Turning back, she saw her army dealing with the last of the resistance.
31
Dillon touched the ice. The last time he had been there, the coating had slid into the ground and allowed him to retrieve the suit. But it did nothing.
He hit it with his fist, yelled at it, and went around the chamber, pounding on all of them. He hobbled from room to room, but none of them would open. Resting his head against one, he felt the last bit of strength leave him. He knew he would not survive. So he went to the wall and sat down, waiting for the moment to come when he would close his eyes and not open them again.
From his lower vantage point, he spotted small puddles of black fluid beneath the suits. One puddle crawled out of its space and made its way across the floor to him. He pushed against the wall, unable to move, bracing himself for what was coming. The fluid came within inches of him then bubbled and shifted before extending up about six feet. It smoothed and cascaded over itself, and a figure appeared.
An exact replica of Dillon stood where the black fluid had been. The doppelganger looked down at him, a curious expression on its face.
“You are the one who came before.” Its voice echoed but had a calmness to it that was almost soothing.
“What are you?”
“We are beyond your comprehension at this time.”
“Where did you come from?”
“We came here for your race.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The galaxy that you believe lifeless is filled with civilizations. These civilizations have banded together and waited for you to grow and learn, to join us when you were ready.”
“You’re watching us?” he asked.
“That is correct.”
“But you touched me last time. You made me see things.”
“What you saw was the destruction of this civilization.”
“You destroyed them. I saw the suits. I saw you clinging to them, creating monsters.”
“We are a reflection of what is already there. This civilization used us for nothing but war.”
Dillon thought for a moment. “You’re a test.”
“That is correct. We gave ourselves to you and had the ability to teach you to sail the stars. Instead, you used us only for war. You are not ready to join us.”
“That woman, the woman who did this to me, who is she?”
“She was the ruler of this civilization and, consequently, the ruler of earth. She conquered all she came across and, in the process, destroyed everything she had built. She has waited here for a time when she may rise and rule again. She has absorbed our power.”
“That’s all this is about? She wants power?”
“Your species has an affinity for power and will generally kill or die for it.”
“Why did you let her do it?”
“It is not our place to hold judgment. We provided the tools to see how you would use them. You used them poorly.”
“She wants to destroy the earth. It’ll happen all over again.”
“Yes.”
“You have to help me stop her.”
“You cannot stop her. She has absorbed our power.”
Dillon was growing faint. “Then let me absorb your power.”
“We are a reflection of what is there. If what is there is aggression, you will aid rather than impede her.”
“I have to try. Please. Our species has faults, but we have a good side, too. I have to stop her.”
The figure was silent for a long time, and Dillon got the distinct impression it was communicating with something else. “We will join with you.”
His doppelganger disintegrated into a puddle. The pools of fluid beneath the suits oozed out and crawled to him. His eyes went wide as the black enveloped his feet then his legs and moved up his torso. The stuff covered his chest, arms, and neck. He screamed just before it flooded into his mouth and eyes.
31
Tyler paced the room for a few minutes then went back to the window. Fires raged across the entire city. Once the soldiers were done with the police and the National Guard, and Atlantis had taken out the best the Air Force had to offer, they moved on to the rest of the city.
The wall in front of him groaned and crumbled to dust, revealing the street below. The wind hit his face, and Atlantis hovered before him, as much terror as splendor.
“Your soldiers are destroying the city,” he said.
“So they are.”
“We shouldn’t destroy them. We want them to surrender. What’s the point of ruling over dust?”
“I will rule how I see fit, servant. And I would expect more gratitude.”
He nodded quickly. “Of course. I’m very grateful. But this is pointless. These people are ants to your men. You should crush the military. The United States military is the greatest that has ever existed. If we can destroy it, all other nations will fall in line.”
“The second greatest military that has ever existed. And what is the status of the rest of my army?”
“I have crews working around the clock. We’ll have all the sites you gave us excavated within the month.” He glanced down at the overturned cars and the smashed buildings. “And what will you do when you have your army?”
“We will crush this society and use it as manure to grow the beauty of Atlantis.”
Tyler locked eyes with her. That wasn’t what he had anticipated. That wasn’t what his grandfather had written about. She was to be the savior, the one who would end corruption and politics and gather the world together under one regime. She was supposed to establish a society where those with merit would rise to the top, while the weak and infirm would exist on scraps. She would establish order over the chaos… with him at her side.
Instead, she would repeat the same mistakes of six thousand years ago.
“Yes, Queen,” he said meekly. “Whatever you command.”
She nodded and held out her hand. He took it, and Atlantis glided him gently down to the sidewalk.
“Burn this city and kill every man, woman, and child.” She drifted upward.
“What will you do, Queen?”
“I will destroy their protectors.”
32
The fluid constricted like a snake, and Dillon saw a white flash. He closed his eyes, trying to protect himself from the pain, and when he opened them, he was floating above a vast city.
The city had towers that touched the clouds, spirals with gold trim, and streets of marble. It sat on an island surrounded by crystal waters.
Dillon watched monsters—deformed men the size of semi-trucks—attack the city. The city was defended by men in Onyx suits. Towers fell in heaps and crushed the citizens. The golden spires melted. Men were torn apart as blood flowed over the marble. The queen sat on a throne of ice as the city collapsed around her.
Next, Dillon saw earth. Great metropolises covered the planet like glimmering jewels thrown on dirt. Battles raged across all the cities, reducing them to ashes. The entire planet appeared to be on fire.
The queen retreated into the chambers beneath her capital, where she was swallowed by the black fluid and encased in ice. He heard what she heard. Centuries marched in front of her, and she absorbed everything, patiently waiting for a time when she would be released to unleash her horror again. The patience was terrifying—the calm resolve it must’ve taken for her to remain motionless for six thousand years, knowing that her time would come.
A few inhabitants had been left from her destruction, and from the ashes, they built the first empires man knew about, and history began from there. All memory of the great civilizations of the past and the technology that led to their ruin had been wiped away.
And man began to repeat the pattern.
The fluid drained into his body, and he sucked in breath, though it took only a moment to realize he wouldn’t need it anymore. The fluid swirled and hardened over the tears and holes in the suit, his body mending along with it.
The helmet repaired itse
lf, and the eyes glowed blue like the ice of the city, tainting his vision. Power ran through him, more power than he had ever experienced. It felt as though a surge of electricity was constantly flowing in his veins.
He sat up and raised his suited hands. The suit had grown, and the muscles of his body were engorged. Energy flowed through him. He held out his hand, and a blue explosion shook the earth as it decimated the ice of the chamber and collapsed the ceiling.
“Oh, man. I’m gonna like this.”
He bent down until his knees were touching the ground, then he vaulted upward. Smashing through ice and stone, he carved a hole through the mountain and burst out of the top into the night sky.
Twisting in the air, he split the clouds. He yelled in ecstasy coupled with adrenaline as another wave of energy coursed through him. He climbed higher, aiming for the moon. He felt the scalding heat of the atmosphere as he crossed into space.
He stopped once he hit zero gravity, his stomach rising and making him nauseated for a moment. He twisted around and faced the glowing blue of the planet. From that distance, he couldn’t see any borders or conflicts. He saw only crystal-sapphire water and green-brown land.
He hovered there, letting the energy build within him. At full power again, he exploded downward, heating up so quickly that he glowed a bright crimson.
Max Brown sat on the hood of his car with his girl, and they stared at the night sky. The Hollywood sign wasn’t far, but it had been vandalized so often that no one was allowed near it anymore. Fences, guards, and cameras prevented people from even getting close. So they sat where they could see it but far enough away that the security guards wouldn’t hassle them.
“I wanna get high,” she said. “You got any pot?”
“Sure.” He pulled a joint out of his pocket and handed it to her.
“Sweet. Where’s your lighter?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t have it in your pocket?”
“No.”
She jumped up and searched the car. She returned and stood in front of him with her arms folded. “Where the hell is it, Max?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you have a joint and no lighter? That’s like having peanut butter and no jelly.”
“I’m sorry. Maybe there’s some matches or something in the car.”
As she turned to go back, Max saw what looked like a comet falling out of the sky, trailing fire behind it. The force of its descent picked him up like a leaf and flung him off the hood of the car. He sat up quickly and saw the comet headed for downtown Los Angeles. Then an explosion of light covered the city.
“What the hell was that?” she asked.
“We’re leaving.”
“I wanna get high.”
“I’m not getting high with shit blowing up the city. Let’s go.” He jumped into the car and started it.
She climbed into the passenger seat, still whining about the lack of a lighter. He saw a tunnel of light rising into the sky.
A tornado of light, he thought.
33
Dillon was traveling so fast that sight was useless. He was traversing nations in seconds. Maneuvering purely by feel, he knew where he had to go. His senses felt different, as though he could hear the entire planet. And he heard her loudest of all. He headed toward her voice.
In an instant, the voice was gone.
Dillon slammed into the ground, his feet gouging the cement of the street. Windows shattered around him, and cars flew away like toys.
Neanderthal-looking men moved among the rubble and corpses. One of them crushed the throat of an elderly man then ripped his head from his body. They looked odd in modern-day suits with their hair slicked back.
A man on the sidewalk, who didn’t appear to be one of the Neanderthals, noticed Dillon and shouted, “What are you idiots doing? Kill him! Kill him!”
Two of the Neanderthals, including the one who had executed the old man, leapt over cars and landed in front of Dillon.
“You guys rob a Gap or something? Not exactly villain clothes.”
They sprinted at him faster than humans could run, faster than any animal could. To someone on the sidewalk, they must’ve appeared as nothing but shadows. But Dillon could see them. In his eyes, they moved in slow motion, pumping their arms to get to him.
He ducked between them, and they ran past. Dillon turned and shot forward. He slammed into one of them, taking the guy through a building and out the other side. He smashed the Neanderthal’s head into a metal lamppost before flipping backward into the air and hovering.
The other one leapt with an animalistic scream, his fingers curled like claws. Dillon bashed him in the face so hard that the man collapsed to the ground, broke through the street, and banged into the sewer.
Something rammed into Dillon’s back and sent him flying. Knees, fists, and legs came at him from every direction. He blocked with his forearms and shins.
Dillon punched into the Neanderthal’s leg, toppling him. He grabbed the man by the calves and slammed him into the ground and then a building like a doll before spinning and throwing him across the tunnel. While the Neanderthal was still in the air, Dillon rocketed forward and crashed into his ribs, feeling them shatter. The Neanderthal hit a skyscraper and slid down, vomiting blood.
Dillon flew to him and crouched at eye-level. “Where is she?”
The Neanderthal grinned but said nothing.
“Where. Is. She?”
When he still didn’t answer, Dillon smashed his fist into the Neanderthal’s head, causing it to bounce on the cement.
He heard commotion and turned to see more men leaping at him from all sides.
“Uh oh.” He propelled himself upward, as high as the surrounding buildings.
The men jumped after him, but they couldn’t fly. Dillon closed his eyes, letting the energy flow into his muscles and bones. He opened his eyes, the blue light illuminating the blackness around him, and flew high enough that the men on the ground couldn’t see him.
He raced downward and smashed into one, taking him through the street, the sewer, and into the earth. Leaving the man there, he flew back up and grabbed another one on his way into the sky. Once high enough, he spun several times and threw the man like a discus. The body flew past the city and disappeared over the ocean.
“Better hope you can swim.”
Dillon swooped down and grabbed another man. He flew up into the sky, so high that the city was a dot of white light beneath them. He let the man go. Screaming all the way down, the guy took nearly two minutes to hit the ground. When he impacted with the pavement, the entire street collapsed around him. One of the buildings nearby rumbled as though in an earthquake and toppled over.
Dillon snatched up yet another man and held him upside down, scraping his head against the streets until he fell unconscious. Dillon flung the body so far that he couldn’t see it anymore.
One jumped onto his back and pounded his fist into Dillon’s head. Dillon reached back, grabbed the guy by the collar, and flung him into one of his friends, sending both of them onto their backs.
Dillon grabbed one of the remaining Neanderthals and pinned him against the street. “Where is she?”
“Hra’ ca hodrl il. Hra’ ca ho ril il ah!”
“Do you speak English? Where is she?”
The Neanderthal raised a hand and pointed. Dillon looked and saw a man standing on the sidewalk—he was the one who had ordered them to attack. When their eyes met, the guy turned and ran.
Dillon was on him in an instant, pressing the man against the side of a building. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Dillon held the guy loosely and rose hundreds of feet into the sky. The man yelped and gripped the suit in terror.
“Where?”
“I don’t know. She said she was going to destroy the protectors.”
“What protectors?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she talki
ng about the military?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know much for a guy who just ordered a bunch of superhumans to attack me.”
“They’re nothing. If it were up to me, they would’ve stayed buried in the ground where they belong.”
“Who was it up to?”
“Atlantis, my queen.”
“Your queen, huh? You don’t strike me as a six-thousand-year-old Atlantian.”
“I’m a descendent of hers. I was the one who woke her.”
“You did this? Why in the hell would you unleash her?”
“You’ve seen her. Wouldn’t you do anything to be closer to her?”
“We’re all gonna die ’cause you think she’s hot?”
“She’s not hot. She’s perfect. The most perfect woman that has ever existed. I would kill a thousand earths for her if she asked me.”
Dillon drifted near one of the buildings and placed the guy on a small ledge. The man had to press against it flush to keep his balance.
“You can’t leave me up here.”
“Watch me,” Dillon said.
34
Several naval bases were in Southern California. Dillon checked two before he got to the 32nd Street Naval Station, where it appeared as if an atomic bomb had gone off. Aircraft carriers looking like Swiss cheese were tipped onto their sides. Jet parts lay everywhere, and bodies littered the entire base. Like everywhere else Atlantis had gone, fires consumed everything.
Dillon landed in the center of a naval carrier that was slowly sinking. Holes the size of a man had been torn through the hull in about a dozen places. No signs of life anywhere.
“The young one returns.” She walked out of the flames, wearing a white dress that seemed untouched by the blaze.
He realized he had forgotten how stunning she was. The man’s words came back to him: The most perfect woman that has ever existed. “Why so much killing? This was unnecessary.”
“By showing them that I have no morality, I instill fear in them. Fear wins wars.”
Black Onyx Duology Page 17
