Her eyes widened and she giggled but said naught.
CHAPTER 38
CALM BEFORE THE RAGE
Sonovan rose from the ground. He had just finished twenty minutes of meditating after he had eaten. Modern day food was drastically different from the cuisine he had been accustomed to centuries prior.
Of course, he took the time to meet the guards stationed in the bunker. Pleasured to see humans other than himself and the Shadowforce, he made time to always greet them and converse.
Now, Sonovan prepared for another lesson. This time, Rose was the addition.
Sonovan had never taught her, so during the timeframe, he was her sparring partner.
At this moment, the Shadowforce was learning a new move from an ancient, unique fighting style.
“This is another one of my creations, part of the Kage No Michi. Translated, it means
‘Way of the Shadows.’”
“This is your art,” Ryan said, trying to clarify.
“Yes, it is.”
“Cool.”
“So, begin by performing a boshi-ken.”
“A what?”
“Boshi-what?” Dustin replied. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t take Japanese in school. Spanish made more sense.”
“The boshi-ken is a thumb strike. I want you to close your hand into a fist. Now bend your thumb but stick it out a bit.” Sonovan helped Ryan as the others watched. “Good.
The way this move is incorporated in this technique is for you to stab the side of my neck with it.”
“Stab you with my thumb’s joint?”
“Yes, but go slow for the demonstration, of course.” Ryan slowly contacted Sonovan’s neck with his hand. “Good, now use your left knee and ram it into my stomach.” Following his teaching, Ryan did it correctly. “Perfect. In your rock form, this will annihilate the opponent. Johnny, I want you to come up behind him.”
Johnny did as told and approached Ryan from behind. Ryan utilized his own training and back-kicked Johnny, who moved out of the way. “Outstanding! For the rest of you, you can optimize it by using your own technique. Instead of a back kick, you can freeze the opponent, or blow him away, etcetera.”
“Got it,” Sam replied.
“If not, and the opponent is stronger, then once you kick him with your shin, knee him twice with alternating legs. Johnny, you, for example, would likely do this.”
“OK, got it,” Ryan replied.
“Gotcha,” Johnny replied.
“Now, continue.”
Rose chuckled to herself and said, “Gives a whole new meaning to shadow boxing.”
“Ha! That’s funny,” Dustin snickered.
Once the lesson had ended, Sonovan retired to his room. Johnny did the same, but the others went for a snack. JC came by Johnny’s room. “Are you OK, sir?”
“You do not have to call me that, sir,” Johnny replied.
“It’s mandatory. Anyway, I have come here to relay a message from the President.
You are not al owed to leave the premises. So please, make our job easy.”
“Can I at least cal my parents?”
“Yes, you can.”
“OK good.”
Appearing tentative, the man spoke up before leaving. “By the way, how many of you are there?”
“Besides us and Titan, one more.”
“Who?”
“I don’t even know the answer to that question. I wish I did.”
JC looked around. “God help us all.”
~~~
Johnny cal ed his parents the next morning. They picked up after the first two rings.
“Hello?”
“Hi Mom, it’s Johnny.”
“Johnny! Here, let me put it on speaker. Tim!”
“Hey son, how’s it going as a hero?”
“Not very well.”
“What’s up?”
“I’m scared, Dad. You don’t know Titan, but we do. He is unlike anything you have ever seen. And I’m afraid to die. But most of al , I’m afraid to fail.”
There was a silence on the opposite end for a short while. “I understand your fear, son. You don’t know how heart-wrenching this has been for us.”
He could hear his mother crying. “Mom, please don’t. It will make me feel even worse.”
“I’m scared too, Johnny,” she replied during sniffles. “I just can’t.”
“I’m cal ing because this is the last time I can call you.”
“What? Why?”
“President’s order.” Again, there was silence. “So, let’s just talk. Just make noise.”
The call lasted an additional forty minutes, and then he hung up with tears in his eyes, and he wept.
Once he left the room, the brothers entered and phoned home.
“Who is this?”
“Hey Mom, it’s us. Dustin and Sam.”
“Dustin! Sam! How have you been?”
“Well, if you want the truth, terrible.”
“So have we,” replied Robert.
“Oh, hey Dad. I love you,” Sam replied.
“We love you too, Terrible Two’s.”
“We won’t be able to cal you, so this is it. It’s the order of the President. He doesn’t want anyone possibly hacking the feeds.”
“Oh, we understand.”
“I’m scared, guys,” Dustin replied. “I’m terrified.”
“If you think you are scared, you don’t even know what we have been through.
Sleepless nights. Sleepless.”
Dustin drew a breath and gulped. “Look, if we…if we don’t make it, just know I love you. Always.”
“No! Please! Don’t say it!”
“Yeah,” Sam added, “I love you. No matter what happens.”
“We know you will succeed.”
“How?” Sam replied.
“Because we have made ourselves believe it. We have faith.”
“I wish I shared your optimism.”
“What should we do?” Dustin replied.
“For the first time, I don’t know, son.”
“I don’t either.”
Like Johnny, they spoke together for an hour. They relished in the memories of the past—a time when losing a video game was worse than an international tragedy.
“Remember that time when Dustin jumped off that rock and hugged me as we landed in the lake?
“I remember that like it was yesterday!”
“Yeah, that was funny,” Dustin chuckled. “Hell of a picture too.”
After a few more minutes of it, they bid goodbye. “I love you, guys,” Dustin said. “I really do.”
“Never forget that,” Sam added.
“We love you, and you will succeed. We know it.”
“I love you.”
The call ended abruptly, and they both sat there for ten minutes, a word not uttered.
Then Ryan came in and called his mother. Of course, the call followed the same pattern. After thirty minutes, he had already hung up and bid goodbye.
Sonovan lingered in his room of meditation. Everyone came in and sat next to him in a circle. Every minute that passed was another closer to the arrival. Less than forty-eight hours remained, each drudged by slower than the last.
CHAPTER 39
THE ARRIVAL
Almost two days had passed. Sonovan lay anxiously in his room, readying himself.
Already prepared and suited up, the Shadowforce lied in wait. During this time, sleep was rarely granted. After al , this would be the culmination of the entirety Sonovan Lung and the Shadowforce had fought for. Everything led up to this moment—the ultimatum.
They each sat together in a circle, eyes shut and minds empty, wills focused. The eyes of Sonovan popped open and he stood up. The others looked up to him. He strode with alarm to a corner of the room, eyes darting about at the ceiling.
“What is it?” Ryan asked.
Sonovan turned to them in angst and whispered, “He is here.”
~~~
; The Titan dropped out of warp and glided over the face of the Earth. Titan stood like a king in his throne room, staring down at the glistening waters of the blue marble. “On this rock, I will build the New Tetra. On this day, the Justification begins.” The other five warships he had forced himself to accompany the Titan dropped out of warp in its wake.
Solis smiled as Titan continued. “I want you to ready al of the soldiers on this ship and the others.”
“Yes, my lord. They are already ready for battle.”
“Good. I expect them to be. Do your duty, Solis.”
“Yes, my lord. I have fought with you for ages. I will not stop now.”
“Release the Orbs. All four. Ensure they reach their destination on each side of the planet.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The sun’s light shone around the ship, il uminating the entire room. “Tap into the broadcasting frequencies, Solis.”
“Why?”
“I want to hear it. The panic.”
Solis brought a transmitter to him and he listened for almost fifteen minutes, shutting his eyes while near the giant transparent enclosure. Screams and reports were on every station. Not much time had elapsed before humans spotted him. He sneered as the transmitter scanned through every frequency on Earth. “Ah, so satisfying. Their fear will be short lived. Neither will they recall the past.”
At that moment, ten flaming missiles approached from the surface. Titan distinguished them from afar and screamed for Solis to shoot them down. “Take them out!”
They obliterated nine of the said ten missiles, but one still headed for the throne room. Titan stretched out his arms to stop the attack, and he did. The missile halted as he used a great amount of Ooris.
Spreading apart his hands, Titan growled as he disassembled the missile piece by piece. It exploded, far from the ship’s hub.
Titan sank onto one knee, exasperated. He then stood and faced Solis. The missile had come closer than it should have. Too close. One explosion would send everything haywire. “Prepare the message. I want to be gorgeous. Blonde hair. Ocean blue eyes.
Tall. Everything this feeble civilization deems perfect. And for the other societies, what they deem perfect.”
“At once, my lord. The Orbs have been released.”
“Good. Let us end this.”
The Titan descended through the atmosphere, soon hovering over New York City.
The mil ions below looked up to the gigantic ship, its wide diamond shape blocking the light of the sun. Some shrieked, some screamed, some ran, and others froze in place.
The monstrous invader hovered over the Big Apple, casting an ominous shadow.
A smal scout ship jettisoned from the Titan. In it, Solis located the one and only Irene Sparks. He flew to the house and landed in the middle of the street. He disembarked as people stared in horror. With a swing of his scythe, he fragmented the front door. Irene and Timothy jumped from their places and backed into a corner. “No, please!” screamed Timothy. He fumbled for his gun and shot several rounds. The armor Solis wore deflected the bullets, which rocketed into glass and wood, shattering and splintering them. Solis grabbed Irene despite her screams. Timothy lunged at Solis, but he backhanded Timothy in the face, knocking him out as he was sent into the wall.
Neighbors screeched, rushing like ants as three soldiers kept watch outside the practical-sized vessel. One nodded at the other two, prompting them to silence the screams.
Therefore, the wife and mother of the Sparks family was abducted by Solis, the Voir to the Titan, ruler of the Tetra. Solis personally piloted the craft out of the neighborhood and boarded the Titan. Sedated to prevent any nuisance, Solis brought Irene to Titan, who ordered for her to be kept alive. “Only to be used if it becomes necessary,” Titan directed.
~~~
Inside his quarters, Johnny just attached the included blue-tinted shades on his suit when he was overwhelmed with realization of what was ensuing and what he was about to do. Only an hour earlier, he had to give a bit of a pep-talk to Jane, who was prone to al the things he would be.
Suddenly falling limp, Johnny had to collapse onto the floor, his legs weak with dread and anxiety. That very second, Sonovan walked in. “Johnny?”
Glancing upward, he sighed at the sight. He never wanted the Sonovan Lung to see him like this. “Sorry. I just…I don’t know where to turn.”
Nodding in empathy, Sonovan approached him, kneeling down. Sighing, he began to speak. “I know what you are feeling, Johnny Sparks. Your friends, Sam and Dustin,
were in the same state of mind before we had fought Titan the previous time. I had taught them a lesson, and so I will teach you.”
Shaking slightly, he turned his head to face Sonovan. “I just…I don’t know if I have the strength. Not even physical strength. I mean the mental strength to do this again.”
“You sound exactly like your friends,” chuckled Sonovan. He placed his hand on Johnny’s shoulder in a soothing gesture. “This is what you must know. The will to survive and prevail will only come once you accept your place in reality. But, most importantly, the necessary will shal only arrive when you yourself gaze into the eyes of your enemy. For in that moment, as I told your friends, fear will find you. Fear of losing every person you have ever loved will hit you like a punch. The rest is up to you, but knowing Johnny Sparks, nothing wil stop you then.”
Johnny gazed into this man’s eyes for half a minute, as if searching for something he could unearth in them. He turned away. “I see what you mean,” he replied. Though not better, this pep-talk had eased his emotions. “Thank you, Sonovan.”
“Always my pleasure, Mr. Sparks. Now, go, my comrade. Leave me and lead your team into victory. Today, I redeem myself. Though Titan has plotted a Justification, I have planned the Redemption.”
Breathing in and then out, Johnny stood. His mind was ready, and he knew it. For the first time, he believed he had finally attained that perfect wil Sonovan had depicted for the last few days. The will to act with fear of the repercussions and to only see one outcome: a victory. He fastened the dark blue mask on his face, which covered his features up to the blue shades.
The Shadowforce was ready for battle. Johnny stepped in front of the team and rubbed his hands vigorously. “I want you all to know how proud I have been to know you. Since that day we met, you guys have been second family to me. That goes for you too, Rose. And Jane. Anyway, I guess, uh, this is it. We have come this far. No matter what happens, I love you guys. I real y do. This is our time. Titan thinks he will destroy everything we have ever loved, but he’s mistaken. He knocked on the wrong door. In the name of life, join me, my friends. In the name of The Shadows. In the name of Sonovan Lung. In the name of Oora. In the name of the Shadowverse itself. Join me, and together, we wil be unstoppable!”
The roar from among them was exhilarating. “For the Shadowverse!” thundered Ryan.
“For the Shadowverse!” boomed Sam and Dustin.
“For the Shadowverse!” yel ed Jane.
“For my fathers!” screamed Rose. Her skin had grown red scales once again, like a reptile.
“For The Shadows,” Sonovan finished.
CHAPTER 40
FAKE MESSIAH
The holographic systems had been initiated, and Titan prepared himself to make a declaration before humanity. A light beamed down from the Titan and materialized into a life-like human man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a stature unrivaled by anyone.
He smiled at all the people who had gathered. Cars stopped in transit, and the sounds of the city silenced. It interrupted newscasts to film live on location. The world held its breath as convincing, realistic holograms of a striking, elegant man appeared in every major city on the planet.
Fixing his now blonde hair, the discourse commenced. “Hel o, my companions in creation. I am Natit, your savior, and aid in time of trouble. I have been referred to by many names. I am Jesus Christ. I am Mohammed…Allah. I am Yahweh. I am Krishna. I am Bud
dha. I am the Messiah. The One this planet has been lying in anticipation for since the dawn of civilization. And now, after many days, I am here. Truly, I am sorry I had not been there for you. But I am here now. No longer will plague, disease, corruption, death, and destruction scourge your people.
“Humanity has been chosen. You are the chosen ones. This very day, al the horrors of the past will cease. This generation, your young ones, have such potential to reach the stars, yet are somehow grounded to earthly desires, possessions, and lifestyles.
You. You are fearful,” he boldly stated. “Your freedoms and free will blind you. Freedom has become chains for this generation, and you have done this to yourselves.
“But no longer. Together, this very day, our destinies shal intertwine, and we shal spread out across the stars, forever together—forever one. Your destiny is above any other species in the universe.” He adjusted his stance and put on a tempting and welcoming expression. “You wil be like gods, and together, we will justify creation.”
During the speech, as it mystified the world, a caravan pulled up and a man in a wel -
tailored suit climbed out. He strode up to the realistic hologram, unafraid. “I am sorry, Titan, but we do not accept.” Natit furrowed his brow.
Behind the gargantuan monitor on the Titan, Titan stumbled back, confused. “How?”
he said to himself. “No. No. No!” Focusing, he could now feel them. His mind had not sensed them, for his faith in their demise on Herook had been too great. I had too much faith. “They will never learn.”
Scowling, the hologram muttered, “So be it.” He then dematerialized.
“The enemies are here,” Titan growled. “They always find a way.”
“What shall we do?” replied Solis, equal y angered.
“Complete what we came here to complete. Set course for the Gobi Desert. There, we will park the Titan.”
“And the machine?”
“Leave that to me. I will take it and 5000 soldiers. Keep another thousand on the sands of the Gobi as a distraction. Make it more per your discretion. As for you and I, our destination is the Val ey of Megiddo, in Israel. It is poetic. If somehow all else fails,
rendezvoused with the fleet and order them to destroy everything in sight. All ten mil ion of my Special Forces must then be expelled onto the surface.”
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