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

by Christian Kallias

  Daniel didn’t want to lose his advantage so he cocked the gauge of the gun to recharge it. It took three seconds, but that was enough for him to hit the Fury once more before he had time to retaliate. This time he was prepared for the recoil and used all his strength to keep the gun aimed exactly where he wanted the full shockwave to go.

  Timoros was halfway through getting to his feet when the shockwave hit him again and sent him crashing through a nearby medical cabinet. Whether it was the shockwave or the Fury flying through it that shattered it into a million pieces, Daniel didn’t really know nor care. A red light blinked on the gun’s control but Daniel ignored it and reloaded, waiting for it to recharge. It took slightly longer this time.

  The Shadow Hunter didn’t try to get up. Instead, he shot a fireball towards Daniel. He was prepared for it. He jumped forward and spun in the air. The fireball grazed his back in the middle of his jump. He kept rotating and, in midair, fired another shot of his shockwave shotgun at the Fury’s head. It hit the Fury at much closer range this time, and if he hadn’t brought the helmet of his morphing armor back just an instant before, he might actually have succumbed to the attack. It still hit him with incredible force and Daniel thought he heard neck bones crack.

  The Fury lay on the floor holding his head, and Daniel tried cocking the gauge of his shotgun once more. However, this resulted in a strange electronic noise that was not a good sign. The red light on the weapon was now madly blinking.

  Unfortunately for Daniel that was more than enough time for the Fury to react. His legs got kicked by the Fury, and before he could hit the floor he was thrown backwards by a small fireball that hit his chest. He rolled multiple times and stopped not far from Sarah.

  “Crap,” he said as he was about to lose consciousness. The last thing he did was push the gun towards Sarah.

  Chris and Gaia were still training. Chris had requested that the gravity be amped up to factor five, which seemed insane since they had been training for less than a day. But Chris was still able to hold his own at that setting with not only Gaia but an additional two battle droids. The speed at which he moved and the power of his blows were beyond impressive for a boy his age.

  “Shouldn’t you rest?” asked Gaia. “Aren’t you tired?”

  “I’m okay. I still have some juice, but I probably would need to stop training in an hour or two.”

  “I don’t know if it’s the training or the energy you deploy, but you have grown quite a lot in the last few hours.”

  “Really? Show me.”

  Gaia projected a holo-display from her hand that mirrored Chris’ current appearance.

  He looked older now, perhaps ten- or eleven-years-old.

  “Aren’t you running the risk of aging even faster when you fight and use your Fury powers?”

  “I hadn’t thought about that, but even if that’s the case, I’m okay with it. I need to reach adult size as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, but what will you do after that?”

  “One problem at a time. For now all that matters is that I can fight side by side with my father.”

  “I think you’re already on your way to becoming more powerful than him.”

  “We’ll see. How many Gs could he take in here?”

  “We never could test it fully because of a bug in the system, but he was extremely fast at 10 G.”

  “Cool. I should soon be there. Can you bring in more battle droids?”

  “Why?”

  “I just want to train under the most efficient battle conditions, and I think there could be at least three more droids in here.”

  Gaia invoked another three droids to come join them. She remote controlled them, even though she no longer thought they could actually harm Chris in any way on autopilot. The three additional droids entered the training chamber.

  The next training session was more difficult and Chris had to be much more careful. For the first time in many hours, he was getting hit here and there, but he always recovered quickly and went back on the offensive, often temporarily disabling the droid that had had the fortune to score a hit.

  What surprised Gaia most was that she was not holding back any punches either. Sure, she had to divide her near-infinite computational power to direct all the bots, but she was attacking Chris with similar and improved patterns of fighting compared to her fight against the Fury general on Droxia.

  When one of her droids scored a very powerful kick across Chris’s face and sent him to the ground, his reaction was immediate and unexpected. He shot such a powerful fireball at that drone that it vaporized.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll try to be more careful in the future.”

  While Gaia had a much stronger avatar body than most of the training ones, she calculated from her sensor info that this attack would have drained her entire shields in one go and inflicted serious damage if it had hit her.

  “That’s alright, though to avoid wasting precious resources, it would be better if you didn’t let your emotions cost us too many droids.”

  “Understood. Again, I’m sorry.”

  “Let’s continue.”

  Chris prepared to attack the nearest droid when he literally froze in midair.

  “What’s going on?”

  Chris’s face changed and his traits grew darker. “Mom and Dad are in trouble.”

  He extended his hands and four beams of white energy shot from the training droids and hit Chris in the torso. At first Gaia thought he was hit accidentally by a bug in their systems, but her sensors told her the full story. Chris was somehow siphoning power from all of them.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I gotta go.”

  And he teleported away from the training facility.

  Sarah tried to wake Daniel by slapping him gently but it was no use. He was out cold. Thin, light smoke rose from the part of his thin body armor that had received the fireball. She studied the huge gun he had pushed her way and tried to make it work. It had seemed particularly effective against the Fury. Inside Daniel’s pocket she found a power clip for it. She ejected the one inside the gun and replaced it. The gun hummed back to life. She cocked the shotgun gauge and readied herself to shoot at the Fury, but when she looked up she couldn’t see him.

  Her heart started beating faster and harder as she scanned her surroundings.

  When she heard a noise behind her it was too late. She turned around but was punched in the face and thrown to the floor, her head ringing.

  Argos, who still lay near her, used whatever energy he had left to get back to his feet. He could barely stand.

  That got Timoros’ attention, though. “Alright, Argos. The time has come to die.”

  “Bring it on,” said Argos, shooting a defiant look at his enemy.

  “While I would take great pleasure in making you suffer, I’ve lost enough time. It seems this ship has an infinite source of disposable cockroaches.”

  Timoros created a large fireball between his hands. Soon it was as big as a watermelon. He threw it at Argos, who erected a mirror shield, a trick he had picked up when fighting Ares. The attack reflected off the shield and returned towards Timoros at full speed. When it exploded, the Fury shouted out in pain for the first time. Once the flames and smoke had dissipated, there stood Timoros, with both arms crossed in front of his face for protection. He lowered them to reveal that a part of his face was badly burnt and his eyes were bloodshot. This gave him a sociopathic look.

  Without another word the Shadow Hunter flew towards Argos at maximum speed, head first. His head impacted directly with Argos’ stomach, sending him flying into the wall. By chance he was still standing, but he soon slid down and finished in a sitting position, where he lost consciousness.

  Sarah knew she was next and, sure enough, the Fury was already walking towards her. She was all that was left standing to protect Chase. She aimed the shockwave shotgun and fired at the Fury. The gun worked but, to her surprise, Timoros sent a shockwave of his o
wn in response and they canceled each other out. She tried firing again but the gun was overheating and she had to drop it.

  It seemed nothing and no one could save them now.

  Timoros created a fireball and smiled as he aimed his attack at Sarah’s face.

  “Any last words?”

  Sarah didn’t have time to answer, but Chris did.

  “Yeah. Don’t you dare hurt my mother!” Chris appeared in midair out of nowhere and smashed the Fury with a powerful flying kick that sent the Fury crashing outside the med-bay, punching another human-sized hole in the wall.

  Chris lowered himself to the floor. “You alright, Mom?”

  “I am now. Thanks to you and so many others.”

  Chris scanned the room and saw how many people had intervened to save both his parents. They were all out of commission.

  “Do you think you can defeat him?” asked Sarah.

  “I don’t see that I have a choice.” He smiled.

  Sarah saw how much he had grown since she had left him with Gaia and Spiros. She couldn’t believe it. His clothes were way too small for him now. He looked about twelve-years-old.

  Chris saw her look of concern. “Don’t worry, Mom. All part of the plan.”

  Before she could answer he was already flying towards the Shadow Hunter, fireballs engulfing both his hands.

  Ares was growing impatient. Every minute counted, and he wondered how long Argos could stave off the Shadow Hunter.

  “Where are we, Asclepios? Are you done yet?”

  “Asking me every two minutes isn’t going to make me work any faster.”

  “You don’t understand. If Chase is killed, then we all fall.”

  “No pressure then.”

  Asclepios kept working on his elixir, trying to block Ares out. He had enough trouble remembering the right dosage.

  “I’m almost there. Just one more minute.”

  Ares was turning in circles around the table in the mess hall that Asclepios had promptly turned into a lab.

  Apollo, who was standing at the other side of the mess hall with his arms crossed against his chest, had been uncharacteristically silent for a long while. He finally broke the silence.

  “As much as I hate to do it, I suppose I should come back with you.”

  That got Ares’ attention. “The more hands on deck the better, yes. But you could be killed.”

  “That didn’t seem to bother you that much.”

  Didn’t it? Ares sure liked the abilities that came from being made only of energy. But not having a flesh-and-bones body also meant forgoing pleasures of the flesh.

  “It’s not all that glamorous, brother. You’d better be careful.”

  “How strong can that Fury be? I killed a few during the last war.”

  “As did I, but the monster trying to kill Chase is infinitely more powerful than the foot soldiers we dealt with in the past. I can guarantee that.”

  “Are you certain it will make a difference? I mean, I understand you befriended Chase, and Aphroditis seems to think he’s our only hope, but do you really buy all that?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Right now he’s the only one who can defeat that Shadow Hunter, and the only hope of ever seeing our sister returned to us.”

  Apollo uncrossed his arms, came next to Asclepios, rested his hands on the table, but didn’t say a word.

  Then Asclepios took a knife and made a small incision on Apollo’s hand.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I need Olympian blood as the last ingredient.”

  “When were you gonna tell us that? And why didn’t you take some of your own?”

  “I need a source as close to Zeus as possible. I’m one step removed. Your blood will work better.”

  “I still think you could have asked first.”

  “Sorry, Dad.”

  “What did you just say?”

  “I’m your son, and frankly that’s what hurts the most in all of this. That you would cast your own flesh and blood into eternal imprisonment with a Titan.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Apollo, genuinely surprised.

  “Do you remember Coronis?”

  “I do, vaguely, though she died in the Fury War. What about her?”

  “She was my mother. Just before she left for her last battle, she gave birth to me. I later learned you were her lover.”

  Apollo swallowed heavily. “This entire time I wanted to kick your ass, and you’re my own son.”

  “Life’s a bitch. Get used to it. There, I’m done,” said Asclepios as he gave Apollo the flask containing the elixir.

  Apollo took it. “This discussion isn’t over.”

  “Sure. If you survive what comes next we can talk more about it.”

  Ares put his hand on Apollo’s shoulder. “As heartwarming and slightly bizarre as this family reunion is, we’ve got to go now.”

  They teleported away from the Silver Arrow.

  20

  When Ares and Apollo arrived in the Hope’s med-bay it was utter chaos. Chris was fighting the Shadow Hunter, and while he was not as powerful he still managed to keep him at bay.

  Timoros saw them appear and launched a fireball in their direction. Apollo barely had time to raise a shield to contain the attack.

  “Lovely dinner parties you’re throwing here, brother,” said Apollo.

  But then Chris flew in front of them, crashed on top of Argos and lost consciousness.

  When they turned their attention back to Timoros, he had murder written all over his face.

  “When will this stop? How many other vermin are coming to try to save that treacherous Fury?”

  Ares shot Apollo a look and he ran towards the stasis pod, the elixir in hand.

  Timoros disappeared and re-appeared between Apollo and his target. He unleashed a series of powerful punches towards the Olympian. Apollo couldn’t even try to block the Fury’s attack for fear of breaking the small flask, which he protected with his closed fist. By the time Timoros stopped his attacks, Apollo’s face was a bloody mess.

  “You’re the ones responsible for trapping us for thousands of years. What are you doing here?”

  “Making sure you get back where you came from would be a good start.” Apollo spat a blood-coated tooth onto the floor.

  “This is going to be an even more satisfying mission than I could have dreamed of. On top of eliminating the traitors, I can also take pleasure in killing an Olympian.”

  Ares talked with Sarah and Apollo telepathically.

  We’ll need a diversion for this to work. Apollo, give Sarah the elixir and occupy the Shadow Hunter long enough for her to give it to Chase.

  Apollo made a throaty noise and spat blood on Timoros’ face.

  “We should have killed your kind,” said Apollo.

  Timoros threw the most powerful punch Apollo ever felt in his life, forcing him to take a knee. He had to muster all his life force just to stay conscious. He looked towards Sarah who made a slight head movement to let him know she was ready. Just before his head was hit by Timoros’ knee, he threw the flask and she caught it.

  Then Apollo went on the defensive, trying as best as he could to deflect the blows from the enraged Fury. But Timoros saw he was distracted and looked behind him. Apollo tried to take advantage and hit the Fury, but he blocked his incoming punch without even looking. Sarah was up and fiddling with the controls of the stasis pod when Timoros decided to act.

  He crushed Apollo’s fist within his, sending the Olympian to his knees in agony. Then he moved so quickly towards Sarah that he might as well have teleported.

  Before she could remove Chase from stasis, she felt something go through her stomach.

  When she looked down she saw the open-palmed hand of the Shadow Hunter protruding from her stomach, with her blood on it.

  Chase had been fighting Hades and perfecting his technique while waiting to be revived. He wondered what was taking so long, but Hades was an extremely challe
nging and fun-sparring partner. In the middle of a heated exchange of powerful blows, Hades stopped and his eyes grew wide.

  “What’s going on?”

  Hades took Chase by the shoulders. “Listen to me very carefully, Chase, you have to wake up now. You need to wake up in the real world or you’ll be trapped here forever.”

  “What are you talking about? I thought I needed to wait for my friends to revive me.”

  “They’re all there in the real world, being defeated by a single Fury. If you don’t wake up now, they will all die and so will you. Just wake up, now!”

  “How?”

  “Like you did everything else; will it!”

  Chase didn’t argue and closed his eyes. A second later, his body disappeared from the Underworld.

  When Chase opened his eyes he was still in the cryostasis pod. The image he saw was terrifying. A Fury had just impaled Sarah. Chase felt anger rise inside his very soul, but instead of letting it overwhelm him, he simply turned into fury mode with a single thought. The temperature of the pod, which was near absolute zero, rose at exponential speed and the glass of the pod exploded.

  Sarah was holding a flask in her hand. Ares spoke in Chase’s mind. You need to drink that immediately, Chase!

  Timoros removed his hand from Sarah’s stomach and Chase reacted instantly. His energy pool was very low, so he had to use minimum energy to achieve his goal. Fortunately, his body was flooded with adrenaline because of his brutal awakening. As Sarah fell to the floor, his bright orange aura filled the room. He shot a powerful fireball that catapulted Timoros backwards. Before Sarah hit the ground, she was in his arms, tears filling her dying eyes. She opened the flask and brought it to Chase’s lips. He could feel she was only seconds away from dying herself.

  Chase drank the bitter concoction and felt life and all his energy return to him almost instantly. The claws of death around his soul retracted.

  His aura turned white and he closed Sarah’s wound as he healed her. He gently dropped her next to Argos, who had a young, unconscious and heavily wounded boy on top of him. Chase remembered his vision dream when he was under the influence of the synthetic Kyrian snake venom. There was no mistaking it. This was his son, Chris.