by Bryan Young
Immediately, The Warden noticed his hand begin to burn and he released his grip as a blast of hot energy erupted from Tye’s eyes. Shooting back up, Tye attempted to blast the alien again but was kicked with great force into the face of the hill.
As The Warden moved forward to continue his assault, Ashley intervened with some well-aimed bolts that exploded on the ground in front of him. “Go!” she shouted at Tye. “Make sure the others are alright! I’ll hold him off.”
As Tye made his way towards the cave, The Warden tried to cut him off, but Ashley unleashed a powerful wave of energy to knock him away and then followed up by holding balls of energy in her hands and trying to beat him with it.
Tye ran into the cave and immediately slid towards the two bodies lying next to each other. He placed his hands on them—they were still warm. The Warden had been telling the truth about keeping them alive, but they were undoubtedly still in dire straits.
Carefully, he slung both their unconscious bodies over his shoulder and flew them over to the top of the hill. Once there, he laid them down next to each other and put his ear to each their chests and listened for breathing. As his head lay on Carmelita’s chest, he suddenly heard her cough and he jumped back to give her some space.
After giving her a couple seconds to get her bearings, Tye immediately jumped forward and gave her a hug as she weakly asked what had happened. He quickly told her that the final fight with the alien had begun and that Ashley was at the bottom of the hill fighting for her life. She tried to prod him for more, but bearing in mind the urgency of the situation, he simply told her that she needed to get herself and Dallas to a safer spot and that he had to go.
With that, he charged back into battle. Ashley was struggling to land a significant blow on The Warden. He came rocketing in fist-first and landed a clean shot across his jaw that slightly staggered him. Noting this momentary weakness, she threw a barrage of punches at his abdomen and quickly followed up with a large blast that managed to push him backwards.
Shaking off the damage, the alien started getting back up but Ashley shot a fury of bolts that forced him to cover. Thinking they had the upper hand, Tye fired shots of his own but both Ashley and he had to quickly move out of the way when two small projectiles headed their way, exploding with violent force on impact with the ground.
As Ashley was about to get back into the fight, The Warden’s blinding speed caught her off guard and he knocked her into a nearby boulder. He fired a devastating beam from his arm cannon that exploded the area surrounding her, leaving her squirming in pain.
Tye screamed from fear that The Warden had seriously injured Ashley. In anger, he released powerful beams from his eyes coupled that with energy blasts from his hands, which hit The Warden square in the back, launching him into the cave’s side and forcing him through the solid rock. He kept this up for a solid twenty seconds before relenting and opting to beat him senseless up close and personal.
But as he flew forward, The Warden managed to shoot out of what Tye had hoped would be his stone tomb. He weaved under Tye’s punches, bringing his fist up and smashing down on Tye’s back, knocking him to the ground. He then raised his foot and stomped with such force that the ground shook beneath him, forming a small crater. “My armor is made up of some of the hardest material in the universe. You’ll have to do better than that if you hope to harm me.”
Tye screamed in pain and The Warden pressed his foot down harder on his ribcage, “I’m disappointed,” he taunted. “I felt such strength from you. I had hoped you’d pose some kind of a challenge.” He raised his foot up high. “That’s why I let your friends live, you know? I’d hoped that you’d be motivated to protect them. That it would bring out an inner power we haven’t seen. Clearly, I was wrong,” he said gravely as he brought his foot down once more. He then rose into the air and pointed at Tye’s unmoving body. A small red ball of energy appeared at his fingertip. It zipped forward towards Tye. He weakly put a hand out to blast the incoming attack, detonating it and setting off a massive explosion that left the crater ten times the size it was initially. In the center lay Tye’s unmoving body.
By this time, Ashley had regained her senses. As soon as she got to her feet, she fell forward onto her knees, in time to see The Warden unleash his attack on Tye. She teared up as the reality of the situation hit her. In her mind, Tye was dead, and she hadn’t been able to save him. An intense mix of emotions hit her at once: sadness, remorse, sorrow, and rage. All swirling around inside her like a vortex at sea. The person she had grown closest to during these trials and tribulations could now be gone and at the hands of an alien who wouldn’t stop laughing.
She hated The Warden. Everything about him. The way he looked. The way he spoke. The situation in which he had put her, her friends, and her planet. And most of all, she hated the damn laughter. It rang in her ears endlessly, taunting her.
She couldn’t bear it. As she gritted her teeth and forced her body upwards, the whirlwind of emotions burned as a fresh and motivating force in her core. She clenched her fists as fury became the leading power inside of her.
Visible streams of energy began to circle around her, first moving slowly but then violently spinning as her anger grew. Her eyes glowed a bright orange. The Warden turned to see the transformation but didn’t attack as it reached its peak. Instead, he watched, intrigued and enthralled with this display of energy. Ashley’s power was rising, overflowing, and he could feel it. The waves of energy were so great that he saw everything surrounding her being forced back and thrown around as though a Category 5 hurricane was in full effect. She cried out in anger and her wails carried all throughout the forest, reverberating with an eerie echo much deeper than her own voice.
She put her arms out and in a remarkably powerful yet beautiful fashion, her whole body was covered with the energy, forming an opaque solid protective layer around her. The energy was smooth and featureless, concealing the anger-riddled teenager within. The only thing visible were her glowing eyes. She put her hand out and almost unconsciously released the anger in the form of a blast of energy. The Warden shielded himself, curious if he could take the brunt of the force. But as soon as it hit him, he cried out in agony. This was different. It hit significantly harder, burning and shocking him at the same time.
He attempted to rush her using his energy blade but as soon as he moved forward to attack, Ashley simply waved her arm and the ground erupted with violent seething energy in front of him, forcing him back.
Knowing that his best bet was to create some distance, he fired three missiles in her direction but with a simple look, she destroyed them mid-air before they reached her. The Warden cursed as he activated his anti-gravity device and propulsion system to fly away but as he turned to go upwards, Ashley materialized before him and blasted an energized ball at him that broke through the center of his armor and hurled him to the ground. She held her hand out and delivered three more large bolts that exploded with great force over him.
As he lay there writhing, Ashley closed her eyes brought her fingers together to form a triangle. Mere seconds later, her eyes flung open and a spinning vortex appeared over the alien. A broad ray of green energy, half the size of a basketball court, burst out of the maelstrom and pummeled into The Warden, creating a deep, perfectly square hole in the ground.
Feeling the agony of the attack, he tried to get up. But almost as soon as the first ray dissipated, another took its place. And then another. And then another. They kept coming, making the hole deeper and wider as they did. With every shot, The Warden sustained more and more damage and he knew this. Desperately, he tried to reach for a sensor in the middle of his suit, but the pain from the constant impacts was nearly unbearable. Slowly, he reached for the sensor, taking the full force of the shots repeatedly until finally he touched it.
A large boom echoed through the air as a great red ball of energy discharged from his suit, increasing the size of the crater and allowing him to roll out of harm’s way b
efore the next shot came. Knowing he didn’t have much time before she shot at him again, he quickly stuck his hand out and instantly, his armor transformed into what looked like a high-tech rifle and shot a thin straight beam forward, directly through Ashley’s chest.
By this time, Tye had mostly recovered from The Warden’s earlier attack and as he stood up to get back into the fight, he watched in horror as Ashley fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground. He moved forward to protect her but as he flew back into the fray, The Warden shot him out of the sky with a well-aimed missile.
Still wary of what she could do, he raised his finger and summoned the same red orb to his fingertip that had decommissioned Tye a few minutes ago. This time, however, he tripled its size and taunted her, “You put up a good fight, young girl. For a moment, you actually had me hurt. However, in the end, the result is no different.” With a single flick, he released the devastating orb.
Out of nowhere, Carmelita and Dallas jumped in its path. Carmelita formed a powerful force field while Dallas stood behind it to serve as the second line of defense.
To their relief, their defensive efforts worked and despite a grave injury, Ashley was alive. Carmelita swung her hands downwards and to The Warden’s surprise, the ground split and opened up completely underneath him. With another quick motion, she forced him into the opening, letting the ground swallow him whole before sealing it up with him still under.
Tye rushed over to his friends. “Guys! You’re alright!”
“Not really!” Carmelita said through gritted teeth. “Definitely still fighting through immense pain here!”
Tye spotted Ashley’s unmoving body and knelt down beside her to listen to hear heart and breathing. Though there were definite signs of life, he knew that she was hurt bad. Standing up, he turned to look at Carmelita, who was struggling to keep The Warden sealed under the ground. “Carmelita, Dallas,” he began. “I appreciate the assist, but you need to get Ashley to a safe place away from here.”
Struggling to speak and sweating profusely, Carmelita didn’t try and argue with him. “I’m with you, Tye. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think Dallas and I are in much of a condition to fight. We just couldn’t sit by and let Ashley die. But there isn’t a whole lot left in the tank.”
Tye sighed and said, “I guess I should consider this my get-out-of-jail-free card then.”
Carmelita gave a pained laugh. “Yeah, I guess so. I can’t hold him much longer. When I release, he’s going to come bursting out. By that time, the three of us are going to be somewhere safe.”
“Good,” Tye said, stepping out in front of her. “When he comes out, I’ll end this. Leave and don’t look back.”
She nodded and replied, “Just remember, we probably don’t have the strength to fight him. If he kills you, it’s only a matter of time before he hunts us down as well. So if you don’t mind, be a hero and...” She stopped for a second to take a breath and then dropped her voice to a serious tone, “And save the fucking world, Tye.”
Without a word, he gave her a thumbs-up and a genuine smile. She flashed one back and motioned for Dallas to grab Ashley. He did so and jumped out of sight. She followed his lead and flew away.
As soon as she was gone, The Warden burst from the ground and stared down the only human left in front of him. “That was rather inconvenient. How many more times do I have to beat you down? This time I’ll make sure you’re dead.”
“Man, do you ever just shut the hell up? I know you’ve got this God complex, but not everyone wants to hear you talk, man.”
“Soon, you won’t have to worry about being annoyed by anyone’s speech ever again, child.” The alien rushed forward with a wild strike but Tye anticipated this and jumped to his side, acrobatically balancing on his hands to deliver a spinning kick straight to his injured chest. He flew forward, grabbed him by the waist, and rammed him all the way through the side of the hill and back up through the top. He then released him in the air only to fire an energy strike at him as he collided with the ground.
Not to be outdone, The Warden responded with a barrage of missiles that exploded violently. Though Tye defended the attack well with a wall of energy, he quickly realized they had only been a distraction while The Warden crept up behind him to deliver a quick shot to the spine, knocking him out of the sky. With grace, Tye landed on his feet and immediately fired a blast at The Warden, which he responded to with one of his own.
The two blasts collided and both Tye and The Warden stood their ground, unmoving as the powerful blasts fought for control, going back and forth constantly. Realizing that this could drag on, The Warden raised his two lower arms and fired multiple balls of energy towards Tye, forcing him to abandon the struggle and move away. The Warden’s energy blast continued to move forward and strike the ground that Tye had just left, kicking up a great amount of dust into the air.
“Damn it!” Tye exclaimed as he turned around blind, summoning his energy blades to prepare for close combat. “Where is he?” Just as soon as he had said that, he felt a presence behind him and moved out of the way just as the figure fired another energy blast. Putting some distance between them, his eyes grew wide when memories of what he had done while fighting the horde flooded his mind. Seeing an opportunity, he put extra energy into his blades and dashed forward, slicing through one of The Warden’s bottom arms just before he was able to retract it after firing a shot. Tye doubled back while he was in shock to slice off another, his blade moving through the armor and bone easily.
As the dust cleared, The Warden yelled in anguish as pain shot through his body. He and Tye stood for a moment in awe of what just transpired. The Warden had never experienced something like this before. For the first time in his life, a significant and permanent blow had been landed on him. To Tye, the unscalable mountain suddenly seemed scalable.
He turned to the alien and pointed his blade towards him, “There’s gonna be a lot more bloodshed than that if you don’t give up! This can all end! Let us go home!”
The alien slowly turned his head towards Tye and yelled in anger. Quicker than Tye could react, The Warden was upon him, throwing scores of punches a second while Tye could only attempt to block, catch, and counter everything he could. The alien pushed him back into the shallow waterfall. Though Tye managed to land a deep slice into his armor, The Warden quickly retaliated with a hard right to the jaw, which stunned Tye. He then proceeded to beat him into the rock, all the while yelling violently.
Tye spat out blood, looked him dead in the eye and said, “Please, Sir. May I have another?” Frustrated, he continued to beat Tye senseless, smashing him down into the water and continuing his relentless assault. Once satisfied, he grabbed Tye by the neck and dragged him out of the water, bringing him to dry land and forcing him against a wall.
“You really are an annoying little shit,” he said, choking the life out of Tye slowly. “What’s the matter? Can’t stab me in the throat? I suppose it’s hard to concentrate when the life is being drained out of you.” His cold red eyes stared into Tye’s. “Or when my suit has the ability to absorb energy from the things I can wrap my hands around. Trying to conjure your blades is only recharging my battery.”
Tye managed to choke out “I hope you choke on an old man’s wrickly sack” and spit in his face.
Furious, he punched Tye in the stomach, causing blood to gush from his mouth. “You have too much heart, boy.” The alien started, driving his large knee into Tye’s midsection, again causing him to spit up blood. He then placed his free hand over Tye’s heart and a red energy began to flow over it, “This whole time you tried to protect the people of earth when in reality, you’re no hero.” Tye shut his eyes for the inevitable. He was too weak to fight. Too weak to defend himself. Too weak to protect earth. Part of him knew that he should continue fighting, that he had to try something, but he was so exhausted, he could barely lift his arms, let alone continue the battle with a monster that had outclassed him in every way. Just as The Wa
rden’s hand began to warm up and he moved to insert it deep into Tye’s chest to rip out his heart and with it, the earth’s future, he suddenly stopped.
His grip on Tye’s neck loosened completely and Tye suddenly found himself free with the alien backing up. Unsure of what had caused the sudden mercy, he looked up to see that the alien had a giant streak running through where Tye assumed its heart was.
Confused, he watched as it rocketed off into the hills. He was about to give chase when he heard a familiar voice next to him. “God, what a baby,” Kato said, folding his arms. “I stepped on a one of those toy bricks once and that is some real pain.”
Tye immediately pulled Kato into a hug and kissed his forehead. “Dude! Where the hell have you been?!” he shouted.
“GAH!” Kato shouted back, telling Tye to let him go. “I dunno, man! I ran by you and Dallas fighting and the arguing and shit was just getting... weird. I thought I’d go by my spot to get away from the stress.”
“You couldn’t have told us that?! We were worried sick about you!” Tye shouted.
“Like I said, man! Things were getting heavy. Plus, look at this!” Kato took a step back and with the snap of a finger, he was twenty meters to the left. Tye looked on in confusion. He hadn’t seen Kato run to that spot. Though he was fast, he had always been able to track Kato’s movements at least slightly. But this time was different. Kato seemed to be placing himself anywhere on a whim. “Plus!” he shouted. “I learned how to vibrate the atoms of things I touch so fast that I can phase them through other objects! It’s how ol’ boy ended up with a pretty bad splinter. Sorry I didn’t show up earlier. I was actually watching from afar, kinda waiting to pick my spot. But with all the things blowing up, I felt I couldn’t just jump in there.”
Despite wanting to talk more, The Warden’s whereabouts were a far more pressing concern. Tye quickly told Kato that he had to leave and find the others but Kato insisted that he could help and that The Warden was severely injured anyway. Not wanting to waste time arguing, Tye became increasingly insistent that Kato leave before he was lost for good. Then, within an instant, everything changed. Kato’s eyes went blank. Tye let out a cry when he saw a giant hole open up on the left side of Kato’s chest. Standing behind him on the hill, with his finger pointed ahead, was The Warden. He had shot a much larger version of the attack that knocked out Ashley straight though Kato’s lung and part of his heart. Blood spewed from Kato’s mouth as he fell to the ground, lifeless.
