Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion

by Christian Kallias

  Argos moved out of the way.

  “Hello, Commodore, what happened?”

  “The Zarlacks attacked Earth. We had everything under control, more or less, until they sacrificed their armada and plunged their ships towards the surface. We . . . we managed to destroy seven of them but three got through. Other large debris fell towards the planet but fortunately it missed heavily inhabited regions and impacted near the North Pole.”

  “Do we know how many . . .” Daniel couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

  “Not yet, but the targeted cities were most likely leveled upon impact. We don’t think there will be many survivors there.”

  “This is . . .” He glared at Argos, a look of murder in his eyes.

  Argos gestured towards Ryonna and Tar’Lock, clearly prepared to execute his previous threat.

  “A nightmare,” completed Saroudis.

  “Yes . . .”

  “What about you? Did you manage to locate Chase?”

  “No, but we believe he might be on his way back to Earth also.”

  “That’s what I thought too. We could have used him today. I could have used you too.”

  “I’m sorry, Commodore. I shouldn’t have left to look for Chase.”

  “I gave you my blessing for this mission, Daniel. You shouldn’t blame yourself. None of this could have been prevented by your presence anyway.”

  * * *

  On board the Valken Chase stepped into the cockpit. Keera was sleeping, so he sat without making too much noise. They were not far from their destination now.

  He felt a mixture of emotions, the very fact of being back generating good but also painful memories. Still, he longed to see his friend Daniel, and hoped he would find the courage to apologize for how he left things between them. He was now the only family left. In his heart, at least. His only real blood family member, Argos, would die soon after their next meeting; that was the only certainty within Chase’s heart and soul at the moment.

  That last thought brought hate back to the center of Chase’s mind. Never before had he felt so much anger, hate and the will to kill someone. But the fact that his mind could project so much violence, imagining that moment, so much brutality, worried him for a brief instant. Perhaps all Furies had this hate hardcoded in them, he thought. Before meeting Argos, though, he never felt like that. At least not in the last ten years. He couldn’t remember anything before then anyway.

  There had been some strange dreams and nightmares, in which Argos was present as well, but he didn’t appear as an enemy in these. Chase had most of these dreams before he’d even learned he had a twin brother. So he always assumed he was seeing himself in them.

  Keera opened her eyes and produced a very long and noisy yawn.

  “Hello, sleepyhead.”

  “Hey, Chase, how long was I asleep?”

  “Quite a while. We should arrive on Earth shortly.”

  “Alright,” she said, still yawning. “Did you sleep as well?”

  “Not so much.”

  The Valken jumped out of hyperspace not far from Mars. Chase checked the sensors to assess the situation, to see if they could approach or if the battle was still raging. While the starfighter pilot in him tingled at the opportunity to engage in some dogfighting, that was not why he was here. Unless, of course, Argos was on board one of the enemy ships.

  The scans revealed the battle was over. Only Earth Alliance and Obsidian ships were now in orbit. Chase activated the Valken’s engines at max burn. Soon they received a hail.

  “This is Commodore Saroudis of the Earth Alliance to unknown ship. Please identify and state your intentions.”

  Chase turned on video.

  “Hello, Commodore.”

  “Chase! It . . . it’s good to see you, boy. Wish you’d arrived earlier.”

  “I know.”

  “So it was true. You intervened to help Aphroditis?”

  Chase nodded.

  “Your powers are really impressive. How far away were you? Never mind that. Daniel just arrived on board the Iron Fire less than an hour ago. He went looking for you.”

  Daniel. Of course he did.

  “Can you give me a status on Aphroditis, Commodore? She’s the only reason for my visit today.” Chase cursed himself the moment he uttered the words. He didn’t need to be so cold. “But now that I’m here I’d love to have a drink with my friends as well, if that’s possible?”

  “Aphroditis is fine, thanks to your intervention. She was escorted by Fillio to an underground bunker in DC. As for drinks, I look forward to it, Chase. But Earth has been hit hard. New York, Toronto and Dallas are all gone, leveled by Zarlack ships crashing into them. It’s really bad. I will be busy for the next few hours. Hopefully I can see you when the dust settles.”

  “Let me know if you need me for anything. I’ll swing by the Iron Fire for the time being.”

  “That’s a good idea. I’m sure Daniel is looking forward to it. Good to see you, Chase.”

  “You too, Adonis. Chase out.”

  He turned off the comms.

  “Friend of yours?” inquired Keera.

  “Yeah, my former commanding officer.”

  “And that Daniel he spoke about?”

  “My dearest friend. More like a brother, really.”

  She nodded. “So we’re going onto that Iron Fire ship?”

  “Yes. If you don’t mind, I’d really like to see Daniel.”

  “Sure. Should I come too?”

  “Only if you want to.”

  “Well, I’ve had it with the Valken. We’ve been cooped up in here for long enough. It would do me good to see something different.”

  “Alright, let’s hail them, tell them we’re going to land in their cargo bay.”

  Chase opened a channel.

  “Daniel, please respond.”

  “Chase?”

  “Hello, buddy, yeah it’s me. It’s been a while.”

  “You can say that again. When did you arrive?”

  “Just now. I’m swinging by the Iron Fire aboard the Valken, requesting permission to land.”

  “Permission granted. I . . . I look forward to see you, my friend.”

  A shiver ran down Chase’s back. “Me too. See you shortly.”

  He turned off the comms and frowned.

  “What is it?” inquired Keera.

  “Something . . . I think something’s wrong.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “I don’t know. When he hesitated, I think I felt fear in his voice.”

  “You’re probably reading too much into it. I didn’t hear fear.”

  “Perhaps . . .” said Chase, not convinced one bit.

  * * *

  Keera and Chase exited the Valken and went towards the nearest lift.

  “You seem nervous” she said.

  “I am . . . There’s something . . . I don’t know what, but I feel something’s wrong.”

  “Alright, I don’t know how this works, but when you’re worried I decided that I should worry as well.” She smiled.

  “Be prepared for anything, just in case.”

  “Alright.”

  The door of the lift opened to the bridge. Daniel was standing there. He didn’t smile.

  Chase walked towards him, followed by Keera, when he heard him! “Hello, brother, miss me?”

  Keera turned around and, when she saw Argos, immediately drew her blaster and started firing.

  Argos lifted his hand and blocked the shots. A little smoke rose from his hand. He snatched the blaster with his mind and made it explode in midair.

  Chase signaled for Keera not to interfere.

  She nodded in agreement, still shaken by what had happened.

  “Who’s that? Already replacing Sarah?”

  Chase entered rage mode, and the ship started to shake.

  “Easy there. We need to talk,” said Argos.

  “We have nothing to talk about. You’re a dead man walking.”

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nbsp; “Let’s not escalate this in front of your friends. We wouldn’t want them all spaced because of us, would we?” said Argos with a defiant smile.

  As much as Chase wanted to attack Argos right here and now, he looked around the room and saw not only Daniel, but also Ryonna and Tar’Lock. One of Ryonna’s arms was seriously injured. Chase walked towards them. “Hello, you two.”

  “Hi, Chase,” said Tar’Lock casually.

  Ryonna just smiled painfully.

  “Are you alright, Ryonna?”

  “I tried to kill him for you,” answered Ryonna.

  Chase smiled back. “I appreciate the gesture, my friend, but I’m glad you didn’t succeed. And even gladder he didn’t kill you. Mind if I heal this?” Chase pointed at her poorly bandaged arm.

  She nodded.

  Chase put his hand on her and quickly healed her wounds.

  “Will you let me help?”

  “No, this fight is mine and mine alone. You should go.” Chase turned around and raised his voice so everyone could hear. “You should all go, now. Get on board the Valken at once. Keera will take you down to Earth.”

  “Chase,” said Daniel, “let us help.”

  Chase simply shook his head. He sent a message telepathically to Daniel. I’m sorry for leaving and for what I said to you when I did. It was unfair of me. Today is the day I make it right. But I need you to get all my friends out of here. Now, please!

  Daniel hesitated, but then he saw the look of determination in his friend’s eyes. He nodded and addressed the room. “You heard him. Let’s go, now!”

  Keera approached Chase and whispered to him. “You’ll try and leave a body as proof for the bounty, won’t you?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Be careful.”

  He looked into her eyes and smiled.

  “Miss?” said Daniel to Keera.

  “Keera. I’m coming.”

  She rejoined the others in the lift. Its door slid closed.

  Chase didn’t look towards Argos. Instead he kept his back to him. He felt that anger rise, the rage, the will to kill. Like an insatiable bloodlust. But he remembered what Ares had taught him as well. He was not going to blindly throw himself into a fit of rage. He would take this fight very seriously. But for now he needed to wait until his friends departed the ship.

  Argos made a noise in his throat.

  Chase raised his hand, palm outwards. When he saw the Valken in space, that was his cue. He closed his eyes, and a purple aura shone brightly around him. He saw Sarah’s face in his mind. I will avenge you.

  Then he disappeared and re-appeared behind Argos, throwing a powerful knee strike, only to hit nothing but air. Argos had moved away as fast as he had arrived behind him, appearing again a few feet away.

  “We need to talk!” he shouted.

  “I have nothing to say to you!” Chase prepared a fireball in his right hand.

  “Oh, but you’ll want to hear—”

  Argos couldn’t finish his sentence because Chase had already launched the fireball at him. He blocked it with one hand, but something happened. It wasn’t that easy to block. The fireball crackled and exploded in Argos’ hand, burning it in the process.

  “Not bad. I’m glad you’ve trained. But I’d rather you didn’t waste—”

  Again Chase, having no interest in letting Argos speak, launched himself at him, throwing one blow after another, jabs, uppercuts, power punches, all blocked by Argos. But he was forced to retreat so far he was eventually backed against a wall.

  Chase threw both his hands forwards and unleashed a powerful, energy-based attack. Argos protected himself with his elbows crossed in front of his face. The bulkhead near where he stood exploded in a bright, flashing display, causing much damage to that part of the bridge.

  When the smoke settled, Argos was still there, some of his skin slightly burned; but he seemed otherwise undamaged by the brunt of the attack.

  “Alright then, if I need to kick your ass first,” he said.

  His eyes shone a bright red and he launched himself at Chase. He was fast, very fast. Like Chase before him, he attacked with a flurry of punches and kicks in quick succession. Chase dodged and blocked the attacks for a good minute, when suddenly Argos’ speed increased tenfold. Chase struggled to keep up and one punch broke through his defenses. With Chase losing balance, Argos pressed his advantage and started pounding Chase heavily, left jab, right punch, left knee to the face, and then sent Chase flying into the wall with a powerful fireball. Chase broke three ribs on impact and groaned in pain. Argos remained where he had last attacked Chase, who took a second to heal his ribs.

  “This is boring,” said Argos. “There’s not much space on this bridge. Let’s change scenery, shall we?”

  Before Chase could do or say anything Argos burst through the nearest glass windows of the bridge and the ship lost pressure. Air escaped into space and Chase felt his body sucked through the hole Argos had just made. He raised a force field around himself and followed Argos into space right before the ship’s computer erected a force field of its own, restoring pressure inside the ship.

  CHAPTER

  XI

  Chase pursued Argos through space. He was approaching Earth’s atmosphere at a speed faster than any sub-light engine could provide. Both of them left an energy trail in their wake, looking like comets in the dark void of space.

  Soon they entered the atmosphere, their personal force fields lighting up for a few seconds as they did. As they descended towards Earth, somewhere over Asia, they dropped their shields and started attacking each other with punches and kicks in the air, each parrying and dodging the other’s attack. A few fireballs flew here and there, not finding their targets. The ground was approaching fast. Their fighting intensified but they were evenly matched and neither took the upper hand.

  They were still approaching the ground at tremendous speed, aiming a flurry of punches and kicks at one another. They didn’t even see the skyscraper in their trajectory. They traversed it, shattering glass and concrete upon both entry and exit. The branding lights of the commercial skyscraper blinked wildly before turning off.

  Then they landed on the ground in the middle of the city, each creating a fifty-foot crater in the street’s concrete upon impact.

  Chase’s aura burned its usual deep purple and Argos’ a bright red. Color-matching lightning sparkled and danced all around them. They locked eyes.

  An adolescent who witness their landing watched the scene with big eyes. He let escape a word of astonishment. “Sugoi!”

  Chase looked at the boy and made a gesture with his head, signaling him to leave, but the boy didn’t move. He didn’t like the idea of fighting in a populated area. Fortunately it looked like a mostly commercial zone, in the middle of the night. Hopefully that would limit casualties to some extent.

  The streets were filled with bright and blinking lights. From the appearance and the boy’s accent, Chase identified the city as Tokyo. He intensified his aura and lights around the city started popping out with sparks and lightning.

  He jumped at Argos and landed a series of power punches. With each, another light would go out nearby from the shockwave created when Argos blocked the attack. In the middle of his next combo Chase grabbed two nearby cars with his mind and threw them at Argos, who only escaped by flying upwards. The cars crashed against one another and made a commotion, shattering glass. Other nearby cars’ alarms started to wail.

  Chase pursued Argos in the air and landed a powerful, circling kick to his brother’s face. The impact shattered a nearby building’s windows and sent Argos flying into the opposite building, passing through it from one side to the other as if it was made of carton.

  The sky turned black. Lightning flashed and rain started pouring heavily. Argos rose from behind the building through which he had just flown and returned at maximum speed, with both fists extended in front of him. Chase dodged and sent Argos flying upwards with a perfectly timed knee strike.
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  He then unleashed a flurry of fireballs towards Argos, who hadn’t yet recovered from the blow. He was thrown left and right with each impact, unable to recover or dodge the sheer quantity of attacks being thrown at him. Buildings and the street all around lit up in brilliant blue flashes, and more windows exploded in the block where the fight was unfolding.

  When Chase stopped firing he saw Argos’ body fall to the ground. He seemed unconscious. He flew after him, ready to deliver the finishing blow. But a few feet before impacting the ground, Argos somersaulted in the air and landed with a boom, creating another huge crater in the concrete.

  Before the dust could settle he was already sending cars towards Chase by the dozen. Chase dodged half of them and had to use fireballs to stop the others, exploding them to pieces. But then Argos was on top of him with both hands locked, and he hammered Chase with so much power he almost lost consciousness. He flew towards the ground and passed through three feet of concrete. The ground-floor windows of the nearest building all exploded. Water pipes in the street ruptured and water began fountaining high into the air.

  Chase put his hand on his head and shook it, just in time to see more cars careering towards him. He jumped away right before five cars smashed the ground where he had been standing a second before. He flew at maximum speed in between buildings and Argos went in pursuit.

  Then Chase abruptly stopped, taking Argos by surprise. He punched him with a fireball-lit, right uppercut, sending him flying upwards. He pursued and, when he reached him, knocked him back down with an incredibly powerful reverse kick. Argos crashed into the street at a forty-five degree angle that left a ten-foot-wide and hundred-yards long trail of broken concrete. More pipes broke along the trail and more water flew all around.

  Not willing to let him breathe, Chase flew towards Argos and unearthed a tall lighting pole from the street on his way. He used it as a gigantic baseball bat and sent Argos flying through three buildings on his way up, ending his homerun somewhere within the seventieth floor of a fourth skyscraper.