by Patrick Hatt
“What about these guys? We can’t leave them here.” Bazooka poked at a first being.
“Leave that to me.” Eve snapped her fingers and each one hovered above the ground and into the portal that Lester and the others brought forth.
“Mom, you gave him more ammo to use against us,” Dina stated.
“Adam isn’t going to be using any first being against anyone ever again, Dina. We will see to that. Let’s go.” Eve gritted her teeth and led the group through the portal.
Max’s dragon snatched God with its teeth when he stepped through and threw him in the air. Max grabbed him and sat him beside Bandaid and what God first thought was Adam.
“Oh. I see your plan. Brilliant.” God nodded to Max and held on as Max’s dragon swooped through the flailing appendages and imagination power of the two foes.
“God, grab the body. Bandaid, hold on.” Max threw Bandaid on his shoulder and then leaped from his dragon, landing on Adam’s head. God followed behind and fluttered above Adam with the body.
“Insects. You are nothing but insects to me.” Max held what he thought was some form of hair on Adam’s head tightly while Bandaid crawled on top of Adam.
“This isn’t going to be easy, dearie. He is more powerful than Trudesile.”
“I’ll help with that. Just hold on because you are going to be possessed again.” Max yanked out the Scroll of Fate and quickly wrote the words he had memorized onto it.
God felt an odd twinge go down his spine and then Bandaid began to shake. The being from the Cup shot up into the air and plummeted toward Bandaid. It merged with him and Bandaid turned golden from head to toe.
“Dearie, this just got a whole lot easier.” Bandaid concentrated while Max wrote on the Scroll of Fate again.
“What are you insects doing? Get off?”
Max covered Bandaid while Adam swung at him, preventing him from hurting Bandaid. Max pointed to God and the body when Merlin appeared from within Bandaid.
“Do what you did to Dark Trudesile.”
“And make it fast, dearie. He’s coming.”
Merlin rubbed his hands together and shot a beam at the body God held. He then leaped from Adam and Carter snatched him, flying him back to the rest of the group.
“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” Lester asked.
“I believe so,” Eve whispered. “That is one bright boy you have, Merlin.”
“I haven’t the foggiest where he gets it from.” Merlin smiled as Adam began to shake.
“Probably his mother,” Eve added.
“Chaps, he looks like he’s going to explode.”
“Just wait. I remember how this goes,” Trudesile said.
The group continued to watch Bandaid suck Adam from Sir Dreadvent, leaving Sir Dreadvent the dominate control of the body. God then swooped over him just in time and the pair placed Adam into the body that Max had created.
“This can’t be. I can’t be so powerless. I will have my love.” Adam tried to squirm free while God lowered him to the ground.
“I will rule all of the realms. I am Sir Dreadvent and I shall not be defeated.” Sir Dreadvent reverted to his true red form and stood before a glowing Bandaid and Max.
Max wrote on the Scroll of Fate one more time and Bandaid began to shake. The Cup flew from within Bandaid and then every being inside of it burst forth.
“It doesn’t matter how many of you there are.” Sir Dreadvent searched for a means of escape as every being before him surrounded him.
“Hit him with everything you got,” Max declared.
Every being that could use their imagination without a Camelot Candle fired at once at Sir Dreadvent. The others made sure he had nowhere to run and soon he was hunched over, exhausted, on the ground.
“I can’t bring back your wife, which I truly am sorry for, but I can allow you the peace of knowing he shall never return.” Eve escorted Bazooka to the front of the group and handed him Sir Dreadvent’s trident.
“I know it wasn’t you.” Bazooka took a deep breath and grabbed the trident. “You know, chap, this never gets old.”
“I will find a way to return. I am Sir Dreadvent. I am…”
“Dead for the very last time.” Bazooka drove the trident into Sir Dreadvent and left him dead on the ground.
Eve snapped her fingers and his body disappeared. She then turned to Adam as he struggled to break free from God’s grasp.
“Max, if you would use the Scroll of Fate one final time.” Eve waved for God to let him go and Adam fell to his knees before her.
“I only wanted our love to return. I will never give up,” Adam mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
“What do you want me to use it for?” Max asked.
“Please write that anything that God has ever written on the Scroll of Fate would cease to be.” Eve clasped her fingers within God’s and he nodded to Max.
“You trust him. But now you’ll see. Now you’ll see what a liar he truly is.”
Max wrote the exact words Eve had asked and every being gazed upon Adam as he grew distraught.
“You didn’t write what she asked. If you did, she’d be in love with me once again.”
“Adam, love isn’t to possess someone. It is born out of a true want to be with someone, faults and all. You can’t force someone to love you anymore than you can force the wind to stop blowing. You have done much in this world that has destroyed lives. For that no one here can forgive you. But I do hope you find peace.” Eve turned to Lester. “If you would give him his final ride.”
“One one-way ticket to Atlantis coming up.” Lester cracked his knuckles and began to make a portal appear when the ground quaked beneath them. “Now what?”
“I knew you fools wouldn’t change fate back to how it should be.” Adam grinned as all eyes were upon him. “I always have a backup plan. I wrote something in there just in case I were to be defeated. The Scroll of Fate will cease to exist and all of the realms will follow behind it. You should have reversed this fate I created when you had the chance.”
Max tried to scribble words onto the Scroll of Fate, but it melted to dust before him and blew away in the wind. He and the rest of the beings then crowded together while the ground of Olympus began to rip apart beneath them.
Chapter 19
Knowledge Prison
Mimi clung to Max’s leg while the other rulers tried to use their imagination and abilities to stop Olympus from breaking apart.
“Max, I’m scared,” Mimi whispered.
“Me too, short stuff. But we’ll get through it.”
“Mom, can’t you do something?” Trudesile questioned.
“I’m trying. Whatever he has done, not even I can stop.” Eve tried to concentrate on the surroundings to home in on the changes. “What did you do?” Eve glared at Adam, unable to figure it out.
“You’ll never know. You and he deserve this fate. I’d rather everything be destroyed than watch you with him.”
“Chicken legs, time for one of your bright ideas.” Tru held her family close while thinking how Harrison had to be afraid while home with Sarge.
“Time you did what you were going to do,” Bazooka whispered to Lester. “Go and stay with Evienne. I’ll be back.” Bazooka hugged his kids.
“What?” Lester asked.
“The whole time thing. Everything is out of whack except for there. I can sense it. Go!” Bazooka leaped toward Lester and pushed him out of the way as the land broke beneath him. He plummeted into the gap and smashed his head against the rock wall on the way down.
“Max, we got to go.” Lester made a portal appear and grabbed Brozen. “You’re coming with us. We may need a know it all.”
“Go, my son. We’ll keep trying,” Merlin stated.
“Go with Dad, Mimi.” Max hugged her and then unclutched her arms from his leg.
Eve floated into the air with God and the Cup and the pair tried everything they could to hold the realm together, barely slowin
g its destruction.
“Dina, let’s go.” Trudesile grabbed her hand and ran through Lester’s portal.
Max joined them, and Lester dragged Brozen as they stepped through at the same time.
“You’re not getting out of it, chap.” Bazooka formed behind Adam and shoved him through just as the portal closed behind them.
“I’ll enjoy watching your futile efforts.” Adam laughed as he and Bazooka appeared behind the others.
“Did you have to bring him?” Lester mumbled.
“Maybe we can use that brain sucking thing to find out what he did,” Bazooka replied.
“Not a bad thought, for a rabbit.”
“It’s too late. You’ll…” Adam toppled over after Bazooka fried his neck with an electric bolt and left him unconscious.
“So much better,” Bazooka stated.
“Brozen, isn’t Atlantis supposed to be, you know, mostly water?” Dina asked.
“Are you sure you knocked Atlantis from the Pedestal of Realms, Max?” Trudesile asked.
“Yeah. It had to be. I unlocked it and then opened the door. I know I did.”
The group stood in confusion as a forest full of trees towered over them. The ground then began to rumble, and they prepared for anything. Their tension eased after a dozen tiny plant creatures popped up from the ground and began dancing.
“Who are you?” Trudesile bent down to touch one and then they scurried back under ground.
The ground quaked more than before, and giant plant creatures soon took form before them.
“I can’t believe the Atlantians let the beings from Shangri-La live.” Brozen prepared to burst free from his encasing until he noticed they had not attacked. “Maybe they are slaves?”
“Just what I’ve been waiting for.”
“Was that…” Lester leaped to the side as portals opened under everyone.
“Max!” Dina cried out while she and everyone besides Max, Lester, and Adam were sucked into portals.
“Slister. That was Slister. How in the heck is she still standing?” Lester dusted himself off while he continued grumbling.
“I’d like to know how she can open portals. We have to find them, Lester. Can you take us there?”
“I don’t know where there is. Bazooka can sense that, not me.”
“Things not going your way?” Adam snickered while he rolled over, trying to hide his hate for how weak he had become.
“We need to find a clearing. Grab him.” Max grabbed one of Adam’s arms and Lester did the other.
“Oh how the mighty have fallen.” Lester grinned as they dragged Adam along.
The pair came to the edge of the forest, passing many more plant creatures along the way, and stared out at the lake and ever-changing city before them.
“Max, are you sure we aren’t back in that sandwich thing again? It would explain a lot.”
“We can’t be. Unless all the realms blew while we were in the portal and we got sent there somehow.” Max eyed Adam as he grinned at him. “But then Ra or Death would have showed up by now. Can’t be.”
“Can’t it?”
“Shut it or I’ll drown you.” Lester smacked Adam.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you perish.”
“Lester!” Max quickly made holy water devices appear before them as the water started moving.
“You’ll perish first.” Lester shoved Adam in front of them while Atlantians took form around them.
“King Yenny?” Max tilted his head to the side while he tried to figure out if it was him.
“Can’t be. He hasn’t opened his yap once. He’d have explained his whole master plan by now.”
The pair watched King Yenny struggle to raise his arm. He finally did for a split second and pointed to a citadel that remained every time the city changed forms.
“I think he wants us to go there,” Max stated.
“Must be a trap.”
“Lester, he looks to be in pain.”
“Serves him right.”
“Agreed. But how could Slister do that?”
“I don’t think we want to know, but I’m sure we soon will.”
“Foolish beings. Give up now,” Adam stated.
“One more word out of you and I’ll crush you with me pot of gold. Better yet.” Lester made a gag appear from his imagination and wrapped it around Adam’s mouth. He then made a zip tie appear and bound his hands. “Now we don’t have to listen to him or worry about him stabbing us in the back.”
“Let’s go, Lester.” Max brought forth a flying car and they tossed Adam in the back.
“I’m driving. For real this time. I got the hang of these things.” Lester jumped in the driver’s seat and started the engine while Max climbed in.
The car hovered off the ground and then he waited for a clear line of sight before he hit the gas pedal. He flew the car into the city and swerved as it changed.
“Lester, look out!” Max scrunched up as a building appeared before them.
“Got it.” Lester pulled up on the steering wheel and took the car up the side of the building.
He swerved the car through the city sky as buildings popped up and disappeared at a steady pace. He neared the citadel and aimed the car straight for the window at the very top of the building.
“Hold on, we’re going in.” Lester threw his arms in front of his face as the car crashed through the window, coming to a stop at an empty throne chair.
Max brushed some glass off himself and then leaped from the car, searching for any sign of their friends.
“Bare. That’s a first. They are almost always up top.”
“They have to be in here somewhere.” Max concentrated and made a version of Davy Jones appear. He pointed at Adam and it stretched out, wrapping itself around everything but Adam’s head. It then sprouted legs and followed the pair.
“Should have done that sooner.” Lester laughed as Adam hatefully glared at them.
“They have to be on a lower floor. We haven’t time to search them all. Lester, make portals appear beneath us and take out each floor.”
Lester nodded and created the first portal in the floor by their feet. He closed it and they peeked through the hole, finding another empty floor. He returned the portal and they hopped through to that floor. Max scoured each floor for any sign of the others while Lester kept repeating the process.
“How many floors does this place have?” Lester sighed while he created another one to another sub-basement level.
“Look out!” Max shoved Lester aside as water sprang up from the floor beneath them.
The stream grabbed them both and covered them, yanking them to the floor below. Two Atlantians held the pair while they tried to squirm free, each glaring at Slister and the many machines hooked to her.
“Nice of you to join us to witness my grand reawakening.” Slister grinned the best she could while her frail, grey-skinned body faded in and out like the city. She nodded to the side wall and three doors retracted, revealing Trudesile, Bazooka, and Dina strapped to similar machines, each unconscious.
“Let them go or we’ll…” Lester choked as the Atlantian filled his mouth with water.
“I haven’t endured all of these years to be stopped now. I am the last of the Sons of Dreadvent and I will survive to carry on his legacy and make him proud.”
“Sir Dreadvent is dead. You soon will be too.” Max spit water out of his mouth as the Atlantian filled his.
“You are right. This body will die but I will gain unimaginable power from your friends.” Slister’s eyes moved toward the others. “That one will give me the power to shift and the knowledge of everything in existence. The rabbit will give me the ability to leave here. Trudesile, well she’ll give me a brand-new body. One ripe and able to hold all of this power.” Slister coughed while she tried to cackle.
Max stared up through the hole and his creation let go of Adam and flung its arms through the ceiling. Each arm went through an Atlantian and shoved hi
m and Lester free from their grasp. They both made a holy water device appear and tossed them at the Atlantians.
“It has begun.”
Sparks flew from Slister’s body while the other three began to shake and sparks lit them up.
“Sorry, rabbit.” Lester yanked at the wires around Bazooka and fried him after he pulled the wires free. He then got zapped and flew backwards into the opposite wall.
“Lester!” Max checked for a pulse. He found one and rushed to Trudesile and Dina, not wanting to pull them free and kill them like Lester had Bazooka.
“Maybe an eel.” Max got ready to create an eel to suck up the electricity.
“Don’t touch them,” Brozen yelled while he took form behind them.
“Where were you?”
“I slipped away and found one of the old knowledge machines and used it to download all they had amassed. They were running experiments on the Sons of Dreadvent and Slister was their last one. Somehow she reversed the process and now she controls everyone here. Once this process has started, there is no stopping it. It needs to be done or everyone dies.”
“Wake, Lester!” Max shouted. He then turned toward the pair and stood in complete concentration. “Clear your mind, Max.” He took a deep breath and listened for Lester’s voice.
“Stop sleeping on the job.” Brozen splashed Lester in the face and Lester mumbled.
“Lester, portal where they are standing, now.” Max waited for a portal to appear. One formed behind Trudesile and he made a duplicate of her appear, using it to take her place and shove her through.
“Lester, I need another.”
“No use, Max. He’s out cold.” Brozen splashed him again, getting no response.
“Max, is she…” Trudesile whispered while she struggled to get to her feet, toppling over back to the floor.
“Finally!” Slister stepped forth from Trudesile’s machine and stretched. She stared at her old lifeless body and grinned at Dina’s before turning her attention to Max. “Max, you always did find a way. Unfortunately it is not going to help you any. I now have the power to control this place and all the realms.”
“You can’t control us.” Brozen extended his water arms toward her but with a wave she sent them the other way, twirled them around him, and left him a puddle on the floor.