I had failed Olivia.
LEVEL 24
WEAK AND POWERLESS
Taylor and I cautiously made our way to the abandoned stage where Olivia’s equipment still hummed with electric life. Her guitar lay upon the center stage where her microphone stand used to be. The drums were trashed and in a few separate sections. Obviously they had weathered the horrible assault. All their amps were beat up and covered with dirt and glistening green slime. The giant banner that had their band name, SISTER RED, was split down the middle and dangled from each side of the stage.
“We’re too late,” I sulked.
“Where’d they all go?” Taylor shrugged, still not accepting the scene before him. “Where’s Morgan?”
“It’s my fault, T. I should have insisted we all go together…stay together…leave no one behind.”
“Luc, you couldn’t have expected this,” Taylor sighed. Filling with guilt, I ignored him and turned to Ripley.
“Where are they?”
Ripley stood still, levitating in place, but before Ripley could answer me, someone else joined our conversation.
“They are mine now,” Queen Strickland said, overzealously. From behind us she slithered up in all her dangerous glory, now even more snakelike. Her taloned legs were now part of a thick serpent tail. She spit, “They are ALL mine.”
Rage overcame me and I lunged forward but Taylor caught me by my arm and held me in place.
“Where’s Olivia?” I spit back. Queen Strickland began to laugh and it echoed all around us.
“You know where,” she smirked.
“In the pit,” I whispered. She nodded and dragged her sharp claws along the floor as she crept closer to us. It left shredded trails peeling up from the ground. Her Medusa-like appendages whipped in all directions from over her shoulders, repeatedly thrusting forward at our positions.
“Yes, but think of it more as a nest, or breeding ground of energy,” she stated.
“Breeding ground?” Taylor asked, with his empty red canister ready to strike. Ripley lowered in a protective fighting stance, ready to attack. Queen Strickland halted her advance accordingly.
“Silly humans, haven’t you had enough carnage for the night?” she asked, slyly. “Wouldn’t you rather know what, where, and why?”
Ripley’s eyes focused right through her. It was clear she was scared of Ripley’s power. I wanted my friends back but I had no idea how to do that. Maybe listening to what she had to say would be beneficial.
“I don’t trust her,” Taylor said, angrily. I placed a calming hand on his chest.
“What, where, and why…okay, I’m listening.”
Queen Strickland eased her stance and crossed her lanky arms over her armor-plated chest. “What am I?”
“A monster,” I insulted.
“In your pitiful human eyes, maybe. I’m actually the pinnacle of evolution. The universal standard of physical achievement. I am the Queen of Serpents. The mother of all such creatures throughout your galaxy and many more. This tiny rock you call Earth is nothing more than a dirty nest for my offspring. A pitstop for the truly powerful like myself. Throughout a thousand galaxies such as yours, I am a God.”
“Well, here on this dusty little planet you’re just the crazy snake lady,” I teased. She shifted her posture with annoyance and continued.
“Next question. Where are your friends?” she said, letting my last statement roll off her shoulders. “They are below the school, in my cozy Nest. Don’t pretend you didn’t see it, you were both there. They serve one purpose and one purpose only…food. My kind need strength and feeding gives us that. Even if Earthling meat is one of my least favorites, with the exception of your handsome friend, Mr. Swift. The rest of your friends are the battery packs that will power my invasion, fuel my revenge.” Her eyes cut into me when she spoke those last words. Quickly, she continued her speech. “You see, the one redeeming quality this putrid planet has going for it is the fact that it is one of the newest entry points to an ancient galactic portal. A wormhole, as your scientists have come to call them. New portals, mean new opportunities for food.”
“A portal? To where?” I asked, surprised. In the back of my mind I was still trying to comprehend that my friends were now alien snake food.
“Anywhere in the Universe,” she smiled.
Taylor stepped forward, and asked, “Where is this so-called wormhole?”
With a hearty laugh, she instigated, “My boy, you’re standing on it.”
“What?” he gasped.
“That’s right, this school is the newest access point to one of the Universe’s oldest secrets. A doorway between worlds. A doorway that you opened, Mr. Ryan.”
“The Jynshee…” I mumbled, looking down at my arm. In my head I asked Ripley to backup her statement. Is that true, Ripley?
~ Yes. ~
Why didn’t you tell me?
~ When I was wished here by you I opened the portal but it should have closed when your wishes were granted. That’s the rules, you get your wishes and I cease to exist. The portal ceases to exist. I shouldn’t have evolved into this new state, this new form. Something else affected the way things have worked in the past. Something changed the rules. ~
Something, or someone?
~ I don’t know. ~
Queen Strickland snapped me back to reality again, and sounded off, “Finally, the why! Why am I here? Why do I need the collected life force of your friends? To put it bluntly, revenge.”
“Revenge?” I asked, stupidly. It sent her into a blind rage. She rose up reaching for the rafters of the building. Her tentacles twisted everywhere like a storm and her eyes blazed brightly with red-hot hate.
“Yes! Revenge! When you originally found the all-powerful Jynshee Orb and opened the door to this world with your first wish, you set in motion a chain of events that led me here. I didn’t want to come here. I hate it here! The unbearable heat of your sun, the stink of your oxygen coated skies, the taste of your meaty pink flesh. It all disgusts me!”
“Then why come here?” I argued.
“Because, Mr. Ryan, I had to! You brought me here. It was all your doing!”
Shaking my head, “What do you mean?”
She paused for a lingering moment, settling the mass of serpents along her back. Breathlessly, she began to speak. “I wasn’t the first one who came through the portal.”
“What are you saying?” I gulped. A nervous swell of butterflies spread inside my stomach. I knew what she was about to say even before she said it.
“He came through first. He came for the power of the Jynshee Orb. He was the hunter!” She smashed her fists into the floor, shaking the walls with the force. “He was our leader, our King! He…was…MY…King!”
“General Love,” I mumbled, terrified.
“Yes! You killed my King, my other half…my love…” Queen Strickland slowly circled around us, never relinquishing her eyes from mine. “That’s why I am here. For revenge. For him.”
That’s when the obvious smacked me over the head.
“He’s still alive, isn’t he?” I choked.
She erupted into a fit of laughter, and seethed, “Yes. You can thank the generosity of your friends and peers for that. Their combined life forces have been feeding his resurrection for days now!”
“No! I won’t allow it!” Taylor jumped forward, ready to fight. I grabbed onto him with all my strength. I needed to know more. I needed her to give us more information.
“Hang on, T. She’s not finished giving us all the answers yet,” I begged.
“Enough talking! We need to save our friends, save our school!” He pulled his muscular arm from my grasp. Ripley darted in front of him to stop his attack.
“I thought we destroyed General Love…forever…” I said, curiously.
“Almost. Thankfully, he was wise enough to leave a small piece of his essence in the timelines of the wormhole. This piece had laid dormant until your little time traveling escapade. T
he rift you caused in the wormhole as you wished your way home, revealed he was still here, still waiting to be brought back from death. It took me a while to locate his genetic breadcrumb but I found it.”
“Good for you,” Taylor spat. He looked around the room in suspicion.
“Our kind has the ability to regenerate ourselves, we just need that extra push,” she teased.
“You mean the human energy factory located in the bowels of the school,” I cursed. My hands turned to fists and I prepared to attack her with all my strength, but she slid backwards and placed her arms in the air as if surrendering.
“Wait, don’t you want to know where General Love is now?” she asked, wearily. Taylor jumped in front of me furious with her.
“She’s stalling!”
I chose not to hear his warning. That was a mistake. “Where is the General?”
Queen Strickland began to shake violently. The mass of monsters stuck to her body reached outward as far as they could, and filled with ear deafening screams. Their shrieks quickly became a rumbling cackle. The sickening sound rattled my nerves, completely.
“Behind you!” she raged.
We spun around as fast as possible and readied ourselves. We found only the empty and battered stage. From behind us Queen Strickland attacked. A torrent of bubbling black liquid sprayed from the snakes mouths, raining over the top of Ripley, dissolving Ripley’s smoky wings in seconds. Even more black saliva coated the rest of Ripley in a painted shell.
~ Lucas! I am paralyzed again. Run away! Go! ~
I stretched for my dragon but it was too late, Ripley fell to the floor like a frozen statue. I could still see Ripley’s glowing eyes from under the mess but it hardened almost instantly, stopping my best weapon in its tracks. We were screwed.
“Lucas!” Taylor hollered in pain, as a giant spider-snake wrapped its greasy torso around his arms and chest. He tried to fight it but it was no use. The serpent was much too strong. Its head pulled upward just a few feet away from his face. Dripping fangs twinkled at Taylor as he tried to keep breathing.
“Hang on, T!” I yelled, in defiance. Suddenly, Queen Strickland was over the top of me, snatching me in her arms and tentacles. I tried to run but it was too late, she had me. I cried out, “Ripley!”
~ Sorry, Lucas. ~
Queen Strickland’s face slid next to mine from over my shoulder. Her beastly cheek scraped mine with its coarse skin. She seemed to purr like an oversized lion in my ear and tightened her grip on me. One of her serpents latched onto my arm with its drooling mouth. It’s poisonous fangs seeped into my flesh and dulled the glowing light of my magical tattoo back to nothing. Ripley’s prisoned cocoon started to shrivel up like a dry riverbed. Ripley’s size shrank slowly, crinkling away until Ripley looked like a knotted piece of petrified wood, no taller than a barstool, and no thicker than a baseball bat.
Taylor continued to fight the snake that had him tied up but it was in vain. The fire extinguisher gently fell from his bound hand, and clanked onto the dirty floor. He cringed at the immense pain that was surging through his body. He looked over at me in stubborn anger. Even though there was no possible chance of escape he was still fighting. I was so proud of my best friend, my hero. With a violent jerk Taylor shot backwards toward the doors of the gymnasium. The spider-snake tightened around him just enough for him to pass out right before he disappeared around the corner of the doors.
“No! Tay!” I yelled. He was on his way to the Nest and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I was the last man standing. Alone to dance with the Queen of Serpents.
“It’s time, Mr. Ryan. Time for your reckoning. Time for you to die. Are you ready?” she asked, with the emotions of a robot.
“Never!” I said, defiantly. She straightened her body enough to pull my feet from the floor, leaving me dangling in her grasp. I kicked as hard as I could but it was useless. Finally, I closed my eyes and she savagely jerked my head backwards and peeled them open again with two of her spindly fingers.
“I want you to see this,” she grinned.
“No!” I protested, uselessly.
With a sinister snarl, she announced…
“General Love…has returned.”
LEVEL 25
THE DAY THE WORLD WENT AWAY
The floor imploded in front of us. Long cracks shredded outward like lightning in a stormy sky. Dust and debris shot into the air making my sight hazy and raw. The damaged floor began to fall away into blackness. The sound of it crashing to the unseen bottom of the crater was followed by an earsplitting roar that literally shook my bones. It was a sound I thought I’d never hear again. Goose bumps lined my arms and neck as another monstrous bellow escaped from the growing hole before me.
“It can’t be…” I mumbled. The whole structure began to shake making my vision a blur. As the roars grew louder and more intense, so did the shaking. Shockingly, a rush of dark steam pushed from the hole. It shot into the ceiling, pushing against the rafters and shattering all the windows of the building. The steam was quickly followed by black sludge, wet and sticky, that exploded into the air and overflowed the rafters in seconds. A reverse waterfall of black filth flowed upward, dulling most of the light in the room. Pieces of black stained rock and bone fell from the upside-down river of grunge, peppering the floor just outside the rim of the hole. Queen Strickland watched in awe as her better half was only moments away.
The rush of liquid darkness quickened before us. I tried to speak but couldn’t find my words anymore. With another demonic bellow General Love stepped into our world again. The brow of his head pushed through the wall of black muck first. It slowly emerged with the dark ooze sliding down his forehead, and then the rest of his face. Eye sockets, cheekbones, mouth and chin, all taking a nightmarish shape. Just as his menacing head pulled all the way through, dragging his neck into the light as well, his eyes pulled open in two bright red slits. His lips pulled back revealing silvery teeth, long and sharp. He cocked his head to the left locking eyes with Queen Strickland. She slid us both closer to him as his broad shoulders peeked from the sludge. They were muscular and covered in pointy spikes.
“Welcome back, my love,” Queen Strickland hissed. Her serpent covered body quivered with delight as she leaned me closer to him. “I have a gift for you.”
“Oh, crap,” I stuttered.
General Love’s head snapped toward me, his snarl beyond horrific. His blood-red eyes sliced into me like daggers as he let the rush of memories from our previous adventure together sink in. His mouth pulled apart with a sickeningly wet ripping noise.
“Mr. Ryyyyyyyyan!”
I swallowed down my fear, and cringed, “General.”
“You look…different. Stronger,” General Love quipped.
“Well, you haven’t changed a bit. You’re still quite disgusting,” I chastised. He lurched backward, pulling his head and shoulders back into the reverse flowing waterfall of darkness. He rose upward just far enough that the cascading filth rained down off his upper torso. With a thick swish his arms and hands burst from the blackness. He crossed his arms over his chest and began to laugh. His voice echoed everywhere. He looked down at my tattooed arm that was still locked in the jaws of one of Queen Strickland’s snakes. The power within the ink was almost completely gone now. He knew instantly that I was almost at my weakest.
“I guess I spoke too soon,” he spit out. “You, my boy, look broken.” He nodded in Queen Strickland’s direction. She shivered in place, excited and breathless. He leaned back down and sniffed me with his noseless face, and added, “Yes, broken but delicious.”
“He’s almost ready for you, my love,” she grinned.
“And his friends?” he asked, point blank.
Blissfully, Queen Strickland said, “His friends are already being prepared for us down below.”
With another quick sniff of my fading power he growled, “Excellent.”
Queen Strickland tightened her clutches around me and slid us bac
kwards, giving the General more room. He pushed the rest of his torso through the black waterfall, revealing the rest of his muscular body. His chest and stomach were covered in the same alien-like armor that Queen Strickland was. His lower half used to be a monstrous version of a giant spider and crab hybrid, but now, it was a long serpent tail that slithered into a scaly spring below him. As he slid himself around us stretching his new form out for me to see, he made a point to show me his tail. It was long and more horrifying then I remembered. It was split at the very end with to giant blades that sliced through the air with the ease of a pair of samurai swords. Twisting electricity popped around their ends with purple flashes of light.
The room began to spin slowly and I tried to find Ripley in my blurring vision. Ripley rested on the tar stained floor, motionless. Deep down inside though, I could still feel our connection. It was faint but still there. As everything began to fade to black, I mouthed one word, “Ripley.”
In a wet thud I crashed to the floor as Queen Strickland let go of me. She immediately slithered over to General Love and they intertwined like two knotted vines. They screamed and roared together so loud it hurt my ears. Quickly, they pulled apart and circled me with devious intent.
“Ripley can’t help you now,” General Love said. “No one can help you now, Mr. Ryan.”
“No one can save any of you. Not your friends, your school, your world!” Queen Strickland added, with zeal. They both erupted in evil laughter and lowered their hungry mouths over the top of me. The rushing stream of black sludge stopped and fell to the floor behind them, disappearing back into the gaping hole from which it came. I was almost blind now and could barely sense the light returning as the sludge fell away. Slowly, I rolled to my back and tried to breathe. Their otherworldly faces hovered above me, watching, waiting for me to fall unconscious. And just as I was about to…something changed.
Lucas Ryan Versus: The Return Page 15