• When Worlds Collide


    Hiro sat in his personal airship, the Mepando, thinking of how easily one of the largest groups in Andormia had just been mostly wiped out. The ship was on auto-pilot, allowing Hiro to gaze out the window at the passing scenery. Leon and Hira knew to be quiet when their father was thinking. It was quiet enough in the cab that the engine could be heard thrumming softly across the ship. Hiro’s eyes clouded over and he looked out the window in interest. When his eyes cleared he turned quickly to his children.

    “Now this is what it’s like when worlds collide…” He pointed to the windows. Confused, Leon and Hira peered out only to see the passing buildings of Galadaer. The windows flashed like a TV losing signal. Hira gasped and Leon’s eyes widened. Below was the city of Galadaer but in a war zone. Some of the taller buildings had been demolished and explosions plagued the city.

    “What is it really that’s going on here, Pops?” Leon turned to his father and nodded towards the widows.

    “Only what the Writer allowed me to see just now. So tell me about your shogunate again.”

    Leon failed to see where things were going with this but he reminded his father anyway. “The Oda Shogunate sits to the south east of Andormia and consists of several areas that were once Andormia: the plains, the Deserts of Argamond, and the southern portion of the Unferth Mountains. It is ruled by Oda Nobunaga with me as his Strategist, other positions have been appointed but I have not been informed about them. With the absence of Nobunaga I have been in control of the Shogunate for the past few weeks. During this time I’ve nearly tripled the population of the Shogunate. Nobunaga has just recently returned but has yet to do anything administrative.”

    “So you pretty much have the system for total control.”

    “Essentially, yes. “Leon thought back to a few days before when Nobunaga had finally met up with him. All he had said was ‘What is it really that is in your head?’ No, it was more along the lines of ‘What are you plotting in that labyrinth you call a mind?’ Either was it was just plain annoying.

    “Excellent.” Hiro turned to the widows and started to mutter to himself. “Whatever little life you had just died.” He ignored Leon’s demanding expression. He thought of Deucalion’s control of the country and how Cirdon was going to tussle to get it back. Then he thought of Orthos, who is in the position to claim power himself if Deucalion’s work was unsatisfactory. “I’m going to be the one taking over.” He motioned towards the window again. “This is what it’s like when worlds collide.”

    Leon hesitated before speaking. “What is it really that motivates you?”

    Hiro took a deep breath and exhaled. “You very well know the fear of losing control and accidentally destroying everything you see. Eventually you come to a time where that fear is dominant. You need to fly away from it or just make the fear stop. I will stop my fear by purposefully destroying these ‘Supernova’ Draegus.”

    “They’re not Draegus.” Hira had spoken up. Hiro and Leon look at her with confused expressions. She could hardly tell the difference between a DVD and a VHS, let alone a mechanically altered human from just some random cyborg. “They’re not.” She looked at Leon. “You said they had interconnected brains, right? Well I snuck around their main base and you publicly insulted their leader. Certainly several have seen our faces. That means they all have seen our faces. I don’t know about you, but if I saw a report of the sneaky b***h that wandered my moving aircraft and the b*****d who publicly denounced me, I wouldn’t let it go unnoticed. I would send highly skilled troops to kill them or at least capture them. We encountered no resistance after we attempted to decapitate Masters. Plus he was genuinely surprised at each one of our faces.”

    Leon and Hiro looked at each other. Leon stroked his chin then spoke. “She’s right. They would have known it was us.”

    Hiro’s eyes twinkled. “An unknown source of cyborg designed to act as bombs to destroy anything they can find.” He turned quickly to Leon. “Leon, my only son, will you accompany me on my conquest?”

    Leon thought it over for a while. “I’ll go along when you realize when we get there I say nine or ten drop.”

    “Yes, you can be the strategist.” Hiro turned to Hira. “Hira, my only daughter, will you join me on my endeavor to destroy these Supernova machine-devils?”

    Hira sat in silence longer than Leon had. “Now who is alive and who is the devil?” She looked back and forth between Leon and Hiro. They opened their mouth to speak but hesitated. “You can’t decide so I’ll be your guide. And one-by-one they will be hand chosen, our army, from Leon‘s own following.”

    Hiro stood between his children with his arms around their shoulders. They turned around to watch the last of the vision of Galadaer struck with war. “This is what it’s like when worlds collide.”

    ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~


    Not two hours passed after they landed in the plains and presented their cause to the Andormian refugees before they had numbers counting in the hundreds of thousands. Husbands asked their wives and wives asked their husbands the same thing: Are you ready to go? ‘Cause I’m ready to go. What you going to do, baby? Are you going with me? ‘Cause I’m going with you.”