“That may not be easily done.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zeus has all my research. If he destroyed it, then your last hope might have died with it.”
“Surely you know how to make your own elixir once more if needed?”
“One of its ingredients is very rare. If my stockpile was destroyed . . . And knowing Zeus’ usual wrath when he feels defied, I would think it was.”
Apollo cleared his throat.
“What is it, brother?”
“Well, Zeus did ask me to destroy Asclepios’ lab after I trapped him here with Menoitios, I’m afraid.”
“This isn’t happening!” shouted Ares in frustration.
Chase felt as if he had been running and flying around for an eternity.
He didn’t understand how Hades kept getting faster and faster. But he himself was much faster than he had ever been before. Chase wondered how much faster he could actually become. Then, out of the blue, he stopped chasing Hades.
When he noticed, Hades also stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve had enough of chasing you, that’s what’s wrong.”
“Believe me, you’re almost there.”
“Doesn’t feel like it from where I’m standing.”
“That’s because you’re trying to follow me in order to catch me. You should try to simply envision catching me. It should make your job easier.”
Chase shot Hades a dubious look.
“Look, Chase, did you learn anything new during your time here?”
It was a rhetorical question, but Chase answered anyway. “Of course. Lots.”
“So trust me, will you?”
“Very well.”
Chase resumed following Hades around for a while, still being bested every time he thought he was about to catch him.
“Remember, you need to see it in your mind.”
Whatever that means.
He formed the mental image of catching Hades. The only way he saw that happening in his mind, though, was by teleporting into Hades’ path.
That was exactly what happened. In a fraction of a second he was no longer trailing behind but in front and actually nearly caught Hades. He was disappointed to miss him by only a hair, but then he realized all he needed to do was to repeat this until it worked. And eventually, work it did.
Chase finally grabbed Hades after teleporting all over the place.
“I’ll be damned, Ares was right.”
“What about?” said Hades as Chase released him.
“He said teleporting was within my grasp.”
“He was right. You need to practice it a little more, though.”
“Sure thing. How long?”
“I have something to do, but I won’t be long. When I come back there’s just one more thing I’ll need you to do before we’re through with your training.”
“Very well.”
Hades disappeared and Chase teleported all over the place until it became second nature.
Keera had a much clearer line of fire now that Ryonna was fighting the battle droid from the other side. The droid had reacted quickly to Ryonna’s last attack and they exchanged light-blade slashes once more while Keera kept firing at the droid’s back. For the time being, it kept ignoring her.
“How long can we keep this up?” said Keera.
Ryonna answered the best she could in between sword exchanges. “As . . . long as we . . . have to. Try . . . a charged . . . shot.”
Keera looked at her weapon’s settings and remembered the quick tutorial Ryonna had given her. She switched the controls and kept depressing the trigger while aiming at the droid’s back. Her blaster hummed louder and louder as the shot powered up inside. When the power control gauge blinked three times, that was her cue.
She released her finger from the trigger and a large shot of plasma fired from her weapon and hit the droid, dead center on its back. The droid froze for just a fraction of a second and its shield turned from green to yellow. It also gave Ryonna the opportunity to slash the droid’s shields twice more before it grabbed her light-blade-wielding hand and kicked her in the shoulder, sending her flying backwards, where she crashed onto the floor with a metallic thud.
“Ryonna!”
The droid turned and faced Keera, who had just enough time to recharge one more heavy shot and release it before the droid was on her. When the full-power plasma shot impacted with the droid’s head, its shield turned red and started blinking continuously, but it kept coming at her. Keera dropped her blaster and activated her light-blade just in the nick of time to block the droid’s slash towards her head. While she dueled the battle droid, Ryonna lined up multiple full-power blaster shots on the droid’s back and eventually its shields gave in.
She switched to lasso mode and lassoed the droid around the ankles and stomach, trapping its arms in the process. The droid dropped its light-blade as Keera went for the kill.
In two swift motions, she cut through the droid’s lower face at a thirty-degree angle, continuing the cut through most of the shoulder and right arm. Blue and orange sparks flew out as the blade hacked though the metal, leaving a red hot, almost perfect line in its wake. With a second blade cut, Keera cut what was left of the battle droid a little above the waistline. The four parts of the droid made a terrible ruckus when they fell to the floor.
Keera was panting heavily, not so much from the effort as from the intensity of the fight.
Ryonna got back up. “Good kill, Keera, well done.”
“Come on, we both know you did most of the leg work.”
“I disagree. It would have been a real pain to deal with this one on my own and I’m really glad I didn’t have to.”
Ryonna brought her wrist holo-display back on, only to see that the mapping of the base was ongoing.
“How big is this place?”
“Too big for us to continue roaming around aimlessly,” Keera answered.
Ryonna inputted a few more commands and interfaced the map of the base with her ship’s main computer.
“Computer, overlay life signs to the map.”
In less than a second two points lit up on the map, a green and a blue one. “Life signs detected,” added the ship’s computer. “Though I should point out that one life form, the Droxian life sign represented in blue, is very erratic. It may require immediate medical attention.”
Ryonna frowned. “We have to hurry. If this is Jonas, he’s clearly in trouble.”
“Agreed.”
They picked up their pace and sprinted towards the Droxian life sign. They met with a few flying sentries along the way, but these weren’t nearly as powerful or as heavily shielded as the battle droid, so it didn’t take much time to dispatch the opposition and line the halls of the asteroid base with countless pieces of hot, molten metal, silicon circuitry and battery fluid.
They finally entered a large room where a Droxian prisoner was held a foot off the floor by four levitating engines, each trapping one limb. His head was hanging low, with hair covering most of his face, and Ryonna couldn’t see if it was indeed Jonas. But her heart skipped a beat when she saw the amount of bruising and cuts all over the Droxian’s body. Not to mention the pool of purple blood underneath him, with new drops adding to its already large surface.
Ryonna ran towards him, but a strong force hit her in the jaw. She lost balance and crashed to the floor unceremoniously. She had just been sucker punched. She felt it. The problem was, there was no one where the blow had come from. Before she could get back up she received a kick in the guts, sending her whirling and tumbling for a few more yards. She still had no visual contact with her seemingly invisible foe.
Keera ran to her aid, only to have her legs mowed from under her. She took a nasty tumble. Instead of trying to get back up she set her blaster to stun and fired several shots towards the general area in which she had been brought down. Eventually one shot hit something in the air and, for just a second, partial armor appeared as its wearer’s shield lit up t
o deflect the laser.
“It’s a stealth suit, Keera!”
“I can see that.”
But then Keera was grabbed by two invisible hands and lifted off the floor. She instinctively punched where she thought the head would be but instantly regretted it. The impact with the shielded foe caused tremendous pain. But not as much as when she was thrown with incredible force against the nearest wall, head first. She blacked out.
When Sarah woke after her first night back on Earth, she felt fully rested. She hadn’t had such good sleep in weeks. She missed her bed, and she missed Chase in it more. She took a nice, long shower during which all she could think about was what Ares had told her. She really hoped he would return soon, for all their sakes.
When she was dressed, she went to check on Chris. The night before she’d had the worse time trying to get him to sleep. She never thought she’d ever argue with a four-year-old on such a level. Not only was he growing fast, but talking to a young kid with an adult mind was something else.
He wasn’t in his room and her heart stung. She ran into every room, hoping he hadn’t gone outside. It was one thing having to deal with this situation, and another having the rest of the world know about it. But she was relieved to find him in the kitchen eating cereal and eggs. He looked even bigger now, probably the equivalent of five or six years old.
“Did you make these yourself?”
“Yeah, what’s so hard about that?”
Sarah smiled. “It’s usually a mother’s duty to prepare food for her kid, plus we have a food synthesizer, so you don’t actually need to cook.”
“I know. I like doing it though.”
Chris stood, opened her oven, took out a big plate of eggs and pancakes, and brought it to Sarah.
“That’s so sweet. Where did you get the eggs?”
“I synthesized them raw and cooked them on the stove. Hope that’s okay.”
“Sure, thanks Chris.”
“You should eat them while they’re still hot,” added Chris with a smile.
Unbelievable.
Sarah was amazed by how sweet her son was. She sensed a lot of Chase in him. But that scared her too. Would he have a destructive tendency when he became upset? But mostly she was worried that he would not be with them for long enough. That made her feel sick inside. That last thought reduced her appetite, but she forced herself to eat. She didn’t want Chris to think she didn’t appreciate his making breakfast.
“All good? If it’s not to your liking, you can synthesize your own food.”
“No, baby, don’t worry. It’s delicious.” It really was. “I’m just worried about, well . . . everything.”
“I understand, Mom. But things will get better soon, I’m sure.”
“I wish I shared your optimism.”
“You will. It’s not like we have any choice. We either defeat the Furies or we all die, so let’s just decide right here and now that we will win and be done with worrying altogether.”
Now that was definitely not a trait that came from Chase. He was a worrier at heart, and she didn’t understand how Chris could be so confident. Perhaps some part of his brain was still only a child. At this age, children didn’t tend to worry about the future.
Sarah couldn’t help feeling sad for all the experiences Chris would skip. Meeting friends at school, learning all sorts of subjects, even though he seemed to know them already. His first crush, kissing a girl on the cheek for the first time, stroking her hair while slow dancing. The list went on and on. All of these character-building experiences, Chris would have to do without.
He shot her a curious look. She had been brewing in her own mind for a while now. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m okay growing fast. It’s what the universe needs.”
“Chris, you may be okay with it but I hope you understand why I’m not. And while you may be right, I still think it’s not fair, to me or to you.”
“Life isn’t fair.”
“A five- or six-year-old should never have to utter these words, but I can’t really argue with them right now.”
“Mom, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure, baby, anything.”
“I wanted to know if it would be possible for me to start training soon?”
“What do you mean ‘training’?”
“Dad trained in a facility on Earth to make him stronger. I thought I should start doing so as well.”
Really?
“I think you still need a few . . .” She wanted to say years but corrected herself on the fly, “days until you’re old enough to do so.”
“That’s a matter of perspective. I think I can start now. I don’t need to fight anyone, but I could start working on a higher level of gravity like Dad did.”
In her mind there was no way that a little boy of six should start his fight training. Then again he would probably be twelve before the week was over. It made Sarah’s head spin.
“Very well. Finish your breakfast and we’ll pay Spiros and Gaia a visit.”
“Really?” Chris’ entire face was illuminated with joy. “Thank you, Mommy.”
At least there were some nice times, like this, where it did feel like a normal mother-son relationship. Sarah knew how precious these were and cherished them, knowing she would experience very few of them.
It wasn’t long before they boarded a transport and set a course towards the yet-unnamed training ship in high orbit.
13
While Keera was getting pounded, Ryonna brought up her wrist holo-interface and selected an electromagnetic view option. She then pressed a small mechanical button on the inside of her arm that opened a sliding compartment revealing glass frames with no apparent hinges or temples. She put them on her eyes. The moment they touched her skin, a band of white energy shot from both sides and circled Ryonna’s head. The energy bands met at the back of her head, locking the device in place.
Two holo-screens appeared and acted as lenses. She saw a humanoid shape, though it was quite distorted due to the imprecision of the current scanning mode. It was coming towards her and she didn’t hesitate in firing at it repeatedly but, like the battle droid before, its shields deflected every shot with ease. She rolled to her right to avoid the incoming foe, grabbing her light-blade and activating it on the way. She pivoted to reach maximum impact velocity.
But the result was not what she intended. The contact with the shields at such velocity caused the weapon to overheat and it shut itself down. The device trembled in her hand as it became burning hot. She threw the damaged blade to the feet of her opponent and jumped out of the way. The blade exploded even before reaching the ground. It illuminated the armored foe and overloaded its shields and cloaking generator.
Sparks shot randomly and lightning ran all over the armored man. Ryonna recognized the design of this armor. She had used something similar on Hathan Prime when she had taken out Sector Atrak who had been responsible for her husband’s murder.
Was this what Jonas was after? Had he finally tracked the creator of such an incredibly powerful suit, one that could prove helpful against the Furies if wielded by someone as strong as Chase?
Now was not the time to think about it, as she was reminded when the man in the suit took multiple shots at her. She rolled on the floor to avoid them but one still hit her in the abdomen. Fortunately her own armor took the brunt of the shot. She took cover behind one of the many crates in the room. A few more shots hit behind the crate and sparks flew. She fired back, forcing the man behind cover as well.
When she tried switching to lasso mode, she was rewarded with a low-power warning from her thought-to-be-trusty blaster.
“You gotta be shitting me,” she said out loud.
She ran towards Keera’s dropped blaster but, before she could reach it, her enemy shot the weapon out of reach.
Things became worse when the man ran towards her at super speed and kicked her with such force that she flew into a nearby pillar, gravely injuring her back in the process.
She could barely move. The man now approached at a confident pace. Whatever upgrades this armor had received since the one she had used months ago had clearly increased its stealth abilities. She couldn’t hear her enemy’s steps as he approached.
He grabbed her by the top of her armor. She fought through the pain and swung one arm at him. His super speed allowed him to block the punch and his super strength broke her fist and many of her finger bones with ease. The man didn’t stop there, however. He unleashed a series of powerful punches to her face, breaking one of her cheekbones as well as a few teeth. Her augmented glasses also took a hit and shattered from the blow.
She could barely see anything past the blood in her eyes. She felt helpless.
The man lifted her against the pillar before he spoke. “I told you to leave while you still could. You should have listened to me. Now you will pay for this mistake with your life. Any last words?”
When Ryonna tried to speak, large amounts of blood spilled from her mouth and onto the man’s arm. She tried again and managed to speak. “Grant me an honorable death by letting me see the face of the man who defeated me.”
“Droxians. So predictable. But this is one wish I can gladly grant.”
The helmet covering the man’s face melted down, confirming that it was a similar liquid design as the suit Ryonna had used. She looked at the face of a Brin, smiling smugly.
“Now pray to whatever gods you believe in,” said the Brin before preparing to deliver a final blow.
Three large steel claws shot out from his fist and Ryonna realized that her life was about to end. She had to do something. With her other arm she reached to the back of her belt for a magnetic grenade. If she was to die, she would at least take him with her.
But just before he thrust his claws into Ryonna’s face, one of Keera’s throwing stars hit him dead center on his forehead. He instinctively released his hold on Ryonna to check how deeply the star had penetrated his head. While Ryonna had no doubt it had reached his brain, he didn’t seem particularly affected beyond the psychological shock.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 156
