Paintshark (20 page)

“Good boy,” she whispered. She closed her eyes.

“FETCH.”

Kimberley threw it as far as she could, her arms still ached from hanging down on the pillar and the orb didn’t go far, but far enough for the lion to turn and give chase to it, as the orb came to a halt and came to a gentle roll, it picked it up with awkwardness in it’s beak and after a several attempts it swallowed it.

Kimberley turned and ran away, but pulled up with a grimace from her fall, turning back to face the lion. She felt she was safe enough and began to silently mouth a countdown from five, four, three, two, one. The lion exploded on ‘one’, and there was a flash of bright light, there was a bloody stain where the lion once stood.

Kimberley shivered under the flashlights and felt something warm stuck to her face, which then began to trickle down her cheek, hands trembling, she touched her face, bits of brain were falling off her face, while the lion’s blood-soaked hair mixed with her own, her once tanned face was now crimson, she spat out something from her mouth and shook of the remaining bits of bone from her hair. She threw her head back and screamed a guttural cry of horror.

Still screaming she flicked both of her wrists and her hands were full of pulsing orbs.

“I SAID LET THEM GO.” She reacted with pure fury. The orbs flew through the air and struck the cart dragging Elias and like the lion; after a few seconds it exploded, Apollo fell from his horse and hit the ground hard. Another Orb hit the ground just in front of one of the chasing lions, as it opened up with light, the force sent the beast spinning into the audience.

They screamed and clambered from out of their seats as the beast shook its head, dazed and very confused, but it was still hungry and the beak snapped at the fleeing crowds. Elias came to a standstill, unmoving and unaware of the carnage around him.

More orbs rolled along the ground and came to the post Felcey was shackled to. He closed his eyes in anticipation, the bright light erupted from the base and it crumpled to pieces as Felcey yelled as the ground came hurtling up towards him. He tucked and rolled like he’d seen his favourite stunt actors do countless of times at the cinema, his bonds shattered, he stood up and felt the beetle movement in his stomach. He didn’t have time to retch as the third lion edged closer towards him.

Felcey’s hands were still wet from the white liquid on his fingertips, his green eyes narrowed slightly as the lion sized him up, his bottom lip began to tremble, as all around him the crowds carried on screaming as the other lion leapt from section to section, awkwardly trying to stay on its feet, stalking between the seats.

Eyes wide and staring at the Lion, Felcey wasn’t going to let the it strike first and pulled his hands back and thrust them defiantly at the beast. Jets of white liquid erupted from his fingertips, the lion was propelled back with so much force that it was flipped right around in mid-air and landed on its feet, skidding on the liquid which was rapidly appearing all over the ground.

Felcey tried it again and sprayed the white stuff in a sweeping motion all over the lion, it opened its beak and bit at the flow, Felcey looked on in astonishment and he stopped.

The lion bowed its great head and began to lick up the white puddles on the ground, and then seeing Felcey’s hands still dripping, it casually bowled over. Before Felcey could pull them behind his back, the lion licked at them, and didn’t stop, Felcey managed to get his right hand free as the lion licked away at the other. The teenager put it to his mouth cautiously and licked it.

It was the same stuff he tasted in his bedroom, but he had to make sure a second time, he put his fingers in his mouth and drank greedily from the tips.

Wiping his mouth he sighed, “I got milk.”

Kimberley was still single-handedly taking apart the stadium with her orb bombs, she saw that Felcey was loose and was using his new powers too and had stopped another lion, she did a double take. ‘
Is that lion sucking his hand?’
It was the first time she smiled since she had been put in these games, but it didn’t last long, She had powers, she finally had a clue as to when she got them but didn’t know what had happened in the nightclub, and she wondered how Cassandra would sum it up. ‘
We went to a rave, drank water, got superpowers… end of.’

She didn’t know if her best friend was alive or dead and Kimberley needed to see her and speak to her and give her a big hug and make Cassandra tell her that ‘everything was going to be alright’ like she used to say when they where at school.

Kimberley thought back to only last week at school when she’d had a debating competition, and was worrying about what to say to her opponent.

Cassandra said, ‘All you have to do is to invent some words to confuse them like, “We really have to cut down on bullying at school and the only way is to Montrictilate the bullies and make them aware of their Kalunistgation against other pupils.“

Cassandra said that whoever she was debating against wouldn’t ever question her as they would not want to look stupid in front of the entire class. Kimberley tried it and fooled the whole class, except her teacher, Mr Glaucas, who gave her a detention. But Cassandra took it with her, as it was her suggestion in the first place and that was the type of friend she was, a great friend.

Kimberley would take detention any day over the mess she was in now, but not at this present moment in time as she knew she could blow things up now with her white time bombs…and she was determined to take this place down, piece by piece. She was in control, for the first time since Kimberley blew up the pillar and got free from her bonds, Big Man stood up and took note, he saw the ‘Nerd’ stroking a giant lion, giving it milk from his hand and a girl was throwing little white bombs from her own hand and was destroying his stadium.

Big Man called for his production manager who was standing behind the female assistant.

“What are the viewing figures like?”

The man fumbled with his clipboard, unable to keep his eyes away from the mêlée outside.

“COME ON, MAN, WHAT IS IT?”

“WE’RE THROUGH THE ROOF” he shouted back, surprising himself and Big Man. “We’ve never been higher in the ratings…EVER.”

Pulling the production manger to one side, Big Man leaned over and whispered into his ear. “Now we’ve established this girl has talent, we’re going to give the viewers a show they’ll never forget, it’s time to release everything…let’s bury this bitch.”

The stadium floor clicked and whirled and slowly began to open, the ground gave way to giant nuts and bolts, twisting into thick greasy oil-filled platforms.

The audience members who hadn’t fled the lions or Kimberley’s bomb bursts sat nervously in the rapidly emptying arena.

The horse that pulled Elias had bolted but the teacher still lay by the side of the arena motionless, his body was, at the moment safe from tumbling into the gaping hole. Kimberley screamed as she fell into the one of the gaps.

Giant mechanical platforms extended and emerged from the centre, and that was what she landed on, they were hard and metallic and she rubbed her back as she turned around to look up in pain.

Two huge cannons pointed down at her and her gaze locked on the barrels as they started to glow red. She put up her hands in self-defence and suddenly felt the heat course through her body. “Please don’t.” She was going to ‘shoot’ but the guns beat her to it. Laser bolts burst from the cannon blasted at the spot where she lay, the guns sounded like multiple claps of thunder shooting at the platform base and, on Big Man’s command, the guns stopped and smoke began to rise…as did Kimberley, her hands still raised in the protective position, but they glowed brightly again, her power had protected her, the marble-shaped white orbs in her hands again, she spoke again with gritted authority.

“I said DON’T”.

The orbs were thrown at the cannons, which exploded on impact, Kimberley rolled into a ball to protect herself from the fragments.

Standing up and wiping the bits of metal from her face she could just about see more cannons rising from the centre, they all swivelled round and targeted on her, she recognised their signature red glow before they opened fire and it wasn’t long before they did.

Now the newly formed platforms with guns on top sprayed lasers at the space where Kimberley stood, nobody who remained in their seats could see her, just the hail of laser fire from the cannons, the sound was deafening and even Big Man shrank back in his chair, covered his ears and winked at his assistant.

Once again Big Man gave the order for the guns to cease firing, all the cannons stopped their laser onslaught, only to reveal Kimberley with her hands still held up defensively, palms facing outward and now shining the most brilliant white light.

The remaining audience held their collective breaths as they were transfixed by the light glowing from the platform. Kimberley’s body had transformed into radiant silver-like a bright metal. It shone brighter than the floodlights, the white light encased her body except for her eyes. They were black but not soulless, she smiled with her eyes and reached down on her top, nobody else could see any of her clothes but they were still there, she felt around for the Microphone and her hand closed around it.

“Ok you bastards…let’s see what you’ve got.” Submerged in energy, Kimberley’s light had adsorbed the laser cannon shots and she redirected them back to where they came from, the explosion rocked the audience as well as the centre of the arena.

Usually they were used to getting their own way when they viewed the Network’s bloody game shows, they were violent and bloody, but the victims were frequently the contestants, they rarely ever had a chance…until now.

Big Man launched from his seat as if someone had just placed a thumbtack on it. “I SAID RELEASE EVERYTHING.” He pushed aside his production manger who dropped his clipboard and his remote, Big Man picked up the small device and started hammering down on the buttons. Instantly, more platforms rose from trapdoors scattered all across the arena.

Two popped up near the North stand, two giant armoured jeeps trundled towards Kimberley, who had climbed off her own platform and jumped on what she hoped would be firm ground.

The jeeps had six mechanical elongated arms dotted around the body; at the tip of each arm were chainsaws, already buzzing in unison like an army of killer bees, the arms swung erratically as the Jeep they were attached to bumped over the ground towards Kimberley, but they didn’t reach her. Orbs released from her hands obliterated the jeeps as soon as they drove off the platform, Big Man turned to his production manager. “Were those Jeeps remote controlled?” He nodded back. “Good, don’t want anybody dead whose still on the payroll.”

Apollo entered the executive box with a cut to his head. Another platform rose from the centre and on it stood seven armed soldiers, they had a huge arsenal of weapons; guns, spears, and axes – they looked mean and nasty enough to hold their own against Kimberley.

Apollo touched the wound to his head with a grimace but then gave a twisted smile when he saw the soldiers. “HA, THEY’RE MA BOYS, SHE’S GOT NO CHANCE,” Apollo boomed with delight. Big Man raised a concerned eyebrow. “THESE ARE MY DOGS OF WAR, THE MOUNTAINS SHOOK WHEN THEY WERE BORN,

THEY ARE THE CHILDREN OF CHAOS, THE REFLECTION OF PERFECTION, GODS TREMBLE AT THEIR APPROACH, THESE ARE MACHINES OF WAR AND CANNOT BE BEATEN, WATCH AND LEARN ‘BIG MAN’. THESE INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION WILL BE THE END OF THIS ‘KIMBERLEY’, THEY ARE EXTREME HEAVYWEIGHT.”

Apollo’s soldiers took aim at Kimberley but her orbs wiped them out before they could pull the trigger.

Big Man huffed, “Heavyweight? More like dead weight.”

Apollo watched, open-mouthed as the commandos he trained were obliterated before his eyes.

“She wiped out my boys.”

Big Man wasn’t too concerned. “She’s wiping out everything, soft lad. This is beyond a joke.”

His manager was caught sneaking out of the door. “Before you leave and I give you the sack, Poindexter, what’s the combination for the Chimera?”

The production manager shouted some numbers at his now former boss. “zero eight, eleven, eighty-three, but the creature isn’t ready, it’s not stable.”

Big Man fought the urge to kill him and just grinned. “My kind of creature, close the door on your way out.”

The manager didn’t need telling twice and fled, leaving only the female assistant left to cope with the increasingly unstable mind of Apollo and the maniacal Big Man.

The king of the Networks entered the combination into the controller that the manager had left and waited, as did Kimberley. She called out to Felcey, who now had the other Beak-nip lion drinking from his hand.

“You ok?”

The lad pulled his hand away from the lions and gave her the thumbs-up sign.

The ground shook once more and Kimberley found it hard to stand, her glow fading and this time the whole stadium was shaking, the ground opened up once again, but there wasn’t a platform large enough for what emerged from the hole.

Struggling to make its way out from the open stadium floor was a creature of unimaginable horror. A terrifying roar that rocked Kimberley off her feet bellowed from this monstrosity. It was like a lingering thunder-clap the sound of this creature, and now completely free from the hole Kimberley lost her confidence and control of her bladder.

In front of her stood the ‘Chimera’, a giant monster created in Big Man’s labs. They didn’t know what to do with the creature after they had created it, but Big Man knew it was the ultimate killing machine and someday there would be a game great enough to unveil such a monster; tonight was just the night.

The creature had a giant elongated head with huge tusks jutting from its mouth, it grinded its sharp teeth together, its huge frame was lit up by the floodlights. It had distinctive marked ridges down its back, this was a male. The monster’s red eyes blinked as it lifted its heavy head, fur covered its body apart from its tail. The tail was a live serpent, which hung loosely behind its back, sometimes slithering along the floor like a giant sidewinder and looked magnificent in the floodlights. The snake was added on by the scientists.