Jonathan Rush and the Star Academy

by Gregory Blackman

  Chapter Twelve

  He was a terrifying man. Standing maybe nine feet tall, he dwarfed the much smaller Kenzel. It was hard to tell where the metal ended and the human began, if there was any human part of him left. Kenzel and he were locked in battle at the end of the bridge. Dozens of droid bodies littered the path towards them; remnants of a battle not yet over.

  Davan and Selene rushed out of the elevator, to aid their friend.

  “Not even your allies can save you now,” the monstrous man said in a deep voice. He grabbed Kenzel by the throat as the other two Star Knights rushed to his aid. “Here, take your precious Commander.”

  The man threw Kenzel at them with little effort. Kenzel crashed in to both Davan and Selene. They all hit the floor, seemingly powerless against their aggressor.

  “I am General Distain, Commander of the Void Empire. Your time is at hand,” said the monstrous man, who called himself General Distain. “And I see you have brought me the boy.”

  He was talking about Johnny, but why? He couldn’t help but keep telling himself that he was nothing extraordinary, and he was proving that by cowering in the elevator.

  Davan picked himself up and charged General Distain. He rushed the much larger opponent without any game plan. All he knew is that he would not hand Johnny over to the Void Empire without a fight.

  He threw all his energy in his strike. He connected a furious blow to the chest of General Distain, but it seemed to have little effect.

  “Strong,” the General smirked. “But not strong enough.”

  General Distain grabbed Davan’s arm, and started to squeeze.

  “Flesh and bone,” started the General. “Blood and water; terrans are such fragile creatures.”

  He crushed the bones in Davan’s arm with little effort. Davan screamed in pain, unable to defend himself from his attacker. General Distain let up his grip, and Davan dropped to the ground, writhing in pain.

  Selene and Kenzel had already rushed to Davan’s aid, leaping at the General the moment he had let Davan go. They attacked in unison, timing their blows together. They were starting to have success against the General, and he began to retreat backwards.

  General Distain extended his arms out, and released a large bubble of pressure, throwing both Kenzel and Selene back a few yards.

  “Oh, honey,” Selene said. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  The General laughed a maniacal laugh fit for a mad man of his demonic stature. He raised his arm and within a few short moments, red swirling streams of light started coursing all around his fist. Faster and faster the energy became, as the General charged his next attack.

  Kenzel shouted for Selene to get out of the way, but she was not fast enough. Not about to let harm come to his friend, Kenzel threw himself in between her and General Distain.

  The blast erupted from the General’s hand just as Kenzel flew in front of Selene. Like a wave of energy, the blast exploded in Kenzel’s chest, throwing both him and Selene back against the wall. They collided with each other, before hitting the wall with a deafening thud.

  “Ugh,” Selene croaked, as she tried to pick herself up. Kenzel may have saved her life; she just hoped that he didn’t sacrifice himself in the process. “You damn fool. You damn, lovable fool.”

  Selene cried as she held Kenzel in her arms. She never really loved anyone before; she was a Star Knight after all, and that always complicated relationships. Selene still wished she could have had the chance one day. She couldn’t help but think that it had been her one and only regret.

  Cough. Cough. Cough. Kenzel may have been down, but he was not out. Coming back to consciousness, Selene grabbed a hold of him tightly; not wanting to ever let go.

  “You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Kenzel choked out. “I will be fine, I promise. The children however, will not. You must save them, Selene. Everything rests on your shoulders now.”

  No pressure, she thought. Not because the demonic General was twice her height; or looked like he could bench press her mom’s starship. It was because he was the single scariest thing she had ever seen in her life.

  Picking herself up, she focused everything she had on The General. Channeling all of her energy and extending her arms towards the General.

  The General snorted. “This should be interesting. Let’s see what you can do, girl?”

  The General was not the only one that could harness powerful energy, Selene told herself. She trembled with the sheer amount of power she was drawing. She had never summoned this much power before; she had never needed to before.

  White whirling light, much like the red light from the General, began flowing all around Selene’s body. The threads of white wrapped and swirled around her body, traveling up towards her arms.

  A blinding white light shot out from Selene’s hands, directly at General Distain.

  Raising his arm, the General deflected the blast to his side. Impossible, Selene thought. Not even the Star Master was that powerful.

  “That was pitiful,” General Distain said. “Now, would you like to see what I can do?”

  He quickly turned his head, and stared at Johnny. It felt like he was staring in to Johnny’s soul. Those red, menacing eyes of the General’s, were piercing through his very existence. The General raised his hand directly in Johnny’s direction, and with one of his claws, motioned for Johnny to come to him.

  “No! Stop it please!” Johnny screamed, grabbing his head. Flashes of images started popping into Johnny’s head. Too quick to make out individual images, he could barely understand what he was seeing. Fire, pain, and horror were a part of every image; that much Johnny could figure out. Wherever this General came from, it was a hellish place. “What is going on? What are you doing to me?”

  Johnny’s visions stopped and he began walking towards the General. Only, Johnny did not want to walk towards the General. Somehow, the evil General had managed to control Johnny without his consent. Closer and closer, he walked towards what was sure to be his doom.

  “No, Johnny!” Amy cried from behind him. “Please stop, please!”

  It was no use. Johnny was under the General’s control now.

  “Not on my watch,” Selene yelled, charging towards the General.

  “You silly little people never learn,” the General said, as Selene closed in on him. With ease, General Distain grabbed Selene by the throat. He lowered his other hand and brought it to Selene’s face. He placed his index finger on her cheek and pressed hard. Drawing blood, he appeared to be enjoying the suffering of the Star Knight. “You will watch, as all hope is lost.”

  The General threw Selene, by the throat, against the wall near Kenzel. She could barely move, let alone get back up to defend the children. She couldn’t help but believe that all hope must truly be lost.

  General Distain fixed his gaze upon Johnny, who was now a few yards away. He started walking towards Johnny.

  Johnny smiled as the General approached. He heard the sound of small whizzing motors from behind him. He wasn’t entirely certain he would walk away from this adventure, but he was sure about one thing.

  “What is so funny, boy?” the General asked. The sound of whizzing motors was getting loud now, and the General was now growling with aggravation. “What are you doing?!”

  Suddenly, Robby dashed out from behind Johnny, shielding him from the Generals wrath.

  “Ha,” the General laughed at the tiny robot, which was now blocking the Generals path to Johnny. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  Robby extended two cables from his sides; cables with little clamps attached on the ends of each. The General laughed maniacally at how futile the tiny droids attack would be.

  Robby had a different idea, however. The clamps thrashed at the General, appearing to inflict little damage, but when Robby turned on the power, it sent thousands of volts directly through General Dista
in.

  “Ah!” the General screamed in pain. Dropping to his knees, he cringed in agony. “You will pay for your insolence!”

  The cables retracted, and slowly the General rose back to his feet. Johnny gasped in horror as he watched the General shrug yet another attack off.

  “You should choose your battles better, droid,” General Distain said.

  General Distain stared down at Robby, raising his boot towards the droid. The General lashed out at Robby with a heavy boot that sent him flying back. He soared across the whole bridge, eventually crashing back against the elevator from which he originally dashed out of.

  Thousands of tiny nuts and bolts spewed out of the droids body as he hit the wall. Amy let out a cry as Robby landed beside her. If he was in need of serious repairs when he first boarded the Aidos, he was surely in critical condition now.

  Johnny trembled in fear as the General returned his evil gaze towards him. Johnny was still unable to move under his own will; the only question was whether he was still under the Generals command, or was he simply too afraid to try and move?

  “You are certainly an unexpected surprise,” said the General, grabbing Johnny by the throat. The General lifted Johnny off the ground, and stared at him eye-level. “You were not part of the plan, today. The Master will be pleased to hear that Jonathan Rush has awoken.”

  This monstrous man had a Master, Johnny barely thought it possible. He was more powerful than everyone in this room combined, and he still took orders from someone more powerful. Suddenly he remembered his dreams from before on Earth. The Dark Prince; it must have been him who the General was referring.

  What was even stranger, however, was that they believed Johnny was special. Did they know something he did not? He didn’t believe it when his mother said it. He didn’t believe it when the Star Academy said it. Why would he believe it now? His heart sank as he returned his focus back to the matter at hand; none of that would matter if everything was over after today.

  The General threw Johnny to the ground with ferocious force. Johnny crumpled to the ground under the weight of the Generals power. He raised his big, heavy boot over Johnny’s head.

  “Now now, it ends before it even truly began,” General Distain snickered. “Goodbye, Jonathan Rush. Ah!—“

  Johnny looked up to see the General shake violently. He dropped to his knees suddenly, and smoke began to rise from his charred body. Johnny looked on with amazement, unable to believe they had toppled the mountain of a man.

  Davan was standing behind the General with a large cable in the one arm he could still use. Sparks crackled and popped from the exposed end of the cable. Davan had electrocuted General Distain.

  “The droid was on to something,” said Davan, with a crooked smile. “We need to get out of here.”

  Davan stumbled towards Johnny. His right arm was soaked in blood, having lost the use of it. He had taken serious damage, like everyone else. Johnny picked himself up slowly, and ripped his sleeve off.

  “Here, Davan,” Johnny said, offering his sleeve to Davan. Davan grabbed the cloth and fashioned a make-shift brace for his arm.

  By then Selene had also managed to raise herself off the floor. Looking around, she crawled over to Kenzel.

  “Please be okay,” said Selene, who was desperately trying to reassure herself, while Kenzel lay motionless on the ground. “We did it. We won Kenzel, you can’t leave us now!”

  She pounded on his chest. Smack. Smack. Smack.

  “Ugh,” Kenzel groaned. “I’m not dead just yet, can you stop hitting me please?”

  Selene looked at Kenzel, who was now smiling. She cried tears of happiness, but didn’t want Kenzel to get any ideas, and picked herself up.

  “You silly man,” Selene said, wiping the tears from her tears. She threw her hands up in frustration, and then helped her friend up. Kenzel may have been alive, but that blast took most everything he had. “Stay here, I need to take out their sensor array so we can get away.”

  Selene walked over to a terminal near the charred remains of General Distain. She raised her hand to the terminal, and a charged blot of white light fried the terminal instantly. Rushing back to Kenzel, she grabbed his arm and threw it over her shoulder, leading Kenzel back to the others.

  “Robby!” Johnny cried as he neared the droid. Amy was still crying over him body as Johnny arrived. He had been de-activated from the blow. “You can’t come into someone’s life just to leave! You just can’t.”

  “He will be fine, I promise,” Kenzel assured. “We will spare no expense to repair him.”

  Would that be enough? Johnny wondered about the fate of his new friend as he lay unconscious. He didn’t know much about droids, but he was worried that if you take away most of what makes Robby who he is, he would never be the same droid that rushed to Johnny’s aid moments before.

  As they approached the others, Kenzel told Selene, “I can walk on my own,” and motioned for her to pick up the broken droid. Doing so, they all entered the elevator, prepared to finally go home.

  The group rushed back to their starship, the Aidos, as the burned General lay unmoving on the bridge of the battleship.

  Epilogue

  Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. With the sound of dozens of whirling motors, the Generals body began to come back to life. The cybernetic side of the General had re-animated the organic side of him. He slowly picked himself up from the floor, desperately trying to remember what happened in the moments leading up to his defeat.

  “Impossible!” the General yelled as he struck another terminal nearby. “You may have won the battle, Jonathan Rush; but you will not win the war.”

  He staggered to a large center terminal at the end of the bridge, and pressed a couple buttons.

  “Searching for Rifts currently open – Connection found – Connection locked,” the computer announced. The screen flashed with the image of man dressed in a dark hooded robe. The image was filled with distortion and artifacts, but the General knew it could be only one person.

  “Dark Prince,” General Distain started. “The mission was successful. I have the DNA sample you requested, ready for genetic implantation.”

  “Now our second phase can begin shortly,” the Dark Prince said in his ghostly voice. “You have done well General. Soon they will see your true power.”

  The Dark Prince screeched in approval of the news; all of his plans were beginning to fall into place.

  The General, however, remained quite serious, as he had not told his Master the other information.

  “I also have found the young boy that infiltrated our throne room,” the General informed. “The group called him Johnny.”

  “I believe,” the General began, choking on his own words. “I believe that the young boy is Jonathan Rush—“

  “Jonathan Rush!” The Dark Prince interrupted immediately. Like the General, he too was well aware of that name.

  “He exists in this universe as well. He was travelling with the Star Knights,” began the General. “I could not foresee the boy being here, and was caught off guard. I allowed him to escape. The mission at hand was my primary concern; they must believe they had escaped under their own will, or the mission would not have been successful.”

  “You fool!” The Dark Prince screamed. “You had an opportunity to end their only chance for salvation, and you failed. We could have ended the war before it even began. I should have sent her with you. She would not have failed me. I will not forget this, General.”

  The Dark Prince thought things over for a moment. He may have failed in his secondary objective, but he still had what he needed, the mysterious DNA the General had mentioned earlier.

  “I can correct this,” the Dark Prince stated. “I will make sure Jonathan Rush arrives on the Red World, and soon she will be there to clean up your mess. We will end this before they even understand what he is truly capable of.”

  “Yes, Master,�
� the General said, turning off the connection between the two. He knew he would see Jonathan Rush again shortly, and began work on the second phase of their devious scheme.

  Elsewhere, out in space at that very moment, Johnny was standing over the bed of his new friend, Robby; completely unaware of the events that would soon shape his very existence.

  The End of Jonathan Rush and the Star Academy

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