by Charlie Wood
But it was not Orion, Keplar, or Junior who led the way.
It was a nine-foot tall, humanoid robot, with its silver body shining in the starlight. It had one, horizontal green eye under its forehead, but other than that, its face was featureless. As it stomped down the runway, the Gatling guns and cannons fired, but the laser blasts and explosions had no effect on the silent robot.
The sounds of humming engines were heard buzzing through the jungle, and the three ATVs from the Sky-Blade emerged from the dense trees, following the robot down the runway. Orion was driving the red ATV, Keplar was piloting the blue, and Junior was behind the wheel of the grey.
“Boy, this looks fun,” Keplar said into his helmet communicator. “You sure we’re gonna make it there alive, Junior?”
“Damn sure,” Junior replied. “Just watch.”
The cannons and Gatling guns along the runway fired more rapidly, increasing their barrage of lasers and explosive blasts toward the silver robot. Most of the desperate blasts missed the ‘bot, however, and the ones that landed were simply absorbed into his silver chest plate.
Turning to his left, the robot raised his hand and opened his palm. As his green eye focused on one of the Gatling guns, a giant glob of oil the size of an elephant exploded from his hand. The oil flew across the runway, splattered against the gun, and covered it in black gunk, causing it to short-circuit in a shower of sparks. Using his blasts of oil, the robot took out thirteen more Gatling guns and a half dozen cannons, all in a matter of six seconds.
The cannons and guns were also firing on the ATVs, but the lasers were bouncing off of the force fields surrounding Orion, Keplar, and Junior. The heroes were also weaving in-and-out of the lasers, avoiding as much of the fire as they could.
Orion spoke into his helmet communicator. “Junior, Keplar: take out anyone in your way, and head around back to the second floor entrance we saw on the blueprints. I’m going straight in.”
“You sure about that, O?” Keplar asked.
“Yes. Enter by the second floor and wait for my call. I’m facing them alone.”
***
On the surveillance screen in the pyramid control room, Nova was watching as the robot and ATVs approached.
“Army, ready yourselves.”
The floor of the pyramid control room had been cleared out of its usual decorations and personnel; it was now filled only with Rigel and twenty-eight of his Gore demons, ready for battle. The red giant and the hooded, five-foot tall creatures were facing the stone drawbridge entrance of the pyramid, which was raised and closed.
“Do not attack until I give the order,” Rigel said.
Rigel and his army of Gores stared at the closed drawbridge, and watched as something began cutting through it from the other side. It was a laser torch, and as the white-hot flame of the torch burnt through the stone, Rigel realized that the person wielding the torch was cutting out a door; the laser first cut upward in a long vertical line, then across in a short horizontal line, and then finally down in another vertical line.
When the laser reached the floor, the cutting job was complete, and a stone slab rectangle fell forward into the pyramid with a BOOM! The green growth of the jungle outside the structure was revealed, along with the silver, nine-foot tall, humanoid robot, who stepped into the new pyramid doorway, with its finger still glowing with white-hot heat.
Rigel grunted at the sight of the robot, while his Gores hissed and snarled, clicking their two-clawed hands together. The robot looked around at them silently with its green eye, until suddenly a silver plate on the front of its head opened. The plate revealed Scatterbolt’s face behind it, which—he would readily admit—looked pretty out of place on his new nine-foot tall body.
“How’d I do, Orion?” the robot asked. “Was that right?”
Orion stepped through the doorway and into the pyramid, with his bow and arrow ready.
“Yes, very good, Scatterbolt. Great job.”
Rigel stepped in front of his army of Gores. “So, Orion, is this yet another child you’ve recruited and forced to do your fighting for you?”
“I’m not a child,” Scatterbolt said. “I’m a robot.” He raised his hand and blasted Rigel with a rushing stream of water, which sent the red giant tumbling backward.
Scatterbolt turned off his blast of water. “Idiot,” he finished, shaking his head.
As Orion stepped toward Rigel, Nova and the army of Gores readied themselves, with Nova drawing a samurai sword from his back, and the Gores baring their claws.
“No, wait, wait,” Rigel said, standing up, soaking wet. “They pose no threat to us. Not with him here. Not with the Daybreaker here.”
Rigel stepped forward, but slipped and fell in the water, landing hard on his elbow. Orion walked to him and offered him a hand.
“Marcus, stop this,” the old man said. “It has gone on long enough. You look foolish. Vincent is dead, and you can’t—”
“He’s dead because you killed him!” Rigel screamed. “All he wanted to do was bring order to Earth, and peace to the universe, and you killed him!”
“You know that’s not true, Marcus. You do. He wanted to enslave billions of people, because he was afraid of them. His fear drove him insane, and you need to stop before you—”
“He wasn’t afraid.”
“Yes, he was. He was afraid of something and he let it obsess him and ruin his life. And he died because of it. And now that same thing is happening to you. You can’t let things that frighten you destroy your life.”
“No—Vincent wasn’t afraid. He knew what would happen if the humans of Earth ever discovered our world. The same thing they have done to themselves for centuries: war, murder, genocide. Vincent wasn’t afraid of the humans; he just knew what they were capable of, and what had to be done—they had to be controlled, to protect Capricious.”
Orion shook his head. “You can’t control the entire universe, Marcus. You can only control yourself. And right now, your actions are leading to your destruction, and the destruction of the people you care about. You can change this course, whenever you want to. You just have to act—you have the choice.”
Rigel stood up. “I’ve heard this before, Orion. You wanted me to be the one to stop Vincent. You told me he was a liar, and a murderer. You told me that, and I almost believed you.
“But it was all a lie. You were the liar. Vincent showed me the truth. He showed me the truth about the humans of Earth, and how it was my destiny to change them. He allowed me to be a part of his dream for Capricious. He was going to lead us into a safe, new universe where we wouldn’t have to worry about the chaotic, destructive humans of Earth. And now, as much as you’ve tried to stop us, I’m going to make his dream come true.”
“How, Marcus? Even Vincent couldn’t succeed in his takeover of Earth. You have to stop this, before it goes any further. You’re only going to get yourself killed, taking god knows how many other lives with you. And for nothing.”
Rigel shook his head. “Not now—not now that I have him.” The red giant pointed to the Daybreaker, who was sitting in the metal throne at the other end of the control room. “He is the Daybreaker. He is the savior of the universe, the ruler of the humans of Earth.”
Orion stared at the silent Daybreaker. “Who is he, Rigel? How did you find him?”
“With this.”
Rigel reached under his green robe and showed Orion the Chrono-Key, which was hanging around his neck.
Orion’s eyes went wide. “Oh, no...”
“All right, enough of this krandor.”
Orion looked up. Keplar and Junior were standing on the second floor of the pyramid control room, looking down on the others.
“I know we were supposed to wait for your order, Orion,” Keplar said, holding his plasma cannon over his shoulder. “But I can’t listen to this blurkopping dweeb and his daddy issues anymore.”
Keplar and Junior jumped down from the second floor and onto the ground level with the o
thers.
“Can I please just punch someone already?” the husky asked.
Nova pointed his sword at Orion, Keplar, Scatterbolt, and Junior.
“Gores!” he shouted. “Attack!”
“Thank you,” Keplar said with a sigh, shaking his head.
The Gores charged at the four heroes, snapping their fangs and raising their two-clawed hands. Keplar, Scatterbolt, and Junior fought off the wave of demons, while Orion broke free and engaged in a battle with Rigel. The old man used his bow to defend himself against the blows from Rigel’s massive, wooden club.
“You can’t win, Rigel,” Orion said, dodging a swipe from the giant. “Please. Listen to me. Vincent is gone, and the past is over. You can choose not to live this way. You have to believe me.”
“He’s not gone, Orion. He’s with us, always, all around us. He showed me the way to the Daybreaker.”
Rigel landed an uppercut against Orion’s chest, lifting the old man off his feet. The old man fell to the ground, holding his broken ribs, and scrambled to escape the red giant.
“And now,” Rigel said, following Orion, “he will show me the way to kill you.”
Keplar watched as Orion fired a red-tipped arrow that stuck into Rigel’s leg, slowing the giant down, and allowing Orion to get to his feet and escape. But, because the husky was distracted, he wasn’t able to dodge the Gore that jumped onto his arm and dug its claws into his fur.
“Anyone know where Tobin is?” Keplar said, struggling with the biting, scratching Gore. “We could really use his help.”
Adrianna jumped down from the second floor, using her double-bladed weapon to spear the Gore that was attacking Keplar.
“You’re just gonna havta settle for me,” she said, as she removed the Gore’s empty cloak from the end of her blade.
“Seriously?” the dog asked. “Whose side are you on here, sister?”
Adrianna reached down and took the laser blasters from Keplar’s holsters. Holding a blaster in each of her hands, she shot down three Gores that were charging at her.
“I told you,” she said. “I don’t have a side. Now duck.”
Keplar ducked, and Adrianna fired a laser over his head, blasting a Gore.
Keplar looked at the demon’s empty cloak, then turned to Adrianna. “I don’t know if I should thank you or shoot you.”
“I’d go with the first one,” she replied.
Keplar raised his plasma cannon, and he and Adrianna stood back-to-back, with her firing her twin laser blasters and him shooting his exploding green blasts of plasma at the hooded demons.
Nearby, Nova was swinging his sword through the air and firing his streams of solar energy from his fists, but his target was elusive; Scatterbolt—in his new, nine-foot tall body—was hovering over the battle with his head-mounted helicopter, and dodging all of Nova’s attacks. When the robot saw an opening, he fired a glob of oil down at the grey-masked man, covering the villain in the sticky, black gunk.
“Enough of this,” Nova growled, shaking the oil from his hands. He looked across the control room: Junior was brawling with a group of Gores, sending them flying in all directions with his cybernetic gloves. Walking up behind Junior, the grey-masked man fired a blast of solar energy at the ground.
“Stop!” Nova yelled, as the searing, golden light from his hand hit the ground and exploded. Instantly, the control room was washed out in the blinding light, and no one—except Nova—could see a thing.
When the golden nothingness finally faded from his blinking eyes, Orion looked across the pyramid: Nova was now standing behind Junior, holding the bald man’s arm behind his back, while using his other arm to hold his samurai sword across Junior’s neck. The entire room—Orion, Keplar, Scatterbolt, Adrianna, Rigel, and the Gores—stopped and stared at Nova and his hostage.
“I think we can all agree,” Nova said, bringing Junior towards the Daybreaker’s throne, “that we are all accomplishing absolutely nothing here. It’s clear, to me, at least, that the only way to end this fight would be to ask our new friend here to get involved.” Nova motioned toward the Daybreaker, who was sitting silent and still. “And we don’t want to do that. Not yet, anyway. So, let’s say we settle this another time, huh? Seems the rational thing to do. If you want to keep fighting...well, then Baldy here gets his throat cut.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Adrianna said, lying on the pyramid floor, bruised and bleeding from the Gores. “He’ll do it anyway.”
Rigel stomped over to Adrianna. “Enough from you,” he said, before spitting on her. “You have chosen very unwisely, Adrianna. You have aligned yourself with the losers in this battle for Earth—a place you hold no allegiance to, a world that would destroy ours the moment they discovered it. You will be the first to die, but not until—”
“Wait,” Adrianna said. “I have a question for you.”
Rigel growled. “Enough. No more of your games.”
“No, no, listen,” she said. “Didn’t you send two of those Gladiator beasts down there to kill Tobin a little while ago? Don’t you think we would have heard, I don’t know, something from them by now? Don’t you think they would have come back?”
Rigel thought it over, his eyes looking away from Adrianna. Suddenly, footsteps were heard, echoing through the pyramid control room. The footsteps were coming up the stairs from the dungeon—THUD…THUD…THUD. Rigel—and everyone else in the room—turned toward the stairs.
The echoing footsteps stopped, and Tobin appeared at the top of the dungeon stairway, standing in the doorway that led into the control room. He was beaten; the top half of his costume was torn completely off, exposing his waist and chest, and his arms and face were streaked with blood. But, he was standing tall and confident as he stared out at the group of friends and enemies gathered in front of him. In each of the boy’s hands, he was holding the golden helmet of a Gore Gladiator.
Rigel was stunned, his jaw dropped open.
“So,” the boy said, stepping forward. He tossed the two helmets to the ground, and they clanged on the stone floor. “What did I miss?”
Rigel walked toward him. “You...you can’t stop us, Tobin. Look at what we’ve done to your friends. I’ve...I’ve fought you before, and I smashed you to the ground. You can’t—”
Tobin waved him off. “Yeah, I’m not much in the mood for talking.”
The boy walked toward Rigel, and passed by Keplar. The husky had brought Tobin’s bo-staff with him, so he removed the weapon from his back and held it out for the boy.
The boy shook his head. “No.”
Keplar was shocked. “No?”
“No,” the boy repeated.
Tobin stared at Rigel. His eyes snapped with blue lightning. The electric, cobalt energy then burst from his exposed arms and swarmed around his chiseled body.
Rigel backed away.
Tobin grinned.
Before the red giant could escape, the boy sprinted across the control room, leapt into the air, and tackled Rigel. Rigel fell onto his back with Tobin on top of him, and the giant was able to land a few defensive blows, but soon Tobin had Rigel pinned to the ground, with the boy’s knees pressing against the giant’s arms. After cocking his fist into the air, Tobin brought it down and pummeled Rigel’s face, over and over, smashing the giant’s head against the ground. With his eyes glowing blue and his jaw clenched, Tobin connected with his fist again and again, cracking Rigel’s nose and sending blood spattering. The boy was in a fury, merciless and unstopping, his coiled hand rising up and down in a blue flash: WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Finally, Keplar approached Tobin.
“Tobin, Tobin, okay...” the husky said, shocked by Tobin’s attack.
Tobin stopped his flying fist, but leaned down and grabbed Rigel by his neck. He lifted the giant’s head off the ground and spoke inches from the giant’s pummeled face.
“I win,” the boy said simply.
Tobin felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up.
“Th
at’s enough, Tobin,” Orion said. “C’mon.”
The old man helped Tobin stand. The boy was breathing heavily, trying to calm down. His blue eyes were flickering and he appeared confused, as if he was unsure of what had just happened.
As Keplar took Tobin by the arm and led him away, Orion walked to Rigel. The red giant was now in his human form, lying on the ground on his side, spitting blood, trying to stand. Orion looked down at him, sad.
“It’s not over,” Rigel said. “It’s not...”
“It is, Marcus. Give yourself up. Let me help you.”
Rigel looked up at the old man, his eyes burning with rage. “No, never.” He turned back to his giant form and looked toward the Daybreaker’s throne. “Now, Daybreaker: rise from your sleep and greet the universe that so deeply needs you to set it on its destined path.”
Orion turned to the metal throne. The quiet hum that was emitting from the chair faded, and the glow in the eyes of the Daybreaker’s helmet darkened. For the first time, the Daybreaker moved: his fingers clenched the armrests of his chair, and he stood. As he moved his head from side-to-side, he inspected the strange group of costumed people scattered throughout the control room.
“It is them!” Rigel shouted, pointing at Orion. “These are the ones I have told you about, Daybreaker! The ones that I have showed you! They are the ones that have killed your family, the ones that are threatening to destroy the universe!”
The heroes looked to the Daybreaker, confused. The Daybreaker looked back at them, cocked his head in curiosity, and then raised his hand. A searing blast of black fire—snapping with white lightning— suddenly shot from the Daybreaker’s armored hand and struck Tobin. The boy fell to the ground and screamed, his fists clenched.
“Arrrrggghhh!” Tobin bellowed, squirming on the floor, his body contorted.
Orion quickly strung an arrow in his bow and pointed it at the Daybreaker, but the Daybreaker blasted the old man with another stream of black fire. The old man fell, screaming.
“Grrraaarrrrggghh!” Keplar growled, as he charged at the Daybreaker and fired his plasma cannon, with the gun’s setting turned to full power. But, the green blasts broke away into nothing before they even reached the Daybreaker. When the armored man held out his hand, Keplar was immediately stopped, frozen and hovering four inches above the ground, his body infected with the black fire. It was running over him and digging into his veins.