“Yes I am,” Johnny answered. The rest replied the same.
“Good. We will repeat the last lesson, yet I will teach you something new. It appears you have caught on to my lessons faster than I anticipated. Nevertheless, let us begin.”
He initiated the lesson by designing moves which complemented each of their powers. The training lasted one hour, and then they stopped for a drink from the water cooler.
This gigantic cooler sat modestly in one of the adjacent rooms. A refrigeration system, which coordinated with the hideout’s power station, a part of the overlay, cooled the tank. “Wow, well that’s awesome,” Ryan exclaimed as he brushed his fingers over the glass. “Nice rig you got here.”
“Thank you. The FR1759, as they call it.”
“Gotta love the use of numbers,” Dustin responded as he filled a cup to the brim. The taste of the chilly water was exquisite.
Sonovan led them back to the dojo. “Now we shall continue. I have come up with a practical idea. Black. Red. Blue. Yellow. These particular words will identify the sets of attacks I have taught you. When I scream ‘red’ you wil automatically attack. Each will use whatever is necessary to attack the opponent. Blue signifies for you to defend and fall back. Yel ow is the one I do not ever want or should ever have to use. But, if it is necessary, we wil surrender and retreat to a safe zone.”
“Yeah, that won’t be likely ever used,” Dustin said.
“Just look at us,” Sam added.
“OK, well what is black?” asked Johnny.
“A last resort. When I say it, you fal back behind me. I will eject an explosion of Ooris, which would annihilate any victim within a five-mile radius.”
“Wait, you can actually do that?”
“Yes. Over the years, I have mastered abilities I had not previously known. You see, my bond with the Shadowverse is greater than even that of Titan. Unfortunately, it wil drain me severely. In fact, it’s possible to be in bed for a week.”
“How about we rename ‘black’ to ‘Never Use Me, Boys’?” Sam joked.
Everyone chuckled. “Good suggestion, Sam.”
Sam’s grin dropped with haste. “Wait, you aren’t going to do that, are you?”
“It wil help us remember, wil it not?”
“Uh, I guess?”
“Of course. Yes! The ‘Never Use Me, Boys’! The NUMB! I like it already,” Sonovan chuckled.
Ryan, Dustin, Johnny, and even Jane burst out laughing. “I will never ever forget that one!” Dustin snickered. “How original! The NUMB!”
“It wil ‘NUMB’ you out!” Ryan clowned, gesturing with his hands. They snickered.
Sam did not know how to react. “I really don’t know if I should laugh or frown.”
“Probably the first,” replied Johnny.
CHAPTER 25
THE ANSWER
The light in the sky scurried away, and soon the night would swoop down on Herook.
The heroes, as Sonovan christened them, went out to the cliff and stared out into the night sky. An ample mix of blue, white, and orange-tinted stars glistened down, and Johnny swore it was the most he had seen his whole life. “Wow, just wow.”
The others marveled. “The Milky Way,” Sam acknowledged, in awe. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“Yeah, neither have I,” Ryan responded.
“Is that Orion?” Jane pointed to a string of three stars.
“Yeah, that’s Orion,” Johnny replied. “There’s Betelgeuse. It’s a red supergiant more than one thousand times as massive as the Sun. If it were in our solar system, it would extend beyond Jupiter.”
“Wow.”
“It is pretty spectacular, correct?” Sonovan said, looking up. “Few planets are blessed with this view, for interstel ar matter and clouds block most from seeing anything.”
“Real y? I never realized that, but it makes sense,” replied Johnny.
“It’s amazing,” Jane admired, eyes wide, staring into the universe beyond—the universe they were trying to save.
Ryan sat at the end of the cliff. As did the others, his eyes took in the entirety of the scene. He wondered where Rose was—what she was doing, if she was OK, and if they could ever retrieve her mind. “What’s our plan?” he probed out of the blue.
“What do you mean?” Sam asked, his attention diverted.
“You know, how are we going to get Rose back? We can’t just sit here and do nothing.” A smooth and calm breeze blew through the air.
“He’s right. There isn’t much more time to waste away,” Johnny said. “Anybody got any ideas?”
“Well, for one thing, we must find a way off-planet,” Sonovan replied. “And that is something I have not done in a very, very long time.”
“All right, wel how did you do it the first time?”
“I once knew a smuggler who would help me. He brought me weapons and prototypes for suits. In fact, he gave me six invisibility suits. I have one of them in my secret room.”
“You have a secret room? Awesome!” Dustin exclaimed.
“But, uh, when were you going to tell us that?” Sam asked.
“When it became necessary.”
“Oh, that’s good to know.”
“I do not know what happened to him. I assume he has passed on, since that was about a hundred years ago.”
“Geez.”
“I was amazed how he could do it. I was very thankful for him, and he became a friend I cherished for a long time. But, like all the others, he is now gone.”
“Are you trying to say our case is hopeless?” Sam asked.
“No, that was not my intention.”
“OK, so let’s get on with it and develop something we could cal a plan.”
Sonovan chuckled to himself, shaking his head in the starry darkness. “What?”
Johnny asked him.
“You are so ready for a fight, Johnny Sparks. More so than even I was. While it is a good trait, you must have patience. Sometimes the knee-jerk, first reaction is not always the best. Time is on our side.”
The atmosphere descended into silence for a long minute. Dustin, Sam, and Ryan shot looks at Johnny, while Jane was busy gazing at the view. “Uh, thanks for the tip.
You sound like my Dad,” he said.
“It’s for your betterment, Johnny.” Then he turned to the rest of the team. “Look up, like she is,” he motioned in his faint, charming Oriental accent. He had lived long enough that his once dominant accent had primarily dissipated, giving way to a low, rich one with only an iota of Oriental spice.
In answer to his gesture, they tilted their eyes towards the speckled sky filled with mil ions of stars. “The night sky can teach you things unattainable and unwanted by many. Just gaze, empty your mind. Never stop looking up, never stop looking into infinity. You are children of the light.”
~~~
Marching into the throne room, Solis bowed before speaking. “My lord, the variable has arrived. He is inside the testing cell on Level 23.” Solis strode back out and Titan grinned. He turned with haste and made his way to Level 23.
Wonder and excitement, for once, pervaded his demeanor. Upon his entry, he caught sight of the variable, a male human. The man squirmed in his restraints at the sight of Titan. He tardily approached the man. “What is thy name?”
“M-My n-name is J-Jackson G-Greene,” he stuttered, terrified. “W-What’s happened?”
“Do not fret, Jackson Greene. You will be returned to your proper location soon enough. In fact, you wil not remember what will happen here.”
“What will happen h-here?”
“A few tests, and that is al . Thank you for your cooperation. Many do not behave as well as you have.”
Titan had brain scanners brought with haste. The soldiers brought in hypnosis machines in too, but Titan sent them back out. “Why would we need a hypnosis machine when you have me?” he quipped. Solis stood behind the opaque glass, observing.
Titan placed his hands on the man’s head,
which shook violently. Then Titan noticed something peculiar. Jackson was murmuring something under his breath. Titan discerned what was taking place and decided to search his mind for the words Jackson uttered.
Oh God, please, help me. I need You right now. Please, help me. You were there for my parents. Be there for me.
Uncharacteristic of him, Titan’s eyes widened. Another religious one, he noted. His mind contacted Solis’s like a hammer, ordering him to activate the brainwave scanner.
Make sure you check the medial prefrontal and the posterior cingulate cortexes. A few minutes later, after the results came back, Solis handed it to Titan.
“My lord, here.” Titan read over the data in seconds.
“Solis, bring in a Hal uxian prisoner at once!” he boomed.
The prisoner was shoved into a restraining bed opposite the human. Tests were repeated with the prisoner. The data arrived and Solis brought it once more to Titan.
The resulting information differed significantly from the test on Jackson Greene.
As Titan compared the two results, it became apparent the human was unlike any species he had come across. These foolish individuals—they were like him.
Titan dropped both and paced to the throne room. His eyes landed on the expanse once again. He began to laugh, and soon he was chortling so loud Solis came in to see if anything was wrong. “My lord? Well? Are you all right?”
Titan continued to laugh deeply, and pivoted to the Voir. “Solis, this is it! It took a mil ennium, but I have finally done it!”
“Impossible.”
“You and I have witnessed many things, Solis, but this”—he turned back to the window and the universe beyond— “this tops it al . My crowning glory.”
“Our mission is accomplished,” Solis spoke, helmet modifying his voice so that he could seem a little more intimidating than usual. “I was so honored to be a part of it.”
Titan shook his head. “No, Solis. Our journey is only just beginning. This is the path to the Justification. The way. The key. The answer.”
CHAPTER 26
BROTHERS
Later that day, Sonovan, per his own self-instil ed custom, went out to the cliff to meditate. Jane fol owed close behind. Sonovan smiled when she found a spot next to him. Truthfully, she hated heights. Thus, Sonovan held her arm as she sat, a bit wobbly due to the fear. The suit she and the others had worn this entire time made her light-headed, to a certain degree. “Do not be afraid, Jane. You will not fall with me here.”
Nervously glancing at him, she nodded albeit still unconvinced, although she was ten feet from the cliff edges on either side. “I don’t know how you stay out here, this far out.
It’s too scary for me.”
“Yet, here you are,” he chuckled. “Life is funny. In fact, those you do not find humor in this reality are doomed to never appreciate it. Take yourself, for example.” She hesitantly turned to glance, for she was shaky and imbalanced, crossing her legs. “You have fought the most powerful being of the two universes, yet petrified of a plain mountain cliff.”
She giggled, feeling safe with his arm enfolded around hers. For some stupid reason, she sensed herself growing a smudge pink, but brushed it off, mentally scolding herself for such a ridiculous reaction. She sometimes hated her own personality. “All jokes aside,” Sonovan added, “What about you? What is your story?”
Taking in the glorious view and cool wind, she began. “Well, my parents were killed in an ‘accident,’” she started, making quotation marks with her right hand’s fingers.
“You do not believe it was an accident?”
“Definitely not,” she responded abruptly. “My parents were into things they were not meant to be. So, some people on Earth had them killed.”
“Who committed this evil?”
“I don’t know for sure,” she replied, shaking her head.
“Does it make you angry?”
She nodded with vigor.
“You deserve to feel that way,” he responded, turning to her. “I hate to praise him, but I am sure Titan would have rid the planet or the Tetra of someone like that.”
“Real y?”
“Yes. He is not as evil as he might seem. In fact, there is some… justice to him. A purity—some innate goodness.” Jane’s eyes widened. “But this purity has only made him a ruthless being. He believes it is necessary for people to die in order to bring peace and justice.”
“Wow, I never saw him that way. I only thought he was a psychopath.”
“Yes, he is far from that. Just…misled. We both were. Chasing after things we could never attain,” he muttered, eyes staring into the view, but seemingly nothing.
“I understand. Maybe something terrible happened to him once. Like me.”
“I do not know, but you could very wel be correct in your assumption.” He paused for a few seconds.
“Through the years of exile, I had wanted to kill myself, but there was no way to do so. After I had lost everyone, only one would stay for some time occasionally. We would meet in the Shadowverse, which is where I could stay for many years, learning more about my place in existence.”
“Who?”
“Titan. But the reasons were to either mentally torture me to the fact he had risen, yet sometimes to just plain converse.”
“Converse? You? Him? About what?”
“Everything,” he whispered. “I was able to understand his motives and his personality better. From time to time, Titan and I would even fight inside the Shadowverse itself, but for nothing. Either he wanted to prove he was stronger, or I wanted to release my rage for what he had done.”
“This is crazy,” Jane noted, shaking her head, “but tell me more.”
“Then one day, I saw there was more to it. I had to let go of my anger or it would destroy me. So I did, and we have not met since. It is sad we ended up being so different, for we are the same, just opposites of each other.”
He smiled at the thought of that possibility, closing his eyes and turning his head forward, hair blowing in the wind. Nevertheless, he sighed deeply, eyes glimmering in melancholy. “I wish…I wish the circumstances had been different. I never uncovered what made him this way, but if only the circumstances had been different…”
“What do you mean?”
“We could have been brothers,” he uttered in a low tone. In his mind, he forced himself to come back to reality instead of the imagination he had found himself inside.
He shook it off.
But he felt him. Since he had been gifted with the purest form of Ooris from the Shadowverse itself, Sonovan and Titan were connected. Though their places in the universe lay separated by thousands of light-years of cold, harsh space, they would always be linked—destinies intertwined. It was quite ironic, really.
At the very moment, in his ship, Titan stared out into the vastness of the universe.
On the contrary, there was Sonovan, next to Jane on a mighty cliff, gazing out into the vivid expanse of Herook below. The two ancient warriors sensed each other—out there amongst the stars—Titan in a massive ship, leader of the Tetra, while Sonovan meditated in exile on an almost-uninhabited yet beautiful world.
Sonovan looked at Jane. “I am surprised you did not become a vengeful individual due to your past,” he stated.
“Yeah, pil s do a good job,” she mumbled. “And maybe the years of heartache could have toughened me.”
Sonovan nodded. “You are strong. Stronger than I had been.”
Like many, she glanced toward the ground, unsure of what to respond with next.
After a minute, she did. “Do you think we will win?”
“Well, I understand Johnny has his eye out for you. He has grown uniquely fond, I have been told.”
She hastily rotated her head to stare. “W-What?” she retorted.
In an amusing instant, Sonovan’s eyes popped open. He tried to imagine himself in Johnny’s shoes. What would he not want him to say? “I am very sorry, Miss Cooper
.
Ignore me.”
“W-Wait, you are not pul ing a fast one on m-me. What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing. Just know we wil protect you. United, we will be unstoppable.”
She frowned, turning back to the view. “And I will too.” Sonovan smiled once again, eyes stil shut.
THREE HOURS LATER
That night, the group conversed amongst themselves how they could leave Herook.
“The only way I got to this planet was a miracle,” Sonovan started. “My smuggler friend, Rez, al owed me to board his ship. We ventured on a tour of many planets, and I acquired more weapons and tech. But I could never chal enge Titan, for he had grown too powerful for a one-on-one battle. Thus, Rez dropped me off here. It is an uninhabited planet, as I have told you. To that end, have you met anyone we could contact? Thanks to my trusty friend, he provided me with satel ite dishes so I might contact someone. Do you happen to know anyone?”
“No, not really,” Johnny replied.
“Only Ledarius Wepon,” Dustin responded.
“What planet was he from?”
“Oh, uh, I think it was cal ed Nexon.”
“Ah, yes! Nexon. I have been there! An advanced civilization.”
“Yeah, and that’s an understatement.”
“And yet nobody can help us. I’ve begun to feel we might be stuck here,” Ryan whined.
“No, we have a purpose. Something sent us here. Z said we had to save the world, so that’s what we will do.”
“Wait, are there any command stations on this planet?” Sam asked Sonovan.
“Actually, there are. But it’s far from here. Scouting drones appear in the sky every few weeks. Thankful y, I have utilized the power of the invisibility suits and connected them to the hideout’s mainframe. It allows me to cloak my place. It has proved enormously helpful.”
“Well that’s neat.”
“I suggest using those special suits of yours to get us to that location,” replied Sonovan. “The only base on this planet is to the east, possibly three-hundred miles, but there are numerous caves and crevasses in the terrain which would block that sort of journey by foot. Its keyword is CS0341. The code name alone would be enough information to get us there.”
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