The Shadowverse

by Francesca Gallo

  she hit him with a palm strike. Luckily, by this time, Sam came up behind her. She elbowed him in the chest, pushing him back a great distance. Fol owing up on it, Justice screamed in anger aa fire blasted out of her hands. In order to offset the flames, Sam ejected his ice. The two elements canceled each other out, triggering a stalemate.

  “Sorry,” Dustin said. He concentrated his power, and at once the aura in the room changed. Dustin focused the air onto her, and soon it accelerated to a speed of 120

  miles per hour. Titan, to say the least, was intrigued. The fierce, unforgiving gusts blew her across the room to become one flesh the wall.

  She pul ed herself out of it. “Bad idea,” she retorted in anger. Concentrating her power, fire discharged from her mouth and hands like a demon. Jane stepped in and froze the flames in mid-air for as long as she could. They stopped dead in the air.

  Justice looked shaken. Jane had prevented her from striking. Noticing she could not hold it for long, Ryan ran in to guard the others, shielding their bodies from the vicious assault.

  Under the vicious, scorching heat, Ryan tried his best to contain the fire. It rolled off his body like a repellant, but he still felt the pure inferno. This gave the others time to prepare for another onslaught.

  Johnny looked behind them, and Solis was approaching them with his reaper. Ready to confront Solis, Johnny bolted to him. Solis tried to sweep him, but Johnny dodged it with ease, countering with a punch so fast Solis saw it coming. He had prepared for it, though, because the reaper somehow folded onto the shaft, protecting him from the strike. The punch landed on the shaft, and Johnny screamed in pain. However, it drove Solis to the ground, and he landed with a resounding thud.

  Now Johnny was pissed too. He circled him, waiting for Solis to stand. Then he sprinted at him, elbowing his shoulder, kneeing his side, and smashing down with another elbow onto Solis’s back, collapsing him onto the floor, which immobilized him for now.

  Justice ceased the attack and began to float with the aid of the fire discharged from her hands. It thrust her higher off the floor, to the others’ amazement. “Wasn’t expecting that,” Dustin acknowledged, though he would refuse to acknowledge her power. Sam jumped on the opportunity and shot more ice at her. She blocked it and countered with another blast of fire. Instead of Ryan providing a body-shield for the team, Jane decided to latch onto Justice herself. She did, and, once in her grasp, flung Justice out of the air like a dead stick airplane. The floor shook, but Justice was not finished. Titan’s weapon leapt into the air and crashed down, sending shocks that swept them off their feet.

  Despite, the view of his downed compatriots, Ryan jumped up like a madman and sprinted to her.

  “I’m sorry Rose!”

  “There is no more Rose!” she screamed in anger.

  “You wil forgive me for this, I promise.”

  In one motion, Ryan smashed the floor, cracking it. This was his chance. He kneed her in the solar plexus, enough to do the job. It sent her straight up into the ceiling. She smacked into it and fell back down unconscious. Ryan ran to catch her. Slipping her out of his grasp, he laid her on the floor. “Sorry for that.”

  Titan was in awe of the sight. “An excellent battle! You even managed to immobilize two of my best fighters!”

  “And you’re next,” Johnny said, rubbing his knuckle that broke on the Solis’s reaper.

  Due to his rapid healing factor, it already felt better.

  From the end of the room, Titan telekinetically latched onto Justice, bringing her to him. She floated in stasis toward his location. He examined her and then glanced at Solis, who at last stood up. Titan sighed in remorse. “You know, you just cannot trust anyone. You have to do everything yourself.”

  Ryan scoffed. “Oh yeah? And what’s that, Big Dummy?”

  Instead of responding, Titan raised his arm, and before long, the group felt as if they were all floating. “Your powers are a nonentity compared to the power of the Titan.” He closed his eyes. Their levitated bodies were thrust to the back wall and pinned there.

  “There is no escape.” He stomped to them as Solis followed.

  “No!” Johnny screamed.

  “Let us go!” Jane yelled at him. She tried to resist with her own telekinetic power, but to no avail.

  Ryan strained to escape his grip, despite the impossibility.

  “Now I will be forced to crush each and every one of you. My Justice was too weak to do the job, so, as usual, I will.” Titan stepped back, in preparation for a brief execution.

  ~~~

  Solis was receiving word of a terrible occurrence. In the lower levels of the ship, a raucous raged. Something had gone terribly wrong. “What?” he asked, seeking a repeat of the warning.

  Titan glanced at him. “What is it?”

  “Someone has initiated the portal device.”

  “Someone? Who?”

  “An unidentified individual.”

  A few seconds later, the center of the room convolved and distorted. A large, rotating sphere burst forth. Titan looked on as its forces and energy spurred forth, bathing the room in black and cyan color. He still held the heroes in place.

  “My lord, something is coming through the wormhole.”

  Titan narrowed his eyes. “It is him.”

  “How?”

  “Step back, Solis.” Solis obeyed the command.

  Jane, still shoved against the wall, remembered the vision, especially the end, when Z conversed with Sonovan.

  Why must I save them?

  You would always save them.

  She could not contain her joy. They would survive. “Guys, we were the ‘them’ in the dream!” Out of the wormhole stepped an imposingly dark, strangely human figure with white, glowing eyes. His appearance was almost celestial. The black-gray component of his body draped over his outline like a shroud, only small patches of tannish skin visible.

  Titan raised his head, narrowing his eyes further. “Well, well, wel .” Johnny and the group, stil pinned to the wall, also identified this mysterious hero. Jane could not help but smile, for she recognized the figure from the information booth on Nexon and the vision. In the end, they didn’t find him, he found them.

  “It is I, Titan. I have only come to take what belongs to me,” the figure said, fearlessly walking up to the battleground of the throne. His voice had a now very slight Oriental spice to it. He was the polar opposite of how they had been—bold, unafraid, and confident.

  Titan scoffed at the remark. “And yet, you are still as arrogant as you were all those years ago, Sonovan.”

  “Ironic, coming from you.” In one motion, Sonovan Lung jumped twenty feet, the air rushing by his face. He slid into Titan, who collapsed. Using his core strength, he jumped up again, feet knocking into Titan’s face. The Emperor of the Tetra was shoved backward, startled. Finish the combo. Sonovan leapt like a cheetah and struck Titan in the chest with a palm strike. There was a resonant psh as the attack rammed Titan away. This caused him to lose focus and let go of his hold on the group. They fell to the floor.

  With ample time to do so, Sam froze Solis’s legs in place. “That’s ice!”

  Dustin concentrated an air gust onto Titan, which shoved him onto the ground.

  Dustin had picked the perfect time to do so.

  Still accessible, Johnny threw the team into the gravitational grasp of the wormhole.

  “Rose, I wil come back for you!” screamed Ryan, though still in an unconscious state.

  Sonovan followed, and less than a minute after his arrival, the portal had closed, the smal alliance managing an escape despite the improbability.

  After watching their figures dissipate, Titan stood up, eyes ablaze and ready to kill.

  He punched the wall, cracking it. Then he fell to his knees in mental agony. “Lung!” he roared, telekinetically tearing out parts of the ceiling. The fragments crashed to the ground, sparking upon impact. “Lung!”

  CHAPTER 16

  REMINI
SCENCE

  Only a moment passed before Sonovan Lung and the group exited the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. The landing spot was a cool, dark planet. As of yet, the weather preached doom and gloom, rain sadly fel without relent. The gravitational field was not as prevalent as that of Nexon—about 106% Earth gravity.

  Sonovan had built a hideout on this world, known as Herook. The ecosystem only produced plants and alien animals, but no intel igent life. Though it could give the impression of the opposite, Sonovan did not wish to be found. He left everything; his planet, his species, and his people.

  Titan merely wanted his soul to be tortured, and his mind to undergo deterioration.

  Thus, his current predicament would serve as his penance—his ultimate destiny. No more, as Titan declared, could he terrorize and inhibit the negotiation and aid Titan brought to planets and their inhabitants.

  The hideout sat in the mountainous region of the planet. Each mountain ranged in height, prohibiting anyone from receiving a clear view of the refuge. This place, though, was one of the taller mountains. Without question, the air is thinner.

  As soon as they dropped out of the wormhole, Sonovan limped to the hideaway’s door. The rest fol owed, unsure of what to do next. Ryan was angry. He left Rose there, on the ground, unconscious. How could he be so stupid? Why did he not grab her, freeing her from Titan’s grasp? Such blunders had to be eradicated from the mind, as ruminating about past errors only distracts from the more important things at hand.

  Opening the door to the domicile, the distraught, ancient warrior shuffled across the dark main room within the premises. Paying no heed to the fact they had fol owed him along, Sonovan strode in, leaving the people he had rescued standing there, bewildered and puzzled.

  Once the entry separated for access, he shuffled across the main floor to another door. Shutting it and locking the bolt, Sonovan Lung laid his sore body on the ground.

  “What the hel ?” Sam objected. “He’s just going to leave us here?”

  “I don’t know,” Johnny responded. The thunder gave an ominous background to the hitherto dismal place high above the val ey floor.

  “What are we going to do?” Jane asked in anxiety.

  In the dark, Johnny activated the Edge VX’s il uminative extras, hence the white serrated stripes on his suit glowing azure. He did not activate bulb mode this time, eyes adjusting to the darkness. Looking about, there was nothing much to the hideaway in the mountains.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Investigating my surroundings,” Johnny answered.

  At the same time, the green-il umined Ryan ambled through the sul en, blueish darkness to the closed door. Placing his ear on it, he hoped to hear a sound, but no

  noise had been emitted since the moment Sonovan barred it. “This is not going the way I had thought,” he grumbled, turning away from the locked entry.

  Walking back, Ryan found a place to sit. The former college students awkwardly sat there, knowing not of what to do. In fact, in spite of their extreme confusion and misery, they had to stay in their places for nearly thirty minutes. Near the end of the time, Dustin spoke.

  “What the hel happened back there?” exclaimed Dustin, finding a seat and sitting.

  “I’m bamboozled.”

  “Don’t ask me,” Sam responded, cracking his spine.

  “I think we will find out soon enough,” Johnny answered. His face was scuffed with dirt and a few cuts.

  “All I know is that these things do sure as hel protect us,” Dustin said, patting his suit like a pet.

  Unbeknownst to them, Sonovan had stealthily unlocked the door he had burst into and locked. Standing in the dark corridor, he inspected them and their attire in curiosity.

  These? How could they be so important, he thought.

  “Who are you?” he questioned in suspicion—in apprehension. His voice had lowered to a grim whisper.

  They jolted in surprise and whipped around in their spots. “Who are you?” retorted Johnny.

  Narrowing his eyes, Sonovan answered, “I am Sonovan Lung.”

  “I figured it was you,” Ryan replied.

  Wide-eyed, Jane smiled at him. He asked, “You saved us. Just like how he told you to.”

  Taking a step closer, the team could see his true face now, his human face. No longer was it concealed by a dark, almost cyan shroud. He looked strangely like a Mongolian or Japanese man, yet tal with a firm build nicely hidden by a maroon-colored long sleeve shirt covered by a tanned garment. Though his appearance was Asian, Sonovan did not have Asian eyes. They seemed different.

  Sonovan sat on his chair, pondering the events that had transpired. “Who are you?”

  he repeated. “Where are you from?”

  “We are from Earth,” Johnny replied.

  This surprised Sonovan, who placed his finger on his chin in contemplation. “That is a word I have not heard in a horribly long time.”

  “Are you human?”

  “Indeed.”

  “How did you save us?”

  “Every one of you has such a grand destiny. How about you grab a chair and listen in?”

  “Sure.”

  For a while, Sonovan told them his story, and the tragedy of the past. “Once, I was a samurai, but a haughty one at that. After I became the first to abandon my fellow men, I spent my days wandering the hil s. The time spent as an itinerant man al owed me to discover a cave. Inside it, I found a portal, which I have come to know as the Xun. In my rebellious state of mind, I break through the Xun, and the Energy inside it erupted,

  opening a portal to another realm, the Shadowverse. The outburst granted me immortality, but also released an army of beings.”

  Sonovan now stood, staring out at the window pointing towards the mountainous view, thousands of feet above the ground. The planet’s parent star was setting in the west, its rays shining through. The downpour had ceased. “In my endeavor to destroy them and rid the planet of their presence, their master, Titan, took my fiancée Aiko.

  Worse yet, we had already planned to go through ren’ai.”

  “Wait, you had a fiancée?” asked Jane.

  “Yes. She and I grew up near each other, and in time, she was delighted to become a fellow samurai with me. But after I arrived in the other world, Aiko was taken from me by a figure named Asterion, the previous Voir to Titan before Solis. Some time passed until I encountered another, named Solace. I did not know at first, but Solace was in fact Aiko. Titan had taken over her mind, and she only did his bidding.”

  “Just like Rose,” Ryan compared, turning to the others.

  “Who?” he responded, needing clarification.

  “Rose. She is our friend. It turns out she is an alien. Titan tricked us and took her, just like he did with your fiancée. Now, only this Justice remains, I guess.”

  Sonovan’s eyes were far away. “It is happening al over again, then.”

  “Finish your story, please,” Jane insisted.

  “Very well. But I never realized until later that the Xun was no typical portal. It was a time warped anomaly, created by rips in spacetime. This is how Titan arrived in this universe. My deed created a time vortex while I was exposed to the full power of the Shadowverse itself.”

  “Are you serious?” Sam asked, dumbfounded.

  “Yes,” Sonovan answered, nodding once. “This opened a time portal from this universe into the Shadowverse, which is how Titan crossed over into this universe. It had reached back nearly seven hundred years. Which means, by the time I had opened the Xun, Titan had already been here seven hundred years, building the Tetra. So technically, he crossed before I was born.”

  “Wait,” Johnny interrupted, “this is too much. You’re saying you time traveled and created all this?”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Ryan added. “Which came first? You opening the portal or Titan coming here?”

  Sonovan grinned slightly. “Neither. Each event is dependent upon the other. It would always happen.”r />
  “So it’s some kind of loop,” Jane concluded. “Right?”

  “You are correct.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Dustin cut in, “You and that Xun thingy reached back in time across two universes? And that’s how Titan got here?”

  “Yes, excellent work, Dustin. It took much intellect to understand.”

  Dustin chuckled mischievously, yet in pride. “Hehe, I’m smart.”

  “But please, there is still more. I discovered friends in this new world, various star systems throughout space. Many of the inhabitants were technologically advanced, far more than anything human civilization had ever aspired to at my time. I met Titan face-to-face. He banished me away, but this led to my acquaintance with Zydok, a member of a species with incredible wills. It had been said their will chal enged even Titan’s

  psychic abilities. So, I stayed with him along with a few others, and he taught me things.

  In fact, one technology his civilization designed was the ability to time travel.”

  “Time travel? Like, intentional time travel?”

  “Yes. It’s possible, as you have seen and heard, even though I have not tried.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “After I— no, we, The Shadows—defeated Titan’s assailants, Titan forced me to fight Aiko.”

  “The Shadows?” questioned Johnny, “Who the hell are they?”

  Sonovan shook his head. “Later.”

  “Did you defeat her?” Sam asked.

  “Yes. Titan had tested a new technology on her. She became his guinea pig.”

  “Just like us,” Johnny whispered to the others.

  “The only thing left was Titan himself. He threatened me and my planet, saying that my deed would pave the way to thousands of worlds who would have no defense.”

  “And I take it you defeated him?” questioned Ryan.

  “We did,” he answered, nodding. “It was my crowning glory. Aiko was released from his mental clutches. Soon after, his empire began to crumble. Many worlds were set free from his tyranny. For five hundred years, peace reigned.”

  “Then what took place?” asked Jane.

  “The resurrection.”