The controls were labeled with symbols, so they weren’t difficult for John to understand. One long, red stud turned on the camera in front of him. A blue one activated the communications network and sent the signal out to the rest of Aoran.
First, he swiveled the camera around so it pointed to him. Then he pressed the necessary buttons. When he saw a red light go on above the camera, John knew that his image was being transmitted to cities all over Aoran.
It was time for him to show the Aoranites that the legends were true. There was hope for them. They had a champion in their struggle against Evil Star.
“My name is John,” he told them. “I’m a person just like you. And like you, I’m tired of Evil Star’s tyranny.”
He glanced at the bank of security monitors against one wall. There wasn’t any sign of Evil Star or his Starlings on them. So far, so good, John told himself.
“It may have seemed to you that Evil Star is unbeatable. He may have made you believe that you had no choice but to obey him. But I’m not obeying him. I’m defying him.”
Again, he checked the monitors. Evil Star hadn’t shown up yet. He still had some time.
Making use of it, he said, “I’m standing here in Evil Star’s own communications center and he hasn’t stopped me. Why? Because he can’t be everywhere at once.”
Finally, John saw something on the monitor. It was just a speck in the sky, or maybe a number of specks all bunched together. But either way, he knew what it meant.
Evil Star was on his way.
“I can’t beat him by myself,” John said. “But if we all work together, even Evil Star is no match for us. We can beat him. We just have to work at it.”
And with that, he pressed the button that cut off the broadcast. The specks were gradually growing larger on the screen. Soon they would arrive at the communications center.
John didn’t want to meet them inside, where innocent people might get hurt. Dropping the wedge that held the technicians in place, he used his ring to punch a hole in the nearest wall. According to the database, that would get him outside.
When he saw darkness, he knew that the database had been accurate. Darting through the makeshift exit he had created, John rocketed skyward at an angle, trying to put as much distance between himself and the city as possible.
The wind of his passage stung his eyes, but not so badly that he couldn’t scan the heavens for Evil Star. According to the monitors in the communications center, the conqueror was somewhere close by.
But where? Where could . . .
No evil shall escape my sight . . .
Now, where had that come from? It was as if the words had been perched on the edge of his mind, waiting for just the right moment to peck at him.
This was getting to be a habit. John knew someone had uttered that phrase to him. But as hard as he tried to remember, he didn’t know who or under what circumstances.
Suddenly, he heard something. It was a flapping noise, the sound a flag might make if it were accosted by a stiff wind. No, he thought, a chill running up and down his spine—not a flag.
A cape.
Looking back over his shoulder, he saw something coming after him, something knifing through the darkness with breathtaking speed. John spun about and braced himself for a headlong assault.
Then the flying figure stopped—just like that, as if braking in midair were the easiest thing in the world—and hovered there. John studied his enemy, ready for anything.
He wore a dark purple uniform, blue boots, and a blue cape that billowed majestically in the wind. And his face was covered with a star-shaped mask the color of blood.
John’s eyes narrowed as he said the man’s name. “Evil Star.”
The conqueror of Aoran smiled a thin, deadly smile.
“That’s the name my subjects have invented for me.” He tilted his head to one side in a gesture of curiosity. “But who are you?”
John smiled back. “I’m the guy who’s going to show you the error of your ways.”
Evil Star didn’t seem impressed in the least. “Others have tried,” he said, “and failed.”
“There’s always a first time,” John said, wishing he was half as confident as he sounded.
Then he leveled a blast of green force at his adversary. But before it could reach the tyrant, a globe of gold-tinted energy formed around him. When the blast struck it, the beam splattered like a stream of water hitting a brick wall.
Inside the globe, Evil Star smiled.
But John wasn’t about to accept defeat so easily. Flying closer to his adversary, he battered Evil Star’s defenses a second time and a third. Unfortunately, the results were no better. Evil Star remained untouched behind his gold-tinted barrier.
John grunted. Clearly, the straightforward approach wasn’t working very well. He had to try a different one.
But before he could think of what it might be, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Whirling, he saw that it was coming at him out of the sky.
No, he realized. Not one something. A number of them.
They were human-looking figures in blue and purple garb, each one smaller than Evil Star by a head but stronger and more muscular-looking. John counted at least half a dozen of them.
And every one of them was headed right for him.
John barely had time to propel himself out of the way before they came streaking past him, buffeting him with the wind of their passage. Before he knew it, they wheeled like a flock of birds and headed for him all over again.
Evil Star laughed. “You thought you had one enemy, but now you see you have many!”
John frowned. These had to be the artificial beings Maleen had told him about. Evil Star’s blindly obedient henchmen, who fought for him without question or pause.
His Starlings.
John might have had a chance against Evil Star if it had remained one against one. But with the Starlings thrown into the mix, he would more likely wind up a blotch on the landscape.
He didn’t like the idea of running. It went against his nature. But he had to think about more than his pride.
An entire world was depending on him. If Evil Star crushed him and paraded his broken body through the streets, it would destroy everything John had worked for.
He needed to retreat. And he had to do it quickly, while he still had the chance.
“One or many,” he told Evil Star, “I’ll win in the end!” And with that, he unleashed a blast of emerald energy that dwarfed the ones that had come before it.
Then, while the tyrant was still huddling in his golden globe, John shot off in the direction of Escraya.
In seconds, Evil Star and his Starlings were on John’s tail, plowing through the air like blue and purple missiles. Blasts of golden energy erupted in the darkness but never quite caught up to him.
And John kept it that way. He couldn’t increase the gap between himself and his pursuers, but he didn’t let them narrow it.
Mile after mile, with mountains and lakes and rivers blurring beneath him, he used the power of his ring to propel himself northward. And after what seemed like an eternity, he saw the welcome light of Escrayana crawl over the horizon.
Come on, he urged himself. Just a little farther.
Evil Star must have seen the light too, because he redoubled his efforts to bring John down. But as many golden blasts as he sent John’s way, not even one reached its target.
John knew he was about to reach Escrayana’s outermost shields. If they were strong enough to keep Evil Star out, they would be strong enough to keep him out too.
And though the technicians operating the shield projectors would see him coming on their monitors, they couldn’t just drop the shields for John. Then they would be letting their enemies in as well as their protector.
Fortunately, John had an advantage. He knew just where the projectors were and how the shields fit together.
With that in mind, he headed for a place Evil Star wou
ld have trouble reaching. Maintaining his lead on his enemy, John gave the shield technicians a fraction of a section to drop the individual shield that would let him in.
If they failed to do so, John would be cornered—at his pursuers’ mercy. But the technicians didn’t fail. They dropped the shield for just the amount of time it took to let John in. Then they raised it again in time to absorb a blast of golden star energy.
John turned and hovered for a second, curious to see Evil Star’s reaction. The tyrant unleashed a furious barrage at Escrayana’s invisible barrier, brightening the sky for a second or two.
But it didn’t do anything. The shields held.
Seeing that, Evil Star glowered wordlessly at John. Then, with his Starlings in his wake, he looped around and went back in the direction he had come from.
John watched them go until darkness and distance claimed them. Then he floated down to the house he shared with Maleen, eager to tell her about his latest venture.
Evil Star had flown halfway back to Pejaara before his anger cooled enough for him to consider the matter of his enemy calmly.
Unfortunately, his questioning of the Chifathians hadn’t produced much information. All they seemed to know was that the upstart called himself John Stewart—an unusual name indeed.
And while it was rumored that he came from Escraya, it was also said that his home was in Coranithar, or Poyaaj, or Dashiri. It all depended on whom one asked.
Evil Star grunted. He was quite the mysterious fellow, this John Stewart—if that was truly his name.
The conqueror wanted to hate him, but he couldn’t. His enemy was doing exactly what Evil Star would have done if their positions were reversed. He was fighting fire with fire.
That ring of his is an interesting item. Probably more of the ancients’ magic. When I finally catch him, thought Evil Star, I’ll have to take it apart and see how it works.
And he would catch the fellow. He had no doubt of it.
Evil Star wondered what this John Stewart would report to the Council in Escrayana. Probably that he had succeeded in his mission—that he had made their great enemy look vulnerable, mortal. And also that they would need to keep the pressure on.
But Evil Star wasn’t worried about John Stewart’s next move. After all, he meant to apply some pressure of his own.
John was having a dream.
In it, he was fighting someone. But it wasn’t Evil Star. It was a pack of men with bulging eyes and strange golden helmets, riding self-propelled one-man fliers and flinging what looked like thunderbolts at him.
There was a city in the distance, a shining city of tall, transparent towers. John knew he had to protect the city and its people, but there was only one of him and there were as many as a dozen of his helmeted adversaries.
He wove his way through them, trying to blast them off their fliers with the beam that shot from his ring. But they were too fast, too good at making twists and turns. And he knew that if he wasn’t careful, one of them would nail him with a thunderbolt . . .
Then the flying men were gone as if they had never been there in the first place. John was in a cold place with snowy mountains and a sun so weak and pale that it barely gave any warmth.
There were men and women wearing animal skins, bowing down to John. Primitive people, he thought. But he didn’t want them to bow down. He wanted them to leave the area because something was coming.
Then he saw something dark and furry crawl over the slope of the nearest mountain. It was a creature with shiny red eyes, a crest on top of its head and gigantic, curved teeth. If it snatched any of the men and women, it would be the end of them.
John couldn’t allow that, so he took to the air and sent a beam of green force plowing into the creature. The beam made the creature stagger but didn’t knock it down. Then it was the creature’s turn to attack.
It took a swipe at him, but he managed to dart out of harm’s way. A narrow miss, he thought—too narrow. Then he circled around to take another shot at the creature.
Suddenly, it was gone—just like the men with the bulging eyes and the strange helmets. The snowy mountains and the weak, pale sun and the primitive people were gone too.
John was now standing in a huge chamber in front of a raised platform. The platform supported a council of some kind.
It was made up of little blue men with big heads and wispy white hair, each of them wearing a red and green robe. They looked down on him with serious expressions.
The blue men began speaking to John, telling him something that he felt might be important. But try as he might, he couldn’t seem to hear what they were saying. Their voices were echoing too loudly in the chamber, one voice cascading on top of another.
Please, John thought, one at a time. But none of the blue men would stop talking. Their voices grew louder and louder, trying desperately to tell him something, until he thought he would go insane.
“No!” he cried out at the top of his lungs.
That’s when he opened his eyes and saw that he was in a dark bedroom, his sweat cold on his skin. And he wasn’t alone.
“John?” said his wife.
He pulled Maleen close to him. “I thought—”
“What?” she asked.
He shook his head, trying to remember. But the memory was already beginning to fade.
“I was on another planet, fighting men with some kind of thunderbolt weapons. And then I was on a different planet, protecting a primitive tribe from a big, dark beast. And then . . .”
“Then?” asked Maleen.
“Then I was standing in front of a group of little blue men. And they were trying to tell me something.”
His wife brushed his cheek with the back of her hand. “You had a nightmare.”
He sighed. “Was that it?”
“What else could it have been?” she asked.
John shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed so real. As if I had actually done all those things.”
“But how could that be?” Maleen asked. “You’ve lived here on Aoran all your life. You’ve never been to another world.”
He nodded. She was right, of course. Still, he would have loved to know what the little blue men were trying to say.
Maleen had been awake most of the night.
John had gone back to sleep after his nightmare woke him. But she had been unable to do the same. Unfortunately, he had given her a lot to think about.
The Council had asked her to do a very important job. Part of it was to let them know what John was thinking. That way, they could make sure he didn’t turn on them.
Obviously, John’s memories were starting to return. That was what his nightmare had been about. His memories were coming back and his mind was trying to decide what to do with them.
It was Maleen’s responsibility to tell the Council what had happened. Without a doubt, that was what her uncle Jerred would tell her to do.
But if she did that, they might send John back to Earth. Or if they couldn’t do that, they might find some other way to dispose of him. Either way, she would never see him again.
Maleen’s uncle had made her promise that she wouldn’t let her emotions get in the way of her assignment. But it wasn’t just herself she was thinking about. It was her entire world.
John was their only chance to defuse the threat of Evil Star. And she couldn’t imagine him turning on them—not even if he did remember who he was and realize how they were using him.
Biting her lip, Maleen made a decision. She wouldn’t tell the Council about John’s nightmare. But was she doing the right thing? Or was she betraying her nation and maybe all of Aoran?
Only time would tell.
John was deep in slumber when he realized that someone was trying to rouse him. He looked up and saw Maleen.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s Evil Star,” she said, her expression tense. “He’s back.”
“Back?” John echoed.
“He was spotted by city sec
urity.”
John’s heart was pumping as he swept the covers aside and sprang out of bed. “What does he want?”
Maleen shook her head. “I don’t know.”
John scowled as he crossed the room and opened the closet that held his green and black costume. If Evil Star had wanted to attack Escraya, he would have done it already. So clearly, he wanted something else.
“Be careful,” Maleen told him.
John pulled his clothes on. “I’ll try,” he said.
Then he made his way through their house and flew out an open window. Higher and higher he rose, buoyed by the power of his ring, until he could see past the city’s towers and get a view of the vast darkness beyond.
That’s when he saw Evil Star.
The tyrant appeared to be alone. If he had brought his Starlings with him, they were somewhere out of sight.
John propelled himself in Evil Star’s direction and stopped just short of the city’s transparent barrier. Evil Star didn’t make a move to defend himself. But then, he knew that Escrayana’s shields stood between him and John’s ring.
“What are you doing here?” John demanded.
“I came to give you an opportunity.”
“Really,” said John. “And what kind of opportunity might that be?”
“We don’t have to be enemies,” Evil Star told him. “You could join me.”
John eyed him with suspicion. “You think so?”
Evil Star shrugged. “Why not?”
“Thanks anyway. I don’t think I’d be happy as one of your Starlings. I’ve got a mind of my own.”
“You know that’s not what I mean,” said Evil Star. “I’m not talking about your becoming an unthinking puppet. I’m talking about sitting on my right hand, occupying a position of authority.”
“And why would you want me to do that?” John asked.
“Because with the power of your ring, you could help me. And I know I could help you.”
“I don’t need your help,” John told him.
“Everyone needs my help,” Evil Star insisted. “I’m going to rule this planet one day. Those who make that day come a little faster will have my gratitude.”
Justice League_In Blackest Night Page 6