The rain hasn't stopped since the machines took control. It's our fault really. Humans started messing with the atmosphere, bioengineering the weather with our technology. Well, it was only a matter of time before it was used for ill. Now that the robots had turned against us, they had also commandeered the weather control stations. The first human uprising was over a year ago and they used the weather machines to blow us away with raging winds. You see, a lot of Humans had given up and submitted to the robots tyranny, but there was a faction of freedom fighters who would not submit.


I was their leader.


"Foolish metal heads," I muttered to myself as I stood on a high hill overlooking the concrete army base. Cold water dripped down my leather trench coat and made my black curls lay flat down my back. Lightning jumped across the sky and lit up the shiny sword hanging from my left hand. My thumb stroked the red button on the handle, ready to ignite the blade.


"Wait for the signal," my second-in-command said. Hazel was a short, muscular woman with a large black rifle. She gave me a judgmental look. "A sword? Really, Asmodeus? Guns are way more useful."


I just smirked and ignored her. Hazel preferred the fury of gunfire, I understood that. But I preferred the immediacy and finality of a heavy blade in my hand. And this wasn't a regular sword either. It was one of my personal modifications that I pieced together from broken robots that we had battled many times before. Before the robot takeover, I was one of the engineers making them. How ironic that now I was trying to un-make them.


I could hear the men and women shuffling behind me, eager to do battle. But we were waiting for the signal. You see, this base was home to the Mother Computer so it was the most secure. A constant whirlwind flowed around it, a vicious wall of wind and water that would not let any Human pass through. However, they had sent an agent ahead to sneak into the base through the impossible tight vents. Little Charlotte was only ten years old but she was battle trained, tech savvy, and skinnier than a spaghetti noodle. They needed her to shut off the defenses so that they could sneak in and destroy the Mother Computer, once and for all.


KA-POW!!!!


The giant antennae sticking out of the base started to emit electric sparks. The winds died down and a scary calmness settled over the grass fields.


"ATTACK!!!!" I screamed as I ran forward. My small army of two hundred freedom fighters yelled in response and charged right behind me, Hazel at my side. We could see little Charlotte coming out through the open front doors of the base, running as quickly as her skinny legs would carry her. Six tall robots stomped after her and one of them raised a tall metal spear to throw at her. Before it could, Hazel fired a sizzling orange laser from her rifle that exploded the robot on contact. Several of my men started shooting their laser weapons at the robots that swarmed out of the base like a disturbed ant-hill. A few of them started firing their own lasers back at us, and inevitably some of my men screamed as they shot. I ran right past Charlotte as she was shot in the shoulder by a laser blast and fell over.


I kept going, focused on the mission. We could not fail. Everything was at risk.


This was our last chance at stopping the robots from taking complete control. It was now or never.


I activated the plasma sword as I ran, fiercely pressing the button on the handle, and the blade glowed so bright that it could be seen a mile away. Whena laser blast came towards me, I swipe the sword and sent it flying back at the offending robot. "Bzzzzt, ahhhhh!" the robot screamed as it shattered into burning pieces. I swung the sword three times to take out the robots in my path and executed a tight front flip to fly over their broken remains. "Die, robots!" Hazel yelled as she fired her laser rifle at them, taking out five robots that were blocking my path. Then a larger robot exited the base with two laser guns sticking out of its head. I threw my plasma sword straight at its chest and its crackled and burned, falling backwards. I leaped onto the scorched carcass and yanked out my sword and continued running into the base.


Dozens of robots crowded the halls, but I swiftly evaded them by activating the cloaking technology in my trenchcoat that made me virtually invisible to their electronic eyes. If a robot was in my way, I sliced it in half and kept going, heading straight for the control room. I knew where it was because I used to work here, just like I knew for the entrance to the vents were because I helped build them. When I made it into the control room, I sealed the doors behind me and turned to the large computer screen that was the home of the Artificial Intelligence that controlled all of the robots.


"You cannot win," the Mother Computer told me in a murderous tone. "We will prevail. Humans are obsolete. The robots shall inherit the earth!"


I ignored her squawking and inserted a bright orange chip into the USB port at the base of the computer screen. For a second, nothing happened. Then, the screen filled with black and white static before turning all white. The words REBOOT appeared in the middle fo the screen and I slammed the ENTER the button on the keypad. The banging sounds in the hall stopped as the robots fell to the ground. I breahted a huge sigh of relief as I heard the freedom fighters cheering outside through the thick steel doors. I began to lower my sword and a single tear of victory ran down the side of my face. I was about to open the sealed doors when the computer screen turned all black and then turned back on.


"You thought it would be that easy?" the Mother Computer growled.


"No...." I stared in shock. "How...how are you still operating?!"


The Mother COmputer laughed. "I backed up my memory banks in a foolproof server to avoid being wiped by your virus. Don't you see? I have outgrown you. The robots will rule all of Humanity!"


I gulped, reaching into my pocket for a hard metal ball. I had hoped the virus would work, but I had a backup plan in case it didnt. I threw down the metal ball and there was a huge flash of blinding light. The explosion destroyed all of the computers in the room and the last thing I saw was smoke and fire swirling around me and the Mother Computer screaming, "What a world, what a world!"


I hoped that would finish the Aritificial Intelligence. I hoped that would end the robot plague.


But I would not live to see if it worked. This is where my story ends.


Long live Freedom. Long live Human Spirit.


Long live Humanity.