Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure

by Christian Kallias

  “Ready to leave this place?”

  “Yeah . . . The sooner the better.”

  3

  Ares stepped down from the platform and took three cautious steps towards Argos. His heart pounded in his chest. He could barely hold on against Chase during their last training visions. How was he to contain someone as powerful as Argos? But he only needed to delay him and let Aphroditis escape. Her powers of foresight could be the difference between victory and defeat in this war. Ares didn’t really know if that was the case, but if he didn’t do anything, they’d both be killed anyway. And that was not an option, not if he could do anything about it.

  On the other side of the room, Aphroditis was shaking from fear.

  “Let her leave.”

  “Why? She’s the one who’s been boosting my brother’s morale, to the point where he almost killed me last we fought. She must pay for that.”

  “I trained Chase. Your beef is with me.”

  “Well, my beef is with your entire race, really, so whether I kill her today or tomorrow, she’s a goner.”

  “Not today, though.”

  “Oh yeah? Wanna bet?”

  “Not . . . today,” said Ares, strengthening the tone of his voice.

  “Do you think I fear you even an iota? Understand this: you’re already dead. She’s next, and in time we will eradicate your race, like we should have done so long ago.”

  Ares raised an eyebrow. “Who’s we?”

  “None of your business.”

  “If we’re dead anyway, why can’t you tell us? Unless you think you could fail at your objective today.”

  “Oh, believe me, you’ll both be dead by the end of the day.”

  “So?”

  Argos looked deeply into Ares’ eyes.

  “So nothing. I’m not here to explain myself to you. I came to punish you for intervening. You know full well you were not allowed to.”

  “Neither were you to strike a deal with the Zarlacks and then the Obsidian.”

  “Technically the Furies are dead, so . . .”

  “Seriously, that’s how you justify getting out of a rule that also applies to you? Furies are an old race. When we defeated you, we, the older races, all agreed we wouldn’t interfere with the affairs of the younger races, now that the war was finally over.”

  “Well it’s not over. I’m still fighting for my side.”

  “You’ll lose!”

  “Uh-huh, alright, sure; but not by your hands.”

  “Let’s see, shall we?”

  “Oh yeah. I’ve been waiting for a long time to kill my first Olympian, so come on, old fart, bring it on!”

  Ares looked at Aphroditis, who had witnessed the verbal exchange from a few feet away. She still looked terrified, but upon meeting Ares’ look, tears flowed.

  “Aphroditis! Get the hell out of here. NOW!” said Ares as he jumped towards Argos, launching a powerful series of blows.

  She ran towards the exit of the communications room and didn’t look back.

  Argos dodged or blocked every one of Ares’ attacks with ease. In fact, he looked bored. In the middle of Ares’ next combo Argos’ eyes blinked red for a brief instant before he clocked Ares in the head with a circling kick. It sent Ares crashing against the nearest wall.

  “Very disappointing,” said Argos, shaking his head from side to side.

  Ares created a green fireball in his hand and shot it towards Argos, but it missed him by a fair margin, to Argos’ surprise. It was not until it blew away part of the structure near the door behind him that he understood what Ares had done and why.

  “This won’t trap me here, you know that.”

  “It will give her enough time to get away from you.”

  “I’ll get her anyway, now that I know how to track you.”

  “Let’s see if you survive, Argos, because I’m not ready to let you live one more day.”

  “Not in your control I’m afraid, old man.”

  Ares smiled. He launched himself at Argos with a powerful uppercut that Argos dodged by arching his torso backwards. But then he was grabbed from behind.

  “You were saying?” said another Ares, with his forearms firmly lodged against Argos’ throat.

  The other Ares turned about and sent three successive, powerful knee strikes towards Argos’ thorax. Upon the third blow, blood escaped Argos’ mouth. As the first Ares sent a fireball towards his target, Argos arched himself forwards and exposed the Ares holding him to the path of the attack, but the second Ares vanished right before the impact, successfully throwing Argos down as a result.

  Ares knew that all his tricks would not allow him to defeat Argos, but he really needed to buy Aphroditis enough time to get out of Dodge.

  Argos stood, dusted himself off, and wiped a little blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “Not bad, but this trick won’t work twice.”

  Argos vanished, appeared behind Ares and planted his elbow strongly in Ares’ back, sending him flying forward. While Ares was still in midair, Argos re-appeared under him and catapulted him to the ceiling with a powerful kick. After Ares impacted with the ceiling, and as he fell back towards the ground, Argos clocked him once more with a powerful right hook. Ares flew and crashed face first into the ground a few feet away.

  He moaned as he tried to get himself back up.

  “You do realize that this fight is already over?” said Argos defiantly.

  “The way I see it, it’s just begun.”

  Argos lifted his right hand with an open palm towards his opponent. “Let’s see,” said Argos, before unleashing a flurry of small, red fireballs towards Ares.

  Ares jumped around to dodge the first salvo, and then managed to deflect another three attacks, but there were simply too many coming too fast for him to keep up. The last few all impacted on different parts of his body, and he was again thrown to the ground. Smoke rose from his body and blood flowed from a few of the impact wounds.

  “Shall we continue?” inquired Argos with a broad, defiant smile. “Or did you have enough already? I can make this painless, you know.”

  Ares rose as best he could, his knees trembling, having a difficult time keeping himself upright. He spat blood on the ground.

  Get the hell out, Aphroditis, he thought to himself.

  Ares had no doubt that the end was near, but he still had some juice in him, and intended to fight Argos till the very end. He closed his eyes and brought up as much energy as he could muster for his next attack. His aura intensified and glowed bright gold. When he opened his eyes, an air of confidence and determination could be read on his face.

  Argos smiled. “You know you’re never gonna win and yet you keep fighting. Why?”

  “Because people like me . . . that’s what we do. We fight evil like you. We gladly give our lives because we know that one day, hopefully soon enough, we will defeat you.”

  “That’s almost hilarious.”

  “Tell that to Chase the next and probably last time he comes for you.”

  Argos’ smile vanished. Ares knew he had put the finger right where it hurt Argos’ gigantic ego. Argos’ mouth clenched and his teeth showed. He was getting angry. Perhaps that would make him less efficient, Ares hoped.

  It was time to unleash the attack Ares had been powering up for. He sent three duplicates of himself to attack Argos from all sides, but Argos had no issue dealing with them. In the meantime, Ares kept powering up his aura, with his fists firmly pressed against his body at belt level. When he saw Argos dispatch two of his copies he transferred all of his energy into his right hand and launched himself into the mix. Argos saw him coming, dodged his right blow, and answered with a knee to the thorax that Ares blocked with his left forearm. Then the last Ares copy dropped to the ground, doing the splits, and punched Argos straight in the knee. He registered the pain from the blow and that was all Ares wanted: a little distraction. He landed the powerful right blow on which he had concentrated most of
his energy in Argos’ stomach. It sent him gliding back a few feet while blood flew from his open mouth.

  Argos’ look of hate intensified. Clearly that blow had hurt him, something he wasn’t expecting at this point in the fight. Argos clenched his teeth and fists and released a haunting growl as he used his rage to grow his aura, burning a flaming red. Lightning bolts danced all around him. His eyes glowed strongly as he put both his hands in front of him.

  This better work, thought Ares.

  In between Argos’ hands, a dark, red fireball came to life, with black lightning crackling all around it as it grew and grew. When it reached four feet in diameter, Argos threw the attack at Ares, who reacted instantly. He drew a circle in the air with his hands in front of him.

  “Perseus’ mirror shield!” shouted Ares as the fireball impacted the shield and was sent back towards Argos, whose eyes widened in surprise.

  Argos extended his hands to block his own attack, but the moment he did so, Ares was upon him; three instances of him, in fact. One grabbed him from behind and locked Argos’ shoulders against his torso, while the other two each kicked one of Argos’ arms out of the way. Argos was engulfed and burned by his own attack. The resulting explosion sent every duplicate Ares flying. The two copies disintegrated from the blast, while the original landed against the ground nearby, breaking a couple of bones upon impact.

  As the dust from the explosion settled, Argos was on his knees, black and red smoke rising from his bloodied body. His red, glowing eyes, enhanced with rage and exploded blood vessels, gave him a psycho-madman look.

  Blood flowed from his mouth as he spoke. “You little cockroach. You’re gonna pay for this! Tenfold!”

  Ares never really hoped that this trick would do anything but delay the inevitable, but seeing how powerful the attack had been, he had hoped it could perhaps put Argos temporarily out of commission; but no such luck. Argos was panting heavily but the look he cast Ares froze his blood. His mind raced, trying to figure out something else to throw at Argos, preferably before he healed himself. Then it came to him.

  Ares threw a fireball at the rubble he had created to let Aphroditis escape, which surprised Argos, and started running down the same corridor she had used minutes before.

  “You’re not going anywhere, coward!” shouted Argos as he rose to his feet and started chasing Ares, who had a good head start.

  Aphroditis arrived at her ship and lost no time powering it up. After a few seconds she took off from the huge asteroid in which their base was hidden. She could sense Ares’ life energy drain more with each minute since she flew the communications chamber. Tears still flowed down her face. Ares was one of the Olympians’ most fearless and skilled fighters, but she knew he was no match for Argos. No one was but Chase.

  She maneuvered the ship out of the asteroid field, entered Earth’s coordinates and jumped her ship.

  “Goodbye, Ares. Thank you,” she said, while looking outside her cockpit at the lightshow of hyperspace travel with a heavy heart.

  Chase, I beg you, come back to us before it’s too late.

  Chase felt as if he was a prisoner inside a tank filled with liquid. His heart pumped hard but he couldn’t move a single muscle. He wanted to pound against the glass through the green liquid but he was paralyzed. Something was running through his veins that prevented him from moving, no doubt delivered by the tubes entering his body and holding him in place within the green-tinted tank.

  That’s when he heard her voice in his mind, as if it was his own thoughts.

  “Help me, Chase, please help.”

  He felt dread mixed with intense sadness at hearing Sarah’s voice. Another nightmare, the same he had been experiencing every single night since he blew her ship. That thought alone sent him towards a whirlwind of self-hatred. But, like every time before, nothing happened in the dream. He was there, powerless to do anything but experience the repeated scene again and again, every time he managed to get some shut-eye.

  But then something different happened. The door into the darkly lit lab opened and a shadow entered. It took a while for his eyes to focus and see in the darkness, but he recognized the shape as his eyes adjusted.

  Argos!

  He wanted to feel rage and explode his liquid prison, but instead he was afraid, terrified even. He didn’t understand why. He was not afraid of his brother. In fact, since he had defeated him on Damocles Station, he was looking forward to their next and last meeting. Still, it was clear that the emotion coursing through his body wasn’t hatred or rage, but fear. It was as though the emotion he was sensing wasn’t his own.

  Then he heard his name being called from afar.

  “Chase, Chase! Wake up, Chase!”

  He felt some movement as his body shook. The image before his eyes became garbled and was replaced by another.

  It was Keera. She was shaking him when he finally came back to reality.

  “Man, you scared the shit out of me. I’ve been calling you and trying to wake you up for like ten minutes now.”

  There was genuine concern in her voice.

  “Sorry . . .” said Chase, still a little confused about exiting the nightmare differently than before.

  “What was that? You were muttering your own name, asking yourself for help. That was creepy!”

  “Was I?” Chase looked down.

  “Yeah, it was like you were talking to yourself in that nightmare of yours.”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t get it? How can you know?”

  “Not the first time I’ve had this particular nightmare. In fact, I dread sleeping as a rule since—”

  “Since your loved one died?”

  Chase nodded as a tear fell from one of his eyes.

  “Sarah . . .” he added.

  “I’m sorry, Chase.”

  He looked away.

  “Are you sure she’s dead?”

  “Yeah, no doubt about it. I . . . I fired the shot that destroyed her ship.”

  “That’s really heavy. I still don’t understand how you were put into this position, though. Not sure I could have taken that shot.”

  That was something Chase really didn’t want to hear from anyone, but he couldn’t blame Keera for saying it. Why had he fired? Why didn’t he kill Argos when he had the chance?

  “I . . . I was faced with an impossible choice, and . . . she asked me to.”

  Keera swallowed and stayed silent.

  “I wish I would stop having this nightmare though. I . . . I don’t understand why I get it every night.”

  “And you never had it before?”

  “No. What’s weird is that Sarah had that same nightmare. She described it to me.”

  “Perhaps that’s why you’re having it. It’s part of who she was, and your brain is clinging to her via that memory. I’m no shrink but I think it’s normal to cling to memories of the people we care for and have lost.”

  Chase reflected on Keera’s words. It did make some sense, but then why that one? Why not a real memory, one that belonged to him? Why would he dream her nightmare day after day? He wished it would stop.

  “How long was I out and how close are we to the Megara system?”

  “About six hours, and we’re still thirty minutes short of arrival.”

  “I wish we could get there faster. Argos will probably be gone by then!”

  “How do you know he’s there?”

  Chase still didn’t really trust Keera and was not in the mood to talk about his relationship with the Olympians.

  “Alright, then,” she said, sensing he wasn’t about to discuss the subject. “Want something to eat?”

  “That would be nice, yeah. Thanks.”

  She exited the cockpit. “Sure thing. I’ll get some rations and bring them back in a jiffy.”

  “Thanks, Keera,” said Chase, after sliding the cockpit door closed.

  Ares ran halfway along the corridor and stopped suddenly. He turned around and watched Argos running toward
s him at lightning speed. He stopped in front of him and grabbed Ares by the throat. Ares tried to speak but Argos’ grip was too strong.

  “Have something to say before you die?”

  Ares looked at him defiantly.

  “Alright, then,” he said, as he loosened his grip ever so slightly.

  “Lockdown,” said Ares.

  A force field appeared and sectioned Argos’ left hand on the spot. He shouted in pain as blood spewed from his arm with every beat of his heart.

  Ares smiled but lost no time. He went to a nearby wall, tore off a panel and yanked two strong, metallic cables from it. The force field went down and so did most of the light in the corridor. He held both cables at Argos’ temples while he was distracted by his cut limb. An intense electrical current passed through his body and he shrieked loudly as more and more juice traveled within his cranium.

  Slowly and painfully, with jerky motion, he grabbed Ares’ left hand, diverting only a little of the juice through him as he did so. Argos had trouble calling upon enough strength to yank Ares’ hand away. The pain was excruciating and he clenched his teeth tightly, electrical sparks and lightning running over his dentition and between his eyes. Finally he mustered the necessary strength, yanked one of the cables off and thrust it in Ares’ abdomen, who received the deadly electrical current and dropped the other cable to the ground.

  Ares managed to swipe away the cable currently juicing him with a swift motion of his hand and took a few steps back.

  Argos’ rage amplified tenfold. The entire base shook in response. Sparks flew off many electrical components; paneling bent everywhere around them.

  Argos created a fireball in his good hand and used it to cauterize his wound. While doing so he felt something hit his face with little force.

  “Drop something?” said Ares, who had just thrown Argos’ severed hand at his face.

  Argos’ red eyes shone so brightly that the light almost blinded Ares, who put his forearm in front of his eyes to protect his sight.

  Meanwhile, Argos slashed his good hand in the air vertically and Ares felt intense pain. He looked for his left arm but it wasn’t there anymore. He saw it impact with the ground.