Accidents Happen (2)

Moses felt like he was swimming in a pool of warm water. His mind felt as fluffy as a cloud, and he was so blissed out that he could have sworn he was hot milk and honey.

"What's going on?" He wondered as he came to. He had lost his consciousness in the middle of the process. The last thing he remembered was feeling a spike of pain in his head before he passed out.

He looked around, and was shocked to realize that he was inside a cockpit!

"What? Did the Paladin creation process succeed?!" He was ecstatic. He leaned forward, and the dark interior suddenly moved. He felt like he was thrust forward, as his viewpoint changed. Now, he was several meters tall, and he was holding onto a tube. The tube where Richard was floating in. Sparks of electricity surrounded his hands as the energy in the air buzzed.

"Richard? Richard!" He yelled when he saw all the blood that had mixed with the gel inside the tube. He looked behind Richard's tube and saw that the creation of the Paladin behind him was complete. The machinery was no longer moving, and an eight meter tall, brown coated Paladin was standing in the giant tube.

After confirming that the procedure had concluded, Moses did not waste any more time. He cocked his massive right arm back and punched forward. A cascade of broken glass came tumbling down and around the room as Richard's tube was destroyed. Moses caught the falling man with his hand before turning around.

Bethany and Anthony were fine. Their situations were stable, and their Paladins were also just about rounding up.

"Moses!" Stewart's combat suit landed at the foot of Moses' Paladin and the man quickly went over to see what was happening. When Moses had regained awareness, the space lock around him had faded, and he was able to reach here.

"Uncle Stewart..." Moses turned to look at the man. "What happened?" He wanted to know how everything had gone out of control like this.

"There is a failure rate for every attempt at creating a new Paladin. Sometimes that failure results in loss of life, or paralysis. Something went wrong as the process was going on in both you and Richard's cases. While you managed to succeed somehow, and so did Richard, his situation is much worse than your own." Stewart explained

As they were speaking, the armed guards that had tried to stop the old scientist rushed in. Things were winding down, so a medical team was just right behind them.

"Took you long enough." Stewart snapped and glared angrily at Admiral Gustavo.

"You were too rash, Stewart. What if the Paladin had gone rogue and squashed you under its foot? You wouldn't be alive to harass me then." The man glared back.

As the two of them bickered, the medical team quickly came by, bypassing the massive shards of glass and other things as they stopped by the foot of Moses' Paladin. Moses gently placed Richard down on the wheeler. The white cloth on it was almost immediately stained red with blood.

The medics did not waste any time. The stretcher immediately turned around and floated out of the room at full speed. Thankfully, there was a medic bay in this branch of the base, and it was just around the corner.

"Officer Moses, can you power down your Paladin and step out of the cockpit?" General Gustavo finally had enough of Stewart and turned to the oddity of the day. When he looked up at the Paladin, he could not help but be impressed by the machine.

The ten meter tall Paladin gleamed with red and gold, with red being the main theme. Two raised portions stuck out from the top of the head in an elaborate manner, and the head was rimmed by a line of metal as if it were a crown. The chest potion where the cockpit was meant to be located was wide and broad. The fists of the Paladin looked like they were covered in specialized gauntlets that were meant to capture attention.

"A piece of art, huh?" The old Admiral muttered under his breath.

"Moses, can you shut down your Paladin and step out of the cockpit?" Stewart called up. He still had not removed his combat armor.

"I...I don't know how to." Moses replied. He was a mech pilot, so he was familiar with the terminology, but this was a whole different thing. He could not even see anything properly within the cockpit of the Paladin. It was all smooth, black metal.

"What do you mean?" The old scientist frowned. The thrusters at the back of his combat armor flared to life, and he flew up to the head of the Paladin. "It's just like a normal mech. Try it. The old difference is that it is all controlled through your mind. The manual controls are minimal."

Moses frowned as he tried to do as the professor said. He thought about the cockpit of the mech opening to let him out, but nothing happened.

"It's not work-oh!" He started speaking, but was cut short as the force holding him in place within the Paladin vanished.

It all happened like some impossible movie. The entire Paladin began folding in on itself before the professor's old eyes. In just five seconds, everything was gone, swallowed by Moses' body, and the pilot in question was falling down from as high as seven meters in the air.

"Hold on!" The thrusters on Stewart's back roared as he shot down, snatching Moses in the air, and bringing him down safely. He turned to the twenty year old with wide eyes, barely believing what he had seen.

No one could believe it. Not the guards, or Admiral Gustavo, and definitely not Anthony or Bethany.

Stewart's eyes glimmered as his brilliant mind quickly put various theories together.