2
Zolyn
Earth. At last.
The alien that called herself Zolyn collected her nano sphere body together, allowing the sensors to scan the many pieces that made up her flowing mechanics. The journey through the tiny blue planet’s atmosphere had been rough, and it was never her intention to crash land here.
But, some things were beyond her control. Her vision mechanics focused on a crumpled mess in the corner of the shuttle’s main cabin. Her only surviving relative — indeed, the only other Xantherian left in the universe — was scattered on the floor, apparently lifeless.
The scan of Zolyn’s body was complete, signaled by a bright flashing blue light at her core, and she assessed the situation.
85% of my body survived the impact. Not bad. Not great, but certainly manageable.
Her core quivered with a jolting buzz of electrical energy. Her entire being was housed within the tiny mechanical nano spheres. Each one was collected together by the magnetic current running in between each bit. This allowed for endless adaptability and the ability to withstand prolonged space travel. She felt as if her travels had taken forever. Indeed, it was a few decades since she had seen the last of her original physical body decay on Xanther.
That was when the mechanization began. She was hardly the first of her kind to go through such a dramatic transformation, but now here she was. The last of her kind.
She would have been afraid if not for the knowledge that the solution to her survival was this rock she had landed on.
And landed is the optimistic way of putting it, she muttered. Again her gaze turned to the crumpled collection of nano spheres in the corner of the sleek metallic cabin.
Xara, thought Zolyn pityingly. We are the only two remaining Xantherians in the universe, and you still choose to take the moral high ground. How typical. Where is your sense of self preservation?
Xara, her only companion for much too long, had proven no help in landing the craft. For the better part of a week, Xara had come up against Zolyn, begging her to find another way to insure their survival. Did they really have to obliterate another thriving planet in order to harness energy?
Zolyn let out a disdainful grunt as she collected her body together and morphed into a standing position, her many spheres gliding across the polished floor like obsidian liquid that shimmered in the light of the control panels.
When it comes to survival, she said to the lifeless form of Xara, you either fight to live, or you go extinct. Ask any species what happens when you don’t fight. I don’t intend to die here at the end of the universe. I intend to live, and once I have the means to power myself into the future, I will find a way to replicate myself and insure that the Xantherians thrive once more.
Oblivion will not take me.
She turned to the data monitors and checked the ship’s vital signs. Please, don’t you die on me, too…
With a few flicks through the lines of coding, scanning thousands of points of data per second, Zolyn let out a relieved sigh of electrical energy. The ship was relatively still intact. Only a few cosmetic disturbances. That was good. She didn’t intend to leave this planet any time soon, but even so, Starlight’s Shard was her home base for the time being. It would not do to have it destroyed and ultimately rendered useless when the power ran out.
Not that there isn’t an incredible amount of power on Earth…
That was the reason this planet — small as it was — was chosen.
Zolyn could sense it in her every sphere. The entire planet buzzed with activity and various forms of energy. Electrical, naturally powered. The variations were wonderful and gave Zolyn a sense of giddiness.
Where to start?
It was an easy answer. She had known where to start years ago, in fact, the entire time it took to get to this planet was spent in eager anticipation. The groundwork had already been laid. She was not the first one to land on Earth. Far from it. Her predecessors, in a merciful act of prescience, had scoped out the different sources of energy in the surrounding galaxies. There was plenty of activity to choose from, but the real trick was finding a source of energy that could be harnessed and converted into more life for the Xantherian species.
They ran on energy, the same as any other living creature. And once that energy ran out…
Her attention was once more captured by Xara in the corner.
Zolyn had no intentions of ending up like that. She would live. With the vast amount of energy on this planet, she would be swimming in life soon enough.
But, there was one source of energy above all others that was the most precious and sought after. The bit of energy that had been planted by her forebears.
The Vestige.
Even across the vastness of space, her kind knew of this energy source. Mysterious, certainly. But, even the greatest scientific achievements were like magic to a normal being. Somehow, in some microscopic way, the material making up the Vestige harnessed an incredible amount of energy. Not only that, but it was renewable.
Judging by the studies that her kind had done, humanity had found a way of amplifying the energy within the metallic relic. Their interaction with the Vestige created a surge of energy that could then be channeled into other sources.
A living battery.
How prosperous it was that this Earth had such an eagerly reproductive population. More future sources of energy were being created all the time. Even though there was only one Vestige, the chances of its power being amplified by multiple people was enough to make Zolyn believe that her ancestors were right — that this planet was indeed the jackpot that they had so hoped it would be.
She had a lot of work ahead.
First, she needed to find the Vestige. One tiny piece of material on a floating orb. When her craft had first come into sight of Earth, Zolyn was hesitant to rejoice. The majority of the planet was covered in water.
If the Vestige was sunk at the bottom of an ocean, that would prove more difficult than if it were hidden on land. She had even been afraid that her craft might land in the water and sink.
But, thankfully that hadn’t happened — and looking at her most recent documented study on the Vestige, she saw that it was linked to a few various humans whose names meant nothing to her. Yet.
She skimmed the names, memorizing them. Her internal sensors whirred and buzzed as they processed the information, starting the scan of the planet’s surface to try and pinpoint where these living humans might be found. It wasn’t an exact science, but she could make her way to the rough vicinity using her tech.
There is still the thrill of the hunt, she chuckled. I wonder if they will put up a fight?
In fact, she wondered what kind of power a normal human being had within them?
As she opened up the pressurized hatch at the side of her ship, she was greeted by one of the humans immediately. They had wasted no time in coming to her.
This will make things easy.
The first human was quickly deemed worthless and tossed aside. He did not have the Vestige, or even a modicum of power at his disposal. One down. How many billion more to sift through?
She surveyed the area. At least she had landed in a metropolitan hub. That made the hunt go by quickly. And the power was incredible! All the lights. All the motion and activity. All of it was going to feed her.
Zolyn realized that she had been starving up until this point.
It was going to be good to feed.
A sensor within her gave off an alarm. She turned her attention to it.
The scan of the area had finished. To her delight, the sensors had found one of the names on the list of test subjects.
Austin Spencer, she said. What curious names. Then, with an excited jolt of electricity, she took off through the energy waves in the planet’s open air, zooming towards her target.
This human being, Austin Spencer, would be the first one added to her power bank.
3
The Prison Block
A
ustin Spencer was tired from staring at his reflection day after day. Every morning he was greeted by the same sunken eyes and pale skin. The same chopped hair, and most strikingly, the same orange jumpsuit. At least he couldn’t say he was alone in the fashion of choice. This was prison, after all.
Still, he wished that he could make his reflection change. If it were the old days (and if by “old days” he meant merely a year ago) he would have at the very least been able to change the way he appeared to other people, if not to himself. But, those days were long gone. His arm was a reminder of that.
He raised the short sleeve of his shirt to examine the large horizontal scar that ran across his arm. It had long since healed, leaving the white line where his flesh had been ripped open by a snapped bone. And yet, Austin could still feel the memory of the black piece of what he believed was a square slab of obsidian-like space rock in the recess that the break had left.
It used to be there, implanted into his body. That was the piece of mysterious stone that allowed him to do incredible things. Things that no other human being could do. He had the ability to hack into everyone’s electronic devices, to read their minds and also influence them.
Those were the days. Back when he had been The Cloak. He had been so close to domination. Now, look at him. He was a shell of his former self, and there was nothing he could do.
Nobody even knew that he was here. If they did, then they certainly never visited. He wondered if this loneliness, this sense of helplessness, was what Bill Flagrant had felt during all his years in prison.
Well, he thought. I have plenty of time to find out. You’re not getting out of here any time soon…
At least there were other ways of escape — ways that reminded him of his old powers. Those came in the form of a small collection of books that he was granted the privilege of reading.
He moved over to the meager shelf of paperbacks and picked out a particularly thick volume that dealt with the rise and fall of the Third Reich. It may have been too much for some people, but Austin found solace that even though he had been defeated when he was so close to having the world in the palm of his hand, there was always some other dictator — some other mastermind of evil — who had seen greater power than him and ultimately been brought down.
It seemed that such was the fate of anyone who sought to bring destruction to the world for their own selfish gain.
Austin laid down, stretching out his legs as far as they would reach, until they hit the edge of his narrow mattress. With his head resting on what constituted as a pillow at the opposite end, he sighed and opened the book.
He never got to read a single sentence because suddenly he heard a sound that made his hair stand on end.
It sounded like the deep rumble of a jumbo jet passing by overhead, only this supposed jet had to be mere feet from the top of the prison. He could make out the screeching whine of mechanical pieces being toyed with the wind, followed by the building-shaking rumble of the exhaust, if that was indeed what he was hearing.
Everything shook, from the lights hanging overhead, to the very foundation of the prison itself. That was how close this craft had to have been. Austin wished he could see it, but alas, he had no window, and certainly not a skylight. Aircraft weren’t allowed to fly over the prison, which made the entire situation even more perplexing. There had been a few times a month ago where someone from the outside had tried using a drone to fly in some supplies to an imprisoned family member. Those were swiftly shot down by the snipers on duty, and their contents were confiscated and destroyed.
No scheduled aircraft would fly overhead anyway. The prison didn’t lie in any flight path that Austin could think of.
A few fellow prisoners let out cries of shock as they scrambled to their feet.
“What the hell was that?” said one.
“Sounds like somebody failed flight school,” another hollered across the hallway.
The sound of the craft got fainter and fainter until suddenly it erupted into a major explosion. The force of whatever had crashed was so great that the building shook once more, though not as crazy this time.
As Austin got to his feet to go over to the bars of his cell, a prison guard came hurrying down the hall. There was the sound of inmates clanging things against their own prison bars, though this did nothing to stop the guard from continuing on his mission. The man had a radio in his hand and he was communicating nervously with whoever was on the end. The noise from the inmates was so loud that Austin couldn’t make out what the person on the other end of the radio said. He doubted that there would be any news about what had happened, especially so soon after the crash.
Maybe it was a passenger jet, thought Austin, wincing at the morbid thought. That was how Jeff Boding went out. In a blaze of glory, immortalized forever…
“What’s going on?” yelled the inmate in the cell next to Austin’s.
Austin didn’t expect an answer, and the guard didn’t give one.
“Quiet down!” he hollered back in a gruff voice. “I know as much as you. Go back to whatever you were doing.”
The inmates didn’t like this answer, but what were their options? More commotion as the troublemakers banged whatever they could against the barred doorways and their walls.
“I said quiet down!” the guard repeated. “When I know anything, I’ll let you know. Damn it, my phone’s not working…”
“I wonder if they hit a cell tower,” Austin muttered, resting his head against the bars of his door. He couldn’t see anything interesting in the hall. It was all the same thing, day after day. Men reaching their hands out through the bars as if it would get them anything in return. They wanted their freedom. So did Austin, but he was paying for what he did.
At least I can read, he thought, then turned to go back to the bed — and his book.
When there were answers, they would get answers. Until then, he had a date with history.
For the second time that night, he settled in, prepared to read his book. But, again he wouldn’t even get to read a single sentence because suddenly all the lights went out in the prison, followed by cries of shock from some of the inmates.
“What the hell?” Austin grunted. “Can’t anyone read in this damn place? It’s the only escape we’ve got!”
Suddenly there were screams of panic coming from the hall.
“Oh, God! What was that?!”
“Urghhh! No — stop!”
Austin raised his head, listening.
One of the voices belonged to the guard, who sounded terrified for his life.
“What the hell is that?! Stop right where you are! I’m warning you, I —”
His voice was cut short, whether because he was attacked, or because he had blacked out, Austin had no clue. Whatever the case was, he was certain that something unexpected was going on out in that hallway. As much as he wanted to see what was going on, Austin couldn’t bring himself to return to the cell door. Perhaps it was safer to stay back in the corner, on his bed, until things blew over. After all, he didn’t have any super powers now. He was just an average guy.
Another uncharacteristic shriek from the burly prisoner to Austin’s right made his skin crawl.
Whatever was moving through the prison, it was coming this way. It would be moving past his cell door any moment.
Austin kept his eyes peeled on the barred doorway, hoping to finally put an end to all the mystery.
But, nothing moved past his doorway. Not a person like he expected, anyway.
Instead it looked like a black, viscous liquid was rolling along the floor of the passage. A smell like burning rubber and oil invaded Austin’s nostrils and he coughed as the aroma moved through his sinuses and onto the back of his tongue.
A curious clicking noise, like a bunch of tiny marbles being rolled around in the palm of someone’s hand, came to his attention. Was the sound coming from the black liquid? Or was that something else?
He didn’t have any more time to ponder be
cause as soon as his eyes narrowed to get a better look at the liquid-like substance, it stopped right in front of his cell. It was almost as if this liquid was conscious. How was that even possible?
The substance rolled in between the bars of Austin’s cell and collected in the middle of the small room. It was hard to see without the lights, even at such close range. Yet, as Austin squinted, he noticed that the liquid wasn’t just a massive blob. Rather, it appeared to be a collection of many tiny spheres. In between these spheres, where they butted together, there was an unmistakable purple glow. Very faint, but noticeable at such close range.
Was this some sort of high-tech weapon? Something from an enemy? Austin felt a chill come over his neck and shoulders as he wondered if this thing was connected in any way to the rumbling and the explosion they had just experienced.
Whatever it was, the thing was giving off a sort of static energy. Austin could feel it against his skin, even from where he lay on the bed. This thing had to be far from organic, though it passed itself off as just a stream of liquid.
What did it want?
The question kept repeating in Austin’s mind as he sat up slowly, carefully. What was this thing after? It clearly had stopped in its path down the hallway to turn into Austin’s cell. It made a conscious choice, which meant that it had some form of intelligence. Could this thing be a creation of another super villain? Some copycat somewhere who had watched Austin’s exploits as The Cloak and wanted his help? If that were the case, Austin had to admit that there wasn’t much of anything he could do.
“What am I thinking?” he muttered after a moment. “This is crazy. I don’t know what you are…thing. But, I’ve got nothing for you.”
To Austin’s surprise — and horror — the shimmering blob spoke, though it didn’t move its mouth. The words came to him in his mind — or perhaps they were merely played through some sort of internal speaker system that he couldn’t see. Either way, the effect was the same.
The Aberrant Series (Book 4): Super Invasion Page 2
