Strike 2: Dawn of the Daybreaker

by Charlie Wood

  Rigel grabbed Jonathan and pressed him against the wall. “You are lucky I do not rip your head off as you stand here. You and your sister will go nowhere until the Daybreaker is here. That was the agreement. And even then, you will be fortunate if I let you leave here alive.”

  “But you said,” Jonathan stammered, “you said you would help us. Help us find the cure. We did what we promised.”

  Rigel walked away. “With how immeasurably you failed Vincent and I, this is the least you could do. I owe you nothing, and I owe your sister nothing. Especially since it seems she is much more concerned with the welfare of our prisoner than she is with finding the Daybreaker.”

  In the dungeon at the bottom of the stairs, Tobin was barely conscious, his body hanging from the wall, his chin against his chest. He heard something move in the darkness, and looked up to see Adrianna hiding in the shadows. She was carrying a bucket of water.

  “Oh great,” Tobin murmured. “Exactly who I wanted to see.”

  “I’m sorry, Tobin,” she said, stepping into the light. She was crying. “I’m sorry.” She removed her long black cape and dipped it into the water, using it to clean Tobin’s wounds. He winced each time she touched him.

  “So,” he said, “are you here to shove another knife through my ribs, or...?”

  She shook her head, tears running down her face. “I had to do it, Tobin. I had no choice. I didn’t know they were going to do this to you, they promised me they wouldn’t. If I knew this would happen, I never would have—”

  “Yeah, I know,” Tobin said. “Right.”

  “Tobin, it’s my mother. And my brother. They need my help. I only did this—they’ll die if I don’t help them. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  She sobbed. Tobin stared at her.

  “You are one of them, you know,” he said. “You aren’t any different. Rigel, Nova, your brother...you’re all the same. You’re one of them.”

  She cried. “No, Tobin, please. I’ll help you, I’ll—”

  She knelt in front of Tobin, wrapping her arms around him. He hung from the wall, silent, his body broken and mangled.

  ***

  On the cliff overlooking the waterfall near Adrianna’s house, Keplar leaned over and touched the grass. There was a small puddle of blood on the ground. The husky had woken up during the night, only to find Tobin and Adrianna gone. Now what he had feared all along had been confirmed.

  Junior was standing nearby, looking at the blood. “I’m sorry, Keplar. She must have turned off my sensors in the forest, she must have—you were right. I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming. You were right. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. We made a mistake. It won’t happen again.” Keplar stood up. “Are you ready?”

  “For what?”

  “We go get Orion. Then we come back here and save my friend.”

  Junior held up his hand; his robotic glove grew over it.

  “Lead the way.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Rigel shoved the door open with his shoulder and stomped into the pyramid control room, carrying a stack of books under each of his arms. After tossing the books onto a metal table, he opened one and flipped through it, his frantic hands nearly ripping its pages.

  “Rigel,” Nova asked, “what is this blue pocket watch? We have other things to worry about, we need to be—”

  Rigel grunted and waved Nova off. The giant’s yellow eyes were pinned to the book, scanning its pages. Tossing the book aside, he searched for another, clutching the Chrono-Key in his left hand.

  As Nova watched the red giant, frustrated, Jonathan approached.

  “So, Nova,” Jonathan said, “while Rigel’s over there doing his summer reading, we need to talk about our arrangement. My sister and I did everything you asked us, even more when you—”

  “Oh my god,” Rigel said. He was staring at the book, his eyes wide. “Here it is. This is it.”

  Nova stepped to Rigel. “What did you find, Rigel?”

  Jonathan threw his arms up. “Great. This is just great.”

  “This,” Rigel said, holding the Chrono-Key in front of him. “This is the answer to...to everything. It’s this watch. This watch that just fell into our lap...this is the key to the Daybreaker. He must be watching over us, even now...”

  “What is it?” Nova took the book from the table. There was a drawing of the blue watch in the book, along with an explanation of its abilities. Nova began reading.

  Rigel walked to the center of the room, gripping the Chrono-Key with both hands and holding it against his chest. As the cogs, gears, and levers inside the watch began to move, a blue energy emanated from the device and surrounded the giant’s body, twisting and swirling around him.

  “I’m going to find him, Vincent,” Rigel said. He was nearly in tears, his eyes closed. “I’m going to change everything, I’m going to fix everything...I’m...” The giant arched his head and looked to the sky, crying. “Oh, thank you, Vincent. Thank you.”

  The blue energy from the Chrono-Key built and grew in color until it burst in a flash and a BOOM! A wave of white-and-blue energy spread out from Rigel and cascaded over the room. Suddenly, Rigel and the Chrono-Key were gone.

  “What was that?” Jonathan said, covering his eyes with his arm. “Where the hell did he go?”

  Nova was reading the entry in the book about the blue watch. “He left,” the grey-masked man said. “He went...to go find him. He did it. He actually did it. He’s going to find him.”

  “Who?” Jonathan asked. “The Daybreaker…? Does this mean my sister and I can get paid and get the hell out of here?”

  Nova spun to Jonathan and blasted him with a solar energy beam from his hand. Jonathan screamed and dropped to the ground, his purple suit smoking, his body paralyzed.

  “You simple moron,” Nova said. “Don’t you understand? None of that means anything now. I have what I want. We’ve found him. I have what I want.”

  “That’s great,” Jonathan said, wincing. “I just want my money, please.”

  Nova blasted Jonathan again. “Guards, restrain him.” Two Rytonian guards standing near the door lifted Jonathan by his arms and held him in the air.

  “Where would you like him?” one of the guards asked.

  “Keep him here,” Nova said. “Rigel will be back any moment, and we will decide what to do with him and his sister then. In the meantime, if he turns into the bat…kill him.”

  Adrianna was watching the exchange nearby, hiding behind one of the grey computer towers in the control room. When Nova returned to the book to read more about the Chrono-Key, she dashed through the shadows and down the control room stairs that led to the dungeon.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Tobin was still chained to the wall, with barely the strength to lift his head.

  “If you keep coming down here,” the boy said, “people are gonna start rumors.”

  “Shut up and save your energy,” Adrianna said. She walked to Tobin and began to unlock his shackles. “We’re gonna need you.”

  Tobin fell from the wall and into Adrianna’s arms. She crouched down with him and gently laid him down on the ground.

  “Why?” Tobin asked. “What’s going on?”

  “Rigel’s found him,” Adrianna said. “He’s found the Daybreaker. You need to stay down here and rest. If we don’t have you, we’re all as good as dead. Stay down here and try to heal up.”

  “What are you gonna do?” Tobin asked, his voice scratching against his throat.

  “I have no idea,” Adrianna replied. “But most likely? Stand and watch with everybody else while the universe is destroyed.”

  ***

  “Let me go!” Jonathan bellowed, trying to free himself from the Rytonian guards. “Dammit, we were supposed to be a part of your team! We had an agreement!”

  “You don’t make agreements with gods,” Nova said, reading the information on the Chrono-Key. “Which is what I will be, once Rigel returns. Take comfort in kn
owing that you’ll be able to tell people you were once in the same room as me.”

  “What makes you think I’m not gonna kill you before he gets here?” Jonathan yelled from across the control room.

  Nova snickered. “Oh, Jonathan. Why Rigel and Vincent ever had any faith in you, I’ll never know. I’ll take great satisfaction in watching you slowly die from that terrible little disease of yours.”

  “I’ll kill you!” Jonathan said, his eyes turning yellow. The back of his suit was beginning to tear—his bat wings were sprouting from his back. “I’ll kill both of you!”

  But then a wind picked up in the pyramid. Nova looked up from his book and walked to the center of the control room. Jonathan felt the wind, too, and his transformation faded; as he watched, a circle of blue energy sparked on the floor, then grew outward, spreading out to the walls like a ripple in a pond. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a snapping BOOM!, and Rigel reappeared in the control room, kneeling on one knee and clutching the Chrono-Key in his hand. Another person was with him.

  It was a man in a metal helmet, his face hidden. He was lying on the ground, unconscious, and his entire body was covered in a silver, shining suit of armor. The armor was similar to that of a medieval knight, except for the sharp, gleaming spikes running along the man’s arms, from his shoulders down to his elbows. There were also red, arrow-like markings painted on the sides of his armor, along the man’s ribs. His hands and feet were both unseen under the gloves and boots of the armor, and he was completely still.

  “Where did you go?” Nova asked, keeping his eyes on the man in the armor. “Is this him?”

  Rigel was exhausted, breathing heavily, but smiling. “I found him,” the giant said with a laugh. “I left this place and I found him. He is nearly ready. Help me bring him to the throne.”

  Nova knelt by the Daybreaker’s unmoving body. “What happened, why is he…” Nova turned the Daybreaker over and looked at his face. It was covered by the helmet, which was made from the same shining, silver metal as the suit of armor. The helmet had two sinister, insect-like eyes built into it, and two horizontal slits where its wearer’s nose would be. For a mouth, there was a rectangular box, filled with slivers of identical strips of metal in a grid, appearing to be its teeth. The helmet gave the wearer the appearance of a silent, stoic demon. Even Nova was unsettled as he stared into the cold, emotionless eyes of the Daybreaker.

  Nova looked over the Daybreaker’s armor. He noticed that much of it was covered in razor-sharp blades, as if the Daybreaker could slice off an opponent’s arm simply by brushing past them as he walked by.

  “Why is he unconscious?” Nova asked. The Daybreaker’s armor was bloodied, as if he had recently been in a battle. “Shouldn’t he be—”

  “Help me bring him to the throne,” Rigel repeated.

  “He’s not ready for that yet,” Nova said. “You know we can’t begin the process until he accepts it and understands what we are doing. If we begin before he’s ready, he could be—”

  “We don’t have time!” Rigel roared. “We need to start the process now! Help me, and we can proceed once the memory stream has begun.”

  Nova was unsure and cautious, but he nodded in agreement. Careful not to cut themselves on the Daybreaker’s armor, they dragged his heavy body across the control room and toward the back wall of the pyramid. For days, an elegant, metal throne had been sitting there, waiting for this moment; now, finally, Rigel and Nova were able to place the Daybreaker in his place of honor, where his education would begin.

  “Lift his head and hold it there,” Rigel said. Nova complied, lifting the jaw of the Daybreaker so that the Daybreaker stared straight ahead. Nova looked at the back of the unconscious man’s neck; there was a socket on the back of the man’s helmet, filled with intricate gold wires and coils.

  “Hold him still,” Rigel said. The red giant placed his hand on the Daybreaker’s forehead and pushed, connecting the socket on the back of his helmet with a plug on the throne. The Daybreaker was now in place, with his helmet connected to the throne, and his arms and hands placed on the metal chair’s armrests.

  “Begin the memory stream,” Rigel said.

  “We can’t,” Nova replied. “Not until he is conscious, and aware of what is happening. If we begin now, we could ruin him—the memories won’t hold, and we will no longer be able to—”

  “The time is now,” Rigel said. “We no longer need to wait. He has come to us. This is how it was destined to happen. There is no need to wait for him to accept us. To succeed, we must begin the process now.”

  Nova stared at the Daybreaker a moment, then stepped to the side of the throne. There was a silver lever there, similar to a switch that would power a large electrical device. After holding his hand on the lever, Nova pulled it down, and turned on the throne. A quiet hum emanated from the chair, and the insect-like eyes on the Daybreaker’s helmet lit with a white glow.

  “It has begun,” Rigel said, as he and Nova watched the Daybreaker. “In moments, he will be with us. And the peace that Vincent died for will become a reality.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Orion looked out the window of the soaring Sky-Blade; he could see the flat-topped pyramid in the middle of the jungle down on the ground, and the long runway leading up to it.

  “Bring us down here, Keplar,” the old man said. “On this hill overlooking the runway. They’ll see us coming, but at this point we don’t have any choice.”

  After the Sky-Blade came to a stop on the hill, Keplar and Orion walked out of its side door and down the ramp. Both of them were holding motorcycle helmets; Orion’s was red, Keplar’s was blue. As Orion looked into a pair of binoculars, he studied the pyramid; it was at the other end of the runway, about a half of a mile away.

  “All right,” Orion said. “This is it. They are going to be waiting for us, so prepare yourself.”

  Orion put on the red motorcycle helmet and pulled its visor down over his face.

  “You sure these things are gonna protect us?” Keplar asked, turning to the Sky-Blade.

  Junior walked out of the ship, followed by three vehicles he was controlling by a remote. The vehicles were similar to all-terrain vehicles—ATVs—with four large wheels and a handlebar for steering. One of the four-wheelers was blue, one was red, and one was grey.

  “I made them,” Junior said. “Of course I’m sure they’re gonna protect us.”

  “How do you know?” Keplar asked.

  “Try to get on it.”

  Keplar stepped toward the blue ATV, but immediately bounced off and fell to the ground. He was so violently pushed back that he tumbled over backwards on the jungle floor.

  “Force fields,” Junior said with a grin. “And the best damn ones in Capricious.”

  “Okay,” Keplar said, standing up and dusting off his cowboy hat. “Not bad. And what if they get broken?”

  “They won’t,” Junior said. “And even if they do…he’ll be there in front of us, taking care of anything in our way.”

  Junior, Orion, and Keplar turned to the Sky-Blade. The fourth member of their rescue party walked out of the ship and joined them.

  ***

  Inside the pyramid control room, Nova was watching a security monitor. On it, he could see Orion and the others mounting their ATVs.

  “Rigel, we’ve been found.”

  Rigel was standing near the Daybreaker, who was still sitting silently in the throne.

  “Yes, I imagined they’d get here eventually,” the giant said. He turned to the Rytonian guards, who were holding Jonathan captive. “Guards, take Jonathan and his sister and lead them into the jungle. When you can no longer see the pyramid, leave them.”

  “What?” Jonathan shouted. “How are we gonna find our way home? That was never the agreement! You need to hold to your end of the agreement!”

  “The agreement has changed. Your new reward for bringing us Tobin is that you get to live.”

  “And what about Tobin?
” Nova asked. “Do we still need him?”

  “No,” Rigel replied. “He is useless to us now that the Daybreaker is here. Now he can be eliminated.”

  “You’re going to kill him? After all you did to bring him here?”

  “Yes—slowly and deliberately. As punishment for his crimes to us, our people, and Vincent.”

  Rigel walked to a wooden gate near the dungeon stairway and pressed a series of buttons on a control pad; an alarm sounded, the gate rose, and two Gores emerged. However, these Gores were not like the others; they were seven feet tall, and nearly as wide and muscular as Rigel. Instead of hoods, they were wearing golden helmets, with a vertical slit down the middle that exposed their red, glowing eyes, and their mouths full of sharp, white teeth. They were also wearing armor made out of black leather under their brown cloaks, and carrying broadswords with blades that were six feet long and two feet wide.

  “Gladiators,” Rigel said, as the colossal Gores frothed at the mouth and growled. “Head downstairs to the dungeon. There you will find a boy. Kill him. Enjoy it.”

  The Gore Gladiators turned and headed down the dungeon stairway, holding their broadswords over their shoulders, their heavy footsteps thudding on the stone floor.

  “What about Orion and the others from the sky-ship?” Nova asked. “They’re headed this way.”

  “I’ve been waiting nearly a year to see them again,” Rigel said. “Don’t you think I would be ready?”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Outside the pyramid, the stone drawbridge entrance of the structure raised and closed, and a series of Gatling guns and laser cannons emerged from the walls. Over a dozen more cannons and Gatling guns emerged from the ground along the pyramid runway, and, at once, all of the weapons turned and pointed their barrels at the intruders approaching from the jungle.