Albertos(Ayush Kumar) Albertos

ILLUSTRATION BY AYUSH

Trups were a race of pale, lavender skinned aliens; when Ahu saw one lying still before her, she for one couldn’t tell if the Turp was alive or dead, already. Ahu belonged to the Kunas race, a minority species that inhabited the coastal regions of the planet, KORPO-Z. She was on her usual way to dump the town’s garbage; a menial job assigned to her like every other Kunas across the planet.
Ahu brought her raging X501 neon bike to a halt and dismounting, dawdled towards the lying Turp. A scratch across her left arm, and she realized she caught a glimpse of something sinister. She, turning, pointed her Radiation Gun in alarm; only to get slammed in the belly and let out a sigh of pain.
“What are you?” she questioned, struggling to speak. A dark figure levitated around, circling her injured self; its eyes, a shiny red and its armor built of some matte red metal, carrying marks from many a battles that it had been through. It slowly floated towards her; a slight squeak in the air told Ahu, it possessed an Atomic Sword, a touch of which would turn her into dust.
It raised the sword, leisurely. Its red eyes fixed on Ahu; it made a looping gesture with its wrist, holding the sword and brought it down on Ahu’s neck. If it wasn’t for the shot from a radiation gun of a Turp, Ahu’s would’ve turned into dust that day.
The dark being let out a shrill cry as the radiation hit him, and then disappeared leaving behind Ahu and her furiously thumping heart.
“Are you alright?” asked the tall Turp, who was dressed in a long overcoat, “I’m a detective, was sent here to investigate the murder of a turp, found you trapped…”
“Too kind for a Turp to help a Kunas,” said Ahu standing, still quavering.
“Well I could use your bike; it’d be a sweet gesture on your part,” teased the Turp.
Ahu looked at him sharply and said, “NO!”
The Turp hurriedly offered his hand and said- “I’m Albertos.”
“I’m Ahu,” she said without looking at him and walked towards the dead body of the Turp.
“He was stabbed thrice,” said Albertos joining her, “Not with the Atomic Sword ‘cause if he was, you know…”
“I think someone would know, what he was stabbed with,” said Ahu thinking, she then turned to Albertos and said, “Get on the bike, I know a guy.”
***
The place, where Ahu parked her X501, was deserted and looked like a storehouse of debris; in the distance there was a shimmering orb that lighted a tent house standing amidst nowhere.
They walked through the debris-laden road to the frangible tent; the arrow that flew towards Albertos missed him by a hair’s breadth.
“It’s okay Kiper, it’s me Ahu,” called Ahu ignoring the wide-eyed look of question that Albertos shot at her.
Kiper, a chubby Kunas, stepped out of the tent house, vigilant of his surroundings; he pointed his crossbow at Albertos to which Ahu said assuring- “Leave him Kiper, he’s a friend.”
A flickering orb lighted Kiper’s tent, as the three of them sat in a circle ready to listen closely to what the weapon dealing Kunas had to offer.
Kiper’s tent was stuffed with every projectile weapon and antique sword that had ever been manufactured on KORPO-Z.
“Two days ago,” said Kiper, “Eradia, a nasty Turp visited my place and asked for Hangkai, the deadliest sword that has ever existed on this planet.”
“And you sold it to him?” questioned Albertos, crossly.
“For a heavy price, yes,” confirmed Kiper.
“hours after Eradia left with Hangkai, I felt a movement around my tent; this is a ghost town, you people, the usual visitor here is the brisk wind,” said Kiper.
“Was it a levitating being in some sort of armor?” inquired Ahu.
“Not some sort of armor, it donned the Awak; an armor that according to the legends is impenetrable,” said Kiper, “He didn’t ask me for weapons; he asked for Eradia.”
“Okay Kiper, listen,” said Albertos, “That thing whatever it is has the Atomic Sword; and FYI he’s murdered Eradia, also we don’t know where’s Eradia’s Hangkai.”
“Here you need to know something,” said Kiper casually, “the Hangkai is the Atomic Sword, and you know how its atomic properties are accessed?”
Albertos and Ahu listened in silence.
“By installing Turp blood in its interior vessel, see a connection there?”
“You knew he was gonna’ murder Eradia?” asked Ahu, enraged.
“I’d no choice, he’d have killed me too,” defended Kiper.
Albertos was silent, he looked at Ahu with blank eyes then turned to Kiper and said- “See, what a mess you’ve created?”
Ahu put a comforting hand on Albertos’ shoulder, she then said- “We gotta’ move, fast.”
“We’ll have to break into AREA LAWAS, the high security zone,” said Albertos, “they’ve an atomic suit there; our only chance against that monster.”
*****
AREA LAWAS was a lonely place; guarded by the most elite of Trup soldiers, it was the center of scientific research and studies, one of the best among others on KORPO-Z.
“I’m detective Albertos, I’m here to see Dr. Cos,” said Albertos to a Turp dressed in jet black armor, carrying a radiation rifle; the soldier Turp looked crisply at Ahu, and said- “Fine but the Kunas stays here.”
“She’s with me,” said Albertos; the soldier Turp gave him an astute look and hissed- “I said the Kunas stays.”
Albertos held Ahu’s hand gently then walked in through the giant gate of the facility; he soon took an elevator and reached Dr. Cos’ office on the sixth floor.
To his surprise, the door was open; he took a step and then another, he was holding out his radiation gun, already.
He saw the blood first, then the pale, dangling hand and finally the swaying head with a small black disc stuck on the forehead; Dr. Cos was murdered.
On the wall of his office were written the words, in blood- GOT YA’
Hardly had Albertos read this when a hidden security alarm let out a piercing cry, followed by screams of the Turp soldiers.
“He’s here,” whispered Albertos.
He turned and found the atomic suit hanging with fat tubes, contained in a glass casket; it was blue and looked like a weapon ready for war.
Albertos, hurriedly, stripped it off, the heavy tubes; then pressed the buttons on the monitor that was embedded at the suit’s heart.
Albertos looked in horror as the monitor projected the message- SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIALIZED.
‘It’s set for automatic self destruction,’ thought Albertos.
“Well detective you’ve come far,” said a voice that sounded like Dr. Cos to Albertos; “Dr. Cos?” he inquired, as he turned to look.
All he saw was the same dark figure holding its Atomic Sword on Ahu’s neck; “You want to’ know who I am?” teased the floating figure, “I’m Dr. Cos’ consciousness, in other words I’m Dr. Cos and I’m immortal now.”
“Go to hell!” cried Albertos as he pushed the table in the office towards the being, it dodged; Albertos pushed Ahu, aside.
“You think your little tricks can hold me, detective?” growled the being as it raged toward Albertos.
Albertos jumped outside the office and shut the door; he then whispered- “got ya”
Before the being could’ve broken through, the atomic suit ruptured taking the office down with it.
***
“What did you do?” Ahu asked.
“Observed,” replied Albertos.
“Will you care to explain?” Ahu retorted.
“When I got in the office, I found Dr. Cos dead,” said Albertos, “the next thing I noticed, were the words ‘GOT YA’ written in blood, on the office wall. when I tried to unlock the atomic suit, it began a countdown towards self destruction; I understood that it was a trap set for me. When the being showed up and confirmed that it was the consciousness of Dr. Cos and said it was immortal, I threw him inside and you know what happened next.”
“But how can you kill someone’s consciousness?” questioned Ahu.
“I didn’t kill it,” said detective Albertos, smirking.
“Then, how’re you sure it won’t come back?” asked Ahu.
“Because when I entered the office, I noticed something else too,” said Albertos.
“What?” Ahu countered.
“This,” he showed Ahu a little black disc-shaped device, “this was stuck on Dr. Cos’ forehead; the man was dead but he’d stored his consciousness in the device which was projecting a physical form of his consciousness.”
“The device can be activated or deactivated, if it’s destroyed in either of the state there’s no way one can restore the opposite state,” explained Albertos, “Dr. Cos wanted the atomic suit to self-destruct and destroy this device in its active state,; he himself couldn’t do it ‘cause he was dead. I took the device and deactivated it the moment the blast happened; now all I need to do is this…”
Albertos dropped the disc-shaped device and crushed it under his boot.
“You’re a good detective, and a good Turp too,” said Ahu.
AREA LAWAS that day had many injured Turps and… a solved case.
****

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