Catching Hell Part One: Journey

by Marc Watson

  Aryu could now believe this exceptionally clever weapon and the man that carried it, with Power, luck, and training in equal number, really could have killed a god. That did not, however, prevent one of the machines from reaching an unlabeled switch and pulling it before shutting down.

  “Aryu!” screamed the accented voice behind him. “Get t’ tha side now!” Aryu didn’t argue or ask why. Nixon’s word was law and he followed it unquestioningly. Aryu began to make his way to the closest wall, opposite where Nixon was heading. It was a welcomed position to be in, as he now had nothing to worry about behind him and the number of piling up enemies in front were slowing down those that still functioned, allowing more time between attacks and ceasing the need to slash about blindly.

  Aryu could feel the heavy vibration in the wall, a steady reminder of exactly where he was at that moment. A hint of his dormant fear came to the surface, but he could now fight against it just as well as the tangible enemies before him. If he succumbed to either he was a dead man, and only being a man for such a short while, he wasn’t quite ready to relinquish the title just yet.

  Somewhere, out of the confusion, he heard Nixon’s voice shout what sounded like “Everyone hang on!” Aryu, in his brief free moments, looked around at the wall for something to grip but found only smooth surfaces everywhere he looked.

  A sudden jarring at his feet caused Aryu to lose his balance, staggering him to the side, allowing a set of metal hands to reach out and grab him by the left wing, a painless but no less incapacitating action. The arm twisted the appendage around, using Aryu’s own wing as a guard while it continued to attack. Aryu tried to shake free as the ground below him rumbled on. All the adrenalin in the world could not have drowned out his fear.

  The floor was shifting away, sloping downward toward the rear of the plane where Sho and Crystal still stood, though away from the descending floor. Crystal was on the pulled switch in an instant, trying to do who-knew-what with the device. Aryu saw daylight to his right as the bottom of the plane fell away, revealing a dizzying height below them that bottomed out in an endless field of blue. The ocean was dark and unwelcoming to Aryu, and it sat ready to swallow him up unless he could find a way to get this beast off his wing and get to safety.

  The whole plane jostled as the destroyed attackers began to slide out the back of the plane and fall off into the endless nothing below. The wind rushed into the cargo bay and drowned out all sound. Still, the arm of his enemy held tight, though he could feel it slipping, turning him about and threatening to take him with it.

  Aryu, in an action terribly similar to his friend and brother Johan, concluded the next course of action. He turned and drove the blade of the Shi Kaze into the sheer metallic wall behind him, sure to push it in sideways so as not to risk the super-sharp blade from simply slicing down to the bottom of the plane.

  The idea worked and the blade held, but so did the grip on his wing. Now facing the wall, Aryu felt the massive weight of the creature of the Old pull him down as it slid until his arms locked and held them there, threatening to give under the pressure. He knew if the floor gave out much more, nothing would help him from eventually giving in to the weight and falling out into oblivion. He doubted his ability to shake the thing in time to free his wing and glide out to safety.

  Nixon was now across a wide expanse where the floor had been and was still fending off his own attackers while scores more of the ones he’d defeated pelted him as they fell. Sho stood back from the hole before him, the wind catching his shield like a sail, and he fought to maintain his balance and bring himself and his mother back into the hall from which they had entered.

  Crystal, while working frantically on the panel, saw Aryu and his plight.

  All she did was stare at him, her beautiful pink/red eyes meeting his. Her look resolute and strong, all hints of playful passiveness gone. Determination was etched on every inch of her soft face. Aryu saw it, arms weakening, and for a moment he was lost in loathing at her inaction.

  But then he understood the serious message she was attempting to convey across the gap between them. Aryu, both hands gripped around the handle of the sword he carried, tried to see beyond the crippling terror he was feeling as the floor was now nearly gone from his reach entirely and his feet began to slip away. He used whatever clarity he could muster to stare into the handle before him, with its aged wrappings and odd small latches jutting out from the bottom.

  In his hands, even while it lay jabbed into the wall and useless for any kind of attack, was the weapon of his salvation, and all he needed was the clarity and truth in his mind to make it so. If he didn’t find it, he had no doubt that he’d be lost, plummeting into the water.

  Despite the blinding fear, he found in the handle what he sought. The mystic feeling he always received from it was more prevalent than ever before, and at last he allowed the doubt of his abilities to leave him, and the void that was left by its passing filled with nothing but the Power, and the wrath it brought with it. He had to believe. If he didn’t, he was going to die.

  That realization steeled him. He would not die like this.

  His body vibrated like an electric shock, warmth and clarity coursing through every vein in his body like lifeblood. Soon, in the back of his mind’s eye, he felt every body part, cell, and iota of all that he was align and follow his mental will. There was no doubt at all now. He knew the truth. History had documented it so well, but he knew now that fear was not needed in the wake of the Power. Only respect. Respect and strength, two things Aryu O’Lung’Singh had in abundance.

  He could see in his mind the thing that clung to him, yanking to pull him free. He could see the molecules that gave it existence. He could taste the air between them, swirling like water, until he channeled the power of the sword outward like a conductor and used its considerable influence to take command of things man has no right to take command over.

  The winds that rushed around the two errant bodies hanging in space constricted into a single, fine line of controlled fury, and with only the smallest amount of effort on his behalf, Aryu could feel his mind reach with the formed air like a hand and pry the clasping metallic fingers from himself as if they were made of paper.

  The thing that would have seen Aryu dead a moment before was lost to the gap below them and into the unseen depths.

  As the clarity and truth of his actions came to the young man hanging in space, so too did the floor, and soon it met his waiting feet and began to carry him back to safety. Crystal had closed the giant door and set things right again just in time.

  Once the large cargo room was restored and the party back together, Aryu looked around for any indication the others might have had of what just happened. Nixon particularly held his attention, but he saw nothing telling in the face of the phoenix.

  Crystal met his eyes and smiled as they left. He could tell in that glorious look that although she couldn’t say for certain, she had a very good idea of what had just happened. The mental lock had been broken with relative (if not terrifying) ease. Still, he questioned how far he could push it before Nixon became aware of what he had just tapped. It felt like so much was at his fingertips, but in truth he knew it was just a small and simple action. He was still a long way from conjuring fire or summoning great forests…

  …or destroying half of the world with a snap of his fingers.

  In his brief seconds of tapping the glory of the Power he could see how, if one was strong enough and smart enough, one could reach out into the world around them and change anything they liked.

  The troop made their way to the main command hatch, a large oblong door that was sealed from the inside. The alarm still sounded, but either out of lack of available soldiers or confidence in the marauder’s inabilities to inflict any serious damage, no other resistance was encountered along the tight, cold hallways.

  With a swing of the Shi Kaze, Aryu broke through the heavy metal door and effortlessly sliced it away, the new connection with
the weapon strengthening his confidence. If the Power was what made a king, then here in its infantile stages was the newest Ryuujin. That fact alone made Aryu flush with pride.

  Nixon forcefully kicked the door. Inside they found a room with only a small front window, surrounded by controls and screens. Although there were no chairs, there were two control yokes standing up on the floor in front of the circular window that faced forward. This vehicle was made for autonomous flight, with an option for a person to take command if they so choose. It was time to begin.

  Crystal stepped forward, looking like a ghost amidst the dark room and solid steel casings. She walked to the control yoke and looked out the window before her, eyes squinting in the harsh natural light beyond. “We’re still quite high,” she said, “but I can see the destination below. It kinda’ stands out like a sore thumb. Here, come see.”

  Sho looked sick as he glanced out and then back again. “I’ve never liked heights,” he explained to an amused Aryu.

  When Aryu took his turn to look out, it wasn’t the height that bothered him as much as it was the scope of the image. The sky was clear and he could see the horizon spread out before them, a reminder of the size and vastness of the world. The ocean they were over was littered with little black specks he could only assume were ships, the same ships that had first arrived weeks back and had led the terrorizing assault on his homeland.

  Ahead of them was the largest of these; a massive flat ‘V’ shape with various smaller crafts emerging from the front of it. The whole unit was a hub of activity.

  He only needed to see its great dimensions once to know that Crystal was right. This was the army’s central command, the location the Herald and Sharp had called HOME.

  He stepped back, a look of seriousness on his face not there a moment before. This was it. This was where revenge began in earnest. Crystal grasped his hand and looked at him, slowly guiding him back to where the big men were standing. “Let’s get started,” she said, giving his hand a light squeeze before letting him go. He nodded in agreement, sorry again to lose her touch.

  “Remember to act quickly, Aryu,” Nixon advised him. “Your mission is just as important as my own.” Aryu agreed and braced himself, the Shi Kaze out and ready to act. There wouldn’t be much time from the start to the finish.

  Crystal turned back to the controls and began turning switches and hitting buttons in a manner Aryu dazzled at, and soon colors changed and screens began showing garbled information Aryu could make neither heads nor tails of.

  Human technology had peaked long ago, and this craft was no more complicated than others Crystal had seen hundreds or thousands of years prior. Any fear that she wouldn’t remember how to do this vanished once the yoke was back in her hands. With a slight nudge forward, the plane lurched and began a quick and frightening drop. Not uncontrolled, but certainly with more velocity than they’d started with.

  A moment later, the alarm stopped and a voice surrounded them. A voice they all knew very well. “Is that you, I assume, Sho?” The pleasantness was there, cutting through the room like an illness. Aryu knew this was no Herald. This was the man himself.

  “It is, Izuku. And friends.”

  “Ah yes. The friends. The weak, helpless friends. I see you’ve taken command of my plane. Where do you expect to go that I cannot track you? Even now I have dozens of forces ready to pursue you and take you in again. Perhaps even finish you, should you cause me too much grief. What do you think you can accomplish?”

  “Nothin' you can stop, Izuku,” Nixon said. “Ya were a fool fer lettin’ us get this close, and now you’ll suffer fer it.”

  “Nixon! How nice to have you here. Welcome to my HOME. I’m glad we’ll meet at last. I assume you’ve brought your young charge?”

  “I’ve no time fer pleasantries, Izuku. I know I can’t expect tha same idiocy from you tha’ was given t’ us by yer general, so I’d never dream of asking ya t’ let us land and talk 'bout this, but I will tell ya tha’ ya will either return our abilities or we will cause ya t’ suffer.”

  Silence. The plane began to shake as it passed through a small cloud burst and back out below. It wasn’t much longer now. Was he stalling on purpose?

  “No,” was the response. Nothing more.

  “Very well. Try and stop us then.”

  “Stop what? Four desperate heroes on a plane? Heaven help me! What cruel fate to be so weak against such odds. You, sir, my good Nixon, can go rocketing straight to Hell.” And with that, a click indicated that he’d ended the transmission.

  Nixon shrugged. “Have it yer way.” He nodded to both Sho and Aryu, who took a spot next to the closest wall and braced their weapons at the ready. Nixon told Crystal to begin.

  Crystal pushed the yoke forward one last time and sent the plane into a dive at a terribly steep angle, followed by Nixon sliding forward past her and swinging his broadsword down across the closest control panel. Sparks and fire burst forth at once and followed the path of the slash he made.

  He looked out the window to ensure they were on target. Sure enough they were, he then saw a barrage of various planes and other strange hovering crafts begin to pour out of the sides of the base called HOME and fly up towards them.

  Crystal was back by Aryu and Sho. She glowered at Nixon. “Was that really necessary? I promise I won’t miss.”

  “It’s not yer aim tha' concerns me as much as it is them takin’ remote control of this thing and savin' themselves once they see wha' we’ve got planned. Now it’s a one-way trip.”

  Sho, uninterested in the banter, already began the clenching of his hand to start the rotation of the shield’s blades. Aryu could now see that each of his fingers sat in loops, and when pulled forward they cranked some unseen gears inside the weapon to create the spin.

  Sho jammed the humming shield and its protective border into the side of the plane, cutting through the thin skin. Aryu followed suit, cutting his own hole, eventually letting it meet up with Sho’s.

  With the cut complete, the sheet metal flew off into the rushing air, and the command cockpit was filled with heavy winds and unbearable noise. As Sho stood on the edge of the new impromptu doorway, a serious flaw in the plan came to Aryu. He instantly felt foolish that he’d not thought of it sooner. “Wait!” he called to Sho before he knew what he was doing. “You can’t jump!”

  Sho looked at him with his signature placidness. “Why not? We need to go now.”

  “I know, but your armor! You’ll sink like a stone!” It was true. The plan involved a freefall into the water with Nixon holding back Sho and taking the brunt of the forceful impact, using miniscule amounts of his own Divine Power to cushion them both while Aryu took Crystal and glided her either to water or a safe landing somewhere on the ship.

  The armor of both Nixon and Sho was likely to cause them to sink. Sho would die if they didn’t get rid of it right now.

  Sho only looked as he always did, calm and uninterested. “Don’t worry, Aryu.” And with that, the big man gave a push and let himself fall out of the plane, followed quickly by Nixon.

  “Our turn!” shouted Crystal. The base was approaching rapidly, and Aryu had no time to worry or argue. He hugged her close, folded in his wings to prevent the initial drag from pushing him into the fuselage and launched himself clear of the unguided missile moments before it made its surprising and unexpected impact straight into the heart of the deep-gray floating command structure known as HOME.

  -----------------------

  Being so old was bound to have its drawbacks. Hubris was only one of a multitude Tokugawa Izuku possessed. During the re-creation of the Neural Inhibitor drug, he had decided that to someone like himself, an Embracer of the Power and long in years, loss of these abilities would be something akin to torture (indeed, it had been for more than one test subject, he recalled gleefully). The loss of mental strength would cripple one like him, making him unable to think clearly.

  He certainly would not have been able to conco
ct a plan mere hours after the fact. A plan so smooth and effective it could create such a tidal wave of repercussions such as this one seemed to.

  Indeed, seconds after he realized they had no intention of running away with the plane, he momentarily believed that maybe, just maybe, the powerful trio of Crystal Kokuou, Nixon of the Great Fire and Ash, and of course his beloved half-brother Tokugawa Sho may be just as dangerous without the Power as they were with it, only for different reasons.

  As the initial rumble of the impact rocked the core of HOME, he knew he would never make that mistake again. But first he resigned himself to the fact that he would have a terrible mess to clean up.

  HOME was a floating superstructure comprised of a massive hull that was shaped like a monstrous, dark gray ‘V’. It stood as tall as a twenty-story building out of the water, with nearly as much room below the surface. It was not terribly mobile, with most of the defensive and maneuvering capabilities bestowed on the armada that accompanied it everywhere it went. It was the figurehead, the launching point for waves of ground troops by means of fast attack vessels from its wide, opening hull. On top of the High-Yield weapons within its body, it had multitudes of aircraft, from the quick and nimble Peregrine SCRAM reconnaissance jets to the High Heavy Aero Trackers that could take off with ease on HOME’s exposed launch deck. Even the extremely large Bullfrog cargo planes could land with very little hassle, given the space to do so.

  This Bullfrog, although given space in expectation of its landing, brought with it more than a ‘little hassle.’

  Hitting nose-first on the deck just to the side of the apex of the massive ‘V’ shape, the plane disintegrated on impact. Waves of fire shot outward in every direction, consuming the deck crew without discrimination, followed by pummeling the levels below in equal measure.