Paraworld Zero

by Matthew Peterson

  “Yes, sir,” came the reply.

  The sly wizard walked to his desk and sat down. He pulled out a thin cylinder of blue liquid from a drawer and poured himself a drink. That was when Merworth realized his master’s limp had disappeared.

  “Your limp is gone, Master!”

  “Yes, but for how long? That is the question, Merworth. That is the question.” He took a sip of the blue liquid. “But for now, I feel twenty years younger. Tell me, doctor, what progress have you made with our patient?”

  “He recovers from every experiment remarkably fast. I can’t explain why. His race is truly unique.”

  “Ahh! Yes, they are…” Contemplating what he had just said, Vaylen added quietly, “Yes, they were… If only the Raiders hadn’t destroyed them all. Imagine the power we could have obtained.”

  “Do understand, Master, that the antibodies we extracted have a limiting time factor. The side effects you’re experiencing will eventually wear off, and everything will be back to normal… even your limp will come back.”

  “Yes, that is why you must discover his secret.”

  Lord Vaylen waved his hand, and an image appeared in the air. Several doctors were busy running tests on a man strapped to a table. A sheet covered most of his body, but his upper chest and neck were bare. The viewpoint of the image zoomed in and magnified the man’s face, revealing him to be Griffen Lasher.

  “We haven’t much time, Merworth,” Lord Vaylen said calmly. He took another sip of his drink. “Not much time at all.”

  * * *

  Councilor Bromwell and Lady Cassandra walked through the lush, beautiful garden just outside the castle walls. A flock of strange-looking birds blotted out the sunlight for a moment as they flew by.

  “You don’t think the Raiders would dare to attack Imperial City, do you?” Cassandra asked.

  “The heart of General Mayham’s hatred stems from the very ground we walk on,” Councilor Bromwell answered. “I feel that he is taunting us… trying to make us lose our focus. Now that we know the diabolical reason for his harboring of the electro-magical energy, it is only a matter of time before the Raiders attack our paraworld.”

  “Can we defend ourselves from such a weapon?” Lady Cassandra asked with a hint of desperation in her voice.

  The old man’s response was both blunt and dreadful. “No… In time, I’m sure we could devise a countermeasure… but I fear that time is not on our side. Even now the Raiders are powering up their weapon.”

  Lady Cassandra drew a deep breath. “And what do we know of this weapon?”

  “Our E.M. Enforcers have just reported that Captain Drackus and General Mayham have discovered how to unleash a deadly strain of electro-magical energy that is capable of destroying an entire planet. That’s why they met at Centarious.”

  Lady Cassandra’s eyes widened. “But Drackus was born on Centarious.”

  Bromwell nodded. “If Drackus is willing to harm his own homeworld, there’s no telling what he’s capable of doing. With such awesome power, I assume the Raiders would be forced to charge their E.M. reactors to maximum capacity before they could fire. This being the case, I would further postulate that they would hide themselves at a nearby paraworld to charge their ships. This, my lady, would be our only window of opportunity to stop them.”

  “There are thousands of paraworlds just minutes from here,” Lady Cassandra said despairingly. “They could be hiding in any one of them.”

  “That is why we must act now… before our paraworld suffers the same fate as Centarious.”

  “Agreed,” Cassandra declared. “We shall disperse our fleet among the parallel worlds until we find the twin space carriers. Meanwhile, we can send messenger probes to warn the neighboring worlds of the danger and command them to cease all paratravel for the time being. If only we had put more stock in Tabatha’s warning. Alas, she has fallen to the Raiders as well.”

  “I hope you are wrong,” Councilor Bromwell said. “Tabatha has a fire within her that breeds hope and determination. I pray we will have that same conviction in the next few days to come.”

  “As do I,” the woman said, looking at the beautiful buildings that housed the governing body of the known paraverse. “For all our sakes.”

  * * *

  Enveloped in a blue energy field, a tiny spacecraft, bearing the royal insignia, raced down the parastream at full speed. Except for the quiet sound of a woman crying, the inside of the cockpit remained silent. Tabatha Burke sat alone in the dark, mourning the loss of her friend.

  The woman had not eaten or slept for two days, but she didn’t care; she had a lot on her mind…

  * * *

  “Scan for life signs,” Tabatha had said just two days previously.

  Her ship floated above the remains of the destroyed Centarious moon. Minor fragments of Griffen’s ship drifted aimlessly in space.

  The computer’s response echoed in her ears. “Zero life signs,” it had said.

  “Can you find any trace of him—any trace at all?” she begged.

  “Zero life signs,” came the cold reply.

  “How about on the planet?”

  “Zero life signs.”

  Tabatha gasped in dismay. “What?”

  “There are zero life signs on the planet,” the computer expounded.

  “How did this happen?” she cried.

  As if quoting from a science lecture, the heartless computer said, “Because of the deteriorating orbit of the moon fragments, the tidal force of the oceans has eroded the continents, thus fracturing the outer crust of the planet and allowing volcanic eruptions to melt the polar caps. Sensors indicate that, with the moon’s current rate of descent, the estimated time of impact will be—”

  * * *

  “Enough!” Tabatha yelled herself awake.

  She looked at the thousands of portals whizzing by. Her ship was still cruising through the parastream. Reprimanding herself for falling asleep, she vowed not to rest until she reached her destination.

  Her destination, however, was still undetermined. Her ship headed in the direction of home—as she was instructed to do by Lady Cassandra—but it also followed the trail of the twin space carriers. Tabatha figured she could catch up with the Raiders in a day or two.

  The white-haired woman urged her ship to go faster. She couldn’t decide what her final destination would be. Where did her loyalties lie? The crown or a friend? She continued to stare at the mystical walls of the parastream. The hypnotic waves of orange and red seemed to force her eyes shut. Sleep took her within moments.

  Chapter 20

  The Secrets of Pudo

  Simon opened his eyes. A soft white light penetrated everything around him. He felt extremely disorientated, even dizzy, to the point of not knowing whether he was lying down or standing up. As his eyes focused, the boy noticed that a thick blanket of mist encompassed his entire body.

  His gas mask was gone and so was the throbbing pain in his head; however, his dizziness remained. A warm breeze gently touched his face, amplifying his lethargic state, and a peaceful feeling swept throughout his body, giving him the strong desire to go back to sleep… Sleep? Maybe he was already asleep.

  Feeling the presence of someone familiar close by, Simon focused his eyes more deeply into the white mist and realized the woman from his dreams was desperately trying to speak with him. Although the thick vapor swallowed up most of her form, he could still see the concerned look upon her delicate face.

  Riding atop her majestic beast, the young woman quickly drew near—so near, in fact, that Simon could see the urgency in her eyes. She was trying to tell him something, but the boy couldn’t make out her words; he saw her lips move, but no sound came from her mouth.

  “What?” Simon whispered hoarsely.

  She spoke again, but he heard no sound.

  “I can’t hear you,” Simon said with a yawn.

  He felt so sleepy, his eyes began to close involuntarily. The young woman hopped off the anima
l and glided across the floor to where Simon lay. As she knelt down, the steam curled around her long hair and engulfed her face.

  She brought her soft lips to the boy’s ear and, with a sense of urgency in her voice, whispered, “Simon, wake up!”

  Simon opened his eyes but wasn’t quite sure if he was still dreaming or not. The white mist had vanished, but what he saw in its place was strangely familiar. Two little knives vibrated above his glasses—just like in his daydream back in Mr. Bartholomew’s English class. However, this time Simon saw tiny words floating in his peripheral vision.

  Weight: 591.32 lbs… Height: 7.69 feet… Species: Arachnid.

  Simon suddenly realized he wasn’t dreaming anymore. The two daggers removed themselves from the telescopic eyepieces of his mask, allowing him to see the faint outline of a giant spider above him. Its sharp fangs came crashing down again but stopped abruptly when they entered the mask. The tips of the fangs scratched against Simon’s glasses, trying to penetrate his head.

  Shocked and horrified, he cast the first spell that came into his mind: “Voluminous!”

  Simon brought his hand to his mouth, as if to erase the spell from being cast. “Oh, no! What have I done?” he cried aloud.

  The gigantic spider trembled. Black hair sprouted from its soft abdomen and grew like a terrible weed. Its legs became the size of tree trunks. Shaking and convulsing, the spider repeatedly hit its head on the cave ceiling as it underwent a grotesque metamorphosis.

  Simon grabbed the little red book next to him and rolled out from underneath the creature’s legs. Quickly, he ripped the shattered gas mask from his face and sprinted down the dark tunnel.

  Illuminating gold and green as he ran past them, the ancient runes gave Simon just enough light to maneuver through the cave. He glanced back and wished he hadn’t. The ever-growing spider dragged its swollen abdomen across the floor as it charged. Fortunately for Simon, the narrow passageway hindered his assailant from moving its expanding legs. In fact, the spider had grown so large that its tough exoskeleton ground against the ceiling and walls.

  Just as the spider became lodged in place, it shot its silky web at Simon, striking him so hard across the back that he almost fell. At the same time, Simon heard the gruesome sound of the arachnid crunching against the walls of the cave. The spider’s hard shell finally cracked open, releasing a gush of light blue blood that spilled out onto the floor.

  Simon peered into the darkness, towards the dead spider. “Oh, boy,” he said, panting. “That was a close one.”

  Out of breath, he turned around and took a step forward, but the next thing he knew, he was plummeting downward off the edge of a steep cliff.

  Simon yelled at the top of his lungs while the hot air whisked through his clothing and hair. A fiery lake of molten lava came into view. He screamed even louder. Suddenly, he felt himself come to a full stop and spring upwards a few feet. The spider’s web! It had saved him.

  Now he dangled helplessly in the air—literally by a thread. He looked around and beheld a massive spider web woven to form a bridge across the pit. The web was immaculate, yet deadly. It stretched out in all directions, filling the entire cave above him.

  Simon could see dozens of large cocoons held securely in the air. He also noticed the many skeletons strewn about the web. It was a catacomb of the dead! This alone discouraged him from going near it. Besides, the makeshift bridge lay far beyond his reach.

  Several passageways were cut into the other cliff wall, but Simon’s side of the pit contained no such passageways.

  The boy looked upward. He had fallen quite a long distance, and although his arms had become very strong over the past few weeks, he wasn’t sure if he had enough strength to climb all the way back up.

  Burning magma bubbled just thirty feet below him. Simon felt grateful for the newfound light the magma emitted, but he could hardly bear the hot steam that saturated his clothing. He crammed the little red book into his deep pocket, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and contemplated his next move.

  Out of the small handful of spells he knew of, none seemed very suitable for his current predicament. Just then, Simon noticed tiny specks of light glowing above him. He squinted to see through the darkness and observed that the tiny lights were getting closer… and closer.

  Then he saw them. Spiders! Hundreds of them—all descending the chasm. Frantically, he grabbed the silky cord attached to the back of his vest and soon discovered that, although the spider’s web had a tremendous hold on his clothing, it reacted in just the opposite way to his skin. Furthermore, the chemical reaction to the oils in his hands caused the acidic thread to burn his fingers. But Simon had no choice. Ignoring the searing pain, he held onto the strong web and attempted to swing to safety.

  The glowing eyes got closer with every swing… Whoosh! Simon cut through the air like a pendulum… Whoosh! Another swing and his fingertips brushed the intricate latticework the spiders had created… Whoosh! Only seconds were left before the spiders would be upon him…

  This would be his final swing. Simon headed towards the wall and kicked off, just as a handful of smaller spiders—each about two to three feet tall—jumped towards him. All but one of the furry creatures fell to a fiery grave; however, the remaining spider sank its fangs deep into Simon’s left shoulder blade. The boy yelped in pain as he swung towards the main web.

  Summoning a fierceness he didn’t realize he possessed, Simon struck the spider with his free hand, causing the vehement creature to tumble off his back. But this particular spider had an unnatural determination; as it fell to the fire below, the demonic creature spurted out its web, which wrapped tightly around Simon’s ankle.

  Making things even worse, when Simon finally made contact with the bridge, the strand on his vest snapped him back so that he almost lost his grip. He pulled and tugged, but the elasticity of the thread had reached its utter limit. Simon was trapped, and a horde of black spiders was about to pounce on him.

  He had to act quickly. “Shawnee!” the young wizard shouted in desperation.

  A bright flame sprang from his fist and ate its way through the entire web—including the strand on his back—until it smacked against the domed ceiling above. Hundreds of scorched bodies fell to the lava below. Bubbling and spewing, the lake reacted adversely to the chemical composition of their bodies and began to rise. Molten rock spilled into the lower tunnels.

  “Eenwahs,” Simon said, canceling the spell.

  The glowing red fire magnified the deadly beauty of the artwork that spanned the diameter of the dome. For a second or two, the fledgling wizard felt sorry that he had destroyed the poor creatures and their home; however, the realization that he was lugging around one of these giant spiders—from a web attached to his leg, no less—made him come to his senses… Make that a giant climbing spider!

  Although the tips of its legs had been singed off from touching the lava below, the spider continued to limp up the silky strand, relentlessly pursuing its prey. Simon heard the crackle of fire devouring the web right above him, so, hand-over-hand, he carried his body across the deteriorating bridge. The acidic thread steamed every time he clenched his fist, but he continued on, nonetheless.

  Like a chain reaction, the flame ran along the spider web, consuming everything in its path. When Simon had cast the Shawnee spell, he had tried to avoid the web in his general vicinity, but it didn't matter; the fire had now found its way to him. He looked down at his unwanted passenger and saw that the injured spider was only a few feet away. His situation could not get any worse.

  Suddenly, he heard a snap from behind.

  “Noooo!” Simon screamed, falling towards the menacing lava.

  Still holding the thin cord, he swung over the lake of fire—just barely missing the deadly flames. His pesky companion, on the other hand, plunged right into the hot lava, releasing its web from Simon’s foot in the process.

  Simon’s heart sank when he saw the sheer cliff wall ahead of him. In th
at instant, he realized what his fate would be. He would crash into the rock and slide into the boiling magma below. His life, his friends… everything would be gone. He’d never experience his first real kiss. Tonya and Thorn would continue their lives without him, and he’d never discover where his powers truly came from or the identity of his parents. There was nothing he could do to prevent his untimely demise. He was going to die. Closing his eyes, he waited for the inevitable… but it never came.

  Simon opened his eyes warily. The cave wall stood just inches from his face. Dumbfounded, he looked down and realized he was floating. Somehow, he had cast the Halo-Marine spell.

  A horrible thought entered his mind: The last time he cast the levitation spell, it wore off the second he looked down. Panic-stricken, he jerked his head up to keep himself from thinking of the bubbling lava below. But this was a poor alternative. Instead of peering down at a fiery doom, he looked up at hundreds of baby spiders racing down the cliff wall for their dinner.

  Simon stretched out his arms and caught hold of a tunnel entrance. He started to pull himself up, but as his muscles flexed, a hot surge of pain ran down his left shoulder. The spider venom began to attack his nervous system.

  Blood trickled from the spider bite as he pulled himself into the dark tunnel. Moaning from the pain, he grasped his shoulder and flailed about the hard floor, as if to massage the wound. The spiders would be upon him at any moment.

  Without warning, he felt himself slide down the tunnel uncontrollably. Deeper and deeper into the mountain he slid, until, finally, the tunnel ended, and he shot out into the air. Fortunately, he landed onto something soft and rubbery.

  The boy felt so exhausted that he just lay there in the dark. He closed his eyes and, for the first time in weeks, wished he were back home on Earth. The toxins in his bloodstream made him feel very sleepy, and for a few minutes, he experienced a floating sensation.