STARWEB 1-5

by M. Modak

  The monster that had thrown him across the room charged! It was faster than it looked. Long ago, he learned not to judge anything’s potential swiftness by its size. Other forces could be propelling it than just muscle. He stood perfectly still, watching its body sway with its movement waiting for it to dedicate itself to one action. Then at the last possible moment, he sprung over the beast and flipped as he caught its horns just as it rose up, trying to gore him. He landed behind it, still clutching the beast by the horns and flung it head over hoof back into the elevator from where he had come.

  The others charged! Claws reached for him as he twisted one leg under the nearest one causing it to trip and fall. He continued turning and kicked the fallen beast sending his bulk smashing into six others, clearing a path for him to run.

  He darted pass them and smashed face first into a glass wall that had just fallen from the ceiling. He placed his hands on the glass and pushed slightly giving it a small wobble. It was made of a strong material. The creatures behind him were recovering and starting to come at him. He thought quick and pushed against the glass, timing his thrust with each reverberation faster and faster until his hands were a blur of motion. The glass began to glow and at the right moment, he released his force into it and with a loud crack, it shattered!

  A huge jaguar roared then swiped at his leg as he moved through the falling glass. It missed him by millimeters. Machine guns dropped from the ceiling and targeted him. He didn’t wait to see what ammunition it would be sending at him. He took hold of the out stretched paw from the jaguar, and threw it at the machine before a single shot went off.

  Alarms started to blare! The creature he had thrown into the elevator had recovered and was advancing along with seven others. If he did not find a way out soon he would have to start killing everyone here. It was either they died or everyone else did.

  In the distance, he saw a faint red glow. He fended off two more attacks before he read “EXIT!” He knew what that meant, a way out. As if in response to his comprehension, a set of three glass walls lowered between him and the door. The charging bull that had first assaulted him blinked, as Yrrep seemed to disappear and reappear behind him. Yrrep gave him a tremendous push that sent him head long into the first glass walls.

  The glass shattered on impact and Yrrep followed inches behind, shoving him harder as he broke through the second wall. Lights were flickering on and off, as if someone watching was confused as to where he had gone, they were moving so fast!

  All around him people and animals were strapped to tables, chairs and set into wall sockets. He thought this was right out of the same nightmare Lavar had been in so long ago. These people were clearly in pain as tubes fed glowing fluids into their bodies. Some had extra limbs and horns growing while others seemed to be in a constant state of metamorphosis.

  His desire to kill the beast that fought him waned as compassion for them rose up in its place. These were not monsters, or they hadn’t started out that way. They were people used for terrible purposes. Still, he simply did not have time to save them. He had a mission of the upmost importance and nothing short of his death would stop him.

  He let the beast dropped to the floor; he didn’t have the heart to smash him through another glass wall. Instead, he jumped and focused all his energy into the ball of his leading foot. It began to shine brightly. More machine guns dropped from the ceiling trying to lock on the bright light coming from his speeding foot. With a bang, the glass exploded as he kicked through it and landed on the other side!

  He reached for the exit and released a torrent of energy into the handle. The lock melted from the inside, he wrenched it open and stepped through just as the machine guns erupted, spraying the door with dents from their heavy metal impacts! He placed his hand back on the lock and sent another intense wave of energy into it, melting it into place, then turned and raced up the emergency fire escape and was on the main floor in seconds.

  He opened the door cautiously and stepped to the side waiting for another hand to reach in and try to take him again. Nothing happened. He ran through the door, found the main exit and was out of the building and into the glorious sunlight.

  He thought, I let fear blind me…Next time I need to follow Master Drahca’s advice and extend my energy scan past the closest barrier, especially when I’m in danger.

  Something struck him hard in the jaw! He saw lights for a second as his body reacted automatically and he dropped into a crouch. The pain from the blow faded into a wash of adrenaline as he stood to his feet staring at a group of three, very large men, dressed in red jump suits, all smiling at him.

  16 Dragon Exiles

  “So, Yrrep, dragon slayer and Lavar’s pet, we meet again. Only now your master isn’t here to save you,” the closest man said in Yrrep’s native tongue.

  Yrrep stood up. Blood from a thousand tiny cuts he had gotten from smashing through two panes of sheet glass had stopped flowing, but they stung like hell. He rubbed his jaw, more embarrassed that he had remembered the Masters teaching a moment too late. He said, “You could always throw a good surprise punch Sleven. As I recall Lavar had to stop me, twice, from killing you. Your present condition was his solution; a mistake he now regrets. It must be hard for you, not having your old form anymore, you don’t quite get the same reaction from innocent people that you once did as a dragon, back when you made war against the peaceful creatures of TOL.”

  “Oh, but I’m famous now across a thousand worlds. Just the mere sight of me sends the weak running as fast as they can,” Sleven said with a thin smile, “And we both know how slow that is.”

  “You must be losing that war too; at least that’s what I’ve seen in my dreams. Why else would you travel to a primitive world like this, on the edge of the galaxy?”

  “You should have been born one of us, my friend,” Sleven said, almost casually, “You were always capable of great destruction. It’s not too late, you could bow down to me now, all will be forgiven and together we could dominate this whole universe.”

  “You’re a bit too shallow for me to bow to; I don’t want to get my head stuck in the mud. Why are you here?”

  Sleven looked up at the Laytech tower and said, “I am here to do some business with my new friend Sapen. It seems you’ve given him some trouble.” He looked back at Yrrep, “I guess it’s time we settled an old score. When were done here, this world will become the birthplace of my universal domination, the dream of the Great Red Dragon is fulfilled. Sapen is like-minded in this enterprise, as you no doubt understand.

  “First, I need to kill you. My guess is that Lavar sent you here to stop us before we ever got a chance to unleash our greatest weapons. Are you ready to die so far away from your precious family? I promise that when we return to TOL I will find everyone in your tribe and personally torcher them for a long time before they are eaten by our new offspring. I believe you just met the first batch. And your wives Yrrep, You have no idea what a man like me can do to pretty things. They might even like it.”

  “You always talked too much Sleven; didn’t your late master punish you for that? What was it an eye, a wing, oh yea he cut off the tip of your tongue. At least there was something he and I could agree with.”

  Sleven produced a double-edged sword and held it at the ready, turning it in his big hands. He said as he looked at the blade, “It grew back longer than ever.” He smiled and released his energy into it and it began to glow bright red. The other two men withdrew their weapons. The first man to Yrrep’s left held a mace and the last one produced an axe. They filled them both with their energy, and all three gave a roar as they took their fighting stances!

  A gathering of Laytech employees that had emerged from the building fell back in surprise.

  In a blaze, the two men behind Sleven bounded over their leader and struck at the empty space that Yrrep had just occupied. They drew their weapons up and stood back to back ready for the attack, but he was gone.

  “I can’t believe the
great Sword Master Yrrep has fled the battle. So scared are we that-” a boot landed square between Sleven’s shoulder blades sending him sprawling on the ground, dropping his sword. Yrrep quickly retrieved the sword and pointed it at all three men, “It’s time I eradicate this universe of your disease, once and for all.”

  He held the sword in both hands and chanted sending his full power into the blade. Sleven stood and pulled another, shorter katana from the folds of his jump suit and attacked. Yrrep pulled on the handle with one hand as he held onto the blade with the other.

  His arms swung in an exaggerated curving motion revealing two swords that matched in every possible way. He circled his body with both swords in a figure eight then stopped. With both sword points held high, fire ignited from his hands and spread up their edges.

  Sleven struck and Yrrep parried with one sword as the two other men came slashing at him, one at his head and the other at his leg. Yrrep deflected the axe as it swung toward his head and raised his lead leg avoiding the lower mace attack. He turned, raised his leg and dropped his heal on the man’s face who was holding the mace.

  The crowd of onlookers yelled in surprised as they tried to watch the four men battling. The fighters seemed to disappear then slow into a blur of motion then disappear again. The spectators could only follow the trails from the glowing weapons and listen to what sounded like metallic static; everyone stayed clear.

  Yrrep struck another blow to the man wielding the mace, cutting his lead arm off. He quickly kicked the severed limb away as it still held the mace so it could not be grafted back onto his body. The man drew a long knife with his other hand, but he was clearly less skilled with this blade. The other two men did nothing to protect him as Yrrep struck at him repeatedly in-between defensive maneuvers cutting off his other arm and then legs.

  Blood was everywhere, but his black suit only absorbed it as it did the light. He let his anger and love flow through his movements. He hated these creatures for what they had done and what they intended to do, but he loved the spirits that were paired to their confused minds. He intended to set them free.

  The three seemed to dance as he studied their form, their weaknesses. They were better than he expected, he guessed they had had plenty of practice on the worlds they had conquered; but for a thousand years, he had battled their kind in both dragon and human forms. The ones smart enough not to face Lavar had instead tried their luck with him and failed.

  With his two swords, he let his mind separate, controlling each one independently as needed. He let his feelings flow, anticipating each attack without the slowing effect of deliberate thought. The two remaining attackers stopped and withdrew together. Yrrep let his energy grow as he took several deep breaths. The two men were bringing several hidden swords together and using their energy to meld them into a single powerful blade.

  Then with all speed, Sleven attacked! Yrrep brought up his single sword to block the attack but his blade split in two as the newly formed sword cut clean through it. He ducked just in time, avoiding death by a hair’s breadth. The other man was waiting; it was a trap! A metal spike had just extended up from his knee and penetrated the jumpsuit. He thrust his hip and struck Yrrep in the face but missed a direct hit. The glancing blow caught him on the cheek, and he lost vision in one eye. He let the force from the blow push him away from the two men as he twisted his body and raised the other sword to block the next blow that was sure to come.

  As he turned with his sword up, he heard his blade crack upon impact as the other sword sliced thru it, just as Sleven had done before, but this time he was expecting it. He shifted his weight slightly and pivoted. The spike came again from the second man’s knee. With a scream, he thrust it at Yrrep’s head ready to repeat the last victory blow and stab him in the face!

  This time Yrrep simply pushed his knee inward causing him to collide with Sleven.

  Yrrep jumped back. His eye was healing and he could already see blurred shapes through it. He knelled down, pulled the fabric up from his left pant leg, and pinched the skin until blood came. He extracted the only object he was able to transport here from TOL. Between dripping fingers he held a tiny silver splinter, and the two men instantly knew what it was.

  They attacked, Sleven charged with the powerful sword held high, but it was too late. Yrrep’s energy was already activating the tiny shard from Lavar staff, the only bark from the Tree Of Life ever to be removed; it was a gift from Elohim. A silver rod six feet long appeared in his clenched fist. The sword struck it, vibrated with a high pitch and shattered into pieces.

  Yrrep spun the rod; swept it under both men’s feet and they fell to the ground before him. He continued the motion of his swing, behind his back then up and around, ready to come down with all his might and take both their heads off with a single blow!

  Sleven screamed, “You cannot kill us with that!”

  “Why not?!” Yrrep shouted as the rod swung down and stopped inches from his face.

  “Because it’s a sacred relic of TOL, it is life itself.”

  “If you win you will take the Great Tree and cut it into pieces and use it to bridge the multi-universe. What will you do with it then?”

  “But you’re not like us; you’re like an angel of Elohim, servant of life. Lavar would never let you do this.”

  “What greater way could I serve life than to kill you both now?”

  “Change us as Lavar has done.”

  Yrrep thought on this. He was not sure what he could do with this…tool Lavar had given to him. He knew Sleven was right, if he had any other weapons he would allow the two men to get up and attack and then he would cut them down. However, this, rod, from Lavar’s staff was not meant for death and never, in all of history, has the Tree OF Life been use as a weapon. He said, “Tell me where Whitman is.”

  The two men looked at each other in surprise, “You mean the man who invented Sapen?”

  “Yes.”

  “He is on the way to the Capitol. That fool thinks he can broker peace at the moment before the greatest war of all time is about to erupt.”

  Yrrep shook his head, he remember the place on the map. He thought of what he could do to these Red Dragons dressed as men. How could he avoid the mistake Lavar had made so long ago that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands? A passage from an ancient human text came to mind. Within Graces library was an old text that spoke of a punishment Elohim had given to a dragon when this multi-universe began. He wasn’t sure if the story was true but the idea stuck. He said, “Alright, I will not kill you, but I will not allow another being to have your powerful bodies.”

  “But what will you do…” Sleven was cut off as he and the other two men’s bodies began to glow and then change. They elongated shrunk and narrowed, scales grew over their skin and they slithered out of their red jumpsuits. Yrrep quickly snatched the three jumbo snakes up by their heads, then tied the legs of one jumpsuit and placed them inside. Without another word, he jumped into a nearby tree and soared from branch to branch, then rooftop to rooftop until he reached the local zoo.

  He deposited the three snakes into the reptile cage and locked the door, then raced to the Capitol Building.

  He had a life to save...

  part 2 Lucid

  Chapter 1 Duck and Cover

  Universe 311

  “You can’t protect him now.”

  Joshua awoke to blackness interrupted by seconds filled with light and pain. The steady sound of a roaring current of air grew in his awareness, coming from behind him! A door made of cold steel pressed against his back and shook his whole body as something on the other side slammed into it repeatedly. His still unseeing eyes widened as he felt the Earth quaking beneath him.

  A nauseating feeling pulled on his insides as the room slowly spun around him. With each movement, jolts of pain shot down from his head and into his neck distinguishing itself from all the soreness in his muscles. There were other, unpleasant, sensations coming from inside him that he coul
d not yet identify.

  The aroma of burnt rubber, among many other smells stung his nose. Between moments of darkness, he noticed that his vision had cleared a little. The scent was coming from sparking wires that dangled from several broken lights hanging dangerously from the ceiling, not far away.

  Something about his body wasn’t right too. His stomach cramped and he wanted to roll over onto the floor but he still couldn’t move. After moments of gasping it dawned on him, this isn’t my body! There was too much…mass around his midsection and his lungs stung with each breath, as if he had been smoking all his life.

  He wondered, how much smoke have I inhaled. Reflexively, his nose curled as he recognized more of the acrid smells, (burning synthetics!) touched his now fully awakened senses.