Ralph Warren is still alive and I will have his head!"

"Ralph Warren is still alive and I will have his head!"

Melvin wasn't entirely sure how Mēkhos even had a voice anymore, but somehow his deep basal voice filled the chamber and resounded from the stalactite-encrusted ceiling. Dust and pebbles trickled down from the darkness, coating all Melvin's work with a fine layer of limestone. "P-p-please, sir, your v-v-v-voice!" he squeaked, pushing his coke-bottle glasses up a little farther on his thin nose.

Mēkhos wheeled on his diminutive technician and almost brought his servo-and-fluxx powered fists down like meteors upon his head. It was only the single, searing fact that Melvin was one of the few men on the planet who possessed the knowledge and skills to keep his new body working that stayed his rage-fueled strike. Even though he did not need to breathe, something deep within Mēkhos's formidable mind lead him to believe that--just like when he was alive--that his rage had affected him physically. His massive metallic chest rose and fell, heaving like a titanic steam engine. After several moments of his labored, mechanical heaving, the mad man continued.

"You are right, Melvin. But then again you are wrong." Mēkhos stalked around the cave that had become his temporary home in the two weeks since the event that had killed him and brought him back from the dead. He himself was still completely unsure of precisely what had happened, but he knew two things for certain: his new form--partially mechanical and partially spiritual--was far mightier than anything that he'd ever seen or known and that his hatred for his old rival, Ralph Warren, had not diminished in the least.

"I am changed, Melvin" he said to his shivering assistant. The small, mousey-headed man seemed even more like a mouse now than he had when Mēkhos had first met him. "I am more mighty now and I should be more careful. It would not do to harm you." The voice that drifted out of Mēkhos's violet-energy limned skull became silken and soft. "You, who are the key to maintaining my new form."

"Yet." Mēkhos's voice changed like the whip-crack strike of a snake. A frigid, soulless detachment blew through that one word like the wind from an opened tomb. "You are also wrong, Mevin. I know that Ralph is alive. I can feel him through the fluxx." Mēkhos lifted his left hand and it slowly began to morph and change as he spoke. The retro-adaptive alloy and axionic terminals that made up Mēkhos's containment suit began to interact with the glowing, purple energy that now composed and contained his form. The suit-of-armor like gauntlet that once covered Mēkhos's hand began to realign itself, changing its form and function to match the man's innermost cravings and desires.

"Whatever changed me that fateful night, also changed Ralph. We thought he was dead, but I can feel him - sense his life force through this energy you call fluxx." The metallic glove was completely gone, replaced with a massive cannon that looked like it could pound buildings into rubble, or blast battleships into slag.

"He calls himself the A.U.X. now--and when I find him, I will finally destroy him!"


Art Source: "Ghostman 2099" (c)/by cwalton
Story and Characters: (c)/by Brannon Hollingsworth

#MMWW, #Makes, #Me, #Wanna, #Write, #BrannonHollingsworth, #Mēkhos, #Melvin, #AUX, #A.U.X. #thestorygrows, #fluxx, #RalphWarren