Only eleven minutes remained till midnight, and Belquad and Asrar had only one question on their minds; ‘can Xentio beat it in time?’.

Asrar and Belquad wanted to help Xentio, but the fight was out of their league. All they could do was sit and watch.

“I’m positive that Xentio will give it all his got,” Asrar said, trying to think positively, “and I honestly think we got a fighting chance.”

The winged whale opened its jaws of death to crush its enemy, but Xentio dodged swiftly, flaying above. Xentio slided down all the way on Bombutachakua’s spine, cutting it open with its Qi Sword. The winged whale cried as it was in so much pain. its entire back was cut vertically, bleeding non-stop. This, along with all the other injuries it earlier. The winged whale didn’t have enough time to heal completely.

As minutes passed by, Asrar noticed that something strange was happening in the sky. It was opening up! The planets were visible to the naked eye, all lined up them.

“This is …” Asrar said in amazement.

“Impossible.” Belquad couldn’t believe his eyes, “I could see Mars, and Venus, and Mercury too!”

The planets were almost in one line, right above the whale. Only a few minutes remained till midnight. At that point, the whale started glowing, it was obvious that the whale was getting stronger. Xentio tried to attack it, but it attacked first with a radioactive ray. A huge neon-like beam shot in a signal light like a laser. It came directly from the whale’s mouth, but the real source were the lined planets. Luckily, Xentio managed to shield it using its Qi Shield.

“I can’t believe my eyes!” Belquad said, witnessing the strangest phenomenon in his life.

“You can do this Xentio!” Asrar shouted. “Hang in there!”

Xentio blocked the attack hard, struggling as it resisted to remain in mid-air. Xentio might be just a machine, but it knew its duties, and what it was created, and whom to serve. Thus it gave it all it’s got to save mankind.

●●●

Xentio fought the beast as he blocked the radioactive glowing beam using his Qi Shield located at his left arm. Asrar knew what power it had as she studied it in the afternoon, it could block several types of beams.

“He’s been like that for a while now,” Belquad talked to Asrar. “do you think that he’s stalling?” Belquad thought of the possibility that Xentio was disadvantaged and was starting to lose.

“Did you know that whales are not fish!” Asrar said out of the blue.

“Huh?” Belquad had no idea what she was talking about.

“It’s true.” She added. “Throughout the day you kept calling it a fish, but it’s not a fish. Some biologist believe that whales once walked upon land, that’s millions of years ago. As many years passed, the whales evolved. Their back legs disappeared and their front legs became flippers! Now they live in the ocean.”

“Are you serious?” Belquad was surprised, but not about the facts, but her timing to tell them. “We’re in a war and you’re reciting a history lesson?”

“Whales are mammals, so they do not have gills.” She ignored Belquad and continued, “so they can’t breathe underwater. They have to come up to the surface and breathe air through their blowholes on their backs.”

Just then, Belquad understood what Asrar was trying to say. Xentio heard Asrar as well and knew what it had to do. Xentio flipped its shield to reflect the radioactive ray back at the whale. The whale fell into the water from the strong impact but that wasn’t a problem to the whale, since reemerging was as easy as flying.

However, to the whale’s surprise, once it tried to reemerge, it couldn’t. Xentio attacked it from above, ensuring that it wouldn’t reemerge again. Whatever the whale tried, Xentio was one step ahead of it. The whale soon changed its mind of emerging and instead dove fast underwater, and Xentio fallowed it.

“No!” Asrar shouted. “Xentio is following the whale into deep waters. That’s its territory. Xentio can’t function well underwater.

“The whale tricked Xentio?!” Belquad said sad, knowing that they lost their last hope.

Asrar and Belquad just sat there as they waited for the final outcome. At this point, less than a minute remained till complete alignment.

“ … okay, now we lost.” Asrar admitted defeat a second too soon.

At incredible speed, the whale came up again jumping in the sky. It was a spectacular scene as it rose up to fifty feet high. Then it fell down, and floated on the surface.

“Its dead?” Belquad said surprise.

Asrar and Belquad saw Xentio’s body stuck in the whale’s blowhole. Xentio deliberately blocked it to prevent it from breathing air.

“A drown whale,” Belquad said surprised. “that’s a new one.”

Asrar and Belquad were happy, but a bit confused. Bombutachakua seamed to have drowned, but how could it as it had just breathed a few seconds ago. Asrar wasn’t sure, but she came up with a theory after quickly examining the body of the whale. It had new scars.

“Xentio must have attacked it underwater multiple times as it tried to escape.” Asrar explained. “Getting injured a lot often result in needing to breath again. While it tried to go up again, Xentio must’ve used itself to block its blowhole.”

As the body of the gigantic whale floated above the water level, the sky closed once again, and the planets were invisible to the naked eye. The rain rained normal again, then became weaker until it reached a full stop. And the weather soon returned to normal.

Xentio was out of energy for good. It has completed its mission in life, and was a life form no more.

●●●

“Uh-ha!” the general exhaled in relief. He sat next to Asrar as they waited for the rescue team to find them. “There’s nothing sweeter than the sweet smell of success, I feel like seafood,” he said, then paused to turn towards Asrar “how about it Eisenhower, are you hungry, my treat?”
“May I take a rain-check general,” Asrar said. “I have a big date with my pillow.”

“Then how about tomorrow? After your beauty sleep that is.”

“You’re quite persistent General.”

“I don’t take no for an answer!” Belquad replied, then added. “Actually tomorrow I’m going to pay my respects to Gwinn,” Belquad paused as he remembered how she exited this world, and thinking of what he will say to her mother. Then he stopped thinking and continued immediately so Asrar wouldn’t think the general was soft or caring: “and Maxwell and all the other brave warriors who lost their lives tonight. Want me to pick you up?” Belquad said, referring to their funeral.

Asrar looked up at the stars in the clear sky, then asked: “You think anyone would believe that we saved the Earth in twenty four hours, allied with an ancient machine?” then she answered herself, as she saw it as a rhetorical question: “Probably not, we should keep it to our selves, don’t you think?”

“Thinking like a true military personnel, I like it.” Belquad said, then made a judgment based on knowing Asrar for a day: “You’re not that bad to hang out with!”

“I think I’ll take that as a compliment,” Asrar smiled, then said: “thank you.”
“It’s been a fun day, we should do that again.” Belquad joked, but really meant what he said about seeing her again. “I mean we do form an exceptional unit.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, general,” Asrar smiled, then continued: “but I don’t want to see you until the next national catastrophe!” Asrar joked with her partner.

“I just remembered that dinosaurs find a way to live again, and they’re after world domination!” Belquad told a lousy lie.

“Don’t push it Belquad!”

*** THE END ***

The ride was unstable, Bombutachakua was diving in and out of the sea. This was the results of having too many missiles fired at it. The winged whale was bleeding severely.

“I don’t get it.” Asrar thought. “Why was it waiting beneath us the whole time. What’s more confusing is why it reemerged again while it could’ve stayed underwater until the planetary alignment is complete. That way it could have gotten what it wants without the risk of dying.”

‘BOOM!’

Another missile from a F15 hit the whale. The F15 pilots were giving it one hundred percent since their guts told them that this is one fish that should have remained underwater. Lieutenant Arbocke was especially the one who was doing all the daredevil acts such as take a dive right beneath the whale while attacking with the machine-gun and launching missiles.

Gwinn was also there that night, she was acting like all the rest of the units. She could hear the general cheering on her lieutenant for his excellent performance. Unlike Arbocke, Gwinn was deprived from nice words from the general, and this lead to jealousy. Without permission or giving notice, Gwinn took a dive beneath the whale, attacking the target like a pro.

“Gwinn, what the heck are you doing?” Belquad shouted after seeing her insane performance. The general knew that she wasn’t qualified to take these kind of leaps.

Gwinn ignored Belquad and flew ahead of everyone else to take a better shot at the target. Once ahead from the target by at least twenty meters, she turned upside down to fire in the mystical beast’s face.

“Gwinn! Get out of there!” The general ordered, but the fighter refused to back off.

“Star Fox listen to the general!” Arbocke called her by her military name. “You are to aboart immediately!” he ordered her as her superior lieutenant.

“.. I missed!” Gwinn realized that the target was no longer in sight. To her surprise, the whale took a dive right after she fired the missile.

‘BERJ!’

Suddenly, the huge whale came from underneath Gwinn’s F15, blowing her up.

“No!” General Belquad shouted over the microphone, not believing his eyes. “Not her.” the general added as he fell on his knees.

Asrar got up from her seat, and placed her hand over his shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss.” she said meaning it.

Asrar knew how Belquad felt. Gwinn was still a child in his eyes, thus his responsibility. Asrar knew that the general thought of Gwinn’s death as his fault for letting her fly in this weather, but the truth was there was nothing he could do.

Asrar managed to steal a peak through the general’s lowered face, and saw tears in his eyes. Asrar didn’t know what to say, so she just waited by his side until he needed her. Belquad got up, putting his grief aside. He knew that the whale had claimed many lives, but unless he does something about it, it will only take more.

“Listen up men!” Belquad addressed the nearby F15 units. “This monster is just beginning. If we don’t stop it, it will get all of us. Don’t let our fallen comrades’ death be for nothing.”

“Belquad ..” Asrar said helplessly, hoping that he will be alright.

“And fish,” Belquad added, addressing the winged whale, “if you can hear me, then mark my words; I will make you wish you were never born.”

●●●

The weather was bad enough, but at the peak of nine o’clock, it got even worse. The blazing storm threw everyone off track. The F15 units, along with the general’s helicopter, were having difficulties navigating and locking on the target, so the general had no choice but to issue a painful order.

“All units retreat!” Belquad made a wise call. It was too dark for them to see, and the fact that it was pouring like doomsday made it even worse. Belquad didn’t want to let the orca get away, but at the same time he didn’t want to sacrifice any of his men.

As the F15s retreated, Belquad saw that one of them was doing the opposite.

“Arbocke, are you deaf? I ordered you to retreat!”

“What’s that general?” Arbocke lied: “You’re breaking up, I can’t read you!” Arbocke ignored the general’s call and went for the kill. He was determined to take down that being for his fallen fighters.

“Damn it Arbocke, back off! That’s an order.” Belquad insisted, not wanting to loose his friend as he lost the others to this unstoppable force.

“What is he thinking?” Belquad said with an angry tone. “I am going to suspend him for this!”

Then Asrar recalled something. “General,” she asked: “how many missiles did Arbocke fire?”

“Huh?” Belquad didn’t understand what Asrar was getting at.

“Because I counted four.” she said worried.

Belquad immediately understood what Asrar meant. Arbocke was out of ammo, and since machine-gun bullets weren’t going to do much on this abnormal being, Belquad and Asrar had a pretty good idea of what Arbocke was thinking.

“Lieutenant, don’t do it!” Belquad shouted as he saw Arbocke’s F15 drive right into the whale.

‘BOUJ!’

Arbocke’s plane crashed into the beast’s mouth. The whale was in more pain than before, but so were the general and the anthropologist.

“Arbocke ..” Asrar said sadly as another good fighter went down because of this unfair war. But as she raised her head again she saw something in the air. “General look!” she got up pointing.

The general got out his digital binoculars and took a look. “it’s Arbocke!”

Arbocke managed to eject in time, he ejected only a few seconds away before crashing his F15 into the monster. Although the cost was high, it was worth it since the whale was in more pain, and was starting to fall. It struggled to keep alive. Arbocke was out of danger for now, as he landed safely in the ocean. A nearby military lifeboat came to get him.

Asrar learned something from Arbocke’s attack. The whale is hurt more if the attack was on its mouth. The mouth of the beast was like it’s weak point.

The whale was losing, but the fact was the general had already lost. With no more firepower from either sky or ground units, the general had no way to take down his target. The general, along with Asrar and Schott were the only ones tailing the wild whale with wings.

“Great, What now?” The general said frustrated.

“General,” Asrar spoke up announcing: “I have a plan.”

●●●

“What?” Belquad shouted in Asrar’s face, “Negative! Permission declined!”

The anthropologist had just finished explaining her plan to the general, but he refused to go with it. It was eleven o’clock, and the planetary alignment was due within the hour. Belquad needed a plan, any plan, but what Asrar was asking for was something he couldn’t allow.

“Be reasonable General, that’s the only way we could save humanity.” Asrar argued, then crossed her arms and added: “Besides, if you have a better plan I’m game.”

“Setting yourself as bait is not a plan.” Belquad continued to protest.

“If it’ll get it to open up its mouth, then it’s a perfect plan.” she argued, “besides, you’ll be right behind me to pick me up before I become his midnight snack, right?” She smiled as if this was an everyday thing.

Belquad had no choice but to agree. Schott flew ahead of the flying fish, and lowered the helicopter to a huge stone pointing out of the Pacific Ocean. Asrar grabbed a hold of a rope tied to the chopper and lowered herself safely to the mounted stone. Belquad told Schott to get out of the way. Asrar knew that she probably would die, but she knew if she just sat in the helicopter she would definitely die, along with everyone else on the planet.

It was eleven twenty one pm, only forty minutes remained till midnight, and Asrar was standing alone on a stable rock in the Pacific Ocean. It was dark and raining harder than ever. She stood as the wind blew harder and harder, and the waves raged like there was no tomorrow.

“I think I’m gonna catch a cold!” Asrar said as she crossed her arms to keep her self warm.

Asrar knew that she was going to get sick, but that was the least of her problems. As she stood there, the gigantic whale reappeared in front of her, and opened its enormous deadly jaws for a mid-night snack. The only words that came to Asrar’s mind was: ‘here we go!’

“Schott, now!” the general gave the signal for the pilot to dive in and take Asrar as planed. Right before the whale ate her, Schott lowered the chopper and Belquad fired the Bazooka into the whale’s mouth. The whale fell off balance and back into the ocean. The last hit it received was the most painful one in the whole day.

Schott lowered the helicopter as Belquad gave a hand to Asrar.

“You did great!” Belquad congratulated her on her performance.

“I’m just glad you didn’t miss.” Asrar said, knowing that they had only one shot. If he had missed it would’ve been a whole different story.

“Let’s get out of here.” Belquad told Schott. “That’s the end of that freak. I’m buying!” Belquad offered free drinks to his friends.

Schott turned the helicopter around and head back home.

●●●

Out of nowhere, Bexis reemerged swiftly, this time targeting the helicopter. It was too fast and sudden for Schott to avoid. The chopper’s tail had broke off, and it was falling fast.

“Ahh! I thought you said we got it!” Asrar panicked as she barely hanged on.

“I’m not the expert on calculations, you know!” Belquad replied.

Above only ten feet from sea level, they stopped falling. Apparently the helicopter was stuck on Bombutachakua’s tail. The chopper was too small and light compared to the whale that it didn’t even noticed them.

The winged whale continued to fly above sea level north, as the helicopter was stuck tilted.

“Everyone stay calm,” Belquad instructed, “whatever happens, don’t let go. Just hang in there until I think of a-”

“General,” Asrar shouted panicking, barely hanging on: “I’m slipping .. Generaaaaalll!” She screamed as she fell off.

“Eisenhower!” Belquad shouted as he took affirmative action. He grabbed a hold of the rope and jumped after her.

Eisenhower’s lab coat acted as a parachute and reduced her falling velocity, while Belquad’s ’skydiving arrow’ formation allowed him to get to her faster than anticipated. Once he reached her, he grabbed a hold of her arm and they stopped falling. The rope had reached its maximum length.

Asrar immediately wrapped both of her arms around Belquad’s body so that she wouldn’t fall. Belquad used both of his hands to grab on the rope. As they hanged on to the rope of life, they realized that if they fell, they would end up with a body full of broken bones.

“Pull us up! Pull us up!” Asrar said panicking as she was afraid of heights. She was becoming hysterical.

“I can’t!” Belquad told her. “Too heavy.”

The two panicked for the next ten minutes, but after that, they learned that they were doing nothing except getting weaker. Schott was out of reach, and out of sight. They didn’t know if he was still up there or had fallen. With that kind of weather raging, no one could see anything beyond a couple of meters from their own eyesight.

“Nineteen minutes remaining general,” Asrar stated, still having both of her arms wrapped around the general. “what now?”

“Trying to sound professional-like on your last minutes on Earth? Well it’s really hard thinking of you as professional with your arms wrapped around me like that!” The general said smiling while Asrar was a bit angry. Then he decided to provoke her some more: “I mean come on, I had fantasies about us but nothing like this. I had no idea that you felt this way about me.”

“When we get out of this I’m going to kill you!”

“Would you wake up for a second Eisenhower, there is no getting out of this! This is it! We are gonna fall, it’s just a matter of time!” Belquad shouted as hard as he could. “I’m shouting as hard as possible to get the message through your scientific skull!”

“Thumbs up on keeping it together, general.” Asrar mocked the general for what seamed to be for the last time. “This .. can’t be the end, general! If there’s a will, there’s a way, I always say.”

“I don’t like it either, the fish gets to win. What can you say, but hey .. at least we get one heck of an exit!” The general said laughing, then his laugh morphed into a cry.

●●●

“General, look!” Asrar shouted as she spotted something coming from behind him.

“Ya it’s a beautiful night, ain’t it?”

“No,” she said as she put her feet on the body of the whale next to her, then gave a huge boost to spin the rope around. This way the general was able to see what she was seeing. “It’s Xentio,” she explained, “it’s back!”
“Wha .. how?” Belquad was surprised to see it. “Not that I’m complaining, but I thought it was dead!”
“Actually general, I had a plan B.,” Asrar said, then explained her actions: “you see, from what I studied about the Qi people is that they believed in one kind of energy as absolute, and that was the sun. I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I opened the ceiling above Xentio for a little sunshine in the afternoon.”
“Eisenhower, your a genius! I could kiss you!” Belquad said out of excitement for seeing Xentio.
“Let’s not get carried away now, general. We’re still not out of the bush yet.”

Xentio came and picked them up from the rope, and delivered them back safely to the helicopter. Once aboard, Xentio picked up the helicopter and flew off with it to safety.

“Much appreciated soldier,” Belquad saluted the Qi warrior “no hard feelings right?” But Xentio just continued flying.

Asrar gave Belquad a strange look as he scratched the back of his head laughing saying: “I’m sure if he had a mouth he would say ‘your welcome’!”

Belquad scanned the exterior of the helicopter quickly, and spotted Schott lying under a piece of metal. Belquad ran towards him, and examined him.

“He’s injured,” Belquad stated, “but he’ll make it.”

But Asrar didn’t replay, she was lost staring at Xentio as he carried the helicopter away from the wild whale. She couldn’t help but wonder: “why is he helping us?”

Xentio placed them on the nearby recently abandoned battleship, and flew off to fight the whale. The battleship was abandoned when the whale struck it earlier, resulting in terrorizing the soldiers on board. They took lifeboats and left soon afterwards. Asrar watched helplessly as Xentio took on the whale on its own.

“Something wrong?” Belquad asked her.

“Bombutachakua gets his strength from the planetary lineup,” Asrar said looking at the two archenemies fight, “the closer they are, the stronger it is. Xentio, on the other hand receives its power from the sun, more the light, more the strength.” Asrar turned and told Belquad what she was trying to say: “At this point, the whale is extremely strong and Xentio is …”

“is as weak as we are .. we gotta help.” Belquad understood what she was getting at, and knew that it was up to them to take down the whale and put an end to the apocalypse prophecy.

It was three minutes pass five in the afternoon, and the general’s unit was ready to go on a search and destroy mission. Along with the general on the ride were Professor Eisenhower and Sergeant Schott. Since Asrar hadn’t had anything to eat all day, she took a turkey sandwich to maintain her energy for the rest of the mission. As the chopper took off, the professor explained her theory on how to eliminate the killer whale.

“Let’s say I understood that,” Belquad said since Asrar used scientific terms and college words. “What are the chances of that actually accruing?”
“… about thirty percent.” She told him the truth.
“We can scratch that from our to-do list!”

Asrar was felling a bit worried about their targeted specie, and decided to share what’s in her heart with the general: “But what I’m really concerned about is that, well …” Asrar paused out of nervousness, but continued anyways: “ .. I have reason to believe that this being we are dealing with is biogenesis.”

“meaning?”

“meaning that it has the ability to give birth.”

“Great! Just what were needed.” Belquad was worried that the matter would get out of hand. “But doesn’t it require a .. you know, mate? for this process?” the general asked as he started to get a little nervous himself.

“Not really, he’s like a hydra .. oh look at the view, it’s beautiful!” Asrar changed the subject. At this point, both of them blushed beyond control, embarrassed about the discussed subject of mating. Both of them turned their heads to the other side with the attempt to change the subject.

While avoiding Belquad’s eyes, Asrar looked down on the far ground by mistake, and started to breathe hard and fast, as acrophobia was returning.

“Oh no, here we go again.” Belquad said, referring to her mental condition.

●●●

Thirteen minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the killer whale. Since it was last seen headed northwest, Schott was flying above the ocean in that area. Multiple military ground stations, battleships and units have been assigned to look for the flying fiend as well.

“Talal ..” the general said in a calm low voice as he stared at a photo he took out of his wallet.

“Your sweetheart?” Asrar joked.

“He’s my son.” he answered.

“Oh I’m sorry!” Asrar apologized for her insensitive joke. “You’re married?”

“What? Are you crazy?” Belquad shouted at her. “Of course not!”

“Of course .. my mistake.” Asrar replied sarcastically, but Belquad didn’t catch it. “May I see it?” she asked about the photo.

Belquad handed the photo of his son over to her. When she saw the photo she was surprised: “Oh, he’s a grown man!”

In the photo, Asrar saw Belquad and his twenty year old son, Talal. Talal had blue eyes and blond tall hair with a light beard. What caught Asrar’s attention was what Talal was wearing in the photo, an red T-Shirt written on it ‘I’m too cool for school’.

“I see he’s turning out to be like his father.” Asrar was sarcastic again, and like before, the general didn’t get her mocking.

As Asrar passed back the photo, she spotted something in the distance. “General,” Asrar got up, pointing out at the far horizon: “I see the target!”

●●●

“Schott, follow that fish!” commanded the general as he stood up in the helicopter, and grabbed a hold of a handle in order not to fall. General Belquad lifted the microphone connected to his headset which was around his neck, and placed it over his head, and gave an order to his men as well: “All units, this is General Belquad, target is in sight and in motion, and will be flying over Europe from south unless we take it down now!”

“Are you sure you have jurisdiction general?” Asrar asked Belquad about his power.

“Let me worry about that.” The general said as he took control of the situation, then added: “That is, after I make canned tuna out of this flying fish!” Belquad said as he stared at the winged whale, following it in its path.

In no time, a unit of six F15 Eagles arrived at the location to assist the general, guided by Lieutenant Arbocke.

“You know general, I think you like this critter!” Ariel Ace joked over the transmiter as he flew next to the helicopter.

“About time lieutenant!” The general replied shouting.

“Twice in one day?” Asrar wondered “He’s one outstanding lieutenant, I bet he’s Belquad’s favorite.”

“I’m also here Lot,” Gwinn, the same woman from the earlier battle which took place over Glynville before noon, was also present.

“Who’s that?” Asrar asked Belquad about the woman on the other end of the line.

“A close friend.” The general replied.

“I’ll say.” Asrar said, indicating that there was something going on between the two.

“Eisenhower, this isn’t the time” Belquad answered, realizing that Asrar sounded a bit jealous.

“Target in range,” Lieutenant Arbocke locked on the target. “Awaiting orders.”

“Fire!”

‘BOOM!’

Lieutenant Arbocke send two missiles at the flying beast, both of them hit.

“Alright!” Arbocke gloated as he kept tailing Bombutachakua at a low speed.

Schott also kept a short distance between the target and the chopper, although all what anyone could see was a cloud of smoke floating in mid-air. The smoke was caused by the blast of the missile. Once the smoke was gone, the target was seen clear flying in its same path as if nothing happened.

“Impossible!” To the general, as well as the others, it was a complete shock. The missiles appeared to have zero effect on the target.

●●●

“This is unheard of!” The general was confused as he fell back on the cushion.

“General, snap out of it!” Asrar ordered Belquad. “Your units need you out there.”

“General B.,” Schott alerted Belquad. “The fish has crossed the boarders of Italy.”

“Fine you stinky fish, if that’s how you wanna play it,” the general got back up again and gave a new order to initiate a last-minute plan B.: “F15 units, stay on the target. Do not fire until permitted. Schott, take us ahead of this fish.”

“What are you planing on doing Belquad?” Asrar asked worried.

“Shut it Eisenhower.” Belquad replied, then took out his cellphone and dialed a number. “This is General Belquad, get me Sergeant Melchiott on the line now!”

“Who’s Sergeant Melchiott?” Asrar asked Schott.

“He’s a tank-man, one of the best.” Schott told her what he knew. “If my memory doesn’t device me, I believe he’s currently in Sweden.”

“Sweden .. so that’s where we’re heading.” Asrar figured out the general’s plan.

Within ten minutes, Belquad’s helicopter was over Sweden. Asrar looked down below on the ground and saw military tanks ready for action. Asrar knew that Belquad was planing on taking it down before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean again.

In no time, the fish was right on cue. From the sight of the many tanks lined up, Asrar was getting a little worried.

“Think before you command General!” Asrar shouted, warning Belquad not to make another mistake and attack an allay like the earlier war on that same day. “Don’t just fly off on some wild hunch whenever the sun hits you.”

“Stay back Eisenhower, this is war!” Belquad shouted as he grabbed a hold of his headset and ordered: “Melchiott, fire!”

Sergeant Melchiott shot a cannon ball at the target.

‘BOOM!’

It hit Bombutachakua from underneath it, but it still flew over Sweden towards the ocean.

“Keep at it men! Never give up, never surrender!” Belquad ordered all of his men to fire at the beast.

Arbocke and the F15s fired from above, while Melchiott and the other tanks fired from beneath.

“At this rate Bombutachakua will die.” Belquad smiled as he pictured his victory.

‘AHUUU’

A strange sound was heard, it came from the whale. It cried as it began to spin out of control. Just as Belquad predicted, the whale was effected by the missiles and cannon balls after all.

“General B., the target is starting to fall.” Schott stated, then added: “estimated crash point is in the ocean.”

“What?!” Asrar was more angry then confused, “That fish is making a run for it! Once in the ocean, it will be nearly impossible for us to track it down!” Then she faced the general and took him by his shoulders: “General, I just know it can regenerate once underwater, trust me.”

Belquad had no choice but to believe her. “Okay listen up!” Belquad thought of an instant plan C., “Melchiott, you and your tank-men aim at the tip of the beast’s jaw, concentrate all your firepower at that point.” Belquad then addressed Ariel Ace and the other F15s: “As for you Arbocke, I want you and your wingmen to get ahead of the fish by at least fifty meters, then take a u-turn and come at it from front. Once locked on, fire at will!”

Asrar was amazed that Belquad was manage to issue a well studied plan on the spot. “maybe he’s not that dumb after all!” She thought.

“It might not work,” Belquad said, knowing the odds against him, “but we have no choice but to try!”

Belquad’s plan was to ensure that Bombutachakua falls on Sweden’s far north coast where there were no civilians. Unfortunately, the winged whale’s will was much more stronger, and was able to maintain enough strength to fall back into the ocean.

“Damn it!” Belquad was pissed. “I thought I had it this time!”

“Plan D.?” Asrar said, “maybe submarines could follow it underwater and inform us where and when it will reemerge again.”

“No can do. The nearest submarine I’ve got is near Canada.” Belquad told Asrar with a face of a beaten man. “By the time they’ll be here, the fish would have been long gone.”

●●●

Only six minutes remained from seven o’clock. It was a beautiful sunset on the pacific ocean. Belquad’s helicopter was low on fuel so he told Schott to land on the deck of a nearby marine ship.

As Belquad and Asrar walked on the gigantic ship’s deck, they saw two F15s land on it as well. Belquad recognized the pilots but didn’t brag about it, knowing that they probably landed to salute their general.

Asrar and the general were drinking a cup of coffee as they tried to think of a new plan.

“Hey stranger!” a voice came from behind the two by at least eight meters. It was the pilots that landed from the F15s. Gwinn addressed her general as she approached them. Gwinn was accompanied by the famous F15 pilot Lieutenant Arbocke, however, he went to get a drink first.

Gwinn had dark hair, but a wide nice smile. Although she was a little taller than Asrar, she was a lot younger, by six or seven years at least. Both Gwinn and Arbocke were wearing a pilot’s gray jumpsuit as any F15 pilot would wear.

“Shouldn’t you be out there looking for that beast?” Belquad responded rudely.

“I thought I’d say hello first.”

“That’s what telephones are for.”

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Gwinn said to Belquad, referring to Asrar.

“Eisenhower, Gwinn. Gwinn, Eisenhower.” Belquad said it so fast that Asrar didn’t have time to shake her hand. “Now go!” Belquad ordered Gwinn to leave.

“See you around cupcake.” Gwinn said baldly as she turned to walk away. Asrar had no idea why she was hitting on the general so hard although he was treating her like dirt.

In no time, Arbocke came walking towards them holding a cup of coffee.

“Hey Arbocke, over here!” the general signaled Arbocke to come say hello.

“General, It’s been a while.” Arbocke said as shook Belquad’s hand smiling, “and who’s this beautiful lady?” He asked about Asrar.

Asrar blushed by Arbocke’s kind words. She found him extremely attractive. Arbocke had American blue eyes, and golden fluffy hair. He was much taller and thinner than General Belquad.

“I want you to meet some,” The general said, “My top pilot, Lieutenant John S. Arbocke. This is Professor Ashly Eisenhower.”

“Asrar Eisenhower,” She corrected as she gave a quick angry glance at the general, then she turned back to Arbocke with a nice welcoming smile adding: “Anthropologist.”

“Enchanted.” Arbocke said as he smiled, then excused himself. “Well I’m off.”

“Good luck Arbocke,” The general encouraged him: “keep it up.”

As the lieutenant walked back to his F15, Asrar couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

“Yo Eisenhower,” Belquad called as he waved his hand in front of her eyes as if she was blind. “Wake up!”

Asrar looked at Belquad with a ‘I had to be stuck with you, why couldn’t I pear up with that gorgeous man’ look. At that point, Asrar noticed a man sneaking up from behind Belquad in a creepy way. The man noticed Asrar seeing him so he gestured to her not to inform the general of his approach. Once standing behind Belquad, the man slammed his two huge hands on Belquad’s shoulders opening with a: “Hey Lot!”

Belquad jumped, startled by the strong impact of his barbaric hands. “Kay? What are you doing here?” The general asked, laughing yet surprised.

“Sweden isn’t that far you know.” Melchiott replied laughing.

“Oh,” the general remembered to introduce him to Asrar. “this is Sergeant Keanu Melchiott, he’s a good friend of mine.”

“Delighted to make your acquaintance Sergeant Melchiott” Asrar said politely.

“See, now why can’t you be nice to me like that?” The general asked Asrar sounding pathetic, then whispered to Melchiott: “I tell ya, this is not the real her, just an act!” Melchiott was still laughed lightly.

“General sir,” a soldier from a distance called Belquad, “there’s something I think you should see.”

“Excuse me,” Belquad left immediately to see what was important.

Once the general was out of the picture, Asrar approached Melchiott with a daring question: “You two seam like close friends,”

“Yeah, me and Lot go way back.” Melchiott said smiling.

“tell me something, who’s that Gwinn girl.”

“Oh, her.” Melchiott said. “Long story short, she used to be Lot’s neighbor. She was eleven years old when Lot enlisted in the military. Ever since then, she wanted to become a soldier herself.”

“Wow, Belquad inspired her.” Asrar was surprised hearing about Lot’s childhood.

“Yeah, she’s one strong cookie. She’s in love with Lot and isn’t afraid of showing it. But Lot on the other hand only thinks of her as a kid sister.”

“Ouch!” Asrar related to the condition, sympathizing with Gwinn.

‘BERJ!’

Out of the blue, Bexis emerged with full power, damaging the battleship severely. Everyone received a horrifying shake. As Asrar got up regaining balance, she saw the massive whale right in front of her. She couldn’t help but drop her jaw wide open in amazement. The killer whale was twice as big as the massive battleship.

●●●

The nice weather soon turned into a nightmare. Dark clouds appeared, starting to rain heavily on all lifeforms below. The wind blew stronger as if a storm was coming. The anthropologist realized that this was scientifically unexplainable, a storm in the middle of summer, but soon realized that the night of apocalypse was upon them .. there was nothing natural about it.

“The damage is minimal,” Belquad said estimating the hit to the strong ship “it’ll sustain for the time being. You’ve done your job Professor,” Belquad addressed Asrar in particular, “thank you for all your hard work. You are a national hero .. heroin, that is.”

“What?” Asrar said angry, understanding what Belquad was saying, but refusing his order.

“You’re staying here, there’s nothing more you can do.”

“No way general, I’m coming with you!” She protested.

“Damn it Eisenhower I don’t have time!”

“Then except my presence, Belquad!”

“Sir, we’re losing the target!” one of Belquad’s men informed him over the headphone. The winged whale was heading north.

“Ah,” Belquad gave up arguing to save time. “you better not get in my way!”

After five hours, at about two forty seven, Belquad entered the lab to see what Asrar had found out. Asrar was sunk in studying from books, the Internet and some artifacts. Xentio was right in front of them, behind a thick wall of glass. It was restrained by chains in case it reactivates again.

“So, what have you got for me?” Belquad asked.

“Well, while you were having lunch, I did some reading.” She attacked without the intention to fight.

“With that scrawny body of yours, I’d say all you do is read.” Belquad attacked back.

“If all I did was eat we wouldn’t get anywhere!”

“Watch it!” Belquad threatened.

“So, how’s Ariel Ace doing?” Asrar opened a conversation, seeing that she needed a few minutes of rest.

“Oh, you heard that huh?” Belquad knew that she picked up on their conversations earlier. “Just a military formality.”

“And what did they call you back in the day?” She said with a mocking tone.

“For your information, I used to be call the Golden Falcon.” The general said with pride as he posed as a superhero. To his surprise, Asrar giggled. Belquad got red from her reaction and explained: “When I attack, I never miss .. oh, and when I attack, I attack like lightning, unpredictable.” The general posed again, this time like a striking mantis. But all he could get out of Asrar was more laughter. He usually gets angry when someone laughs at his former nic name, but this time he didn’t mind. Belquad liked Asrar’s laugh, she had a really nice laugh.

In a few seconds, Asrar calmed down then turned serious saying: “Listen general, I wanted to thank you ..”

“huh?!” Belquad was caught off guard.

“one moment I was in Will’s apartment,” she explained, “the next thing I know is the entire apartment building has collapsed .. but I was safe .. I don’t know how I survived, but I have a hunch that it was you, so ..”

“Eisenhower, I don’t have all day!” he replayed with an unexpected line.

“You insensitive jerk!” Asrar bursted out of anger. “If you were slightly smart, you would’ve realized that I’m trying to thank you!”

“and what good will that do me? My time is very precious to me, tell me what you know or get out of my lab!”

●●●

“This morning, Xentio appears to have disappeared mysteriously from an international museum.” Asrar told Belquad from what she had read from an Internet newspaper. “My only question is who activated it?”

“My question is how the heck did you read that name in the first place?” Belquad said frustrated, referring to the name encrypted on the metallic warrior. “You say Xentio, but all I can see is circles and dots!”

“It’s a language general,” She explained the origins of the word, “Linguistics is an important subfield of anthropology general, so I’m required to know many dead languages.”

“Got a name for that fish still soaring my skies?” Belquad replied, adding: “I know that thing helped us out there, but that doesn’t change the fact that the freak of nature is a loose cannon!”

“It’s not a freak of nature Belquad, it’s a legend.” Asrar stated.

“A legend?” Belquad replied surprised, but not amazed. “Eisenhower I never believed in fairy-tales and I don’t think today is going to be any different.”

“A couple of decades ago archaeologist David Grimbell dug up the first evidence that proved the existence of a five thousand year old civilization known as Akabala.”

“Fascinating,” Belquad said with zero enthusiasm, “How is this related to that sorry excuse of a fish?”

“I’m getting there!” Asrar replied, then continued: “Although the tribe lived on barren lands, most of the evidence lead to the unbelievable truth which was that the Akabala people was a water tribe. Throughout history, many civilizations did in fact believe in this mystical undersea creature, however, each culture had a different name for it. In the past people knew it as Seawolf, while nowadays, the scientific name for it is Orcinus orca. We know it simply as a killer whale, only a more bizarre one which managed to grow wings, and holds a dreadful destiny. A destiny that was known to hold the fate of the entire world. The people of Akabala’s hearts were so in tune with the water life that they -”

“Listen Eisenhower,” Belquad interrupted Asrar before she could continue explaining. “I don’t need a history lesson, I just need to know how to kill it!”

“No you listen General,” Asrar was pissed of the general’s ’so called military’ attitude and shouted back at the general for considering her information worthless to this operation. “humanity is at risk here, one wrong move and we’re through .. we need to know what we’re dealing with here, nuking it isn’t a solution.” She mocked the general’s barbaric ways for dealing with problems.”

After Asrar gave Belquad a piece of her mind, she took a few seconds to calm down. Belquad was surprised of her short temper, thinking that scientist were suppose to be more patient, skipping the fact that he was behind her temporary insanity.

“You know general, I’m surprised why did you picked me in the first place.” She questioned his choice. “you could’ve picked the best. David Grimbell would’ve been perfect for this job.”

“Why?” Belquad asked, really not knowing why.

“Well for starters, he’s an archaeologist, and I’m an anthropologist.”

“What’s the differences?”

Asrar smiled, and decided not to answer his dumb question since he probably wouldn’t understand and replay with another question which would only waste more time.

“Anyway it’s too late now.” Belquad stated, then changed the subject. “Back to the more important topic, is this fish gonna be a national threat or will it go back to wherever the heck it came from?”

“Oh no general, it’s here to stay.” Asrar answered. “Rememberer when you said something about Xentio and the whale being archenemies, I believe it’s true. If it is correct, which I presume it is, then Xentio isn’t the killer after all.”

Belquad got angry again: “Have you forgotten that it killed Maxwell?”

“I don’t think so, I believe that Maxwell, with all due respect, was simply in its the way. Xentio might not have seen him in its path.”

“How dare you speak of him like that? Especially after he risked his neck to save your butt!”

“General, you’re wasting both our time. If you don’t like the truth you could ignore it, but time is of the essence.” Asrar said to save time. “Now please allow me to do my job.”

Belquad walked towards the table holding the studied artifacts. He picked up one rock which resembled that shape of a male’s reproductive origin.

“How’s this related to your research professor?” The general asked out of curiosity.

“I don’t know,” Asrar said as she took the artifact from the general’s hands and placed it back on the examination table. “it’s things like that which makes me wonder why you didn’t go with an expert on historical artifacts, I mean clearly this is a job for I don’t know .. Grimbell maybe!”

“Again with Grimbell? Are you in love with the guy or what?”

“I haven’t actually made his acquaintance so, he probably doesn’t know that I exist. So what I fell could never matter.” Asrar turned her face and walked back to her books.

Belquad could see that Asrar had it bad.

●●●

“So,” Belquad walked towards the glass wall “is this Xentio Japanese or alien technology?”
“Neither,” Asrar replied, then took out a pen to demonstrate better. “See this insignia here, it’s a design.” Asrar pointed at a shape engraved on Xentio’s shield and sword. It appeared to be the letter ‘Q capital case’ merged with the letter ‘i small case’ shaping a unique symbol. “it was commonly used in the one fifteenth century in northern tribes, especially the Qi Tribe.” Asrar jumped to a quick conclusion backed up by her studies, stating: “General, I believe what we have between our hands is a Qi Warrior.”

“Wo, wait, hold on a sec. .. Qi tribe? I thought you said Akabala tribe ..” Belquad was confused and had to ask: “are there two tribes involved here?”

“kind of, you see,” Asrar started explaining the history of the two tribes: “the Qi tribe are the Akabala tribe, only when Akabala became extinct, the Qi tribe went on. After the elders of the Akabala tribe made public their prophecy about the blackfish, some men stood against them, refusing to believe that the world will end by a fish, thus they protested and convinced many people to see things their way. They believed in a way of stopping this blackfish if it ever came true, so they designed a warrior, claiming it as the key to humanity’s survival. Now the original Akabala folks knew the blackfish was coming, but they didn’t know when. And so the Akabala tribe was divided into too, the believers of the prophecy and the Qi tribe, creators of the key. However, soon the Qi tribe got sick of living with the believers and slayed them all. They won since the believers didn’t believe in killing out of anger.”

“Such a heart-warming story, now back to reality, what I want to know is why is it fighting, its tribe has extincted millenniums ago, why now?”

“Because it was programmed to awake when the blackfish emerges.”

“Programmed? This is an ancient tool we’re talking about!” Belquad laughed. “From the way you’re describing it, its sounds like a high-tech computer!”

“Simple, they used ancient technology!”

“Impossible Eisenhower,” General Belquad protested. “you’re talking about A.I. Here. Technology didn’t exist until the nineteen hundreds.”
“Wrong Belquad, the Qi tribe had successfully managed to obtain electrical circuits by converting wind and water into energy. Many of the contraptions dug up which dated to them supports this theory.” Although Asrar was an anthropologist, she spent a lot of her time studying archeology as it was an important subfield of anthropology. She continued her explanation to the general: “Some ancient mechanical designs are still undiscovered, and the ones which are, such as our friend here,” she pointed at Xentio, “are still not fully understood.”

“so Xentio was made to protect us, and we destroyed it ..” Belquad felt as if he took down one of his own. “Wait,” Belquad started to put one and one together, “If Xentio was protecting us the whole time, then that must mean ..”

“You’re right general, that winged whale we saw earlier was our enemy after all.”

“But it can’t be, I mean it’s just a legend, right?”

“More like a prophecy coming true, all the elements are there,” Asrar went on again, “the Akabala tribe knew him as Bombutachakua, meaning the being of apocalypse. Another name was referred to it by the Qi tribe as Bexis. In their wittings it’s so clear, and I quote: ‘end takes the form of the colossal, but must hide in the colossal, until the planets are aligned’.”

“Mind explaining that gibberish?”

“Don’t you understand? it takes the form of the colossal, meaning the biggest and strongest animal that ever existed, which would be ..” Asrar waited for Belquad to complete her sentence so that she would know if he was following her.

“.. which would be” Belquad tried to guess: “the dinosaur?”

“the whale, Belquad, the whale.” Asrar said disappointed, “and it will live in the biggest part of the world which is?”

“.. the space?”

“the ocean.” Asrar corrected as she thought ‘labeling him not smart would be an understatement.’

“right, of course, the ocean!” Belquad nodded up and down as if he knew what she was talking about “.. oh, it’s him, that blue killer whale!” Belquad figured it out, just a few minutes after Asrar provided him with so many hints.

“Yes, but there is a part of the prophecy that even i still don’t fully understand, what does this all have to do with astrology …” Asrar said frustrated, then turned towards the general with an extreme happy-looking face: “general, your a genius!”
“of course I am.” the general gloated as a moron, then added: “and just to test your IQ level, tell me what I just said that you consider words of a genius.”

“Space! it’s all related to space!” Asrar shouted happily, glad that she figured it out. “Bombutachakua isn’t suicidal, it wants to live but not in our world. It wants to be airborne, but in space!”

“If that freak fish wants to go into space, why doesn’t it just fly there? it has wings, right? no need to blow up our world for lift-off!”

“It can fly, General, I won’t argue with you on that. But as you can see, birds have wings too, and even they don’t have the ability to go otter space. My theory remains.”

●●●

“Okay, we have to work fast, because the planetary alignment is next week, the night of twenty first as astronomers estimated it.

“Nope, you’re wrong on this one Eisenhower, it’s tonight.” Belquad was always on schedule. “Tonight’s the twenty first of December.”
“Wha … that means we only have about seven hours left!”

“Seven hours?!” The general got up saying: “class’s over Eisenhower, now it’s time for action. I’m going to send my men to put some holes in that fish.”
“General Belquad wait!” Asrar requested, “I need more time. Practical application is only successful if the theoretical one is. If my studies are correct, which I assume they are, I believe that Bombutachakua can only die by-”

“Hold that thought,” Belquad paused her from further explanations. “you can explain to me on the way. Right now we have to head back to the sea asap!”

Belquad left the lab running towards the helicopter to save time. As he turned back to see Asrar, he realized that she was still standing. “Well are ya coming?”

“Be right there.” Asrar replied, still standing in her place.

Once Belquad was out of Asrar’s sight, she faced Xentio, and started to operate on the control panel: “Hang in there Xentio” …

Asrar froze as the whale proceeded to approach, but Belquad took affirmative action to secure both their lives. He grabbed a hold of Asrar’s hand and ran back through the apartment, and into the hallway.

“Everyone get out!” Belquad shouted as he ran down the hallway, dragging Asrar like a rag-doll with him.

Belquad was smart to know that the whale came towards the apartment building because it was the tallest of all nearby buildings. Belquad, Asrar along with the other residents headed towards the elevator. Belquad made sure everyone got in before him, but the problem was there wasn’t any room for him or Asrar. Belquad had to take the emergency side staircase.

By the time the General and the scientist were at the fifth floor, the apartment building started to collapse on them. They both knew that was the result of an impact collision caused by the enormous killer whale.

With the building collapsing on them, Belquad picked up Asrar over his right shoulder and jumped down the staircase. At this point Asrar had fainted.

“We’re almost there!” Belquad said to Asrar as he reached the second floor. “Hang in there.”

The Exit was soon in sight, but as Belquad jumped to the ground floor, he lost his balance and fell on the ground, along with Asrar on top of him. The entire building had collapsed. Fortunately for the researchers, there was a little gap between a couple of unstable stones. Knowing that it won’t hold on for long, Belquad got up again. However, this time, he fell down on the ground instantly, realizing that his knee joint was out of it’s socket.

Belquad punched his joint back into place, but the pain only got more. Asrar was out, so Belquad knew it was up to him to get them out of this. Belquad put his arm around Asrar’s waist, and crawled with one arm to get through the little opening.

●●●

He relaxed for a few seconds, not believing he’s still alive. He looked up in the sky, seeing clouds float by .. but interrupted by the appearance of an air-borne whale.

“Get up.” Belquad nudged Asrar to wake up. While doing so, he took out his cellphone. “This is the general. Target is airborne, heading northeast over the seafront. You have clearance to engage the target. Use of excessive force is permitted.” and then he gave the order: “Fire at will.”

Once the general called in for backup, three F15s flew from a nearby navy aircraft carrier, each armed with two Medium-range AIM-7 Sparrow missiles under each wing.

“Eisenhower get up!” Belquad nudged her again hard, knowing they weren’t safe yet.

“Uh, my head.” Asrar finally came to. She realized that she was bleeding from multiple areas, but more importantly, a one hundred and fifty tons were floating right above her head.

“General look!” Asrar pointed with amazement. “It’s a killer whale .. with wings!”

Despite of his severe injuries, Belquad got up on his legs and ran off.

“.. Belquad?” Asrar was surprised by the general’s action, but didn’t know what to say or what to do.

Asrar got up, grasping her reality. From the collapsed apartment building, and the flying whale, she knew she was in a war zone. Asrar ran in the tracks of the general. The general was headed to higher grounds so he could see the action and call the shots. Once he stopped, he could see his men clearly.

Three F15 Eagles were spotted a few kilometers away. The general was able to see them because he had his digital binoculars on. The general took out his cellphone to communicate with them in this sudden battle.

“Talk to me men,” Belquad ordered. “Who’s flying in my skies.”

“This is Ariel Ace.” The first pilot identified himself. “Don’t worry, this freak is mine.”

“Lieutenant Arbocke, good to see some familiar faces.” The general replied, “Work with your teammates this time.” Arbocke was one of the best F15 pilots, but known for his champion complex.

“Red Max here,” the second pilot told his general. “lock and load.”

“Don’t be suicidal Maxwell.” The general replied. “This one’s a big one.”

“You know who I am Lot,” the last one said as she smiled. “I’m taking this sucker down for you.” Then she blew a kiss over the microphone.

“Knock it off Gwinn.” Belquad replied with a more serious attitude and tone. “One small mistake and you’re all history. Don’t make me kill you myself.”

Belquad got off the phone, and watched as his men as they went into battle against the flying demon. “Take care out there.” Belquad wished them the best of luck.

After a few minutes, Asrar caught up with the general and stood next to him. He noticed her but didn’t say a word. The two stood and saw the three F15s go into battle.

●●●

“Okay you ugly fish,” Red Max said as he placed his hand on the missile launcher joystick, ready to blow up the flying whale, “any last words?”

“Maxwell! Behind you!” Gwinn shouted over the microphone just seconds before he pushed the button with his thumb.

‘BOOM’!

Out of nowhere, a flying metallic unidentified object came from behind Maxwell’s F15, and went through it as if it was a glass wall. Red Max exploded in mid-air, and it’s pilot along with it. Maxwell didn’t have time to eject.

Max’s fellow comrades were sad for his sudden death, but knew that if they took a moment to grief for their loss, they would all end up with a similar fate. As professional fighter, they knew this wasn’t the time to take it easy.

Belquad, Eisenhower, Arbocke and Gwinn were horrified by the mysterious object. “You think the whale caused this, General B.?” Arbocke asked as he flew over the huge whale.

“I ..” Not sure what to tell his unit, Belquad was speechless.

“General,” Eisenhower said, “tell them to hold their fire.”

“.. um, hold your fire,” Belquad did as Eisenhower requested. “stay sharp out there.” Then he faced Eisenhower awaiting an explanation.

“Look!” she said, pointing at the gigantic whale.

The whale was in pain. It was the mysterious metallic figure that was attacking it as it flew around.

“I get it now!” Asrar thought she figured it out. “The whale isn’t our target, it’s that foreign technology! The whale is a freak of nature, but it’s not the one behind the killing.” Then she pointed her finger at the attacker: “It’s that machine!”

“General!” Asrar addressed Belquad, taking his digital binoculars for a closer look at the whale. “You mustn’t harm the whale. I believe that it is on our side fighting that piece of metal. If your men do attack the whale, I’m sure it will not distinguish between that thing and the F15s.”

“.. Right,” The general saw it Asrar’s way. With the machine in sight, Belquad gave a new order to his unit: “Abort first mission, leave the fish alone! Your job now is to take down that damn machine!”

“On it.” Ariel Ace responded. “This is for Red Max!” Once locked on the target, he fired a missile.

‘BOOM’!

The mysterious machine was hit.

“Bull’s-eye!” Ariel Ace gloated for his impressive strike.

“Way to go lieutenant!” The general congratulated him over the microphone.

“Um general .. I think you better have a look.” Asrar notified Belquad, giving him his binoculars back to see what she had seen.

The good news was, the target was falling. However, it was falling right at the general and Eisenhower. The short lived victory soon turned into a moment of despair.

●●●

“RUN!” Belquad shouted to warn Eisenhower as he ran to escape from a crushing death.

The metallic strange object fell on the ground where the two were standing, but fortunately harmed no one. Both of them managed to dodge in time.

“General, are you alright down there?” Arbocke asked as he hovered above in the sky. All he could see was dust in the location caused by the impact.

Asrar got up and walked slowly back to the crashing site. As the dust flew away, she saw the attacker fallen on the ground.

“.. Xentio?” Asrar read the name written on the metallic object.

Suddenly it rose up again, standing on two legs. Asrar looked stunned by the sight of that thing which resembled a robot. It turned it’s one eye towards Asrar, seeing her standing next to it. Xentio’s eye was centered on top of its ring-shaped body.

Xentio was standing tall on two thin metallic legs, standing about twenty feet tall. Although most of his body was hollow, he weighted thirty pounds. That was equivalent of a tank. After a few seconds, Xentio turned it’s eye back up in the sky at the flying whale, and flew off towards it. Belquad got up and stood next to Asrar, seeing it fly off again.

“Are you alright?” Belquad asked, “not that I care of course, I’m just being polite.”

“It didn’t harm me, if that’s what you’re asking.” she answered, then starred at Xentio as he fought the whale. “I won’t lie to you general, we are up against a tough warrior.” She said without fully understanding their opponent.

“It’s not like anything I’ve seen before.” Asrar said, referring to the gigantic whale. “it might be mutated. .. General, it’s fighting back!” She pointed at the two airborne fighters. Xentio fought using a sharp long metal piece on his right arm that resembled a sword.

“yeah, and that piece of metal is fighting back. maybe they are natural born archenemies, like you and me.”

“General, now’s not the time for fooling around. I believe that the winged whale is fighting because it sees that piece of metal as a threat.” She explained the whale’s actions, then continued: “And like any animal would do, that orcinus orca is fighting side by side with nature, seeing that Xentio is going to destroy nature. Most animals either hide out of fear, or fight out of fear. Fortunately in our case, this is one animal that is willing to .. General … General!” Asrar just noticed that Belquad stopped paying attention a while ago, and was on the phone.

“It’s all yours men, take it down!” he ordered his men to take down Xentio. “Now’s our chance Eisenhower,” he turned to Asrar. “That mechanical tool is too strong, if my army was to fire at it along side with that freak of nature, it won’t stand a chance!”

“General, you mustn’t be hasty,” Asrar pleaded for the general to think it through. For to every action there will be consequences. Asrar held on to Belquad’s right arm hoping he’ll listen to reason. “this is a crucial time, one mistake and we’re done for.”

“Shut it Eisenhower!” Belquad shouted as he shoved Asrar aside with his right elbow.

Asrar knew that she needed time to figure it out. There was more to it than just fighting to destroy the world for no reason. She wanted time to understand what was happening, but she was under the mercy of the least patient man in the world.

“Fire!” Belquad shouted as missiles flew off blasting Xentio’s body. They hit it from every angle, it was impossible for it to dodge them. Within minutes, Xentio fell down on the ground. It was in no condition to continue fighting.

“Alright!” Belquad shouted out load, declaring victory. But when he turned towards Asrar he saw her sad. “What’s a matter with you? Must I remind you that it tried to kill us minutes ago?”

Asrar didn’t reply as she knew it wasn’t true. The entire time Belquad was fighting, Asrar was observing Xentio. Not once has it attacked Belquad’s planes. Xentio was focusing its attacks at the whale the whole time. Little did Belquad know, if it wasn’t for the killer whale attacking Xentio, they would’ve never brought it down.

Military tanks soon arrived, and picked up the fallen mysterious body known as Xentio. Asrar protested, claiming she needs to study the machine to understand. However, her objection was futile, as the men were taking him by orders from none other than General Belquad.

Asrar fought using words to convince Belquad to allow her study the target, and he finally agreed. Asrar sat in the military lab and started to study the mysterious object.

It was Fifty minutes pass seven o’clock, Belquad’s chopper was still overseas. Belquad was lost gazing at Asrar, seeing how her eyes had sunk in the book she was reading. Once Asrar starts reading a book, she usually forgets the world around her.

“Mind telling me what you’re reading about?” Belquad was curious since Asrar had been reading non-stop for an hour and twenty minutes, and hadn’t said a word.

“It’s David Grimbell’s work,” Asrar explained with excitement, “he studied the most uncommon underwater life forms, writing down all his observations from his expeditions. He has studied marine life for over fifteen years, and wrote six books. This one here, “she rose up her book with an indigo-colored cover entitled ‘Secrets of the Blue’, and continued her explanation: “explains the strangest sea life ever encountered.”

“Found any freakish looking killer whales yet?” Belquad asked.

“All of these photos seem a bit far fetched.” Asrar said disappointed, and a little frustrated. “This image for example is taken of a large killer whale with wings. I don’t know what Grimbell was thinking when he used these pictures in his book.”

At that point, when Asrar took her eyes off her book, and examined the helicopter she was riding in, she spotted something very odd.

“Do you always carry a bazooka where ever you go in your helicopter, general.” Asrar said as she saw a M9 Anti-tank Rocket Launcher laying next to Belquad’s seat.

“You never know when you might need it!” Belquad said laughing.

●●●

The helicopter arrived in Glynville at eight am and seventeen minutes. The Pilot landed at an open field near the shore after getting permission. The collapsed lighthouse could be seen from where they were standing. Belquad, Eisenhower and Schott all got out of the helicopter.

“I’ll call ya when we’re ready to go.” Belquad told Schott, taking Asrar with him.

“Alright Eisenhower, we traced back the call we received this morning,” Belquad explained as they walked, “and the caller is suppose to be somewhere around here.” Belquad stopped talking, giving a glance at Eisenhower as if he was waiting for her to find .

“You don’t know where they are? I’m a scientist Belquad, I’m not a detective.”

“.. I guess we’ll just have to ask around.”

Eisenhower and Belquad went into town asking people about a kid named Will, the one who phoned the cops after seeing the sighting. If he wasn’t disconnected then they might have known his full name. After asking around for half an hour, they finally found a college-aged girl sitting alone in a local café. She wore Gothic dark cloth and appeared as if she hadn’t slept all night. Asrar told Belquad to wait as she went to talk to her so that she wouldn’t be intimidated. When Asrar came close, she saw that the girl’s eyes and cheeks were covered by tears.

“Why are you crying?” Asrar asked as a humanitarian, caring for her fellow sister.

“Go away!” The girl shouted, turning to the other side.

Asrar saw the error in her approach, and understood her reaction. The upset girl must have been annoyed by that same question a million times by the locals.

“Please,” Asrar said with a calming voice, “I just want to help.”

“Save it!” The pissed off girl got up and turned towards the door to walk out. But before she did, Asrar grabbed a hold of her wrist.

Asrar knew that she was loosing the connection with the girl, so she leaped to an assumption: “You lost someone dear to you at the beach. Running away won’t make your pain go away, give me a chance to avenge their deaths.”

The girl collapsed at the table, bursting into tears. At that moment, Asrar knew that she was right to make that assumption, the girl was at the party near the lighthouse.

“It’s okay.” Asrar comforted the girl.

General Belquad was seeing everything but from a distance. He thought if he had kept his distance the girl would eventually spell out everything he needs to know. The general ordered a cup of Joe as he kept an eye at the anthropologist and the girl.

“I managed to run, but Tim …he’s dead” The girl explained.

“Lily,” Asrar knew her name from mentioning Tim. One of the locals whom she asked earlier said something about high-school sweethearts Lily and Tim. “I need you to tell me what you saw.”

“It was really dark, and I only starred at it for a few seconds.” Lily explained: “From what I saw, it a was a killer whale, but it wasn’t normal. It had strange dark blue colored skin, and it’s eyes were filled with darkness and hatred, I’m not some philosopher or poet, but I know what I saw.”

“I believe you,” Asrar said to make her feel more comfortable to talk about the subject at hand. “Please, go on.”

“The thing I feared about it most, that it could fly. I’m not just talking about jumping out of the water, but actually flying.” Lily paused for a second, then explained, covered with goosebumps: “It flew up and down over sea level, I don’t know what it is or capable of doing. One minute it was miles away from the lighthouse, the next ..” The memory was still fresh as was her loss, it was too painful for Lily to continue with words.

Seeing Lily burst into tears again was the last straw for Belquad. He marched up to the sitting women and demanded: “Who made the phone call?”

“.. A guy I know” Lily was taken by surprise by his appearance, but had nothing against military men, and nothing to hide. Moreover, she wanted to help find the beast: “from college, he’s name is Will something. He lives in an apartment at the same building I live in, that one over there.” Lily said, pointing at a nearby eight stories high building.

●●●

After thanking Lily for her cooperation, Asrar and Belquad went to the apartment building to visit Will.

“She lives next to the guy and goes to school with him, you’d think that she’d know his last name.” Belquad joked, but received no reply from Asrar. “Hey Eisenhower, I’m talking to ya, the least you could do is pay attention.”

“Oh, sorry General,” Asrar woke from her daydream apologizing: “It would seem that my mind had wondered off.”

“Well the next time you feel like resting, don’t!” Belquad shouted in Asrar’s face. “Don’t forget that this is a crucial mission, not an all-expenses-paid trip!”

“Got it, shesh! You don’t have to spit it in my face.” Asrar said while taking her glasses off to clean her lens.

The two got in the apartment building, heading straight to the reception.

“Greetings,” Asrar saluted, “We’re looking for a Will, a college student.”

“Um,” the receptionist hesitated, then asked: “Are you the police?”

“No,” Belquad answered, then added: “Much more higher than the blues.”

“Is he under arrest?” The receptionist asked.

“How is this any of your business?” Belquad lost his temper.

“Well, unless Will is under arrest, I can’t give you his room number. He requested that no one bothered him, and by that he meant no one.”

But before Asrar could say a word, she was blocked by none other than her partner; Belquad.

“Go wait there.” Belquad ordered Asrar. “Leave this to me.”

“But ..”

“You had your way with that young woman, now it’s my turn to get the information I want.”

Asrar walked away and left it up to Belquad. He did have a point, and she wanted to trust him as he trusted her when she requested that she would speak to Lily alone. Asrar looked around, observing the people coming and going. Asrar noticed that most of the people were adults and not college-aged, this was a surprise since many residents, such as Lily and Will, rented apartments here because it was the nearest to the college, and not many were nearby.

Questions came to Asrar’s mind in a second. “Where are the kids? Are they all hiding? have they all seen the monster?”

As she wondered, she saw a kid sitting by himself in a corner. She was drawn to him, maybe because he knew something, or he just looked like he needed instant help. The kid’s face was facing the floor, so he couldn’t see Asrar approaching, nor was she able of seeing his face. From his position, Asrar assumed that the boy was gloomy, as was the state of most students in this town at this time.

At only a few steps away, Asrar felt a hand crashing down on her shoulder, she jumped startled. She turned around and saw Belquad.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

She turned around to the corner only to find the boy no longer there.

“what is it?” Belquad asked concerned, seeing the confusion look on her face.

“.. nothing,” Asrar ignored the boy after taking a few looks around her. The boy was gone.

Asrar and Belquad took the elevator and went to the sixth floor, apartment C-11.

“What did you find out?” Asrar asked about Will as they waited in the elevator to arrive to the sixth floor.

“He’s a Med. Student,” Belquad explained, “he says the boy’s name is William Shakespeare.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” she said, rolling her eyes. Then asked: “how did you-”

Belquad faced Asrar saying: “Do I ask you how you do your job?” Belquad wasn’t a nice man when it came to communicating with others.

“You have got to work on your social skills.” She said, emphasizing on a few words to make sure Belquad got the message.

●●●

‘KNOCK KNOCK’

Belquad knocked the door of their acclaimed eyewitness. The reason why Belquad and Eisenhower insisted on meeting Will instead of any other teenager is because he was willing to talk. The fact that he picked up the phone and dialed 911 was a call for help.

It was nine forty six, and Belquad and Eisenhower were still waiting for Will to come answer the door.

“That’s it, I’m going in!” Belquad said as he barged in, braking an entrance.

“Ever heard of privacy?”

“He’s not here!” Belquad concluded after going through Will’s apartment. But continued to search the apartment for any leads.

Asrar walked onto the balcony, closing her eyes and breathing the fresh air. The scenery was beautiful, it viewed the ocean. All what could be heard was the sound of the clashing waves on the coastal stones.

“General!” Asrar suddenly screamed, her eyes were filled with fear.

Belquad immediately ran to the balcony to see what has alerted the anthropologist. To his amazement, the General found what he was searching for. It flew off the ocean, and into the air .. moreover, it was coming towards Eisenhower and Belquad fast.

It was the winged whale.

“Come on, let’s go up there!” Tim said to his friend Lily as he smiled, pointing at a near abandoned white lighthouse.

“You think you can keep up?” Lily glanced up at Tim, daring him for a race to the top of the lighthouse.

It was dark past midnight, and only a few hours remained for sunrise, but as for the teenagers of Glynville the night had just begun. It was the middle of the summer, therefore school was out. Tim Ulrich and his college friend Lily Coyle, along with other teenagers, were partying all night in an abandoned warehouse on the seafront. Tim and Lily soon got board at the party, and decided to go to the lighthouse nearby. Since it was shutdown years ago, it was easy to get in.

They ran upstairs racing for the Lantern Room. Lily was fit and in great shape, so she managed to outrun Tim.

“Lily …” Tim called out looking up the staircase. Tim was exhausted, but continued to climb up. Tim soon reached the Lantern Room and found Lily looking out the window; standing still as if she was frozen.

“.. Lily?” Tim said concerned as he approached her slowly.
Lily didn’t say anything, but raised her right hand, pointing with her finger at the ocean viewable through the huge glassed window. Needless to say, her facial expression showed that she was terrified at what she was seeing.
Tim turned to look at what she was pointing at, and saw a huge whale jumping out of the ocean, and heading towards the lighthouse. Tim’s life flashed before his eyes.

●●●

“911, what is your emergency?”

One of the teenagers at the party who has seen the attack of the whale barley held up the phone as he informed the authority of the situation: “I’m at a party near the beach, and this, this big whale with wings flew out of the ocean and right through the lighthouse like it was a stick, and my friends … My friends are at this lighthouse! they’re .. I don’t know if they’re alright or not! The lighthouse came down and-”
“Please try to calm down sir, and state your name and location!” Said the officer on the other side of the phone.
“It’s Will, I’m at the abandoned warehouse on the coast!” Will replied.
“Sir, I’m gonna need your full name.” said the officer. But since Will didn’t answer back, the officer requested again. “Sir, sir are you there?”
Will was cut off line for a reason that remained unknown to the officer.

●●●

The local police station didn’t care to investigate the matter, as the teenagers of Glynville were known for their prank calls among other types of hoaxes. However, the government’s National Security Agency was listening to their short conversation, and was interested.

The FBI agent, who listened to the conversation, got up from his chair and went to the head of the department and informed him. The man in charge, whose name remained unrevealed, contacted a person he knew to investigate this peculiar phenomenon. General Lot Belquad of the army was informed.

“We’re dealing with something of the strange.” The General told his men. “I’m gonna need some light on the subject. Get me the best you can find!”

●●●

‘DING DONG’

The door bell of a certain citizen was pressed, not a minute later than five thirty in the morning. The house owner woke up and put a robe on to answer the door. She went down the stairs and opened it, finding military men in front of her house.

“Yes,” she answered, still half asleep. To better see the men in front of her, she had to put on her thick glasses as she had weak eyesight.

“Mam, are you the archaeologist, Professor Asrar Eisenhower?” asked one of the men.

“yes, I’m her .. Is there something wrong sergeant?” Asrar was getting worried by this sudden visit.

“We are here in behalf of General Belquad. He requested to see you immediately.”

“The General of the force? as in the Ministry of Defense?” She was worried, and had to ask: “what is this all about?”

“You will know at the General’s office.”

“Can’t this wait? It’s five thirty in the morning.”

“I am aware of that Dr. Eisenhower,” The soldier replied, then added: “but you should be aware that I have orders to take you to him, even if it meant I’d carry you myself.”
“Ah .. ” sighed Asrar as she rubbed her forehead “.. No need, I’ll just be a minute.” Asrar closed the door and headed upstairs to get dressed.

After five minutes, she opened the door again gesturing that she was ready. The two soldiers were surprised to see that her hairstyle hadn’t change. Asrar had long thick red hair, which was a mess twenty four seven. Being a busy anthropologist, she didn’t waste her time keeping up with the latest hairstyles.

Asrar wore a long turtleneck dark red sweater, and wore over it a white lab coat. But to her, it wasn’t any ordinary white coat, but a lucky charm. She claims that her white coat was on her whenever she had made a new discovery. She also wore a black pencil skirt with dark brown engineer boots. Asrar was escorted to the military truck by the two soldiers, and was off to the military base camp.

●●●

Asrar arrived at the military grounds at six hundred sharp, and was taken directly to General Belquad’s office. After permitting her to enter, she opened the door and stepped in. Belquad appeared as any general would. He wore a greenish brown military suit with a matching beret and boots. Asrar couldn’t help but notice the medals that the general had on his left side of his chest. The general had the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Combat Action Badge, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon and the Army Commendation Medal. And on the other side, under his name tag, he had the Joint Meritorious and Army Superior Unit Awards. This showed that Belquad had done a great deal for this nation.

From the wrinkles on Belquad’s face, Asrar could tell that he wasn’t that young. The General was seamed to be older than Asrar by twelve years. The anthropologist herself was thirty nine.

“General Belquad Sir,” said the soldier standing behind Asrar. “This is Doctor Asrar Eisenhower.”

“I can see that rookie. Dismissed.” Belquad dismissed the soldier, leaving the professor and the general alone.

Asrar looked the general in the eyes, although she couldn’t see nothing but her own reflection. The general had mirror sunglasses on.

“Not many flesh on the bones .. too skinny.” The general analyzed Asrar in a low voice, not aware that she had sharp hearing. He continued on his muttering: “If you were one of mine, I’d train ya till ya drop.”

“I pity the troopers under your mercy captain.” Asrar spoke out load, interrupting the general’s whispering.

“It’s general, General Lot Belquad, and don’t you forget it.”

“A pleasure.” She replied with an attitude.

“Mises Eisenhower please, have a seat.” The general offered the chair facing his desk to Asrar. “Mises Eisenhower,”

“Miss” she interrupted, correcting his false assumption.

“Miss Eisenhower, your country is in great need of your assistance.” Belquad was known for being a straight-to-the-point kind of a man. He sat on his chair and explained: “We never bring civilians into the matters of national security, unless they are our very last resort.”

“National Security? … What exactly are we talking about here general?” Asrar was intrigued.

“That’s where you come in,” Belquad answered: “I need you to tell me.”

●●●

Before explaining the case, General Belquad saw that he had to put a few ground rules since Asrar was a civilian.

“Now, seeing that we’ll be working together on this matter, let’s get things straightened out.” Belquad stated his personal laws: “A., you are to address me as General, General Belquad or General Sir, First names or nic-names are not allowed.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way General,” Asrar supported Belquad’s first rule, and then added: “strictly professional.”

“B.,” Belquad continued with a serious facial expression: “you are not to take any affirmative action unless I give the order.” Asrar nodded in agreement, understanding how military units function.

“And C.,” The General concluded: “You will talk to me in English; nerd talk will not be tolerated. Is that understood?”

“Not very intellectual I see.” Asrar made a bold statement. “You know general, the brain is a muscle as well, and if you ask me, you could use some exercising.” Asrar always was a bit sassy.

“Why I ought to ..” Normally, the general would be furious after hearing someone’s remarks and fast judgments, but he managed to remain calm. He replied hiding behind sexism: “if you were a man, I’d-”

Before the general could continue his hypothetical threat, Asrar interrupted him: “General, please, enough with the assumptions, I am who I am, deal with it.” Asrar had enough of games and decided to get to the point: “We have work to do, the sooner we’re finished the faster we’ll get out of each others’ hair. Now please, my time is very important to me, can you tell me why you woke me at five and a half in the morning?”

●●●

Asrar looked up at the morning sky. At this time, it was eleven pass six o’clock after sunrise. The sky was a bit darker than most of the other days, covered with gray clouds. They appeared as if they were going to pour water at any minute.

Belquad had excused himself seconds ago, informing Asrar that he had an urgent task to take care of, and that he will be right back.

Asrar bought a cup of coffee, and walked across the military training grounds, spotting some units under training.

“Yup,” Asrar said, then paused to sip a little of her hot coffee, and then added gazing into the sky: “it’s definitely gonna be a long day.”

“Eisenhower!” Asrar heard the general shout her name as he ran across the field in her direction. “We’re all set, we’re leaving in fifteen minutes.”

“General, don’t you think that I have the right to know what’s going on. How else could I be of good?” She tried to reason with General Belquad.

“According to eye witness,” the general explained: “the nation is threatened by a killer whale .. an extremely huge killer whale.”

“Where exactly?”

“On the west side of our country,” Belquad answered, then gave the exact location: “on the coastline, a small town called Glynville. Like I said, we are leaving in fifteen minutes!” Belquad repeated with a determined mind.

“Good,” Asrar replied on the given time, then threw her cup of coffee in a near trashcan and ran off after saying: “that gives me enough time to get something.”

“Mises Eisenhower!” Belquad shouted her name to stop her from going.

Asrar stopped running a few meters away, and turned around towards Belquad with a slight smile on her face. “Miss,” she insisted, this time raising her hand to show Belquad that she had no ring on. Asrar added: “Not married!”

Belquad reacted with an annoyed face, as if telling Eisenhower with his facial expression that her last comment was completely not called for, and that this was not the time to be joking around.

“Eisenhower,” The general roared with a restricted tone: “this is a military top secret operation, not a field trip!”

“I’ll be back in ten minutes, tops!” Asrar ignored the general’s anger, and ran off to do what was on her mind.

General Belquad raised his left hand taking off his beret, and rubbed his huge forehead with his right hand. He sighted and said: “It’s gonna be a long day.”

●●●

Belquad started tapping his fingertips on his lap as he waited impatiently for Eisenhower’s return. Belquad, along with the Pilot, Sergeant Schott, were already in the helicopter awaiting the anthropologist. They were scheduled to leave on six thirty, and now only three minutes remained and not a sign of her.

“six twenty seven, General.” The Pilot read the time.
“Shut it Schott,” The somewhat mad General scolded. Belquad stood up in the chopper holding on to a pipe thinking in his mind: “Where is that damn scientist?!”

In a few seconds Eisenhower was seen running, carrying a book between her arms.

“Where in carnation have you been? I should have never allowed you to set foot off base grounds.” The General scold Asrar as if she had done something seriously wrong. He only shouted to put her in place, and make her understand how military men function.

“I had to get this book.” Asrar explained her actions. “From what you described to me earlier, I think I might have a theory of what we’re up against.”

“You and your books.” The General referred to the intelligent people, commonly called nerds. The fact was that the General was speechless and a little embarrassed after hearing Asrar’s solid alibi, but tried not to show it as it meant a sign of weakness in his eyes.

As the helicopter levitated from the ground, Eisenhower began to breath unnaturally hard and fast.

“What’s a matter with you?” Belquad asked Asrar.

“Acrophobia!” Asrar answered as she started to sweat. Her heart started to beat rapidly.

“What?” Belquad didn’t understand what she said.

“Fear of heights!” Asrar shouted as she was getting really uncomfortable, and started to get vertigo.

“Listen to me, Eisenhower, breathe!” he said.

“Breathe?” Asrar shouted at him: “is that the best you can do?”

“Great,” the general whispered to himself, “i tell them to get me a scientist, and they get me a psycho.”

COPYRIGHTS © 2009 Kuwait Book ‫جميع الحقوق محفوظه لكتاب الكويت‬

Prologue.

The Empty Quarter, 1988
David Grimbell, a middle-eastern archaeologist, and his crew dug up artifacts that dated way back to five thousand years, to a civilization that used to be known as Akabala. The more Grimbell dug, the more he was amazed and motivated. It was on twenty eighth of August, nineteen eighty eight, when Grimbell discovered an artifact so bizarre, he became a millionaire. The artifact was about twenty feet tall, and weighed thirty pounds, and no one had any idea of what it is or was. It instantly became a highly demanded item on the market, and wanted by many museums to serve as a main tourist attraction.

Grimbell sold it to one of the international museums at a high price, and used the money in funding for further studies of his discovery. Ever since Grimbell discovered Akabala, he devoted his life to fully understand the forgotten people …

That night, eric died knowing he did the right thing. With that selfless self-poisoning, the worthy were saved, and the sinners got what they deserve. The three warriors are also poisoned. Quinn became blind, Alvin turned deaf and Jon became a mute. Prada was set free, as were her husband. Fontaine gave them a house in the kingdom as a way of gratitude. Although Prada refused to take it, as she saw herself undeserving of his kindness for once she tried to kill him. Fontaine insisted that they accept the gift and eventually she did. eric’s body was buried in Fontaine’s royal graveyard, and a “national hero” was engraved on his stone. eric’s father was so caught up in his work; he barely realized eric was missing. General Fontaine visited him personally and informed him of his son’s patriotic act and was awarded a medal. As for the squirrel, he went to live with Prada and her husband, and was welcomed as a member of the family.

The End

eric kept his eyes shut, thinking about stuff. He didn’t want to open his eyes and see the squirrel, Prada and Fontaine pitying him. So he just kept thinking until he died. “That’s why the general’s counselor kept repeating the same sentence when I first met him, that the general is fighting for our country.” eric thought, “He was showing me that he’s a good man .. and that’s when he told me about the three warriors and their problems, he wanted me to know that nobody’s perfect.”