by Lola StVil
“Randy, I know you’re in there. Let’s talk. I can explain why—”
Alago reaches down to the ground and scoops Randy’s mom between his fingers. He holds her up and dangles her in the air. The team is ready to attack, but Pry doesn’t give the signal. I know that some part of her is still hoping Randy is in there like his mom says.
Alago holds the brave woman between both hands. She begs and pleads for him to go back to being Randy. The creature growls, but she keeps trying to reach her son. “Randy, I’m your mom. I love you. I’m sorry I—”
Alago doesn’t let her finish. He pulls her apart in two pieces, separating her from her spinal cord. She dies screaming and is thrown down to the ground like discarded fish guts. Malakaro roars with laughter. This is the first time I’ve ever seen that bastard truly happy.
The creature opens his unhinged jaw and reveals a pit of flames where his mouth should be. He then flexes his colossal brawn and roars into the air; the force of his voice demolishes most of the surrounding buildings. The skyscrapers that once stood proud along the night sky are now nothing more than steel rods in the dirt. New York City is gone.
Left with no other choice, Pry gives the signal for us to battle Alago. She attacks first by Pulling Alago’s life force from him, but nothing happens. Alago makes a fist and goes to smash Pry. I’m too far away to stop it from happening. Thankfully East is closer and uses his lasso to snare Alago’s gigantic fist. East then uses all his might to stop the fist from making contact with Pry.
“Pry, hurry! I can’t hold him much longer,” East says.
He wasn’t kidding; seconds later, Alago effortlessly yanks on the lasso, causing East to catapult towards the beast while being dragged through mountains of debris. Fearing East will be killed, I back him up by combining the two fireballs in my hands, making them into one giant orb. However, the flames only fuel Alago more. He harnesses the energy created by my fire and sends it back to us. A sea of blue flames heads straight for me. There’s no time to react or even fly away.
“Aaden!” my wife calls out as the wave of flames comes crashing down on my head. Just as it is about to make contact, I feel a swift gust of wind carry me out of the danger zone and down to the ground.
“Don’t trip, yo. I got you,” someone says.
I look up and behold Jay; he swings me away from the blast. He then flies away and heads back to battle. It’s not just him; the entire Guardian team has joined the battle. Miku sings a haunting song to Alago. Her voice is a lethal siren song. It makes you pull the flesh off your body and keep going until you die.
Miku doesn’t get far with her song because Alago backhands her, sending her tumbling helplessly back in the air. Diana catches her before she is impaled by the sharp remains of the Chrysler building.
Dad flies over and tries to weaken Alago by inhaling the fire coming from the creature’s body and taking it into his own.
“Dad, don’t!” I urge.
Unnaturally strong flames fuel Alago; taking in that much firepower is dangerous. My dad could easily implode. But he’s willing to take the chance if it helps get the upper hand. It works. For a few moments Alago is weakened. Miku begins to sing louder to it. He growls at the sound and tries to get away from it.
Miku comes back and tries to sing to the creature again, but before she can have real impact, Malakaro grows concerned and summons a surge of dark energy right into Miku’s chest. East gets to his aunt mere seconds before impact and blocks it. The Noru take on Alago and the Guardians take on Malakaro.
“I know Malakaro can’t affect Pry, but how is he not controlling our minds?” Diana asks as she races to help a human family get to safety.
“The council, they are binding his powers!” East says as he looks a few yards away where Time, Fate, and Death are united and have summoned a force field to keep Malakaro in place. Unfortunately, the force field is starting to fail.
“We cannot let Malakaro and Alago connect with one another!” Death shouts.
“We can’t hold him here much longer!” Fate says as Malakaro hits his prison with a burst of dark energy, weakening it.
“Time, you have to pause Malakaro,” Emmy says.
“I can stop his time line, but he’s strong; it won’t be for long.”
“How long can you hang on?” Fate asks.
“Only a few…” Time replies.
“A few days?” Death asks as she continues to hold out her hand and reinforce the shield.
“No, Death, a few hours. Twenty-four, to be exact,” Time says gravely.
“If these two so much as touch, it’s the end of humanity. We have to destroy Alago!” Diana says.
“No! There has to be a way to save Randy,” East says.
“We can’t let any more people die,” Pry says regretfully.
“Pry, look, on the Port to your right,” Swoop says. We look over, and the Face is on a Port, shouting our names, trying desperately to get our attention.
“You and the other Norus need to come with me right now! I have a message for you,” the Face screams over the chaos.
“We’re a little busy right now,” East says in disbelief.
“No, Pryor, you have to come with me. This message is important,” she insists.
“We can’t leave the Guardians right now,” Pryor insists.
“Pry, go. We got this,” Bex says as he signals for his army of Paras to add their energy to the shield. A few yards away the Omari summon a large, brilliant orb and hurl it at Alago. It does not kill him; it does, however, slow him down long enough for Jay to get out from the creature’s line of sight.
“DAMN IT, PRYOR, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!” the Face demands.
Did the Face just swear? Shit, it is the end…
The Face takes us to a mountain of concrete and blood that was once our high school. We all look at each other with confusion as we walk down what’s left of the school hallway.
“I swear to Omnis if she brought us here to do a makeup test…” East says, shaking his head.
“Who would make us stop trying to save the world so we could do schoolwork?” Diana says.
“Um…the Face,” East reminds her.
“Hey, were we about to end Randy’s life back there?” Swoop asks.
Pry and I catch each other’s eye, but we don’t speak.
“Were you out there just now? There is no more Randy. Randy is dead,” Diana says. The Face takes us to what remains of her office. She uses her powers and moves the debris around with her mind. Soon a small box the size of a tennis ball emerges from the pile of rubble that was once her wall safe. She pushes a button located at the bottom of the box.
“We really don’t have time to—”
“Mr. Case, hush. You need to see what’s inside this Pandora box,” she says.
“Great, another little gift from Fate. I’m really starting to hate that guy,” East says.
“Fate didn’t make this Pandora box; Randy did.”
“Wow, okay. It’s a Pandora box; that means it only opens when a certain event occurs,” Diana says.
“Yes, I was told it would open when Pry was at her most distraught. And I believe that time is now,” the Face says, taking the red metal and leather box in the palm of her hand. It only takes a second for a hologram version of Randy to step into the classroom. Judging by his clothes, he made this recording a few days earlier.
If you are watching this hologram, that means that I am Alago now. Man, that sucks big time. Sorry. Pry, stop frowning. I can’t see you, but I know you well enough to know that you are furrowing your brows and blaming yourself. Well, you shouldn’t. I think this was destined to be.
Look, I don’t know how Malakaro got me to turn evil, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is this: I found the Maker. I know, it’s crazy, right? Man, I wish I was there to see the look on your face. Okay, let me explain how I found him.
I have been reading and studying everything I can get my hands on that might lead us to the
Maker. I didn’t want to say anything until I triple-checked everything, but we have run out of time, so we have to go with what we have.
In researching Jason’s past, I learned he was really into mixing mixtures. That’s no big surprise, but some of the mixtures were so volatile that he could have killed himself if he wasn’t careful. That got me to thinking maybe he wasn’t as lonely as we thought. Maybe he had a friend he could trust to help him with his lust for power.
So I went to his old school to have a look around. Needless to say, no one would tell me anything. But then on my fourth trip there, I ran into this old man at the coffee shop down the street from the school. It turns out he used to work there. He remembered Malakaro because he said he always gave him the creeps. According to him, Malakaro did have a friend, a close friend. His name was Alfred, and they were inseparable.
He followed them one day after school to a place called Among The Crows. It’s a seller shop. There he watched as the two boys gathered strange-looking vials and powders. No doubt they were trying to find a way to get more power even back then. Well, Alfred and Jason must have found a way because weeks later, they were terrorizing the school. One of their favorite tricks was to use a mixture to mask their powers and seem harmless. Then they would get close and injure their victims.
The crazy thing is Alfred is the one that was obsessed with accessing power at first, and something happened that made Jason join in. I’m guessing it had to do with your dad. Anyway, Alfred made it his life’s work to help Jason get revenge on Marcus. See, like Jason, Alfred was abandoned too. Rumor has it, Alfred went into the angel world determined to learn all there was to know about power and obtaining it. He would then go back to Jason and the two of them would test out different mixtures.
Now, here is where it gets interesting. Alfred completely disappeared from the angel world. I think he did that after he found what he was looking for—a way to make his best friend all-powerful. You get it? Jason’s best friend, Alfred, is also the Maker!
I was frustrated at that point because there was no real way to figure out where Alfred was. But I found him! The janitor is a comic book junkie. I gave him my entire collection. Sorry, it still hurts to say out loud.
Anyway, I gave him my entire collection, and he came back with me to New York. I took him to all the places where Malakaro had been spotted, hoping he’d recognize Alfred. I was just about to give up when we saw a guy talking to a demon in front of a dive bar; all of a sudden the janitor got really excited. He said he spotted Alfred. He knew it was him by his walk and his voice.
At first I thought the janitor was crazy, but then something happened that I thought only happened in the movies—the janitor was killed. Malakaro slashed his throat. You know that’s his signature move. It’s the death of the janitor that made everything fall into place. The Maker has been with us this whole time. Pry you won’t believe it, but you know who the Maker is too, we all do. The Maker is—
Suddenly the hologram of Randy is speaking, but the audio is gone. We quickly examine the device but can’t figure out how to get the audio back. Within seconds the image shuts down completely.
“No,” Pry swears as she shakes the hell out of the device.
“It’s corrupted. I’m sorry,” Swoop says as she examines it herself.
“How the hell are we supposed to know who the Maker is?” East barks.
“I don’t know,” Swoop replies.
“Is there a backup hologram maybe?” Diana ventures.
“No, I’m sorry. This is all Randall left. There was a small fire in the science lab a few days ago and the sprinklers went off. It must have been corrupted.”
“Great! That’s just fucking great!” I snap.
“The council can only hold back Alago for twenty-four hours. How the hell are we supposed to save everyone when we don’t know who the Maker is?” Diana demands.
“Let’s think about this. If Randy is right, then Alfred is the Maker. So is there any way to find out who Alfred is?” Pryor says.
“Alfred is Randy’s brother,” someone says behind us. We turn and find Randy’s father, Mr. Westfield, standing in the doorway. He’s in his late fifties and tall with dark-rimmed glasses and sad eyes. He looks overwhelmed and weary. He enters the room and plops down on the nearest chair.
“A month ago Fate told me to come here at this exact time,” the human says breathlessly.
“Mr. Westfield, what are you talking about? How do you know Fate? In fact, how do you know anything about this at all?” Pryor asks.
“I have always hated the angel world. I hated that my son was a part of it, but I thought since he was with you, Pryor, he was better off. He was protected. I was wrong. You let them turn him into a monster,” Mr. Westfield accuses.
“Wait, you knew about us?” East asks.
“I married the Blue Rose, so yes, I knew. Don’t you ever ask yourself why I let my son take off and go to your house for days on end, Pryor? Why my son comes home bloody and bruised and I don’t ask questions? I know he’s with the team and that if anything happens, you will protect him,” he informs us.
“Why didn’t you tell us you knew who we are?” Swoop asks.
“I wanted Randy to tell me himself, just like his mom did. I wanted to give him time to process everything. I had no idea things had gotten so out of hand,” Randy’s dad says, sounding pained and angry.
“Okay, we don’t have time to play catch-up, so why don’t we fast-forward to the bomb you just dropped on us. Or to be more specific, the first bomb you dropped on us,” I order.
“My wife cheated on me with an angel. Her family has a history of doing that. She ended up having fraternal twins. They looked nothing alike, but they were both special. One was what you call a partial, meaning he could turn into an animal. And the other had no active powers, but he was special because he was instrumental to the world’s future—he was the Blue Rose.
“I forgave my wife, Margret, for cheating on me, and I never asked who the father was. However, I couldn’t afford to take care of both kids. So, we chose Randy since he didn’t have active powers and was vulnerable. Margret hated having to make that choice, but she did anyway.
“She gave Alfred up for adoption. It wasn’t until my wife came back a few weeks ago that she filled me in on everything. After a series of awful homes, Alfred was taken in by a nice Quo family, who finally adopted him. They had one other son, Jason. The two of them became very close. After Marcus abandoned Jason, he went from bad to worse. And Alfred gladly helped him in any way he could. The two of them just wanted to rip the world in two.
“My wife visited him when he was a kid. She did that a few times. That’s where the photo came from. Soon, she felt so guilty about choosing one kid over the other, she walked out on both, or so she tells me. But that never made sense to me. To be honest, I think she just didn’t know how hard motherhood was going to be. So I made up some excuse about her following her dreams, and Randy bought it. In truth she was a selfish woman who didn’t deserve Randy’s love.
“So I was fine with her leaving—mostly. In the meantime, Alfred grew up much like Jason, and the two of them became obsessed with vengeance. I kept my son away from all of that. Then one day he comes home and says he made a new friend—Pryor Reese Cane…”
“Okay, so tell us, is Alfred the Maker?” I ask.
“Alfred is very clever. He found a way to insert himself in the darkest of situations. He’s small and unassuming. He can charm anyone. I’m sure he found his way into the demon world and learned what he knew to help his lifelong friend Jason.”
“So is that a yes?” Pry asks, growing impatient.
“Yes, I think he is. In which case, you would have to kill him.”
“Why didn’t you come and tell us this sooner?” Swoop asks.
“I didn’t know the whole story. I never knew what Alfred had become until his mother told me when she got back,” he counters.
“You had time to tell us, but
you decided to bury your head and pretend everything was okay,” Pry shouts.
“Yes, I did. I needed to believe we could avoid the fallout from my wife’s indiscretions.”
“Mr. Westfield, are you okay with that? He’s your wife’s kid,” I remind him.
“Anything to save Randy; he’s a good kid. His brother is the rotten one. And I will not lose him to Alfred.”
“Okay, how do we find this Alfred guy? What does he look like?” Pryor asks desperately.
“I haven’t seen him in years, but his mother told me he’s going by some street name.”
“What is it?”
“It’s something like…Serpent…Sparrow—wait, I remember: Spider. He goes by the name Spider.”
Epilogue
Spider doesn’t know we are onto him, so it takes us less than an hour to find him. We’re just outside of Hun’s Market, a pop-up-style black market for demons and Sellers. It appears in different places each week. This week it’s being held in Havana, Cuba.
Normally the black market is overrun with shifty Sellers and menacing demons. However, with everything that’s happening, Sellers are staying out of sight, since they usually get killed in the cross fire between good and evil. And there are very few demons around because today is the day they have been waiting for—within twenty-four hours, humanity will be a thing of the past.
We find him in a small bar, drinking Coy Dark and smoking a large, thick cigar. Even though his outer appearance hasn’t changed, our view of him has been altered greatly. Spider isn’t the underdog tagalong now. We finally see him for what he really is—the mastermind behind all the darkness in our lives.
We surround the bar and check the area; there are only a handful of demons around. It’s nothing we can’t handle. After each member of the team checks in and signals that we are clear to enter, I look to Pry and wait for her signal. But she just keeps looking at Spider through the window, as if she’s at a loss.
“Hey, you good?” I whisper, not wanting to tip Spider off.
