There were only ten casualties on his side while they completely annihilated the security forces. More burst in, but upon the spectacle of seven-foot-tall Solis, his small army, and three hundred dead security members, surrendered their weapons by dropping each. Glaring at the backup force through his helmet, the once virtuous security force got the gist. “Anyone else?” he questioned. When no one responded, the dark clad Solis chuckled deeply. “Exactly what I surmised.”
Solis slaughtered nearby infantry as he and his legion ascended the many floors to the apex, where he burst through the giant two doors into the governmental legislature.
Upon his grand ingress, Solis faced three dozen guards who were reduced to ash without difficulty.
The legislature ceased their bickering immediately. “Lord Titan has known this planet for a while,” he started.
“And?” a politician retorted, dressed in a long garb.
“Any world His Greatness studies for an extensive amount of time is in a dire situation.”
“Who is this Titan you speak of?” questioned another. One brave but certainly aged presiding elder strode up to Solis. Also exceptional y tal , this three-legged person stood eye to eye with him.
“And what gives you the right?” he quipped, his name Ersyxz. “You have no power over us! To kill our own! War!”
“I beg to differ,” Solis retorted. Grabbing the three-legged politician by the throat, he raised him for every eye to see. “You feel it now, don’t you? The fear.” The legislature stood from their seats.
“We will never bow to you,” the elder croaked.
“Possibly, but there is someone far worse than I. You will answer to him.”
Another infantry landed—a substantial y larger one. One million, to be exact. They crowded the streets as the people ran in terror.
Silence emitted from Solis as the fragile neck broke in his hand. Releasing, the dead man dropped to the floor in a loud crash.
Rotating his head around the premises, not one moved a muscle. “Do as you may,”
Solis ordered to his nearest officer.
“Execution?” the officer assumed.
In response, Solis turned his head to the subordinate, glaring through the opaque helmet he wore before turning back and striding out. “Slay them al ,” the officer ruthlessly commanded. Within seconds, the screams were snuffed out as one hundred of the members of the governing body were massacred. In the next several minutes, they would bestow Io Wix the position Dowsa of Quev’lon, meaning ‘emperor.’ The planet was under new management, for Io Wix only served Titan. Therefore, after many years, Quev’lon became the newest civilization brought under Titan’s rule. Solis left in a moment’s notice. Easier than I had remembered, he thought.
~~~
Titan, standing in his usual spot, turned when Solis strode into the throne room hours later. “Permission to enter,” he asked, kneeling onto one knee.
“Permission granted.”
Solis stood and slowly paced closer, arms locked behind his back. “My lord, the mission was a success. Easily defeated and were overcome without difficulty.”
“I can trust you with my very life,” responded Titan.
“May I not seem prideful in your sight, my lord, but yes, you actually did.”
Chuckling, Titan smiled. “You can never disappoint me, my friend.”
“Thank you, greatness,” Solis responded gratefully. His voice descended low to follow. “Anyway, the scouts have relayed us more data. The information has been transmitted, by my command, to your personal database. When you so desire, it is available.”
“Thank you, Solis. Is there anything else?”
“Yes, my lord, and I believe you will be pleased.”
“I will not read your mind. Surprise me.”
“A variable is aboard with them.”
Titan sneered. “Oh yes, what a surprise it is! Please, bring the variable into the examination cell. I want to see it myself.”
“It is a male.”
“Then bring him into the examination cel .”
Solis nodded once and left the room. Titan turned back to the window, deep in contemplation. The stars and galaxies far in the distance of the universe almost spoke to him. In his opinion, this reality was so grand, so awesome, so wide, and so perfect.
The Tetra had grown large and mighty, but he was just one being. He could not do it all.
His mind shifted to the news Solis brought him. Could this really be it? Is this species the one he needs? “I believe so,” he muttered to the only one breathing in the room—
himself.
CHAPTER 22
CLIFF NOTES
Once the lesson for the day finished, Ryan met up with Sonovan. The others went to go do other things, which mostly meant using their powers. Sonovan had returned to the cliff and relaxed into another meditative posture; this time a virasana, also known as the hero pose.
Damnit, I hate heights. “Always got to pick the weird places to meditate,” he mumbled, doing everything in his power to not look down. Ryan begrudgingly sat next to him in his own position, legs crossed.
“What is it, Ryan?” Sonovan asked him, eyes still closed.
“How’d you know it was me?”
“You make substantially more noise than your friends.”
“Oh, right. Yep, that’s me,” he chuckled.
“Have you come here to join me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a question?”
“Yeah, I do actually.”
“Feel free.”
“OK, thanks. Titan can control minds, right?”
“Yes.”
“So how can we prohibit him from controlling ours? And why did Rose get taken and not any of us?”
“There can be many answers to that question. Rose, I have concluded, had an easier mind to control, and she could have been insecure in herself. This could have been due to her otherworldly origins, never considering herself a human. She could never fit in.”
“But internally, she was the same. That’s why doctors were never suspicious of her.”
“It does not matter. It still has an effect. The powers of the Titan overwhelmed her, because she was prime prey. Weak minds are an ancient city without walls. Nothing but a playground for him. To stop it, then, we must have extraordinary will.”
Ryan sighed. “That is easier said than done.”
Sonovan smirked, knowing he would have responded with those words. After all, he had said the same once. “Long ago, before I met Titan, he encountered a species with wills so strong not even he could penetrate it. That is, he could not control them.” Ryan nodded, recal ing when he mentioned this. “They eventually disappeared, their whereabouts unknown. Only a few would ever be seen in public places, and I was fortunate to commune with one. His name was Zydok, before…before Titan murdered him. The wil was incredible, to say the least. In all my days I have never seen anything with such willpower.”
“Then how can we be like him?”
“Well, you can’t. But you can get close enough. How must you do it? You must wil yourself into what you believe. Your mission and stance on life must be so strong and firm that nothing could veer you from that belief. Only then might your will be strong enough—strong like The Shadows. Then, and only then, does your mind have a chance. It has been done before. It is not an impossible or unattainable task. Even I did it.”
“How?”
“On the contrary, let me ask you a question. As many have stated, before you start a war, what are you fighting for? What are you fighting for, Ryan Slade? Is it a person? A belief? A place? All of the above?” Ryan glanced at Sonovan, befuddled. Truly, he knew why he was fighting. “It is a six-letter word,” Sonovan continued. “D-E-S-I-R-E. Desire.
That is the key. I desired Aiko to such an extent that nothing could stop me from what I had to do. To that end, it is good you like Rose.”
“I d-don’t like her! What are you talking about?”
Ryan nodded in understanding. Even he admitted to himself that it made sense. “I understand. I will try. I will try hard. Thanks, Sonovan.”
“My pleasure.”
“Is there anything else?”
“In fact, there is. You must know something.”
Furrowing his brow, Ryan responded, “Well, tel me.”
“Whatever Titan says about how Earth is, do not call him insane, which, upon my observation, he is far from. Many have labeled him psychotic, but the words he utters are true and absent of falsities. Surely, if he gets to Earth, he wil enact his plan to overthrow the government of the modern day. That is, if he does not find ‘the answer.’”
“The answer?” replied Ryan, who sought a clarification.
“I do not know what it is, but he referenced it twice when I last fought him all those years ago.”
“Why are you tel ing me this?”
“Because if we prevail, you must work to destroy the evils in the very humans you are trying to save.”
Nodding but slightly confused, Ryan replied, “I will try.”
“I believe in you.”
“Thanks.”
“You are welcome, Ryan,” he responded.
Grinning, Ryan turned to glance at Sonovan, primed to ask one more question. “By the way, what are your powers? Titan said something that I have matter absorption, but what about you?”
Sonovan huffed, opening his eyes once more, staring out into the grand view below.
“My abilities are much more complex than yours, my friend,” he began. “Due to my
‘accident’ all those years ago, the Xun, a gateway to the Shadowverse itself and a time
vortex, exposed me to the greatest outpouring of Ooris in history, even more so than Titan.”
“Real y?” questioned Ryan in disbelief.
“Yes, really. I source my abilities, like yours, in the Shadowverse. On the contrary, though, I generate Ooris, whereas you were merely infused with it, which formed a connection between you and the Shadowverse. This Energy runs in my veins, which al ows me to move faster, see farther, and strike with a ferocity unparal eled by any.”
“Not even Titan?”
“He is my only near match—a nemesis, you might say. But not even he can strike with the sheer power I can. You yourself are nearly on par with us, actually. In fact, one day, you might surpass me in that aspect,” he extol ed, laying a hand on Ryan’s shoulder.
In conjunction with his speech, Ryan imagined his father as this man. Sonovan Lung had now come close to a father figure for him.
“Anyway, I hope that satisfied your inquiry.”
“It did,” he responded, eyes far away.
Akin to Sonovan and Johnny that very morning, the two sat there for a while, looking out at the prominent blue sky and the valleys and geography below them, al the way out to a radiant, shimmering sea of water on the horizon. “Out there is the Kampan Sea,” Sonovan mentioned, pointing to it in the distance. “Giant sea creatures call that place home.”
“You have gone over there?”
“Yes. It is quite frightening. The only way to explain them is that they seem similar to the centipedes on Earth, except far larger.”
“By how much?”
“I have assumed forty feet, but I could be wrong.”
Ryan put on a sickened look. “That’s disgusting. Ew.”
“Yes, it is. It is repulsing and gives me nausea.”
“Yeah, wel , if it does that to you, I don’t want to imagine what it would do to me,”
Ryan chuckled.
“Then let’s not.”
~~~
News reporters scrambled to report the activity at Montauk Point. A woman in a robe had left via another portal.
Neighbors had found Henry Johnson dead as a doornail in his living room.
Immediately the police had been notified. They did forensics, but no investigator could pinpoint the person who committed the act. They labeled his daughter, Rose Johnson, a suspect, but there was not a high chance of that being the case. She and five others had disappeared days prior.
Police believed it was linked to the disappearances, as did the FBI. They contacted Dustin’s and Sam’s parents, but they had no clues either as to where the group went. In fact, you could say the Jones’ household was chaos. The parents cried with one another and prayed their boys were not hurt.
Johnny’s parents were the same. Jane did not have parents, and her grandparents had died. She was alone, but no longer.
Ryan Slade had left his mother there as well, even though he defied the idea and still thought it was stupid.
That al changed in one night. A man in a jacket visited Dustin and Sam’s parents, Robert and Jenny. He knocked on the door. This time he wore a white mask with black scribbles etched over it.
Jenny opened the door but let out a shril cry when she saw the masked man. He covered her mouth in haste to drown out her scream and brought her in onto the couch.
Robert was in the room and about to attack the man when he, identifying himself as Z, cried out, “I know where your sons are!” Robert stopped dead in his tracks. “But the only way for you to know is if you cooperate with me.”
“Tel me everything you know, now!” Robert demanded.
“Please, sit down.”
Z explained to them they were not dead, but on a planet with Sonovan Lung, an ancient warrior. He told them they had been tricked by an alien calling himself ‘Titan.’
“What can I do to get them back from him?”
“There is nothing you can do. I only came here to spare your pain, Robert. There is one thing you must both know. If you ever say anything about what I just informed you, I will find you. I only allow you to call the homes of Bethany Slade and Timothy and Irene Sparks.”
They both nodded, because they knew they would be no match for him. “Where are you from? How do you know all this?” Jenny questioned, a chaotic, perplexed look strewn across her face.
Rotating his masked head slightly, he responded, “I am from nowhere, and I know because I know. There is nothing else to say. Godspeed.” With that, he opened the door and left their residence. Z left the two in shock. Jenny ran out to see if he was still in sight, but to no avail, since his presence had abandoned the location.
CHAPTER 23
VENGEANCE
Titan stepped into his elevator and pushed the button that would take him to the Titan’s control room precinct. The door opened when he arrived. No one said a word, since it was delightfully rare Titan himself descended to their level. He eyed them and surveyed the situation.
Several minutes passed, and then he spoke. “As you know, someone hijacked our systems and al owed Sonovan, our enemy, to board this ship. He who was in command at the time, please make yourself known.”
A commander with the name ‘ Supan’ on his ID stepped forward. “It was I.” He stood about 5’8” inches, dwarfed by the size of Titan. Commander Supan had a variegated skin type, glistening like a rainbow in the lights of the control room.
Titan inspected the officer and led him to the elevator. Everyone in the precinct stared in terror, knowing Commander Supan would likely never return.
On the way up, silence reigned. The doors opened and they both exited. Supan was the first to speak. “I am truly sorry, my lord Titan. Someone hijacked us. He came aboard, somehow, and activated the exotic matter and warp mechanism. There was nothing we could do once he activated it. We were slave to it.”
“I see. But how come none of you saw him? Was he invisible?”
&
nbsp; “No. He was very fast.”
Titan’s interest perked up. “What do you mean by ‘fast’? Does he have similar abilities to Johnny Sparks?”
“Yes, my lord, he does. Our soldiers are well-trained, but they were no match for him.”
Titan pondered this. “Why was the shield not already activated when he arrived? The shield is always active. Who was lazy and did not make sure it was on? Thus, it would have been impossible for anyone to access it, then.”
“Only Claq is in control of the warp button shield, my lord.”
“Send him in.”
Supan left at once and brought in Claq, who was in awe for the fact he could meet Titan. A yel ow skinned, average sized individual, he belonged to the Erse species, known for the protruding fins on their calf muscles and spikey craniums. Unfortunately, Titan was not pleased with him.
“Ah, Claq. Greetings.”
“Thank you, my lord. This is an honor!”
Ignoring him, Titan continued. “What were you doing when the ship was hijacked?
Why was the warp button shield not online?”
“I was”—Claq began to sweat and wiped his forehead— “not in the room, Eternal Savior. I am truly sorry.”
Titan’s eyes bore into Claq’s soul. He was furious, though careful to not make it known. Wel , not just yet. “I understand, Claq. I ful y understand.” His eyes met
Commander Supan’s. The commander cognized what Titan was trying to say. He turned around and left. Claq knew to the nth degree what was about to happen.
“You failed, Claq. I have already searched your mind.” Titan’s voice deepened into something comparable to a growl. “Useless. You were in the break room, drinking and playing games. What? At a time like that? I was about to crush them! We were this close! You are now in a thankfully minute group of imprudent fools who dared to serve me without their all.”
“My lord, please! Do not! I am sorry!”
“What a fine soldier you were. But fine”—Titan reached out and telekinetical y lifted Claq into the air— “is just not good enough.” His eyes burned crimson, and at this point, Claq had already uttered his goodbyes.
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