The Unknowing War (Optimum Project sequel)

Chapter 21

Surprise!

Nobody had any clue that Bastion Weldriff would do anything as ballsy as what he did three days after the astroid base was established.

To start things off, he made it disappear.

I was up in the bridge, arguing with Pix and Tom, about how nobody can make something that large disappear without a trace.

"It's just not possible!" I shouted, "You missed something, there's no way an astroid THAT large, with a base THAT well secured and constructed, could simply disappear without a signal, heat signature, or even a general trace."

Pix glared at me from across the table, "Well apparently Bastion can, because he sent us a message with a single ";-)" on it! Next thing we know the base is gone and every detection method we have and every ship, manned or unmanned, has returned with reports of just plain, empty, SPACE!" He snapped the last word back at me, as if it were a whip.

"Though I would usually concur with you Noah, there is no trace of any digital tampering, or even forced combat against the base, it is as if, for all intents an purposes, it never existed." Tom stated.

I sighed, "Okay, then if it's not where we know it was, where is it?"

"I think a better question, Noah Price, is where isn't it?"

Pix and I turned, and I stared at the unfamiliar figure, "Who the hell are you?" I asked as Pix paled and murmured, "God have mercy."

The figure spread his hands, "Why, Noah, it's me, Bastion!"

And then he just sat there and cackled.

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To be frank, before I even knew what was happening, I found myself punching him in the face.

*clang* *clang* *clang*

And even then it took me a moment to realize three things:
1. There was no sign of pain on Bastion's face.
2. The clanging noise occurred whenever I would punch Bastion.
3. My fist really hurt.

Bastion grinned as he picked me up and almost lazily tossed me across the room, sending me sprawling onto the table I had just been sitting at with Pix.

"You really think I would be stupid enough to show up in person?" Bastion gloated, he wagged his finger at me, "No sir! Not yet, although trust me, we'll fight, Mano-e-Mano." He turned and looked at Pix, "But first..."

"Do you know, exactly, how I stayed hidden for long?" He was addressing Pix now, walking forward with a kind of sick glee at watching Pix squirm and work his way backwards.

"N-no, I d-don't Bastion." Pix stuttered.

"Nanite reconstruction!" He gloated, spreading his arms wide "While this is just a pure nanite reconstruction of what I look and sound like, the basics are the same, I use the nanites and finely layer them over my skin, adjusting them so that they alter things like my hair color, skin tone, musculature, and even the colors of my retinas."

As if to emphasize this his irises changed from a simple blue to red, then black, and then back to blue.
I filed the information away for later, everything I could use against my opponent would be needed.

I sat up and formed a nanite blade, throwing it with all my strength at Bastion's apparent golem. The grunt that escaped my lips caused the golem to turn in time for the blade to go plunging directly into it's eye socket.

The nano-bastion just laughed, "it'll take more than that to destroy this nano-construction Noah Price."
It reached up and jerked the blade out of its eye, which reformed as soon as the blade was free.

It looked at me and smiled, "Here, catch!" As it hurled the blade back in my direction.

I automatically slowed down time as my hands came up, and I made the necessary adjustments to catch the blade.

When I returned my perception of time back to normal, the blade was just a few millimeters from my eye.

The nano-bastion clapped, it's arms rippling as his hands made contact and somehow simulating the sound of flesh clapping. "Well well, looks like you've got your own tricks eh? Good, I don't want an easy kill."

He turned to face the majority of the crew who had watched the exchange in stunned silence, nobody willing to fire at him for fear of hitting Pix or me. "You know I made your supposedly 'undetectable' base completely disappear, what you don't know is where I sent it," He looked most of those who were up front in the eye as he said this, "Trust me," he continued, "you don't want to."

And with that, nano-bastion was gone.

-------------------A/N-------------
Ta da! Confrontation! Mystery! Combat! I stuffed everything I could into this hopefully awesome chapter, I hope you guys liked it and please let me know what you think.

P.s. Sorry this is a little late!