by Kip Hartzell
“Now John, don’t be a rude guest,” Aztek-Alon said, walking into the room. His features were appalling. His hair, all but gone, eyes baggy, and severely blood shot. He had not aged well.
John didn’t even flinch at the sight of him, but Anataka gasped, and moved further behind him. “Guests, looks more like prisoners. It appears you’re having trouble accessing the power point.”
“A minor technicality.” Alon moved gracefully across the room as a minion pulled out a chair for him. “As you can tell, time, is a worse enemy than you. The nanites don’t work with our physiology. Through some minor interrogation, we have discovered how you stay so young, although, your hideout location is still a mystery. It will only be a matter of time. You’ve developed a temporal matrix machine. I want one, and I need agoam crystals to build it.”
“Why don’t you use the key to access the reactor? Wait, you don’t have it anymore. Haa,” John laughed, as he slowly moved to a more strategic location.
Alon stood up, angry, but got himself under control. “I must say, I hid it so well, even I can’t find it, without help.”
“So, how many of the thirteen skulls do you have?”
Alon looked surprised. “How did you find out?”
“I have my sources, too.”
“Ah, Maya, that traitorous bitch finally resurfaced. Trust her at your own risk. Now, if you’ll be so kind as to lower the force field.”
“And if I don’t, you’ll torture me, right?”
“No, I will torture, her.” His gaze shifted to Anataka.
One of his guards moved fast to grab her. She squealed. John was grabbed, also. The guard dragged her over to Alon as John struggled. “John, your affinity for these creatures keeps clouding your judgment. He looked at Anataka, and then put his cold hand on her face, staring into her eyes. A look of terror crossed her face.
John knew Alon and his followers had sacrificed some of their mental abilities for physical ones. He could defeat a few of them, but Anataka was completely defenseless. “Wait!”
Alon relaxed, smiling in triumph. Anataka staggered, as he led her to a chair and set her down. “You are so weak. Now, open the door!”
John pulled away from his captors, and approached Anataka. He soothed her for few seconds, and then said, “I’ll need to use your equipment. Without the key, I’ll have to bypass the frequency. I am going to need her help.”
“Why?”
“Because I trust her, and not you. Anataka, bring the chair, and come with me.” She did so skittishly. They sat down in front of the old machinery, and John got to work.
He manipulated the controls as if accomplishing something. Anataka went into a trance, touching switches when told. John spoke directly to her mind. “Listen to me, when I tell you to run, you get to the door and go find Thestor, understand.”
“Understood,” was relayed back to him. She came out of the trance and shook her head.
He continued to look busy as he mentally called to Thestor. He searched, there, he concentrated on Thestor’s life force. Focused in on it, and found him. “Thestor, can you move?” John could feel his presents.
“No, but I am feeling the effects wear off.”
“I need you to pretend to be unconscious.”
“That shouldn’t be hard.”
“We’re going to need a fast escape, be ready.” John slipped out of the connection to hear Alon.
“John, what’s taking so long?”
“Your equipment here is worn out and out dated. This could take a little while. Don’t you have someone else to torture.”
Alon hissed, and then moved to one of his lieutenants and whispered, no doubt telling him to keep a close eye out for tricks.
John worked a little bit, then with his back to Alon, asked, “Alon, why are you doing this, the real reason.” Jay could sense John trying to get in Alon’s head.
“I need more time to find a cure for mortality. We had it once, I want it again. I have so much to accomplish. There’s so much to do, and then I can rule forever.”
“You are as insane as ever. What about the Destroyers?”
“Destroyers, they’re long gone. They have no need for us, now that Atlantis is gone. Atlantis has probably been destroyed, and the Destroyers have moved on to something else.”
“Great, naive and insane.”
Jay involuntarily shivered at the dampness, and sight of the monsters. He watched intently through John’s eyes. Alon paced and cursed before he marched over to John, glanced over at the screen and saw gibberish. “John, what is this?”
Clearing the screen, he turned to Alon. “You should know, without a direct link with the key, I can do nothing.”
“So, all this time you’ve been...stalling. You called for help before you arrived...”
What felt like switching to another channel without warning, Jay quickly focused on another location, the flight deck of a shuttle. “Drof, can you get a lock on John?” Rhe-A asked, looking over his shoulder.
Drof increased speed as he skimmed the top of a calm ocean. “Not exactly, just a bearing on his last location.”
“Keep scanning for any anomalies, where there’s John, there’s an anomaly.”
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary in the area,” Drof said.
“Anything peculiar, should be there, shouldn’t be there, a glitch of any sort.”
“No, nothing-wait-I’m not sure.”
“What, speak up.”
“This whole area is where Atlantis used to sit. There was only one power point in the area. I’m picking it up on sensors.”
“So, what’s the problem?”
“I’m not supposed to be picking it up on the sensors.”
“Drof, get us there, best speed.”
Jay relaxed a little, knowing the cavalry was on its way, then he tensed again as John stood up and punched Alon in the face as hard as he could. The unexpected impact sent him back-pedaling, until he landed on his butt. With a quick swing, he broke the chair over the table into shards. He was immediately attacked by a guard. He brought up the wooden chair leg and shoved it into his heart with all his strength. The force sent it back into the second guard. Anataka raised a foot, before the vampire woman could get up, and kicked her backwards, while still in the chair. The third guard raised his pistol, but John was faster with the other chair leg and launched it into the mutant’s chest.
“Run!”
Chapter Twelve: Puppet
Anataka raced for the door, while the woman vampire jumped on John’s back and bit down on his neck. He grabbed her by what little hair she had, and tried to pull her off as he reached for another chair leg, but only retrieved a short piece.
The one guard who was knocked down by his comrade, scrabbled to his feet, becoming confused on who to attack first. Anataka almost made it to the door, when Alon sat up, and with his limited telekinetic power, brushed her aside, head first into the nearest wall.
“No!” John’s emotions let loose, and he moved his head to the side and rammed the stick in his assailant’s eye socket, until part of it protruded out of the back of her head.
John was halfway to Anataka by the time she crumpled to the floor. The guard and Alon moved to intercept a single-minded John as he swept them aside. The guard spattered against the wall, but Alon was able to counter some of the impact with his abilities, but the impact still left him unconscious.
Scooping Anataka up in his arms as he knelt down, John held her softly as blood ran through his fingers. He knew the cerebral hemorrhaging and internal damage was way too much for her frail human body to handle, if he didn’t get her to a medical facility immediately-she gasped as he tried to move her, she was broken inside.
He was holding her as still as possible, when her eyes opened. He thought they had a bluer tent than usual. She looked confused, then focused on him. “John, what’s going on?” she asked in Athene-A’s voice.
He fought back tears. “I’ll explain it to you later.�
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“Why am I in so much pain, why can’t I move?”
“I’m going to help you, lie still.”
“John...I’m scared.”
“It’s going to be alright, don’t be scared. I’m here with you.”
She briefly smiled in understanding, and then lurched, gasping for air as she coughed up blood. Her body went rigid, and her eyes fixed on John.
He couldn’t remember the last time he was this angry, sad, and almost every other emotion he had sought to repress over the millennia. He wanted to yell at the Great Creator, but Alon had regained his senses and stood halfway across the room with a pistol aimed at his face, this only made him angrier.
“John, I really thought we could work together this time,” he said, in a condescending voice. “You really are pathetic. How you’ve made it this far can only prove there is a Great Creator. But, alas, it is time to end this little rivalry.”
John couldn’t speak through the fury. He quickly raised his hand to direct his mental power all on Alon. His feet left the floor, causing his shot to go wild. He crashed into the wall and slid down to his knees. John saw one of the guard’s pistols, and wished it into his hand. He adjusted his aim as he moved closer to Alon. All he had to do was blast him and it would be over, but the more he tried to pull the trigger, the harder it became. Even after everything, his passivism peaked through. He couldn’t murder.
Alon shook off the impact, again, and focused on his longtime rival standing in front of him. On the floor in front of him, was his own pistol. He looked at it, and then at John, doubt slipped in. John knelt down, putting his own pistol on the floor, always staring into bloodshot eyes.
“You’re right about one thing, this has to end. Surrender to the Councils authority, or take your chances with me.”
“What?” Jay said, as the sound echoed in his head. “Go back,” he said to ghosts.
“It should be right there,” Drof said to an unbelieving Rhe-A.
“I only see water.”
“It doesn’t register as water.”
She weighed her options quickly, and said, “Set us down on it.”
The shuttle sank down below the water level.
“It’s a hologram, destroy that emitter.”
“If I do, I might collapse the force field and flood the tunnel, but it registers as Atlantean, obsolete, but Atlantean. I might be able to override it, and disable the interference from the units.” Pandor-A was maneuvering programs with her hands, and mind. It only took a few minutes until the water hologram faded away, leaving a big black hole in the ocean. “There, I’m picking up numerous life forms digging out power point eighteen. We need to get closer.”
“Drof, take us in.”
The shuttle spiraled downward.
Jay knew the cavalry was on the way, so he was relieved when the scene went back. Even though he was trying to convince himself that this had already happened. He still had to know.
Alon lost his confidence, and his arrogance, as he stared into John’s hate filled blue eyes. He realized he could not talk his way out of this one, and he was not going to spend an eternity buried underground in a stasis pod. He had never been a warrior, but he was going to try. He flicked the weapon into his hand. The shot grazed John’s temple, he felt strange, he couldn’t move his hand, he couldn’t move at all. He couldn’t stop himself from falling over. Odd, he thought, how come he can see his headless body.
John just stared at the blood shot eyes that stared back at him. He’d forgotten that very few things killed these monsters. He stood up and reached for a chair leg protruding out of one of the guards. He was standing over Alon’s body, when the lighting began to dim. A feeling of dread and despair came over him, again. Someone, or something was in the room with him. He could...feel it.
Scanning the room, with his keen eyesight, he saw nothing. Wait. There, more of a feeling combined with all his other senses. He raised his pistol at where he thought the cloaked figure might be. “Show yourself.”
There was a slight brush of wind as John tensed. A shimmer of fog began to coalesce. It twisted from the floor, and moved upward. A ghostly figure began to form in the chaos. Skinny bipedal legs formed with a skinny torso, and long thin arms with only three fingers and a thumb. The figure appeared gray in color, as the bulbous head formed. it’s black teardrop eyes reminded him of Atlantis.
The creature never fully formed, but stayed in its foggy cocoon. It didn’t seem to have a nose, just slits, and a small mouth. It stared right at John, who moved forward a little with a stick, and a pistol. “Who are you?”
The creature stepped forward, or more like floated toward John. The heat like ripples in the air blurred his features. It studied John. “Who are you?” John said, this time with more confidence. The gray being pointed at him. His head began to pound as if someone was forcing an intrusion into his thoughts. A more powerful push than he had ever experienced filled his head. Fighting back with all his capabilities, he swung the stick through the apparition. It went through the figure as if it were a hologram. Its hold weakened, and John pushed it out of his mind. Shaking his head, he said, “Who are you? What do you want?”
He was concentrating so hard on the creature, he didn’t hear the slurping noises of veins and tendons forcing Alon’s head back to his body.
“Who are you?” the hollow voice said back to him, in what sounded like his own voice.
He studied the ghost, while one of the vampire survivors leaped up, and ran to attack John. In an instant, another gray, bulbous, bald, gray creature swirled into visibility, and from John’s point of view, stepped into the attacker. He halted, as John watched the terror in guard’s eyes. He looked as if he had stared into the abyss of despair. He struggled with himself, and stumbled about. He clawed at his head as if trying to dig out his own brain. He then screamed, and ran head first into a wall. Blood dotted the impact area, there was no relief as he rolled around.
“Stop it!” John looked back and forth at the vampire, and then the ethereal creature.
The guard focused on John’s voice, and for a few moments, was able to think. He pulled the chair leg out of this comrade and with blinding speed ran at the wall with the stick held to his chest. The collision was fatal as he sank to his knees, relief came over his face, while his life blood oozed out of all open orifices. After a moment, he fell to his side. A ghostly gray creature rose up out of him, and floated toward the one that had stayed visible, and said, “The experiment was a failure. The adaptations are bearable, the brain could not handle the insertion. Information overload.”
“My experiment was a failure, also. This adaptation appears to have more control than anticipated.”
A sick feeling settled in Jay’s stomach, as he turned to see Pandor-A speaking, “We must hurry,” she said in her alien voice. All took notice, as disconcerting as it was, they had never been led astray before.
“Get us down there, Drof,” Rhe-A commanded.
Jay flashed quickly to the outside of the power point, where Thestor, and he, could sense John’s pain. Thestor was tired of waiting, and thought it a good time to act. He raised up and slapped the two Atlantean vampire guards so hard they flew through the air. One collided with the force field, only to slid through. He was immediately crushed by the pressure into small pieces. The other splattered against a control conduit. A spark shot out, followed by its operational lights flickering and winking out. Water began seeping in, slow at first, then more.
“Who are you!” Jay heard, seeing a hand sweeping forward. John only caused a ripple in the creature’s features.
Alon jumped up and came at John, who, grabbed Alon’s arm and stepped into a twisting motion, lifting him off the floor, and then flipping him on his back. John willed the stick back into his hand. Alon’s eyes widened as the stick came down into his chest.
“Interesting,” the male translated voice of the gray bipedal ghost said, as it floated forward.
John backed away as i
t melted into Alon’s body. It twitched, then raised into a sitting position. John stumbled backward at the horror. The Alon creature looked around as if looking through eyes for the first time. It looked down at the stick, and slowly pulled it out. It dropped it on the floor, as if experimenting with gravity. It then examined the hand that held it. Floating to a standing position, he turned to the other gray foggy beings.
“Subject must be inoperative. The brain deteriorates quickly in this adaptation. Memory erased to make room for mine. Experiment a success.” The possessed Alon body moved to the female technician that John had stabbed in the eye. She stirred, then pulled the stick out, while trying to stand. The Alon puppet took the wood shard and stabbed her in the heart. The feminine voiced, gray figure, slid across the floor and possessed her. She pushed away from the pseudo-Alon, and gracefully looked at her hands, which began to shake, she wobbled, and then caught herself. She shook and stutter-stepped around. “Subject must be newly inoperative to have maximum results. Experiment conclusive.”
“What the hell are you?” John blurted out.
The Alon possessed body turned to John as if noticing him for the first time. Its features began to soften into the Aztek-Alon, John knew on Atlantis. “This human adaptation is commanding attention. How amusing. Using verbal communication is inefficient, but necessary when dealing with these lower life forms,” it said to its wobbly companion, while not taking its hollow eyes off of John.
“Perhaps,” said the companion, “if this adaptation is inoperative, it will make a suitable host.”
Jay, by now, was wanting out of this nightmare. He had had enough, and was having trouble convincing himself it was passed, but the scene kept going. “Thestor, what kind of trouble has John gotten you into now?” Rhe-A said, as her team stunned the enemy Minotaur’s and Centaurs in the distance behind her.
“You know, the usual. John’s in the power point, with Aztek-Alon, hurry.”
