by Lee, Tristan
CLANG!
Titan kneels with his back to her, struggling to push Gi-Chul’s axe back with his . . . trident? The Prince of Xor holds a trident with a gilded shaft and prongs; the prongs are each twelve inches long and the outer two prongs have sharp, sword-like edges for chopping and hacking instead of jabbing. The trident is long, seven feet at the very least, standing taller than its wielder. It also lacks any ornamentation other than the golden color and the runes running up and down the length of the shaft.
Not missing a beat, Demoness uses this chance to hit Gi-Chul in the face with the strongest energy bolt she can muster. Gi-Chul stumbles back, clutching his charred face with one hand. This allows a newly conscious Owlman to kick the Aotiuer in the side of his knee, breaking it and forcing him down. Defender pulls the axe away from him and hurls it across the bridge, lodging it in the doorway. Dr. Invictus blasts off one of Gi-Chul’s arms while Ronin, still clutching the wound in his abdomen, slices off the other one. Finally, Titan slams his trident down through Gi-Chul’s chest, pinning him to the floor.
Still clinging to life, Gi-Chul gasps for breath as he struggles in vain to pull the trident out with his stump arms. As he does, Defender unslings Anna’s crossbow and loads a bolt into it. The Aotiuer’s eyes widen as he watches Defender prepare the weapon.
“How . . . how did . . . how did you do this to me?” Gi-Chul chokes. “I am invincible!”
“No, you’re not,” Defender says, levelling the crossbow with his head. “We are.”
He fires. The bolt flies true and makes a bloody mess of Gi-Chul’s head at such a close range. Titan pulls his trident out of Gi-Chul’s chest. The Aotiuer slumps to the floor, quite dead.
“We did it,” Demoness breathes. “It’s over.”
“I just wish Anna could have been here to see this,” Defender says.
Ronin puts a hand on his shoulder, “The telepathic link hasn’t been severed, Dick.”
“Are you saying . . . ?”
“Exactly,” Ronin says, smiling sadly. “We can’t contact her, nor her us. Her soul has left this world, but just a tiny bit of her conscience is still within all of us.”
“So it’s . . . it’s like she’s been with us the whole time,” Defender realizes.
“Don’t break out the champagne yet,” Owlman warns. “If Gi-Chul is dead, then shouldn’t all the other Aotiuer die?”
“Yes, they’re a hive mind,” Dr. Invictus says.
“But we’re still heading for Earth,” Owlman points out. “Their alpha isn’t dead.”
“He seems plenty dead to me,” Fastball says, nudging Gi-Chul’s corpse with his foot.
“He’s not the alpha,” Defender says softly.
“What?” Ronin asks.
“Gi-Chul isn’t the alpha of the Aotiuer, he never was,” Defender says. “We’ve all been played for fools. My God, we’ve all been so blind.”
“I don’t follow,” Titan says.
Defender paces the bridge for a while before stopping and looking to his allies, “Kaiju. The Aotiuer alpha is Kaiju.”
“That’s insane,” Dr. Invictus dismisses.
The Supersoldier strides over to Kaiju and slaps him until the grey giant wakes up, “How much contact did you have with the rest of the cruiser when you were a prisoner?” he asks Kaiju.
“W-what?” Kaiju asks groggily.
“Answer me!” Defender roars.
“Cool it, Dick,” Fastball says cautiously.
“None,” Kaiju says, “I had no contact with the rest of the cruiser.”
“Then how could you know exactly where the bridge and the armory were?” Defender asks. “How the hell could you know where you were if you’d never left your cell?”
Kaiju does not answer.
“How do you know the Aotiuer language? I don’t think they would have shared much with a prisoner,” Defender snarls. “How did you know that there was a biometric lock on the cruiser’s controls? How come someone with as much power as you waits three hundred years before trying to break out?”
Kaiju groans and seems like he is trying to push himself up with two of his arms, but one of them shoots out suddenly and grabs Defender by the neck. The Supersoldier kicks and attempts to pry Kaiju’s fingers from his throat, but with one, smooth motion, the grey giant snaps Defender’s neck with a sickening crack. The alien drops Defender’s limp body, neck askew, and rises with ease, all his injuries melting away into his skin.
“Shit,” Fastball says.
“You should have kept your silence,” Kaiju says. The blue bioluminescence given off from his eyes and inside his mouth turn black and more bone ridges burst through his skin, forming some semblance of armor.
“You son of a bitch,” Owlman says coldly.
“We fought by your side,” Ronin says hollowly. “We would have died for you.”
“And I would do the same for you, for any of you,” Kaiju says. “In your heart of hearts you know that to be true.”
“Yeah, well you’ve got a funny way of showing it,” Titan says, his hands curling into fists.
“I do not wish to fight you anymore than I wished to kill Dick,” Kaiju says. “I wanted to offer you something.”
“Your mercy at the expense of us serving the Aotiuer?” Demoness guesses.
“No, not serving. We would rule the empire together; all of us together, acting on what is best for our people.”
“By subjugating them first,” Dr. Invictus says skeptically.
“If they do not wish to join the empire, then we will use force,” Kaiju allows. “But that will only be a small number of the infinite number of peoples in the universe. And together, we can rule it all.”
He looks to the Prince of Xor, “Haven’t you ever wondered what it is like on your planet? Haven’t you ever wanted to go back?” Kaiju asks. “You can. You can go home and be the ruler you were born to be.”
“Blow me,” Titan growls.
“Belle, do you not want to live in a world where you are not an outcast?” Kaiju asks, turning to the Living Star. “A world where you can show your powers without having to hide behind some other name?”
“Like the big guy said, blow me,” Demoness retorts. “Actually, don’t. You’re spiky and gross.”
Kaiju sighs and turns to Blind Swordsman, “Your whole life you have been seeking blood under a mask of seeking vengeance. Now what if I told you that there is a planet out there at constant war? You would be in paradise; all the blood you want and no need to hide behind anything.”
Ronin says nothing.
The grey giant looks upon the fastest man in the galaxy, “Peter Willis. What do you owe these people? You owe them nothing, all they have done is exhibit how much you repulse them. I know that there is a planet where its people have been searching for their god, a mysterious man who moved faster than anyone could see across the sky. On that world, you would be loved. On that world, you could be a god.”
“Sorry, did you say something? My bullshit-o-meter was going off,” Fastball spits.
“Don’t even try convincing me that there’s some planet where I can walk,” Dr. Invictus says before Kaiju can turn to him.
“And don’t even think for a second that you can con me into thinking that there’s a world where Miranda is still alive,” Owlman adds.
“Then none of you will join me?” Kaiju asks, sounding dejected. “Are we fated to be enemies?”
“You did that yourself,” Fastball says.
“Then so be it,” Kaiju says. “Invincibles, this is for the greater good.”
“Wait. I will follow you,” Ronin says, crossing the bridge to stand by Kaiju’s side.
“Frank . . . please don’t do this,” Titan pleads. “I don’t want to fight you.”
The Blind Swordsman unties his blindfold and lets it drop to the ground, revealing his milky white eyes, “If you weren’t prepared to fight, then you shouldn’t have come,” he says softly.
“I’ve expelled Kaiju from ou
r minds,” Ronin says cerebrally. “Get ready to run when I give you the signal.”
“What signal?” Owlman asks.
“You’ll know. Get to the hangar, hijack a carrier.”
Kaiju cracks his knuckles, oblivious to what has been transpiring, “So which one of you wants to die first?” he asks. “Wait. Ronin, prove that you are actually on the side of the Aotiuer. Kill one of your friends.”
Ronin draws his sword and begins to walk slowly towards Owlman, who balls his fists and raises them to protect his head. A few meters away, Ronin pauses and looks Owlman dead in the eyes, even though his own do not function anymore.
“Invincibles,” he says, his voice heavy with sadness, “invincibalize.”
The Invincibles turn and bolt for the door as Ronin turns around and throws his sword across the bridge at Kaiju. The grey giant knocks the blade out of the air with one massive arm and looks at Ronin distastefully.
“I thought there was hope for you,” Kaiju spits. “But it seems that you must die like the rest of them.”
“No, my friend,” Ronin says as he places a hand on the control pedestal, making all the lights in the bridge turn red. “Dying is your job.”
As the Invincibles sprint for the hangar, the lights turn red for them as well and the capital ship trembles as it begins to self-destruct. Titan scoops up Demoness into his arms without stopping or slowing down and throws her over his back in a fireman’s carry so she does not lag behind them.
“Hangar’s dead ahead,” Fastball reports, having already reached the hangar. “Boarding a carrier now.”
“Which one?” Owlman says once they reach the hangar.
“First one on your left,” Fastball instructs. “Dammit, no, I meant right!”
“Titan, take the controls,” Dr. Invictus says once they board the carrier.
The carrier is shaped like a larger fighter, but it has a larger, rectangular extra cabin on its underbelly to carry infantry. The Invincibles strap themselves into the seats lining either side of the interior of the carrier, filling up four of the sixteen seats with Titan in the pilot’s seat.
The Prince of Xor skillfully pilots the carrier out of the rapidly destabilizing capital ship and heads out towards Earth. Dr. Invictus touches the side of his head where an ear would be to contact Sandor back on Earth.
“Open the portal!” he commands. “Open it now!”
Kaiju has Ronin pinned against the control pedestal, holding the Blind Swordsman against it by the throat with one arm, the other three poised to swing.
“Was it worth it?” Kaiju asks. “Was the resistance worth it? You’re going to die like all the rest.”
Ronin manages to smile, blood leaking from his mouth and nose, “Worth it? Of course it was worth it.”
“You will die here, alone, with no one but me!” Kaiju screams. “How is that worth it?”
“Because you forgot that I’m not the only Invincible,” Ronin chokes out. “And as long as they live, your dream will always die.”
The capital ship does not explode into a great ball of flame; there is nothing for the fire to burn. Instead, it shatters, as if it were glass. Chunks of metal are violently scattered across space as the demolition of the capital ship is completed.
“He did it,” Demoness says in awe.
The portal opens, revealing the lawn of the Hancock estate again. It is different this time, instead of simply displaying the destination, the portal occasionally turns red and distorts in shape.
“It’s failing,” Owlman says. “Titan, don’t spare the engines.”
The carrier hurtles through the wormhole and is three quarters of the way through when the portal collapses. Fastball can see it coming before anyone else; he unstraps himself using his superspeed and sprints back to the quarter that is not in the portal and unstraps Owlman and Demoness from their seats. As the portal’s edges cut through the ceiling and floor of the carrier, the fastest man in the galaxy uses his momentum to shove his friends through onto the Earth side.
The force pushes him back to the bay doors of the carrier, where he is pinned by the gravitational field formed as the portal closes. Demoness goes through fine, but the portal closes too fast for Owlman; not all of him is through yet. But the view then changes from the Hancock estate to a swirling, blue vortex, severing Owlman’s arm from his shoulder. He screams as the back quarter of the carrier, his arm, and Fastball are sucked into the vortex as the portal begins to seal itself.
And then it does, trapping Peter Gary Willis in Dr. Invictus’ hypothesized limbo.
Long Live the King
October 1st
The carrier hits the grass hard and digs up a trench in the dirt as it skids forward; forming a mountain of grass and soil six feet high before coming to a stop. Sandor rushes forward to the carrier with Simon Lukaterro in tow. Chris kicks out the viewport of the carrier so Dr. Invictus can exit while carrying an unconscious Lester out. The Mechanical Man sets him down on the grass, where Simon drops to a knee to inspect the wound.
“He’ll survive,” Simon says after taking a look at where Lester’s right arm used to be. “It’s a clean cut, and cauterized too. He blacked out from the pain rather than the blood loss.”
The special agent rises, “But I don’t know what to do about his arm. Or lack of one, rather.”
“Lester’s a resourceful guy, I’m sure he’ll think of something,” Sandor says. “Where are the other Invincibles?”
“Let’s talk about it inside,” Dr. Invictus says grimly.
The remaining Invincibles, except for Lester, sit around the dining table that they made their final plans around, explaining the recent events to Sandor and Simon.
“That son of a bitch,” Simon says darkly. “If I could have gotten my hands on him . . .”
“We set out to beat these bastards just six of us,” Belle says softly, playing with a lock of her hair. “For a while there were eight of us, and now there are four.”
There is a moment of silence as the Invincibles think about the friends they have lost, and the friend who turned out to be an enemy. Finally, Sandor breaks the silence.
“We do have a bit of good news,” he says. “We have Esel Schiesse, courtesy of Belle and Chris, so the Kronos forces have surrendered. We can go back to the tower.”
“What if there was a way that we could get Peter back?” Chris asks, ignoring Sandor. “I saw him go into that vortex; maybe there’s a way we can get him back out.”
“Christopher, I know that Peter is your friend,” Dr. Invictus says, not unkindly. “But we don’t know where he is, much less how to get there. We don’t even know if he’s still alive. The conditions inside that vortex might be lethal.”
“But is there a way to get him back?” Chris presses.
“I suppose we could try to destabilize another wormhole and see if we get sucked into the same vortex,” Dr. Invictus hypothesizes. “But that’s very, very dangerous. And I don’t think our wormhole generator is going to work too well.”
The Invincibles grow quiet, an improvised way to honor their friends as well as they can.
“Hey, Chris,” Belle says, breaking the silence. “Where’d you get the trident?”
“I honestly have no idea,” Chris explains. “Its name is Starpiercer and it’s from Xor, I know that much. From what my aunt taught me, Starpiercer is a king’s weapon. Which, I guess, means my father finally decided on an heir. I’m pretty sure this makes me the King of Xor.”
“I don’t . . . I don’t know what to do,” Sandor says. “Do we clap?”
“I don’t know what to do,” Chris says. “I haven’t been to Xor in years. I don’t even know if I want to be king. All I know is that I was charged with defending this world and the people on it. That’s what I intend to do.”
Once most everyone has turned in for the night, Sandor asks for a private word with Dr. Invictus, who naturally accepts, leading him back to the dining room where a stack of files is piled on the table.
“Our numbers are unfortunately low,” Sandor says quietly, as to not wake anyone else up. “If we’re going to keep the team together, then we need to get some new recruits.”
He places a hand on the stack of files, “I’ve compiled a list of people suspected of, or known to be superheroes. I’d like you to pick who you want on the team; you’re going to be leading them, after all.”
“How many can there be on the team?” Dr. Invictus asks.
“This isn’t the only team, so not an army. Six members, preferably, including who we’ve got now. Lester’s been conscious enough to tell us that he’s got some kind of prosthesis for his arm and wants to stay on the team. Two more, so choose wisely.”
“I will. What do you mean by us not being the only team?”
“You guys aren’t exactly the most subtle people on the planet, so I’ve taken the liberty of forming another Invincibles team. You guys are the strike team, when the job is just too dangerous for anyone else, like aliens or Kronos, we send you. I’m working on recruiting people for the covert team, who will handle the dirtier jobs that we can’t have the public know are being undertaken.”
“I trust your judgment,” Dr. Invictus says, taking a seat and spreading out the files. “You should go to sleep. It might be a while before I even get through all of these. But before you go, one last thing.”
“What is it?” Sandor asks.
“You knew, didn’t you,” Dr. Invictus accuses. “You knew that Kaiju was the Aotiuer alpha.”
“What makes you think that?” Sandor asks.
“When Belle asked you what Kaiju’s mission was you said it was classified,” Dr. Invictus says. “Dick’s mission was to go after Gi-Chul so there is no reason Kaiju should have been at the bridge.”
“Wouldn’t Dick have seen Kaiju going to the bridge?” Sandor points out.
“Kaiju can shrink himself,” Dr. Invictus counters. “Don’t deny it, Sandor. You knew that Kaiju was an Aotiuer the entire time.”