by Lucas Flint
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Hovering in midair, Bolt had taken the full brunt of the Dread God’s agony as it tore through the minds of everyone in the room. It had nearly been enough to knock him out of the air entirely, but Bolt, having some experience with mental attacks in the past, managed to stay in the air despite that. Even so, when the Dread God’s screaming ended and everything went silent, Bolt felt as exhausted as if he had just run a marathon across the continental United States without using his super speed.
The Dread God had died standing up, but when Beams ripped the God Slayer out of his head, the Dread God’s corpse suddenly fell backward. Bolt was about to move in and save Beams, but Beams jumped off the Dread God’s face at that moment and landed on Rubberman’s trampoline form, which he bounced on a couple of times before coming to a stop.
When the Dread God’s corpse slammed into the floor, the entire building shook like an earthquake. Debris knocked loose by the Dread God’s earlier attack suddenly fell from the ceiling, crashing loudly onto the floor in the silence. Aside from that, the Fist stood, though it was in even worse shape than it had been before the Dread God’s arrival.
Landing on the floor, Bolt ran over to Beams and Rubberman, who were standing up and dusting themselves off now. Beams continued to hold the God Slayer in his hands, which continued to shine as brilliantly as ever in the shadows of the Fist.
“Beams, are you all right?” said Bolt as he came to a stop before Beams and Rubberman. “Did you really kill the Dread God? We know he can survive attacks that would kill normal humans, but—”
“He’s dead,” Beams confirmed, interrupting Bolt without apology. He gestured with the God Slayer at the Dread God’s corpse. “I felt the God Slayer pierce his brain. The Dread God might be able to survive without a heart, but he can’t survive without a brain.”
Bolt looked at Rubberman. “And Rubberman, what about you? Are you well?”
Rubberman nodded. He patted his chest. “Yes. I wish the Dread Priest was still around so I could thank him for severing my own connection to the Dread God. I believe that’s the only reason I survived. Otherwise, I’d be just as dead as him right now, but luckily I am not.”
“That is good to hear, Rubberman,” said a dark voice behind them. “Though I don’t know you very well, your death would have made this event very tragic.”
Bolt, Beams, and Rubberman looked over their shoulders to see the Midnight Menace gliding silently along the floor toward them. Shade followed not too far behind him, looking no worse for the wear despite the mental pain she likely endured when the Dread God was destroying the Shadowlands.
“Shade, how are you doing?” said Bolt to Shade as she and the Midnight Menace approached. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Aw, I didn’t know you cared about me,” said Shade as she came to a stop with the Midnight Menace. “But yes, I’m doing much better than before, but that pain was unreal. What was that all about? I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“As I told you, it is the Shadowlands,” said the Midnight Menace, glancing at Shade with disapproving eyes. “As beings of shadow, we have a connection to the Shadowlands which other superhumans lack. Until recently, you weren’t even aware of it yourself. We feel what the Shadowlands feel, at least while we are inside it.”
Shade frowned. “You’re going to have to teach me more about this Shadowlands stuff sometime because this seems a bit too important to ignore.”
The Midnight Menace sighed. “At this point, I have no choice but to teach you more about the Shadowlands. Now that you are aware of them, I will have to make sure you understand the Shadowlands and how we relate to them. That is a lesson I am not particularly looking forward to teaching a G-Man agent, but I will do it if I must.”
Shade opened her mouth, probably to say something snarky, but then someone shouted, “Hey!” and Bolt looked back toward the entrance of the Fist to see Aster, Captain Galaxy, Mr. Space, and Hypno walking toward them. Mr. Space looked injured from his crash, leaning on Captain Galaxy for support, while Aster and Hypno seemed relatively unharmed, although Aster’s Mohawk was messier than normal.
“Space, Galaxy,” said Bolt, waving at them as they approached. “So glad to see you guys. How are you?”
“Better,” said Mr. Space with a grunt. He nodded toward his crashed chair, which lay on the floor not too far away from them. “That crash was unexpected and it left me with a limp, but luckily I managed to survive without suffering any debilitating injuries. But I’ll probably have to spend the next few weeks in bed anyway, with Galaxy and Sparky waiting on me for all of my every day needs.”
“Don’t get too excited about that, Space,” said Captain Galaxy sharply. “We have the Adventure’s AI to help, so we’re not going to be your servants.”
Mr. Space pouted. “But AI is very impersonal in comparison to real people and friends. It just wouldn’t be the same.”
“Don’t worry, Space,” said Aster with a smile. “We’ll have the Agency’s best doctors get you fixed up right away. That way, you won’t have to lie around in bed all day for very long.”
Mr. Space groaned, apparently disappointed that he was not going to get a chance to lie around and rest like he’d planned. Bolt tried to hide a smile, though he found it hard to do.
At that moment, Bolt heard movement in the shadows and started. His first thought was that the Darzens had entered the Fist and were going to attack him and his friends, but then six beings flew from out of the shadows from every corner of the room and floated together in midair. It was the Starborn, whose robes looked slightly more tattered than usual, but who all nonetheless seemed to have survived the Dread God’s earlier assault.
“You guys are okay,” said Bolt, looking up at the Starborn and smiling. “I thought the Dread God killed you.”
“He almost did,” said the lead Starborn, rubbing the back of his head, “but luckily, we managed to survive. Even so, if Beams had not shown up with the God Slayer when he did, we probably would have all died. For that, we must once again thank you mortals for saving our lives.”
“No problem,” said Bolt, giving them the thumbs up. “The Dread God was a threat to all of us. Taking him down was the right thing to do.”
“But what are we going to do with his body?” said Beams, glancing at the Dread God’s corpse. “Are we going to bury it or—”
Beams’ sentence was interrupted when a brilliant white light suddenly shone in the air above them. Everyone, including the Starborn, had to avert their eyes to avoid getting their vision ruined by the light, but soon the light faded, and when it did, Bolt was one of the first to take his hands off of his eyes and look up to see where the light had come from.
Floating above them in a silent yet majestic way was the Spirit of the Woods. And sitting on her back clutching the leaves running along her skin was Kyra, who waved happily at everyone when they looked up at her.
“Hi, Bolt!” said Kyra, waving down at him. “How are you? Mommy said we were going to see you. Are you okay?”
“Spirit? Kyra?” said Aster, staring up at the two of them in surprise. “What are you doing here? I thought that you weren’t allowed to leave the Endless Forest.”
“It is good to see you again as well, Chief Aster,” said the Spirit in her usual majestic voice, “but to answer your question, I can leave the Endless Forest whenever I want, but I’m not allowed to directly intervene in the events of the multiverse. As for why I am here at all, it is because I sensed the death of the Dread God.”
“You mean Daddy,” said Kyra.
“Daddy?” Beams repeated. He looked at Bolt in bewilderment. “Why did that girl call the Dread God ‘Daddy’? Please tell me I did not just hear a little girl call the Dread God ‘Daddy.’”
“It’s a long story,” said Bolt, waving off Beams’ question. “I’ll fill you in later.”
The Spirit’s eyes shifted over to the Dread God’s corpse. “Ah. He really is dead, just as I
thought. I wasn’t sure whether to believe what I sensed at first, but it appears that he is indeed dead.”
There was a slight hint of sadness in the Spirit’s eyes and voice as if she could not bring herself to be entirely happy about the Dread God’s death. Bolt remembered what the Spirit had said about her and the Dread God being lovers in the past. She must have still had some feelings for the Dread God, even if he had tried to kill her. Kyra also looked a little sad, though she didn’t seem as sad as the Spirit.
“Yeah,” said Beams. He held up the God Slayer. “I killed him, stabbed him right in the skull with the God Slayer.”
The Spirit looked at the God Slayer with curious eyes. “It has been ages since I last saw the God Slayer. I believe the last time I saw it, in fact, was when Arius first used it to kill the Dread God. It is just as beautiful as it was back then, but also rather terrifying, knowing the power which resides in that weapon.”
“I know,” said Beams, nodding as he lowered the God Slayer. “That’s why I’m going to get rid of it.”
“What?” said Bolt, snapping his head toward Beams. “Did you say you’re going to get rid of the God Slayer? Why would you do that? It’s the most powerful weapon in the multiverse. Surely you’d be able to make good use of it.”
“I know,” said Beams again quietly. He looked down at the God Slayer at his side. “But that’s precisely why I don’t want it. I don’t need a weapon that powerful, either here or back in my universe. And I’m afraid that if I take the God Slayer back with me to my universe, there’s a good chance it could end up in the wrong hands.”
“Then what are you going to do with it?” said Aster, tilting his head to the side. “Surely you’re not going to destroy it, are you?”
“No, I’m not going to do that,” said Beams. He looked up at the Starborn. “I want the Starborn to have it. You guys were the original creators of the God Slayer. It only makes sense that you should take it back for safekeeping.”
“Are you certain about that, son of Arius?” said the lead Starborn. “We would, of course, be happy to take the weapon back and ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands, but there is a reason we left the God Slayer with humanity originally.”
“I’m sure,” said Beams. He held up the God Slayer. “Take it and hide it somewhere no one will be able to find it. If we ever need it again, we can always find you guys and ask for it back.”
The Starborn seemed genuinely surprised by Beams’ request, but the lead Starborn waved his hands and the God Slayer flew up out of Beams’ hands toward them. The God Slayer floated gently above their heads, its crystalline blade shining as brightly as ever.
“All right, then,” said Bolt. He didn’t quite understand why Beams would give up such a powerful weapon, but he supposed it wasn’t really any of his business. “The Dread God’s body is still here.”
“We’ll take it,” said the Spirit. She gestured with her trunk at herself and Kyra. “Kyra and I will take his body to the Endless Forest and bury it there. We’ll also ensure that all of his organs are burned so the Darzens don’t try to resurrect him again.”
“Very well,” the lead Starborn said. “We won’t dispute that. We have no need of the Dread God’s body so you may do with it as you wish.”
“Same here,” said Aster, nodding. “The IEA doesn’t need the Dread God’s body, either. We’re gonna need to take pictures of it first, though, for the report we’ll inevitably have to write up about this thing.”
“That is fine by me,” said the Spirit. “We’ll make sure his body is disposed of in such a way that you will never need to fear the Dread God’s resurrection ever again.”
“Good to hear,” said Bolt. He looked around at the others suddenly. “So, I think that’s everything now. Who’s ready to go back home?”
“I am,” said Beams.
“Same here,” said Rubberman. “Adams is probably worried sick about us, plus I’ve got a lot of business deals to finalize.”
“Hypno and I are definitely ready to go back home as well,” said Shade. “Director Smith is going to want to hear all about everything we’ve been through. Right, Hypno?”
“Right,” said Hypno. He sighed. “But I’m not looking forward to filling out the inevitable report with all of the fun details that Director Smith is going to want to read about.”
“I will go back as well,” said the Midnight Menace. “The Shadowlands are safe for now, so I don’t need to be here anymore, though I will have to come back eventually to teach Shade about them. For now, however, I need to return to the INJ and give them a report about what happened here.”
“All right, then,” said Bolt. “Then it’s time for us to go our separate ways. Let’s go home, everybody. We’ve got people waiting for us.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
One week later …
With a soft ding, the elevator doors opened up and Beams, his backpack slung over his shoulder, stepped out of the elevator into Level 1 of the Elastic Cave. “Hey, boss, I’m here!”
As Beams expected, Rubberman sat at Mission Control, where he was watching what seemed to be a news report on the damage wrought by last week’s Darzen invasion of Golden City. From what Beams could tell, most of the news stations still had no idea what happened and so had brought on a variety of ‘UFO experts’ to try to explain it, often in unintentionally hilarious ways. Beams remembered one interview with a ‘UFO expert’ with crazy black hair sticking up everywhere who claimed that the aliens were a government conspiracy meant to frighten the people into accepting a one world government, which had been hilarious to Beams, especially when the interviewer seemed to take his theory very seriously.
Rubberman glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “Hey, Beams. You’re a bit early today.”
Beams shrugged. “I got up earlier than usual, so I decided I would come into work early as well. Is Adams around?”
“No, he’s off today,” said Rubberman, shaking his head. “Told him he’d been working himself to the bone for the last month and that he really needed to take a day off. You know how much of a workaholic Adams is.”
Beams nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not sure how he’s going to relax, because I bet you he’s going to spend all day worrying about us burning down the Elastic Cave while he’s away.”
Rubberman chuckled. “He actually did mention that when I forced him to take a day off. I told him not to worry because the Cave’s fire insurance was up to date, so if we did burn it down, we could just fix it up with the money we’d get from insurance. He didn’t seem to find that very funny for some reason, though.”
Beams also chuckled and said, “Well, let me go get my suit on and clock in. Can’t wait to get started.”
“Hold on a minute,” said Rubberman. He turned off the various Mission Control monitors and then swiveled his seat around to face Beams. “I got a message from those Space and Galaxy people who we helped last week.”
“What? Really?” said Beams in surprise, nearly dropping his backpack to the floor. “What do they have to say?”
“Not much,” said Rubberman. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began tapping the screen. “They sent me an email, which apparently caused them some trouble, because the IEA considers email an ‘obsolete technology,’ so they had to figure out a way to make their hyper-advanced computers send emails to our ‘primitive’ devices. I just got the email this morning and, though the formatting is a bit wonky, it’s still readable.”
“Okay, but what did they say?” said Beams, stepping forward. “Any updates on what is going on in the multiverse?”
“Yeah,” said Rubberman, who had apparently found the email by now, because he was scanning the phone like he was reading something. “According to this email, the IEA has successfully recovered from the damage inflicted on it by the Darzens. Furthermore, although Galaxy is still a Captain, she’s been assigned a larger crew to the Adventure and is next in line to become a Commander once a position opens up in the Command
erate. Apparently, Chief Aster was impressed by how she and Space handled themselves during the Dread God incident and even gave them a pay raise as a reward.”
“That’s great,” said Beams, “but what about the Darzens? Are they still a threat?”
Rubberman shook his head. “Not according to this email. It says that the Darzen empire has completely collapsed into extremely violent infighting since the death of the Dread God. Without the Dread God, the Dread Priest, or the Avatar to lead them, the Darzens have collapsed into dozens of different factions, each one fighting for supremacy over the remains of the Dread God’s multiversal empire. Jinkopa, in particular, has become a gigantic battleground as the factions fight for every inch of territory they can get, while several Darzen-occupied worlds have already overthrown the Darzens oppressing them. All in all, the Darzens are probably not going to be a big threat to the multiverse again anytime soon, if ever.”
Beams breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that the Darzens might seek to avenge the Dread God’s death by invading Beams’ universe, but it seemed like they were a bit too busy slaughtering each other in a pointless civil war to care about the actual killer of the Dread God.
“But Graalix is missing,” Rubberman continued. “After Bolt punched him through the Fist, the IEA has been trying to find him. They think he must have fled the Shadowlands after the Dread God’s death. Aster put up a bounty for him to encourage agents to look for him, but the multiverse is a big place and Graalix could be hiding anywhere. Plus, it’s likely that Graalix is going to lay low for a while anyway in order to avoid being captured by the IEA or killed by the Darzens, who hate him because for some reason they’re convinced he is responsible for the death of the Dread God.”
“Hope they catch him soon,” said Beams. “That jerk doesn’t deserve to live, given everything he’s done.”
“I’m sure they’ll catch him eventually,” said Rubberman. He scrolled through the email. “Also, it says some girl named ‘Pesa’ says hi. Do you know who that is?”
