“Ruby, we’re in,” Taylor said.
“I’m bringing the cadets your way. Take them out, won’t you?” she said. “These guys are a little too persistent.”
“Done,” she said. Ruby appeared out of nowhere and charged into the ship, shrinking down to fit in through the ship’s doorway.
Griffins are so cool, Q thought. He heard the voices of the cadets coming after Ruby.
“It went in there!”
“Follow it!”
Taylor stayed inside the ship and steadied herself. The first one came inside. She jumped at him and kicked him hard in the chest. He fell off the stairwell and hit the ground hard. She peeked out the doorway. The rest of the cadets were climbing up the stairwell, their blasters ready to fire. She jumped off the stairwell, and crashed into them.
Q knew she wouldn't like it if he helped her out so he sat back and watched while she plonked everyone out there. Some of them tried to put up a fight but a few blows left them knocked out on the ground. After the final one hit the ground, she climbed back up onto the ship and walked about like she hadn't just single handedly taken on ten trained killers. But with Taylor, one would expect that much.
“Let’s go,” Q said.
“New update,” Ruby said. “I read one of the cadet’s minds. This ship’s course is set to take us straight to Aliea.”
“What do you know?” Taylor said. “Guess we’ll have some fun after all.”
She closed the ship’s door and ran towards the front. Q understood her train of thought. The front of the ship was usually where the main piloting deck was. They smashed into the first door they came across. Behind it were a confused Tobias and Albion. The White Knight King had changed out of his previous attire and into a new white suit and red tie.
How many sets of those does he have? Q wondered.
Tobias smiled at them like he was amused by all this. Albion on the other hand gave the more traditional look of astonishment.
Now it was Taylor’s turn to grin at him. “Welcome aboard,” she said gleefully. “We hope you have a pleasant flight.”
***
“The White Knights?” Kai asked Elizabeth.
She sighed. The others had no clue as to who these people were.
“They’re the Dark knights’ worst enemies,” Carlos explained.
“So they’re bad guys?”
“They’re siding with Levi. What does that make them?” Elizabeth asked. The door to the white ship opened up and a stairwell extended to the ground. A man in a white suit walked down the stairwell. Behind him was-
“Taylor!” Chris yelled out.
Taylor didn't even turn her head, and kept focused on making sure the guy in the white suit didn't do anything funny.
“Sire,” Levi bowed down.
“Albion is fine, Levi,” the man said as he walked down.
The White Knight King is Levi’s boss? Elizabeth wondered. What’s going on here?
Another guy in white battle armor walked down the stairwell. He looked younger. Around Taylor’s age, maybe, seventeen or eighteen years at the most.
Behind him was a dark haired, silver eyed boy.
“Q!” Elizabeth extended her wings and flew towards him. She wrapped her arms around him and knocked him clean off the stairwell. The white armored man tried to use the distraction to make a break for it.
“Don't even think about it,” Carlos pointed a blaster at him from below the stairwell.
Kai used the confusion to grab Levi by the throat. He focused on his life energy and summoned his Elementa of Metal. A shard of metal broke off from the floor and hovered below Levi’s neck. The cadets backed off once their Commander’s life was put on the line.
“Don't you ever run off like that again!” Elizabeth yelled at Q.
“Why does everyone keep saying that to me?” Q smiled.
She put a strand of hair behind her ear and kissed his cheek. Q didn't know whose face was redder, his or Elizabeth’s. He stood up quickly. Taylor was trying hard not to laugh.
Suddenly the door to the hangar opened and made way for another ship to land. This one was only about half as large as the White Knight’s ship. The ship’s hatch slid open while it was in midair and twenty people dropped down onto the ground like skydivers.
Elizabeth recognized the face of the man who was leading these men, and so had Q.
“Jake,” Q said with disgust.
Jake smiled warmly, “Why hello there, Q! How was your trip?”
“Just fine,” he spat.
“Now this is just unfair,” a voice echoed, causing all heads to turn. A tall man stood at the top of the stairwell to Albion’s ship. His long silver hair was tied behind his head. His red eyes stared at out at all of them, and a smile curled onto his lips.
“Dr.D,” Taylor cursed. “You’re last person I wanted to see right now.”
“My dear, delusional Dark Knight,” he walked down the stairs as cool as he liked. “Just how could you have so much fun without me?” He pulled out two blasters and fired them, expertly shooting at the ground around Taylor and Kai.
Dr.D’s charisma distracted everyone for but a second. And a second was enough for the enemy to make their move. Levi broke free from Kai’s grip and dived to the ground. Instantly a hundred cadets appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the hangar.
“You had better let go of me or everyone gets it,” Levi said with a tone of condescendence.
Kai dropped his metal shard to the ground. Carlos put his blaster down, and Taylor followed suit as well.
“I see my job here is done,” Dr.D smiled and turned to Taylor. “I look forward to playing together again, my Dark Knight.” He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash, as though he had teleported. And just like that, normalcy reigned over the hangar again, only this time, the enemy was in charge.
“Levi,” Albion walked up to the Quantum Array’s Commander. “How goes our plan?”
“We have captured all of Aliea Academy’s NOVA cadets just like you had asked, Sire.”
“Well done,” he said and turned around. “And Jake, what of your mission?”
This plot runs much thicker than I expected, Elizabeth realized. Just how many different people had come together to pull off this invasion?
“Aliea is set to be completely destroyed, Sire,” He said. “Zygrade will be obliterated within the hour.”
“And what of the Lambda Driver?” he asked. “Has Windalf confirmed that the White Knights from the Anti-verse still possess the device?”
“The Lambda Driver!” Q yelled out. “Burke and Jade!”
Everyone looked at him. Friend and foe. Elizabeth didn’t get what Q was reacting to, but based on his expression he seemed to have forgotten something important, and based on the situation, she could tell that he had left behind something important back in the Anti-verse.
Suddenly a small sphere of white energy glowed in the center of the hangar. It slowly expanded and expanded until it was as large as a small room.
“Protect me, Q. I need an energy suit,” Elizabeth heard a voice in his head.
A mass telepathy broadcast, she thought. Q responded to the broadcast. He held out his hand, and a whitish tinge formed around the dark beast-like silhouette that had suddenly appeared inside the bright sphere. The sphere dissipated in a wave of energy, and a man and griffin fell to the floor with a thud.
“Boy! We are never doing that again,” the man’s white overcoat fluttered in the wind. “That was too close!”
“Thank god you’re okay, Burke,” Q sighed.
A black box felt out of the sphere and landed next to Levi. It changed from a glowing hot red color to the shade of a cold and dark black.
“Is that-” Levi felt the box’s surface with his fingers. “It is! The Lambda Driver!”
“Who are you?” Burke asked.
“Seriously? You don't know who I am?” Levi asked.
He shook his head.
“I’m one of the mai
n villains.”
“Oh. That actually makes sense,” Burke said.
Everyone else stared in confusion as they witnessed the world’s silliest conversation in the world’s most dire situation.
“You have the Lambda Driver now,” Carlos said. “Stop the Poseidon and let us go.”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way,” Levi smirked.
“What’re you going to do with the Lambda Driver?” Burke asked accusingly. He didn't like the idea of his invention being used by an evil mastermind for some grandmaster plot of his.
“Imagine this,” Levi said. “If we’re the only ones to have the Lambda Driver then we would possess the fastest ship in the Universe. We could attack planets and run away, No one would be able to catch us. We would be invincible.”
Burke laughed, “I could remake thousands of those and install them in every ship that exists.”
“I said if,” Levi said. “That was only a simple suggestion of what we could do. The Quantum Array has a much better use for this invention of yours. But If you say you could create more of these then maybe we should take you with us,” he grinned.
Burke’s face, on the other hand, dropped.
The griffin stood in front of Burke, “It is not wise to cross the paths of a griffin,” his deep, mystic voice resonated in Elizabeth’s mind.
“A griffin from the Anti-verse,” Levi smirked. “Who’s supplying your energy suit?” he scanned the room and fixed his gaze on Q. “Ah, it appears to be the sorcerer himself,” he smiled. “Let’s try something fun shall we, sorcerer? If I take you out, then the griffin’s energy suit should wither and he will die. Shall we put the theory to the test?” All the cadets aimed their weapons at Q.
Q stayed calm, “There’s a major flaw with that plan,” he smiled.
“Which part?”
“The part where you think you can kill me.”
“Oh I can kill you.”
Q vanished in a flash. His voice rang through the air loud and clear, “I’d like to see you try.”
***
5-4
The entire hangar was in a state of panic. Kai glanced around. Every cadet double checked to see if they had a visual on Q.
“Where is he?” Albion asked.
“Come out, Q,” Levi said.
No response.
“Do not test my patience, Wielder of Light,” he said nervously.
Still no response.
“Guards!” he yelled out.
The cadets surrounded Elizabeth and Taylor and trained their blasters onto them. Their weaponry hummed as it prepared to blast. “Come out, Q, or the girls get it,” Levi said.
A whistle sounded, its pitch becoming higher and higher. Something was coming at them with incredible speed.
BOOM!
A sonic wave hit the cadets and knocked all of them down. Kai tried his best to stay on his feet.
“What’s going on?” Albion demanded.
“I-I don't know,” Levi stuttered.
That was probably the first time Kai had seen Levi scared or nervous. He couldn't blame him though. He had been just as nervous when the Brain had put him up against Q.
“Aliea! Attack!” Carlos yelled out, trying to make the most of the distraction Q was creating.
Kai sunk into the action right away. He raised his hand into the air. Pieces of metal broke off from the walls of the hanger and circled around him like a hurricane. In seconds, they fused together and formed a functional piece of battle armor around him.
The metal hurricane kept spinning and shot outwards, taking out a good portion of the cadets surrounding them.
Elizabeth and Taylor were taking out another group of cadets all on their own.
“Don’t you dare think you can make us damsels in distress,” Taylor threw a cadet over her head.
Elizabeth kicked another to the ground, “We do the rescuing around here, you know.”
Boy is Q missing a show, Kai chuckled.
“Juliana, we need to stop the Poseidon’s transition to Hades,” Carlos said. Juliana nodded and the two of them headed into the main control room.
The leftover cadets regrouped together and tried to take everyone on. Lisara and Trisha activated their Lancelots, and barged through the every last one of them.
“Stop! This isn't how it’s supposed to end!” Levi yelled out in frustration. He gazed around the room with a look of pure hatred.
“It is time to leave, Levi,” Albion raised his hands into the air.
“Remember the name of the Quantum Array,” Levi screamed. “For we are your worst nightmare.”
A blue sphere of light spread through the hangar and the enemy vanished.
It had ended.
“What happened?” Elizabeth asked.
“Albion teleported them all out of here,” Kai said.
“Wait! Where’s Q?” Taylor asked. Q was still invisible to everyone. No one knew where he was or what he was doing.
A virtual screen opened up on the walls of the hangar. It showed a panicked Carlos and Juliana desperately working at the controls. “We have a huge problem here,” Carlos said. “The Poseidon has been set into overdrive. We can't stop it!”
“I can transport it with the Lambda Driver,” Burke said. He looked around. “Wait, where’s my Lambda Driver?”
Kai scratched his head, “Last I saw, it was with-”
“-Levi,” Burke’s eyes went wide.
“Actually, Albion was the one who took it away,” Lisara walked towards them. Both she and Trisha had deactivated their Lancelots. “I saw it disappear after the blue light shone through the hangar. No doubt he teleported it along with himself.”
“Guys, focus!” Taylor turned to the screen. “How long do we have, Carlos?” she asked.
Carlos brought up a timer. 10 minutes.
“What’s our course of action?” Trisha asked.
His face went white, “Nothing,” he said. “We evacuate.”
“You mean Aliea is going to…” Chris’ voice softened to a mere whisper.
The High Commander nodded grimly.
Aliea was going to be destroyed.
***
“Q!” Taylor called out but he didn’t answer. They needed him right now. He was the only who could give them even a slight chance at saving Aliea from annihilation.
“He is not here,” Jade said.
Taylor was startled. She hadn't noticed the huge griffin sitting in the corner.
“Who’s the griffin?” she asked.
“Met him in the anti-world,” Burke said.
“Guys! Time limit!” Carlos reminded them.
“Q is asking you all to calm down,” Jade said.
Taylor was anxious, “What do you mean?”
A bolt of lightning shot through the sky. Q, she thought. They looked outside the hangar. Q stood directly in the middle of the storm. Huge waves crashed on him from all sides and a blast of wind circulated around him.
“Guys! Look out!” Lisara ran wildly towards the back of the hangar. Taylor looked at her quizzically and turned around. A rogue wave headed straight for the hangar. They didn't have any time to run, and it was pretty easy to see what would happen if it hit them directly.
It wouldn't be a pretty picture.
All Taylor could do was hope that her suit protected to the best it could. She braced for impact. But it never came.
She looked up to see a bright wall of white energy seal off the hangar. She didn't need to be a detective to figure out that Q had protected them with his Elementa of Light. She glanced outside. Q flew high into the air. Waves of white pulsated from him and caused the entire mothership to vibrate.
He stopped in mid-air for a second and then plunged into the ocean at insane speed. For a second there was water all around them.
The next second there wasn't.
The waves of energy had rippled through the water with amazing power and caused it to turn into steam. Taylor looked at the now-bare ground and sa
w a massive crater where Q would have met the surface. He was digging deeper and deeper into the surface.
“He’s going for the core,” she realized. “He’s trying to get the Hades out of Zygrade’s core.”
“That is not a good idea at all. He could melt in there” Kai said.
“Way to be positive, Kai,” Elizabeth said.
“What? I’m just saying it’s dangerous.”
Carlos and Juliana ran into the hangar.
“Where is he?” Carlos asked.
Taylor pointed at the crater.
“He’s gone to the core?”
Taylor nodded.
The timer on the wall showed one minute and nineteen seconds.
The wall of energy sealing the hangar slowly dissipated. Taylor wondered if it signaled that something had happened to Q.
“What do we do?” Lisara asked. “We can’t just leave him alone.”
“All we can do is wait,” Trisha said. “Just liked he asked us to.”
The timer read thirty five seconds.
“C’mon, Q,” Kai said.
Twenty seconds.
Taylor closed her eyes and focused on her emotions.
Five seconds.
She knew he couldn’t die. He wouldn’t just leave her like this. He would come back
Four.
He would come back wouldn’t he?
Three.
Taylor’s entire body started glowing.
Two.
Powerful surges of energy emanated from her in terrible shockwaves.
One.
Q blasted through the surface with his hands holding up a crystal sphere almost as large as a car.
Zero.
“No!” Taylor screamed at the top of her lungs, her emotions rising up inside her. She felt everything; her fear of losing Q, her anger at being helpless, her hatred at the people who did this.
The Hades exploded.
***
The Hades blasted with a terrifying sound, making Elizabeth’s ears feel like they were going to explode from the fierce noise.
“Q!” she tried to move forwards but the ripples of energy from the blast knocked her to the ground.
AcQuest: A Space Opera Military Technothriller (The Quest Saga Science Fiction Adventure Series Book 3) Page 28
