Destined: The Six

14. The Battle at Mount August

          It was official: August hated monkeys. They chased him all throughout the mansion as he popped his head into rooms so he could look for things to steal while the others were fighting Castle. Everything he found was just rooms full of more metal monkeys that chased him across the hallways. 

          Finally, August stumbled across a room at the end of one hall. When he opened the door, he saw a huge room--like a factory. In the middle was a glass orb filled with this swirling mercury mass. He leaped from the catwalk he was standing on to get a closer look.

          The label read: Impervium. DO NOT TOUCH. August completely ignored the "do not touch" part and instead focused on "Impervium." Well, Impervium sounds like impervious, which means invincible, so it's got to be good, August reasoned to himself, noticing the "dispense" button and line of glass jars. He hit the "dispense" button, and when it asked how many jars, he pressed the down arrow, making the number go to 99.

         He pressed "confirm" as he heard the door behind him open and a monkey yell, "STOP RIGHT THERE, FIEND!" August turned to see a monkey with its face twisted into permanent anger. He guessed that was the gentle one. "Why should I?" he asked. "I've already started. There's no going back now." August gestured to the Impervium-filled jars behind him. 

         Metal Angry was furious. "YOU MUST DIE!!!" It cried as many metal monkeys rose up and began scowling at August. August put his hand to the parachute cords that were on his special backpack. "Oh, really?" He said with utmost confidence. "Try me."

         The monkeys tried him, and well...they tried. As the monkeys charged August, he decided to wait to use his surprise and instead chose to use his guns. August pulled out four revolvers and tossed them in the air--two to his left side and two to his right. In midair, the revolvers fused and combined, becoming awesome assault rifles. August caught the rifles and started shooting.

          He must have shot down hundreds of monkeys, but hundreds more kept coming. His bullets were made of Berserker's Iron, a magic alloy consisting of Enchanted Ore, iron, essence of might and essence of swiftness. The Berserker's Iron bullets tore right through the monkeys, proving that August had made the right choice in making the bullets out of that metal. Every few seconds, he had to change clips, but he didn't mind. Turned out you could make iron out of Enchanted Ore, and magic regenerated, so he technically could have infinite Berserker's Iron. 

          August climbed up the pile of metal monkey carnage he had made. These little beasts were serious fighters--some of them didn't go down until they were shot five or six times. The gun on his left hand was starting to overheat, so he gave it a break and began shooting with his right gun only as he reached the top of his hill. Mount August, he immediately dubbed it. 

          "MONKEYS, GET BACK!" cried out Metal Angry. "I'll take him myself." Metal Angry flew over to August, at the summit. August chose now to use his surprise. He threw his guns into the air and pulled on the cords on either side of his backpack. He had to do them both simultaneously, or else his surprise wouldn't work.

          Machinist's Bronze and Berserker's Iron covered his whole body. He had made a special Iron Man-esque suit that would activate whenever he pulled both cords on the sides of his backpack simultaneously. Its special features included a shoulder mount for his guns, a jetpack, his infinite backpack pocket, serious protection, and wrist rockets, among others. August caught the guns and planted them on his shoulders. They immediately hooked up to his shoulder mounts and gained laser sights.

          "Automate," He said to his suit, which allowed to guns to shoot automatically. He looked down at Metal Angry. They instantly targeted the monkeys that were watching below. "You still want to fight?" he challenged. Metal Angry's angry confidence didn't waver. "Come at me." 

          The two cocky metal fighters fought on. Metal Angry was surprisingly fast, too fast for August to keep up. He was taking some serious hits, and he had to do something now. He pulled out his last stop--the one he had asked Belle to help him with. "Computer," he grunted, taking another hit from Metal Angry. "Initiate...Danse Macabre." Computer immediately complied. "Danse Macabre Initiated."

          August now found that he had the ability to block each one of Metal Angry's strikes. In fact, with each block, Metal Angry got slower. August watched the "burnout" meter on the left side of his display increase with each hit, and it was only a matter of time before his suit exploded violently. And unlike some mechanic heroes, he was not fireproof.

          August knew he needed to end it quick, so he threw a few well-placed punches. The Berserker's Iron knuckles melted right through Metal Angry's shiny metal skin. August finished with a knee to the face. "Deactivate," he commanded Computer. The world returned to normal speed again as August watched his "burnout" meter drain back to zero. 

          Once the other metal flying monkeys saw Metal Angry fall to the ground, they all flew away like the cowards they are. August remembered the Impervium jars that he had left running while he fought. He ran over to the machine and grabbed every jar that was there, counting 99. He must have fought long enough for it to fill every jar. He looked up at the swirling silver mass. It wasn't noticeably smaller. Now that there was no loud monkey screeching, August could hear speech on the other side of the wall to his left. "...Destroy you right now and save the trouble of awakening my armor," a deep voice said.

          August knew that that must have been Castle, and by the sounds of it, his friends must have been in danger. He knew the only thing to do. 

          He, the bronze flying man, flew through the wall to save the day.