The Strike Trilogy

by Charlie Wood

  In a desperate frenzy, Scatterbolt, Junior, and Adrianna all attacked the Daybreaker at once, but the silent warrior defeated them easily—one-by-one, he enveloped them in black fire and flung them around the temple. His posture never changed, and he never spoke. He simply held out his hand and doled punishment to anyone showing him aggression.

  Walking to Rigel, Nova helped the red giant stand. Rigel—limping and wheezing from his fight with Tobin—pointed across the control room.

  “Daybreaker,” Rigel said, “don’t forget about him.”

  The Daybreaker turned to where Rigel was pointing; with a flick of his neck, the Daybreaker telepathically moved a control tower out of the way. Jonathan—the pale man in the purple suit—had been hiding behind the control tower, crouching and leaning against a wall.

  “Oh, hello,” Jonathan said. “I was hoping to just kind of hang out here until everything died down. Is that not cool?”

  “Kill him,” Rigel said.

  The Daybreaker approached Jonathan, raising his hand, but Jonathan quickly jumped up and ran toward a nearby wall.

  “No!” Rigel shouted, watching Jonathan. “Daybreaker, stop him!”

  But Jonathan reached the wall and slammed his hands into a glass box—the box broke, and Jonathan pushed a large, red button that had been hidden behind the glass.

  “Too late,” Jonathan said, wiping the broken glass from his hands.

  The pyramid began to quake. A growling came from the floor in the center of the control room. It sounded like the wails of an enraged animal.

  Rigel and Nova looked around at the quivering walls and ceiling of the stone pyramid.

  “You idiot,” Rigel sneered.

  The Daybreaker walked and stood with Nova and Rigel, and the black fire around Tobin and his friends dissipated. They were able to get to their feet and regroup, but they could barely stand from the earthquake under their feet. They scanned the pyramid around them, confused.

  Rigel walked to the security station of the control room and grabbed a portal pistol.

  “We need to get out of here, now,” the red giant said.

  “What about them?” Nova asked.

  “They became footnotes the moment the Daybreaker arrived. We will leave them here. Even if they survive, it means nothing now.” Rigel turned to the Daybreaker and showed the silent man his portal pistol. “Daybreaker, freeze them. And if any of them are carrying one of these, remove it.”

  The Daybreaker glanced at the portal pistol, then turned to Tobin and his friends. After the Daybreaker held out his hand, the heroes were encased in black fire, unable to move, while Orion’s portal pistol was suddenly drawn out from his coat pocket. The portal pistol flew across the room and stuck to the Daybreaker’s hand like a magnet.

  “Thank you,” Rigel said, before holding his own portal pistol in front of him and pulling its trigger. As a swirling portal of black energy snapped into the air, Rigel turned to Tobin and his friends.

  “As we leave here,” the giant said, “know that everything you have dedicated yourselves to is meaningless. Not just today, but for the entirety of your lives. You all have had one goal—to stop Vincent from carrying out his vision for the universe—but that vision is here now, in the form of him.”

  The Daybreaker stared at the frozen heroes as the rumbling of the pyramid grew stronger, and the growling from underneath the floor turned into a roar.

  “You have failed,” Rigel continued. “Vincent has won. Your lives have been pointless. Please keep that in mind as you die.”

  Rigel, Nova, and the Daybreaker stepped toward the black portal that Rigel had created.

  “No!” Tobin shouted, floating off the ground, encased in the fire. “No!”

  The Daybreaker stopped and turned around. The black fire around Tobin faded and the boy fell. Holding his arm across his stomach, grunting, he crawled across the floor toward the Daybreaker. When the boy reached the Daybreaker, the armored man looked down at him, confused. Tobin stared back, with his fists glowing, but the boy was too weak to attack.

  After studying Tobin a moment, the Daybreaker turned and followed Rigel and Nova into the portal. The three of them disappeared, and the portal closed after them.

  When the villains were gone, the rest of the black fire around the heroes faded, and they were able to move again. However, the earthquake was still rising in intensity, and pieces of the pyramid’s ceiling were beginning to fall. An entire wall crashed to the floor, blocking the entrance to the pyramid that Scatterbolt had cut out with his laser torch.

  “Why the hell did they take off so fast?” Keplar said, trying to regain his footing. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Follow us, guys,” Adrianna said. “We have to find a way out of here. Now.”

  “Why?” Orion asked. “What’s happening?”

  The animal roar thundered from the floor. The heroes jumped, startled. It sounded as if a beast was only inches from the bottoms of their feet.

  With a snapping of his head, Jonathan’s eyes turned yellow, and he turned into the bat-creature: translucent wings sprouted from his back, tearing through his suit, and his nose turned upward and his ears grew pointed.

  “I know none of you are very knowledgeable about the story of the Daybreaker,” Jonathan said, “but Vincent always told me that when the Daybreaker was ready, the first thing Vincent would do was awaken the Cicatrix to mark the Daybreaker’s arrival. The Cicatrix would then go to Earth before the Daybreaker, to sear the ground and ready it for the reign of the Daybreaker.”

  “And I’m guessing that sound we hear is the Cicatrix?” Junior asked.

  “Yes,” Jonathan replied.

  “And by pushing that button, you just released the Cicatrix?” Orion asked.

  “Yes,” Jonathan said again.

  A hole dropped out in the stone floor, and the heroes had to jump back to stop themselves from falling into the crater. With a hideous, skeleton-shaking ROAR!, the Cicatrix emerged from the cavity in the floor, bellowing toward the sky and waving its arms in a frenzy. The gigantic animal was the size of a two-story house, with the head of an ape, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. It looked exactly like the stone structure outside of the pyramid, except for one important detail not visible in its stone likeness: the razor-tipped tail of a scorpion.

  “Rigel was right,” Keplar said to Jonathan. “You are an idiot.”

  The Cicatrix climbed out of its hole and swung its tail at the heroes, roaring as its mammoth stinger jammed into the ground. Scatterbolt was quick enough to escape its attack, rolling to his right, but Jonathan was not; the pale man was seared by the beast’s tail, and he fell to the ground, screaming, with one of his wings sliced down the middle.

  “You all need to get out of here!” Adrianna said. “Now!”

  “Where?” Tobin yelled. “Where’s the nearest exit?”

  “Down that hallway!” Adrianna yelled, pointing to a dark hallway across the control room. “Turn left at the end and you’ll find a gate! Blast it and get out of here! Now! I’ll distract it and keep it here!”

  “We can’t,” Scatterbolt said. “You’ll be—”

  Adrianna threw three glowing discs at the Cicatrix, drawing all of the animal’s attention to her. “If you don’t go now, we’ll all be dead! Go!”

  Tobin looked to Keplar and Orion. The dog nodded. Tobin picked up his bo-staff from the ground, while Keplar readied his plasma cannon.

  “Junior,” Orion said, stringing an arrow in his bow. “You and Scatterbolt get out of here and bring the ship in as close as you can. We’ll need you to get us out of here.”

  “You sure?” Junior asked. “We can stay here and—”

  “I’m sure,” the old man said. “Go.”

  Scatterbolt and
Junior ran toward the dark hallway amid the falling pieces of debris. The Cicatrix was too distracted by Adrianna to notice them escaping.

  Dodging a swipe from the Cicatrix’s gigantic claws, the purple-garbed girl sprinted away from the monster and hid behind a control tower. Tobin, Orion, and Keplar joined her.

  “What are you doing?” she shouted. “Get out of here while you can!”

  “We don’t leave anyone behind,” Orion said.

  “Yeah,” Keplar agreed. “Especially someone who’s on our side.”

  “What about him?” Tobin asked.

  Tobin pointed to his left; Jonathan was hiding behind another control tower. The bat-creature’s wing was torn, and he was terrified.

  Keplar shrugged. “Eh.”

  Tobin, Keplar, and Adrianna ran out from behind the control tower, followed by Jonathan and Orion, who was firing his red-tipped arrows at the Cicatrix. The beast was blocking the hallway that led to the exit.

  “Jonathan!” Adrianna shouted. “Use whatever strength you have left in your wings and get us up to the second floor! There’s a window there, we might be able to make it! Take Tobin first!”

  Jonathan grabbed Tobin by his shoulders and flew with him to the second floor. As Adrianna distracted the Cicatrix, Jonathan then flew down and brought Keplar to the second floor, before finally picking up Orion and Adrianna.

  “Where now?” the bat-creature asked, as he dropped his sister with the others.

  “There!” She pointed to a hallway. “It’s gonna follow us, but we don’t have any other choice! To the window, it might buy us some time!”

  The heroes ran down the hallway and leapt out a small, square window, escaping into the open air and sliding down the side of the pyramid. When their feet hit the ground, Keplar pointed to his and Junior’s ATVs, which were sitting nearby.

  “Those!” the husky shouted. “Hurry!”

  Tobin eyed the vehicles. “Uh, what are they?”

  “Just drive it! We gotta get this thing away from here!”

  Tobin jumped onto the ATV. “Let’s not forget that driving isn’t really my—”

  The Cicatrix burst through the wall of the pyramid and charged at the heroes, roaring and swiping its tail. Keplar and Tobin zoomed off on the ATVs, with Tobin following Keplar toward the edge of a cliff as the monster bounded after them.

  “Uh, Keplar...”

  “Zanatopia’s not too far from here,” the husky replied. “I’m not letting this thing get away and get loose in some town.”

  The Cicatrix chased after the ATVs, its claws pounding the ground, its fang-filled jaws gaining on the heroes. They sped toward the cliff.

  “On the count of three,” Keplar said. “One...two...”

  Tobin’s eyes widened as the cliff grew closer.

  “Three!”

  Keplar cut his ATV to the right, while Tobin cut his to the left. The Cicatrix was running too fast and was taken surprise by the sudden turns of the vehicles, and it could not slow itself down. Scurrying its feet against the ground, it hurtled off the cliff, plummeting toward the water below. It tried to get its wings flapping during its descent, but the water was too close, and the beast’s body crashed against the jagged rocks in the river below, where it would lay until the end of time.

  However, Tobin and Keplar were also going too fast for their quick maneuver, and their ATVs tumbled over and sent them flying. Both of their bodies were sent rolling toward the cliff, but they were able to grab onto the edge and hold on.

  Clutching at the dirt, his feet swinging in the air, Tobin struggled to bring himself up. But then a hand grabbed onto his arm. He looked up.

  “Honestly,” Adrianna said. “What would you do without me?”

  Nearby, while Adrianna pulled Tobin up onto solid ground, Jonathan grabbed onto Keplar’s jacket and pulled him to safety.

  “Tobin, I’m so sorry,” Adrianna said, as Tobin leaned over with his hands on his knees. “About everything. I will never forgive myself for any of this. I just...I’m sorry.”

  Tobin looked up at her, exhausted. “Adrianna, I don’t know whose side you’re on. But right now, I don’t really care.”

  Tobin embraced her and wrapped her in a hug. She was surprised.

  On the jungle ground, Keplar rolled over, and slowly got to his feet. Jonathan was standing near him, transformed back into his human form.

  “You okay?” the pale man asked.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Good. Hey, thanks for staying with us back there. That was really—”

  Keplar punched Jonathan in the face and Jonathan fell to the ground.

  “You’re welcome,” the husky said, dusting off his pants.

  Hearing the loud engine of a sky-ship, Tobin and Adrianna looked up. The Sky-Blade was hovering over them, readying itself for a landing.

  “Hey, Romeo, Juliet,” Keplar said. “Let’s go. We got a lot of stuff to figure out.”

  Tobin looked to Adrianna. “You ready? You can go with us and we can—”

  “I’m not going,” she said.

  “What? Why?”

  “I don’t belong with you guys. I never will. No one up there will ever trust me, and I don’t blame them.”

  “Look, I’m not exactly sure I trust you either, but we still need to—”

  “Tobin, I can’t. I’m not one of you. As much as I wish I was.”

  “You’re better than you know.”

  The Sky-Blade landed, its side door opening and its ramp extending to the ground. As Orion walked up the ramp, Keplar followed him, dragging the unconscious Jonathan with him.

  “Tobes, we gotta get out of here,” the husky said. “She can do what she wants, but her brother’s coming with us. I ain’t letting him go free after all the crap he’s pulled.”

  “Come on,” Tobin said to Adrianna. “You’re safer with us.”

  “I can’t,” she replied. “I have to go. My mom needs me. I have to bring whatever money Rigel gave us, and see if I can cure her. She’s waiting for me.”

  “So we will take you to her.”

  She looked at him, unsure.

  “How else are you gonna get out of here? What are you gonna do, walk? Come with us, and if you want, after we bring you home, you’ll never see any of us ever again. Though I really don’t know why you’d do that—not after you’ve only just begun experiencing my dashing charisma and charming wit.”

  Tobin smirked. She laughed, shaking her head.

  “Something tells me that smirk of yours gets you in a lot of trouble.”

  Tobin took her hand, and they walked up the Sky-Blade’s ramp.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “Hey!” Jonathan shouted, as he banged his fists on the impenetrable glass wall in front of him. He had just awoken, and was surprised to find himself in one of the cells in the holding area of the Museum of the Heroes. The temporary prison cells on the bottom floor of the mountain were almost never used, but for this particular prisoner, Orion had made an exception. “Let me out of here!” the pale man shouted. “You don’t have to keep me in here! I already told you, I’ll tell you anything you wanna know! We were on the same side back in the pyramid, remember? Hey! Get back here! Hey!”

  As Keplar and Scatterbolt walked away from the cell, Keplar was holding the cell’s keys in his paw, swinging them around on their chain. Scatterbolt was back in his normal body—once again three feet tall, with his purple-and-silver chrome shining as if brand new.

  “Do you really think he’ll help us, Keplar?” the robot asked, as they walked out of the holding area.

  “I don’t know, pal. Maybe. Either way, we can’t just let him go free—he was working with Rigel and Nova, after all, so we gotta be careful. But, they did leave him to die back there,
so maybe if we help him with his disease, he’ll help us figure out more about this Daybreaker.” The dog shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

  “But is it really smart to keep him here in the museum? I don’t like the idea of him knowing about this place...”

  “He was out cold the whole way here, bud—believe me, he’s got no idea where he is. As far as he knows, he could be in any jail cell in any prison in Capricious. You don’t have to worry about that. By the way, how’s it feel to be back in your normal body?”

  Scatterbolt flexed his elbows and rotated his waist. “Really great, actually. As much as I liked being big and powerful for a while, it was also kind of scary, to be honest. It turns out I much prefer being small to being big.”

  Keplar laughed, and the two friends walked into the museum elevator. When the elevator opened again, they stepped out of it and into the museum science lab. Wakefield and Junior were there, standing at a row of computers and intently discussing their latest research. The father and son techno-wizards were surrounded by stacks of books and three-dimensional holograms of the Chrono-Key, and they were so engrossed in their work that they didn’t even notice when Keplar and Scatterbolt walked past them.

  Orion was also in the lab, sitting by himself at a table and looking over Tobin’s father’s pencil drawings. In the old man’s hand there was a note, written on a piece of paper with the letterhead of the Wakefield and Son’s repair shop at the top. The note on the paper was scrawled in pen:

  ORION,

  THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP, BUT I CAN’T STAY HERE. THIS ISN’T WHERE I BELONG. I NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT BROUGHT ME HERE, AND HOW TO GET HOME.

  SCOTT

  “What are we gonna do now, Orion?” Scatterbolt asked, as he and Keplar approached the table. “Are we ever gonna be able to figure out what Rigel did to find the Daybreaker?”