Read The Rising Sun: Episode 1 for Free Online Page B

in hiding.” He shook his head. “Grando, Grando. So
much of insecurity … over me ?”
     
    As the shock
passed, the old anger rushed back to Grando.
     
    “You’ve got
some nerve coming in here, you blasted swine.” HHHhhe threw the
Stinger to the ground with a metallic clang , reached for his
Sparkler hanging by his belt, and took aim at Ion’s face.
     
    Ion’s orange
eyes stalled over the gun briefly, and not a flicker of fear
escaped them. “We both know that’s hardly a wise move right now,
mate.”
     
    Grando shook
his head, laughing. “You may be a mystic, and I’ve seen what you
can do … but I’ve faced far worse, kid.”
     
    Ion looked at
Grando for a quiet moment, and then a twisted smile formed on his
face.
     
    “When I’m done
with you,” he whispered. “you’ll wish you have.”
     
    Without letting
another second pass, Grando opened fire. He pulled the Sparkler’s
trigger again and again … filling the air ahead of him with a tide
of deep blue bolts that soared towards the thin boy standing in the
middle of the room. Helpless.
     
    As the Sparkler
shots sailed at him, Ion stood his ground, unflinching. And then,
at the very last splinter of a second, he held up his hand at the
rain of Sparkler bolts, as though commanding them to stop. And a
shimmering, glass like surface formed in the air right in front of
where he held his palm. The glass like surface acted like a shield:
the Sparkler bolts collided with it and died, as though having hit
a solid wall.
     
    Grando knew
what had happened: Ion had used his mystical powers to conjure what
was known as a shield . Something told him that the Ion
standing before him now was not the same boy he had known. A more
powerful entity seemed to have entered this room than the one
Grando had known from earlier on.
     
    Twitching in
panic, he turned to the Rash-cons lining the wall and roared,
“Rash-cons, ATTACK!!”
     
    The robots
bolted forward to the centre of the room, their guns drawn and
blazing… spurting Sparkler bolts at Ion.
     
    But Ion reached
for a handle emerging behind him. He pulled the handle, drawing a
familiar, long thin sword, and swished it over the air once. There
was a dazzling flash. And the blade of his sword was shining in a
bright orange colour. With wisps of steam emitting from it. The
boy’s orange eyes seemed to mirror the flaming glow of his sword.
As the deadly jets of light soared at him from all sides, Ion
launched into motion…
     
    It was like
watching a video on fast forward: Ion twirled his sword at a
mindless speed, so that all that was seen of him was a wild orange
blur. Twisting, turning, ducking and leaping, he danced through the
cluster of robots surrounding him all over. His sword flew about in
violent streaks of orange as it cut off the Sparkler bolts sent at
him, and slashed through the robots at the same time.
     
    Within six or
so seconds, the dozen robots lay on the ground in a clutter of
chopped up, steaming metallic parts. Wherever Ion’s sword had
sliced them, only an orange radiation glow remained, releasing
puffs of steam.
     
    Ion’s eyes
travelled over the remnants of the batch of robots, before rising
to meet Grando’s again.
     
    Grando felt his
insides writhe as he looked into the boy’s burning orange eyes.
Whipping about to face his men, he bellowed, “Well, don’t just
stand there, go get him!”
     
    The men stared
with terror soaked eyes. But, clearly forcing down their panic,
they followed their leader’s orders and stormed forth at Ion,
firing.
     
    Ion lazily
ducked below two of their shots, sidestepped two, and watched as
the last two streaked past him harmlessly. Before the men could
begin to think of the impulse to react, he gave a lazy flick of one
hand. The frontmost three of the men rose to the air, crashed
against each other, and toppled to the ground over the other three,
smashing the entire group to a helpless heap that lay still on the
ground.
     
    Ion made