“Hm...I think this is it…” Harvey stood in front of a metal plate on the ground, which had survived his wind attack, “yeah...it looks like it. Here we go…”

Barely putting in any effort, Harvey pinched the sides of the metal plating of the door, and peeled it out of the ground as if it were an orange peel. Soon enough he was holding the entire door off of two fingers. He tossed it aside, dusting his hands off.

While Harvey was doing this, Jant was staring at him with a look of wonder on his face. I must know how he became this strong, he thought, that way, maybe I’ll be able to avenge my master’s death.

“Come on, Jant, we got an underground base to clear out and a doctor to stop from destroying my house over and over again,” muttered Harvey, “can’t wait all day, you know?”

“Yes sir!” Jant hurried behind Harvey, glancing briefly at the twisted remains of the metal basement door. The hallway behind it was long and dark, but it clearly didn’t frighten Harvey. Jant’s eyes could see in the dark, so he had no problem either.

Eventually, as time drew on, Jant began to take note of the rise in temperature since they had entered into the basement. “Sir, its approaching eighty degrees,” said Jant, “the heat appears to be rising at an exponential rate as we go farther down into the tunnel. Perhaps we should-”

Jant’s voice suddenly faltered. “Sir, I sense an object approaching at high speeds!”

“Huh?”

It was then when Jant saw it. A metal block that slid quickly through the tunnel, flying at them from the other end of it at several hundred miles an hour. The front of it had dozens of razor sharp spikes, that glowed with some sort of green liquid.

“Sir-”

Crack.

Harvey held out his palm, and shattered the entire block, causing it to literally burst into dust. He looked around for a second, apparently confused. “Uh...let’s get going,” he finally said, “the temperature isn’t bad at all.”

“Right…”

The two of them continued down the dark hallway. Every few minutes, a trap would spring on them, and Harvey would destroy it just as easily. Every second passed for Jant was another second in which his respect for Harvey grew.

Eventually, the hallway began to grow wider. Jant noticed an opening on the other end of it, with light flowing into the tunnel from whatever was behind the opening. “I think that there’s a room over there…” he murmured, squinting his eyes through the dark.

“Probably. Come on, let’s go.” Harvey didn’t slow down his pace at all, instead speeding up, “Hm...I think something bad is about to happen.”

“What?” Jant looked at Harvey, “Sir, what do you mean? If you say something bad will happen, then it must be very-”

Harvey and Jant. You two have infiltrated into the deepest bowels of Dr. Garisu’s mech station. You are to immediately make your way to the room in front of you. Failure to do so will force us to unleash our greatest menace upon you.

The voice came from some sort of intercom system that must’ve been installed inside the walls, because Harvey didn’t see any speakers.

Jant gripped his staff, “Sir, it is probably a trick,” he said, gritting his teeth, “we should head back, and devise a plan to properly attack-”

“No, it’s fine. Come on, I don’t want to sit here all day. Let’s play their little game.” Harvey continued to walk forward, “they can’t have anything that bad.”

Jant really wanted to point out that traps should usually be avoided, and not ran into, but at the same time, he also wanted to impress Harvey. He nodded grimly, and walked behind Harvey, his eyes darting from one side of the room to the other, constantly in search of something that may be of danger.

Finally, the two of them made their way into a relatively large room, which was about the size of a football field. The entire place was made out of a shiny white metal, and was bright, despite not having a clear source of light. There was nothing else in the room.

Jant looked around, his eyes passing over every inch of the place. “Sir, we should be cautious,” he warned, “it’s more than likely that this room is more than it seems.”

“Obviously,” muttered Harvey, apparently unimpressed at the size of the room that he was in, “I want to see what sort of stuff these guys have in store for me.”

Jant couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Did Harvey not fear death? Did he not realize that he was in terrible, terrible danger right now?

Harvey, Jant. You two will face a series of tests. If you pass those tests, you can leave, and we will promise to never bother you again. If you fail, you will die, and your body will be used as a model for future Garisu mechs. Thank you for your cooperation.

“Funny,” Harvey looked around again, “so...when are these tests gonna-”

“Augh!”

Jant could barely even react. One second, he was standing normally on the ground, and the next moment, something underneath him had grabbed him and thrown him across the room, and into the wall. His eyes quickly scanned back to where he was just standing. A massive lizard-like creature had crawled out of the ground, its mouth frothing and its razor sharp teeth gleaming. It had a thick green hide that was studded with spikes, and its tail had a razor sharp blade at the end of it. It roared, and charged straight at Jant, who managed to jump out of the way just in time.

“Take this!”

Jant slammed his rod into the lizard’s body, cutting it clean in half, and showering himself in purple-green blood. But it wasn’t over.

“Sir!” Jant’s voice was drowned out by a wail of screeching that suddenly filled the room, as the ground on which Harvey was standing suddenly started to crack, as dozens of the same lizards began to climb out.

Jant threw himself straight into the battle, swinging his rod into the crowd of lizards, killing them as fast as possible. But they were still appearing at a faster rate than he was killing them. Eventually, one of the lizards focused their attention on Jant, and snapped at him viciously, causing him to back up.

“Come on!” he yelled at the lizard, “what’re-”

He didn’t have to say anything else, because in the next second, there was a bright flash of light, and the ground was suddenly covered with the dead carcasses of giant lizards.

“Weird, how they make them,” said Harvey, while brushing off some blood from his shirt, “I should’ve paid more attention in high school biology.”

Jant stared at Harvey, “How-”

“Not now,” grumbled Harvey, knowing all too well what Jant was about to ask him, “these guys say they have more. And I’m less than unimpressed with their first performance.”

Impressive. You have passed the first test with more ease than I had predicted. But I guarantee that this next one will be a challenge. Prepare yourselves!

“He sounds like a football commentator,” murmured Harvey, “so enthusiastic.”

“Oh yeah?” growled a voice from across the room, “you should be enthusiastic for this, Harvey.”

“Huh?” both Harvey and Jant turned around to face the source of the new voice. On the other end of the room, a set of blast doors closed behind a massive...thing.

The only thing Jant could see was scales. Shining, reflective, diamond-like scales that blinded him with its gleam. But Harvey didn’t seem fazed at all.

“A snake,” he said unimpressively, “and you are…?”

“I am Grand Serpentine!” roared the snake, winding itself back and baring its fangs, which dripped with an oily green liquid. His entire body must’ve been the size of a dozen school buses lined up. “I am the pinnacle of reptilian evolution, and you, Harvey, will not survive me!”

“Interesting how you say that,” said Harvey, walking forward, “Jant, stay back.”

Jant, who was about to jump into battle, blinked, surprised for a second, “Uh...Yes sir!” he finally proclaimed, backing up towards the wall.

“Heh...allowing your friend to see you get eaten before he does?” Serpentine began to slither forward, “very confident of you…”

Harvey didn’t look scared at all, which surprised Jant. Even from this distance, the sight of the massive snake sliding towards Harvey made him shiver. He suddenly felt glad that he didn’t jump into battle as brashly as he had planned to.

Serpentine suddenly lashed out at Harvey. It was an incredibly fast move, going so fast that the only thing Jant saw was a blur of color for a second. Harvey’s figure vanished, reappearing a few meters away from where he originally was, dodging the attack completely.

“That’s unfortunate,” Jant heard Harvey drawl loudly, “you’re slow.”

That seemed to piss off Serpentine quite a bit. The snake roared again, this time spitting acid at Harvey. And this time, Harvey didn’t even try to avoid it.

“Master!”

Jant’s look of horror as his supposed master was covered with acid was turned to confusion, as he realized that none of the acid had actually hit Harvey. Around Harvey there was a perfect circle of ground in which no acid had landed. Not a single drop.

“Your acid isn’t even that potent,” said Harvey, clearly disappointed now, “look...I can even touch it.”

He knelt down, scooping up a handful of acid with his hands, and holding it out to Serpentine, “See?” he said, “easy. You need to get some more potent acid if you want to survive out there in the wilderness, you know?”

There was a moment of silence, and in that moment, Serpentine’s breathing seemed to get heavier. “You…” growled Serpentine, “will pay for your-”

“No I won’t.”

Harvey suddenly appeared on top of Serpentine’s head. He drove his fist downwards, easily spiking the head of the snake into the ground, causing it to explode into a cascade of blood and snake guts.

“Ew,” Harvey brushed a fragment of a snake gut off of his shoulder, “I never knew that writing could make me that bored. Is that all you guys have for me? Because you’re making me kind of disappointed for coming here in the first place.”

There was a moment of silence.

“What should we do?” asked a voice. Jant couldn’t hear it, but Harvey could in his head. He could hear it just like he could hear all the other characters he’s written in the past.

“Deploy Garisu X,” said Dr. Garisu, “it’s the only way to stop him. He’s gotten past Grand Serpentine as well...with only one hit. Incredible!”

“Should we deploy Garisu X immediately?” asked AI33, “or should we wait a little, and-”

“No, we must deploy Garisu X immediately,” muttered Dr. Garisu, “there’s too much at stake here. Harvey is correct. It was a mistake bringing him here today.”

Harvey blinked. He was back in the room, now staring at the wall. “He’s going to send in Garisu X soon,” said Harvey blankly, “Jant, you should stay back.”

“Sir, let me take Garisu X head on,” said Jant eagerly, “I promise, I can take him down. I will not fail after what happened last night!”

“Well, well, well…” a deep robotic voice came from across the room, “what do we have here? Someone who can actually fight?”

Harvey and Jant both turned around. A trapdoor had just slid open on the ground, and a platform was rising up out of it. On top of the platform, was a massive, bulky mech that towered several dozen feet over both Harvey and Jant, literally casting a shadow over them.

“Is that…” Jant’s eyes narrowed, “master, I will defeat him!”

“No, stay-” Harvey couldn’t get his words out before Jant flung himself at Garisu X, breaking Mach 1 and slamming his staff directly into Garisu’s face.

There was a bright flash of light and an explosion, but after the smoke cleared away, Garisu was still standing. The head of the mech was an oval-shaped orb that had three red glowing points which must’ve been eyes. On its back were four massive cannons.

“Your attacks are futile.”

Garisu X, with surprising speed, suddenly flung himself forward, slamming his fist at Jant, who barely jumped out of the way in time. Harvey watched Jant, his eyes still dull.

“Take this!”

Jant vanished, reappearing on top of Garisu X, and driving his staff down into the head of the mech. But the staff simply bounced off, having no effect.

Jant’s eyes widened, “Wha-”

“You’re weak.” Garisu X grabbed Jant, flinging him to the side, where he crashed into the wall. This time, Jant could taste the blood in his mouth. Maybe it was a mistake in engaging with Garisu X. Maybe he should’ve listened to-

“Hey, Garisu.”

Harvey’s voice rang out across the room, “since I don’t exactly want Jant to die yet, I think I’ll have to kill you now.”

“Heh...good! I wasn’t really trying there,” Garisu turned to face Harvey now, “you’re the one Dr. Garisu is most worried about! He thinks that you’re the most powerful multicellular organism to ever live. Let’s put that to the test, shall we?”

Harvey didn’t say anything, instead realizing that he had just gotten a mosquito bite on his left leg. Dangit. He hated mosquito bites.

Garisu X’s back cannons began to glow, “Because even Dr. Garisu seems to be afraid of you, I think I’ll give you the honor of being incinerated by my most powerful missiles! Prepare to die!”

Harvey reached down, glancing at his leg a little closer, examining the reddish bump that had just appeared right above his kneecap. Jant was watching him with fear in his eyes.

What is master doing? Jant thought to himself, he’s leaving himself wide open...he’s going to die!

“Prepare to be destroyed by my Black Matter Plasmatic Flux Missiles!” Garisu’s cannons fired, launching a dozen missiles straight at Jant. They whizzed at him, going at Mach 18, easily causing Jant to go deaf for a few seconds.

It was then when Harvey realized that the mosquito bite was actually just one particularly itchy mole. He got up, dusting off his shirt, and turned around.

A bright flash of light, followed by a huge explosion. The noise was enough to shake dust from the ceiling, and send a massive 5-inch crack across the wall. Garisu X laughed hysterically, as if he wasn’t a computer.

“How does it feel, being destroyed by an six hundred teratons of TNT confined within the space of a ten meter radius?” laughed Garisu, “you were nothing! You are-”

He didn’t finish his sentence, as in the next instant, Harvey had appeared on top of Garisu X, and had punched downwards on him.

There was the sound of metal grinding against metal, as the entire mech was flattened into the largest dinner plate in existence.