Cover source
Warning: Scenes of violence and mayhem are included in this story. Reader Discretion is advised!
Other Episodes in the Clockwork City
Steam Brutes
Part 1 ◾ Part 2 ◾ Part 3 ◾ Part 4 ◾ Part 5 ◾ Part 6 - you are here.
The Citadel
Part 1 ◾ Part 2 - Coming soon.
Clockwork City
The City of brass and steam, of steel and glass. A City governed by the nobles of the Uppercity and the Guildmasters of the Undercity. The Undercity is becoming a battleground as Guildmasters send their best fighters to destabilize one another.
A Master Scholar witnesses this event, a battle for supremacy. Muscle, steel, blood, and chemicals. As beastial men fight one another, other sinister plots unfold.
Among hissing turbines and piping feeding the Upper City, battle and war is waged.
Steam Brutes Part 6
Max stalked down the street.
Nobody impeded his path. No-one dared.
Despite the weight that he bared on his right shoulder, he was not straining too much, his steam-powered arm had the massive man gripped around his waist. If they were attacked now, Max would not hesitate to use the big man as a weapon or a shield.
For now he needed to bring Yavin back to the Guild so the Guildmaster can decide on his fate and possibly get Yavin medical help.
Max had the feeling that they were being watched and yet nobody tried to get in his way or harm him. He had a sense for intent and whoever it was, they were not interested in fighting or killing.
He continued his journey without a pause. No doubt this giant hunk of muscle would survive. He did not like Yavin, but it was his duty to the Guild to see if he can save the man.
Screams rung out in the Featherstone halls.
From the medbay the doctors were doing their best to sedate the brute. Max had to step in to hold the man down so they could strap the man down after a kick had broken one of the physician's ribs.
They had injected sedatives and pain killers and yet nothing was working. Max stood on call just inside the operating room, that was the Guildmaster's orders.
Blood and sweat ran down the big man's body as the doctors removed the pieces of poison glass from Yavin's body. It was difficult because of the things that kept the man alive were making his body try close around the wounds and pieces of glass.
Thus they struggled to remove the pieces without the glass cutting the brute again or squeezing more poison into his body. Some of the pieces were healed and the glass was trapped under the skin. For these the doctors had to use scalpels to cut open his body and remove the glass again.
Yavin did not seem to mind those cuts, but whenever the glass was being moved, whatever it was that coated the shrapnel spread into his body.
Two of those same pieces had cut Max on exposed flesh. He had escaped a similar threat by blocking them with his arm and being further away. The doctors had already pulled these out of him and applied a tincture and a bandage over the wounds. They burned like fire. He could not imagine how Yavin's whole body had to be feeling.
For all the giant man's healing abilities, it did not seem like his healing helped with the pain.
"I have arrived." A dry voice said at the doorway. Max tensed. The intent that came from the voice was... strange and menacing.
One of the doctors turned to face the door. "Ah! Dr. Nyte! So good of you to come! We need your help!"
A man stepped into the room. He was tall and slim, and though he only had two legs, he had all the gait and intent that reminded Max of a spider slowly moving forward to approch its prey, right before it struck.
"Indeed." Dr. Nyte replied deadpan as he looked at Yavin. He raised his round lensed spectacles. With a scoped monocle at his eye, he inspected the brute. In contrast to Yavin, this Doctor was deathly pale, his skin seemed chalky and as white as a lab coat. Yet this Doctor was not wearing a coat but instead a black suit as though he was from the Uppercity. The way the man's facial hair was sculpted in thin lines across his upper lip and jawline suggested wealth and sophistication.
"I will treat the subject." Dr. Nyte said at last. "The healing implants I gave him are interfering now and preventing your procedures. Only I can do this. You may leave."
"Ah..." the other doctor fumbled. "Will you need help with the... uh... patient?"
"I have my own assistants." Dr. Nyte waved at the open door. Two massive porters lumbered into the room. They seemed to be even bigger than Yavin. Max could not see what they looked like, their faces and hands covered in strips of bandages like mummies. Over their eyes they wore round lensed goggles. "I insist you leave this subject in my care, we will manage to save him."
Dr. Nyte turned and faced Max for the first time and raised his arms as one of the porters put a white lab coat over the Doctor's shoulders. "Ah, such a fine specimen." An evil glint was in the Doctor's eye as he smiled wickedly. Max felt as though this man wanted to dissect him and cut him open to see what was inside. "You should come to see me. I would love to help you with your unfortunate stump."
"No thanks." Max replied firmly. "I trust my own steel and brass."
The Doctor's smile faded and was replaced by a sour grimace. "Get out of my sight then. Everyone out!" The Doctor waved his hands. He and the massive porters stared at everyone until the Featherstone medical staff all left. Max was the last to leave. He ignored the porters, there was no intent in their whole bodies. They were like dead bodies.
I wonder if Yavin will come out of this looking like one of them?
It was really not his problem. If the Guildmaster had brought this... freak... here then it was his choice. After all, this is the man that had made Yavin such an unkillable brute.
Max walked out into the hallway and one of the porters closed and barred the door. Through all of this, Yavin had not stopped screaming. Suddenly, the screams died down to grunts and moans and finally, there was silence.
That was fast.
Max shrugged. Time to go report to the boss.
The Dustoff
So Yavin will likely survive the Hunter's poison! Bot how will be be when he returns? Only time will tell!
Until next time, cheers!
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