“That was unpleasant…” Attis pulled his face out of the tree and stumbled around a bit, until his sensors decided to catch up. He struggled to get his bearings in these new surroundings. There were massive trees to his left and right. The ground had been made soft by the falling leaves beneath his feet. This was the place alright. Civilization was just on the other side of this beautiful wooded area of the park. Some people jogged and walked along the 3 mile trail, others sat on benches for a quick bite, maybe just to unwind a little before the end of lunch hour. In either case, not a soul seemed to notice the spectacle that had just come sailing in behind the foliage. He came out into the open, picking leaves and twigs from his shirt. Attis looked around at the chosen location.
Kendall Park didn’t seem like much, just a typical park outside the woods. Trails, exercise stops, a handful of ball-courts, nothing special. People did enjoy having free access to computer terminals throughout the park. Coupled with Kendall’s free Wifi access, this park sort of felt like an outdoor library, Attis assumed the pavilions would protect the exposed technology from the elements.
“Alright, nature, internet, this has to be the place.” With that he pulled out his cell. “Come on, I win, what now?!”
“Beep beep!”
“Now yer just showing off lolzzz. You can’t say that wasn’t fun!! As we speak you are trying to trace this message. That’s pretty impressive, no equipment, no nothing?! Man I would love to see how your head works… Too bad you’ll never get a fix on me, I’ve been watching you for years, do you think I didn’t prepare for this?!”
The cell phones taunts were unappreciated. Attis used his vast repertoire of senses to trace any signal that he may have received.
“Got it!” he said. “No wait, ok now I got… No wait.” Various cell phones and other mobile devices pinged one after another throughout the crowded park. One after another they rang out all at once. People answered them confounded by an irritating static sound that awaited them on the other end. Attis had no way to get a real fix on him… or did he?
“Good luck with that… Now, unto the next trial, you do eventually have to go back to work sir, so I would just play the game if I were you.”
*****
As the man known as Jephetto clicked send, he grinned and took a sip from his hydration bladder. It was rare that he felt so thoroughly amused with himself. Cradled by bark and leaves, he felt safe and ready to take on A.T.T.I.S. in round two of this insane game. Jeph looked into a handheld monitor, hoping for a shot of his targets frustrated scowl.
“Oh Frak, where’d he go?!” he said, whipping out a pair of military grade binoculars. How could this have happened? He’d lost him, how could he have lost Attis? The mad genius only took his eyes off of his prey for only a second. Suddenly leaves ripped into the air creating an autumn tunnel behind him. The determined Attis alkaline was carving a path up the hill and straight for him. Energy levels became critically low. The mad dash from earlier, expended more of his resources than he at first realized. “Not bad Attis!! How did you find me?!!” shouted Jephetto.
“Please, I could kill a man with my cellphone.” Attis gloated. “Tracing a bouncing cell signal isn’t so tough! I took them all out at once!! Accept for yours of course. The only idiot, up in a tree and separate from everyone else!” Attis rushed in, eager to finally meet his maker. “Now come down here, I won!!” Jephetto looked down at his flashing, and now viral phone and felt the gravity of what was about to happen.
“Not really ready for a confrontation just yet.” he replied. “Still have some more tests to run my mechanical friend!!” He cried out from the treetops then raised both of his arms in concentration. Alkaline could see movement, and something resembling a humanoid shape, but he’d be damned if he could make out anything else.
“Something’s off, I should be able to tell this guy’s height, weight, age, everything…” Attis cursed his failing sensors for letting him down at the worst possible time. Brambles fell like snow before a blinding storm. They came in waves so intense that they started to push back the machine against his will.
“You should’ve played by the rules!!” screamed Jephetto, just as two large branches ripped savagely from the mighty tree. Like a pair of dueling javelins, they flew directly toward Attis, carving a swath through the wall of floating leaves. Through the obscurity it was a miracle that Alkaline even spotted them at all.
“Oh shit!” he jumped backward, narrowly escaping the first spear. His body only had time to shift and lean dexterously to the left, in the hopes of dodging the second.
‘Rip!’
The branch stuck deep into the ground at his feet and behind him. Attis looked down at the gash across his ribs. It was nice to have avoided being impaled however this was rapidly becoming a problem. Before he could even recover, another deadly limb went soaring for him, and another, Jephetto wasn’t going to stop until Attis was destroyed. He took off in a sprint for the nearest tree and dove behind it.
‘Thump, thump, thump!’
Three of them stuck into his wooded cover several inches deep.
“What the hell are you doing?!! I thought this was a test!!” yelled Attis at the top of his lungs.
“This IS your test! And don’t think hiding behind that tree will save ya!!” The ground shook, Attis looked sharply to his right and left, insistent that the next attack would come from the sides, or maybe below. By its nature, this contest was to play out like a game of chess, and in such a match, false anticipation can be a foolish and fatal mistake.
“Aaaacckkk!!” A thick tendril snaked its way down and around the tree, grabbing Attis around the throat like hangman’s noose. As much as he pulled and pried at the vines, they gave no quarter and only squeezed tighter. “I am going to have to kill him… I am going to have to kill Jephetto. Something’s wrong, why is he acting like this?” Attis mind raced. The iron-like noose was so tight now, that it started to crush something vital at the pit of his throat. Why were the plants this strong? Was it this psycho’s energy that made the soft tendrils act like boat cables? All the same, either he acted now, or it may all be over. Attis slid his finger slowly across the vine. Sparks flew from the keen edge of his torch.
‘Snap!’
It worked. Mr. A could barely believe that it worked, as he fell to one knee. His eyes peered around the tree that he once thought to be safety, and spotted the source of his problems. Jephetto was still up there. Attis could not see anything, aside from the branches and leaves but he knew his enemy had to be there. With every bit of power that he could summon, Alkaline ran for the tree’s root. The muscles in his core bulged and tightened. Attis bit his lip, the tree wasn’t the only thing he could see, and it had to be destroyed. Mr. A threw his arm back and…“YYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
‘Boom!!’
Fountains shook as people stopped to drink from them. Benches nearest to the epicenter rattled disrupting any notion of a peaceful lunch break. Attis fist connected upon the old tree with such force that even the local wildlife fled, as they knew this place was no longer a refuge, but a battleground.
jbmaynard1980 