Chapter 17 : Lincoln (Past)

The doorway to the housing complex was way more beautiful than Lincoln had imagined it to be. The base colour was dark grey, with a red accent. On the middle was an ocean blue sphere, which rotated and made a pleasant sound as it did.

He could hear a waterfall on the other side, he wonders what else was there.

The lead soldier stepped in front of the door and closed his eyes, supposedly announcing his arrival. The ball then stopped rotating and split in half with the door. It then opened back slowly revealing a gorgeous living room, a sight Dexter's house would never beat. Lincoln was amazed at how luxurious the place looked.

The couches were slightly hovering on their spots, and under them was a stream of water, covered by sturdy glass. The stream came from a beautiful water fountain Lincoln saw in the corner of his eyes. The tiles were expensive LEDs that would change colour every few seconds.

Robotic butterflies of many colours orbited the sprouting flowers, the sight reminded him of Naomi's house, though Lincoln couldn't tell if these flowers were real or fake. His thoughts then drifted to Naomi. He wondered how she and the others were doing, he hoped they weren't too worried about him.

However, that must be inevitable, considering how long he's been gone now.

Robot servants roamed about the complex, cleaning or setting things that don't need to be attended to. The ceiling looked like the starry night sky.

And then there was the soft music that played in the background.

Lincoln sighed, wishing he was in a place like this under better circumstances. A soldier suddenly urged him forward, interrupting Lincoln's moment. "Watch it. You don't want to end up like the last person who pushed me." Lincoln told the man, referring to the last person who made him trigger the cuffs he wore, the soldier who had died after doing so. The man gulped, and Lincoln wanted to say more before he heard another voice from the direction of the water fountain.

"What bashfulness for someone who is about to feel so much pain!" He was dressed in formal attire. His hair was brown and kept neatly, and his eyes were grey. Something about the man bothered Lincoln, it was probably his smile. The mischievous lift of his mouth was something that demanded death to be displayed in front of him. Lincoln shuddered at that thought.

"Now then... Shall we start?" The man said and reached into his pocket. Lincoln stepped back, bumping into one of the soldiers as he did when his cuffs suddenly clicked and fell to the floor. The soldier then pushed him forward and Lincoln lost his balance, falling forward and closing his distance on the mysterious man.

He then heard blasters being pointed at him. The soft chime of them being powered on reached Lincoln's ears. This is not going to end well. Lincoln thought to himself.

The mysterious man leapt from the platform he stood on and landed in front of Lincoln. "You are a really interesting person, faking your fall to get near me so you can attack." The man, Lincoln then realized as the boss of this place said with a low mischievous smirk. Lincoln looked down, hiding his face as his eyes went wide. The man saw right through his plan.

Lincoln looked back up, not moving another muscle and grinned. "Don't you know I can kill you right now, no matter the distance?" Lincoln challenged. The boss snapped his fingers and two heavily armed levitating androids came behind him. "Shall we see who is faster?" The boss challenged back; Lincoln could see the seriousness behind the boss's eyes. So, Lincoln's vision switched, from clear to dark red, "You're making a big mistake." He said and instantly created a forcefield of dark red energy as he stood up.

Bullets and energy blasts rained against it, as he stretched his arms in the air and extended the force field drastically disabling the attacking androids as soon as it hit them. But this allowed the boss and his henchmen to attack with their blasters. Lincoln's heart raced as he leapt to the air and blasted away two soldiers with energy. He could feel himself tiring already, which meant he didn't have much control over how much power he was using, not to mention the forcefield not working as expected.

In midair, his hand moved involuntarily and short platforms of energy appeared under him and he jumped from one to another and tried mimicking the blasts of energy that came from their wrist blasters. He sent those blasts towards the boss, but his aim was far off, hence further proving his point of needing proper training

Lincoln jumped from the last platform and landed back on the floor near the fountain. He had completely forgotten about the remaining soldier as he dashed toward the boss, both of his arms glowing with red energy. Suddenly two more androids appeared and started shooting machine poisoned bullets that broke through Lincoln's shields and just barely missed him as one grazed his neck sending a rush of pain to his body and slowing him down.

Lincoln thrust his left arm forward and spikes embedded with crimson red energy formed out of thin air and shot towards the attacking androids. More bullets flew by him, some hitting him as Lincoln could slowly feel his strength and consciousness fading. This is not good. He thought as he jumped out of the way of an incoming rocket. It blasted the tiles sending dust and debris all over the place.

Lincoln landed near the fountain's stream and looked at himself for a moment. He gasped when he saw red eyes but blonde hair. What was happening? His hair was blue the last time he used his power. He hated that he still couldn't understand it. However, before he could ponder on it further, he felt a sudden heat approaching him as he rolled out of the way of another blast coming from somewhere in the smoke, splashing water everywhere as it hit the stream.

The smoke made it difficult for Lincoln to pinpoint where the blast had come from and he could feel his vision blurring too. He couldn't see the two more blasts that came at him. They hit their mark knocking Lincoln out cold before he even knew what had happened.