by Tew, J. D.
‘Where are the boys, Mariah?’ I asked. She shook her head, unresponsive. She had a look of fear in her eyes. ‘Mariah please, what is going on? I need to know what to do!’
‘They should be right behind me. Something went wrong. The projection was up, and it was good. I saw it from my spot, but the captain heard something. He was startled, he ran out of his office. I had to do something. I—’ Tears ran down her cheeks. ‘I shot him in the leg.’
Suddenly, we heard a series of explosions. Turning quickly, we saw three balls of fire raging on the hangar floor, all strategically located far apart. Immediately, Dan, Liam, and Nilo materialized out of thin air, furiously running toward us. The guards were now yelling and shooting at the three of them.
‘Damn!’ I yelled, ‘The projection’s down!’
The three balls of fire were once projection orbs that generated the convincing hologram. When the hologram vanished, our companions suddenly were no longer concealed. For that matter, neither were Mariah and I.
A robotic voice from the vessel counted down over our chatter, ‘The ship will launch in one morget.’
Liam screamed and fell. A guard had shot him in the leg.
‘Liam!’ Dan cried out, slowing down, unsure of what to do.
Liam held out his arm as he lay on the hard floor, writhing in pain. ‘Forget me! Just go!’
Reluctantly, Dan once again broke into a sprint.
I pulled Dan and Mariah into the ship. Nilo had already crawled up. The ship counted down:
‘Three, two, one. . .’
The hatch closed, with the four of us safely inside. Nilo immediately piloted the ship.
Our newly hijacked vessel soared rapidly upward through the air.
As the ship launched into auto-pilot, blazing through the sky, we sat traumatized, and loathed ourselves for coming up short. The fall of Liam left us depressed. Would they spare him?
Even though we had left Liam behind, we assured ourselves that we would re-unite soon enough. We were like prisoners who lost a prison-mate during a jailbreak: the major importance was that we had our freedom.
We were also hearteded while Nilo yelled, even as his full attention was diverted to navigation, ‘Don’t worry! I am sure King Trazuline will protect him somehow!’ We left it at that: our first goal was to rescue Ted. Time was running out.
“We would do honor to Liam by seeing it through to the end. Our celebration was short lived, and a quiet embrace of silence was our demeanor. The next stop was destiny. Our destiny.”
20 theodore: localized reckoning
“Is he ready?”
“Just a moment, warden.”
“We are in position for the disengagement of the vault!” the guard yells out the usual tirade, “Prisoner number eight-six-seven-five, open request, guns are at the ready—over.” The warden is standing ready and he looks eager to engage me. The guard continues, “Prisoner! Stand and face the wall opposite of this vault, place your hands behind your head, down on your knees, lift your feet off the ground slightly and lean forward until your head is against the wall.” A pause. “Prisoner is in the static pose, cover me while I move.”
“Good job, rookie. Word for word,” the veteran guard says.
“Guns are hot. I will restrain the prisoner. Cover me while I move,” the rookie says. His voice is no longer shaky.
I feel the temporalysis submit my body to its power, and I hit the floor.
“Prisoner. I want you to know that we have noticed your cooperation. We are considering your relocation to a more comfortable area of the prison. Can somebody revive the prisoner, so that he can speak with me? You guards didn’t get the brief?”
“Yessir—y-yes, warden, I mean,” the rookie says.
I can feel the tingle of the temporalysis’ power subside from my lips, throat, and tongue, and then the rest of my head, after the rookie presses the buttons.
“Prisoner. The Multiversal Council wants there to be no discrepancy in the account today. They are quite interested in the battle of Jaakruid. I don’t blame them. I, too, wonder how you survived. If you want to be transferred to the minimum security level of the prison, you would be certain to give us an exact account of what was said and what happened. Do you agree?” the warden asks.
“Yes. What about my son?”
“Your son is with his mother, but we are watching, and if you even think about busting out of here, we will destroy everything you hold dear outside of these walls. Close the vault! Oh, and one last thing. A good friend of yours asked me to deliver a message. After careful consideration, I decided it was acceptable to pass it on. He said, ‘Tell Theodore I appreciate his efforts.’ Any idea who it was?”
“Lincoln.”
His lack of disagreement confirms that my guess was correct. He steps back. “Close the vault! Think about what I said, prisoner. Every word. Make it count.”
The guards huddle around, with guns drawn. One guard removes my temporalysis, and I lie as still as this floor beneath me. They exit.
Wow. Now I know for sure Lincoln is here too. That isn’t surprising, considering the circumstances. As for my son—I don’t find solace in the warden’s assurance of his safety, but if he is with his mother, then he is safe.
I know that hate does not bow down to an inkling of hope, but it will cower to the devotion of many. With the positive developments of the last few days, springing forth like leaks though a crumbling dam, hope is rising. The days of my confinement here are numbered.
I pick up this tablet and begin by sliding my finger across the screen to record. I worry that I cannot give an entirely accurate account as the warden requests, but I will do my best to fill in the blanks.
“I never saw Jaakruid before that day, yet my focus was so strong, I could visualize all its bamboo-fortified walls, its leafy rooftops, and its vine-intertwined castle. My fighting force roared on, hungry for success.”
For a while, we, my men and I, marched, halted, ran, marched, halted, and ran again. One thing that my grandpa Marvin told me from his experience in the service was that a team leader is the tip of the spear. When a leader takes point, courage is cultivated among his followers.
We had been on the move for an hour, and my hope was that we could breach the city of Jaakruid before sunrise.
The Tritillian world was filling my lungs with clean air from the abundance of plant life. I was able to bolt through the dense jungle floor of the forest with ease. I was running, but my strides were quickened by my lifters.
The forest was alive in the night. The moons were eclipsed by their neighboring planet. The outer rims of these celestial bodies shone through the mist and illuminated the forest during the hours prior to the sunrise.
After such a long march, I just had to take a leak.
‘We will break here, fifty-fifty security around the perimeter, one soldier watches while the others rest,’ I called out to my troops.
My warriors broke into the perimeter to guard off against any insurgents while I drained the contents of my bladder. It felt as if all the stress had been exonerated from my body. I have to admit, if I held it any longer my kidneys may have sprung a leak. Thank goodness Elons did not have the same pressing urge that I did—ever.
I took the airborne scout devices from the pouch upon my belt, and released them to scan the terrain. Using my X23-75’s, I hovered near the shelf of the forest and listened in on a conversation from two of my Elon fighters as they conversed between themselves.
‘Mum gave life to us, for us to immediately go into war?’ an Elon asked his battle buddy, with a raspy voice.
‘It isn’t war that made us, love made us. Mum put us to battle for love, for Theodore-zzz, and for our future free from tyranny,’ another Elon said, buzzing and lisping.
‘Well said.’
‘Watch your sector.’
‘I am. No one will enter my territory without meeting my arrow’s edge.’
‘You have been saying that all night.’
‘You two could not hit a moonflower with a cantaloupe,’ Ed said, and the Elons laughed.
I swooped in toward my metal friend on my lifters and said, ‘I thought you were just a robot. I didn’t know you could joke.’
‘I am a robot, but that does not mean I cannot observe an opportunity to make a joke. My maker made me so that I could analyze a situation and insert a joke, but I have not been given the necessary algorithm for emotion. You will not see me laugh and if you do, it will sound weird. I only act out humor by its definition, not its physiological function.’
Ed was my favorite acquaintance the entire adventure.
Spirits were high, and it was time for us to pick up. It ailed me to think about all the unknown dangers in that jungle, but just like late grandpa Marv said, ‘Some things you just cannot control.’
I was a fifteen-year-old teenager with an army of Elons, versus two mighty armies: Dacturon warlords, led by my archenemy Travis, and the Dark Elons, led by Quasikeum. We were soon to collide.
We just believed we could win on our esprit de corps alone. The airborne sphere-like robotic scouts returned to me and projected, for my private viewing only, a frontal holographic image of a large tree fort city. We were near Jaakruid.
I gave the signal to move out, and everyone picked up gear and pushed forward. I heard the bows clacking quietly against the backs of my Elons.
We ran using stealth, with only slight resistance. The jungle gradually thickened from the ground up to about fifteen feet. I drew upon the power of my rolesk to control the Dietons in the vicinity.
Using my rolesk, I propelled a massive force ahead, causing the trees to part away from an opening path through the lush growth. This tactically allowed us to move rapidly through less-than-friendly terrain, while the platoons of enemies following us had great difficulty making any progress. Like magic, I had created an instantaneous spacious labyrinth for every foot I took, accessible only to us as we moved along. The Elons had no trouble meandering through the jungle maze, but if I was going to shelter our clandestine advance from the perception of on-looking evil—I had to be innovative. I followed those thoughts with uttering of self-assurance: we are ninjas!
We didn’t lose anyone to the grip of the wood, and I was at the tip of our attack. Ahead, in the distance, I could see the wooden trunks of what were similar to redwoods.
The trunks were as wide as the base of a water tower. This was my signal. We were very close to Jaakruid. I threw up a solid fist in the air to halt our forward progression. All Elons within my field of vision stood up straight upon my command.
‘If I might have a word, Theodore?’ Ed asked, injecting sound into the silence.
‘Shhh,’ I hushed my robot friend, ‘Ed, relax. I think we are at the base of Jaakruid. What I will do is send a quarter of our forces in search of the Morlorian to distract it. If it is even here.’
‘I must advise against that, Master Theodore. We need the dedication of our full army to successfully launch a massive assault. To delegate a split away from the group will invite weakness to our main army. If there is indeed a Morlorian, we can deal with it as the time arises. We must continue on.’
‘Ed, I never knew I could find such knowledge in a hunk of metal,’ I said.
‘It isn’t what you are made of that gives meaning to your existence. It is the weight of your actions that presents your definitive worth in the end.’
On the tail end of those words, my raised hand dropped forward to signal the attack. We clung to our silence, because a surprise strike was our most effective weapon.
We passed an outpost that was vacant, and the distance between our enemy and the forward point of our persistence was closing. We surged against the jungle wall of Jaakruid like a tidal wave driving up and over, and leaking through.
I set ablaze with gleaming light my sword Wrath, and ripped through the jungle wall. My sword easily splintered the wooden barrier, and gave passage for my Elon warriors.
I crossed the brink of the wall, and after about three strides, I felt the ground flee beneath me.
“A trap!” I shouted.
I lost my stomach, because I was falling toward a solid bed of dirt. As I dropped toward the bottom of the trap my ears popped from the depth of the hole.
Just as my body was to fracture completely against the rocks below—my lifters elevated me to safety.
I looked up and saw that I had fallen about fifty feet before my lifters saved me.
Using my powerful shoes, I rocketed upward to accompany my army. Dreading the Morlorian, my amulet warmed my chest. I flew quickly because I knew that there was danger at ground level.
I catapulted my body toward safety to the edge of the hole, and just as I broke free, I saw an enormous green monster thrashing erratically. I could only assume it was the plant menace, the Morlorian. Five arrows from Elon warriors surrounding the perimeter above zinged downwards past my body toward the monster. Ed swooped in to move me away as the Morlorian lashed its green aloe-like tentacles in my direction.
Its arms were as wide as a sidewalk and its body as thick as a driveway. It unleashed its poisoned stench to ensue me into madness. The dastardly creature sprayed streams of toxic pollination toward me, and I retreated back through the hole that I had blasted through the palace wall. I reasoned it would be safer for me outside enemy territory. I searched out higher ground to evade the poisons.
Just as I exited though the hole from my previous blast, a puff of the Morlorian’s toxic pollen brushed by my face and found a path to my lungs through my inhalation. I was disappointed in my body’s total surrender, but by then I had already passed out. Veering wildly with my lifters still amok, I crashed softly atop the branches of a non-sentient tree. The battle raged beneath me, while I lay atop the treetop structure.
Enraged at the immobilization of me, their leader, the Elons stormed the Morlorian. Meanwhile, Ed flew to my aid, carrying the remainder of the deflicontis mucilage.
‘Swallow this, Theodore. It is the only way the affliction will pass!’ Ed yelled, although I was unconscious. He forced the rest of the vial down my throat.
The medicine did the trick. Within seconds, I was sitting up, taking stock of the battle raging on below. The morning sky lit up even more as arrows blazed from one end to the other.
My vision was still fuzzy, and my hearing was sporadic, thanks to the after-effects of the poison from the Morlorian. However, there was no mistaking the searing pain from the amulet upon my chest, as if a burning log was placed upon it. Moaning with pain, I clawed at it to remove it from my skin.
That burning sensation had awakened me to my full senses. Before my eyes, an image lay that seared itself forever in my head. Right in front of me, my robotic companion Ed, was split into two from behind, and he was no more.
As Ed’s two sides, left and right, fell apart from each other, standing behind Ed’s demise was the person I wished dead from the start. It was the man who drained pure life from my loving guardians—Travis. He sheathed his sword and stood with his hands over his hips to address me.
‘So, you have it in you to come to me,’ he said, spitting on me as I lay there at his feet, ‘This must be a joke. Look at you all dressed up, what do you think was going to happen here? A teenager is going to defeat us with his inherited army of idiots?’
‘No,’ I said, because I learned that day, lengthy speeches were not meant for war. I rolled on to my belly and took a brief look toward the battle on the ground. My Elons were lost in the confrontation of their conflicting equals, the Dark Elons. I could only slightly tell the good guys from the bad guys.
I clenched Wrath, and with sleight of hand and ferociousness of anger, I lashed my weapon toward Travis’s dainty armor. My blade’s scorching rage rippled the hide of his armor, nearly penetrating to the skin itself.
To my consternation, Travis didn’t flinch once at his close call. This warned me that the worse was yet to come
. Travis no longer cared about his own safety; he had only one immediate goal: my utter and total destruction. Hatred swelled within his eyes.
Snarling, Travis withdrew his sword and aimed it menacingly at me.
The sword consisted of a wire projecting upward from the handle, with a saucer about an inch in diameter pinnacled at the top. It looked like a 1950’s do-it yourself handyman project; a car’s radio telescoping antenna with a miniature satellite dish atop its tip. At first glimpse, I snickered at the sight of it.
‘And you plan to defeat me with that; I have seen better weapons in my grandparents’ shed!’ I shouted.
‘You mean, the shed that I burnt to the ground when I ventured back to your home—along with your precious house?’ he asked. I could feel the darkness closing in. My tunneled vision zeroed in on that son of a devil’s ass, ‘You have nothing to go back to. You are nothing!’ he shouted as he gripped his sword tight, and from the handle flowing to the top of the saucer at its peak—gleamed sparkling yellow flow of energy.
It looked electric, like a bolt of lightning, pinned between handle and saucer, and flames somersaulted off its edge. His sword took form, and was much more intimidating after it charged. He zapped up a flaming ball of blue lightning on the ground, and flames encircled it.
Sending commands by telepathy to my lifters, I propelled, airborne, to a clearing among the trees. Travis, also being equipped with rocket propulsion gear, matched me movement for movement and joined me in battle, several feet above ground. Hovering, we both braced for the decisive strike, weightless. Our nimble silhouettes were framed by the rising sun.
There was a slim moment, a second of strained focus, and then we lunged into our war. Powerfully, we thrust back our sword-bearing arms for the ultimate first blow. With a sonic smash of energy, our weapons collided. I then realized that despite its tiny diameter, the shaft of Travis’ sword was just as indestructible as the hardest metal ever—titanium. It failed to bend or melt once upon the massive force by Wrath. The clash of swords conjured up a huge ball of light, projecting a teal blue aura upon our surroundings. The main wall of the Jaakruid fortress shone for that brief second, as if bursts of blue floodlights were trained upon it.