When the smoke dissipated, Hades was standing in the air, unscathed. He flew back to the ground.
“Focus on how you feel now.”
Chase’s anger was still running through his veins, and he cared not what Hades was trying to tell him. He launched himself forward once more for the next round of attacks.
He delivered more blows, fired more fireballs and kept hacking at Hades with everything he had. Hades was sent left and right, up and down, but none of the attacks really caused significant damage.
After what seemed like an eternity, Hades blocked Chase’s next set of attacks by sending powerful red lightning his way. The lightning paralyzed him in place. He tried to get free of its grasp but the force exerted was simply too strong.
“You need to listen now!” shouted Hades.
“Why? All I need to do is destroy you!”
“I understand now why you hate using this power. It seems you lose part, if not most, of your mind when you do. That’s a cross you have to bear, though. There’s no other choice. Only if you can bring this power to the surface without letting anger take over will you be able to defeat your enemies.”
Chase grinded his teeth, still trying to break free of his lightning shackles.
“Listen to me, Chase. We both know the Sarah I killed was just an illusion, but it was necessary to unleash this Fury power of yours.”
Whatever was left of Chase’s logic in this moment of pure hatred knew that Hades was right somehow, but when overwhelmed with such heightened emotion, it was difficult for him to concentrate.
“At least try it, Chase. Focus on the source of energy flowing through you now. Try to feel where it comes from and ground this feeling deep into your psyche.”
“Why do you care?”
“Does it matter? Just do as I say.”
“Will you let me go if I do?”
“If you do, you should be able to focus your energy better. Hence you may be able to defeat me and therefore take your leave.”
That seemed to do the trick and Chase closed his eyes. He focused on his pool of energy. It was chaotic. It fluctuated like a pool of molten lava just before a volcano’s eruption. When he usually focused on his energy, it was a quiet and calm resource. When not enraged, his internal pool of energy was blue, but now it was the color of fire. But what did that mean?
“Forget about the details, Chase,” added Hades. “Just focus on your power and try to ground it deep inside you, so you can call upon it later by just thinking of it.”
Chase didn’t understand how to do it, but he tried anyway. He concentrated as much as he could on the energy itself and tried to ground himself in the moment. It wasn’t dissimilar to when Ares had first taught him to take control of his energy.
When Chase opened his eyes again, he looked straight at Hades. “Now what?”
“Now you break free.”
“I’ve tried that before.”
“Try again.”
Chase tried to move but the more he exerted any kind of force in any direction, an opposite force acted against him.
“Try concentrating only on one of the lightning bolts. Don’t try to break yourself free. Try to break the lightning instead with your mind.”
All of sudden it clicked inside Chase’s mind.
He focused on the lightning restraints and his own golden lightning, which until now was sizzling and dancing all around him randomly. He managed to make it act according to his will. It merged with the red lightning and counteracted its force. He flexed every one of his muscles at once and the red lightning bolts disintegrated.
“Very good.”
“Am I free to go now?”
“You’re not ready yet.”
“I feel ready.”
“Very well, then attack me.”
Chase didn’t wait. He sent a flurry of powerful fireballs towards Hades, who deflected them with ease.
“You’re still wasting your powers. You’re not focusing on hitting me.”
Chase tried to calm the turmoil inside his enraged mind.
“Yes, Chase, envision your next blow in your mind, see it land the way you want it to, then just do it.”
Chase wasn’t sure what Hades meant but that didn’t deter him. To his surprise, before he could realize what was happening, he had teleported in front of Hades and thrust his elbow deep into Hades’ stomach. Hades took three steps back and dark, red blood spilled from his mouth.
“That’s better,” said Hades through the pain. “Now we can actually start to fight seriously.”
Ryonna was relieved when the view from her ship’s viewport morphed from the inferno to the more familiar view of stars in space.
She lost no time looking at the stars, though. She keyed in the last known coordinates of her brother-in-law Jonas and activated the jump engines once more.
Then she ran back to her med-bay corner to check on Keera. She was still unconscious. She brought her medical AI online and entered a few commands on the terminal. A bio-matter generator mounted on a robotic arm directed itself to where Ryonna had cut her limb. The bio-matter generator started reconstructing the limb, starting with the bones. It continued with blood vessels, nerve endings, tendons, muscles and ended with the skin layer. The entire procedure took less than three minutes.
With Keera’s life signs stable, Ryonna decided to attend to her own wounds. She injected herself with a painkiller before looking at her right arm. A piece of shrapnel had lodged itself under her blue skin. The wound was still open and she was bleeding. Ryonna took the shrapnel out without a second thought and without blinking.
That opened the wound and more blood spilled onto the floor. She used advanced medical tools, guided by the AI via holo-vids, to close the wound and cauterize it.
She went to her quarters. Seeing it brought back old memories; not the best ones, but it still felt good to be on board her old ship.
She crashed into the bunk bed and let herself fall asleep, but not before setting an alarm that would wake her up an hour before they reached their destination.
Argos was teleported into an underground complex. The ceiling was extremely high, and the sheer enormity of the room gave him a good idea of the type of beast he would have to defeat.
That he was doing all this for Chase still made little sense on the surface, but he decided there was no need for a reason.
The heart wants what the heart wants.
Now where is that Titan?
A giant wall slid up, revealing gigantic feet. Soon the wall was all the way up and Argos had to tilt his head to see the Titan’s head.
“Who are you?” asked the Titan.
“I’m here for your prisoner.”
“Nobody enters here and lives to tell the tale.”
His voice was so low and loud that everything trembled a little when he spoke.
“I have no beef with you. If you let me take Asclepios and be on my way, I’ll let you live.”
The Titan started laughing so hard that everything around trembled some more.
“You are a funny Olympian. Did Apollo send you?”
“I’m no Olympian. I’m a Fury. And if you don’t let me get what I came for, things are going to end badly for you.”
“Oh, things are going to end badly indeed, that’s a given. But you’re mistaken in thinking it will be for me.”
Argos cracked his knuckles. Obviously there was no reasoning with the Titan. He grew his aura and soon he cast forth a strong red light. Crimson lightning bolts danced all around him.
“You can’t seriously expect to defeat me. I can just wipe you from existence with a single step.”
“Why don’t you give it a try, then?”
“Very well. It’s your funeral.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
The Titan ran towards Argos and the ground shook so much that he almost stumbled. He levitated in the air and took a defensive stance.
When Menoitios was in range and threw one of his
giant punches, Argos dodged it and flew behind the Titan. He created an enormous fireball and shot it at the Titan’s back. The resulting explosion was massive, and Argos was thrown back by the shockwave of his own attack. Menoitios fell to the ground with a deafening sound, followed by an even louder growl.
Argos flew to the other side of the giant room and looked for his target. He couldn’t see anything resembling a cell.
Damn, where is he?
“You won’t be able to sneak him out of here, I’m afraid. Only my death will release the shield currently cloaking his cell.”
“If that’s true then I’m sorry to say that I really have to kill you now.”
Menoitios rose to his feet and, while he was turning about, Argos unleashed a veritable flurry of fireballs towards the Titan. For two minutes he sent one fireball after another. When the last one hit, a gigantic explosion sent flames all around, engulfing the entire room. Argos raised a personal shield to deflect the flames.
That should do it.
Smoke filled the room. Soon Argos couldn’t see anything. He unleashed a shockwave to dissipate the smoke. Instead of discovering the body of a dead Titan as he expected, an enormous fist came at him. Unprepared, Argos got hit with full force and was thrown back into the farthest wall. He lost consciousness long before hitting the floor.
Miseo opened a secure channel to the base where he had left Argos. He tried a few times but there was no answer.
He brought up a long-range scan of the area and located a Zarlack ship in orbit there. He opened a secure channel to that ship instead.
“Commander Arg’Zur reporting. How can I be of help, Master?”
“I’m looking for Argos. Do you have any idea where he is?”
“He tasked us to pick him up, but when he failed to respond to our hails, we sent an away team to the surface. He’s not there.”
What is he up to?
“Have you investigated more? Did you check logs and video feeds?”
“Argos wouldn’t like it if we did that without his consent.”
“And I’m telling you otherwise. Dump all the base’s logs into an encrypted subspace data stream and send it to me now.”
“Argos is still the captain of this particular vessel, Master.” The Zarlack commander hesitated. “I don’t feel comfortable with that request.”
“You misunderstand me, Commander. You will obey my orders or I will deem you a traitor to the Furies, and have you and your crew executed at once.”
There was a pause during which Miseo saw the commander’s face become more worried as he pondered this.
“I don’t have all day, Commander. I warn you not to make the fatal mistake of testing my patience,” Miseo insisted.
“Sending data stream now.”
Miseo cut off the holo-transmission abruptly, and as soon as he had received the data stream he brought up the holo-vid logs around the time he dropped Argos on the planet. He fast forwarded the stream until something caught his attention. Argos let himself be bitten by a snake. His pupils were heavily dilated. He looked as though he was under the influence of drugs.
Great! I’ve put my trust in an addict. I should have known better.
He kept looking at the video feeds when something even more troubling happened. Argos had met with Ares. Miseo listened to their conversation and his blood boiled. Under normal circumstances, he was on top of his emotions, but upon learning that Chase was still alive and that Argos had agreed to help him, he found it hard to contain his rage. The entire area around his personal quarters on Erevos started to tremble. Cracks appeared in the wall and ceiling.
Two guards entered his quarters with guns blazing.
Miseo grabbed one with his mind and he exploded from the inside out before he could realize what had happened.
The other guard lowered his gun and got on his knees, begging for his life.
“Nobody, and I mean nobody, enters my quarters unannounced.”
“Please forgive me, Master. We thought you might be in trouble. It will never happen again.”
“Make sure it doesn’t. But now that you’re here, I have something for you to do.”
“Your wish is my command, Master.”
“Please find me the Shadow Hunter and have him meet me here.”
“I’m not authorized to talk with him; my security clearance is not high enough.”
“It is now, so go fetch him, unless you prefer I decide that you’re no longer of any use to me?”
The guard rose to his feet and saluted. “As you command.” He left the room sprinting.
It was uncharacteristic of Miseo to lose his temper like that. He had felt something similar during his fight with Laiyos, but the anger and hatred he harbored towards Argos at this moment was orders of magnitude stronger. Argos knew what Miseo’s plan was for the future. If he was working with Laiyos, this could have catastrophic consequences. Both Laiyos and Argos needed to be dealt with once and for all, now that it had become apparent that Argos would never be the ally Miseo had hoped for.
9
Upon their arrival on Earth, Sarah brought Chris to see Doctor Kiriakos, the Alliance’s foremost specialist in DNA and gene therapy. By then Chris had already grown to the size of a two-year-old. She held Chris in her arms when they arrived at the Alliance medical center located near Washington, DC.
Chris spoke to her in her mind.
You don’t need to see this doctor, Mom. I need to grow fast enough to help win this war.
Again with this? I don’t want to see my son grow in days, and die in weeks. You had no right to do this without asking me first.
I’m sorry, Mom, but I had every right. This is my life, hence it’s my choice.
Look, perhaps you weren’t planned, but the fact is you were conceived the first time your father and I made love, so that makes you our son. On Earth a child obeys his parents until he reaches eighteen, so like it or not you will do as I say.
There was no answer. Perhaps she had got through to him. This madness had to end. She couldn’t let her child have such a limited lifespan. There was a nagging thought at the edge of her mind, though, one she kept pushing away. It was coming back with a vengeance. What if Chris was right and this was the only way to win the war?
She was frightened by the thought, and for the time being she still didn’t want to accept it. But the more time passed the more her own conscious mind presented her with the dilemma. What if that sacrifice was needed? Wasn’t the simple fact that Chris had managed to do this to himself proof enough that it needed to happen?
She felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. This was not the kind of choice she liked to make, especially if there was even the slightest chance that her decision could impact on the destiny of every living being in the universe.
This was giving her a headache.
Mom, I understand how you feel, but you can’t stop this. I won’t let you.
I thought we agreed that I’m your mom and I know what’s best for you.
No, you agreed for me. There’s a difference.
I’m not having this discussion with you. We’re going to see the doc and see what he has to say.
Very well, but understand that I must reach fighting size in the next few days. That is paramount. After that, I’m all for resuming growth at a normal pace; but not before the head of the Furies is dead.
And you’re the one who will make it happen?
Not on my own, but I know I have a role to play. Remember, you may potentially have sacrificed your own Fury powers so we could find out what we need to do. You saw the future, so let it happen.
I haven’t seen you in that future. Chase was the one fighting the head of the Furies, not you.
You’re trying to distort the truth to justify your own fears, Mom. You know very well you felt I was part of all of this, even though you didn’t clearly see me in the vision. I know you felt it because I felt it too.
Sarah would have a hard time arguing with her so
n on that. She did indeed feel her son’s presence.
You need to understand I chose the timeline where you lived, and when I did, I didn’t think it would be one where you might only live for a short time with us.
Let’s look at the worst-case scenario, then? Let’s say what I did to myself is irreversible and I will only live several weeks to a few months. But during that time I will help rid the universe of the Furies. If we accept this, is my life worth more to you than every living being in the universe?
Sarah felt as though her heart had been grabbed by an external force, which was exerting a tremendous pressure on it. She was in a similar situation as Chase when he fired on their clones. She really wished Chase was there so she could discuss this with him.
Unfortunately, we don’t know anything for sure, so for now it doesn’t hurt to at least try to understand what is happening to you and see if it’s reversible.
I don’t mind if we look into the science of it, but I won’t accept any treatment if it stops my accelerated growth before I reach at least the age of seventeen. Which should only take a few days.
That last statement made Sarah’s head spin. Seventeen years worth of growth in only a few days?
This is insane.
Now let’s look at what would happen if you stopped this. I would miss a fight that I know I must be part of. In doing so, not only could we lose the war, or greatly delay a victory, but perhaps Chase would die. In the battle against the supreme commander it was clear he was about to be defeated, but someone intervened.
And that someone is you?
I honestly don’t know, but what if it has to be?
An intense shiver traveled down her spine.
Put yourself in my place, Chris. I . . . I never thought I’d have children to begin with. The career I chose in the military is a dangerous one. So while there are plenty of military people who decide to have kids, I simply couldn’t and wouldn’t put my family through the stress of wondering if I would come back alive from my many missions. Now that you’re here, my priorities have shifted. I still want to be part of this war because I don’t think we have any choice, but you’re my new priority now. Your safety comes first.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 151