In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater

by J Alex McCarthy

  …

  Julio and Reese walk out of the building they crashed into. Julio holds Reese up, walking farther out, he’s able to stand on his own. They walk down a deserted road. It’s not really deserted it’s just that everybody is dead in the streets.

  Would this have happened to Julio if he didn’t have his powers? It would. He feels sorry for the ones who didn’t have some otherworldly help. He’s one of the lucky ones.

  “We’re are we going now?” Reese asks.

  “We’re going back to the air base so we can regroup with my team. We have a better chance in numbers.”

  Reese looks around at the dead soldiers in the streets and the emptiness of the sky.

  “It looks like we already lost, we should run while we can.”

  “We can’t really, we need to regroup and then we can go from there.”

  “Maybe you should listen to him,” A voice says down the street. Two Alphas appear street. How the hell did he not see them? “And run while you can.”

  One of them zooms toward him incredibly fast. Julio puts up his arm to brace but the alpha disappears only a couple of feet in front of him.

  “What?”

  “To your left,” A voice says from his left. He looks to his left. Nothing! He hears something to his right. He turns to block—

  “Shi—“

  He’s hit from the right by the alpha. He hurls into a building sending the wall down around him.

  The alphas look at the rubble. “Dammit, why the fuck did we get the easy assignment? Sending the two of us for one fucking person,” one of them says. He’s Boul, he’s dressed in a black tunic, and the other is Panatil, dressed in purple.

  “This is overkill, maybe we got on Kabus’s bad side. I don’t believe this guy killed three of our forsaken,” Panatil says with his hands in his pockets. He sighs. “Subac and Molotiz get to have all the fun.”

  Under the rubble Julio sits up. His arms are broken. Fuck. He closes his eyes and concentrates. His arms glow and the bones start to painfully pop back in place. He shutters at the pain, this is necessary. He’s going to kill those fuckers. His ring dings. His arms are completely healed.

  Thank god Jahum showed him how to do this. He taps his ring. A power level projects on it. It drops from 70% to 60%. It took him a tenth of his power to heal this quickly himself. He needs to end this fast.

  Outside, the Alphas continue to talk to each other. “Go check to see if he’s actually dead.” Panatil tells Boul. Boul takes one step forward before he stops. Somebody whistles to his right. Boul turns and looks at Reese, standing there with a shotgun. Reese shoots his legs.

  The force trips Boul and Julio appears over him. Julio swings, his fist lights up and he sends it into Boul’s skull and smashes it into the concrete. There’s a loud crash as Julio’s fist rips through his face and into the ground creating a crater.

  Panatil stands a few feet away. He lets a grin. Julio removes his fist from the crater and wipes the brain off on Boul’s tonic. He jumps back next to Reese. “That’s the problem with you Eliite fuckers, you always think less of others until we beat your faces in.” Julio looks at Reese’s gun.

  “Where’d you get the shotgun?”

  “Borrowed off some dead man in the street. I figured he wouldn’t need it anymore, I was always a shotgun kind of guy,” Reese said.

  “I’m going to need you to run away for real this time. You can’t take him.” The shotgun shells didn’t even pierce the Alpha’s skin, it just tripped him.

  “But—“

  “Just go, man. I got this.”

  Reese nods and runs down the street.

  “Now this is what I’ve been waiting for.” Panatil lights up and floats up into the sky as twenty thin blue shields appear around him. “Welcome to my crystal castle.”

  …

  An auditorium door lies open, a puddle of blood pools out of it. Outside, Serena, Wilker and Noata run up to the door. Serena’s foot plops down in the pool of blood.

  She yelps.

  “Are you sure this is where the distress signal came from?” Wilker asks. Serena freezes. Wilker looks to the ground. Blood. Coming from under the doors.

  “Serena…”Noata mutters.

  “Y…yes, it came from here.”

  Wilker walks past her, carefully stepping through blood. “Well, whoever activated their beacon isn’t here anymore.”

  The auditorium is covered in blood, guts are splattered on the walls. There’s an ocean of blood on the floor with limbs poking out like sinking ships in a sea of red.

  A mass of bloody bodies five feet high is piled up in the left corner of the auditorium. Wilker grimaces.

  “Oh god.” Serena runs and hurls outside.

  “Come on, Wilker, let’s leave,” Noata says. His face turns white.

  “No, we need to search for survivors,” Wilker states.

  “There are no survivors here, Thomas.”

  An alpha hovers above them near the rafters. He glances to his right. There’s movement in the bloody mass in the corner. He swings out his hand and an invisible force rockets at the mass. The mass explodes in a bloody mist. Wilker and Noata jump back as the mess rains over them.

  Wilker saw the force, he think he understands it now. He thinks he can do it. One of their many abilities is to create energy, but with the invisible force they’re doing it at a telescopic level. In this universe Energy can be created or destroyed, the universe is made of dark energy, energy literally surrounds every being in the universe. The alpha manipulates the energy at a precise atomic level. When he thrown the force he can shrink them to an extremely small level to pass through matter and expand them as they pass. Or if they want a blunt force they can keep them expanded and smash it atom to atom. A force blast.

  “You did this!?” Noata yells.

  “How do you know my name?” Wilker states.

  The alpha hovers down and floats only inches about the blood stained floor.

  “I was tasked with killing you and your team. I know everything about you titans. Especially about this golden group. Serena Freeman, a quick learner with years of martial arts experience but she trembles at the site of blood. A hindrance that makes her ineffective at combat and forced to join this group of weaklings.”

  Serena’s voice echoes in, “How about you say that to my face out here!”

  The alpha laughs and he slowly approaches Wilker and Noata. “And Noata Tarou, the youngest of the titans, a one who understands and one of the ones with the most potential. But with no combat experience you’re mostly just a walking target.” The alpha closes in.

  Noata backs away toward the door, but Wilker stands his ground. He is no coward.

  “And then there is you. Thomas Wilker, a disgraced scientist who almost discovered what we were doing out in space. You’re truly the special one, you actually know how to use your powers. How does it feel? Knowing that when I rip out your throat you can met your whore of a wife in hell?”

  Wilker swings, the alpha leaps back and skids in the blood.

  “Ha-ha, you’re going to be fun.”

  “And whose honor do I have to privilege of killing?” Wilker asks.

  “Iseul Caelinus.”

  “You think you know me, Iseul. You think you know what I’ve been through?”

  “I don’t just know, I pride myself on the information I’m able to gather from my enemies. So let’s have a little game. I keep killing my opponents before I start having fun so I’m going to handicap myself. Myself versus you three, but I’ll limit my ability to fly. You can fly around all you want.”

  “Fly?”

  Iseul laughs, “Don’t worry, if you truly have the power to understand then it will be easy for you. Just watch.”

  It’s only a few minutes later. Wilker and the others huddle outside of the auditorium talking.

  Iseul impatiently taps his foot near the entrance. “Come on already.”

  Noata glances at the alpha. “Are you sure we
can do this?”

  “Yes we can, all you need to do is run. I’ll do the rest,” Wilker says looking at Serena. “Do you think you can do it?”

  “I think so, I’ve never done anything like this before.”

  Iseul grunts, “Anytime.”

  “None of us have,” Wilker states.

  Flying is simple, after being shown by Iseul multiple times, he can easily do it. At least he thinks he can. To fly it’s very similar to the force blast, instead of pushing the energy away from him, he has to manipulate the energy around himself to propel himself while at the same time using it to stabilize himself.

  “Are you guys ready?” Wilker asks.

  “Yes,” Noata and Serena say in unison.

  “Finally! About time!” Iseul hops around and stretches. This is a game to him. It makes Wilker sick. “Alright let’s do this!”

  Noata and Serena step back. Wilker stays in place.

  “This is going to be fun.”

  Noata and Serena leap high into the air and into the streets behind Wilker.

  Iseul attacks, a volley of fist hurl at Wilker. Wilker ducks and weaves his punches and kicks. Wilker moves with ease. He sees an opening and lands a leg to Iseuls face. Iseul flies back.

  Wilker swings and a force blast comes from his hands. Iseul jumps dodging it.

  The air around Iseul explodes as Wilker throws another one. Iseul grins as he lands without a scratch on him. The blast didn’t work.

  “You didn’t think we couldn’t defend ourselves from it did you?”

  He leaps over Wilker into the sky

  “You said you wouldn’t fly?!”

  “I’m not flying!”

  He lands in the street.

  “The hell!?” Wilker shouts.

  Noata and Serena didn’t make it far and they’re not flying. They’re leaping high in the streets like grasshoppers, they haven’t gotten the hang of their powers yet.

  “Shit.” Wilker runs for them, but Iseul runs faster, leaping hundreds of feet in the air, compared to Noata and Serena’s measly fifty. Closing in fast.

  Wilker needs to stop him. Wilker runs fast, so fast his feet under him becomes a blur, his feet lifts off from the ground as his body keeps moving forward.

  He’s flying. Ahead of him Iseul closes in toward Serena and Noata, only a few leaps away. Wilker flies slow, just getting the hang of this power. He closes in but he’s not fast enough.

  All he can do is watch as Iseul lands before his final leap toward them. Wilker notices he favors his left leg, the entire bases of his movement favors his left side. As Iseuls legs hit the ground, a blurred version of Iseul leaps out from him.

  It lands between Noata and Serena, Serena and Noata leap onto the opposing rooftops, but the being moves fast. It flashes in front of Noata and swings. Noata braces as an energy sword appears in the beings hand and his hand flies into the air. Loped off from the bone, blood spurts off in the air.

  “Noo!” Wilker screams.

  The being grabs and hurls Noata at Serena on the other roof. When Serena tries to catch him, blood splashes on her face, she panics and a blade pierces her chest from behind. The being appears behind her with a smile.

  Wilker blinks, Iseul is still mid leap toward his team and Noata and Serena are still running away. It didn’t happen yet. He’s just seen into the future. He can stop him.

  Iseul lands between Noata and Serena, Serena and Noata leap onto the opposing rooftops, but Iseul moves fast. He flashes in front of Noata and swings. Noata braces as an energy sword appears in Iseul’s hand and Noata’s hand flies into the air. Loped off from the bone, blood spurts off in the air.

  Iseul grabs and hurls Noata at Serena on the other roof. Wilker catches him in midair, Noata’s blood splashes on Serena’s face. She panics.

  Wilker throws a blast behind her and hits Iseul. Iseul explodes back and slams down onto the rooftop.

  Noata screams out as Wilker holds him. He convulses in Wilker’s arms. “Hold still!” Wilker yells.

  Wilker’s hand glows blue, the matter in his hands super-heating. He places his hand on Noata’s stump with a sizzle. Noata screams one last time as he passes out.

  Serena curls into a ball in front of him. He kneels down and holds her. “It’s going to be okay.” He wipes the blood off her face.

  “I-I can’t do this,” she mutters.

  “Don’t worry. You don’t have to do a single thing anymore.”

  Wilker stands and faces Iseul, who wipes himself off across the rooftop.

  “You truly are one who understands.”

  “Leave them out of this, I’m your opponent.”

  Iseul grins, “I always wanted to fight one of your kind, this is going to be fun.”

  Noata’s lies on the ground, eyes closed. His chest slowly moves up and down. Wilker kneels over him. He clutches Noata’s stumped arm. He’s seen it when it was removed. Because of his power he should be able to fix him.

  Wilker grabs both of his arms and closes his eyes. His hands light up blue, Noata’s charred stump rips out, blue translucent veins spits out of it, growing up like blue vines. Bone exudes out and stretches out into a bony hand, the veins wrap around the bone as pink fleshy muscle blanket over them. And then cell by cell, skin forms over it.

  Noata’s eyes open slowly and looks his new hand, the skin is a couple shades lighter than usual and baby smooth. An after effect of what Wilker just done.

  This is amazing.

  Wilker looks at his hands, with this power he can change humanity, he can transcend thousands of years of research and make an immediate difference.

  The clouds turns yellow as the sun sets behind them.

  “Are you done yet?” Iseul sits on an AC unit watching them.

  But first he must take care of Iseul.

  “Serena, take Noata and run.”

  Serena nods and picks up Noata. Her face lacks color, she’s shell shocked. “Don’t get killed,” she says as leaps off the roof.

  She is a good fighter but Wilker can’t use her in this state.

  “Tsk-tsk, do you feel like a badass now that you know how to use your powers?” Iseul marches toward him. “After I take care of you, they’re next.”

  “You seem so confident, are you sure you can beat me?”

  “That’s because I know you Wilker, I know your vices, I know you hate Jahum for lying to you, I know you fear being alone. How was it like to have your wife die in your arms? To be a Peon in our war.”

  Power pulses through Iseul’s veins, to Wilker his veins light up blue, seen through his skin. Wilker can see how he works just by concentrating hard enough. He can beat him, he’s sure of it. “I’m not the one to suffer fools gladly. You’re too much bark, let’s end this.”

  “Just because you have the power to understand doesn’t mean you can beat me. You can see my movements but can you match them?”

  There’s a crack in the air as Wilker propels back. Blood escapes his lips. Iseul moves fast, he didn’t even see his fist.

  Wilker lands on another roof top, Iseul appears in front of him and punches him again. He’s not giving Wilker a chance to see his before image.

  Wilker tries to defend himself but it’s useless, to him Iseul is just a blur, his laughs echoes out as he moves so fast he’s creating after images. Wilker’s body rocks into the air, fist and kicks coming all around him. His body smashes into the ground. He wipes the blood from his eyes.

  Iseul stands across from him, “It’s seems my bark is too much, I was expecting this to be a little bit more fun.”

  Wilker needs to concentrate, he stares at him. Hundreds of blurs of Iseul erupts from Iseul, all moving in a slightly different way. All possible movements that he will make, he’s seeing multiple futures.

  “If you’re not going to take this seriously then I’ll have to end you now.” Iseul swings out his hand and an energy sword appears. He creeps toward Wilker

  “Come on Wilker concentrate.” Wilker has no battle ex
perience but if he can predict his movement then he can beat him. He empties his mind as he sweats. If he analyze Iseul’s previous movements then he can…

  The images turns into just one, there’s only two of him now, the before image only a few inches in front of the original as they both lurk toward him. By getting his ass kicked by Iseul he now knows his movements better, he can get a better look into Iseul’s future.

  The before image jumps, Wilker leaps at it and lands a fist right into the original’s chest.

  Blood spits out as Iseul flies back. He laughs as he lands. “Now this is a fight, ha-ha, if you’re done playing let’s dance.”

  They dance. Iseul moves incredibly fast but Wilker is ready. They leap rooftop to rooftop clashing. When Iseul swings, Wilker blocks it. Wilker is leading him on a chase, Iseul laughs as they dance. But as Wilker plays for time, Iseul looks to spice things up. As they land on another rooftop, there are three images of Iseul.

  “What?” Wilker yelps. He attacks one and his fist goes right through it. A laugh comes from behind. Wilker ducks as Iseul swings at him, his fist scrapes across his back and grabs his arm. Got him.

  Wilker swings him off the edge and leaps. Iseul explodes down and crashes in the pavement as a force blast rips off from Wilker. Smoke bellows from where Iseul landed.

  Wilker walks toward him. “Did you really think that would work a second time?”

  The smoke explodes out as Iseul charges past him with an energy sword. A deep cut opens in Wilker’s cheek, he didn’t even feel it.

  “Then let’s escalate.”

  Iseul once again comes fast and hard. Wilker swings his energy sword with the grace of a swan, while Iseul sways as abrasive as a drunk cow.

  Sparks fly as their swords meet, Wilker doesn’t make any huge moves. If he loses concentration now he’ll lose his head. He blocks Iseul from the front. Another Iseul appears behind him, as solid as the one in front. Wilker throws out his hand and shield blocks his hit. It’s as solid as the one he blocks in front.

  He’s moving so fast he’s nearly in two places at once. They both attack, synchronizing perfectly together. When Iseul blocks one attack, another comes for his blind spot and Wilker blocks him.