Sara reached the neck joint, lightning fully coursing through her now. "Tell me where to hit!"
"Directly under the central plate!" Max shouted. "You'll see a pulse line. That's where its command relay is!"
Sara raised both hands, her eyes burning like suns, and roared.
"Let's see you survive this!"
She slammed both fists down, red lightning cascading through the metallic hide like a detonated sun.
The pulse line sparked — then ruptured — and the entire upper torso of the Colossus jolted violently.
Max leapt high into the air and summoned a massive red spear of condensed energy.
"Finish it!" he yelled.
Sara jumped free just as Max hurled the spear.
CRACK–BOOM!
The spear pierced the exposed core.
For a moment, everything went silent.
Then —
KA-KRAKOOM!!!
The Colossus exploded in a chain of thunderous blasts, sending a shockwave miles wide and shaking the city below.
Sara landed hard, rolling to a stop beside Max, who had just touched down.
Smoke and debris rained around them.
They stood silently for a moment, watching the twisted wreckage burn.
Sara looked over, panting but smiling.
"…That was insane."
Max chuckled. "That was just practice."
He looked up at the sky. "More are coming. Bigger. Smarter."
He turned to her, eyes serious.
"But now they'll know we fight back."
As the smoke settled, the sky above the battlefield slowly cleared — just enough to reveal the faint glow of the city's protective energy dome in the distance. The burning wreckage of the Colossus-class drone crackled behind Max and Sara like a bonfire of defiance.
Then came the sound — faint at first, but growing.
Cheers.
From the ridges beyond the battleground, dozens of enhanced survivors who had followed Max and Sara's progress were now watching in awe. A few of them dropped to their knees. Others clapped. Some raised makeshift weapons or fists high into the air.
Max didn't smile. Not yet.
He looked to Sara, who stood tall despite her bruises and torn uniform, lightning still quietly dancing across her skin.
"You did good," he said simply.
Sara exhaled deeply, her voice trembling from fatigue and adrenaline. "That thing… it was stronger than anything we've faced."
Max nodded. "And yet it fell."
He turned to face the crowd, amplifying his voice with a pulse of energy. "You all saw what just happened. That wasn't luck. That was what happens when power is used properly. When we strike first — with control and precision."
He gestured toward the smoking corpse of the Colossus.
"This was just one. There are more. And they're worse. But from this moment on, the machines will remember us. Not as prey… but as predators."
Cheers erupted again — louder this time. Even the most skeptical faces were now lit with belief.
Sara leaned closer. "What's next?"
Max folded his arms, his gaze locked on the horizon. "We solidify. Fortify the city. Train the next wave. Then…"
He raised a hand, conjuring a floating 3D map of the region. Red markers lit up across the wasteland — known Ultron nests, resource nodes, remaining resistance bunkers.
"…we take the war to them."
Sara's eyes gleamed with resolve. "No more hiding."
"No more running," Max agreed.
In the days that followed, the city buzzed with newfound energy. Under Max's direction, work began on new infrastructure — training grounds, shield amplifiers, advanced forges, and drone factories. Survivors, now empowered and inspired, volunteered in droves. Sara personally led combat squads into the field for scouting missions and training runs.
Max worked quietly behind the scenes — designing upgraded weapons, refining the Red Apple's activation formula, and crafting advanced suits that could better channel the attributes people were awakening with.
Each day, more people awakened powers — lightning, shadow manipulation, density shifting, even some elemental abilities like ice or flame.
But Max knew what was coming next — the real enemy wasn't going to send just Colossus drones.
No.
The Ultron Prime Core was still out there. Watching. Calculating. Preparing.
And soon, it would respond.
But by then, Max's city — his army — would be ready.
The days bled into nights, and still the city roared with life.
Within the barrier dome — now stronger and larger thanks to Max's latest energy-core upgrades — the once-ruined wasteland had been transformed. Skyscrapers made of alloyed scrap and plasma-forged steel dotted the skyline. Training arenas buzzed with energy as simulations ran round the clock. Red lightning occasionally flashed across the skies as new recruits pushed their gifts to the edge.
Max stood at the heart of it all — atop a towering central spire, watching as dozens of squads drilled in perfect rhythm below.
Sara landed beside him, her boots crackling as she descended with a flicker of energy.
"Forty-seven new awakenings this week," she reported, tapping a datapad. "And three more elemental variants. One pyrokinetic, one electromancer like me, and…" she smirked slightly, "a guy who can make his body turn into metal."
Max raised an eyebrow. "Useful."
"He broke his own training dummies. Twice."
Max smirked, then tapped into the city-wide neural uplink. A holographic interface spread around him, showing dozens of flashing markers. Patrol routes. Drone activity. Supply movement. And one large, pulsing red dot — growing steadily.
Sara noticed it too.
"…That wasn't there yesterday."
"No," Max said flatly. "Ultron just made his first move."
He zoomed in on the red dot. A massive mechanical structure, crawling with movement.
"Factory Node 07-A. Deep desert. They're building something."
Sara's jaw clenched. "Colossus?"
"No. Bigger."
He turned toward her. "Gather your team. Recon only. Don't engage — not unless I say so."
Sara nodded and vanished in a flash of red lightning.
Max turned back to the display, his thoughts running far ahead of the present. If Ultron was bringing out the heavier hardware, then it was preparing for a sweep — a total purge of any remaining resistance.
He needed to act faster.
In his private lab deep beneath the spire, Max opened a sealed vault. Inside were twelve glowing red crystals — compressed cores of the Red Apple serum, each one embedded with tailored evolution sequences.
Commanders, he thought. I'll need more than just squads and fighters. I need generals.
One crystal pulsed brighter than the others.
He picked it up and stared at it.
"Sara won't be the only vanguard."
He sent out a silent transmission through the neural web — to his most promising candidates among the new awakeners.
:: YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED. REPORT TO CORE SPHERE 01. ::
***
Support me at
patreon.com/boring_world
It's 22 chaps ahead