by Lucas Flint
“Thanks, dude!” said Aster behind Beams suddenly. “I didn’t even notice that guy coming up behind me like that!”
“No problem,” said Beams. “You just focus on getting out of here.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Aster. “Almost finished … just need to press a few buttons and …”
Beams heard a yell before him and whipped his head around to see the Darzen charging at him again. The Darzen threw a punch at his face, which Beams tried to dodge, only to realize at the last second that his power up had already faded and he was back to his normal speed. This realization hit him at about the same time as the Darzen’s fist, which smashed into the side of his face and sent him crashing to the floor, smacking his head against the floor’s metal panels.
Before Beams could recover, the Darzen stomped down on his chest. The Darzen’s foot came down specifically on his chest wound, making Beams scream in pain. He fired another last blast at the Darzen’s face, sending it staggering backward again, and got back to his feet, albeit slowly and awkwardly. Feeling his chest, he noticed that it was not bleeding again, but it hurt like hell and he knew he couldn’t take another hit like that without suffering some kind of permanent damage to his body.
But I have no time to worry about that, Beams thought. The fight is still going on. Just gotta boost myself again and—
The Darzen he had shot rushed toward him again. Alarmed, Beams fired another laser, but the Darzen dodged his laser and slammed its leg against the side of his body. Beams gasped in pain and fell again, but before he hit the floor, the Darzen grabbed the collar of his shirt and raised him off the floor, balling its claws into a fist. But Beams lashed out with a kick, striking the Darzen in the chin and making him let go of Beams.
Beams hit the floor with a roll and immediately began firing a continuous beam of hot energy at the Darzen’s chest. His laser quickly melted a hole in the Darzen’s armor, making energy start to leak out. As soon as Beams saw the energy, he threw the disk which Mr. Space had given him earlier at the Darzen, but to his horror, the Darzen knocked the disk out of the air and rushed toward Beams again.
Right before it could reach him, however, a dimensional portal opened between him and the Darzen. The Darzen, which had been running fast, was unable to stop itself before it ran into the portal, which immediately closed with a pop the second the Darzen vanished.
What the? Beams thought. Where did that portal come from?
“Hey!” said Aster suddenly, waving at Beams. “That was me! I opened a portal to the outside and sent that Darzen out into the void between dimensions. You’re welcome!”
Beams smiled and gave Aster the thumbs up. Aster smiled in return for a moment before turning around and opening a portal for himself. At the same time, however, yet another Darzen broke apart from the others and rushed toward Aster in a mad scramble to stop him before he could get through the portal.
Beams closed his eyes again, fired his lasers into his eyelids, and then, adrenaline rushing through his veins, jumped through the air and tackled Aster into the portal as soon as the Darzen’s sword came flying at Aster’s neck. The two of them passed through the portal before ending up in a hallway which Beams didn’t recognize, rolling across the floor until they stopped in front of a door labeled ‘OFFICE OF DEAN ASTER, CHIEF OF THE IEA.’
“Ow,” said Aster, sitting up and rubbing his head. “That hurt.”
“Sorry,” said Beams, who also sat up, though he rubbed his back rather than his head. “I just saw that Darzen coming up behind you and I didn’t have time to stop him, so I tackled you through the portal to make sure you got to your office.”
Aster looked up at the door behind them, a frown on his face. “Looks like I must have put in the wrong coordinates, because this is just outside my office, not actually within it.”
“Can we get in anyway?” said Beams as he rose to his feet, dusting off his pants.
“Yeah, we can,” said Aster. “The retina scanner should recognize my eye. Watch.”
Aster leaned toward the retina scanner attached to the side of the door and allowed it to scan his eye. But the door did not open. It didn’t even seem to unlock.
“Uh oh,” said Aster.
“Uh oh?” Beams repeated. “What do you mean, ‘uh oh’?”
Aster looked at Beams with a grim expression on his face. “Someone changed my retina scanner to lock me out of my office. Which means that, unless we can find another way in, I won’t be able to stop the traitor from killing every last person on this station.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Terrified?” said Nova, a wicked grin crossing his elderly features. “You should be because all enemies of the Dread God should fear him and his loyal followers.”
“You’re not serious about the timer, are you?” said Bolt.
Nova nodded. The timer showed nine and a half minutes left. “I am perfectly serious, human. Using my victim’s credentials, I was able to wrest control over the station’s emergency protocols. In less than ten minutes, the airlocks will open and all of the air will be sucked out of the station, as well as any IEA agents unfortunate enough to be near the airlocks when they open. Then everyone will die because, without air, humans cannot survive.”
“But you’ll die, too,” said Bolt. “I know from experience that Darzens take on the weaknesses of their hosts when they possess them, meaning that if you are in here when the airlocks open, you’re going to die, too.”
Nova chuckled. “Did you think I didn’t think this through? You humans don’t understand the concept of sacrifice. We Darzens are willing to sacrifice our lives for the greater good. Killing the entire IEA in one blow is worth sacrificing the life of one Darzen. My life is irrelevant in the Dread God’s grand scheme.”
“Wait a minute,” said Captain Galaxy, her eyes darting to the laptop. “I might be able to shut off the timer through Aster’s computer. The Chief of the IEA always has access to the station’s emergency matters. So maybe if I look through his laptop, I could stop it.”
Nova suddenly held up an energy blaster and pointed it at Captain Galaxy. “I will not allow you or anyone else to survive. Die!”
Nova fired his energy blaster at Captain Galaxy. But Bolt jumped in the way and got hit in the chest dead on by the blast, which tore through his uniform and badly burned his chest. He landed with a thud on the carpeted flooring, pain exploding through his body as he yelled in agony.
“Bolt!” said Captain Galaxy. “No!”
Nova lowered his gun, a surprised look on his face. “Interesting. I did not expect you to jump in the way of that blast and save her life like that, human, given how you two barely know each other.”
Bolt tried to speak, but he found it almost impossible to form coherent words with his lips. The energy blast he took must have also paralyzed him, though it didn’t stop him from feeling the awful pain from where the blast had hit his chest. He could barely even move his body. All he could do was just lie there and try not to breathe too fast in order to minimize the pain.
Behind him, he heard Captain Galaxy speaking, probably into her communication device, “Space! Beams! The traitor is here. He’s already killed Bolt and—”
“Wait, Bolt is dead?” said Beams’ voice over her communication device. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean, I think he is,” said Captain Galaxy. “He’s lying on the floor and he looks unconscious, but—”
Nova suddenly fired his laser blaster again, which struck Captain Galaxy’s arm. Captain Galaxy screamed as her touch screen exploded, sending shrapnel flying everywhere. She clutched her wounded arm and winced in pain, while Nova again lowered his blaster and scowled.
“You weren’t supposed to call for backup,” said Nova. “No one was supposed to know what I am trying to do here. Oh, well. Less than six minutes left before the airlocks open and everyone dies. But I think I will end both of your lives now because the Dread God hates you two in particular and I know I will gain gr
eat favor from him if I eliminate his enemies for him. I may not live long enough to be rewarded for my efforts, but hearing your scream in fear will be reward enough.”
Nova walked up to the desk, but Bolt, who was still partially paralyzed from his earlier blast, grabbed Nova’s ankle. Nova looked down at Bolt, a cold expression on his face.
“No …” said Bolt, breathing hard. “Don’t … kill … her …”
Nova snorted and aimed his blaster directly at Bolt’s face. “I should have known better than to assume you would die from one blast so easily. I’ll just finish you off here and then finish off the girl next. You may be strong, but are you strong enough to survive a full-powered energy blast to the face? Let’s find out.”
Bolt’s eyes widened, but there was nothing he could do to dodge or stop the attack. He just lay there on the floor, staring up into the barrel of Nova’s blaster, waiting for the end to come and his life to end.
“Actually,” said a voice from Nova’s shadow behind him, “I think a better question to ask is, are you afraid of the dark?”
Shade rose from within Nova’s shadow like a zombie rising from the grave. Nova whirled around to shoot her, but Shade slapped the energy blast out of his hand and quickly wrapped a shadow tendril around his neck. She constricted it tightly, making Nova gasp and grab at the tendril, but he was unable to pull it off his neck.
“Shade,” said Bolt, smiling up at her despite the pain. “Thanks.”
Shade smiled down at him. “What, did you forget me already? I was just waiting for the right moment to attack this jerk. He should have kept a closer eye on his shadow.”
“Doesn’t … matter …” said Nova in a tight voice. “Less than … five … minutes …”
Nova was right. The timer on his arm showed that there were less than five minutes before the airlocks opened and killed everyone within. Even worse, it seemed to be counting down faster than ever, though that could have been Bolt’s own worry making time go by faster.
“Galaxy!” said Bolt, looking over his shoulder at her. “Turn off that timer! Now!”
“I’m trying,” said Captain Galaxy, typing furiously on the keyboard with one hand, “but I’m having a hard time finding the station’s controls on Aster’s computer. It’s a lot more complicated than the controls for the Adventure, especially with one hand.”
“Shut off the timer now,” Shade snapped at Nova. “Or else I’ll pop your head clean off like a chicken.”
Nova chuckled. “I’d … rather … die … than help … you …”
Shade frowned. “That’s what I was threatening to do to you. Are you stupid or something?”
“Not … stupid …” said Nova. His eyes suddenly flashed green. “Just more afraid of the Dread God than you.”
Without warning, Nova lashed out with a kick and struck Shade in the abdomen. Shade gasped, shattering her concentration and making the shadow tendril around Nova’s neck vanish. Then Nova punched Shade in the face and she fell down onto the floor, cracking her skull against the metal paneling and lying on the floor, very still and unconscious.
Shocked, Bolt nonetheless tried to get to his feet, only to get a boot in the face courtesy of Nova. The blow knocked him back on the floor, while Nova aimed his laser blaster at Captain Galaxy again, who froze mid-type, staring at the gun with fear and apprehension.
“You humans are clever,” said Nova, his voice full of suppressed rage. His eyes locked on Captain Galaxy as if she was the only thing in the room. “Perhaps too clever. But I’m still not going to kill you just yet. I’m going to wait until the timer reaches zero … and once it does, it will finish all of you off for me.”
Bolt bit his lower lip and looked at Nova’s arm. Though it was upside down, Bolt could tell that they now had less than three minutes left before the timer ended and the airlocks opened. That normally would have been more than enough time for Bolt to take out Nova, but that laser blast earlier hadn’t just hurt him. It had also paralyzed him or at least made his muscles more sluggish than they usually were.
Even if I beat him, that wouldn’t stop the airlocks from opening and killing everyone in here, Bolt thought with a shudder. Dang it …
All of a sudden, Captain Galaxy’s good arm darted toward her sound blaster holstered at her side, but Nova pulled the trigger and fired a laser blast at her. Captain Galaxy had just enough time to stare at the laser blast before it struck her in the chest and sent her flying backward. She slammed against the wall behind the desk and slumped to the floor, a burning hole in her chest from where she had been shot.
“Galaxy!” Bolt said. “No!”
Nova lowered his laser blaster, a vile smirk on his face. “Foolish human. She must have thought that her reflexes were faster than my trigger finger. It was a bet she ultimately lost.”
Nova raised the touch screen on his arm, stared at it, and smiled even more broadly. “Two minutes and counting until death consumes us all.” He looked down at Bolt. “It’s a shame you had to die this way, human because the Dread Priest mentioned a particular interest in you, but I’m sure he will understand. Or perhaps he will find someone else fit for the task he had in mind.”
“Task …?” Bolt said. “What task?”
“How should I know?” said Nova with a shrug. “I am but a simple soldier in the grand scheme of things. If I must give my life for the Dread God’s glory, then so be it. My life is worth nothing anyway. It’s worth exists only in relation to the Dread God and nothing else.”
“Sounds depressing.”
“Life is always depressing,” said Nova. “But not when the Dread God is winning. Once the airlocks open, the Dread God’s biggest thorn in his side will be gone and, though I will be dead as well, I will go down in history at the Darzen who—”
Without warning, the door to Aster’s office exploded open, sending metal shrapnel flying everywhere. Nova whirled around, but a laser beam shot out of the smoke cloud in the doorway and slammed into his chest, knocking him flat on the floor. He conked his head against the arm of one of the chairs on the way down and did not stir again.
Surprised, Bolt looked up to see Beams and Chief Aster dashed through the smoke cloud. The two of them looked harried and stressed out, especially Aster, whose normally pristine Mohawk had a few stray hairs.
“Bolt!” said Beams. He ran over to him and knelt beside him, his mouth turning in a concerned frown. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Nova,” Bolt said. He pointed at Nova lying unconscious on the floor. “He’s the traitor. He’s possessed by a Darzen.”
“What? Nova? Really?” said Aster, glancing at Nova. But he shook his head. “I’ll deal with that later. Have to stop the timer. Gotta shut it down before we all die.”
Aster rushed around to the other side of his desk and began typing furiously on the keyboard of his laptop. For a few tense seconds, it seemed as if he might fail and the timer might go off before he could shut it off.
Then, just when the timer on Nova’s arm hit ‘00:10,’ Aster tapped a few keys and said, “There. I did it. Emergency manual shut off. The timer should have stopped.”
And it did. The timer blinked 00:10, though, to Bolt, it felt more like it had stopped at the last possible second.
Doesn’t matter, Bolt thought with a sigh. We did it. We survived. We are not going to die.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A couple of hours later, Beams plopped down into one of the chairs in Aster’s office, exhaustion threatening to overtake him, but he knew he couldn’t sleep just yet. In the chair next to him sat Bolt, who didn’t seem as exhausted as him, but that was pretty typical of Bolt, who always seemed to have more energy than Beams despite having been shot in the chest by an energy blaster. Beams wondered if superhumans from his universe were all like that or if Bolt was just high energy.
Then again, Beams thought, glancing over his shoulder at Hypno and Shade, who stood behind them, they don’t look nearly as energetic as Bolt.
; Shade had a bad bruise on her head but otherwise seemed to be in fine condition despite having been knocked out by Nova earlier. As for Hypno, he was the only one who remained mostly unharmed, which made Beams jealous of his powers. Beams himself was still suffering from his chest wound, which surprisingly hadn’t affected his fighting abilities very much.
Maybe I’m tougher than I think, Beams thought, running a hand along the chest of his old costume. Or maybe it’s the Dread God’s influence making my body as well as my mind stronger. I prefer to think I’m tough, though.
On the other side of the desk sat Aster, who looked like the most tired of them all, though it was probably more the stress of IEA leadership than anything which was getting to him. He was drinking some kind of odd-looking purple drink, which Beams originally thought was grape soda, but Aster had said that it wasn’t, although he wouldn’t elaborate upon exactly what it was instead. He just insisted that he needed it in order to function, which made it sound like coffee to Beams, though he wasn’t curious enough to press the question.
Finally, after a couple more seconds of sipping, Aster lowered his drink onto the desk before him and sighed. “Glad you guys could make it to this meeting. I thought you might not want anything to do with me after this epic failure of mine.”
“Not like we have anything better to do,” said Shade with a shrug. “We can’t just go back to our own universes or something. Plus, you know, the Dread God is still around and trying to take over the multiverse.””
“Actually, we could,” said Beams. “Hypno, do you still have the portal generator we got from Genius?”
“Genius?” Bolt repeated, looking at Beams in surprise. “Do you mean my dad?”
“Yeah,” said Beams, nodding. “We saw him in an alternate universe and helped him with some stuff. He gave us a portal generating gun as a thank you.”