily," he said as another beep rang through the gym, ending the conversation. Standing from the bench, Derek grabbed his jug of water and his iPod off of the dock and headed out of the gym. 

Ah yes, the war meeting. Even without the reminder he wouldn't forget about that; always working tirelessly to start up the next major war. In this meeting they would discuss the current matter at hand with a group of strays that were preventing them from advancing in their plans. This group of stray Muneris and Creperum sabotaged them for far too long and it cost them greatly throughout all the work they've put through beforehand. It came to the point where the Commander-in-Chief must step down to work as a soldier. 

It wouldn't have been the first time Derek has done this before, in fact, it was a great way to keep up his strength; a different type of workout, if you will. Considering that he was immortal, it didn't matter if he was dealt a fatal blow. He could always heal from it and continue leading the army. 

Derek nonchalantly tugged at the collar of his uniform as he sat quietly while the war meeting proceeded. He disliked the monkey suit with a passion, but it was a formality that these military men stood by. They wanted to see their Commander-in-Chief dressed for the job rather than in his regular attire. He couldn't even keep his hair the way he regularly does; he had to tie it back for the meeting.

"We've tracked the rebel group and found that their next target is here," Michael, a uniformed lion hybrid spoke, pointing to the holographic projection of a map. "Stavanger, Norway. They're planning on raiding the Mortals of their Natmite weapons and we need to get there first and take them before they do." 

The immortal couldn't help but smile at the thought. He didn't care much for weapons, but it entertained him on the fact that the Mortals were able to harness the power of Natmite for themselves to create weapons to channel that power. And not even weapons, but everyday household items also use the power to make life easier. The whole world was now using the power in 2318, and to think that he already had that power in him since 3000 B.C. 

"The Commander will lead the Optimum to the site to ensure that we take the cargo before they do," Michael explained. The rest of the committee turned their heads towards their leader who sat at the head of the circular table. Derek gave them a nod and let the meeting continue. He eyed his Second-in-Command, Michael, for he would be joining him in this mission. 

The Optimum is a hand-picked group of soldiers by Derek himself, and the leader of the Optimum – the Second-in-Command – was always his prodigy. Michael was an exceptional strategist as well as hand-to-hand fighter. He had the ability to turn his body into a hard metallic surface, and what's more is that he can attract other metals to him like a magnet; a very useful ability for combat. Michael has been the immortal's prodigy ever since he's gotten out of his stasis. He's been a good student and a good friend as he went through a sort of recovery stage the first year being back in his own body. 

It felt like a while before the meeting was finally adjourned. As the other men casually chatted as they walked out, Derek sighed and uncomfortably began moving towards the door.

"You're too obvious," Michael joked as he walked up to the Commander. "You hate wearing that uniform."  

"With a passion," Derek responded, now that they were out of the meeting room he had no need to be formal. Darkness shrouded his body and he began to change out of his military uniform. A brown rawhide coat formed over his bare chest, as well as gray cargo pants and intricate boots on his feet. Even his hair stylized itself into the iconic gravity defying style. 

"Why do you keep wearing that? It's ancient," Michael asked as the two walked out of the building.  

"As am I," the immortal retorted with a smirk. "Besides, I like it." 

Not only that, but it was nostalgic in a way. It was the clothes he had when he first went into the stasis. It was a reminder of how he got into that situation in the first place. In a way, it saddened him to think that was over. It was the greatest adventure he had that almost rivaled his accomplishments during World War II. To think that the friends and acquaintances that he had were all gone and only their decedents lived to this day. He wondered when his next adventure would come up. This war preparation was only work and nothing more. Derek wanted something new in this new life, but he didn't know what it was or where to find it. 

"Sir!" 

Derek shook his head and blinked his eyes. He didn't realize that he was spacing out as he stared through the plane window. "Sorry, lost in thought." 

"Not a problem," the lion hybrid said as he offered the Creperum leader a brown bottle. "We're almost there." 

Derek took the beer without hesitation and took a swig. "Already? That was fast." 

"Planes go fast now," he commented, sitting in the seat across from him and looking out the small window as well. The snow-covered ground was moving past at a constant rate, it looked a little slow, but in reality they were speeding by. "You ready?"  

From that statement, it made Derek eye the rest of the plane. Twenty men and women casually talked and enjoyed their time on the flight. They didn't look like soldiers, but when they're called to duty they don't joke around. They were the best of the best, and always followed the Commander's lead. "Of course I'm ready, Mikey Boy. Are you?" 

Michael laughed and shook his head, not really enjoying that nickname the immortal gave him, but it entertained him nonetheless. "Always, sir." 

The pilot's voice rang through the plane, instructing the passengers to buckle up as they began their decent. Derek felt the pressure in his body as they slowly approached the ground; felt the plane rattle as the wheels touched the earth once again.  

Outside was freezing, as it should be in Norway in December. Snow fell from the sky as the group of twenty got on a bus to the Creperum military base in Stavanger. Much like at the meeting, Derek annoyingly tugged at his winter jacket that he had to wear to keep warm as they drove, which earned a laugh from Michael and a few other members of the Optimim as they watched him suffer.  

"Oh shut up..." Derek grumbled as he tried is best to stay comfortable, but the restriction of the jacket felt like he was suffocating.

"Maybe we should put another layer on him," Cloud, a skilled duel-winged woman, joked with the rest of her teammates. "He looks a bit cold." 

"And maybe we should just leave you at the base," the Commander shot back with a playful smirk, his breath puffing out in front of his face. "She looks a bit tired for the mission." 

Laughter filled the bus as the two exchanged their comments, Cloud and Derek even laughing at their own comments. 

The immortal always enjoyed working with this group of Creperum. He frequently trained them – although not as much individual attention as Michael received – and they always went on missions, and much of them without fail. They never let him down, and when they did the team as a whole took the blame instead of one single individual. It was like a second family, separated from his own immortal family.  

Upon reaching the military base, the Optimum wasted no time. They quickly set up their gear and weapons for the heist that came up in a few hours. Derek even ran through the objectives of the mission to them one more time so that everyone was on base with what they were expected to do; stop the strays, severe or fatal damage encouraged, and salvage as many Natmite weapons at all cost. It seemed like a simple mission, but the immortal wasn't exactly sure how formidable these strays would be. This could be very easy and the strays could be a joke, or it could be the opposite and it could pose a challenge to them. Derek hoped for the latter. 

When night fell over Stavanger, the Optimum loaded back up on the bus and headed out. It was a thirty minute drive from the base to the warehouse where the weapons were being stored for the time being, and throughout the ride not a single word was spoken. No jokes anymore, it was time to get serious.  

The bus dropped them off about a block away from the warehouse. Each member of the Optimum went their separate ways, surrounding the perimeter of the building. Derek, however, held back for a moment as the team worked. It was a precaution just in case one of the strays had a strong enough sense to feel his presence. Michael led the pack, using his hands to signal the next move. Very carefully and quietly, the team moved into the building; hiding in the shadows and behind towers of crates so they didn't blow their cover. 

Inside the warehouse, the strays already got to work prying open the crates full of the weapons. One team was working on taking out the cargo while the other team kept watch, guns in their hands and ready to fire. Michael signaled to his team to get ready. They all put on protective headphones over their ears and signaled a thumbs-up. With a nod, Michael then gave the okay to Felicia.  

Felicia took in a big breath and opened up her mouth as wide as she could, letting out a piercing scream that caused all of the strays on the floor to collapse to their knees, pressing their hands against their ears to block out the sound. Glass from the lights above shattered from the sound, tiny shards falling towards the strays and some even getting cut by the falling glass. When Felicia was done screaming, that's when the rest of the Optimum sprang into action. 

They went for the armed strays first; Michael encasing his body in metal and holding out his hands. The stray's guns flew towards him like a magnet, and when all weapons were with him another Optimum member stepped forward. Ovir, a green skinned man with six arms, grabbed a gun in each hand and began shooting at the strays. The strays that originally held the guns fell first. Bullets pierced their bodies; they were dead before they even hit the concrete. The other team, however, got a Barrier Muneris to put up a huge pale yellow shield between them and the Optimum. 

Ovir kept shooting at the force field, and other Optimum members grabbed the extra weapons and began firing away. They would rather waste the enemy’s ammunition instead of their own. The Muneris kept the force field up through all the beatings, but she was wearing out. One big hit and she was done for.  

Michael let out a quick roar, calling towards the Optimum to fall back shortly. They ceased to attack and took a few paces back. 

The strays looked confused, unsure why they stopped attacking, but were still alert for any tricks the Optimum might pull. Then a faint thud was heard from outside of the warehouse, audible to everyone in the building. Shortly after, the giant window in the front of the warehouse shattered into a million pieces as the Commander-in-Chief flew into the room, slamming his fist right into the yellow barrier. The force was so powerful that it too shattered into tiny pieces and dissolved seconds later.    

Derek tucked and rolled on the ground, then sprang up on his feet and roundhouse- kicked the nearest stray. Once the strays caught sight of the immortal they knew what they were up against. Only then did they realize that they were facing the Optimum of the Creperum army. In an act of desperation, one of the strays grabbed a Natmite weapon and fired. Derek acted quickly, swatting away the powerful bullet into a tower of crates, making the boxes explode on impact. While it looked like the attack was ineffective, in reality Derek's hand was burning in pain; it was as if he just swatted away a ball that was made entirely out of lava. Because this was a Natmite weapon it's much more powerful than regular bullets, but the immortal kept a good poker face towards the strays as he advanced to them with his team running behind them. 

Now all of the strays grabbed their own Natmite weapon and began firing at will. The Optimum did their best to make sure they didn't get hit, but Derek trudged on. He got hit in the arms, face, chest, and still managed to redirect some of those attacks towards the strays; some he even killed on impact. The Creperum Leader whipped his arm forward, sending forward a powerful stream of black lightning towards a few strays, making them fly into the air as the explosion hit them hard. After a few more hits to the chest, Derek gritted his teeth in pain and unsheathed the blades in his hands. Jumping forward, he slashed one stray dead in the chest and kicked the wounded Muneris into his comrades. Behind him, the Optimum advanced forward, attacking the strays while defending their leader.  

Michael jogged towards the immortal and stood by his side. "Need a breather?" 

Derek's eyes stared hard at the ground, making sure he kept his face blank and emotionless as he coped through it. Not only fighting the pain, but also the cold as he was inappropriately dressed for the weather. Only this immortal was stubborn enough to run into a fight without any form of protection whatsoever, and he was paying the price.

"I'm fine..." he said, his voice tight and low as he held in his pain.

"No you're not. I can tell that you're injured," the Second-in-Command deduced. 

"Then make sure the strays don't know that," he instructed, giving a smile to his prodigy to tell him it was alright. Michael wasn't fully convinced, but he let him continue on. 

Looking forward, the two could see that the Optimum had to fall back a little. The strays themselves were easily dealt with, but when they were armed with the Natmite weapons? They posed a serious threat. A few Optimum members were even hiding behind crates because they were injured badly.   

Derek ran forward and shook his hands and arms. All of the black and red blood that he accumulated throughout the battle so far flew off of his body and in the air. He then strained his fingers as those small drops of blood formed into lethal needles that he threw towards one Creperum strays, creating a human pincushion out of her. When he was free of all the blood, he began to get to work. Holding his hands out to his side, black beads began to flow out of his palms and spilled onto the floor. That batch began to form into monstrous Creperum that were protected with thick-armored skin. The Creperum leader then flung his arms in the air and threw the beads towards the ceiling, creating flying Creperum that began to attack down at the strays. Lastly, he held his palms towards the strays, beads forming around his feet to make one more batch of Creperum, but he was stopped. 

Derek yelled in pain and gripped his right forearm hard. Before he could finish creating the Creperum, one of the strays shot him in the hand. He could have held in the pain, but the difference this time was that the bullet went straight through his hand. Breathing hard, Derek looked down at the large bullet hole that pierced his palm. Black blood streamed down his skin and began dripping down onto the beads by his feet. Sure, he could see it in front of his eyes that the wound was already healing, but the thought that he was so weak that a weapon was able to draw blood from him enraged the immortal. 

He ran forward and could instantly tell which stray made the lucky shot; the one that had the most fear in his eyes as the Creperum Leader sprinted forward. The stray aimed his Natmite gun and fired again, but this time Derek was quick to dodge the attacks. He unsheathed his right blade and slashed down a powerful wave of energy towards the man. He panicked and tried to shoot at the wave, but ultimately the attack hit him square in the chest, making the Muneris fly back and hit the wall of the warehouse hard. Anyone in range could even hear a sickly crack as the man's body fell limp to the ground. 

Derek grunted as a few more shots from the Natmite weapons hit him in the back. He would have attacked those strays as well, but Michael and the created Creperum got to them first. The bulky armored Creperum provided the prodigy with cover as he used his magnetic ability to take some Natmite weapons for himself and a few other Optimum members. The armored Creperum, as well as the flying ones, began to attack the strays with no mercy; all while the Optimum began using the weapons against the strays, shooting a few of them down and causing them to retreat.

Taking deep breaths to cope with the pain again, Derek rubbed his hand on his eyes and sighed, his breath floating off into the air. "Report."   

"Thirty six dead for the strays, twelve for the injured," Michael reported. "Five injured for us, but we salvaged ten crates full of the weapons plus a few that we took from the strays as they-" 

"Sir!" 

Michael and Derek looked over at what was so important. Any of the other Optimum members that were still standing were crowded around one single area, all of them staring down with wide eyes. Kneeling in the middle of the shocked crowd was Cloud, her four brown eagle wings curling around her body as if to protect something. She had a worried expression on her face as she hunched over, looking at something in her arms. As the two walked closer, they gasped at what she was holding.  

"No one knows how he got here," Cloud explained, terror in her voice, "We have to get him to a hospital. It's too cold here for him."  

Derek knit his brow as he stared in bewilderment of what she carried in her arms. Lying there, helpless, was an infant; a newly born infant with pale skin and thin brown hair over his face as he cried his eyes out. How could an infant be here of all places? It didn't make any sense how this could have happened, but then Derek took a step back.

He saw where Cloud was kneeling; it was the same place where he got shot in the hand. Drawing a slow and horrified breath, Derek shakily raised his right hand to stare at his palm. It was completely wound free, but not too long ago it was dripping blood; dripping blood on the black beads he created before he got shot. 

"No...i-it can't..." Derek muttered to himself. He could feel his heart beat hard against his chest, his breath quickening in a panic. To top it all off, he was still weak from the fight. With all the sudden fears in his minds it was too much for him to take in along with the pain he was enduring. He tried to back away from it all, but his vision began to turn and blacken until the immortal passed out completely.