Omega

by Riley Tune

  His hands glowed with his pink energy, as the low hum of sparks echoed in the room, and then faded away. He placed the twin pistols side by side and gave them back to Perkins. She held them in her hands and checked the indicator again. “Good,” she said as she placed them in the back of her pants.

  “You’re welcome.” Power Prince said as he returned to his stance, while his eyes darted back to Jen and Sasha. He was trying to look casual, but Perkins’ actions were beginning to bother him. His time as an Imperial Lord had allowed him to see several people in their natural habitat, and the actions that came with them. He was starting to see that Perkins was acting like a person on the run.

  The secrets. The rapid movement, and broken sentences. It was as if her mind was firing too fast for her mouth to keep up. Power Prince tried to think positive. It wasn’t like she had packed her bags or anything.

  “You okay?” Jen asked as she slouched over to try to lock eyes with Perkins. Her efforts were useless as Perkins was too busy pulling two large duffle bags out from her closet. Power Prince took in a deep breath. “And there go the bags,” he said under his breath. Sasha looked to him with her brows raised. He just shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “I need help with this table and I need the bags brought out to the entrance lobby,” Perkins said as she stood beside the table and looked at them.

  None of them moved, instead they all shared glances at each other. “Today,” Perkins shouted. Power Prince shrugged, stepped over the bags, and grabbed the opposite end of the table. Jen and Sasha each grabbed a bag, and struggled under their weight, as they moved into the hall.

  “Oh, thank Atlas,” Jen said as she dropped her bag at the feet of Flex. “Just in time.” “What’s going on?” Flex asked. He and Hunter both stood in the hall, breathing heavily as they looked at Perkins and Power Prince coming out of the room carrying a table with nothing but the multibox on it. “I’ll explain when we get to the main lobby,” Perkins said as she and Power Prince shuffled by them.

  Sasha dropped her bag to the floor with a loud thud. “Thanks,” she said as she looked at Flex and followed Jen up the hall. Flex glanced at Hunter, who in return looked up the hall. “Well, to the main lobby I suppose.” He took a few steps. “Don’t forget the bags.” At that very moment, Flex grabbed each bag with ease and followed the rest of them.

  Once in the lobby, Flex dropped the bags to the ground and looked at Perkins as she stood beside the table. “For Atlas’ sake, can somebody please fill us in?” He looked at Power Prince, expecting his second in command to fill him in on the details. Instead, he received a shoulder shrug.

  “Just listen to this,” Perkins said as she leaned over on the table and gently pressed a button on the side of her multibox, and a clear, deep voice filled the room.

  Perkins. I don’t know if you’ll get this. But I nerfed everything up, and I need help. They’re dead. All of them. I lost everybody on a mission. Only me, Cayden, and a few others, and I do mean few, are left of Bravado. The Curse of Varo is much worse than we thought before you left, and then Impervious.

  The voice from the multibox took a long deep sigh, and let out a brief faint laugh that sounded muffled.

  By the Great Beast, I’m calling him that now too. Impervious has gone missing. He decided to take the fight to them. To end it all, but he hasn’t returned, and I fear that somehow even he has lost. We are losing this fight, and Omega grows in strength. If you get this, and I know that’s a big if, I could use some help. Cord out.

  The message stopped and Perkins turned to look at them all. The entire time the message was being played, she never halted from looking at the multibox. “That’s Cord.” “We heard that much,” Hunter said with folded arms. “He’s a friend. We founded Bravado together. Well, us and a few other people.” Flex stepped closer to her and looked her in the eye. “You’re going back aren’t you?” he asked. Hunter had never heard this tone on Flex before.

  He had heard Flex be cocky, smug, and even cautious. But in all the times he had fought alongside Flex, he had never heard what he was hearing now. Was it fear or uncertainty?

  For the first time, Flex wasn’t his normal confident self. He was grasping at anything to keep himself in control. Very few among them noticed the signs. The crack in the voice, the shaky hands. Hunter did, though.

  “I am. I have to,” Perkins replied. “Prism, you little shit,” Danielle said as she stumbled into the room. She had on some dark blue sweats and a green shirt that were the same color as her sneakers. She raised her hand as tendrils of darkness formed. “Whoa. Whoa.” Hunter said as he grabbed Danielle by the arm. “Relax.”

  “Don’t tell me to relax. I was sleeping perfectly fine until some Cord guy started speaking at max volume in my room.” She pointed to the hologram. I know it was you that filtered that audio in there.” They all looked a Prism, who flickered some and then with a slight bow flickered away completely.

  “I’m going to upload a virus to him if it’s the last thing I do,” Danielle said. “Like Independence Day,” Power Prince casually said. Sasha laughed. “I get that reference.” Power Prince grinned at her. “Wish you were here earlier when I made another reference to it,” he said with a smirk.

  “Could you all just,” Flex said in a loud voice as he neglected to even finish the request. Still, his order was granted, as the room became quiet again. Even the fist bump that Power Prince extended to Sasha was barely heard.

  “I’m coming with you.” Perkins smiled and kissed Flex on the lips. “I figured you would.” She stepped beside him and faced the others. “You heard the message, and I know you have questions. So, do I, but I can’t figure things out in this dimension. I do know that he said most of our team has been wiped out, and the Curse of Varo is worse than we thought.”

  “Yeah, Curse of Varo sounds real welcoming,” Hunter said as he glared at Flex. Perkins went to one bag and opened it and began pulling some clothes out. “It’s more so a sickness, not curse. Not how the term is used by her anyway. I believe plague, is the word associated with it here,” Perkins said as she tossed some dirty blue pants, a brown shirt with holes in it, and a large pair of gloves to Flex. “Change.”

  Flex looked at the clothes and even sniffed at the shirt. It smelled old. Like it had been sitting in a damp area for a long time. He couldn’t help but wonder where she had gotten the rags that she called clothes from. He didn’t ask questions, though.

  Instead, he slowly began to undress. “Turn around pretty boy,” Hunter said. We don’t want to see you change.” He pointed a finger to Danielle. “No jokes.” “I’m going to need more help than Flex.” Perkins continued. “I can tell you more once we arrive, but any volunteers?” As she asked, she looked directly at Hunter, who in return pointed to himself with a surprised look on his face. “Did you miss the comment I just made about the Curse of Varo thing? The plague.”

  Perkins gave a grin to him that made Hunter worry. He didn’t trust that grin and almost created a forcefield out of habit for protection. “It is your homeworld, after all. Your heritage, and all that.” Hunter thought about what she had said. He truly had no intentions of going to Mo’eizus at all. Home dimension or not, a place where they once sent elite members out to conquer uncharted dimensions, wasn’t high on his list of places to visit. “He’s in,” Flex said as he tossed a bunch of smelly clothes to Hunter.

  Hunter looked at the clothes and tossed them back. “Don’t speak for me, Ken Doll,” he said as the clothes hit Flex directly in the chest. The odor from them could be easily smelled. Flex dropped and picked the clothes up, and then walked them over to Hunter and, with perhaps too much force, slammed the clothes into Hunter's stomach.

  “The intern is coming. Part of the internship.” Hunter looked to him, and for a second would have been happy to fight the leader again. Instead, he kept his anger in check and began to slip out of his sneakers, and into the clothes provided to him.

  “Well if Paragon is going, then s
o am I,” Danielle said out loud. “Atlas knows I get so bored with this hero stuff around here; a good other dimension rescue mission is just what I need. So, what’s in the stinky bag for me?” she said as she walked over and began to rummage through. “Count me in,” Power Prince said.

  In seconds Jen and Sasha had agreed to follow them to the new world as well. “No,” Flex said sternly. Power Prince grimaced. “Why not.” “I need you, and Jen here. Remember we have to meet with the I.C.E, and I need a ranking member there. Jen will just have to be support. We need to get on their good side, and from under their radar. If this meeting goes well it will open more doors for the New Lords. Maybe even get us the green light to have new members audition to join.”

  Power Prince nodded his head as he took a deep breath. Inside, he knew Flex was right. He usually was, but damned if he didn’t want to go with him on this otherworldly rescue. Now he was, more or less, stuck babysitting Jen, and sweet-talking the politicians. No excitement in that at all. For the first time, he found himself agreeing with Danielle about the boredom around them.

  Flex looked at Power Prince, Jen, and Sasha. “Another thing. There was an issue on our visit today to see Z.” Hunter snorted as he and Danielle stood side by side in their new outfits. “That’s one way of putting it. The other way is calling it an utter shit show.”

  “How much of a shit show?” Power Prince asked. “She organized the killing of a guard, a total of two inmates, and escaped with an accomplice.” Jen let out a slow whistle. “That does sound like a shit show.” Power Prince added. “I need you to work with some local Icons, and see what you can do to help catch her, but keep in mind Z is very dangerous, and very powerful.”

  Power Prince smiled as a few crackles of energy ran from his hands, and up his arms. “So am I.” He hated to admit it, but Zeva may have just given his dull day some new life. He was ready to welcome the fight. As a full member of the Imperial Lords, Power Prince had danced with the devil a few times and somehow made it out alive. He glanced at Jen.

  She wasn’t the direct approach type like him, but he had seen her use Big Whopper on several occasions with deadly precision. Still, as the leader, he had to make sure his team was as safe as possible first. While Flex was gone, this was how he had to think about situations. He had others to care about, now.

  Flex turned to Sasha. “Maybe some Up Up and Away members can help.” Sasha pulled out her phone. “I’ll check and see.” “Thanks,” Jen said as she kissed her on the cheek before Sasha walked away. Perkins stepped beside the table. “We really need to get going,” she said as she pressed another button on the multibox.

  Sparks danced on it for a moment before she stepped back and a large swirling green portal came into existence. Hunter felt his throat go dry. He had seen this portal several times in his life, and he never got used to it. These same portals were the heralds of invaders from his childhood. Invaders that eventually killed his parents. Now, here he was, dashing off to save some of their kind. His kind.

  The portal continued to swirl and grew louder. “We don’t have long before it shuts. Just remember, once inside no powers. Let the flow control you. Don’t even try to fly,” she said as she touched a few wires on the multibox. Flex nodded to them all as he stood with Perkins, Hunter, and Danielle. Power Prince gave him a slight salute. “Let’s go save the world I guess,” Hunter said as he watched Perkins leap into the portal.

  CHAPTER 8:

  THE CURSE OF VARO

  O nce Perkins was inside the Portal, Flex turned and looked at Danielle, and then to Hunter. “Don’t let me leap into this thing, only to come out on the other side seeing that you decided to stay here.” Hunter snorted some. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he replied.

  In reality, he would dream about it. He had actually been thinking just that before Flex started speaking. He could have let Flex go inside, then just stop Danielle from taking the leap. This line of thinking went out the window as Danielle, all too eager for some action, yelled out “kamikaze,” and dove into the massive green portal head first, as if it were a swimming pool.

  “Atlas,” Hunter said under his breath as he exhaled. Would it have killed her to slow down and think about what she was literally diving head first into? Flex fought the urge to laugh as Hunter stood beside him. “Good luck with Z,” Flex said to Power Prince. He had to shout over the ever- growing noise that the portal created.

  “Handle the government pricks, handle insane killer hot sister.” Power Prince said as he gave a thumbs up that didn’t match his stern face, and forced smile. “You just go on and hop in your Stargate portal thingy. We’ve got this.” Flex nodded and realized he would miss Power Prince with his tv and movie references, while he was away.

  They had known each other some time now. Even though they interned under different teams, both of them knew of each other back then. Flex smirked some as he thought about how young and dumb, they had seemed just a few years ago. Now, here they were. Full- fledged heroes with reputations. After glancing at his team once more, Flex jumped into the portal. His departure didn’t have the grace of the people who entered before him. While Danielle’s entrance looked cool, his was more embarrassing. It was as if the portal had sucked him in, and a slight scream slipped from his lips on the way in.

  Hunter leaned into the portal and took a deep breath. He didn’t know why he did it, he just did. For some reason, it felt like the thing to do. He did the same thing with new food he had never tried before. As if the smell would be the final factor in deciding to eat or not. “It smells funny,” he said out loud.

  He had smelled the odor before but couldn’t place it. Jen ran up to him. “Hey, stop dragging your feet. It's making you look like a punk.” Hunter looked at his sister. “You think I’m scared?” Jen didn’t answer but her casual shoulder shrug told all that she was thinking. “I’m not scared of this,” Hunter said as he waved his hand up and down in front of the portal. “I’m worried about the world on the other side. My world. What if...”

  A backhanded slap to the stomach forced him to stop talking. “Screw all that. Hunter Monroe, no, Paragon isn’t afraid of shit. You took on an Icon serial killer for Atlas’ sake. A quick trip to another dimension is cake.” Jen said as she extended her fist to him. “Now my dear sweet, dope of a brother, go and kick this new world in the nuts. Oh, and bring me some food back if you can.” Hunter smirked and bumped her fist with his own and then slapped on her ball cap.

  “It’s always about food for you,” he said with a laugh. “But I guess you’re right,” Hunter said as he looked at the swirling mass before him. “Per usual,” Jen said as she adjusted her ball cap on her head, and began to slowly walk away. “Think Power Prince is scared to run the show?” Hunter asked her in a slight yell. “Oh, he’s scared shitless,” Jen replied with a smile. “I can hear you, you know,” Power Prince shouted.

  Hunter nodded to Power Prince once more, and then pointed a finger to Sasha, “keep her out of trouble.” he said as he jerked his head towards Jen. Then, with those last words, he swallowed back the fear that had finally crept into his body and jumped.

  Much as he had seen with Flex, the portal seemed to pull him inside as he took his leap. It would have likely done the same thing with Danielle if she hadn’t run in with such force. Once inside Hunter felt as if something larger than himself was holding him. An unseen body of power that kept him falling through the tunnel of green around him. The smell was becoming stronger now, too.

  “Eggs,” Hunter said as his plummet continued. He had finally pinpointed the smell that was coming to mind with the portal. It was eggs. Boiled eggs, with a hint of sulfur. “I may as well be falling through a fart tunnel,” he said out loud as he continued to fall through the portal.

  As he made his descent, he fought the urge to touch the green cloud-like walls that surrounded him. Walls that he could have sworn were further away from him than now when he initially came inside the portal.

  Hunter tried to
look down beyond his feet to see if he could make out Flex, or maybe even Danielle, but he couldn’t see any of his team. He figured Perkins was likely on the other side waiting for them now since she entered first. He took a few deep breaths as he glanced to his surroundings again. Now he was certain that the walls of the portal were closer.

  Was it shrinking? Hunter looked up above to see just how far he had come from the opening, but couldn’t see anything. In his mind the portal was more of a long tube, so he was expecting to see an opening up above him. Then he realized what he had feared. The portal wasn’t shrinking, it was closing.

  The portal was closing and getting smaller by the second. He fought the urge to panic and instead tried to take a few slow breaths. “You’re alright. You’re alright. The walls are not a problem. Space is not a problem,” Hunter muttered to himself.

  His training while trying to improve his fear of tight places usually revolved around staying calm, and talking himself away from the edge of flipping out from being crushed to death by such tight spaces.

  “Space is not a problem. The walls are not a problem. You’re not going to be crushed by some otherworldly wall and left alone to die in time and space.” The last few words muttered were all it took for Hunter. He was no longer on the ledge now. Instead had jumped off the ledge and landed in a pool of claustrophobia and couldn’t get out.

  Forgetting what Perkins had said before they entered, Hunter reverted to his default setting and created a massive force field around himself to try and stop the walls from closing. His force fields were strong, durable, and rarely let him down. In his heart, he knew it would work. He knew he’d be saved by them just as he had been a million times before.

  It didn’t work. In fact, the walls of the portal passed directly through his force field as if it wasn’t even there. He swore to himself but didn’t waste time being shocked. Instead, he released a few short bursts of energy from his eyes. Much like his force field, his Impact Blast did nothing but pass through the walls and fade away.