Rev's Odyssey by R. R. Kaufman (the reading list .txt) 📕

>Stike and Rev turned a corner of a building. A huge bright light emitting from a high distant ridge blinded Rev.

She reached for Stike but stumbled.

Suddenly one of the drokes flashed its light on Rev. She froze. Stike grabbed her and the chase was on. The other two drokes were alerted. Communicating to each other the drokes tried to cut them off.

Stike told Rev to be very still and crouch down in the shadow of an alleyway. He whispered for her to stay there until he returned.

Without a second thought Stike ran across the street into the opposite alley and reached for the metal ladder at the side of the building. The drokes closed in on him. One leaped wildly at Stike as he climbed the ladder. It clutched his shoe and ripped it off. Stike desperately scrambled up the remaining rungs.

The droke was just as fast and was right behind him when Stike reached the roof. The other two drokes were still on the ladder. He didn’t know if drokes could sense fear or hear his heart pounding but he was about to find out if drokes could slide down a drainpipe.

Stike raced across the roof to the other side. He swung himself down to the drainpipe and started to slide down. The droke hesitated on the roof and then maneuvered itself holding on to the pipe. Stike reached the ground and hung on to the drainpipe firmly with both hands. He leaned back with all his weight, planted his feet against the wall and pulled hard. The droke was less than halfway down when the pipe snapped. Stike leaped out of the way as the droke crashed to the ground. A leg and an arm lay lifeless on the ground, detached from the droke’s body. It got up on one leg and fell over. The other drokes on the roof ran back to the ladder on the other side.

Stike ran across the road as he noticed other lights approaching. He took hold of Rev’s hand as they kept in the shadows of the buildings and scurried two blocks in the opposite direction. Stike hung a quick right turn, took a key from his pocket and unlocked a door. They entered his father’s repair shop.

He pulled a hidden latch on a bookcase. A door slid open and both of them entered. The door closed as they went down a staircase to a large underground room. They sat down at a table and stared at each other as they caught their breath.

Stike

It’s too dangerous. Maybe you should go back.

 

Rev

I need to find my mother.

 

Stike

I’ll find my father. Aunt Cyna must be with him. When I do I’ll send word to Genus immediately.

 

Rev

I’m staying. I must talk to Prook first.

 

Chapter 9

 

 

The next morning Rev was up early. Stike was still asleep. She wandered through professor Mars’ workshop. Tools were scattered across the lengthy bench. Big heavy machinery took up a lot of floor space. She marveled at all the strange gadgets consisting of odd metal shapes, wheels and coiled wires. Detailed diagrams of various inventions and ideas hung on the walls. Books piled up high and numerous glass flasks crowded other workbenches. A lengthy telescope stood out in a corner.

 

Stike

Amazing isn’t it?

 

Rev

You startled me. I didn’t see you there. What’s this?

 

Rev pointed to a device with a small steel ball going up and down and around a metal track continuously. The whole mechanism was enclosed in a curved glass vessel.

 

Stike

A perpetual motion device. It’s sealed in a vacuum. Something to do with magnets.

 

Rev

My dad said that’s not possible.

 

Stike

That’s what my dad thought too until he invented it. After all isn’t the whole universe a perpetual motion machine?

 

Rev smiled at Stike. She enjoyed the company of her cousin and felt safe in his presence. She studied different projects the professor was working on. She picked up a shiny metal tube that partially extended from both ends of her hand.

 

Rev

What’s this do?

 

Stike took it in his hand, pressed a small switch and long metal tubes shot out of both ends.

 

Rev

Whoa! It’s the same as my wooden pole that I use in stick fighting only it’s metal.

 

Stike

It’s called a flexion. Want to try it out?

 

 

Rev

You bet.

 

Stike handed it back to Rev and reached over to a shelf and grabbed an identical one for himself. He motioned Rev into another room. There he gave her a protective mask as he donned one himself. They struck each other’s metal poles back and forth for a few minutes just like she did with Raká. Only this time it was more playful and not so intense. Rev countered Stike’s attack with a downward blow but to her surprise it went straight through Stike’s stick and struck the floor. Stike immediately jabbed her lightly on her body with his stick.

 

Stike

I win.

 

Rev

What just happened? How did you do that?

 

Stike

Remember how I pressed the release switch on the handle’s bottom to extend the flexion?

 

Rev

Yeah?

 

Stike

Well it works both ways. When you press the switch, when the metal pole is extended, it recedes just as fast. I timed your downward move and retracted my flexion.

 

Rev

You’re a stinker. You tricked me.

 

Stike

Well to make it up to you, keep the flexion. My father would love for you to have it.

 

They both had a good laugh and sat down at the table and ate a sandwich. Stike went to a cold box and brought out a cake. He cut a piece for each of them.

 

Rev

What’s the occasion?

 

Stike

It’s my sixteenth birthday. I wish my dad were here.

 

Rev

Well happy birthday cousin. Oh, I almost forgot.

 

Rev reached into her pocket and took out the gold chip.

 

Rev

My father said it’s made of gold.

 

Stike examined it carefully.

 

Stike

This was in the droke’s head?

 

Rev

I had to pry it out. What do you think it is?

 

Stike

Something extremely powerful. I’ve never seen gold before. It’s beautiful. This must be a key component of the droke’s mechanism. My father would love to see this. He loves inventions just like your father. Keep this safe, Rev. If we could unlock its mystery it might help us against Razor.

 

Stike handed the chip back to Rev. He went on to explain how professor Mars had discovered how to utilize electricity for multiple applications such as lights and other devices he invented like this cold storage box. When Razor shut down the university, and the professor lost his teaching job, he opened up a repair shop for electrical appliances. His underground laboratory was unknown to Razor. She didn’t like any competition or people smarter than her. If she knew of its existence she would destroy it.

They prepared for their journey to see Prook.

 

Chapter 10

 

 

Stike closed up the professor’s shop. The wind was picking up. They both pulled up their hoodies on their overalls. It was a good reason to hide their faces from the drokes. Other people were out in Brix doing their regular business. As they walked casually Stike pointed out to Rev how the drokes not only used their eyes as lights but also as cameras. They could record moving pictures of everybody in Brix. This was somehow communicated to Razor.

Professor Mars and Kosni years ago as students in Brix worked together to make the first working camera. But that was the last project the two of them had worked on. If it wasn’t for their falling out they might have advanced their invention to moving pictures.

Rev and Stike moved through the town undisturbed by any of the drokes making their patrols within Brix.

A loud whistle surprised Rev. A big metal monster, snorting out black smoke from its head roared overhead as Rev and Stike looked up at the bridge.

 

Rev

What was that?

 

Stike

Razor’s train. One of the first toxic things she had the Brix men manufacture and assemble for her personal use.

 

Rev

Where does it go?

 

Stike

To Bluster Harbor. It’s where she’s building her big ship. That’s how she transports all the materials the men make in the dirty factories. Hopefully she finishes it and leaves Brix forever.

 

Rev

How long will that be?

 

Stike

Nobody knows. She won’t let anyone get near the place. It’s top secret.

 

They reached the edge of town. Stike took out his spyglass and gave it to Rev. She focused it on a shining light on a high island mesa in the middle of a river east of Brix. There were two plateaus. Razor’s fortress stood on the lower plateau. Four lofty iron pillars merged at the top that supported a metal dome structure with windows encircling it. A bridge stretched from the top of Razor’s dwelling to the higher plateau. Close to the bridge, on the other side, stood a massive tower with a small metal structure at its base. On top of high tower was a golden light as bright as the planet’s sun.

 

 

Rev

I can’t look at it. That light is so intense. Was that what we saw last night?

 

Stike

Exactly. My father reasoned it was some kind of power source. If we could understand how it works maybe there was a way to sabotage it and disrupt Razor. He also wanted to learn about Razor’s past. Who she was? Where did she come from? Maybe some clue about her could reveal a weakness that Brix could exploit and defeat her. I believe my father and your mother are searching somewhere for those answers.

 

Suddenly they felt the ground shake beneath them. It felt stronger each second.

 

Stike

It’s Brixwrecker. Razor has unleashed it. Someone is in serious trouble.

 

Rev and Stike retreated back towards Brix to get a better view.

 

Chapter 11

 

 

They crouched down on a small hill overlooking the cottages surrounding the town center.

A massive droke was pounding its feet in a slow deliberate technique towards one of the cottages. It was one of a kind. Extremely lethal. With its long thick legs it must have stood twice as high as a regular cottage. Its long arms swung rhythmically as it turned up one of the lanes and continued to advance. The droke’s body was large but with only a small head. What were most impressive were the gigantic feet that could crush anything. Brixwrecker continued to lift its legs high and pound the ground hard as he approached one of the cottages.

Rev and Stike watched from a distance. There was nothing anybody could do. Rev could tell this colossal droke was Razor’s most beloved weapon of choice. She was sending a grim message. Don’t mess with her.

People fled their homes. Suddenly Brixwrecker stopped at one of the cottages. It raised its right foot and stomped on the ground three times. Rev and Stike could feel the vibrations on top of the hill in their hiding place.

It was a final warning for the occupants of the cottage to get out. Nobody was there. Next Brixwrecker raised its leg as high as it could and with one swift blow it pulverized the little cottage. With another blow it flattened it completely. It turned back down the road. The thumping noise got less