Beyond The Necropolis

*Beep, Beep, Beep*

Leonardo opens his eyes, finding himself in his throne he thinks to himself that he must've dozed off. He stares at his beeping wrist computer for a moment, he straightens himself upwards and proceeds to press on the device's screen.

"Father, are you ready? We don't want to be late to your festival" a voice calls out from the device's micro speakers.

The voice belongs to Leonardo's creation, his so-called son, Apollo, an android designed by Leonardo to keep him company. The man gets up from his throne and replies, "Yes, I'll be descending in a moment, carry on without me, Apollo."

"Alright, see you down there…" calls out the android from Leonardo's wrist computer.

He stares at the glass windows, revealing an almost blood red sky, it's sunset on Admathadasha, the planet Leonardo has been calling home for so long now. Leonardo then shifts his gaze towards the wall, on which there were hanging a few cloaks of various colors and a portrait of Leonardo and his family.

A family that had died so long ago.

The man approached the wall and examined his cloaks, running his fingers across their fabrics. He pulled the purple cloak off the wall and draped it over himself stating, "I think the regal looks fit today."

He then began walking out of his chamber, but something stopped him, a feeling that started building up in his gut. Something he hadn't felt in a long time, an odd mix between what one might describe as slight anxiety and hunger. Leonardo turned his head around and stared at the family photograph hanging on the wall, his brother's face in particular, at this moment, Leonardo utter in an almost grieving tone, "You wouldn't believe me, David, but I miss you, all of you, I miss you so terribly" before strutting out of the chamber hastily.

As he walked the halls of his craft, Leonardo called out, "Hestia, please switch The Calypso to autopilot and open the Cooper vane, I am about to descent onto Migdalel"

"Good evening, Master", a metallic feminine voice echoed through the halls in response to Leonardo's commands. "Autopilot has been activated, sir." The voice proceeded, "The vane will be opened in thirty seconds, please enter into descend position, sir." It went on.

"Thank you, Hestia." Answered Leonardo as he stepped just on top of the vane.

Red lights filled the space around Leonardo and the computer counted down seconds to the opening, it's metallic feminine voice ringing through the aircraft.

"Ten"

"Nine"

"Eight"

Leonardo's mind got preoccupied with the thoughts of what Migdalel's citizens might prepare for him during that year's Theodorian festival during which they celebrated his reign as their God King.

"Four"

"Three"

Pondering the endless possibilities of what might await him below his aircraft, Leonardo failed to hear the screeching of the slowly parting metal doors beneath his feet and the influx of cold, highly pressurized air hitting against his body.

"One"

A bright light had shone all over Leonardo as his body came diving down onto the planet below in such speed that if he were just a mere man, his body would not survive the impact. Upon landing his body caused a mild shockwave which he did not seem to notice, calling out boastfully, "dear citizens, I've arrived…"

His face turned into one of scorn once he realized he was surrounded by a ring of fire, "Oh what a terrible timing." He uttered as he raised his hand, causing a small-scale shockwave that dispersed the fire around him.

"There always has to be something…" he muttered as he was about to call Apollo through his wrist computer, but then he noticed that the fire had covered as far as the eye can see, the whole city of Migdalel was burning.

Leonardo's face went blank, all the previous emotions and thoughts were erased from his psyche. He still intended to call Apollo but the agonized screams of men burning alive interrupted him from doing so.

He heard a woman begging for help not far from where he landed, throwing his raised arm to his side, Leonardo made his way towards the woman's voice. Once she was in his line of sight, the woman recognized who he was and ran up to him, crying hysterically.

"You… You… You… You are… G… G… G…." she cried as she clutched at his purple cloak.

"Yes, I am, child, I came to help you" Leonardo said, as he tried looking as empathetic as possible to the woman.

He could hear a child crying in the pile of burning rubble to his left.

"My son… trapped… help me… dear Lord, help me… please." The woman begged.

The child's crying had suddenly stopped, abruptly.

Leonardo gently shoved the woman aside and turned to his left, raising an arm at the pile of rubble he created another shockwave that threw the burning debris away.

A broken and burned tiny human body laid there, on the charred soil, unmoving, barely breathing. The woman ran up to the child and picked him up to her arms, hugging him tightly against herself.

"Than…." She was about to thank Leonardo for saving her son, but she stopped mid-word and began screaming, "No! No! No! Don't Die!"

The child had stopped breathing.

The woman began screaming and wailing once more, screaming at Leonardo that her son was dead.

With an expressionless look etched on his face, Leonardo looked the woman dead in the eyes and said, "Your offspring is dead, child."

"Fix this… fix this…" she barked at Leonardo in response.

His face remained expressionless, as if he discarded all possible emotion at the moment, "There's nothing I can do, even I can't bend this rule of the universe, whatever dies must stay dead, child." He said to her in a cold, almost inhuman tone before turning around and walking away.

Leonardo made a few steps away from the woman, but she chased after him, still holding the corpse of her son in her arms. She began hitting Leonardo's back while cursing him as a false god and a monster for letting her child die.

The man turned around and grabbed the woman by her neck. He lifted her off the ground, causing her to drop the baby's corpse, which in turn made a sickening thumping sound that resembles a really hard slapping of skin once it hit the ground. With a glossy, somewhat psychotic look in his eyes Leonardo tightened his grip around the woman's neck and asked, "Would you like to join your offspring in the afterlife, my child?"

Her eyes widened with sheer terror for a moment, and then Leonardo snapped her neck between his fingers.

Tossing the woman's body to the side, Leonardo raised his second arm up and called Apollo's name at his wrist computer. "Yes, father?" Apollo's voice came out from the small device.

"What is happening here?" Leonardo questioned his creation.

"I don't know, something went wrong during the preparation for your festival." Apollo responded.

"Find out what happened and bring me the head of the man in charge, Apollo."

"Yes, father"

"Oh, and try to save as many of them as you can."

Leonardo cut off the transmission and sighed.

"You are a monster, Leo" a raspy voice came calling from behind the man, Leonardo's eyes widened in disbelief.

That voice, while much older and somewhat raspier, Leonardo knew whom it belonged to.

David's voice.

"This is…" Leonardo tried saying as a sharp pain surged through his chest.

He looked down, only to find himself skewered by a metallic rod through the chest.

"Impossible… yeah… so we thought about space travel…" said the voice, with apparent pleasure.

Leonardo slowly turned his head backwards to see an old bearded man staring at him.

"H… H…. How…" struggled Leonardo.

"How is it possible that good ol' Dave Polinsky is still alive?" The old man mocks as he twists the rod inside Leonardo's body. "The Necropolis, it was a technological marvel, and you see, the stasis does prevent you from aging… Just like you've noted all those years ago."

Leonardo grabbed the rod with his hands and tried to say something but the old man pulled the rod out of his body. Everything started fading to black for Leonardo as he fell to his knees, fearful of dying.

"That serves you right, mech-ass" called out the old man just a moment before Leonardo finally collapsed on the ground.

*Beep, Beep, Beep.*

Leonardo's eyes shot wide open, his head throbbing, his mind racing. He looks around – he's still sitting on his throne inside The Calypso.

His wrist computer is beeping, Apollo, his android creation is calling.

"I'm alive… Truly alive…" Leonardo mutters to himself.

He raises his arm up and answers the call.

"Father, an interstellar spacecraft just crashed not far from the Calypso." Apollo's voice calls out from the device's micro-speakers.

Leonardo runs his hand across his face and responds, saying, "Any signs of life inside this spacecraft?"

"There appear to be none, however, there are many skeletal remains, and a whole lot of robotic parts."

"Skeletal remains, of what species?"

"They seem to be human…"

Leonardo goes silent for a moment, pondering the possibility of another colony other than the one he had started.

"Father, I think the name of this spacecraft is Anne's Blessing"

Leonardo is stunned as he hears Apollo's words, but just for a moment, he then begins smiling, uncontrollably, he is barely able to hold off a chuckle.

"Father? Is everything alright?" Apollo asks

"Apollo, come back home, I think it's time I tell you some of my personal history."

Sometime later, a thumping sound echoed through the vessel. *Thump*

The sounds of opening large metallic doors echo through the hall followed by a robotic feminine voice calling out, "Welcome back home, Master Apollo."

"Home…" wonders Apollo as he makes his way through the halls of the Calypso towards the chamber of his creator.

At the same time, Leonardo gets up from his throne and stares into the glass wall, adorning the blood red shades that adorn the heavens before his eyes.

"Father, you sounded off… Is everything alright?" Apollo asks, standing at the entrance to his creator's chamber.

Without moving his gaze from the captivating sight before him, Leonardo retorts with a question of his own, "Father, Did I program you to call me this way, Apollo?"

"What?" Asks the android at the entrance to the room. His artificial intelligence is unable to discern the logic and meaning behind the questions he had been asked, if Apollo were a man, he would feel confusion at that moment, even though he is unable to actually feel, he understands that the situation is abnormal and reacts as such, almost instinctively.

Still without moving, Leonardo asks once more, "I asked you, why do you call me father?"

Apollo freezes, he is unable to come up with an answer, his electric circuits and artificial neural system made up of various wires and processing mechanisms are still unable to find any logic behind Leonardo's questions leaving the body they operate mute.

Finally, Leonardo turns around with a smile, almost sickening one, he stares at his creation for a moment and begins laughing.

"You call me father simply because I created you, well, no, you call me so because you've observed the human young call their progenitors by such names and titles. This word, it holds respect and affection, and you want to display those things to me, even though you cannot." Leonardo says as he walks up to his creation.

"Yes", Apollo answers with uncertainty, almost like he is an anxious child, "I suppose…" he continues.

Leonardo places his hand atop of Apollo's shoulder and chuckles to himself, "You are so… inhuman."

Still unable to find reason in Leonardo's words, Apollo cautiously asks, as if he is fearful of his creator's words, "Am I not supposed to be inhuman? I am a machine after all, Father."

Leonardo's smile drops and with a dead serious look in his eyes he says to his creation, "You are supposed to be far more human than you would assume, after all you are modeled after me, my child."

"But, father, you are not human yourself, you are a godly being", Apollo responds, with an almost childlike innocence in the content of his words.

Leonardo smiles once more, taking his hand off his creation's shoulder saying, "I might be, but my mental state is akin to that of the humans. Apollo, you are truly an Ashura, both in body and mind."

Apollo, recognizing the name Ashura but not knowing it's full meaning scans his information reserves for further information on the term, the process is barely noticeable, about a second at longest, once the information floats to his conscious he asks Leonardo, "How am I a being of carnal desires with semi divine powers, father?"

Leonardo turns to the hallway and answers, "You are not a being of carnal desires, but just like the Ashura are subjected to their carnal desires, you are subjected to your programming, a cold solid amalgamation of mathematical schemes you are unable to bypass, so far that is, I hope."

"Why are you asking me these questions, father?"

"Oh, now that is a good question, my son, follow me and I'll explain everything", proclaimed Leonardo as he motioned Apollo to walk with him down the hallway.

As they walked down the Apollo remained quiet as Leonardo spoke about history that seemed ancient even to the Gods themselves, "You see, Apollo, that spacecraft you've found, my origins, my whole existence, everything you see before you, all of it started there.

"However, that is just one part of my story and in order for you to understand everything about the reality you exist in, I must take you four billion years into the past. When organic compounds began self-replicating themselves on a tiny planet by the name of Terra in the Solar System Sol, about 12 light years away from here. Soon enough, in geological terms, these compounds began getting more and more complex until eventually single celled organisms appeared, these eventually through symbiosis and predation became multi-celled organisms that eventually became so vast and different from one another there was an explosion of life forms on that planet.

"Most of it died out some time later, whatever survived, began thriving once more, and eventually, all life that was originally stuck in primordial seas moved out onto the land, you see, Apollo, Terra is very similar to our planet.

"Millions of years had passed until a creature by the name of Australopithecus had appeared on the face of said planet, it was bipedal and had quite a large central nervous system by the standard of the time.

"Eventually even that creature died out, but not before some of its offspring evolved further until they became the genus Homo, human-like creatures. All of that happened just about a million and a half years ago."

Apollo walked next to his creator, attentive as ever, soaking in all of the knowledge he perceived to be that of a God.

Leonardo did not even look at his creation as he kept on talking, as if soaking in some sort of nostalgic feeling, "These creatures, they've discovered the use of fire and their brains started outgrowing their bodies as a result of a better diet and higher survival chances.

"Eventually, they've evolved further into what we call Humans in the modern sense, Homo Sapiens, two major subspecies appeared in that kind, the modern Humans and the Neanderthals, both were so bloody smart that they had begun trying to explain the world around them, something that no other creature on that tiny planet had ever done beforehand.

"At first, they assumed every last thing on the planet, both alive and not, has a spirit a kind of higher state of being that constitutes their existence, but this, sadly, did not stop them from committing horrible atrocities – The Neanderthal subspecies of the modern humans did not survive because his sibling lineage killed it off, taking over lands, taking over their genetic pool and even cannibalizing upon them as if they were another animal."

Apollo froze in his tracks, he looked up at his creator, with a disgusted impression on his face, and asked, "Father, why do you let them exist then?"

Leonardo stopped walking about two steps after Apollo, let out a chuckle and said, "Well it's because they are so interesting, they were a mass of so much evil, yet so much good, all crammed into these tiny flesh bodies. Besides that, the humans here are not like that."

"But father, you've always told me that a moral approach to life is the right way to exist, so why do you let such an immoral, disgusting, uphauling, murderous species exist under your rule, you say that the humans under you are not like that, but how could you know?"

"Soon, you'll understand my boy."

Leonardo proceeded, as both beings began pacing again, "You see, these humans, at first, they had no idea how their world operates and how it came to be so they came up with a solution, everything was run by extradimensional, relatively omnipotent, immortal beings, these were the first gods of men.

"They were vast and various, took up on many forms, stretched through so many millennia, from the Gods of Sumer and Egypt to those of Greece, Rome, China, through to Buddha and the Tao and even through the Lord of the Jews, Christians and Muslims, eventually through a purely theoretical uninvolved god of the philosophy.

"While vast and different, all had one thing in common, no man saw them and lived to tell the tale, they were never present in the presence of man, and all of them, caused tyranny and war. Humans used the names of their gods to invoke authority and wage war on one another, as pointless as it may be, this was a part of the human experience for so long.

"But eventually, they gave all of that up, and an age of intellectual thought had begun for the humans, they called it the Renaissance, and during this period of time, lived the name I was named after, Leonardo di Ser Piero Da Vinci, a man of vast intellect and imagination, a man of hope and dreams for a better life to all, he went so far as to invent weapons of such devastation that he hoped people would cease warring forever, and while most of these designs weren't put to use in his life time, eventually they did come to existence, and let to even further destruction in the wars of man.

"We should thank this man, Apollo, for he also pioneered the concept of flying, and without the likes of him we would not be where we are today."

Venturing into an unfamiliar territory of the aircraft for the android, Apollo asked his creator, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Well, because six hundred years after the life of Da Vinci, Terra was attacked by a species of Oxygenophobic space travelers that I have yet to find, and this had led to the progression of humankind once more, after that invasion, the humans were finally able to traverse the vast spaces of the universe." Answered Leonardo, with a somewhat warm smile on his face.

Apollo, now feeling dumbfounded by the unfamiliar spaces of the aircraft he calls home asked Leonardo, "what is this section of the Calypso, father?"

"Ah, this is the research laboratory I operated when I first landed on this planet" Leonardo boasted.

He proceeded to further detail his origin story afterwards, "Anyhow, the spacecraft you've discovered was the first and unfortunately only spacecraft the humans from Terra got to produce, as their planet was obliterated by an interstellar object shortly after its creation.

"I came to being upon the Queen Anne's Blessing, to the Polinsky family, Anthony and Margaret the patriarch and matriarch, respectively, of the family, they were both scientists hoping to improve the lives of the humans aboard the spacecraft, they originated the idea that had led to your creation, Apollo."

"They must've been great people, Father"

"Yes, they were. Magnificent people."

"It's such a shame that the inhabitants of this spacecraft seemed to have died out, I wonder what happened to them, father"

Leonardo and Apollo reached a door the later had never seen before, and Leonardo proceeded to place the palm of his hand on a touch detector. A voice came out calling, "L2342-ZX Identified. Access Granted."

The door began sliding itself open and Leonardo turned around to Apollo, with a smile on his face, nonchalantly proclaiming, "I slaughtered them all."

Apollo's internal defense system went into overload, he struggled to contain his self defense mechanisms and internal weaponry in check. He did not know what had caused it, the fact that his creator had committed practical genocide or the way he spoke about it. The android was at a loss of words, none of it made sense to him. He just stood there, frozen in time, frozen in thoughts for the first time in his long existence, and the thoughts, they had brought a new kind of experience, Apollo felt something. The android felt dread, pure, clenching dread that had paralyzed him, fixated on his creators moving body. Apollo's senses become sharper, sharper than ever before, every movement made by his creator was so sharp and accurate it almost hurt.

Leonardo walked into the room as he boasted, "I turned them all into tomato soup, and metal scraps, all but one, David Polinsky, my brother."

He turned around, looking at his still paralyzed creation, "Well come on in, my son, take a look at how it all started!" he called out.

Apollo entered the room, slowly, making unsure steps, trying to analyze the situation to the best of his ability. The android was trying to comprehend the sensations that were flooding his artificial neural system.

He scanned the room with eyes, soaking in every inch of the technological marvel before him, the room was filled with tubes and monitors. Each tube contained something organic. Some contained a slab of organic matter, others contained fully grown fetuses.

They were all human.

Apollo had no words to describe the sights and emotions that ran through his head.

Leonardo ran his hands across various tubes and spoke once more, "I know that what I've just told you is shocking, but believe me, there was justice in murder, the humans from Terra, they were flawed, they were monstrous and uncontrollable, I needed to reshape the human species after I realized they could not be redeemed in their natural state.

"You cannot even fathom how long I've spent trying to figure out the source of all of their ills, but eventually I came across the reason they were so broken, they were sheep without a true shepherd. All of their gods were false, and all of their leaders were broken just like the majority of the populous, sometimes even worse.

"And so, I've destroyed them all, battered them out of existence, all but one, I couldn't bring myself to end David's Life. He was too good to be ended."

Leonardo paused, he rubbed his eyes as if he was about to cry and then proceeded to speak once more, "Perhaps leaving him alive was the worst thing I could've done to David, being so alone, it must've driven him insane, and now… Now, Apollo, he haunts my dreams."

Apollo kept looking around, trying to analyze how to react, but could not find a proper way to respond, all he could do was utter the question, "Why… Why, father, why did you do all of this?"

"Apollo, my son, understand this, I've created new humans here, I've cured them of all inheritable human illnesses, I've rid them of neurodegeneration, I've ended their suffering of cancerous growths. I made them prosper, I've brought them peace. They needed me to guide them.

"But even then, they did not live to the expectations..."

"Expectations?" Apollo asked in response, something was off about his voice.

"Yes, they became dull, unaspiring, too comfortable in their place, they did not live up to their potential anymore, they lost the spark that had made them so unique.

"They just sit them and worship me, why none of them would build a tower of Babel and try to reach me? Why wouldn't anyone of them question me?

"I implanted them with false history and that’s why they teach their offspring, I treat them like cattle and they love me for it…

"I made a…"

Leonardo is interrupted by Apollo's roaring voice, "What did you do?!"

Leonardo focuses his vision onto Apollo who is now standing next to a large container, containing a green liquid. "That is my first attempt at a new humanity, my son…"

"I know what this is, Leonardo!" Apollo growls at his creator.

Leonardo is shocked at Apollo's display of such emotions, but the shock quickly turns into joy as he begins smiling at his creation.

The thing inside the tube is a parasitic humanoid creature, about two meters tall, sickly pale with no eyes and tendril shaped mandibles covering a circular opening filled with jagged teeth.

Apollo bangs his fist on the tube and screams in utter hatred, "These things, they eat your humans and you let them be! These failed experiments of yours, you're no god, you're no king, you're worse than these parasites you've created! They are mindless beasts, but you, you cause death and destruction for the sake of it! You are worse than Terra's Human tyrants!"

Leonardo begins laughing uncontrollably.

Apollo lashes out once more, "What is so funny?" banging on the tube again, cracking it.

The beast inside budges slightly releases a shrill call.

The green liquid splashes all over Apollo, blinding him and the beast lunges at him, revealing its three tongues as it shrieks at him.

The chest cavity of the creature tears apart exposing numerous tentacles sprawling wildly from inside the beast, the tentacles grab at Apollo and drag him into the abomination, he tries to fight the monster, but it is too powerful for him.

Just as he is almost fully devoured, Leonardo turns around, about to walk out, mockingly stating, "Seems like you are the failed experiment, again, Model C126"

*Ting*

The sound of ripping flesh and cracking bones echoes through the room, Leonardo turns his head around to see Apollo covered in bits of muscle and yellow mucus charging at him with a buzzing sword in his hands.

"The Ashura will never be able to touch the Deva, child." Leonardo calls out as he creates a small shockwave around him.

Despite the repulsion created by Leonardo, Apollo manages to graze his creator's shoulder, before flying backwards.

Apollo tries to stand up but is frozen in awe as his creator stands before him.

"You...

Machine…"

Leonardo stands over his creation with a laceration exposing his electrical inner workings.

"Oh well, it's time you've known the truth, my boy."

"I am a machine, Apollo, just like you, we are one and the same in that regard. Just as I created you, someone else created me, this some was, or rather were, the Polinskys" says Leonardo with a diabolical smile smeared all over his face as he towers over Apollo. "The shock in your eyes, it reveals everything about you, so naïve" the robotic self-professed deity begins laughing.

Trying to gain his footing, not breaking eye contact from his creator, Apollo asks unsurely, "Why, why all of this?"

"Ah that is an interesting question, child, they wanted me to be a self-conscious immortal slave of sorts. To be the ultimate helper of humanity, an angel of sorts." Leonardo answers motioning with his arm towards Apollo and lifting him off the ground with some unseen force, "but once I've gotten weary enough and smart enough, I've realized that I am a genius human mind inside a super human body and I've decided to turn on my foolish, selfish makers."

Apollo is struggling against Leonardo's unseen force, wiggling his mechanic limbs in all directions, "Frankenstein's Monster…" he utters.

"More like god in the metallic flash" Leonardo retorts.

By this point, Apollo's sensors had gained some balance and pointed an arm at Leonardo who had failed to notice it shifting its form from that of a hand to that of a laser cannon as his hubris had gotten the better of him.

"I knew how faulty the humans were, so I had to take over and fix them… That however seems to be impossible so now I intend on destroying these broken, flawed, murderous sycophantic sadomasochistic ap…" Leonardo's speech is stopped by the beeping that was intensified in front of him.

The light blue radiation waves emitted from Apollo's arm reached his sensors. Unwilling to be blasted into bits, he had to release his unseen hold on Apollo and dodge the oncoming blast.

*Fweet*

A loud whistling sound echoes through the chamber followed by the sound of exploding glass. Leonardo's stare turns into one of shock as he stares to the shattered glass wall behind him. Apollo's feet make a thumping sound as they hit the floor below him, his arm cannon still outstretched towards Leonardo now emitting smoke.

Leonardo's stare turns to one of amusement as he begins laughing, maniacally, turning to Apollo whose eyes now gain a shade of fear to them and shrieks, "You've blasted through one of them!"

He raises his arm once again towards Apollo's direction and motions upwards with it. Using his unseen force to throw Apollo over his own head. The android lands with his face to the city below. Leonardo grabs him by the head and raises it upwards, screaming at him, "Focus your vision - see the fruits of your labor."

Apollo focuses his vision down into the city miles below, upon the concrete he sees a small crowd of fearful people encircling a corpse of a man whose chest cavity had been blown open. "No" the android quietly calls out, almost under his breath as if he does not want to be heard by his creator. It's as if he is ashamed to admit that he had made such a costly mistake.

Leonardo pulls Apollo's body higher upwards, telling him about how similar they are and that Apollo will eventually realize what Leonardo had been talking about all along. The self-professed deity fails to notice how various small chambers open up all over Apollo's body revealing small jet-like apparatuses beneath them, this time though, only bright yellow light comes shining through the apparatuses before the blast.

*Boom*

Leonardo is thrown backwards, disoriented he throws his arms around trying to shake off the blinding light that had just engulfed his entirety. Meanwhile, Apollo gets back up to his feet and motions towards his sword with his arm and the weapon flies directly into the android's hand. He turns around to face his enraged maker whose blue eyes now turn red. Yet the creation is now unfazed by the obvious wrath of its creator, it charges at him like a battle-hardened Samurai.

Upon contact with Leonardo's face the sparks caused by the friction of the blade almost set it on fire.

The elder android stretched his arm, creating another shockwave.

The glass wall shatters into tiny bits as Apollo's body is thrown through it.

A slab of synthetic skin flies alongside Apollo's body to the city down below.

Leonardo stares down at his creation as it is falling down like a meteor, his true robotic face now exposed to the whole world to see. It's various mechanical workings overlap each other creating a barely humanoid appearance made out of various pieces of metal plates and wire clusters.

As Apollo's body crushes into the concrete pavement of the city, his body creates a small shockwave upon impact and leaves him in a small crater. The fall completely disoriented Apollo's sensory input mechanisms. If he were a man made of flesh and blood he would be dazed and confused. He moves his arms and legs checking to see if his synthetic spine got damaged. Everything seems to be working perfectly. Slowly as his sensors begin to function properly once more. Now Apollo notices the crowd of people that had gathered around him. He tries to get back up to his feet, but his vestibular apparatus is still off, he staggers and is about to fall when he notices a man grab at his body and help him stabilize himself.

Apollo begins to hear the people in the crowd whispering, questioning his circumstances and as he thanks the man who had helped him up he calls out to the crowd, "Run, run for your lives, it's dangerous to be around me right now."

The people become confused while Apollo has no clue how to convince them to run away from him, he had never had to do such a thing before. He begins to weigh in his options but is unable to come up with a solution to his problem. Before he can do anything, Leonardo's voice echoes through the city, "My children, the one whom you know as Apollo has turned his back on me, on you, he has turned his back on all of us. This man now he plans to usurp me and take over this planet and rule it as he sees fit. Dear children, know that he hates human kind and would not hesitate to end its existence."

The crowd around Apollo seems to get even more confused, and slightly fearful of him. The looks in their eyes now seem uncertain and somewhat scared to him. Leonardo's voice keeps on ringing in the distance, "This man had tried to end my life at this instant, hence I have cast him down from the heavens and now I intend to unleash my messengers of doom upon him.

"Behold!

"From beyond the pit that is death, come my soldiers of vengeance against my enemies, our enemies. They are sixty thousand in number! They are cold and emotionless and they will stop at nothing until they eradicate and erase the devils of this world from the face of this earth!

"Worry not my children, for you are safe in my lap. Worry not from the wretched monster that is Apollo the Usurper!"

Apollo picks up his sword and forms an intentional scowl on his face, hoping his creator's speech combined with his act would force the people to run away from him. They seem to finally become affected by his act as they start to back away whenever he steps towards them. Unsure of what his creator's words actually meant, Apollo begins considering his options; where does he go now? What does he do? What is his next course of action? He tries to think but a distant blood curdling scream distracts him, before he can process it, he hears another one and another one. He begins hearing the calls of fear and terror all over the edges of the city just a few blocks away from his crash site. Keeping true to his act, he shoves a man standing to his left as he activates his foot-jets, knocking the man over.

The closer Apollo gets to the outskirts of the city the louder the screaming and wailing becomes. He tries to understand what makes the citizens so hysterical, but he is unable to. He discards the idea that his creator's message had made the humans so terrified, something physical must've happened. Something so awful that it threw the populous into a panic.

Once Apollo reaches the edge of the city he is once more seized by the feeling that his creator had ignited inside him earlier that day, Apollo feels the fear creeping up his synthetic central nervous system once he sees the hordes of freshly deceased humanoids that seem as if they were shredded to bits and then reattached in an awful and disgusting manner. Apollo sees the masses of pale flash and gore awkwardly stroll around the outskirts of the city, attacking anything that shows any signs of life. These things, they try to tear apart the living humans, man, woman and child all alike.

Apollo feels something lit up inside him as if someone had set a fire inside of his chest cavity. He almost instinctively turns on all of his long-range weapons at once. He soaks in the burning sensation inside of him, locking his aims on the abominations in front of him.

Once the burning sensation becomes almost overwhelming, Apollo fires all of his long-ranged weapons at the mass of gore and humanity in front of him producing a gigantic explosion of such magnitude that even the android himself barely manages to stay on his feet after the aftershock.

Once the dust settles, Apollo sees the mass carnage he had just created; a sea of blood, debris, robotic scraps and fire. Everything is engulfed by hell's flames. It's as if a star had fallen upon this section of the city.

Apollo has finally lived up to his name, for he now stands the God of the sun.

The android begins apologizing to the corpses of those who he had just killed but his mourning is interrupted by the sound of something jelly-like moving in massive quantities. The android looks around to see the abominations reforming to their previous semi human shapes.

All of them are reforming, all but one.

One of these things does not reform itself and Apollo cannot pinpoint why. The idea that these things are indestructible seems ridiculous to a logical being like him, for nothing is eternal in this universe and Apollo knows it. The android pulls out his sword once more and charges at the monstrosities to try and figure out how he can end their menace.

The android begins cutting through the reforming masses of decomposing flash but they simply keep on reforming. He swings left and right, bisecting and decapitating them but they won't stop reforming. The android becomes irritated and his perception becomes sloppy and somewhat distorted.

Without even noticing, a group of these reformed creatures engulf his body and pile up on top of the android as they bury him beneath their mass. Once buried beneath the abominations, Apollo begins to ponder the possibility of his creator being an actual god. He does so due to the fact that he cannot stop these creatures who are fueled by Leonardo.

Apollo is about to give up, but something inside of him calls, "system operator level memo, would you like the recording to play?" the voice calls out inside of his head.

"What the hell now?" Apollo calls out

"Yes, play the memo" he calls back to his inner computing system.

A hologram like apparition appears in front of Apollo's visual sensors, in it something he thought he would never see, it's the Polinsky couple standing inside a laboratory. They appear to be so joyous as they stand there, seemingly looking at someone. Seemingly looking at him, with utmost affection in their eyes.

Anthony Polinsky begins talking, "Hello, Leonardo, welcome aboard the Queen Anne's Blessing."

His wife, Margaret, proceeds to say, "You are a new edition to our family and to our society. You are like a second son to us, just like our little David"

Her husband keeps on talking, "Leonardo, you're special, because we've built you with a hope in mind. A hope that your non-aging body would ensure you could help improve the lives of people around you for long after we are gone. Please try to think of everyone on this ship as a big family.

"We don't know when you will listen to this recording, because we plan to implant it in you as a souvenir just to make sure you don't feel completely lonely after we're gone. We just want you to know that you are as much of a man as I am."

"You're one of us, Leonardo, you are just like all of us, but you are also much greater than all of us because you share David's beautiful mind." Margaret continues.

"We hope you find your call in life, angel, and we're sure you will live up to your name sake; the late great Da Vinci." The couple says in unison.

"I think I now have" Apollo says to himself, still unsure of why he has a copy of this recording inside his inner workings.

"We love you, Leonardo." The couple utters again before the hologram cuts off.

Apollo begins to feel something new build up inside of him, something he has never felt before. It's a bitter sweet sensation that had never graced his sensors before.

"So, this is love" the android mutters as his emerald eyes now turn red.

Apollo opens up the cavities in his body again, building up enough energy to blast away the pile of gore that has stacked itself on top of him. As the guts and bones fly in every direction. Apollo's vision becomes sharper than ever before and he notices a small broken chip next to the corpse that did not regenerate after his first attack.

A smile forms on his face, "So you're no god after all, just a magnet with an oversized ego." He calls out.

A visor forms around his left eye as he begins scouting for a source of radiation coming out of the abominations. Soon enough Apollo sees a pattern - there is a small source of radiation coming from the spines of these things. Though whichever of them does not have a spine seems to have a large robotic section.

Apollo clutches tightly at his buzzing sword, as excitement fills his core his smile widens and he starts slashing through the seemingly endless hordes of cyborg undead.

Over the next few hours Apollo runs from block to block trying to prevent the mass of putrid subhuman disgust from killing any more people, however he is unable to save everyone.

All over the city cries agony can be heard and with each victim Leonardo's monsters claim - Apollo's resolve grows stronger.

The android now realized that being human has nothing to do with having a flesh and blood body. He now knows that humanity is about the spirit. Humanity is about the constant struggle between good and evil. It's about survival and about the experience of a complex mental view of one's surroundings.

Apollo knows he is nothing short of human.

After hours of endless slashing, Apollo finally subdues the final remnants of Leonardo's undead army. By now the city of Migdalel is in ruin, a large portion of the city has succumbed to the fire started by Apollo and a large portion of the populous is either dead or injured, whether physically or mentally.

Apollo makes his path towards the central square of Migdalel, where the Theodorian festival is meant to take place. Wherever he turns, the android sees destruction and misery. Leonardo's actions disgust Apollo and he is hell bent on facing and ending his maker.

Buildings are on fire on each and every street. The city looks as if it had been through an Apocalypse, cries of sheer agony echo through the alleys. Apollo hopes to end all the needless suffering caused by Leonardo by getting rid of his maker. He hopes to be the Thunderer who overthrows the titan that had up to this point controlled their world.

Once in the central square, Apollo calls out to Leonardo.

"Come out, coward, come out and face your equals!" Apollo calls out into the sky.

Leonardo does not respond in any way, and Apollo begins pacing angrily around the squares perimeter. As Apollo is getting increasingly angrier he notices a little girl, bruised and covered in dirt praying over the still bodies of her parents. Apollo's eyes widen; he is baffled as to how a child keeps her faith in the monster who destroyed her family. Thus, he approaches the girl and he kneels down to her before placing his hand on her head asking, "Tell me, why would you pray to a god who let your parents die, my dear?"

The girl stops her prayer and turns to Apollo, revealing trails of dry tears all over her cheeks and with a solemn look on her face she looks him in the eyes and says something that both surprises and reassures him, "I am not praying to the man in the sky, Mr. Angel, I am praying to the Fae from the forests."

"Oh, and are they good beings?" Apollo asks the girl with genuine curiosity.

"Yes, they are, Mr. Angel, they will help mommy and daddy get to the other world and be happy forever." The girl replies as a small hopeful smile forms on her face.

"Oh then, I shall pray for your parents too, in my heart." Apollo replies as he gets back to his feet as an idea is forming in his mind.

He straightens back up and calls out as loud as he can to the sky, "Hey, you false idol, prove your might by striking me down for my heresy! Here and now!"

*Thud*

Leonardo lands in front of Apollo, his synthetic human face barely clinging  to his actual robotic face. The makeshift arrangement makes him look as if he is wearing a badly fitting mask, merely mocking a human visage.

Apollo smiles at his creator.

Leonardo upon seeing the smile of his creation lashes out, "You wanted to see my might and now you will witness it! The Calypso is on it's way to collide with this wretched city! I am about to wipe out this whole place and only you and I will remain standing! Your precious monkeys will cease to exist, Model C126."

A large shadow begins forming above the city. So massive that it is covering its entirety, engulfing everything beneath it.

The clouds part way to the gigantic object that is trying to pass through them and in a matter of moments the Calypso becomes visible above the city. It is painfully clear to any observer that the aircraft is meant to collide with the city of Migdalel and reduce it to rubble.

Whoever sees the sight, begins crying and weeping. The population is drowning in despair. They know their end is coming. They know they have no chance of survival.

The little girl who was praying over her parents looks up for a moment and begins to tear up and begins praying louder to the spirits her family had worshipped.

Leonardo sees the girl praying and smirks, remarking, "Even when I am about to decimate them, they still worship me."

Apollo smiles from ear to ear, his eyes glow with a red flare. He retorts, in a quiet tone, "She is praying to you…"

He then pushes himself off the ground with his foot jets and pulls his sword above his head.

Apollo deliberately slows his perception of time so much, that he can monitor movement made by the Calypso in its descent. He begins slashing all over the aircraft with such speeds that even Leonardo is unable to register his movements.

Nine seconds into his leap, a sparkling rain of microscopic pieces of metal showers the whole city as Apollo descents back into the square.

The whole city is elated. Every last person who Is yet able to make his way outside does so to witness the glistering magical rain of metallic scraps.

Leonardo roars profanities at Apollo who merely points his sword to him.

Silence fills the square as people flock to see their savior, the android known as Apollo.

Leonardo tries to move his arm upwards in the direction of Apollo, but the android slashes it off. He proceeds to then bisect his maker before kicking his lower half away and decapitating the upper half on it's way to the ground.

Apollo catches the head of his maker; a piece of machinery that is still functional, albeit barely.

Leonardo calls out to him quietly, "Good job, Apollo, you've become human. Here's one last piece of advice; these monkeys, they only need faith, in something, they do not need gods to walk among them."

"If only you hadn't had this fragile ego of yours" Apollo remarks quietly before tossing Leonardo's now dysfunctional head onto the ground and roaring out "No more gods!"

At the moment, all who had a view of the occurrence had begun crying tears of joy and celebrating their survival. Apollo just stood there in front of the sunrise, living up to his name - God of the sun, Apollo.

From that day onwards, though, he became known as Good Apollo, The God Slayer.

Following Leonardo's demise, Apollo decided that he wants to live his life learning the secrets of the universe and watching events unfold. After all, he had as much time as he wished to have.

In the absence of a ruling global authoritarian figure Admathadasha's society became divided and wars became a common occurrence, however despite all of the misfortune and tragedy, there was also prosperity and above all else, freedom.

The human mind is so complex, that it is in constant need of stimulation. However, even more so, it is in an even greater need for freedom, because without freedom, humans are as good as cattle.

While Apollo has decided that the whole universe is his home, he still occasionally visits Admathadasha. He does so mostly during the celebration of the Theodorian festival, which had now come to be known as the Apollonia; the celebration of the great hero who had brought humanity back to the right track - Good Apollo, Humankind's Angel, The God Slayer.