Phalanx – the series

Episode Forty: Endgame.

 

A sleek, pitch-black colored ship emerged from the red interdimensional Quantum Displacement hole near a solar system that was unlike our own. Behind the controls of the ship, an 18-year-old brown-haired boy sat, tapping a sequence into the keys of the pilot’s controls, before relaxing, and letting the ship’s hyperfusion drives take him in.

He closed his eyes, and relaxed in the molding seat, and wondered for the so-many-th time why people in this universe insisted that faster-than-light propulsion inside a solar system was rude. Thankfully, the solar system he was aiming for wasn’t as large as earth’s, not by a long shot. As such, thirty minutes later, he was already entering the sphere of influence of the planet he was aiming for.

He sat up when Linda contacted him. “David, we’re being hailed by the planetary defensive network.”

David nodded, and pressed a key to accept the transmission. “This is Orado Planetary Control. Please identify yourself.”

David replied calmly. “This is David Fromthefield, pilot of the Earth Strategic Mental Forces vessel Daedalus XII arriving per interdimensional authorization.”

There was a small tick on the transmission channel that told David that the planetary defenses had shifted him over to a higher level authority system. “Your vessel is armed. Please disable weaponry for atmospheric entrance.”

David reached over, and tapped a well-rehearsed sequence into the tactical console on his right. “Weapons disabled, Planetary Control.”

“Granted,” the automated system answered. “Transferring you to the civilian traffic computer. Have a safe trip, David Fromthefield of the ESMF.”

David smiled, and actually thanked the computer, amused that it now would use the shorthand. Up until now, it had insisted on spelling out the entire name… his revere was broken when a new voice cut in on the transmission channel.

“This is Orado Traffic. Where would you like to go?”

“Pehanron College,” David answered calmly. The planet-based computer system didn’t respond verbally, but Linda told David that the coordinates had been received, and that the system was standing by for automatic piloting, should he wish it.

David nodded again, and started tapping the keys in front of him. The Daedalus XII shifted out of orbit, and entered Orado’s atmosphere. Thirty minutes later, he had ‘parked’ the Daedalus on a public parking area, just outside of Pehanron College’s entrance. As always, he felt a little self-conscious. The aircars of these people were sleek, obviously powerful, and beautifully designed. Next to them, the Daedalus looked like a tube with wings; beautiful and deadly in its own right, but obviously designed for another era, and another purpose.

Five minutes later, he was standing in front of a woman, rather small in stature, but of obvious authority. Senior Counselor of Student Section Ninety-Two, Miss Eulate. “I am here to see Miss Telzey Amberdon,” David told her.

The woman eyed him. “Even a privileged Star Honor student needs time to study,” she told him. David wanted to do some things to her right there and then, but remained silent. When no response was forthcoming, Eulate sighed. “You seem to limit your visits, so very well,” the woman relented, handing him a pass. “This will let you through the screen. I’m sure you can find the way by yourself.”

David nodded once. “Thank you, Miss Eulate.” As the boy turned and left, she looked after his retreating back.

“At least he’s polite,” the woman grunted, returning to her work.

Outside, David slipped back into the Daedalus, acutely aware of several people eyeing him strangely for parking a ship that took up three regular parking spots in a public parking area. As the hyperfusion engines whined into life, and the craft lifted, the onlookers gaped at the sound of the space-worthy engines. The Daedalus XII whisked silently, then, as the engines throttled down to near-nothing and the ship glided to the defensive screen. The pass Miss Eulate had given him permitted the screen to open, and he carefully maneuvered the Daedalus through.

Five minutes later, the ship settled down next to a duplex bungalow, numbers eighteen and nineteen, in Section Ninety-Two of the prestigious Pehanron College.

Stepping outside and locking down the ship, David then walked to the front door of number 18. He didn’t ring the doorbell, but instead lowered his Mental Shielding, and snuck out a probe to the occupant of the bungalow. It encountered a bubble of very different allure and texture, and fluttered like a feather on the shield, then withdrew.

The door was opened immediately by a stunning brunette of 16 years of age, dressed in what passed as leisure clothing on Orado, made of materials David hadn’t had time to study yet. “David!” Telzey Amberdon  greeted him, before hugging him and kissing his cheek.

He grinned at her. “Hello, Telzey,” he replied, capturing her face with his hands, and letting his lips flutter over hers. She smiled up at him, before guiding him into the duplex bungalow.

“I see Jessie’s not with you this time,” Telzey said as they sat down in the salon of her 36^th-century bungalow. David grimaced.

“Sorry about that, Telz…” he apologized. “But, me and my sister…”

“I understand,” she interrupted him, smiling at him. “Or, at least, I think I can. From what I can see about you two… from what you told me… I can understand what you two must have gone through. Nobody around but each other that could match you…”

David nodded. “Yeah. Jess and me… It’s like different. When we’re apart, there’s nothing we can’t do… but when we’re together, it just all becomes so much easier, feeding off each other, supplementing the other perfectly. Two minds in perfect synchronicity… I don’t think you can understand how it feels, Telz.”

She smiled a little unsurely then. “Sounds like you love her a lot.”

David nodded, looked at the ground. “Jess… she’s special to me. For my entire life, I’ve had people around me who were able to match me in speed of thought… my father, sometimes my mother… but Jess was the one I synchronized with.” He looked up at Telzey then. “But she’s my sister. I love her, deeply, but it can never be what I feel for you. One is the complement of the other, not a replacement, Telz. Never doubt that.”

She nodded, still a little unsurely. “I know… but still… seeing you two together…” she looked up from the floor, and up at him. “I am not above admitting that I feel jealous when I see how well you two communicate. With a single look, you convey more than you could ever say, and I can see it.”

David stood up, walked over to her. Extending his hands down to where she sat, he remained silent. She looked up at him, his well-muscled body towering above her more diminutive, well-toned athletic body. Slowly, she lifted her hands, put them in his, and he gently closed his hands around hers. Slowly, he pulled her to her feet.

“It’s not what’s being said,” he whispered to her as he took a small step forward and closed his arms around hers. “It’s who’s there to listen.”

Her eyes opened as she allowed herself to be engulfed in his powerful embrace. At once, she understood. That formidable intellect that had propelled her to one of the most prestigious colleges in the entire 1200-world counting Hub at age 16, four years ahead of normal, had kicked in, and understood. She too, could communicate… if only she would listen.

“It’s not fast,” he whispered to her, pulling away to look her in the eyes. “But, over time… we’ll talk better then me and Jess ever could, because it will be our hearts that will be speaking, not our minds. And that, is a lesson that I learned from my father and mother. The mind is formidable, but it pales in comparison to the heart.”

She chuckled slightly. “You’re a hopeless romantic, David.”

He grinned. “I don’t hear you complaining, Telz,” he replied with a smile. Linking his hands with hers once again, he continued, “Come on… let’s go out. Orado’s a beautiful world. Why not enjoy it?”

She smiled, and dipped her head. Before she could finish her nod, she found the walls of her bungalow dissolve around her, to be replaced immediately after by a feeling of overwhelming vertigo as the colors inverted strangely. A moment later, she was standing in the exact same posture as before, only now, they were both standing in a large, green, pasture adjourning a large forest.

“That is one of the methods of teleportation,” David replied in answer to her rather shocked gaze. She calmed immediately afterward, and he was secretly impressed by her state of mind. But then again, this was Telzey Amberdon, one of the strongest psis in the entire Hub, and certainly the strongest xenotelepath-class psi out there. But her abilities didn’t end with the ability to understand alien minds.

No, because Telzey was about the closest a natural born human could come to being a full Mental. 

She was still gazing intently at him. “Was that… silent communication?” she whispered suddenly. “You answered a question I didn’t even pose… and my shields locked down tight the moment the world faded on us, so I know you weren’t reading my mind.”

He smiled. She smiled back, and released her hands from him, before sitting down in the fresh grass, and staring out over the scenery. He sat down next to her, remaining silent as well, recognizing the moment for what it was.

For close to five minutes they remained in silence like that, staring out over the scenery, to the beautiful blue skies above and the dancing white clouds that were dotted through it.

“How easily you did that,” she whispered finally. “I’ve seen teleports before… but none could do as easily what you just did.”

He nodded. “I’d be surprised if they could… these abilities are hard to come by.”

She chuckled. “No doubt.”

He looked to his side, where she sat, legs pulled up against her chest, chin resting on her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs. “Are you making fun of me, Miss Amberdon?” he asked with a smile on his face. She turned her head to face him, a smile tugging on her own lips.

“Maybe.”

He chuckled, turned, and lay back, staring straight up at the sky. “My abilities were hard-won, and even harder to control. I’ve told you some… but some things I can’t…”

“We all have our secrets,” she whispered, lying down next to him, tucking her hands under her head. She glanced to her side, looking at him. “I’ll tell you mine if you’ll tell me yours.”

He grinned, but the joy wasn’t in it. Instead, it was sad… and Telzey wondered what could cause it. “My secrets… my secrets protect a lot of people,” David whispered. “I know things that only my sister knows, things that could kill a lot of people…”

“I’m not talking about those things,” Telzey interrupted. “But I think I understand… if you can’t be completely honest, it’s better to be honest about it.”

He nodded, and chuckled. “An astute statement, Miss Amberdon.”

She smiled, turned, and pressed to him. “I think I prefer you calling me that horrible short on my name.”

“You got it, Telz,” he answered, turning to face her so they were mere centimeters away from each other. Two sets of eyes closed, and lips fluttered against each other. Electric contact established quickly, and neither broke the kiss for long moments.

In the nearby forest, twin golden eyes burned out of the foliage, locking onto the couple.

Finally, they pulled apart, smiling at each other. “What a kiss,” Telzey whispered, dismayed at the blush that had crept up on her cheeks. She slipped a few blocks in place, and it disappeared. David merely smiled at the sight, before answered huskily in the positive himself.

They relaxed, and lie down on their backs again. Only, a lot closer this time, and it was very evident that both young people were very much at ease in each other’s company. She turned her head to him. “You know… I never thought I’d ever be like this.”

He turned to face her, understanding what she was trying to say. Like this. In love. Comfortable with someone’s presence without feeling the need to be reserved. To be able to be one’s self. “I know,” he answered, calmly, his awareness focused on her, as it had been since he had seen her at the bungalow earlier. Orado was one of the safest planets in the Hub, and he felt he didn’t need to be ‘on guard’ here.

She smiled, and he continued; “Now you see that silent communication comes to those who listen.”

Telzey nodded, relaxed further, staring up at the fluffy clouds. “The old Telzey would have said this was a waste of time.”

He snickered slightly. “The old Telzey was too busy trying to dissect my mind to listen.”

“Sorry about that…” she whispered. He shook his head, breaking her off.

“No harm done. My shields would never allow anything to happen to me,” he told her, turning to her. “Your probes and inquiries never reached any of the processes where they might begin to try to gain access.”

She nodded silently, watching him. “I’ve never seen a shield like yours before… the closest would be the shield the Old Galactics gave Trigger…”

“Old Galactics?” David asked. “And who’s Trigger? Should I be jealous?”

Telzey brought her hand to her mouth to stifle her laughs, succeeding only partially in blocking them out. “Trigger’s a friend of mine, and no, she’s very much only a friend of mine,” she said through her laughs. “And the Old Galactics, as far as Trigger told me, is an ancient race that populated the galaxy a long, long time ago. Their empire long ago broke up, and now they kinda wander through space. I don’t know how, but Trigger somehow got in contact with them… and they’ve supplied her with a mind shield of unbelievable strength. Almost like yours, but not so… adaptable.”

David nodded, thinking through the things he’d been given. “How easily you do that,” she whispered.

“Do what?” he asked, genuinely confused, turning to her once again. 

“You’re obviously thinking through things… but still, I can’t detect a single trace of stray thought through your shields. It’s almost as if you’re probe-immune, if only I didn’t know for sure that you weren’t.”

He grinned, lowering his shields. “Come on,” he whispered. “Slip me a probe… and I’ll show you some things.”

Smiling, she slipped a probe through the bubble that protected her mental processes. She felt it being held gently, before being guided in, through the thick, hard, mental shield around David’s mind.

The twin golden eyes in the bushes blinked as the creature felt the psi shields waver, then slip down into a more relaxed state. This was what it had been waiting for, and the beast charged.

David was just about to connect Telzey’s probe to one of his thought processes, allow her to materialize in the central processing room of his Mental Mind, when his subconscious instincts went into overdrive. Adrenaline exploded along his bloodstream before David could react, and Telzey found her probe disconnected as his mind erupted into activity.

She opened her eyes wildly, not at all accustomed to being ejected so forcefully, yet immediately forgave David when she saw the situation: a spook had charged from the bushes, thinking them easy prey.

She had time to form a thought about where David had teleported her, before her legs started running on automatic, her human legs not at all standing a chance against the monster with the black mane, huge bird-like beak and the glowing yellow eyes moving in a distinctive ape-like movement.

On the other hand, David seemed calm as he stood up, and extended one hand to the charging, screeching beast. Four paws dugs into the ground as it came to a halt in front of him.

“You shall not harm me,” he intoned, and Telzey stared at the authority that dripped from the voice of the person she loved. Never before had she heard him talk in anything but calm, assured, and gentle tones. Never before had she heard the tone of authority and not-open-for-discussion slip into his voice. The spook, one of the fiercest natural predators of Orado, literally slunk back to the bushes.

But then… then it got sight of her, and its instincts that had kept it from attacking David now forced it to attack her.

As the mass of muscle and claws charged her, Telzey felt herself freeze up in terror, just like the last time she had seen a horrible creature like this. But then… then she had Chomir, the equally fearsome attack dog, to protect her. Now she only had David.

She started to run, legs pumping horribly, when she heard something from the other side. Something different. Against better knowledge, she snapped her head around, to look at the source of this second, even fiercer sound.

David appeared in between her and the beast, charging it dead-on. Her legs stopped on automatic, her mind and heart screaming at her to do something! With as much force as she could muster, she slammed a psi bolt at the spook, but the horrible beast just shook it off as if it was nothing. Then, the beast reached David, and Telzey’s breath stopped in her throat as it bit down on his left arm, held in front of him as some sort of shield. At the same time, the boy snarled, rage pumping through his veins.

You… do NOT… attack Telzey! His mind screamed behind its fortifications, and golden energy exploded around his body as it lifted to full Super status.

The spook released the hold its beak had on David’s forearm, slinking back on its hind legs, emitting a pitifully whining noise, as if it were expecting to be killed at any moment. Super-David remained, standing there, blood dripping from his forearm that was still in the same position as before. A soft purple glow permeated his skin then, and Telzey gasped as the wound closed.

His right arm came up, stretched out to the side, hand open. The air warped, as if the very universe opened up a hole, depositing a blue-glowing sword in the exact position, ready for his grip, should he only close his hand. His fingers curled then; and the sword’s entire nature changed.

Telzey’s psi senses went into overload as the golden-hilted blue-glowing sword morphed into a moonstone-encrusted hilt bearing a black blade glowing a deep purple. She could feel the psi energy coming from the weapon, before it became visible to her xenotelepathic abilities. Those same abilities that decoded alien thought processes as if they were nothing now decoded the energy coming off of the purple-glowing sword, could see it twisting and spiraling down David’s arm, encompassing his entire body, covering him in armor visible only to her.

David dropped his left arm, now no longer wounded, the only evidence visible were the cuts in the sleeve of the jacket he wore. His right arm curled, sword held as if the boy were contemplating hitting the spook with the flat end of it. He drew a deep breath, and the golden energy vanished, his hair returning to brown, and the turquoise vanished from his eyes.

David lifted the sword into a saluting position. “Attempt to harm me or those under my protection again; and I will dissolve you, your family, and your entire species from this sphere of existence. Got it?” he demanded harshly, blue eyes focused on the spook’s.

The animal whined loudly, turned, and hobbled into the forest on all fours. David relaxed only when it was completely gone, and the sword vanished as his head bent.

Slowly, he turned to Telzey, who was staring at him with a look composed of a mixture of fear, excitement and curiosity. But predominantly fear. “Telz…”

She shrunk back, lifting one hand to stop his advance. “What… what just happened?”

David looked over his shoulder, to the forest. “We got attacked,” he replied deadpan, looking back at her.

She swallowed; he could see… feel… her mental shields tightening further as her mind didn’t like his attempt at humor in such a charged situation. “I was talking about you,” she brought out, somewhat coldly.

Even though he couldn’t penetrate her shield, David could still feel the build-up of psi pressure behind those impressive screens. And even though he was reasonably confident his own shields wouldn’t budge under the onslaught, he was in no mood to test that hypothesis. He sighed. “I overloaded,” he whispered then; looked at the ground. “Those are the things I was trying to protect you from…” he looked up at her confused face. Good, at least the anger was gone. “Telz…”

“Telzey,” she interjected.

David sighed; nodded. Looks like not all the anger was gone… how would he talk himself out of this? David’s formidable mind kicked in then, and he looked up at her, his blue eyes drilling into her chocolate brown ones.  “Telzey,” he admitted, then drew a steeling breath. “You know I am from a parallel universe.” She gave a short nod; he continued. “Outside this universe there exist countless others, universes with powers you can not begin to imagine.” He seemed to inflate at that moment as he felt his soul burn within him. “Telzey Amberdon, you are looking at one of the 26 people charged with the safety of the omniverse, trained by the best and brightest, tutored by people with powers above and beyond belief.”

She stared at him then; mouth slightly open, before breaking out in a dry chuckle. “You’re insane.”

David nodded. “Which is why I didn’t tell you. You wouldn’t believe me. Nobody ever does.” He looked up at the skies then, and lifted his sword-hand. The Bane of Darkness appeared in it. “Allow me to prove it to you.” He looked back down at her.

She looked at him, ready for whatever deception he had in mind. Or, so she believed. David closed his eyes, and focused on his inner strength, feeling it lift him to full Super Status. His second hand came to rest on the hilt of the Bane. He growled low in his throat, feeling his power build. Soon, he breached the next level, went Super Two, and reopened his eyes.

Telzey’s eyes had opened so far whites were showing all around her pupils, and her mouth had sagged open as she felt the wind of his power tug at her clothing. “That’s… that’s not an illusion…” she whispered, her psi senses coming up blank as they struck against the strange purple psi-shield she could see wrapping around him as the sword reappeared.

She blinked, taking a step back. She couldn’t believe this… but her senses were telling her it was true… “Just… just what are you?” she asked, voice trembling slightly as adrenaline overcame her ability to stay calm.

He drew a breath, and released his energy. His hair turned back to its usual brown, and his turquoise eyed died down into blue ones. “I am David Fromthefield, one of the Jokilar Gerius, the divine protectors of the omniverse.”

She swallowed, and her mouth opened and closed like a yoyo as she tried to come up with something to say. He nodded. “I know you have a lot of questions… but I don’t know where to begin to explain all this,” he whispered sadly. “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out…”

“No kidding,” she answered, still in that somewhat cold tone she had been using since this mess started. David started to dislike the entire genus that had spawned the spook. If that thing ruined his chances with Telzey…

His mental eye flickered to the forest. He still had a lock.

“Telzey, I love you.”

The Xenotelepath stared at him. “I… I don’t know…” she whispered. “Don’t know… if I can trust you… don’t know… what you are, for that matter,” she said, her ability to string phrases together coming back slowly.

He nodded, and she felt his shields waver; before vanishing. For the first time, she felt his thought processes.

And they were beautiful in their organization, their dedication, and their power. She felt tendrils slip toward her. “Telzey… look into my mind. Whatever you want to know, you can find in there. Who I am, what I’ve done. I want you to know.”

She blinked in surprise. “How do you know I won’t change you?”

He looked up at her. “Because I trust you.”

She nodded, and her psi shield thinned sufficiently for her to sneak a probe out. With such beautifully organized thoughts it would ordinarily take but a few minutes for her to be able to gain an entrance. Instead, she found his mind changed faster than she could ever have believed possible… and the most incredible thing of all was that it was changing to accommodate her! It was growing access points she could use faster than she would have been able to do it.

“What…” she brought out.

“Just some help,” he whispered. She closed her eyes, and focused. 

Thirty minutes later, both opened their eyes again. Two sets of eyes locked together. Slowly, she slipped forward, into his embrace. “I’m sorry, Telzey… I so wanted to tell you…”

“I know,” she whispered in reply. “And when I do find out, I react in exactly the way you expected, and feared.” She looked deep into his eyes. “I’m sorry… and call me Telz.”

 

The thing slithered through the bushes, looking for its next victim. So far, it had stored quite a bit of energy already, and it was looking forward to topping off its internal reserves, and to bringing it home to its master. It was to be the final load, so that its master could bring forth a higher level demon from the underworld. Or something like that… the thing didn’t really care. All it cared about was the pain of his master’s disapproval at failure, and the pleasure of success. Ah, the sweet pleasure of success…

The formless thing dragged its tentacles closer, the sensitive nose picking up what was to be its final victim. Its sensitive eyes made out the pretty brunette with the almost radiating blue eyes, standing under a tree, obviously unaware of her surroundings. The thing licked its lips. She looked so innocent and pure in that schoolgirl outfit, and the thing was looking forward to teaching that innocent girl to be a real woman.

Right before it drained her of her sexual energy, of course.

The thing grinned, and sprung into action. Or rather, slithered into action, approaching the brunette from behind the tree she was leaning against, preparing its strongest tentacles to hold her secure against it before its more sensitive appendages could get to work on her lovely… very lovely… body. A thrill went through the thing, and it forced itself to remain calm and stick to the plan.

It had approached her tree by now, and pressed it body against the back, sneaking out its tentacles, preparing to strike.

Suddenly, the beautiful brunette materialized a vicious sword that burned horribly as she drove the sharp weapon through the appendage that had neared her the most. It screamed out in pain as the weapon’s horribly magical nature burned its sensitive tentacle.

“Scream, you bastard… like all those girls you raped,” the brunette grunted coldly, withdrawing the weapon, immediately using it to sever the previously injured tentacle completely. The thing screamed again.

Her weapon came up in a different arc, severing the tree… and the demon’s head behind it. Her eyes glowed purple then, and the tree reattached itself, while at the same time, she got the information she needed from the dying tentacle demon’s brain.

She winced as some extra information came through as well, and shuddered in revulsion as it nested inside her mind. She cleansed herself of it immediately, but those few seconds had been more than she had cared for.

Jessica Fromthefield lifted her hand, and atomized the demon, while simultaneously looking in a certain direction. “I’m coming for you, you bastard. It won’t help those innocent girls that were raped by this thing, but it sure as hell will convince others not to follow in your footsteps,” she growled as her Sword of Destiny vanished. She hadn’t needed her Bane of Darkness. Not against this kind of opponent.

She vanished from her position, only to reappear instants later, in front of a nice-looking villa in the Tokyo suburbs. Now, why is it that only Japan seems to ever have problems with tentacle demons raping schoolgirls? Jessie wondered idly.

She rang the doorbell. A genuine butler opened the door, and smiled at her. Belatedly, she realized she was still dressed in the black sailor-styled schoolgirl uniform. Her mind twisted to fit the standard 18-year-old thought patterns. “Hi, mister!” she gushed. “Could I use your phone? Mine’s broken,” she asked, holding up a recently-summoned cell phone. “And I’m already late, my parents will be worried…”

The butler thought for a few seconds, then nodded, and let her in. She smiled warmly at him, actually doing the batting-eyelashes thing that teenaged girls were so good at. The butler showed her the phone, then left her alone after she thanked him. Picking up the horn, dialing from memory the number to the talking clock, she closed her eyes and focused her senses. She left a few thought-tendrils to uphold an imaginary conversation with the talking clock, just in case someone was eavesdropping, and tried to see whether the demon’s mind had been correct.

Her eyes opened. It had been! The magical presence was hidden behind heavy fortifications of a fairly high level, but now that she had breached those, the signature was major. She grinned, hung up the horn. This would be nice… if this guy lived up to the level of his defenses, anyway.

She set out, descended a set of stairs, and ran into the butler. As he started to protest, she looked in his eyes, and his expression went vacant. She lowered him gently to the floor as her abilities informed her that he was a kind man who had just been shrouded by the mage’s powers. First, she lifted the spell that kept him confined. Then, she implanted a compulsion to forget about the mage, and find new employment. She then ported him home.

Her blue eyes hardened then, and she turned to the basement. Her hand came up, a bolt of combat magic flashing to the wrought-iron doors. They grunted, exploding inward half a second later.

She strode in, not looking all that impressive, dressed like an air-headed eighteen-year-old schoolgirl, but the looking of murder in her eyes made more than up for any lack of physical impressiveness.

“What the… ?” the Black Mage grunted, looking up from a thick tome. He glanced at her, his magic-senses went haywire, and smirked. “So… you’re the one who got rid of my servant.” His smirk deepened. “You cost me quite a bit of energy it had stored in his body… I guess you’ll have to make up for it by yourself, then,” he finished, leering at her body.

She grew red, and lifted her arms. He made a sign, and tentacles shot from all around her, trying to ensnare her, rip the clothes off her body, and have their way with her.

In retrospect, the mage wouldn’t have done that a second time, but at the time, he had no idea who or what he went up against.

First, the tentacles bounced off of some kind of shield, then, they faltered in their return flight, hesitated, and turned to him instead.

It took him only five minutes for him to beg her to kill him.

It took her another twenty-five minutes to make up her mind, with his screams distracting her and all…

 

At the same time, in a universe unknown to the ESMF forces, outside the reach of even the Gods of the Universe, a large ochre-colored planet revolved at a perilously close and fast orbit around a red giant sun.

On that planet, oceans of lava decorated a pockmarked surface that constantly shook and tremored under influence of its own massive bulk and the star’s nearly omnipotent gravity. And yet, despite all of the things against it, the planet did support some form of life.

On a plateau a man stood, dressed in a hooded cloak, his powerful arms crossed over a darkly armor-plated chest. With satisfaction, he looked down the plateau, to the ground surrounding his elevated platform, to where thousands upon thousands of men and women sparred in a perfect choreography of power and finesse, neither beautiful nor graceful, yet immensely dark and evil in its incarnation.

“Lord First.”

The man dipped his head once, never taking his eyes away from the army that was training below.

“We are nearly ready, Lord First.”

“I know, Second,” First grunted. “Twenty-one of his years ago, the previous Second and Third nearly ruined a plan that was in motion for thousands of his years. But no more.”

“No more, Lord First,” Second agreed, looking at the troops. “The Assassins have been enhanced as far as we can, Lord. Third through Ninth are holding all the power now. And the Destroyers… the Destroyers are ready for War.”

First dipped his head. “Yes,” he grunted, turning to Second. “Yes, we are. Tell everyone to recharge fully… and prepare for total victory.”

“My Lord… but him...”

“He is meaningless now. A mere Jokilar Gerius, no longer the supreme divine being that destroyed Third and Second,” First turned to the present Second, and glared at him. “He shall not stop us. We shall be victorious. The Gods themselves prepared our rise when they took away his divinity.”

Second bowed his head. “Forgive me, lord First.”

First grinned, clapped Second on his shoulder, making the powerful man shake on his legs. “No worries, Second. The Destroyers will finally come into their destiny!”

“Total Victory,” Second whispered.

First actually smiled, a dark and vicious and evil look at made Second shudder inwardly. “Domination over existence, Second! Even better than total victory!”

 

David’s hands floated over the keypads that made up the Daedalus XII’s control systems. “We’ve docked safely inside the Ortega,” he announced superfluously to the girl sitting on his right.

Telzey nodded calmly. Way calmer than David had hoped she’d be… feeling somewhat disappointed that she wasn’t more impressed without his home, he stood up, and reached out his hand. “Come on, Telz… let’s go.”

She put her hand in his, and let herself be helped to her feet. She had to admit, there was something about these old-fashioned customs of helping a woman that quite pleased Telzey. Coming from a society where the equality between sexes was so ingrained for centuries, she had never before been met with these kinds of acts. And she quite enjoyed them.

“But before we leave, there’s something else I have to do,” David whispered, letting go of her hand. Closing his eyes, he let his abilities reach out. The simple outfit he wore was replaced by the full ESMF uniform, complete with golden decorations that identified him, as well as identified the universe he was from. 

The simple act of having only three numbers on his shoulder told anyone of the ESMF that this was a person from the old guard, and especially as his numbers read merely ‘001’.

“Come, Telz… now we’re ready.”

Her eyes fluttered down his body, now that it was wrapped in form-hugging material, while, at the same time, letting herself be guided off the Daedalus.

“You look really good in that,” she whispered as they descended the two steps down to the platform of the Ortega’s docking space. Only when the enormous, cavernous echo greeted her ears did she look away from him, Telzey’s face changing into shock as the surveyed the total emptiness of a battlecarrier’s bay.

“Welcome to my humble home,” David said, motioning for the empty bay. “These bays haven’t been filled in decades, showing the peaceful state the ESMF has had.” A glitter filled his eyes, and his voice trailed off.

Telzey gave him ten seconds to relive whatever past he was trapped in before interrupting. “What’s wrong?”

“I was here…” he whispered quietly, coming back to the past. “I was here the last time the Ortega went to war. I was here when these bays were brimming with fighters, with life and honor… and I was here when these bays witnessed those people who never returned.” He sighed; shook his head. “Sorry. Sometimes I do that. Having a perfect long-term memory is a blessing and a curse at the same time.” He motioned. “Come on, Telz. Come inside, and let’s leave the garage to what it is.”

She smiled slightly, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes, her mind still wrapping itself in the little speech of his past.

Five minutes later, she had forgotten all about it, as David showed her through neatly furbished hallways, gentle carpeting on the ground, the walls a homey color, bathing in the light of organic lights that mimicked the light of an early-morning sun, coloring everything just so that it was fully illuminated yet wasn’t painful nor stressful for the eyes.

“These are my quarters,” David said suddenly, stopping in front of a simple door, the likes of which she had seen pass by in these hallways countless times already in her short tour. He motioned then to the door on the other side of the hall. “Those are Jessie’s.”

“Whose quarters are those?” the inquisitive teenager asked, motioning for the couple of doors that lay beyond David’s and Jessie’s, stretching to the end of the hallway, which ended in a lift-tube.

“Those are the quarters that were once used by my parents, by Uncle Daphnix, and by Auntie Ami… and those over there were mine and Jessie’s, back when we were young. We just couldn’t give them up, so we kept them, as some sort of museum to our past. We still go there, sometimes… when we need to think.” He turned to Telzey. “This may be a warship at heart, but it’s been our home for more of its life, and it shows it.”

She smiled, motioning for the walls. “No kidding. I don’t know of many warships that have walls colored brown, and almost ankle-deep carpets on the floor.”

David laughed, and keyed the door release. “Wanna come in?”

“Sure,” she smiled, stepping into a very homey-decorated set of quarters. Granted, she wouldn’t have decorated them like this, but there was something to be said about the downright antique taste David’s quarters had: lots of wood and intricate carvings, paintings on the wall, the only sign of technology being a computer terminal that seemed to double for a TV set.

“It’s… different,” she ventured, not at all used to this kind of thing. She was from a time that was about equivalent to the year 3500 by David’s reckoning, and as such, his taste in furniture and decorations looked early-caveman to her.

“I like it,” he grinned, and reached out to the small membrane keypad next to the door. “This is also one of my favorites, for when I have to do a lot of work.” He touched the key, and the entire room shimmered, to be replaced by a dull-gray-walled set of quarters, with a couple of oversized computer terminals sitting around a command chair of some sort, terminals built into the armrests, holographic screens directly in front, and one wall replaced by a single hyper-sized TV screen.

“Wow,” Telzey yelped, startling by the sudden unexpectedness of his entire quarters being holographic

David grinned. “I’ve got a couple more… but the best thing is, if I feel like a change, I can redecorate my entire home in ten minutes.”

Telzey smiled, and this time, the smile did reach her eyes.

“Come on, there’s lots more where that came from,” David said, reaching out and linking his hand through hers and guiding her out of the room. They turned right resolutely, and halted in front of the turbolift. It slid open, and allowed their entrance.

“Main SpaCECoB compound, level 145,” David told the cart, and it whooshed into action immediately, flashing out of the Ortega, and through the humongous station at mind-boggling speeds.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Telzey said with a grin before the doors opened. “What’s at level 145?”

David grinned. “The mall,” he answered calmly as the doors slid apart, to reveal the bustling mass of people, human and alien alike, snaking through the different shops, stalls, eating establishments and entertainment centers. 

“You weren’t kidding when you said SpaCECoB is an interdimensional hub,” she whispered in admiration as they left the turbolift cart and joined the busy mass.

“I never kid about these kinds of things,” David told her with a serious face. “Come on, let me show you a couple of my favorite places…”

An hour later, Telzey was happy that they had left the busy-busy mass of people behind them as the turbolift whooshed shut. She never was one to enjoy a large crowd. Her shields drained too much energy too fast in such an environment.

“Deck 85,” David told the ceiling. Telzey expected the lift to start moving. Instead, it didn’t budge.

Deck 85 is off-limits to civilians, David. You know that, Linda told him.

Telzey stared at him as the computer addressed him with obvious familiarity. “Linda, meet Telzey Amberdon. Telz, meet Linda, our resident Artificial Intelligence.”

Pleased, Linda replied calmly from all around them.

“Eh… Ditto,” Telzey answered, somewhat off-guard. Suddenly, a stunning blonde of about David’s age appeared in the cart with them.

“David, she’s still not authorized,” the holographic Linda continued with an identical voice as before, enabling Telzey to know it was the same person.

“Linda, Telzey is authorized from now on,” David replied, calmly. “She may not be ESMF, but she hold enough clearances on her own world… not to mention the fact that I’m vouching for her.”

Linda sighed, nodded, and dematerialized. “Have a nice trip…” the disembodied voice said, before the cart shifted into high gear.

David turned to Telzey. “Sorry about that,” he apologized. “But security is in place for a reason…”

“That was quite the impressive voice-response system. If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was really sentient… but it was all a carefully scheduled answer-response authorization system, right?”

David grinned, and shook his head. “Nope. Linda’s the real deal. A sentient being living inside of a computer system. Any computer system. She’s part of the family, along with her brother.”

“Brother?” Telzey asked, mystified.

“Borlan, the battle-oriented logical analyzer. He’s in charge of offensive and defensive abilities of the entire ESMF, as well as all combat and external security-related issues. He used to do internal security too, but we found out that Linda’s better suited. Something about materializing an armed attack squad for each authorization that just spooked people, you know?”

Telzey hid her laugh behind her hand. “That’s funny…”

“Until you’re on the other side,” David replied with a grin as the doors slid open. “Come on, Telz. Here’s where I come to relax. It’s ideal to get rid of some stress,” he said as he guided her to a set of double doors.

“I still don’t know how you people do this,” Telzey said before the doors opened, placing her hand against the wall. “This is metal, but it’s warm. And it feels…” her eyes opened wider in surprise. “…almost like it has a heartbeat…”

David nodded, grinning. “It’s the latest generation in biological metal. That wall you’re touching is as alive as a tree or a plant, but modified into a metal-like representation. Ever since we met the Ulians, we’ve grafted the DNA of my Mom and Dad into it… it’s practically indestructible now.”

“You mean… this wall…”

“Is alive? Yes,” David said, grinning as he keyed the locks to the exercise room. The doors slid open, as they always did when he accessed a door in a public area.

“Wow,” Telzey breathed as she reluctantly tore away from looking at the wall, and turned to enter the room. And froze.

Because inside, Jessie was, floating above the ground, doing complex martial arts moves, her hands and feet trailing fire. Telzey blinked. Then swallowed.

And blinked again, before entering the room and letting the doors shut behind her. Only now did she notice that something was off about the picture… the fire wasn’t really trailing her hands and feet. Rather, it seemed as if the fire was doing its best to imitate her movements!

“What…!” she finally brought out.

David shook his head. “She’s playing,” he said, turning to Telzey. “She’s moving, and the fire’s following, copying, her. It’s a little game we play sometimes.” Jessie only seemed to realize they were there at that instant, and grinned. Her flowing, dancing movements before sharper, edgier, as she stabbed and kicked up and down, left and right. The fire floating irregularly, keeping up haphazardly with her hands and feet.

Suddenly, she launched to the ceiling, the four trails of fire floating up after her, bouncing off the ceiling in imitation of her, and landing on the ground in front of the crouching girl, coagulating into the shape and size of a grown man, only still very much a fire. Jessie smiled at it, and the fire elemental’s color changed in intensity as it strode closer to her, extending two flaming arms towards the female Gerius.

Jessie extended her arms as well, and they slipped into a warm embrace, her lips reaching out on automatic toward the fire elemental’s ‘face’, causing the color to shift to a deep, burning red that cast illumination all across the exercise room. Finally, the couple broke apart, and the fire dipped its head toward David before vanishing in a burst of fire.

“Grnax is an old friend,” David said with a grin to Telzey as Jessie calmly walked toward them. “We know him since he was this tall,” he added, holding his thumb and index finger about fifteen centimeters apart. “And he and my sister have been enjoying each other’s company for a couple of months now,” he finished.

“He… how… what?” Telzey asked, finally in shock.

“Grnax is a fire elemental,” Jessie said with a grin. “Hiya Telzey.”

“Jessie…” Telzey greeted, somewhat unsurely. This was David’s sister? How could she ever compete with someone who danced with fire? Literally? And kissed it, no less, too?

“So, my stupid brother finally told you, huh?” Jessie went on, seemingly oblivious to Telzey’s inner turmoil.

“Hey!” David shouted in mock-anger.

“Oh, come on, Bro. You should have told her long ago,” Jessie grunted, turning to Telzey, who looked up in surprise. Surprise that didn’t diminish in the least as Jessie winked at her. “Come on, Telzey. We need to talk, woman to woman…”

David looked from his sister to his love, and back to his sister. “Jess…”

“Oh, relax, Bro,” Jessie said with a grin, putting an arm around Telzey. “Come on…” she whispered to the other girl, guiding her off, leaving David behind in the exercise room.

Once outside, Telzey was surprised to feel Jessie pull her into the first room off of the exercise room. “I’m glad he finally told you,” Jessie said, grinning, sitting down on the bench, starting to towel herself off. Not that she needed it, per se, but it was something that she had picked up from the more ‘normal’ people in the ESMF.

“Jessie… I…” Telzey started to whisper.

Jessie looked up, folding the still-dry towel, sat back against the wall. “Telzey, you don’t have to be jealous.”

Her mind bypassed the obvious question completely, namely, how Jessie knew how she was jealous. Instead, she skipped right to stage two. “How can I not be!? After seeing you… and hearing about what David can do… and seeing you together… how could I not be jealous?”

Jessie sighed. “Because you hold his heart,” she whispered. “He would die for me, as I would for him. But he’ll live for you, and THAT is something he’ll never do for me, or for Mom and Dad, or for any of our family. Until now, he’s been existing… but since he’s met you, he lives.” The Gerius stood up, gently taking Telzey’s hands in her own. “You hold his heart and his soul, Telzey. You have no reason to be jealous. I am merely his sister. You are his love.”

“But… but we’re so different…” Telzey protested weakly.

“Not as different as you might think,” Jessie replied resolutely. “Give your relationship a chance, Telzey. Don’t undermine it with feelings of jealousy that are totally unnecessary.” She grinned. “He’s my brother, for the sake of the Gods!” And then, she added, just a little shyly, with a hint of a blush on her cheeks, “besides… I have Grnax.”

At the outburst, Telzey just had to laugh. Jessie grinned, and finally laughed along with the other girl. “Come on,” Jessie finally said after they had composed. “Let’s go back before he gets a heart attack.”

“With that kind of heart? I doubt it,” Telzey replied deadpan, causing Jessie to chuckle.

 

First stood, with Second at his side, watching out over the army of Destroyers beneath him. His army of Destroyers.

“Today is the day!” First boomed over the assembled fighters. “Today is the day that we destroy the Divine Treaty that has permitted us to build up strength for millions of years! Today is the day that we unleash the full power of the Destroyers upon the multiverse, and make all of creation tremble!”

A deafening roar of excitement rose up from the ranks, breaking off First’s speech , making him grin as his troops roared their assent. After ten seconds, however, he shouted through the roar. “Ascend to Level Two, and let loose the Dogs of War! Open the Hellmouths! Break the barriers! Unleash All that is on our side, and unleash it all at once!”

The roar intensified as the troops ascended to level two God-status. “Destroy the Divine Treaty! Rip it to shreds!” First roared as his troops started their jobs, roaring and bellowing and shouting and screaming. And all the while, First and Second smiled in satisfaction. Finally, they would become as they were meant to be… rulers of all of Creation!

 

“Deck 1, Dad’s office,” David told the turbolift cart.

David…

“Linda…” David answered in an identical tone. They could almost hear the AI sigh.

Very well. Authorization locked and accepted. Destination engaged.

“Thank you.”

Only now did Telzey speak. “We’re going to see your father? Directly?” she asked, somewhat off-guard now. She had caught glimpses of the man through David’s mind earlier. Not enough to get nowhere near the full picture, but enough to know that Frederic Fromthefield wasn’t a man you dropped in on lightly. And you certainly didn’t bypass whatever procedures were in place, and took the turbolift directly to his office.

But then again… David was his son.

And, Telzey wondered, did this allow her the same things?

The doors opened, and her thoughts were buried beneath the volume generated by an entire symphonic orchestra. Slamming her hands over her ears, she let David guide her inside. Briefly, she had time to form a thought on the fact that he was grinning, seemingly not bothered by the immense volume in the least.

They stepped out into a huge office, circular in circumference, with a ceiling that tapered off to a single point above them. A large semicircular desk stood in front of them, above which floated three semi-transparent holographic screens, and upon which rested a pair of feet. Booted feet.

As they approached, Telzey’s breath stopped in her throat, for attached to the set of feet was a man. An impressive man, who sat, with eyes closed, laid-back on his chair, left hand beating the rhythm of the music that sounded.

Seeing him like that, it was impossible for her to appreciate the fact that the man’s mind was connected directly to the main computer, and was resolving two or three jobs at the same time, using the measure of Enya’s Book of Days as a guide to do so.

“Dad,” David said, on his normal tone, not coming out above the volume that made a coffee cup quiver on his desk. Telzey wouldn’t have known he had said anything, if only she hadn’t seen his lips move.

“Son,” Frederic answered, also not coming out over the volume. He added immediately to it, “Linda, cut volume to 5%.”

The music dropped into the background. “So…  what brings you to my humble office?” Frederic asked, now that they could hear each other. He opened his eyes for the first time, and smiled at Telzey. “And would you care to introduce your most charming guest?”

She felt herself flush.

 

Jessie groaned at the subtle ministrations that seemed to slip all over and around her shapely body. A soft and gentle squeeze in her breasts made her moan slightly as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her mouth, adorned with perfect lips, opening slightly. Her hands reached out, touching her bed-partner’s body. Twin fleshy extensions wrapped themselves around her arms, pulling her gently down upon the bed, and she allowed it without resistance.

“Oh, Al…” she groaned as yet another tentacle slipped in between her legs, sending a shiver down her body as the demon did what it did best. Slowly, the tentacle in between her legs started to part her, and her body shivered in anticipation.

With a scream, Jessie jumped out of the bed, landing in an advanced Gerius attack position, her eyes frantically shifting from left to right in the darkened room. Everything was quiet, not a thing stirred.

Slowly, she dropped the stance, yet didn’t relax. On their own accord, their feet dragged her to the bathroom, where she splashed cold water over her face. “Gods… what a nightmare,” the still-shaking Gerius muttered under her breath. She looked up into the mirror. “And Al out of all Tentacle Demons, too! Yuck! At least my subconscious could have picked someone worth…” she shivered again, fighting down her revulsion on what her dreams had almost bestowed upon her.

“I am never eating sushi with pickles and sour cream ever again,” she vowed, before sighing, and feeling the last of her tension slip away.

She deactivated the light in the bathroom, and her voice waved through the darkness. “I still can’t believe it… Al the Tentacle Demon…”

 

Telzey stretched lazily as she awoke from what was the best night’s sleep of her entire life. Slowly, her eyes opened, and she glanced around the luxurious room she had slept in. It’s one of the Ambassador suites we have for when we receive dignitaries, she could still hear Frederic’s voice in her head. I’m sure you’ll love it.

She smiled widely, and slipped out from between the white satin-like sheets, her feet touching the barren floor without her realizing it, so fast did the metal adapt to her body’s temperature. Making her way into the ensuite, her mind went over the events from the day before. She had met Frederic Fromthefield. She had caught glimpses of the man through David’s mind, and found the man to be even more impressive in real life, exerting an aura of sheer power.

And yet, despite all that, she had found it easy to like him. He had listened to her when she spoke, and she, in turn, had listened to him as he spoke, her own formidable mind reacting automatically to a person with abilities far exceeding her own. As with David and Jessica, she found it hard not to be impressed by the sheer level of power that hid in the man’s head.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror-wall, able to take herself in perfectly. Her hand trailed the supple fabric of the garment the AI… no, Linda, Telzey corrected herself, had provided for her to sleep in. She slipped out of it, and stepped resolutely in the shower.

“Shower on,” she stated, expecting the device to react like those in her own dimension would.

Water or sonic? Linda’s voice asked.

Telzey’s eyes opened momentarily. “Water,” she stated, delighted at being presented with a choice. The spray startled her slightly, but soon, she was laughing as she splashed the warm liquid around.

It took her nearly half an hour to leave the suite. “Linda… where’s David?” Telzey asked the moment the doors whisked shut behind her.

He’s in his quarters, waiting for you to join him for breakfast, Linda answered promptly.

“Thank you,” Telzey replied honestly, chose a direction, and started walking. Five minutes later, she pressed the chime to David’s door on the Ortega, having remembered the way from the day before. And David’s authorizations were still with her, apparently, as Linda hadn’t stopped her once.

The doors opened, and David appeared. “Hiya, Telz,” he greeted her, slipping her smaller frame into a warm embrace, his lips capturing hers.

“Hi yourself,” she replied huskily, before kissing him back.

“Sleep well?” he asked as they set out for breakfast. Breakfast with Frederic and his family. Telzey swallowed slightly at the nerves that jumped up into her stomach.

“I’ve never slept so well in my life,” she admitted honestly, focusing on the here and now. “Just how do you do that?”

He grinned in answer as the turbolift whooshed away from the Ortega, back into SpaCECoB, up to the deck that housed Frederic’s quarters. “Technology, Telz. Lots and lots of technology by the omniverse’s best and brightest.”

“Which happens to be you, Jessie, and your father,” Telzey replied with a crooked grin.

“And my mother, and Auntie Ami,” David added to the list. “But, to be honest, we don’t spend all that much time in the labs anymore… Oh, we still do, don’t get me wrong, but we mostly let others deal with it now. Incursions are on the increase for a reason we don’t know yet, and keeping the omniverse safe has become a busy job lately.”

“You mean, ever since your father…” Telzey whispered.

“Ever since my mother died, and my father almost tore reality to shreds to get her back, yes,” he replied, somewhat coldly. “He was never the same after that. Something was different about him, after he had to reconstruct a body to house his soul.”

“Wouldn’t we all be different?” Telzey asked, somewhat confused.

David shook his head. “No, I mean, he really changed. He used to be a lot of things… scientist, warrior, father, protector… but after that event… he changed.” He sighed, shook his head. “We’re here,” he said, as he reached out and opened the door to his father’s suite.

Telzey had only met the man in his office, yesterday. Now, she would meet his entire family, in his own home, and join them for breakfast. As David guided her in, he bent closer to her, and whispered, “You’re officially at the Fromthefield family breakfast… welcome to the family.”

She looked at him, slightly shocked, and he winked at her before sharing her a grin. She smiled in response, and followed him in.

As they walked to the large table set on the little elevated platform underneath a gigantic transparent wall, Telzey could not help but notice that the quarters were decorated in the same old-fashioned style David’s first holographic quarts had held: wooden panels on the walls, plush leather couches in ochres and browns. And, on one wall, a huge fireplace, crisping in a relaxed manner. But it was what hung directly above the fireplace that drew Telzey’s attention: twin purple-glowing swords hung in a cross, superimposed over an ornate necklace, its golden chain held out. The entire set, two purple-glowing swords and green-glowing necklace, pulsed as if in a heartbeat.

“Those are my father’s,” David whispered. “They’ve been doing that ever since… then. They pulse in the same rhythm as my father’s heart.”

Telzey nodded, mind cataloging the intriguing details of swords pulsing to a man’s heartbeat. But then again, two days earlier, she never would have guessed that swords could glow with any means other than technological.

They reached the steps to the elevated platform, and as they took the four steps up, Telzey could only now hear the first hints of conversation drift toward them. She idly noted the acoustics involved in sealing an open space, but the thought vanished soon as she took in the people seated.

“Good morning, everybody,” David greeted his family, taking a seat. “I’d like you all to meet Telzey.”

“Good morning,” she said, a little self-consciously, sitting down next to David. She smiled slightly as the assembled group greeted her right back.

“Telzey, this is my mother, that’s Auntie Ami, That’s uncle Daphnix, and you already know my father and my sister. And, of course, you’ve met Grnax yesterday as well,” David said, introducing everybody.

“I guess it’s serious between you two, then?” Daphnix said good-naturedly. He bent to Telzey. “You’re the first girl he’s brought to meet the family.”

She smiled slightly, suddenly feeling a lot self-conscious among these people, whose minds were like solid walls to her abilities. Usually, she could at least detect some form or sign, but with these people, as with David, it was as talking to brick walls. It set her on edge, just slightly.

“How did you manage find out the big secrets?” Jennifer asked. “I doubt David would have brought you here otherwise…”

Telzey swallowed slightly, before putting a diplomatic smile on her face. “We were having a picnic, Mrs. Fromthefield. And when we were attacked, David… did what he did.”

Jennifer smiled. “Now that he’s got from his father,” she said with a grin. “Fred’s got a volatile temper, too, when somebody he cares about is in danger.” The Amazon Warrior turned to Telzey then. “And call me Jenny… Mrs. Fromthefield makes me sound so old.”

“Just keep calling her that,” Ami said with a mischievous grin. “I’ve been trying for over 20 years to have David and Jessie stop calling me ‘auntie Ami’, so now, I think it’s time I’m not the only one affected.”

Telzey couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the look of wrath Jennifer turned to the blue-haired woman sitting next to ‘Uncle Daphnix’, even as said blue-haired woman had a look of total and utter innocence on her face.

While Telzey and Jennifer were talking, Jessie slid a pad over to her brother. “Hey Bro, I’ve been thinking last night… what’d you think of this?” David threw a look at the pad, then picked it up, a frown on his face.

“Hmm… interesting…” He started tapping the device. “But, if we increase routing containment through the core, we can get another five tenths of a percent gain…”

“… which would give us a point-five percent increase in output…” Jessie added, as David put the pad down in between them, and her nimble fingers typed alongside David’s on the little surface designed to hold but one hand.

As Telzey’s mirth at the banter died down, she heard David and Jessie chatter, and looked… and stared as the duo were quite literally typing four-handedly on a single-handed typing display, chattering insanely fast about something or other, with Frederic chewing deliberately on a sandwich while leaning over the table to be able to hear. Every now and then, he chattered something, causing the twins to nod and continue even more furious then before.

“Don’t mind them… even with company here, they forget their manners when thinking about new stuff,” Jennifer apologized. “Never mind them.” She leaned, and smiled. “So, what’d you think so far?”

Telzey was startled momentarily, not having expected that question. She had expected quite a lot of other things, including a merciless grilling where she would determined inadequate to be with David. Instead, she had found herself readily included in the light banter at the breakfast table.

“Frankly, ma’am,” she began, slipping into decorum on habit, “This isn’t what I have been expecting… you didn’t ask me about my future, about my past, about anything. You just accepted me, and I’m feeling a little… off balance.”

Jennifer smiled, and sat back. “Would you rather have had that we tried to find out everything about you? Ask you question after question, trying to catch the slightest imperfection?” The woman smiled broader. “Why would we, Telzey? Your past is the past, it can’t be changed. And the future changes all the time, so it’s no sense asking you for what you want to do. All that matters now is the present, and you’ve already told us everything we want to know. The fact that you were able to absorb that little piece of data David fed you about Fred’s swords without asking for more information told us a lot.”

“Like what?” Telzey asked, intensely curious.

“You asked about them, that means you’re curious about the world around you. And from the fact that you didn’t ask more questions, but just absorbed what David told you, it means that you’re able to accept a simple explanation and deduct the rest for yourself… as well as determine that this wasn’t a good time, and you could always get the rest out of him later. Which shows reasoning skills,” Jennifer answered with a small smile.

“So that was… just a test?”

Ami shook her head. “No… that was entirely genuine. You were just kind enough to answer all of our questions before we posed them.”

Telzey smiled in response. “You’re welcome, then.” She glanced around the table, and found everyone not engaged in David and Jessie’s conversation smiling at her.

“Welcome to the family, Telzey,” Jennifer then said, her smiled widening. “I’m sure you’ll fit in, in no time… just ask Ami. She had to go through the same thing when she and Daphnix started seeing each other. And Grnax, when he and Jessie got involved.”

The Fire Elemental, quiet up until now, just gave his version of a smile on his flaming face, the color of his body deepening just slightly in amusement.

“I think I will,” Telzey said, honestly. “I’ve been enjoying myself so far. Once the jitters were gone, anyway.”

Half the family chuckled, ignoring Frederic, David, and Jessie, who were still chattering in that annoying speech of theirs. “Oh, come now,” Jennifer said through the chuckles. “We’re not that bad… are we?”

“Nah, not in the least,” Daphnix answered. “I mean, just because we used advanced psychological methods to get our victims… eh… prospective candidates… to do what we want them to do, doesn’t make it right to be scared of us.”

Telzey chuckled at the small joke, and felt the last of the stress leave her as she tucked in, finally, into the tasty breakfast in front of her. Breakfast proceeded nicely, and calmly, and Telzey enjoyed herself immensely, even with the ever-present chatter on the background.

“And if we polarize the biometal, I’m sure we can get another ten percent higher performance,” Frederic said, picking up his sandwich. “Then, just channel the output through a lens of transparent quadranium, and the result would be impressive,” he finished, taking a bite. David and Jessie nodded as he chewed, and Jessie was just about to suggest yet another upgrade to her theoretical plans, when she felt something. Something shuddered inside of her, and she glanced in worry around the table.

Telzey startled as all conversation stopped in a fraction of a second. Even the chatter had died down, and she stared in confusion and growing fear as the present people stared at each other.

Frederic, still in med-chew, swallowed. Slowly, very slowly, he turned to the huge transparent wall behind him, and with him, Jennifer.

“Linda… FTL sensors…” he whispered in an order. The wall suddenly displayed flashes of light that would have blinded the occupants of the room had the display not dimmed down.

“David… I think you’d better get your girl home,” he then whispered.

 

“Just where are they getting this infernal idea from?” Michael growled dangerously under his breath as his flaming sword cut horizontally through a lesser Destroyer. “Nothing for eons, and now this!?”

“I don’t know, Michael,” Gabriel replied from just next to him, his own sword going vertically through a Destroyer trying to come from the side. “Something must’ve happened. The Destroyers haven’t made a move this foolish since the Ancient Days!”

“And we nearly blew up Creation in the process!” Michael yelled coldly as he blocked an attack on his blade. “Have they forgotten!?”

“Looks like it,” Gabriel said, coldly, as he stabbed his sword through the head of the Destroyer that just tried to blast Michael. He drew a breath as the body fell. “That’s the last one.”

Michael nodded, and stood straight, overseeing where the rest of the Archangels were mopping up some the rest of the lesser Destroyers that had placed a direct and frontal assault on the Palace Doors that housed the Gods of the Universe. “A mere forty lesser Destroyers against the six Archangels? Do they take us so lightly?” Gabriel asked his friend.

“I fear this is merely the beginning,” Michael answered. “I can feel it in my bones.”

Gabriel swallowed. Everybody knew that, when the Archangel Michael felt something in his non-existing bones, things were about to go down that could not be foretold. “I really hope not, Michael. If the Destroyers blow the Divine Treaty…”

“Creation itself lies in the balance,” Michael grunted lowly, sheathing his flaming blade. “Victory, My Friends!” he screamed over the battlefield, electing a war-cry from the remaining warrior-angels. “This day, we can celebrate, but remain weary, for I fear these are not the only ones.”

The Archangels nodded grimly, sheathing their flaming blades, and turning away from the Gates of the Divine Palace, victory battling with weariness rushing through their metaphysical bodies.

“My Lord Michael!” a scream came from the left, an ordinary angel rushing to the Lord of Archangels. It was Uriel who caught the angel as he stumbled.

Michael was at his side in a flash, dismayed at the sight of one of the Chosen in such a condition. The angel’s right wing was torn, the bone broken, making the limb flail limply. Blood dripped slowly from numerous wounds. “Duma… by the Wise One, what happened?”

“They… they attacked us, Lord… countless… countless… the sky was black with them…” Duma gurgled, coughing up blood, yet he looked up, in Michael’s eyes. “It was… it was…” His fist clenched, as if forcing his body to remain to life for just a fraction longer. “Luci…fer…” Duma’s body went limp, and it sagged in Uriel’s arms.

“Lucifer,” Michael whispered, looking up, staring into infinity. Slowly, he stood up, flaming blade materializing in his grip. Uriel gently lowered Duma’s body to the ground. Gabriel had drawn his own sword by now, and Uriel followed, unsheathing his own flaming blade. One by the one, the others joined in a circle: Raphael, Raguel and Sariel, forming a makeshift circle around the fallen angel.

“Rest well, brother,” Michael spoke. “We shall avenge thee and any of our brethren that have fallen before the darkness!” The five Archangels nodded grimly. Michael looked around the circle, his five companions… brothers… in arms. “For countless eons we have been the messengers from the Wise One, and we have fought against the Sons of Darkness. But now… now we must go to war.” The five nodded in reply, angry scowls on their faces. “To war, my brethren!” Michael screamed, lifting his angry yellow flaming blade to the skies.

“TO WAR!!!” the five Archangels screamed, charging off in the direction the fallen angel had come from.

A fraction later, they saw literally hundreds of Destroyers, fighting a winning war against a vastly outnumbered army of angels. “Gabriel, get the Seraphim. NOW! We’ll hold them off!”

Gabriel nodded grimly, then vanished to get reinforcements, even as Michael and the others charged directly into the battle.

“MICHAEL!!!!” the war cry sounded from the throats of the lesser angels as the five Archangels screamed down from the Divine Palace, their strength returning now that the higher powers had managed to come to their aid. 

“There’s a lot of them!” Uriel shouted to Michael.

“No matter!” Michael shouted back, flaming sword flashing down and up, left and right, stabbing, piercing, hacking, slashing. St Michael the Archangel lived true to his name and rank and honor, the Leader of the Divine Armies, the Vanquisher of Evil. Swept up by their leader’s vigor, the angels and archangels redoubled their efforts, the battle turning against the lesser Destroyers.

Everyone was too busy fighting to notice a figure, dressed totally in black robes, sitting not far away, grinning under his hood as he saw his armies deplete the numbers and the strength of the Divine Armies. Soon. Soon, they would be too tired.

And that fool Michael hadn’t yet realized just how close he was to losing it all. Sending one of his best fighters away to get reinforcements… reinforcements that had been engaged themselves. Oh, he was sure those blasted seraphim could defeat the couple hundred Destroyers the First had sent after them, but not before incurring casualties… and taking a hit to their energy.

By the time those got here, they’d be too tired to be too much of a help. Of that, the figure was sure. He grinned some more when he saw four Destroyers jump Sariel, the Archangel momentarily bending before managing to get them off him, and hacking them to bits with a single mighty slash of his sword.

The figure watched, and waited, as dozens and dozens of Destroyers were killed. They didn’t matter to him… the lesser Destroyers were mere cannon fodder, there to draw strength and vitality away before the main force would hit. The figure shifted position, made himself easy as he watched the battle from his vantage point.

“MICHAEL!!!!!” The figure looked up in annoyance as the entire Seraphim Corps screamed down, literally turning the tide in a single swoop. The figure stood up, waiting for just fifteen more minutes, until the Destroyers had been decimated enough to make them think they could actually win.

Michael’s eyes glistened maddeningly as they flickered to Gabriel. “We can beat them back!” he growled to his companion. “We can win this!”

Gabriel snarled as he tore the head off a Destroyer. “We can’t fail, Michael! We have the Gods behind us!”

“We have never failed, and we will not fail now!” Michael screamed back as he threw his sword into an enemy, and tore it from his chest before the hapless Destroyer had time to realize just what had happened. “And nothing too soon, too… even if they’re vermin, they’re wearing me down!”

Gabriel merely nodded. “Yet, we can not fail!”

“We can not,” Michael agreed, foot lashing out, breaking a Destroyer’s neck, before he reversed and planted his sword through the black figure’s chest.

The black clad figure laughed as he approached the rear of the battle, his voice hollow and reverberating throughout the battlefield. It actually caused attacker and defender alike to stop their fighting.

“You think you ever stood a chance!?” The figure intoned, voice quiet and level, yet somehow carrying perfectly to everyone present. Michael drew back pale, as did the other Archangels. The figure threw back his hood. “Tremble before Lucifer, Bringer of Darkness!” the figure screamed, lifting one hand. The ground behind him literally flowed up as if it were water, before erupting in a massive volcano of flurrying black-clad creatures.

Michael knew from a single look at the stream that this wasn’t going to be good, or pretty. For those creatures… were higher-level Destroyers.

A flash next to him alerted Michael. “Need a hand?” Q asked, lifting one hand, and materializing an orb of pure light, and throwing it at the wave of black approaching them. “The Continuum’s busy elsewhere in the galaxy, but I decided to lend a hand.”

“Appreciate it,” Michael said, before dropping in a combat stance with the rest of Heaven’s Forces, anticipating the wave of black hitting them. Q grinned, lifting both hands, readying two more spheres.

“This will be… invigorating!” the being growled, preparing for battle, ignoring the fact that, at this level, these mere spheres were supernovas he was throwing around.

 

“It’s Destroyers, sir!” Ensign Hanman screamed from her console on the SpaCECoB main bridge. “They’re everywhere!”

“The Eternity and Heisenberg are engaged with one Destroyer, and it’s picking their shields apart like tissues!” Admiral Harris shouted from his tactical console, right before Daphnix took over. His fingers raced the keyboard.

“It’s spreading… more and more ships are showing engagements,” Daphnix reported coldly.

“Damn it!” Frederic grunted. “Tell them to get back here!”

“They can’t! The Destroyers aren’t letting them go!” Daphnix relayed.

“Show the overview on main screen!” Frederic ordered, falling into the command chair. He had never needed it before, and it left a distinctly unpleasant feeling in his body. The huge viewscreen showed pictograms of different ships, as well as little icons for weapons, shields, and hull integrity. Frederic’s hand closed on the armrests of the command chair as more and more hull icons turned red.

“D, Ami, get the Gerius. You know what to do!” he screamed, launching himself back to his feet. “Admiral Harris, fleet-wide announcement of DEFCON five, with an immediate return call! I want the entire ESMF back here! Whatever those Destroyers are doing, they’re not attacking planets just yet, so we might have time to formulate some kind of battle plan!”

Harris’ fingers raced the panel as Ami and Daphnix vanished, and Frederic paced, even though his eyes never left the viewscreen.

“Sir… only ten percent of the ships report acknowledgement,” Harris said. “The rest are engaged in battle.”

Frederic snarled, flipping around. “Get them out of there! Full retreat!”

Harris tapped the panels rapidly. “No use, sir… we’re being jammed.”

Frederic growled low in his throat, making the entire bridge vibrate with the force. No time… he thought, turning to the viewer, slapping his hands together, the sound reverberating through the bridge, making the deck tremble beneath the present people’s feet. The Gerius Commander snarled, his teeth baring as his powers surfaced. His eyes took an opaque sheen to them as he saw beyond, mind reaching out through the entire omniverse, locking on to the ESMF people and their ships, their ships that had his power, his DNA, in them.

The ships had been keeping their people safe.

But they would not last much longer.

And so, Frederic reached out. Opening one portal was kid’s play for a Gerius. But opening hundreds… thousands… of them, from anywhere in the omniverse back to home, that was more of a challenge. And opening them in such a way that only the ships and their crew and not the Destroyers were ported along with them was nearly impossible.

Frederic’s body glowed purple in power as he drew his hands apart, blue energy sparkling from his fingers, in between one hand, or between hands. He screamed in pain.

The viewer changed, showing space around them. First, a handful of ships appeared, sparkling into existence out of nowhere. Then, a dozen ships appeared. Two dozen. Four dozen. A hundred. Two hundred ships appeared, some whisked away so suddenly that their weapons were still blazing as they appeared. And yet, they appeared in precisely the correct angel as to not damage anyone of their friends.

A thousand ships appeared at the same time. Two thousand.

Frederic grunted, and dropped his arms, the final few dozen ships appearing as if by afterthought. He dropped into the command chair. “Linda. Borlan. Get me Claudia.”

A semi-transparent redhead dressed in flowing white robes appeared in front of Frederic, and instantly knelt down. “My Lord, you summoned your humble servant?”

Despite the predicament, he smiled weakly. “Claudia, AI borne of Artificial Intelligence and Gerius Power, I must call upon thee.”

The life-form flowed into an upright position, and looked in a certain direction. Linda appeared. “I must call upon thee, Claudia.”

Claudia dipped her head, and turned to a third position. “Claudia, don’t be an ass,” Borlan grunted. The redheaded life-form smiled slightly at his authorization code.

“Lady Jennifer? Final authorization for the activation of the Claudia system?”

“You have it, Claudia. Activate,” Jennifer whispered from the science console.

Claudia nodded. “And so it came to pass… that Claudia was activated,” the system whispered, turning to the viewer, which view now shifted to the planet Earth rotating below SpaCECoB.

Frederic swallowed as two black lines drew across the planet’s surface, slowly shifting apart, the entire planet’s surface peeling off as if it were a giant orange. “Everybody… safe mode. Claudia, I am counting on you to keep us safe.”

Claudia nodded. “I have Borlan and Linda with me, My Lord Gerius. We shall not fail, for you have my word.” The AIs vanished even as the SpaCECoB displaced into the giant hollow ball that was Universe 004’s Earth.

 

Admiral Kathryn O’Connor was sitting, a little uncomfortably, in the command chair on the bridge of the Dvoràk. If it hadn’t been for this diplomatic mission, she wouldn’t even be here, and just sitting in the command chair of her old ship brought back memories. Memories of freedom, of independence, before she became an admiral, before she became a paper-pusher.

Maybe she should do something stupid which would cost her the admiral’s rank, bust her down back to command of a ship.

Her weight shifted, and the chair creaked. It brought a smile to her face to see that after all these years, the chair still creaked. Melancholically, she looked out over the vastness of space, right before the Ulian Ageddon-class warship appeared directly in front of her. She stood up, and was just about to ask for the hailing frequencies to be opened, when a second flash caught her attention.

She turned, and looked. “Is that… a man?” she asked, stupefied by how a human-appearing male could stand, nonchalantly, in the middle of the hard vacuum of space, arms crossed, looking at the two ships with a stupid grin on his face.

The science officer’s fingers raced across his board. “Destroyer-class, ma’am!”

In the split second that Kathryn had a chance to be surprised, the man leveled a hand, and just… wiped out… the Ageddon. It didn’t cost him any trouble, or so it seemed, a mere pointing of his hand and that was it.

“Full shields!” Kathryn screamed, falling back in the chair, her body protesting only moderately. “Evasive course, and get me a firing solution!” She tapped the keys on the chair’s armrests. “Borlan, I need ALL weapons! It’s a Destroyer!”

The Destroyer, meanwhile, pointed at the Dvoràk, the beam of force that lashed out dead-on for a full hit.

The Dvoràk was not a normal ship. It had Gerius genes grafted into its biological structure; it had power coursing through its veins and strength pumping through its massive engines and generators. In the split fraction that the Destroyer fired, the ship detected its own demise approaching, and it did the only thing it could do: it ran.

The ship spun around its axis, the Destroyer’s beam merely glancing the rear of the sleek vessel, taking off part of the engines, the machine room, and damaging some of the energy generation systems.

The Dvoràk screamed as the Destroyer’s malevolent energy coursed through its biological hull, and it felt itself dying still. The one remaining zero-point generator red-lined then as the raw preservation of Self surfaced, the Dvorak pumping everything it could into preserving minimal life-support and hull integrity.

On the bridge, the consoles went dead, the lights went out, and gravity stopped affecting them as the central computer core went dead along with all other non-vital systems, the ship’s biological nature going for broke in its attempt to save itself.

The Destroyer lifted one eyebrow at the spectacle of a dark-gray ships lighting up a violent blue as it battled with his energy. Finally, the glow died out, the ship listing dramatically, venting energy and atmosphere out of the damaged sections.

As the hull won its battle, it re-routed energy back to the rest of the ship, and the Dvoràk righted itself instantly, veering away, attempting to power the Quantum-Displacement Drives, trying to jump out of here.

The Destroyer grinned, and jerked his fist closed, and the Dvoràk’s not-yet established QD-hole closed up in its face.

“Weapons!” Admiral O’Connor screamed. “Marc, Execute attack maneuvers! If we can’t run, and we can’t defend, we can at least go out fighting! Weapons, full annihilators! Borlan, release zero-point weapons, and hit him with everything you’ve got!”

The two-second delay between her order and the AI’s decision spoke volumes. Acknowledged. Implementing wartime directives, and adapting weapons consoles for zero-point release.

“Weapons!”

“Yes, ma’am!” the Tactical Officer shouted, her hands manipulating the console. Beams and torpedoes and missiles alike flashed from the Dvoràk, striking at the Destroyer, who, for all intents and purposes, was laughing at them.

The Annihilators burst around his shields, and the latest in quantum and zero-point torpedoes exploded harmlessly away from him as a single swipe of his hand threw out into the vastness of space. He lifted his hand, and blasted at the Dvoràk once more.

Again, the almost-sentient ship felt its own demise approaching. It tried to react, tried to turn, but knew that it would not survive a second blast. It was weak, its integrity down to a mere fifteen percent in some areas. It would not be able to protect. Not this time. The remaining engines went into overdrive, the last generator literally smoking as it pumped energy.

And the beam raced closer.

Kathryn O’Connor drew in a sharp breath, the last thing she was sure she could do before Death claimed her. Instead, she found her ship trembling slightly, right before a purple hue overcame the sight on the front viewer, and the scenery shifted abruptly. Instead of a grinning Destroyer, she found herself amidst the entire fleet of the ESMF, facing SpaCECoB, superimposed over a planet Earth. An Earth that, for all intents and purposes, had peeled open like a giant orange.

“What the…?” she uttered.

The Claudia system has been activated, Borlan noted dispassionately. The ESMF is in full retreat.

“Sir, the engines! They’re firing on their own accord!” the OPS office whispered harshly in the total silence that reigned on the Dvoràk’s bridge.

The ship is under Claudia’s control. Don’t fight it, Borlan droned. Under emergency act one, section one, of the ESMF charter; the Claudia back-up system has assumed full command of all ESMF resources.

“What the HELL is going on!?” Kathryn demanded. “Cut that thing out of there!” she commander the OPS officer. “I want control over my ship, damnit!”

Armageddon, Miss O’Connor. This is about Armageddon. And please do not try to circumvent Claudia, Linda stated calmly. Superseding authority has been granted to the Claudia system. Please allow her to do her job, and all will be explained to you as soon as we can gather our forces, and gather some data on what is happening.

O’Connor sat down angrily, and nodded to the OPS officer. Dvoràk shifted forward calmly, and soon entered the massively hollow space of Earth 004.

 

“Everyone’s inside, Sir,” Admiral Harris reported.

Frederic nodded to him. “Signal Claudia that she can close up.”

Harris nodded, but before he could do anything, the planet started to close on itself.

“I am able to hear you, My Lord,” Claudia stated, rematerializing on the bridge of SpaCECoB. “I have successfully assumed full command of the ESMF’s resources, although most captains were less than happy to have me take over their command.”

“I’ll explain it to them in a minute,” Frederic whispered, sitting down in the command chair, looking at her. “Claudia, all passive defensive measures.”

“Already activated, Your Lordship. We now resemble nothing more than a normal, standard planet.”

“Run a full check on active defenses and offensive structures… we don’t know how long it’ll be before they find us here,” he whispered, standing up. “And now I have to prepare a speech to give to the ESMF.”

Claudia dipped her head. “Perhaps you would appreciate my assistance on the matter, My Lord?” The redheaded AI blinked. “The systems check out, Your Lordship.”

Frederic looked at her, and nodded. “Maybe that would be a good idea. Thanks, Claudia.”

“I am here to serve and protect, My Lord.”

 

Frederic looked around the assembled admirals, fleet admirals, and other high officials within the ESMF as he paced around the huge War Room deep within SpaCECoB. As he paced, he was acutely aware that the entire ESMF could follow him via remote relays.

Finally, he drew a breath. “Ladies and Gentlemen, for the last three hours, we have been at war. A war with a race we can not win, a race so powerful that it has sent the entire ESMF running within seconds of engagement.” He stopped, and turned. The War Room’s unique properties made it so that it was as if he were staring everyone in the face, personally.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, war has broken out between heaven and Hell, and we are standing in the exact middle. We are not direct targets, but if we wander into the crossfire, we will be annihilated. Our ships stand no chance against this foe, and for this reason they have been retreated to our final, most top-secret facility in the omniverse: the Claudia System.”

In the middle of the room, Earth appeared, yet once again, it was as if it were right in front of everybody present. “The Claudia System was built upon the foundations of power of the Jokilar Gerius, its systems designed by David and Jessica Fromthefield, its Artificial Intelligence written by Linda and Borlan themselves. Using the vast power of the Jokilar Gerius, the planet was hollowed out; its huge molten iron core was solidified and used as base material to reinforce the thin crust. Using the Gerius’ power, the raw metal was infused with mythical energy and transformed into the strongest metal known to mankind: a living metal ten times stronger than the metals used on the ESMF’s hulls.”

Earth had drawn into bisection by now, showing a thin crust resting upon a thick shield of pure mythical, living metal. The mantle and semi-liquid outer core of Earth had been removed, and at the exact center, a bright white light pulsed. “In order to maintain secrecy, the ESMF’s most massive zero-point generator was constructed under the supervision of David and Jessica, not only providing power for Claudia’s systems, providing heat and power for the ships of the ESMF when inside, but also powering the tectonic movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates, as well as providing volcanic eruptions and the cycle of destruction and creation of the crust.”

Frederic righted, and turned away from the particle synthesis system, to look everybody in the face once again. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Claudia is a living planet redesigned to be our last refuge. She sustains life on her surface, has a magnetic field, and has an atmosphere. She is impervious to all known scanners and sensors; able to fool them all into thinking she is nothing but a mere planet… and she is where we will live until the Destroyers have been dealt with.”

Admiral O’Connor lifted her hand. “Excuse me, Sir. Beautiful as she is, Claudia is still no match for the Destroyers. What I… what me and my crew… have seen them do defies all logic and technology!”

Frederic dipped his head. “Precisely why we are here right now. Claudia is our last chance, or last choice. She will protect us… or die trying. Hopefully, she will be able to get us the time needed to get rid of the Destroyers.” He looked up, and away into space for a few moments. “As of this moment, the entire omniverse has entered a state of war. The Destroyer’s attacks have spread large and wide, and the forces on the side of the Gods of the Universe have been falling back continuously.” He looked back. “We have been caught off-guard, thinking ourselves safe behind the Divine Treaty. But no more… we shall rally; we shall link up, form fronts, and fight back. We shall win, do not doubt that.”

 

“Father be damned, where are these guys coming from!?” Athena demanded angrily as she let loose on the string of her bow, her arrowhead cleanly cleaving through a Destroyer’s head. At her side, her sister-goddess Artemis stood, cutting loose with her own bow.

“I don’t know, Athena. But I think we’re at war now,” the Goddess of the Hunt grunted out, readying two arrows on the bowstring as the Destroyers raced up Mount Olympus.

Athena dropped hr bow, drew her sword, and engaged the nearest Destroyer, ducking in time for her sister’s two arrows to cut down two more of the vile creatures. Coming up, Athena’s sword halved a Destroyer from groin to head. She felt, rather than heard, something sizzle through the air. The next moment, a flash of light revealed Ares, knocking a Destroyer’s bolt out of the way with the flat of his blade.

“You really should be more careful, sister dear,” the God of War chuckled as he threw a bolt at the Destroyer that had fired upon his sister. Athena scowled slightly as she dismembered a Destroyer before taking the head of the one near him. Artemis’ bow joined Athena’s, and her sword joined the battle.

“Where are the others?” Artemis demanded of Ares in mid sword-strike. Ares took the time to knee a Destroyer in the groin, causing the creature to double over before stabbing his sword through its back.

“Fighting, where else?” Ares finally grunted in reply. “Last I saw them; Zeus and Hercules were together with Strife and Discord, fighting at the base of Olympus. Hera is with Hephaestus and Hades, defending the Underworld. The rest are scattered throughout Greece.”

“Just what is happening?” Athena demanded as she was forced back by the hundreds of Destroyers racing towards them.

“Whatever it is, it’s bad!” Ares shouted in answer, falling back along his sisters. “The Asgard are under attack as well, as is every major and minor pantheon!”

Athena cursed as she was forced back past her bow, unable to find the time to retrieve it.

“Hermes is going to fetch anyone able to help, but I doubt it’ll help much…” Ares grunted before a strike to his stomach made him double over. He was sure he would die right there, but something whooshed over his bent back, and when he righted, a Destroyer lay dead. He nodded in appreciation to Athena when he found a few nanoseconds to do so, before being forced further back. There was no more time to speak.

The battle for Olympus raged on and on, and when Hermes returned with the few Seraphim warriors he had been able to swindle out of Michael’s hands, it had been fought.

“Anyone!?” Hermes shouted, feeling his immortal heart sink. The beautiful Mount Olympus lay in ruins; the magnificent residences of the gods were ransacked, emptied, and left vacated. “I brought help!”

The five Seraphim scattered slightly, presenting less of a target should any Destroyers remain. One by one, flashes announced the arrival of more Olympians.

Ares stood, his tunic torn and bloodied, right hand clutched around his sword, trying to behave in a manly way by fighting its shaking. Zeus arrived as well, clutching his right hand at a vicious gash in his side, while his left hand held a lightning bolt. Aphrodite appeared as well, smudges on her usually artfully made-up face, her dress torn and ripped, holding a cloth against the gash on her forehead.

Hermes started to ask, but then thought better of it. If these were the only ones who came to his call, then he had his answer. “Come,” he whispered. “We’ll reconvene at the Divine Palace… others are gathering there as well.”

As the Seraphim gathered around those few Olympians left, preparing to port away, a sizzling sound ripped through the air, striking Aphrodite right in the face.

Ares dropped his sword, and Zeus dropped his bolt of lightning, both racing to be there in time to catch the Goddess of Love’s body as it tumbled to the ground. It was to be Ares who caught her.

“Hang in there, sis,” he grunted roughly. “The Archangels can heal you. Just hang in there!”

“He… he messed up my hair…” Aphrodite whispered, before going limp in his arms. Ares growled. It didn’t happen often that the God of War felt personal about battle. But seeing his family die… feeling his sister die… in his arms…

He lowered her to the cold floor, and flashed to the Destroyer, who had somehow ducked the flaming sword of the Seraphim warrior closest to him. Ares got there before the angel managed to strike a second time.

Aphrodite never hurt anybody, damnit! She was harmless! Ares felt his rage taking life as a sword of fire materialized in his hands, flashing red streaks as he hacked and slashed at the Destroyer. The Seraphim had something else to look at. Zeus merely cradled Aphrodite’s lifeless body. And Hermes felt bile rise in his throat, yet forced it down as he knelt next to his injured father, clutching his dead sister’s body, letting Ares take care of the scumbag that did this.

Somehow, this last, sole Destroyer had taken on all the sins of his brethren in Ares’ mind as the vicious creature’s body started to disintegrate slowly. First a finger, then a toe, then another finger, then something manly in between his legs.

Ares took the Destroyer apart. Slowly. Painfully. And unstoppably.

The creature’s screams reverberated throughout the ransacked Olympus, and it felt… good.

Five minutes later, a wary bunch of gods joined the Angels, Archangels, and Seraphim in before the Divine Palace. There were not alone.

“Thor was alone who made it out of Asgard,” Hermes whispered as he looked around. “The Q have been decimated… only a few dozen of them left. Even those powerful Sons-of-bitches of the ancient Sumerians have been decimated. Marduk left the Destroyers out to dry, but they surrounded him… and he was forced to watch the others die.” The messenger of the Olympians swallowed. “Drove him insane, it did.”

Ares nodded dumbly, just staring into space. “The others are in even worse shape… some pantheons have been completely wiped out,” the messenger whispered in conclusion. “This is horrible.”

Archangel Raphael, the Healer among the Archangels dropped to one knee next to where the Olympians were sitting. “They’re regrouping; I think… we’ve got some time to heal now.” He touched the Olympians in turn, letting his healing power wash over the lesser gods, rejuvenating them and lifting their wounds.

“What’s happening?” Ares asked.

“The Destroyers are telling us what they think of the Divine Treaty,” Raphael whispered. “I think the first wave ended a short time ago… there’s still some battles all over the Omniverse, but nothing left on this scale. Their first strike decimated us. We last a lot of the Seraphim corps, the angels’ ranks are severely depleted, and we lost about 50 to 60% of our supporters. They completely surprised our bigger hitters, like the lesser gods, angels, Archangels, Q, and so forth.”

“Where’s…he?” Zeus asked.

“He has sent out his Gerius,” Raphael whispered. “They were the ones who managed to get so many of the Q here. They’re still out there, lending support wherever they can…” He sighed. “They regretting not being able to be here at the time of the attack, but they were caught off-guard as well, and they were forced to take care of their human supporters first.”

Zeus looked up, a look of shame entering his face. “I never even thought of them when the attack came…” he whispered. “How are the humans, Raphael?”

“The humans aren’t being targeted right now… Michael thinks that this is the opening strike, and they just want to take out our defenses, then go after the Gods themselves, taking over everything, and then having some fun with the sentient races below.”

Ares’ hand curled around the fire-sword’s handle. “I’ll die first. The humans are mine to torture.”

Zeus scowled as well. “Well said, my son. Those humans may not be much, but they’re our followers. We are the only ones who can torture them!”

Raphael shook his head. “I’ll never understand you lesser gods…” he pointed over his shoulder. “Thor and the others are saying similar things.”

Zeus and Ares looked over to where the group of lesser gods was growing steadily with more and more patched-up survivors joining steadily. Raphael stood up, and the Olympians joined him. “I have more work to do,” the Archangel excused himself, moving over to heal more wounded. Zeus, Ares, and Hermes joined the group of lesser gods. The prevailing talk was on a single subject. Payback.

 

First turned to Second, and grinned. “The first wave has proven successful,” the leader of the Destroyers bellowed in satisfaction. He looked back down at the viewing-pool the duo had been using. “The Gods’ forces have been decimated, and they’re retreating to the Divine Palace.”

“Where we will annihilate them!” Second growled in equal satisfaction. “The Medium Destroyers are keeping the heavy hitters pinned down, and Lucifer is enjoying himself with ripping through the Angelic Defenders’ strategies like through tissue paper.”

“Revenge is powerful motivation,” First said with a nod of his insanely powerful head. “Where are the Gerius?”

Second’s hand moved to the pool. “They’re lending support, trying to retrieve as many of our targets as they can.”

“And he?”

Second chuckled. “He has vanished from our scopes, Lord. He’s scared.”

First’s grin developed into a full-blown laugh. “Good, good!” His hand clapped Second on the back. “Start phase two, and we’ll see just how long the little coward will remain scared.”

Second nodded, and spread his arms. Energy welled up around the creature as he growled, senses casting out. “In the name of the Destroyers, arise, our Mortal Armies! We summon thee forth upon this time, for the Day of Reckoning is upon us! Armageddon has finally arrived!”

The planet they were on, the one that had served as a training area for billions of years, disintegrated as the second’s power’s expanded, opening portals throughout the omniverse.

Second turned to First as both floated in the hard, cold vacuum of deep space, the star that had burned harshly upon the planet long since vanished in the same horrid spectacle as the planet, caught in the back-lash of Second’s incantation. “My Lord, there is one planet where the second wave will fail…”

First dipped his head. “Destroy the planet.”

Second grinned, and lifted one arm. “Assassin.”

An Assassin appeared in front of the Duo. “Destroy the planet Earth.”

The Assassin grinned. “All of them, My Lord?”

“Start with this one,” Second ordered, lifting his hand once more, dumping knowledge in the Assassin’s mind. “Do what you have to. Or what you want to do. Just fulfill your mission, as it has been ordained by the Lord First!”

First grinned, and the Assassin crossed his arms over his chest, bowing respectfully. The next moment, harsh space underneath his feet lit up in a blaze of light as the creature ascended to level two.

A bright flash later, the Assassin was staring down upon a gently-rotating planet Earth below him, arms crossed, a vicious grin on his face. “This planet has the strongest warriors in the omniverse. Maybe I should test them out…”

He let himself be caught in Earth’s gravity well, and dumped himself down on the surface a couple of minutes later, unwilling to even remotely press himself and just let gravity do its job.

He emerged from the crater he had made upon impact, and looked around. “Let’s see…” His head rolled 360 degrees, scanning the entire planet’s surface.

“These guys aren’t that strong… compared to the whelp that took out my brother…” The Assassin growled. “In the Name of the Destroyers, I am summoning this planet’s strongest defenders! I call the Right of Ghontar!”

The skies darkened, and Earth shook underneath as the level-2 Assassin’s power emerged briefly. In front of the imposing figure, the ground glowed in brought circles, seals forming on their own accord, summoning the most powerful warriors from Life and Afterlife.

Assassin grinned as his spell supplied him with names and abilities. “Goku… Vegeta… Gotenks… Piccolo… Gohan.” The five warriors scowled at him. “I have summoned you for the Rights of Ghontar. My task is the total annihilation of this entire world, including its afterlife. However, I wish to give you a chance. Ghontar allows you such. Defeat me, and you will be spared.”

“Well, that’s now,” Piccolo grunted. “Most bad guys aren’t nice enough to summon us before they start destroying things.”

Assassin grinned. “Come. Attack.”

“Gladly,” Vegeta grunted, going as high as Super Three. Goku, next to him, followed suit, as did Gotenks and Gohan. Piccolo, meanwhile, just went as high as he could.

Assassin crossed his arms, and closed his eyes. He was sorely disappointed. This is the legendary power? He felt something stir, and stepped to the left. As the something flashed past him, he caught it, grabbed on to it tightly, and squished it.

He opened his eyes. Level two really isn’t much fun… these guys come nowhere near me, Assassin thought as he let Piccolo’s lifeless husk fall to the ground. The remaining warriors were getting even more pissed off now, and Assassin smiled, enjoying the look of pure outrage on their faces.

Vegeta was the one who charged him next, Goku, Gotenks, and Gohan right behind him. Assassin didn’t even bother dodging. He lifted one hand, and let Vegeta destroy his own feet as it landed with devastating force against a foe that was unwilling to budge. As the warrior screamed in pain, Assassin’s second hand materialized through Vegeta’s back, holding his heart. The screaming stopped instantly.

Assassin jerked his hand clear. Sideways.

What was left of Vegeta slumped to the ground. The three others had broken off their assault immediately after seeing Vegeta go down, and they were now scattered around him, forming a circle. Or, better, a triangle.

“Pathetic.”

Goku growled, legs bending deeper, summoning more power. Assassin felt Gotenks and Gohan do the same from behind him. “You’re fools.”

The warriors just charged him, throwing energy blasts as they flashed toward him. The blasts never hurt him, and Assassin closed his eyes. Just a little closer… come on, slowpokes. Just a little closer…

His eyes flew open. In range! His arms spread sideways, Assassin summoned his power. In a triangular fashion, his energy lashed out, instantly vaporizing the warriors, and continuing on, rolling all the way across the planet’s surface, crisscrossing around the surface. Assassin lifted a few centimeters off the ground.

Where the beams of power crossed, the planet was sliced, and diced. Slowly, it started to disintegrate.

Assassin vanished. He had detected more signatures throughout this pathetically small universe, and he’d get them all, extending his Lord First’s orders. But one thing Assassin had learned.

No more Ghontar. It wasn’t much fun at his present skill and power-level.

Second and First opened their eyes.

“That was overkill,” First grunted to Second.

“But it was fun to watch, My Lord,” Second replied.

First dipped his head. “That it was. It’s not every day one gets to witness the humiliation of the Z-warriors.”

 

“Steve!” Xander shouted, bursting into Steve’s living room. “You have to see this!”

Steve St. Wolf frowned slightly, and followed Xander out the door. He didn’t have to follow far… the moment he crossed the threshold of his heavily-reinforced home, thanks to some ESMF technology and magic, his sword Demon Slayer went haywire. As Steve felt the ground tremor beneath his feet, he was forced to look at but one thing… where Xander was pointing.

For, at the location where there was once the High School of Sunnydale, there now was nothing but a blackest of black cloud of pure evil jetting up from the ground. Vampires, demons, Hell Gods, and more.

“Oh, shit,” Steve cursed. “Everybody! Get the big stuff, and meet me at the car! We’re going to empty everything we’ve got in them, do as much damage as we can, and then run for it. No way in hell can we win against those odds!”

Not two minutes later, a caravan of cars was racing out of Sunnydale, weaving through the rapidly filling up traffic as the usually sturdy residents figured out things were BAD. Behind them, the vampires and demons were running rampant throughout the town, and Steve cursed as the car started swerving, just along with everybody else.

“Fuck,” he cursed. “It’s a friggin’ earthquake!”

“Not just that, honey,” his Buffy whispered, pointing out the window. Above them… the sun was covered through sheer magical might.

“That magic required for that…” Willow whispered.

“Enough to level a city,” Amy grunted. “This is bad. Really bad.”

A flying demon screeched down from the skies, crashing down on the hood of Steve’s car. Together, he and Buffy rolled down their windows, and started putting enchanted silver bullets in it, and it howled in pain as it was turned into a really large, really ugly sieve. But, it held on, and growled at them as their guns clicked on empty.

Willow and Amy shouted something from the back seat, and a burst of lightning hit the demon in the back.

“Thanks you guys,” Buffy grunted as she reloaded her own gun as well as Steve’s.

“It’s getting worse,” Steve said as he swerved the car from right to left to avoid people who hadn’t been able to maintain control over their cars and ended up in the ditch. “They’ll get us sooner or later… we need to reconvene. I’m sure the Knights are already on alert, something like this can’t be secret, but it’ll take a HELL of a long time to get enough forces into place!”

Something loomed up at them in the distance, and the car’s occupants turned silent, just as they were sure the other cars in their little convoy were silent as well.

“Eh… I think the cavalry is here…” Willow said with a grin.

Steve pulled his car to the side right behind a couple of mysteriously futuristic black tanks set up along side the road. The others cars stopped as well, and the entire core Sunnydale team was immediately approached by a woman dressed in total black, carrying some kind of super gun, and wearing a golden patch they knew so well over her heart.

“This is a restricted area…” she started to say as Steve interrupted her.

“I’m Steve St. Wolf. I’m sure your superior knows…” now it was his turn to be interrupted as the woman snapped at attention.

“We were about to launch a search and rescue for you and your people, sir. Please follow me to our local commander,” she said in calm, crisp, tones, turned on her heel to start marching. Steve and the others followed, shooting a worried glance in the direction of Sunnydale, where the cloud of evil could still be seen, even in the mysterious darkness of the magical blackout.

Soon, they were inside a huge tent, directly in front of a man with an overwhelming sense of power around him. “I’m Mark Harper, Colonel of the first Division Black Cats.”

“Steve St. Wolf, and these are the others of my team…” Steve hurriedly introduced his people, and Mark nodded at them.

“We’ve been sent here to protect your world, Mr. St Wolf. So far, we’ve set up a containment circle around Sunnydale, and we’ll start screening the moment demons started arriving. Up until now, we’ve just been letting everybody run… but when the demons get here, we’ll need to set up magic barriers. Unfortunately, that means non-hostile non-humans will be blocked, too… they’ll need to be screened manually, which will probably cost us dearly.”

“How many people have you got with you?” Steve asked, bended over a three-dimensional holographic map of Sunnydale and the surrounding regions.

“First division holds 25,000 Black Cats, Sir. Beam-in points were here,” Mark touched a button, and a hundred-fifty spots lit up. “We’ve set up a containment circle like this,” the points turned into a circle, “and we’re throwing together a search and rescue for any surviving humans after the first main strike has been dealt with.”

“How much longer?” Buffy asked.

Mark touched a third button. “Unfortunately, it’s spreading rapidly. Contact is estimated within half an hour.” A device on his arm beeped.

“Harper.”

Containment 100%, Sir. We’re ready, a voice came out. Harper nodded. “Good. Then dig in, and get ready, Lieutenant. And pray for the Gods of the Universe to save everybody.”

We’ve all been doing that since we got here, Sir. Hausmann out. The contact severed.

Mark signed, and bent over the map. “Okay… nothing more we can do here. We need to stop them, and stop them HERE.” He looked at Steve. “We’ll be fighting side-by-side on this one, sir. I promise you… me and my men will not budge from our place. We will defend this world.”

“How bad is it? Really?” Giles suddenly asked. “Because I find it strange that Fred isn’t here…”

“Fred?” Mark asked. “Oh, the Phalanx! Yes, I heard you and him were personally acquainted.” Mark sighed then, and shook his head. “It’s… catastrophic. Evil is running rampant through all of creation. Last I heard, the Phalanx’ personal team have gone to help the Archangels defend creation, alongside the Angels and Seraphim. The entire ESMF has retreated, and ground forces are sent out interdimensionally, directly from the secret base to defend those worlds were Hellmouth, Hell portals, and other mythical gates have been breached.”

It was Amy who summed it all up.

“Fuck.”

Twenty-five minutes later, Steve and his people were standing at the front lines, next to Mark Harper, watching the faster demons and vampires approach.

“You know we can’t stop those, even with 25,000 men,” Steve whispered to Mark.

Mark grinned. “These aren’t 25,000 mere men, Sir,” he replied, lifting his hand. “Claudia. Cover us!”

I shall cover you; Mark Harper of the Black Cats, the AI’s voice flowed from his mental amplifier. Above them, floating weapon’s platform burst into existence, semi-transparent force-beams lashing out at the front lines of the demonic forces. All around them, above the entire circular containment lines, weapons platforms started laying into the faster, and thus more lightly armored, demons and vampires.

“Jesus…” Steve whispered in awe.

Next to him, Mark grinned. “For now, they’ll do… but magic has the nasty tendency to get through shields very easily. And we can’t burn from orbit, because there’s still a lot of people alive in there.”

A ball of fire leapt up, taking out the first weapon’s platform, directly above their heads. Steve was about to cry for everybody to get out of there, when the burning platform vanished in mid-fall, a new one taking its place.

It’s begun, Mark Harper. I can not replenish ALL the platforms so easily. There are presently five hundred fourteen separate engagements requiring them. I suggest your men started ‘opening up’ I believe the expression is.

“Then that is what we shall do, Claudia!” Mark growled, pushing his hands together, before throwing them out. A jet of pure fire lashed out, burning the demons the closest to him to a crisp.

Even with all the firepower of the weapon’s platforms, the sheer number of demons were soon overwhelming their capacity, and Steve and his crew opened with the weapons they had been handed: energy weapons capable of continuous recharging off of the planet’s own energy grid.

The Cats next to them followed suit.

 

The bridge of SpaCECoB was unrecognizable: all the stations had vanished, to leave the entire room stripped bare, even the huge viewscreen at the flat end had vanished. Instead, the entire room was filled with worlds. World that were under attack, and needed their help, and people were currying from one to the other, views changing, rotating, to accommodate the planning by the ESMF’s brightest minds as they planned and plotted and schemed to get victory.

And, in the middle of it all, was Frederic, his mind linked permanently with Claudia, asking for updates, changing orders, putting the necessary forces where they were most needed.

“Universe 254 is holding,” he whispered to himself. “Good man, Steve.” He glanced around. Other worlds weren’t so lucky. Especially a couple of worlds that held a truly huge number of portals, worlds he had been forced to inject nearly five million troops into just to maintain the status quo. Forces supported by enough autonomous weaponry to take over and entire world by force if it had to, which was precisely the point.

Frederic scowled, and cursed to himself. “Calm down, Love. You’re doing everything you can,” Jennifer whispered next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He let out a sharp breath, and nodded tiredly. “It just won’t quit,” he grunted.

“It’s the end. The moment the Destroyers attacked the Gods, you knew it,” she answered him.

“They attacked the Gods’ forces, not the Gods themselves.”

“You’re grasping at straws,” Jennifer berated him. “It’s only a matter of time, and you know it!”

Frederic scowled slightly at her, then softened his face. “I know… but leave me my delusions. They’re all that’s keeping me sane.”

She smiled slightly, and nodded. The reality of the situation came crashing down on their moment of peace as, at that moment, the outside world came flashing back: the screaming people, the scurrying, the bridge reconfigured into an interdimensional communications center used to plan a battle of over six hundred fronts at the same time.

And, just as things seemed at their worst… things got worse.

Outer perimeter breach! Lower-level Destroyer detected!

For a few moments, the entire bridge turned silent as everybody stared at Frederic and Jennifer. Slowly, he swallowed. “Claudia, upgrade situation, and release the PHS.”

Of course, Your Lordship. I shall defend you all.

Frederic nodded, and sat down in a chair that appeared out of nowhere. He closed his eyes, and grabbed the armrests, and for a few moments, the entire bridge lit up in a brilliant heavenly light.

 

Mark cursed as he ducked away from a falling weapons platform that was whisked away mere moment before crushing him. “The heavy hitters have appeared,” he grunted, slapping his mental amplifier. “Cats! Heavy hitters! Do whatever you have to!”

Steve looked up, frowning slightly. They were holding back? He didn’t have much time to ponder his thoughts for long as a couple of full-blown second circle demons were almost upon him and his little band. The strange energy weapon he had gotten from the Black Cats whined as he discharged it on full automatic against the tough foes, each taking over four dozen hits before finally going down.

The time it took for Steve’s entire group to take care of the two second circle demons was enough for Mark to get up. He pushed his hands together, and the next moment, his eyes seemed to take on a pure white hue. “Magnus…” he stated calmly, his voice somehow carrying across the battlefield, reverberating with a strange heavenly echo. He spread his arms. “Exorcismus!” he finished, a heavenly white light flowing off of him, spreading a good twenty meters in every direction.

Suddenly, Steve and his friends didn’t feel tired anymore, and at the same time, the demons caught in the wave disintegrated.

On the other side, a second Cat lifted one hand to the heavens. “Lord of Vermillion!”

Ground shook underneath Steve’s feet, and the man started to realize just why 25,000 Cats were enough to hold back an open Hellmouth as fire seemed to emerge from the very soil beneath the Cat’s feet, whisking up around him before literally vaporizing two dozen demons that came rushing in after Mark’s Magnus Exorcismus had leveled off.

“Jesus…” Willow whispered. “That’s more power…”

“Meteor Storm!” Someone called from behind them, and the darkened skies were filled with clouds, a gigantic volcano-like cannon appearing from among them, literally shooting half a dozen meteors at the ground.

At the exact time the meteor strike took hold, a second voice called out. “Sanctuary!” A blue-glowing bubble spread over the group, the effect spreading as more and more casters carried on the spell, spreading its effects to the entire area under threat by the meteors.

Those demons with enough intelligence to realize they were in serious trouble did one of two things: they either ran, back to Sunnydale, out of range of the meteor strike. Or, they rushed forward, and tried to get inside the range of the sanctuary protection. Those that ran back made it.

Those that rushed forward were met with increasingly stronger spells now that the cats were starting to really cut loose. “Fire Pillar!” “Water Balls!”

“They’re damn fast,” Mark grunted, lifted his hands. “Let’s remedy that. Quagmire!” The ground in front of the Cats suddenly gave way, seemingly dissolving into magical marshes instantly, forcing the still onrushing demons to grunt in exertion as their heavy bodies sunk waist-deep in magical muck.

“Well done, Sir!” a Cat screamed from behind. “Increase recovery!” Mark grinned, dipped his head at the supporting Cat, and turned back to the now slowed down demons.

Willow and Amy, meanwhile, were staring slack-jawed. “That’s enough energy to level cities… and these guys are throwing it around as if it’s nothing!” the redhead grunted out. “That… that’s impossible!”

“Not when you’re the best of the best,” Mark said from his position next to Steve. “Volcano!” The ground shuddered; glowing bright red for just a second. “For the next 30 seconds, the magic word’s fire!” Mark called into his amplifier.

The Cats hollered, and a barrage of fire-spells came crashing down upon the demons. Meanwhile, at the rear, Cats in support positions were casting increasing amounts of recovery, healing and resurrections spells. Their places were becoming more and more tenacious to hold, even with the Cats’ magics, and what little good the weapons platforms were able to deliver against the increasingly powerful demons.

“Damn… they’re true demons…” Mark grunted as his Lord of Vermillion spell struck harmlessly off of one demon’s toughened hide, only to have it zapped by a Thunderstorm spell from someone else a few seconds later.

“Glacial Spike!” someone called, followed moments later by “Hydra!” A spike of pure unimaginably cold ice penetrated a demon’s belly, right before a nine-headed energy creature appeared in its face, turning it to stone before blasting it to pieces. The cats had started to team up now, double-teaming two or sometimes even three schools of magic to take down a single true demon.

“Chain Lightning!” Mark called out, a bolt of sheer lightning leaping from his fingers to the nearest demon, striking it back with the force of the impact, before leaping to a second and even a third demon before dispelling.

“Frozen orb!” someone called from behind, a ball of ice blasting from the heavens like a frozen meteor, striking dead-center of the three demons Mark had hit with Chain Lightning, killing all three.

“Claudia! We need more!” Mark growled into his amplifier as he switched from magic to mental power to rip a demon’s head off. “They’re getting too close!”

“Unfortunately, there are over 1200 separate engagements at this time, Mark Harper,” Claudia replied with her usual lyrical words. “I am unable to provide more cover than I am at the moment.”

Mark grunted as he cast a knock-back spell, toppling a particularly large demon over backward, crushing some of his smaller compatriots before casting another meteor storm. This time, the sanctuary spell wasn’t as much to defend against the meteor strike as it was to give the defenders a chance to get their breath back.

“We won’t be able to keep this up much longer,” a Cat whispered to Mark. “We’re running low on mana…”

“I know,” Mark grunted. “I know. But we can’t leave. We’ll defend this planet as if it were our own, just like we’d like those who defend our own worlds to do for ours.”

The Cat nodded. “Of course, Sir.” He swallowed. “I’m sure there are people fighting for my home, too.”

Mark nodded. “For all of us,” he answered, clapping the young Cat on the shoulder. “We’re all fighting for each other now, and we won’t fall back, just as they won’t fall back on our homes, our families, and our friends.”

Steve felt his throat constrict, and gripped his blaster tighter.

“Mark Harper, I bring bad news,” Claudia interjected the moment the sanctuary started falling. Mark gripped his weapon, taking a straggling lesser demon’s head clean off with a single shot. “I am reading that there are no more survivors within the Sunnydale region.”

Mark cursed low in his throat. “How many dead?”

“Current predictions show an 80% loss, Mark Harper. Out of a town of 25,000 people…”

Mark cursed. “Twenty thousand casualties,” he grunted out, lowly, but his voice still carrying.

“It will get worse, Mark Harper. Readings show that the Hell Gods are approaching Earth,” Claudia resumed, not phased by the man’s use of harsh language. She had heard a lot worse in her short life.

Okay, so those were new words.

“Claudia, prepare for orbital bombardment,” he finally bit off, lifting both his hands in front of him. “Under the powers of the Gods of the Universe…” he started. A Cat behind him covered him with a massive fireball spell. “… I beseech the power of the omniverse to protect its humble servants…” A second Cat charged a lightning spell. “… Shield of the Heavens!”

Even though the eclipse still reigned, light streamed down from above, bathing Mark in a heavenly glow. His fingers and arms drew in thin air, leaving trails behind, creating a sigil in front of him. The two Cats were joined by a third, and Steve found himself laying hard into a demon that came too close for his own liking. Finally, Mark seemed to have finished. Lifting his hands to the glowing skies above, he called out once more, “Magnus Exorcismus!”

The call was taken over by the strongest and most able-bodies of the front-line Cats, the spell behaving totally different than before. Throughout it all, the cats had managed to remain more or less in their containment positions, forming a quasi-perfect circle. As the Cats called out to the power of the Gods of the Universe, the bright white energy of the spell raced forward, not spreading out but racing to the exact middle of the circle, where all the powers met.

As it met, the force that resulted blasted not only straight up, but also reflected back around the circle, forming a large version of the sigil Mark had drawn, right before the beam that was traveling upward reached its apex, splitting apart and gently floating down, forming an impenetrable bubble between the demons and the human fighters.

Those few demons that found themselves outside the shield, with the humans, soon found themselves destroyed by the outnumbering forces.

“We’re ready, Claudia. Authorization for bombardment, granted,” Mark told his amplifier.

“Very well, Mark Harper,” the AI replied on her usual unfazed tone. All the weapons platforms vanished, leaving only one, directly above the heads of Mark and Steve and the group they had been fighting with. An explosion sounded, and Steve actually started to duck as the weapons platform shook off its armor and its heavy-duty energy weapons, which vanished before reaching the ground.

Engines ignited, revolving the platform around its axis, pointing a nose-tip to the impenetrable bubble, before flying toward it. As it was about to hit, a blue-glowing pentagram appeared in front of its, making the air in it shimmer and warp. As the no-longer weapons platform touched it, a second sign appeared inside the bubble. It felt strange to Steve, to see the platform in two places at once… the piece that had vanished in the first portal coming out of the second, a couple dozen meters away.

Finally, the entire vessel had made its way through.

Out of the hull, two cannons deployed, and Steve could hear their whine even through the shield.

“Cover your eyes, and look away,” Mark instructed, doing so himself as he spoke. Steve and his group hurriedly followed suit. It was ironic that only the demons could see what happened next. As the weapons’ whine reached their climax, twin black orbs were discharged from them, exploding the platform that had fired them in the process. The two orbs exploded toward the Hellmouth, buried underneath Sunnydale, detonating at the same time.

Inside the shield, the two orbs’ touching set off one of the most devastating things in all of the universe: the force of a supernova, fusing whatever it could touch into the heaviest metal it could.

When the ground stopped shaking, and the Cats managed the courage to look, they were standing at the edge of a humongous crater, perfectly circular in appearance, the perfectly spherical blue-glowing shield having protecting even through the ground.

I thought it was just a dome… but it’s a perfect sphere!? Steve managed to ask himself.

“The Hellmouth has been sealed, Mark Harper. And I think you will appreciate the fact that the blast translated into the demonic realms,” Claudia said.

Cheers exploded through the defenders’ camp as Claudia’s word translated into solid concepts.

“However, things are not over… lesser portals are still active on this world,” the AI went on. “You mission is not yet over, Mark Harper.”

Mark nodded tensely. “Okay… give us an update in the command center, and let’s get to work. I hope we don’t need to do that to every portal we encounter.”

“I hope so too, Mark Harper,” Claudia stated, before signing off, leaving Mark and Steve to gather their people, guide them back to the camp, and prepare them for a next assault.

 

“Pikachu!!” Ash screamed as his oldest and best friend was blasted back against the rocks. Ignoring the bolts of whatever-it-was that were coming out of the strange pokémon’s mouth, Ash dove to the little yellow electric mouse, grabbed him in mid-jump and drew him behind the rocks. “Are you alright, Pikachu?” he asked worriedly as the rock started to crumble under the heavy barrage.

Misty and Brock finally dove behind the rock, next to Ash. “It’s getting worse and worse out there, Ash,” Misty grunted. “Ever since that strange guy got here…”

“It’s not the guy, it’s the pokémon,” Brock said, his voice practically growling. “Nobody knows what it is, and nobody’s ever seen anything like it!”

Maniacal laughter came above the deep rumble of the strange pokémon’s powerful blasts tearing up the ground and the rocks. “Run, little trainers!” the huge, powerfully built man laughed. “Run and try and save your miserable pathetic lives!”

Ash’s hand clenched on his pokéballs. In a single motion, he drew them all, enlarged them, and threw them. “Guys! Get him!”

Ash’ six pokémon appeared, jumped over the rock, and started blasting, using the most powerful attacks at their disposal. Misty and Brock nodded, and threw their own pokéballs.

Still holding his friend in his arms, Ash stood up, and started giving direction to his pokémon, Misty and Brock jumping up and following suit. It was to no avail… the strange pokémon seemed to have all the strengths of every pokémon type, yet none of the weaknesses. It absorbed lightning, ignored fire and water, and was able to dodge at tremendous speeds.

The man screamed in laughter. “That’s of no use!” he cackled, lifting one hand. “Get them!” he yelled at his pokémon, the strange midnight-black wolf-like pokémon grinning, red teeth bared. It’s black eyes started to glow a sickening red, and a beam of force that was the red of blood in color leapt from its mouth, a single beam of power that the pokémon threw across the battlefield, hitting as many of the opposing pokémon as it could, digging deep trenches in the ground wherever it touched.

“It’s like acid and fire in one!” Brock shouted as he encouraged his pokémon to fight harder. The strange pokémon ignored the attacks placed against it and just kept charging, vanishing and appearing out of thin air in its relentless pursuit of the opposing pokémon. The man laughed harder.

It wasn’t long before all the pokémon were down for the count. And then, the unimaginable happened as the man lifted his hand. “Destroy them.”

The midnight-black wolf howled; energy sparking off of its fur as it howled to the skies. Finally, its head came down once more, and it growled. Deeply. Darkly.

The instincts of the three trainers went haywire, and it was through sheer luck that they managed to dive away as the area surrounding the strange pokémon went ballistic, literally disintegrating.

They screamed for their pokémon friends, which now no longer existed.

“No…” Ash whispered, tears streaming down his face at the loss of his friends. Misty sank to her knees next to him, practically unable to show any kind of emotion, staring in mute shock at the smoking crater left by the pokémon and its trainer from hell.

Brock’s hands tightened into fists, his sadness translated into rage. “How… how could you!?” he screamed. “You shouldn’t kill pokémon in a fight!”

The man chuckled darkly. “This isn’t a fight, boy. This is war. And in war… you kill the enemy!” He burst into laughter once more, and turned to leave, when a dull rumble went through the ground, freezing the man in his tracks.

“Oh…?” he asked, seemingly interested, looking at a spot in the skies. “This is interesting.”

“Zapdos,” Brock whispered. “Articuno. Moltres.”

“Lugia,” Ash whispers. “All four of them…”

“They’ll teach you a lesson!” Brock screamed in pure rage at the mysterious man. “The three Titans and the Guardian of the Planet!”

The man just grinned. “So these will be the challenge, then,” he said to himself, grinning widely. “Get them!” The black pokémon dipped its head, grinned, and blasted.

It struck Lugia dead-on, knocking back the Guardian Pokémon, stunning it at the same time. The three Titans of Fire, Ice and Lightning screamed down from the heavens, bearing down directly upon the mysterious man and his equally mysterious pokémon. As bolts of lightning, ice and fire struck the ground; it merely dodged, launching itself into the air as soon as it was clear.

The man crossed his arms and smiled.

Lugia rejoined the battle, its blast of water striking the black pokémon in the sides, drenching it completely; right before Zapdos struck it with lightning. The pokémon growled, more in anger than in pain it seemed, and launched a blast at the nearest pokémon, which happened to be the Fire pokémon Moltres. The pokémon growled under the barrage, actually being struck back and its fire burning less brightly as the blast cleared.

The mysterious pokémon landed on all fours, bent its legs, and immediately catapulted itself back into the air. It managed to avoid a strike by Articuno and Moltres, before making contact with Zapdos. Somehow, the wolf-like pokémon managed to get itself up on the back of the electric bird, and its huge jaws extended fully open. Ash and Brock screamed as it bit over the neck of the electric titan.

Misty could only watch, totally dead to the world in utter emotional shock as the bird fell from the skies.

Lugia, Articuno and Moltres screamed in rage as the pokémon landed safely on the ground. As they launched another run at him, he blasted at them with his breath-weapon. The three remaining birds dodged, barely in time, and launched their own attacks. The mystery pokémon launched itself back into the air, slamming into the on-storming Articuno, its sharp claws digging deep into the Ice Titan’s chest. At such close range, there was no defense.

The pokémon’s breath-weapon went straight through, and it shoved off, landing safely on its four legs as the second titan fell from the skies.

“It’s… killing them all…” Brock whispered.

A waterspout exploded around the mysterious pokémon, grace of Lugia, right before Moltres blast it with a massive fireball attack. To everyone’s surprise, the pokémon jumped out of the cacophony of fire and water, unharmed, launching straight for the Fire pokémon Moltres. As it flew past the dodging Moltres, the mysterious pokémon’s sights set on Lugia, which was launching another water-based attack. Not feeling the need to be any more drenched than it already was, the mysterious pokémon blasted its breath-weapon at Lugia, making it scream in pain, actually knocking it to the ground, where it groaned and tried to get up.

Moltres growled and attacked the pokémon once more, now that it was on the ground again. It dodged the fire-based attack, and fired its breath-weapon back at its attacker, which Moltres managed to dodge. The fraction of time that it was looking at the breath-weapon was all the mysterious pokémon needed to launch itself in the air, striking the fire pokémon dead-on in the chest, sharp claws hanging on.

Moltres, before the mysterious beast could fire, started to glide across the tree-tops, trying to dislodge its unwanted passenger, but to no avail. And when it felt a strange sensation in its chest, Moltres had no time left to debate its next move.

The mysterious man was still grinning, walking slowly to the injured colossus that was Lugia, moaning on the ground as it tried to get up. Shaking his head, the mysterious trainer looked at the fallen bird, right before his own pokémon jumped back, standing still next to its master.

“This is the best this planet has to offer?” the mysterious man asked his pokémon. “Pitiful. Kill him.”

“LUGIA!!!!” Ash screamed, trying to run forward, but Brock held him back.

“It’s no use, Ash…”

The mysterious pokémon did its deadly job with gruesome accuracy.

The mysterious man drew a deep breath. “That’s it?” he asked, looking at the skies, to watch for more challengers. “Okay… no more challengers. This planet proved it’s incapable of survival.” He brought his hands together, and closed his eyes. The Mysterious pokémon vanished into a huge ball of black energy, which entered the man’s body soon after. “So die, all of you.”

His body glowed in a black light as balls of energy shot off in every direction, crisscrossing the planet, tearing it apart at the seams. “Ghontar challenge… has been met,” the Destroyer whispered, vanishing.

 

On SpaCECoB, Frederic was looking at the Destroyer as the man slowly picked his way through the solar system, trying to discover whether or not there were humans here, when the call came in. Or rather, when Claudia focused Frederic’s attention to it.

<< We lost the pokémon world… >> Frederic’s mind moaned through its link to Jennifer. << Another planet we couldn’t save… >>

<< We’re losing… a lot, >> she whispered in reply after the ten longest seconds of either of their lives. << But we can’t mourn them now. We can mourn after these bastards are dead. Then we’ll mourn the deaths of these good people. >>

Frederic drew a breath, his hands clenching on the interface chair that connected him to Claudia’s advanced sensors. He felt the power of her systems coursing through his veins, and it took all of his control not to disintegrate that Destroyer right there and then. Unfortunately, it would draw attention to their location, and the next Destroyer might not be a low-level one.

 

Tommy looked up, something slamming into his senses. The leader of the Gerius Rangers felt the blood drain from his face and he cast out his senses with unerring accuracy and tremendous urgency. All around him and his band of Gerius Rangers, people were preparing for the next big attack by the mid and high-level Destroyers that surrounded the defenders of the Divine Palace. He threw a hateful look to the place where Lucifer, leader of this charge, sat with a mad grin on his face as he surveyed the scene.

He flashed away, his fellow Rangers following instantly. They reappeared next to Ami, Daphnix, David, and Jessica. 

“Our home world is under attack”, Tommy growled out. “We need to go.”

Ami dipped her head before anyone could say anything. “Of course, Tommy,” she said. “Although you’ll be missed here, I understand. Go, and save your world.”

Tommy nodded gratefully, and dipped his head to the others, before he and his team vanished, leaving behind the four leaders of the Jokilar Gerius casting worried glances to each other.

“That world isn’t doing great,” Daphnix whispered. Ami and the Twins nodded.

“I think the hellgates have opened…” David started the whisper, and his sister finished it. “… and the Destroyers have sent one of their own as well.”

“That’s not a good thing,” Ami said, bending over the four-dimensional map of the Divine Palace and the surrounding grounds and times. “But we can’t be distracted too much now. We need to organize our defenses against the Destroyers’ next strike.”

Daphnix nodded. “Thor. Now that you’re the supreme god of your pantheon, can you summon the Valkyries?”

Thor stepped up to the command table. “I can. Where do you need them?”

Daphnix pointed to the map. “We’re a little weak on the right side. Can they support Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, and Kali?”

Thor slammed his fist over his heart. “They’ll support anyone I tell them to. Consider them there.”

Daphnix dipped his head gratefully. “We need you with us. You, Zeus, and Ares will be with us, taking the center with the Archangels. That’s where we think the strongest attack is going to take place. We have an entire regiment of Angels and Seraphim on the left, supported by Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli.”

“Those guys are still alive?” Thor asked with a grin.

Ami answered his grin with one of her own. “Oh, yeah.”

Thor slammed his hands together and laughed. “Good! We’ll need some bloodthirsty sons of bitches on our side!”

“Oh, they’re out for blood, alright,” David replied. “Destroyer blood. Turns out they started to kill one of the last vestiges of worshippers the Aztec pantheon has, and they’re taking it personally. A lot personally.”

“Damn right,” Thor grunted. “Nobody bullies a god’s worshippers but the god himself.” He turned, and said over his shoulder, “I’m going to Zeus and Ares. And I’ll summon the Valkyries.”

The four nodded gratefully as they continued to plan. Five seconds later, music sounded. “You’re kidding me,” Jessie stated, looking up at the skies where a whole battalion worth of Valkyries streamed down.

“I guess they like Wagner,” Daphnix replied with a grin. “And by the looks of things, most others here can appreciate him as well.”

 

Tommy and his Rangers appeared in the park of Angel Grove, their hometown. Nobody spoke a word, shocked into silence.

The skies were dark with smoke, flames rising high into the black smoke as Angel Grove burned.

And wherever they looked… bodies. Bodies and wrecks and ruins and desolation and destruction. Ruined buildings, wrecked Zords, killed Rangers.

“Rescue Zord,” Tommy whispered, recognizing the head of one of the other Ranger-team’s Zords.

“Turbo Zord…” Kimberly grunted out in shock, recognizing a leg.

“We have to go,” Billy whispered. “See what we can do.”

Tommy nodded absentmindedly, and jumped to where the concentration of wreckage seemed to highest. They landed in a zone that defied any description, as burnt-out Zord-hulks littered the ground, most of them obviously fallen where they stood, crushing buildings as the tower-high robots toppled.

Kimberly and Aisha slammed hands in front of their mouth, fighting the rising bile at the sight of what happened to their fellow Rangers.

The bodies lay there, scattered across the battlefield where their Zords had fallen, obviously at the hands of the Destroyer or his allies. The male rangers had been decapitated, all of them, while most of them still sported numerous broken bones and deep cuts.

The female rangers hadn’t gone out so easily, apparently, as their corpses had been stripped of everything but their helmets. And the positions the corpses were in left nothing for the imagination.

“They… they…” Kimberly squeaked. As Master Slayer, then Jokilar Gerius, she had seen some bad things… but nothing could have prepared her for the image of seeing companions in these… conditions.

Tommy growled, a dark and vicious sound rising up from his chest through his throat. “Revenge,” he whispered.

Billy looked up from a particularly mangled body, one that had been torn limb-from-limb, literally, before being beheaded. “Revenge,” he whispered in a dead voice.

Rocky just nodded, unable to tear his eyes away from the group of alien rangers. Finally, he found his voice. “Even the alien rangers perished,” he whispered, looking at his companions. “They died trying to protect our world.”

Adam, meanwhile, closed the eyes of the red Time Force Ranger’s head through its shattered helmet. “Revenge,” he whispered coldly. “Just… revenge,” he added, looking up, tears in his eyes. “Whoever did this…”

“I know,” Tommy whispered. “They’ll die.”

Aisha nodded, kneeling down next to a body of one of the female rangers. The body had been badly mangled, and because of its state of undress, she was unable to identify it. Her heart clenched at the thought that she wouldn’t even be able to pay that final respect to a fallen comrade. “Revenge,” the dark-haired girl whispered, summoning a sheet to cover the body with before looking up. “Revenge,” she growled again.

Tommy drew a breath, and closed his eyes. “As Team leader, I, Tommy Oliver, am authorizing Temporal Incursion,” he stated, hands together. The other Rangers jumped up, drawing their own sigils, acknowledging the authorization.

As the Seal of Novgoronn formed, and the energy started to get sucked together to displace time and space, it happened. The Seal shattered, the energy dispersing into the surrounding area.

“What the…?” Kimberly asked.

“The Gods,” Billy whispered. “The Gods are losing their grip on reality, now that the Destroyers are taking over.” He looked sadly at his companions. “We can’t Incurs.”

“We’ll get them the old-fashioned way,” Rocky growled, slamming his hands together. “We’ll get them!”

Tommy nodded angrily. “Yeah. We’ll get them. The Jokilar Gerius have called for revenge.”

 

Frederic and Jennifer looked up. “The Rangers…” he whispered.

“They’re hurting so much,” Jennifer added. “They’ve called for Revenge.”

Frederic dipped his head, and his eyes met his wife’s. “They’ll get the bastards responsible.”

 

Ami, Daphnix, and the Twins looked up, then glanced at each other. “It’s worse than we thought,” Ami was the first to speak.

“A lot worse,” David amended. “The Gerius have called for Revenge.”

“Good thing we’re not subscribing to the ‘turn the other cheek’ crap,” Jessie stated. “Revenge is a powerful motivator.”

“My only concern is the other people,” Daphnix said. “A Jokilar Gerius on a rampage to get revenge is not good for the surrounding area. Or people.”

 

The Destroyer grinned as she floated above the battlefield surrounding Cheyenne Mountain. She knew where the most powerful nation on Earth hid its leaders during crises… and that knowledge served her well now, as she directed the forces of evil on this entire universe down upon a single mountain range.

Pitiful, the Destroyer thought. Trying to protect their leaders with such small weaponry. It’s useless… it won’t take more than an hour or two for the forces to breach this pitiful military. She grinned. I can’t wait to see the reaction of the people when they see me torturing their pitiful king before their eyes.

She frowned. No… they don’t have a king… what was it again… emperor? No, certainly not. Ehm… monarch… no… steward… no…  She brought her hand up and rubbed her chin. What was it again?

She flashed down to the war zone, into the middle of the American Army. She grabbed a random soldier by the shoulder, lifted him physically off his feet, and turning him to face her. “Hey, you. What’s your leader called again?”

The soldier, a boy of no older than twenty, if that, nearly pissed his pants with fear. “Eh… eh… eh…” he stammered. The Destroyer rolled her eyes, and ripped his head off. “Stupid bastard doesn’t know his own leader,” she grunted, turning around. She saw a tank thunder by in the distance, and grinned. She flashed to the device, flipped it on its back, and ripped a hole in the side.

She soon had a guy with more bars on his sleeve by the shoulder. Hm. More bars. I hope this guy knows more… “What’s your country’s leader called?” she demanded harshly.

“Eh… George Bush?” the master-sergeant asked.

The Destroyer frowned. That didn’t sound right… “Your leader is called a George Bush? Not… King or something?”

The sergeant had the gall to smirk at her. “No, a President. George Bush is the president!”

“President! That’s it!” The Destroyer said, slapping her forehead with her free hand. “Thank you for your cooperation.” She threw him back at the tank, putting him through its armor… before blowing up the entire contraption. “Never smirk at me, idiot,” she stated coldly, flashing back to her vantage point in the sky.

Ten minutes later, the Destroyer smiled gleefully as she strode into Cheyenne Mountain at the head of her galactic forces of evil, virtually unopposed now that its main contingent of defenders had been decimated. Halting right in front of the blast doors designed to protect the occupants of NORAD against nuclear attacks, the Destroyer placed one of her slender hands on the humongous gates.

A shudder went through the mountain as the entire contraption moved, the rock splitting as the gate pushed back in its entirety, before tumbling over, and falling in, crushing whatever guards had taken place behind it.

Gunfire erupted, and the Destroyer laughed as the heavy rounds merely flattened against her body. Pointing ahead, she looked over her shoulder. “Get them, you idiots!”

The followers of the intergalactic group of pirates, would-be conquerors and other demon-spawn rushed forward, ignoring bullets and charging the defenders ruthlessly.

Then, the entire complex seemed to tremble on its very foundations as six voices cried out at the same time. “Halt!”

The Destroyer, who had been looking with glee at the carnage, glanced around at the reverberating voice that had seemed to take on physical substance. Six glowing figures stood at the entrance of Cheyenne Mountain, hidden from view by the convenient placing of light and shadow.

The Destroyer grinned, and turned around. “Everybody. Get those idiots first.”

The six glowing figures started walking forward, dressed in Gerius armor, their bodies glowing in otherworldly colors as the armies of evil charged them.

The Destroyer had done her homework, and she had assembled everyone who needed to get revenge on any kind of Ranger. She had looked for and wide, and had assembled them all, and brought them all here to this Earth, increasing their powers under the cloak of protection the Destroyers provided to their allies during combat.

And those evil bastards had brought their own armies with them, in turn boosting them.

As the six Gerius Rangers stood there, thousands of lower-level minions charged them. Putties, ninjas, aliens, monsters, mutants, they all charged the Gerius. It was the greatest army of evil ever assembled in a single place.

But it was insignificant compared to even a single Gerius. As the six of them walked ever forward, right into the onrushing army, none of them betrayed even a single emotion. As the army reached them, and evil started dying in droves, they still betrayed nothing.

The Destroyer grinned, even as her summoned help started to fidget nervously now that their armies were being devastated by six Gerius so fast that it was as if the six figures simply walked forward.

“Get them, idiots,” the Destroyer growled at her ‘lieutenants’, the leaders of evil of this entire galaxy, consisting of galactic conquerors, space pirates, polluters, mutants and aliens. Said lieutenants knew that their death at the hands of the Destroyer would be long-drawn and painful. On the other hand, death at the hands of the Gerius was quick and painless.

As one, the leaders of evil charged the Gerius.

They charged, and died.

The Destroyer, meanwhile, was laughing as the remainder of her army fell. “Thank you SO much for getting rid of them,” she said, still snickering, when the six figures came to a stop in front of her.

“Destroyer,” Tommy stated coldly. “We’re here for your death.”

At the same time, his five friends charged the Destroyer, who jumped back, through the rock and making a second exit out the side of Cheyenne Mountain. Five Gerius Rangers followed her, creating further holes in the side. Tommy lifted his hand, and created an Alter sphere.

The five Rangers caught on, and drove the Destroyer in such a manner that she’d come aligned with the holes made out the side of the mountain.

“Your pitiful leader won’t even join you!” the Destroyer screamed as she smashed Rocky in the face, putting him through a nearby mountain. “You’re weak!” she snarled, kicking Billy high up in the air. Or rather, up into space.

A Destroyer at level 2 didn’t pull punches.

Neither did Jokilar Gerius at full power.

Tommy waited impatiently, aiming continuously for the Destroyer. When he finally caught her in his sights, he cut loose with the devastating weapon he held in his hands.

The Destroyer swept at Adam, the nimble boy having darted away just in the nick of time. Just at that moment, a chill went down the Destroyer’s spine, and she blinked out of existence, reappeared on the other side of the battlefield, just in time to see an Alter-colored orb arcing gracefully through the air, striking the same mountain she had put Adam through earlier.

The entire surrounding area shook and trembled as the anti-matter explosion ripped through the mountain range. At that time, Tommy decided on joining the game, and together, the six Rangers charged the Destroyer together.

She laughed, and charged bolts of energy at them, which they knocked away with their Banes of Darkness. The Destroyer actually smiled as her bolts hit the surrounding area, further reducing the mountain range into flatland. Suddenly, she blinked, and vanished. Tommy and the Gerius cursed, and vanished as well, following the Destroyer around the world and into space even.

Across the surface of the moon, the battle raged, and went even further out into space, around mars, through Jupiter’s moons, around the Rings of Saturn, and vanishing from the Solar System into full Super-Light as a level-2 Destroyer battled it out with six Jokilar Gerius.

The Destroyer reappeared around the star known as Aldebaran, the six Gerius not far behind her. Tommy swept at her neck with his Bane, and she charged a bolt of energy into his stomach as she ducked under his horizontal swing. Aisha tried to land a hit into the crouching Destroyer, only to cause the mysterious woman to blink away in the nick of time, reappearing behind the dark-skinned girl.

Aisha, however, was prepared for this, and struck with her elbow at the Destroyer’s head. The hit connected, but did precious little damage, and it caused the woman to grab hold of Aisha’s elbow, and strike with her elongated nails at the girl’s unprotected back.

Drawing deep lashes through her opponent’s skin, the Destroyer didn’t notice Kimberly charging with her Bane held high. Again, a chill went down the Destroyer’s spine, and she blinked away in the nick of time.

Kimberly’s Bane screeched to a halt mere millimeters away from Aisha.

“Damn you!” Rocky growled, going after the Destroyer in tandem with Billy.

The woman grinned, and charged two strikes at them, blasting both toward Aldebaran. Both went right through, the laws of physics making another huge exception on their part. Smoke arose from their armor, however, courtesy of the Destroyer’s blasts. Tommy appeared on her left out of nowhere, charging at her side with his Bane once more, leaving the Destroyer no other choice but to raise her arm and block the angered weapon.

Seeing their chance, the five other Rangers charged in at the same time, Banes held fast and true, going for the Destroyer’s body.

She blinked, and vanished.

Only to reappear next to Cheyenne Mountain, looking at the skies, chuckling. “By the time they find me here, there won’t be a planet left,” she chuckled to herself, turning to look at the damage done to Cheyenne Mountain.

Curious, she noticed an airplane in the air, not too far away, obviously having taken off recently. “Oh…?” she asked, curious, turning to the flying cigar. “Would that be the… what was it again… President?”

She grinned, and focused her awareness on the plane. “Let’s see if I can’t do something original with it…”

“Hello, bitch,” Kimberly growled from behind the Destroyer’s back. “Found ya.”

The Destroyer vanished, reappearing next to the flying airplane, matching its speed. She could see a gray-haired man stare at her from behind one of the windows. She smiled sweetly at him, performing a mock-bow.

Six Gerius flanked the Destroyer and the plane then.

As Billy charged her back, the Destroyer grabbed hold of the plane, ripping off its left wing, spewing fuel and fire everywhere as she flung it at the charging youth. As the airplane tumbled to the ground, she flashed into existence next to it, grabbing hold of the fuselage, and breaking off its second wing. Letting the appendage fall, she grabbed hold of the fuselage with both hands.

In a fraction of a second, the airplane fuselage transcended the speed of light as she flung it at the nearest Gerius… which happened to be Tommy.

A couple hundred tons of aluminum, fuel, flesh, bone, and electronics hit him at full Super-Light speeds, and it must have some impact, as the mass of energy literally obliterated instantly against him, transmuting itself completely into energy against him. Tommy screamed, and vanished from sight as his body carried on the kinetic energy of the fuselage.

He was back ten second later, a hole in his armor, smoking heavily, and breathing deeply.

Okay, that was original, the Destroyer berated herself, just in time to see the six Gerius charge her once more, holding more Alter spheres. She ducked away, and six Alter spheres drove into the mountain range behind her, completely leveling Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD, and anyone who happened to be in or near it. As the Destroyer grinned at the destruction, the Gerius grew more and more pissed off, their own internal power increasing along with it, and with them, their Banes of Darkness.

Getting really well warmed up now, the glow of the Banes of Darkness increased further and further as their wielders battled with the Destroyer, and soon, the Destroyer found herself surrounded by screaming enemies holding deeply glowing Banes of Darkness.

“Blast!” “Of!” “The!” “Heavens!” the six screaming Gerius screamed as they cut loose with devastating beams of unimaginable destruction. The Destroyer ducked under one, jumped next to a second, and dodged a third.

But not even a Destroyer could evade all six Blasts of the Heavens, especially not when those first three she had dodged turned back and charged her anew.

Six Blasts of the Heavens struck her dead-on, sending shockwaves through the atmosphere, crumbling the surface beneath, causing volcanoes to erupt and twisters to form as the earth dissipated the excess energy the only way it could: through natural phenomena.

“We got her,” Tommy stated in a dead voice.

“But what a cost,” Billy grunted. “I really wish we could have gotten her somewhere else.”

“We all do, Billy. We all do,” Kimberly whispered sadly, looking at the devastated area. “Rebuilding will take a long time, and people won’t forget this easily.”

The five other rangers could only nod in agreement.

 

A shallow ghost of a man stood in the center of one of the smaller stone circles in the north of Great Britain, in the region known as Scotland. Called Balquhain Circle, it counted a mere six stones, some of which had already been removed, no trace left if there had ever been a center cairn. But right now, hidden from normal eyes, powerful magics worked on the entire area, sending tremors through the ground and occasionally lighting up the night’s sky with ghastly green and amber glows.

Tall the man was, yet pale as a ghost, with slit nostrils as a snake’s, and with red glowing eyes. An awful appearance.

In his boney hands he held an ancient-looking parchment, replete with curling writings of unknown nature and tremendous force. His shrill voice rose to the skies as he read off the lines on the parchment; making the ground tremor and the sky light up. Finally, he seemed to be done as his chanting reached a shrieking crescendo. “Amplificare Maximus!!”

The man screamed horribly as the ground shook powerfully, the skies darkening with magical clouds, throwing bolts of lightning down at the planet, hitting the surrounding stones, grinding them directly into dust. A mystical circle burnt itself into the ground, magics rising up from the very Earth and Heavens around the man, working their insidious energies through him.

His pale skin transmuted into a healthy-looking tint, his red-glowing eyes dying down and changing into handsome chocolate-brown eyes that stood cold as Arctic ice. 

Ten minutes later, a dashingly handsome man with a cold expression that would send just about any man and woman scurrying for cover, emerged from the dust-storm that swept up around Balquhain Circle. By the time the storm washed away, nothing was left save for a flat stretch of land totally devoid of any and all forms of life.

The man turned and watched the last of the dust-storm vanish before lifting one hand to the skies. “This world is my own!” he screamed, his voice a dark and rich bass, contrasting shrilly to the shrieking high-pitched voice he used to have. “In the name of the Destroyers and the Interdimensional Forces of Evil, I am claiming this world in the name of Lord Voldemort!!”

 

“Destroyer movement!” Claudia reported directly into Frederic’s ear. The man cursed; flung himself back into the command chair he had left a few minutes earlier to rejoin the Interdimensional commanders of the ESMF’s forces. His eyes immediately disconnected from reality as his mind was pulled into Claudia’s superconsciousness.

The world turned dark around him, her power pulsing through his nerves and pumping through his veins. His physical form drew a deep breath, the darkness lifted as her senses finally found the correct interfaces and connected to Frederic’s Gerius mind. He could survey the entire solar system at once, supplementing Claudia’s hyperspatial sensors with his own, Gerius-enhanced power-detection senses.

Together, man and machine could see the Destroyer in all its horrible and powerful glory, looming closer to the earth than ever before. It looked confused by something, as if it were sure that there were something in the vicinity; something it couldn’t put its finger on. This Destroyer had taken the physical shape of a large and burly man, and he flashed into orbit around the moon, staring down at the planet Earth below him.

“It knows, My Lord.”

“Not yet, Claudia. It may pass,” Frederic answered the AI tersely, hoping that his voice didn’t betray the fervent wishing going on in his heart. Oh, how he hoped the Destroyer would pass, that its senses wouldn’t penetrate the obscene level of obscuring and defensive technology that had been poured into the final refuge of the ESMF’s interdimensional headquarters.

The Destroyer didn’t pass, however.

No, it stayed right where it was, next to the moon, staring down at the deep-blue planet ‘below’, looking more and more convinced that something definitely wasn’t right.

It lifted its arm.

“My Lord!”

Frederic’s physical body scowled, a low growl escaping his throat without him meaning to. The people planning the various battles raging across the Omniverse halted what they were doing, and looked up at Frederic, seated in the Command Chair of the Claudia System.

The bolt that struck would have wiped out any other Earth in existence.

But this wasn’t any ordinary Earth.

This was Claudia.

The bolt struck through the atmosphere, superheating the various gasses, adding the element of fire to the bolt of pure divine energy the Destroyer had pulled from the Divine Grid as it traveled down to the crust. At full lightspeed, that was nearly instantaneous, taking a full 1 and ¼ second to get to the surface from Lunar Orbit.

It struck the crust with devastating effectiveness, drilling through it easier than anything ever before seen, the thin crust providing no protection whatsoever.

But then… then it reached the first true layer of defensive technology, the molten core that had been solidified, and infused with any and all power and technology the ESMF and the Jokilar Gerius had at their disposal. The molten core formed a thick slab of armor, over seven hundred kilometers thick, made of material that mostly resembling the material found in a common neutron star. Close to, but not fully, black-hole level.

The bolt was powered to blast a planet Earth out of existence. It was not powered to take out a battle station armored with more material than was common in most solar systems.

SpaCECoB, like the ESMF fleet, was suspended in the ‘void’ that made up the center of Claudia’s Earth, and thus, they couldn’t feel the tremors than went through the station at the moment the Destroyer’s power obliterated itself against the thickest, most effective, piece of defensive armor ever designed.

Those people working in SpaCECoB Omnidimensional Central Command looked up from their busy-busy work as a low moan escaped Frederic’s throat as he sat in the chair provided to him by Claudia, eyes open yet unseeing, mind and body linked to the Artificial Lifeform. His hands clenched on the armrests, actual smoke escaping from the contact as they burned their way into making indentations into the black hole-like material.

“What…” Admiral Harris started to ask, years of service keeping him from completing the question at one look on Jennifer’s face. Pain and worry had etched themselves onto her usually composed face, and the admiral drew a gulp of air into his lungs, forcing his eyes away and back to his duties. He let the air out, feeling calmness restore itself within his mind. What was the matter, he knew… just knew… that Frederic would deal with it.

Deep within neural space, in the darkness that linked his mind to Claudia’s, Frederic looked at the stunned look on the Destroyer’s face. “Claudia, level one, state one. Retaliate.”

The form that Claudia superimposed over sensory vision dipped her head, letting the motion carry through into a full bow. “As My Lord commands, so mote it be,” she stated regally, turning to the being that had dared to blemish her surface area. HER surface area! How dare he!

A scowl appeared on the composed face that was the Claudia System’s physical form, and her fists balled at her side.

“PHS. Hunt and Destroy,” she stated darkly, her regal voice dark and menacing in its composure.

Frederic felt the power increase in the veins that were Claudia’s power circuits. His own heart and lungs sped up to match the increase and he resisted the small tug on his consciousness to increase his physical power output to match. It wouldn’t do… he didn’t know how much damage he had done to the chair in his current form already.

And he didn’t want to disconnect to check. This was one time that he didn’t need his physical body, didn’t want it, he just had to get rid of that Destroyer, and he had Claudia to do it.

Out in the Solar System, hanging silent next to the moon, the Destroyer stared at the healing surface of the planet. “That… that’s not possible!” the being stuttered, actually speaking out loud. “No planet can…” It let out a grunt. “No matter, I shall obliterate it!” Raising one hand, the Destroyer powered a heavier blast, one that could, and would, take care of major stars. He had no intention of giving this freak planet a third chance to recuperate.

Something flashed through his awareness, and the Destroyer flashed around to watch. A spaceship appeared out of thin space, not there one moment and there the next. A beam of force lashed out, and the Destroyer had no time to react. No time at all. The purple-colored beam struck him dead on the chest, catapulting his back, toward the injured planet, before he crashed into some sort of force shield.

The Destroyer grunted.

The Phalanxial Holographic Ship ‘Holographix’ has entered combat, My Lord.

Frederic dipped his head at the life-form’s report, his awareness going over the statistics overlaid upon his Sight of her and his senses and sensors. The Destroyer flashed away, and the Holographix vanished, Claudia’s holographic system disengaging and engaging upon the Destroyer’s new location within the Sol System.

Again, the purple beam flashed in no-time at the Destroyer, striking him dead-on, followed by a second and a third blast before he managed to vanish once more.

“Claudia, begin level one, stage two. Use the MOFI, with standard security clauses. And begin powering level two.”

“As His Lordship commands,” Claudia answered coolly, shifting her awareness to him for just a fraction of a second, confirming his identity before accepting his orders.

The Destroyer flung a beam of power at the strange vessel, only to see it pass through it without incurring any damage whatsoever. His eyes widened as the ship turned into attack position, shimmered as it did so, reconfiguring into a new configuration. He flashed away.

“What in hell is that thing?” the Destroyer asked, hanging in a standard orbit around a star a couple hundred light-years away. He rubbed his chest, feeling the sting of the beams with which it had hit him, feeling the drain on his powers, even at level two, where he had been forced to use them to keep his body together. Whatever it was, it was no ordinary technology. Nothing technological could do that to a level-two Destroyer. It was impossible. The Divine Laws forbade it. Even the most potent civilizations of mortal fools were not allowed weaponry of that class.

And yet, that unknown vessel had done it. How?

That was the question. The Destroyer drew an angry breath, even though he was in the vacuum of space and his body didn’t require breath. It was an instinctive reaction brought on by being in corporeal form, as always needed to interact with the mortal world.

He balled his fists in yet another instinctive reaction, and vanished back toward sol. He would finish the entire damn solar system, no doubt about it. Blast everything out of the universe; get rid of the star, its planets and everything in it once and for all. Not even that freak planet would survive something of that magnitude. As the Destroyer started gathering Divine Energies around him, he could start to feel the drain on the Power Grid, the same Grid all his brethren were drawing from in their relentless battle against the forces of Light.

It was not much longer now before the First Day would be announced Over, and all Destroyers would be called to shift back to Level One to allow the Grid to recuperate.

All except for those fighting the Divine Palace… the Gods of the Universe had to be slain!

Eldritch energy twirled around him on the Higher Planes, visible on the mortal level only by a slight tremor that distorted his image.

Frederic growled low in his throat again; unaware that his body was doing it as well as his mind. “Claudia, GET HIM!”

Claudia flowed into a bow once more. “My Lord,” she stated calmly. “Claudia System, level two, powering,” she said, spreading her arms.

The Destroyer leveled his arms, preparing to strike out with the ghastly amount of energy he had drawn in from the Divine Grid. At the precise moment he was about to strike… the strange warship reappeared, directly in his face, throwing a burst of no-time energy at him.

He prepared to strike it aside and finish the mission he had created for himself. The beam struck him dead-on with a force he could not have foreseen. It was as if every cell of this body was being super-charged, fusing to those next to it, the chain reaction continuing faster and faster at tremendous speed. He growled, then screamed, finally howling in sheer pain as the energies he had collected were used to keep himself together rather than wiping out solar systems. As if the unknown weapon had known this, it took him tremendous effort to overcome its effects.

He did so, finally, and swiped at the warship once again. His blast went through, striking one of Jupiter’s moons into gravel.

Claudia’s voice was clear and free as she reported to Frederic. “The Magneto-Optical Fusion Inducer you and your children developed has worked admirably, Your Lordship.”

Frederic grinned savagely. “A holographic ship has its advantages, Claudia. Designed at breakfast, and already in combat-use. Even better than nanoprobes.”

Claudia dipped her head. “Energy level is at 65%, My Lord. We must discontinue and recharge in one hour.”

Frederic glanced at he overlay of the lifeform’s physical presence. “How far are we on stage two? Not even MOFI will keep him down for long.”

“Charging, My Lord.”

The Destroyer growled, charging a new bolt of energy and throwing it at the Holographix. The ship dematerialized, only to reappear at his side and blast him, point-blank, with a no-time MOFI blast. The Destroyer howled in pain as his body’s cellular fusion fought with the Destroyer’s level-two energies.

Claudia drew a metaphysical breath as her systems connected to the Higher Energies her Jokilar Gerius cells allowed to her. On Mars, the crater of Olympos Mons started glowing bright amber.

Around Jupiter there was a large moon called Europa, covered in Eternal Ice. Underneath that tremendously thick ice, an ocean was present, and underneath said ocean was a tiny surface area. It was glowing amber, heating the water. For the first time since its creation, Europa’s ice-sheet was melting. Fast.

Around Saturn, a moon called Titan, covered in thick orange clouds, its surface glowing a fierce amber, boiling its oceans of methane off its surface, transforming the atmosphere.

Mars was glowing now, too, its orbit speeding up in response to the Claudia System’s orders.

Claudia’s influence was not limited to just the planet Earth. It went to the furthest reaches of the solar system, and it was those resources she was calling into play now. Claudia’s arms spread. She felt her power reserves dropping as the systems connected one by one.

The destroyer was panting, his body restored, for now. Holographix blasted him again, but he had thrown a permanent shield around his body. The beam spread around it, vanishing without doing its intended purpose.

Frederic cursed. “He blocked it!”

Claudia growled as well. “Stage two at 75%. PHS Holographix will run interference.” She turned to Frederic. “I shall get him, My Lord!”

The Supreme Gerius nodded. “I know, Claudia. I have confidence in your abilities.”

Drawing strength from that statement, the lifeform spread her arms, palms turned upward. “Connecting to the Higher Planes! Successful!” she screamed, making Frederic jump with its intensity. He had never in her short existence heard her voice sound like that.

The Destroyer kept his eyes on the Holographix; blasting it every now and then, sometimes hitting a couple of moons that lay beyond it.

The Rings of Saturn were glowing. He never noticed.

The orbits of the planets shifted. He never noticed that, either. Claudia’s systems reached out; finding the connections built into the other planets, drawing them to maximum output as the orbits and trajectories shifted, bringing the pattern together.

“Now,” Claudia whispered in deadly intensity, making the Holographix vanish, reappearing it in Earth Orbit. The Destroyer’s abilities tracked it, and he took the bait. Thinking it the most important, he never noticed he was running into a trap as he appeared next to it, taking a blast at it.

“Lockdown!” Claudia screamed, smashing her hands together in the neural space she shared with Frederic.

The Destroyer screamed as the planets of the Solar System formed a perfect pentagram around Earth, each one glowing a powerful, ferocious amber that reflected perfectly the sentiments displayed by the Claudia System in neural space. Beams of no-time energy lashed out and trapped him in place, constricting painfully upon his space to move.

Claudia’s hand lashed out, slapping the image of the Destroyer displayed within her connection to Frederic. Out there, the real destroyer screamed as a beam of energy lashed out from the sun. He retained cohesion… for the time being. He felt himself cut off from Level Two within this Energy Barrier, and he felt something else within it. Something he hadn’t been expecting. Power like a Gerius… but only like it, not REAL Gerius power. What in the name of the Hells is going on here!?

Claudia was still screaming, her fists pummeling the Destroyer’s image, beams of force lashing out from the Sun at the trapped being. Frederic watched with interest. The gentle, defensive, protecting Claudia seemed to have a ferocious rage when angered. A smile crept up on his face as he noticed the power levels of the Destroyer diminish.

It was rapidly being cut off from Level Two as the cage grew tighter, and Claudia’s bursts were weakening it continuously.

Then; it was all over. One moment, Claudia had been lashing out at it, the next, the being howled in pain and rage, before simply collapsing in on itself, disappearing from all senses and sensors.

“Victory, Claudia,” he whispered as Claudia stared in mute anger at the spot where the Destroyer had vanished. She drew an insubstantial breath, and released her anger.

“Yes, My Lord. We defeated the Destroyer.”

“Not we, Claudia. You. I merely advised,” Frederic stated with a small smile, disconnecting from the neural connections.

 

David screamed and his eyes shot fire as his sword cut through a Destroyer, effectively halving the bulky male-like being. Behind him, he heard Jessie’s boot connect to a second Destroyer’s cheek, right before he heard her own Bane connect to the creature’s flesh. Breathing deeply, the young man turned and looked at

“Lord Ukqili,” he stated to the supreme deity of the Zulu pantheon of gods. “We must be going now.”

The being nodded, and allowed himself to be transported along with David and Jessie to the great gathering of gods and goddesses. As did all deities, Ukqili knew that Ragnarok had come, the End of Days was near, and his help was needed. He threw a last look at the battlefield where his fellow gods and goddesses had fallen before vanishing in the Gerius Shift – that special teleportation technique only the Jokilar Gerius could achieve.

They reappeared in a large area right next to where a large gathering of gods were preparing for battle, sharpening swords, powering balls of fire, lightning, or just plain pure energy.

Ami looked up from the planning table, and her gaze grew sad. “I’m sorry to see that we were too late to rescue the others, Lord Ukqili,” she stated.

The ‘Wise One’ of the Zulus shook his head sadly. “It is a sad day, yet I am honored to be able to have revenge for my fallen comrades,” he stated coldly. “Where am I most needed, Lady of the Gerius?”

“We could use another elemental caster on the back front,” Ami replied as she threw a look on her map. “Thor is about dry, he needs someone to take his place while he recharges.”

Ukqili nodded, and vanished. David and Jessie sighed, and joined Ami and Daphnix around the planning table. “How is it going? Really?” Jessie asked.

“Not good,” Ami replied, pointing. “We’re losing strength and energy rapidly. And most of the Gerius are still on search and rescue… We could use Frederic-sama.”

“I know,” David grunted angrily. “Where is Dad, anyway?”

“And Mom, for that matter?” Jessie added.

“Back on SpaCECoB,” Daphnix replied levelly. “Trying to defend homebase.”

“We’ve got Claudia for that!” David exploded. “Damnit, what’s going on with him!?”

Ami glanced up as a harried-looking angel burst in, and burst out a report before vanishing. “Can you manage another one?” Ami asked David and Jessie. “Ukqili was the twentieth sortie you’ve had… me and D could take this one if you want.”

The Twins didn’t even bother to look at each other as David answered, “We can handle it.”

Ami nodded. “We’ll continue command.”

David and Jessie nodded, and vanished. They were back twenty minutes later, accompanied by most of the Egyptian pantheon of gods, just about 150 of them. Ami’s eyes literally lit up as she sent sun gods and thunder gods to their places, and she asked a couple of gods of life and growth to help with the healing and rejuvenation of fallen or exhausted warriors. It was a major boost to the morale of the defenders to have over 150 extra fighters join in at a single time.

Suddenly, Ami and Daphnix locked eyes with David and Jessie, a frown on confusion on their faces. Not five seconds later, that same angel rushed in, excited beyond belief.

“The Destroyers have cut back to level one! Those around here are staying on level two, but they’re pulling back to an enclosing circle!”

“They’re finally noticing the Divine Grid can’t handle the strain,” Daphnix whispered. “They’re giving it a chance to recharge.” He looked at his three companions. “We should do the same.” He closed his eyes, and contacted the other Gerius. “There… everybody else is either giving the good news to the defenders of the Divine Palace, or they’re cutting back for some rest.” He looked at David and Jessie. “You should get some rest too. You’re exhausted.”

“So are you,” David replied snippily. “You’ve been going as long as we have.”

“Yes, but we’re planning and executing this war. You and Jess are doing sorties, too,” Daphnix interjected, and held up a hand. “Go to the rest area, and at least meditate for three hours. That’s an order.”

David and Jessie sighed, and vanished.

 

Frederic fell behind his desk, pulling up a dozen different connections to Claudia, fragmenting his mind to do a dozen things at once. Ten streams of thought were dedicated to mop-up battles being fought all over the omniverse. Now that the Destroyers had cut back, and left their forces of darkness to fend for themselves, the ESMF was doing a swell job fighting them back. Projections showed that the last of the battles would be over within the next 48 hours.

There wasn’t a stray thought in any of his minds that the Destroyers would wait another 48 hours before re-launching their offensive.

Frederic sighed in six of his streams as the appalling casualty rates came in. A second later, he sighed in four more streams as the total extent of the damage was made clear. He would need a lot of new F² chapters in many more worlds once this was over. He needed to help with the rebuild… this was a catastrophe, he needed to help anyway he could.

He sent four-dozen emails to Barbara with new orders for planning schedules for production and expansion of the F² facilities.

The two remaining streams of thought were directed to events he had missed while the battle was raging in full intensity. For a few moments, he froze totally when the report came in of the large ’04-’05 seaquake in the Indian ocean, and the subsequent tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia. He cursed himself for not being able to prevent it as he usually would have done, and sent another email to Barbara to help with the rebuild of that planet.

The battle had screwed everything over… there should have been a Gerius there to bleed the excess tectonic energy harmlessly away. It shouldn’t have occurred.

Frederic’s frown intensified as he moved on to other matters. But somehow, a single tendril of thought would always slip back to that seaquake/tsunami. In his mind, it became the embodiment of everything that had been happening over the last… 96 hours? So long already?

Frederic closed his eyes, slipping deeper into the mnemonic trance that allowed his mind to go flat-out, dealing and sorting with business at astonishing rates, twelve things at once. He startled when Claudia notified him that someone was in his office. Opening his eyes, and disconnecting half of his tendrils, he looked at David.

“Good to see you’re alright,” Frederic told his son with a weak smile, about as much as he could muster at the moment. “How are you and Jessie doing? How’s the rest? And… how bad is it at the Divine Palace?”

David fell into the chair facing Frederic’s crescent-moon desk without being invited to, and stared at his father. “I’m fine. Jess’s fine. The others are fine. And we’re running out of breath at the Palace, but we’ve got some respite now.”

Frederic disconnected another tendril, and sat up straight in his chair. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

David drew a deep breath. An angry breath. “Where are you, Dad!?” he screamed, jumping out of his chair, smashing his hands down on the flat surface of Frederic’s desk, making indentations into the super-strong material.

“I’m here, son,” the Phalanx answered, motioning to his office. “Or, rather, out there, guiding the ESMF’s war efforts against the forces of darkness, and trying to protect our home against the Destroyers.”

David fumed. “We’ve got Claudia for that!” he motioned to the ceiling. “We’re out there, we’re fighting for our lives, and you’re sitting here, in your cozy office, guiding the war… the mortal-level war… from afar!”

Frederic sighed. “It needs to be done…”

“You’ve got the best of the best here, Dad!” David went on. “We need you and Mom out there, so where are you!?”

“Trying to make sure that the omniverse doesn’t fall apart while you’re fighting for its survival,” Frederic replied, standing up himself. “We need to protect the mortal people as much as we need to take care of the Destroyer’s attacks!”

David drew red. “So, instead of being out there, guiding the war effort like Auntie Ami and Uncle D, from next to the battlefield, you’re hiding behind the 700-kilometer thick walls of Claudia, doing nothing but tell other people what to do!?” He bent over. “You haven’t left SpaCECoB in twenty years, and neither has mom! You’ve been telling Uncle D, Auntie Ami, me, Jess, the ESMF… you’ve been telling us all what to do in that time, but you haven’t done a single thing yourself! You COWARD!”

Frederic’s mouth sagged open. David drew himself away from the desk, right himself, snapped his ankles together so hard it made his combat boots crack, and growled as he turned on his heel and vanished out of the office.

“How… dare… you,” Frederic growled low in his throat, taking a step back from his desk and turning angrily to the transparent wall that looked out over space. His fists were closed at his side, pumping with the anger of his heartbeat. He drew a deep breath through bared teeth. “You miserable, ungrateful…” He drew another breath. “No. I’m not even going to dignify you with an answer. Believe what you want to believe. I have done too much, sacrificed too much, witnessed too much death to be held accountable to you. I owe you no explanation.”

He vanished in the Gerius Shift.

 

Jennifer was busy with the planning of the mop-up in universe 254, scheduling a transport to take the Cats back to SpaCECoB for a well-earned rest when she felt the storm explode through her link with Frederic. In mid-sentence, she grimaced, closed her eyes, and pressed one hand to her forehead. She hadn’t felt a storm such as this one in a long time.

No since he learned to master his emotions…

“Ma’am? You okay?” the admiral at her side asked.

She nodded tersely; waving with her free hand. “I’m fine.” She blinked a couple of times, and stared at the map. For a brief flash, she debated standing up and going after her husband. But then… this was war. What was she to do? Screw things… “You finish this, there’s something I need to do,” she told the admiral, vanishing halfway through her sentence, her disembodied voice finishing the statement. The admiral frowned in worry, then turned to the plans, and continued the planning.

Jennifer appeared in the quarters she shared with Frederic, where she saw him standing in front of the wall where his twin Swords were suspended on the wall, the Oech-anya Necklace below them. They were pulsing a bright red.

“He doesn’t know,” Jennifer whispered as she slipped in directly behind him, her arms encircling his waist. He leaned back against her, still looking at the three most powerful items in the omniverse. The items that had brought him where he was today… the items that had nearly drove him insane, claimed his death on multiple occasions… the items that had brought the death of Jennifer.

His anger exploded, and for a brief moment, he wanted to rip them off the wall and throw them into the nearest hypernova he could lay his hands on. Immediately, his Gerius powers came up with a suitable star he could trigger into a nova. Immediately, his anger calmed down as Jennifer’s mind lay a gentle touch upon his.

“He doesn’t know, My Love. He wasn’t there… he wasn’t you, and he wasn’t me. He can’t know.”

Frederic sighed. “That doesn’t give him the right to…”

“I know, My Love,” she said. “I know, and you know, the sacrifices made. I know the pain you feel every time everybody goes out, and you stay behind. I know the pain when one of them gets hurt, and you weren’t there… the guilt, the doubts…”

Frederic’s fist balled. It slammed through the reinforced living-metal wall directly in front of him. “Is it worth it?” he asked darkly. “Is this worth it?”

“We can’t run the risk, Love,” Jennifer whispered, putting her head against his back. “We both know what lies beyond what happened twenty years ago. We know…”

“Yes. We know,” Frederic grunted, withdrawing his fist so the all could heal. “And every time I go out there, I run the risk of triggering something like it. That first time…”

“Was the hardest one,” Jennifer finished. “Your body is perfect now. Like mine.” She looked up from his back, and glanced over his shoulder at the weapons on the wall. “But all is not yet lost. We must let this continue… the Gods of the Universe have not yet made their appearance. We must believe in them to solve this.”

Frederic sighed. “Even if it means the death of our friends? Our family? Our allies?”

“Even then,” Jennifer whispered sadly, voice shaking slightly. “What you… what we… went through 20 years ago… we can not do again.”

Frederic bent his head, thumping it hard against the wall. “Even the Gerius senses told us it was impossible. A single nanosecond was all there was… a single nanosecond between life and death. The odds… the odds were omniversial. Nobody could make it.”

“Yet you did,” Jennifer told him, turning him around to look into his eyes. “You did it, Love. Did it, and brought me back.”

“But what I saw…”

“I know,” Jennifer said, not letting him finish. “It is fearsome.”

“It is,” Frederic whispered. “That, it surely is.”

 

The First glanced at Second. “The First Day has been over for four of their hours now… I can feel them starting to drop their guard. Let’s force them back into action.”

Second grinned, and nodded. He connected to the large force of Destroyers waiting not far away. “Do it.”

The Assassin leading the force slammed his hands together, and at the same time he and his 1,500-unit strong invasion force went level two, before vanishing.

They reappeared in a town square of sorts, many roads intersecting the large round square, many different styles of buildings erected along those roads trailing off into the distance. Save for one road; that one was empty.

“Good,” the Assassin growled, leveling one hand, and leveling a nearby building. Immediately, a regal woman dressed in a flowing white gown appeared before him.

“Begone from this realm!” the being commanded on an imperial tone, her eyes filled with lightning, her hands glowing with otherworldly energy. “Begone, or be destroyed!”

Assassin grinned, and charged her. His force followed suit.

Guardian flung a bolt of energy at the Assassin before vanishing; reappearing nearby and blasting a second Destroyer. It growled in pain as it managed to dodge the full brunt of her blast, only losing an arm in the process. The arm grew back practically instantaneously. Assassin had suffered little ill effects of the Guardian’s blast, and charged her anew. She managed to vanish just before he reached her, and struck a Destroyer in the chest at point-blank range. It screamed and vanished.

A second woman, almost the twin of the first, appeared next to the Guardian of the Crossroads. She dipped her head at her sister, and started shooting. A third woman, this one with green hair and dressed in a sailor fuku, appeared moments later. Together, the Guardians of the Ghost Roads, the Crossroads, and Time tried to hold back the force of Destroyer going against the Afterlife.

In another place, Ami, Daphnix and the Twins looked up from their planning when they saw a couple of Gods of the Underworld exchange glances, dip their heads in the direction of the Gerius, and vanish.

“What is that about?” Ami wondered. Half a second later, the angelic messenger rushed in, out of breath.

“The Afterlife is being attacked!”

“What!?” the four Gerius screamed at the same time. “Gerius, front and center! Get over there and help the defenders of the Afterlife! Without it…”

“The souls are lost to the Great Void,” Usagi almost-growled as she appeared along with all the other Gerius in front of the four leaders. “We’re going!” The Gerius vanished as fast as they had appeared.

“We’re going too…” David grunted, preparing to Shift away. Daphnix shook his head.

“We need you here, now… these plans need finalizing. The Destroyers are obviously not going to sit around and let us recuperate. They’re already stepping up again, and four hours is enough time to put some charge back into the Divine Grid.”

“If they succeed, there won’t be an Afterlife to go to!” Jessie shouted. “We’ll all disappear! Vanish! No reincarnation, no Crossroads, no nothing!”

David nodded angrily. “And if I know them, Sailor Pluto’s there too. She would never let her sisters fight alone.”

Daphnix’ hands clenched. “You’re needed here.”

David sighed angrily. “If this is how Dad feels, I’m sorry I snapped at him like that.”

“He feels worse,” Ami said as if it was an omniversal truth, and he was stupid for not knowing it beforehand. “He’s Frederic-sama.”

“And he wants nothing else but to be here and lead us into battle. But he knows that he’s needed to command the conventional ESMF troops, defend the mortal realms so that we have something to go back to when this mess is over,” Daphnix finished, bending over the four-dimensional map once more.

David growled something low in his throat, and Jessie put a hand on his shoulder. “We don’t always know that our way isn’t best way,” she told her brother. “We’re usually right, but sometimes, we’re so off we can’t even see it.”

His hand clenched into a fist, and struck the table. It disintegrated, only to reconstitute a second later. “Fine. Let’s do this. And plan me some Destroyer-ass-kicking. I’m stressed.”

Daphnix gave a wry grin, the best he could muster under the trying circumstances. “We all are. And we’ll all have our chance to kick some Destroyer butt.”

As Usagi and the other Gerius appeared in the Afterlife, they didn’t recognize it. They had traveled here on multiple occasions, literally to ask their ancestors for advice in some cases, and what they had seen then couldn’t be further away from what they saw now.

The town square had vanished into a deep, smoking crater, its edges still glowing dull red from the energy dispensed over it. The buildings were burning in some cases, or had simply disintegrated in most cases. It was Buffy who first got herself in check. “Come on,” she ordered. “We need to get to the others, link up, and fight back. Maybe we can repair this…”

“Right,” the Gerius Rangers grunted as one, Buffy’s own team merely nodding in agreement, while the Gerius Sailors balled their fists and got ready for war. Jonny Quest and his two friends just cracked their knuckles in agreement, even the usually Zen Hadji displaying some unusual anger. As one, the Gerius flashed to the smoking crater that used to be the multi-level square, and vanished down the hole.

Somewhere at the bottom, they hit the main combat area.

 

It had been ten minutes since the Gerius had left, and the command quarter were busy laying out defensive strategies to keep the Destroyers at bay, when a large wormhole suddenly opened up, depositing a multitude of figures, most of them badly hurt.

“NO!!!” Buffy screamed, limping upright from where she had fallen, right before the wormhole closed up. As it closed, she fell back to her knees, and screamed.

Not even bothering to exchange glances, the four Gerius set out as one. Ami cradled an unconscious Usagi’s head in her lap, transferring some of her own low reserves to help kickstart the blonde’s healing.

“What happened?” she asked Xander, who was cradling a mangled leg while simultaneously keeping Cordelia upright, so that she wouldn’t flop to the ground like the paraplegic she now was, thanks to a totally ripped-out spine.

“We lost,” he whispered in a broken voice. “We fought like lions… worse… but… we lost.”

“It’s gone,” Cordelia whispered from her position on Xander’s good shoulder. “It’s all gone… all the souls… the reincarnation… all of it.”

“We managed to save her,” Jonny said, voice beating down and sounding as broken as any of the others’. He motioned to an unconscious figure on the floor. Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Time. “We managed to grab her before the Afterlife imploded.”

Ami swallowed, a tear strolling down her cheek. So much death… destruction… senseless slaughter. She felt herself choke up. All those souls in the Afterlife. Trillions of them… all gone. All of them. Sorcerer, and his Jenny, too. They didn’t hold the same power in the Afterlife… Sorcerer held his power of the Phalanx, literally insignificant against such a force of Destroyers.

All gone.

All of them.

Ami looked at the skies, and screamed.

A shudder went through the grounds surrounding the Divine Palace. The Palace itself started glowing brighter and brighter before disintegrating, revealing six Gods of the Universe amidst their defenders.

The Gerius and the Defenders glared at the six deities. The Wise One sighed deeply. “It was with great pain that we were unable to join before now, but the charge of the Destroyers on the Divine Grid had exhausted us, the Gods of the Universe, who are so intimately linked to it that it was as if the Destroyers had drained their energy directly from our bodies.”

Daphnix shuddered. “And it took the end of the Afterlife to bring enough charge back to the Grid to allow you to reawaken!?” he started to ask, but it developed into a growled statement instead.

“It is… horrible,” the Wise One replied. “A horrible, unforgivable act. Not since the Elder days did Gods and Destroyers fight on such a scale.” He glanced at the five other Gods and Goddesses. They all nodded, eyes burning with fury. “Once again, the Gods are going to war.”

 

Sarah scowled as her hand’s grip tightened on her plasma rifle. Mop-up had been going good so far… so why did this world have to be different? The blonde looked to her side, where the raven-haired woman that was her commander was scouting over a wall.

“Captain?” she asked, subconsciously slipping back into terminology that had been imprinted upon her genetically-engineered mind over twenty years ago.

“More of them, Lieutenant,” Vicky replied with the same absent-minded reversal. The black-haired woman’s grip tightened. “Here they come.”

The building the ten-person Black Cat squad was hiding in started to thunder on its foundations, and most of the people present started powering blasts of magic. Vicky and Sarah fell back from the wall, covering the other people of the team, their minds going over scenarios. They needed to get out of here… away from this world… this one was lost. The Destroyers may have abandoned the demons, but that doesn’t mean that some demons were actually capable of going at it on their own.

Like these demons were.

The roof vanished, and a truly devastating amount of magical might was flung at the half-dozen first-circle demons that dared to look in. Immediately after the demons screamed and fell; the walls vanished and she strode in.

The Hell Goddess.

Glorificus.

Somehow, this one wasn’t as stupid or as incompetent as her dimensional twins were, and she had actually managed to unite the demons into a vast army. Undisciplined, yes, but still a loosely coherent army, obeying her centralized command. And it made them nearly a hundred times more dangerous than they could ever have been separately.

Vicky barked out her orders of retreat while laying it hard upon the Hell Goddess with her plasma-pulse rifle, feeling Sarah fall in next to her. Magical bolts lashed out at the demons surrounding Glorificus, killing and wounding many, as the valiant force attempted to fall backward.

“Claudia,” Vicky growled into her communicator. “Cover us!”

Two weapons platforms appeared, but they were taken down as fast as they had appeared. Vicky cursed as she flipped around and shot a second-circle demon dead before he could eat one of her team. They were surrounded, low on stamina and energy, and almost down to mere mortal weapons.

Glorificus was laughing continuously; the plasma-based weapons doing little more than scorch her clothing. But, at the same time, the Hell Goddess didn’t actually do anything herself for the moment, choosing instead to let her demonic forces handle these bugs.

Vicky, Sarah and their forces fell back against each other, forming a circle with their backs to each other, firing whatever they could at the outnumbering demons.

“Teleport?” Sarah asked.

Vicky shook her head. “We’re overrun… nowhere to teleport to.” She sighed, took off the head of a large and nasty-looking demon with her telekinetic powers, while simultaneously aiming her plasma-pulse rifle at a second demon. She scowled. “Take as many of them with you as you can!”

The forces growled in reply, starting lying into the demons with all the hope and desperation as men fighting for the very survival of their very souls. Demons fell, kept falling, but they also advanced closer and closer, demons using the bodies of their dead comrades as shields to provide cover against the continuous magical and mundane energy flying through the air.

Vicky screamed, and blasted a demon as she flipped around to kill the ugly SOB that had just killed one of her men. The line was breaking… her team fought like lions. Big, strong, ugly, fearsome tigers. But it was no use against the limitless supply of demons that had come out of the hell of this dimension, rallied under the flag of Glorificus.

Three more weapons platforms appeared, and they actually managed to kill a couple demons before being taken out. The futile signal told Vicky that she would die here today… but she would die with the knowledge that she was not, and would not be, forgotten. Claudia was sending her whatever could be given, knowing it was futile but trying anyway.

Just as the battle was now… More people had died, ripped, slashed, or bitten to death, but Vicky’s mind didn’t allow herself to think about surrender. Never alive, you bastards. You won’t get any of us ever alive. She was shooting to cover one of the men, never noticing the talon that was to penetrate her back and come out of her chest until it was too late.

Sarah felt her blood chill when a scream came from her side, a scream she had never heard from Vicky before. The blonde swished around, ripped the demon to tiny ribbons, and catching Vicky’s body before it hit the ground. “Captain…”

Vicky’s hand trembled as it came up to touch Sarah’s cheek, even as her mouth sagged upon and her eyes glazed over. The choking breath halted, and the hand fell away.

The demon jumped, intent on ripping the blonde a couple new ventilation holes after what she did to its friends.

Sarah didn’t notice the demon in the air as her mind short-circuited, and a howl of grief and rage escaped her lips. Sarah saw red. The red of blood. Something snapped deep within her genetically engineered body.

Glorificus’ eyebrows lifted practically off her forehead as bright golden energy surrounded the girl, lifting her blonde hair into an iridescent wind on top of her head. Whatever it was… it was unstable, and Glorificus knew it. Right before the golden sphere surrounding the almost-Super girl imploded, the Hell Goddess had raised more power into her shields. The golden energy exploded out of the imploding girl, taking out every demon, every building, every shrub and tree and animal within a ten-kilometer radius.

When it settled… a smoking crater, and in it, Glorificus. “Impressive. She almost held it stable.” The Hell Goddess grinned. “Nobody ever does keep Super stable.”

 

“Gods-damnit!” Frederic screamed the moment he was notified of what happened, his fist smashing through the heavily reinforced table as he shouted. “Claudia! Why didn’t you get them out of there!?”

Claudia’s metaphysical form appeared next to him as his desk healed. “The Hell Goddess was interfering with their life-signs… it was impossible to get an interdimensional lock, My Lord. I was able to port some combat platforms to their approximate vicinity, but that was the extent of my abilities.”

A low growl escaped his lips, even as his mind pulled tremendous amounts of data into itself. The planet was overrun… this was no longer a clean in-and-out, this would be a war. He stood up from the chair behind the half-healed desk, and stalked out of his office. As he left, his eyes connected with Jennifer’s, next to half a dozen admirals, planning some operation in some universe or other.

Instead of retaking his usual position in the middle of the room, he strode to the front, linking his arms behind his back as he stared out over the stars. “I want an orbital invasion force,” he finally said, slowly turning around. The room’s busy chatter died down instantly. “A planet has been overrun. The hellgates have opened, and failed to close in time. A Hell Goddess by the name of Glorificus survived the sealing attempts, and she has united the demons under her command. And to make matters worse, this Glory actually has a brain.”

Claudia appeared next to him. “My Lord, what size invasion force?”

Frederic turned his head to her. “Ten million forces, dropped from orbit by the fleet, supported by fighters and as many combat platforms you can get together in one hour.”

The admirals started reaching for their communicators, only to find them not working. “I can not authorize that order, My Lord. Primary objective is the survival of the ESMF, and expending 20% of our forces in an attempt to save a lost planet…”

Frederic slowly… very slowly… turned to face her. “Claudia… the reason you’re still alive right now… is because I know your programming, and I know you’re adhering to it.” His fists balled. “But you have no understanding of what you’re protecting. The ESMF’s goal is the protection of humanity, and as long as there is even a single human alive on that planet, there isn’t a single man or woman in the ESMF who will sit idly by when they’re in a position to help!”

Claudia actually took a step back. Frederic’s anger was impressive, even to her. “My goal is the protection of the ESMF forces…” she started again. Frederic cut her off with a single jerk of his hand.

“Here, I’ll show you!” he snarled, slamming his communicator, not caring whether it worked or not, his Gerius powers providing his voice with the power to sound to every man and woman in the ESMF. “This is Phalanx Frederic Fromthefield to the forces of the ESMF. A planet Earth is in need of help. The hellgates have failed to seal, and the demons have rallied into an army. Humanity is overrun; the planet has fallen to their superior strength. I am asking for volunteers of the ESMF ground-forces to help free this planet, I am asking for volunteers to fly them in, and I am asking for volunteers among the fighter pilots to provide our boys with heavy cover!”

Claudia’s face registered shock as, literally within seconds, her communications grid exploded into action as individuals, small groups, and even entire battalions started calling in at once. “My Lord…” she whispered. “I will provide the cover to the best of my abilities. I apologize.”

Frederic dipped his head, and turned back to the people who were still staring at the exchange in shock. Claudia actually held the authority to countermand Frederic’s orders!? “This isn’t war, people,” Frederic whispered in a deathly-quiet voice. “This is genocide. Eradicate every vampire, demon, mage or wizard not on our side.”

Slowly, the admirals started work again, Jennifer cutting in immediately. As he turned to leave, Frederic halted. “Claudia.”

“Your Lordship?” the virtual redhead asked with a slightly timid voice.

“The next time you countermand my orders, I will reprogram your crystals,” he stated calmly, holding up a hand with a black-glowing sphere of energy. “Personally.”

Claudia’s virtual self swallowed deeply, and whispered, “Yes, My Lord,” she answered. But deep down, both knew that ‘next time’ could be within an hour, and she would not hesitate one moment to safeguard the lives of the ESMF personnel when it came to it. Just as she knew that he’d once again show her wrong. But there was no doubt in either of their minds that they’d never actually come to physical blows, too. Both had a job to do, and they had too much respect for each other to let their respective duties drive them to actual violence.

For, once they started fighting among themselves, the Destroyers had already won.

 

Voldemort looked on with glistening eyes as his forces ripped through Hogwart’s meager defenses, and soon he was standing inside the Great Hall, the entire student body and all the teachers gathered by his small army of Death Eaters. Nothing more than mere mortal wizards, empowered slightly by Voldemort himself, the Death Eaters got their fearsome impressions merely by the metal masks they were to hide their identities.

“See!?” a blonde boy of about 15 screamed at a brunet with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. “I told you, Potter! You should have listened to me! But no… you had to hang out with those losers! I bet you wish you’d taken me up on my offer now, huh, Potter!?”

The brunet hiked up his glasses. “Shut up, Malfoy.”

The blonde boy, Malfoy, sneered in the other boy’s face. “Oh, the Dark Lord is going to shut you up real soon, Harry Potter!” He turned to Voldemort. “Go, Lord! Kill him! Show him your power!”

Voldemort grinned, lifting his wand. Not that he needed it, of course, but it was fun to have around. And it would impress some gullible opponent when he was ‘disarmed’, yet still able to cast magic. He pointed it at the duo.

Malfoy was incinerated. “You’re not going to give me orders, brat,” the Dark Wizard growled darkly, before turning to Harry Potter. “Well, well, well… Harry Potter. How the tables have turned!”

Harry lifted his wand, threw a hex at the dark Wizard, who simply laughed as his personal shields lit up like fireworks around him. They’d stop any magical attack. Nothing this mere child could throat at him could harm him! “Well that was impressive,” the Dark Wizard sneered darkly. “Let me show you how it really works!” He lifted his wand, cast a spell.

Half the Great Hall vanished as a meteorite struck the compound, throwing Harry against the far wall. Voldemort had cast it so that Harry wouldn’t be hurt much. He wanted to see the fear in his enemy’s eyes. It was always so much better if they feared him right before their deaths.

Harry swallowed deeply, deeply afraid now. He held on to his wand with both hands, trying to throw one more spell in his nemesis’ direction. Instead of hurting him, the spell clattered harmlessly against the magical shields Voldemort had put up around himself. The Dark Wizard strode over to his quarry, unhindered by either students or teachers. “Yes… fear me!” his sneered at the frightened boy at his feet.

Harry tried one last time. He tried… and died.

Voldemort looked at the smoking husk that had once been his arch-nemesis. How high he had climbed, thanks to the Destroyer’s might! He turned on his heel, making his robe flap around him. As he strode out the room, he threw behind him, at the Death Eaters that had survived his Meteor Strike, “kill them all! There’s one more thing I must do before taking over this pathetic world!”

Five minutes later, Voldemort was looking at the inconspicuous home in an inconspicuous street, somewhere in an inconspicuous suburb of London. “So this is where Harry had been hiding all these years,” he whispered to himself.

“My Lord, these Muggles are beneath you!” the sole Death Eater at his side groveled. “Let me kill them! It would be my honor to kill these filthy Muggles for you!”

Voldemort shook his head, and strode to the front door. “These Muggles are nothing. But, they have been hiding Harry for years. For that, they must die!” The door exploded inward, and the dark Wizard strode inside. It was not long before he encountered his first target, a screaming woman, hiding in the kitchen. He incinerated her.

A fat kid hiding in the living room was second. Scared to death, obviously, the kid extended a bag of sweets to Voldemort, as if trying to buy his life with them. The Dark Wizard growled in laughter, burning the kid to a crisp. “Hmm… I thought there was a third…”

An explosion behind him caught him off-guard, and Voldemort was startled to experience pain biting into his back. He fell to the ground, managing to roll over enough to look at a fat man standing there with a smoking rifle.

“There!” the man screamed, pumping his shotgun. “Will be!” He fired at Voldemort, catching him in the stomach. He pumped it again. “No magic!” He shot a third time, and Voldemort found the world turning black. “In this house!” the man screamed, emptying his shotgun into the Dark Lord’s remains.

Right before the Death Eater, attracted by the noise, killed the fat man.

 

Lucifer ‘checked’ his ‘watch’ again. Ten ‘minutes’ had passed since the Gods of the Universe had vanished into battle, and already he could see the defenders of the place that used to hold the Divine Palace starting to fidget. They felt the tug just as much as he himself felt it, the tug of the Gods of the Universe tearing into the Destroyers’ main force.

The main force that still hadn’t come into battle. The main force that had been held back, just for this point in time. First and Second were leading that battle personally, the reserves of Destroyers and Assassins would now be thrown at those that needed eradication.

Lucifer swallowed. He knew his duty. There was no fidgeting or questions to be asked now. He lifted his hand to the forces sealing off the defenders of the remains of the Divine Palace. “Assault!” he screamed, materializing his flaming blade, leading the charge without tactics or strategy, just blindly rushing forward, sword held high and power charged. The last vestiges of Good had to be eradicated!

At the same time, somewhere else, Gods and Destroyers met face-to-face in direct battle for the first time in billions of years.

And the fight was not pretty.

The Wise One swiped with his hand, eradicating over a hundred Destroyers with the single motion, directly channeling the power of the omniverse through his hands. The Destroyers were too powerful to be taken care of by remote. This was close and personal. Very personal.

The female God to the Wise One’s right screamed as she lashed into the first ranks of the Destroyers’ forces, eradicating eighty lower-class Destroyers with a single motion. Back-to-back the six Gods were, fighting against the ten thousand-to-one odds.

First and Second surveyed the battle, and grinned. For the moment, the lesser among the Destroyers were draining the Gods of their precious strength, and they didn’t even realize it! First looked over his shoulder to the dozen Assassins standing behind him. Soon, he told them with a single nod of his head, and the being started gearing for battle, drawing their Assassin’s Blades, and making a show of checking the sharpness.

We can’t keep this up much longer! The Wise One heard the female God’s scream in his mind.

I know; they’ve drained the Divine Grid to exhaustion! The Wise One snapped back angrily, making a motion and evaporating 150 lesser Destroyers. He took a ‘step’ back in mid-space, pressing on the defense by the ten Destroyers that seemed to take the place of every one he annihilated.

These are mere lesser Destroyers, a third God interjected. We should conserve our strength. Perhaps only one of us…

Even a God of the Universe can be overcome by thousands of lesser Destroyers, a fourth God grunted angrily. No, I’m afraid we’re all needed… for I am sure that the big hitters have yet to show themselves.

Each of the Gods was slowly forced backward by the relentless onslaught of Destroyers, until their backs hit each other’s, and there was no more falling back.

The moment they touched, each of the six Gods startled, and that was the precise moment for the Destroyers to break rank, and swarm in en masse, forgetting tactics and strategy and just swarming in on their targets.

First and Second nodded at each other, and Second made a hand motion to the Assassins. “Go.”

First contacted the rest of the forces. “Third, Go.”

The Gods of the Universe screamed in pain for the first time since a long time, tearing into the black cloud of destroyers swarming around them, eradicating hundreds of them at a single time, not seeing where they shot, just that anything wearing black was ‘bad’, reacting on instincts as cuts and scraped healed almost as fast as they appeared.

Even for a God of the Universe, there came a limit, and they were fast approaching it.

The Destroyers let up for jut a second. It was enough for the Gods to regain some strength, but then the heat was on again. But something had changed… and the Gods of the Universe felt it. Resistance had increased. And deep down, for the first time, the six Gods of the Universe realized that this may be beyond them. The Divine Grid was just unable to keep supplying them with the power needed to keep this up… the Destroyers, all at level two, had been draining it for too long, and the energy released by the collapse of the Afterlife was almost gone.

Soon, they would be as powerless as they had been during the initial blast of combat… never before had they realized that all this time, billions of years, the Destroyers had been building an army as vast as this one.

An army that could, in one stroke, pull so much power from the Divine Grid that the Gods of the Universe would be put outside of the game, unable to intervene.

They should have… should have… too late to think about that now. The Destroyers were closing in. They needed to eradicate them all… show them that the Gods of the Universe were nothing to be trifled with. Gritting their teeth, fighting against the evermore resisting Divine Grid, the six male and female Gods of the Universe started laying into the Destroyers with the same heart and soul they had learned from watching Frederic’s battles.

When the Third through Ninth led the Higher Destroyers into the battle, the Wise One had only time to form a single coherent thought.

Frederic… Good luck, my friend.

He never managed to send it, all his power drained by the fight to the point where he was unable to even send a single thought-message across the dimensional barriers.

 

“Fall back! Fall back!” Daphnix screamed over the battlefield as the medium-Destroyers tore into the beleaguered group. He screamed when he saw Isis succumb to half a dozen Destroyers, and for a moment debated on disobeying his own orders. Seeing how his fellow defenders fell back per instructions, h decided not to exact revenge for her.

Not yet.

His hand clenched on his bloodied Bane of Darkness, and he vowed that he would get those bastards eventually. Power trembled through his system, and his sword lashed out, making a Destroyers dance back, away from the deadly weapon, before engaging anew. They exchanged a couple of strokes, before the destroyer screamed, his left arm severed from his body. The moment of pain and shock was enough for Daphnix to sever the head, making the evil entity crumble into a pile, still twitching as the body’s nerves burnt out.

At his side, Ami fought bravely, blocking three strikes from a destroyer before lashing out with her boot and catching him right in the family jewels. The thing grunted, and hacked toward the small girl, who dodged sideways, before lashing out with her Bane, and cutting a shallow gash across the medium-Destroyer’s side. The creature let out a scream of anger, and laid down sheer fury upon her, forcing her to stumble away, blocking his strikes as she fell back, leaving Daphnix’ side as she fought for her life.

Finally, she saw her opening, and charged, running her sword right through his gut, cutting sideways in the same motion. The Destroyer still had some life in him, and tried to hack her head in two with a downward slash. She dodged aside, and charged his wounded side, cutting off his leg before severing his head as he fell.

For a few moments, her abilities searched out Daphnix, when she saw a Destroyer preparing to engage his back.

The back she was supposed to protect.

Screaming in anger, she simultaneously distracted the Destroyer, warned Daphnix, and powered her body from her rapidly dwindling reserves. Her body shone in bright blue energy as she intercepted the Destroyers’ strike, blocking it with her Bane of Darkness as she landed in an awkward position.

The Destroyer was good. Damn good. He didn’t let up, went after her with angered vigor, forcing her to dodge and dance, never having the time to actually get back in position, forced from one bad form to the next. Finally, she landed the way she was supposed to, and charged.

To her surprise, he slammed her blade aside, and with an evil grin, ran his sword right at her belly. Her free hand came up, warding off the angered blade, allowing her to get it away from her vital positions, yet cutting a deep gash in her left hand as she did so. Her right hand came back, halving the surprised Destroyer in mid-torso.

As he fell bleeding and dying to the ground, he let out a painful, keening moan that brought an involuntary smile to Ami’s lips. That would show him, trying to blindside somebody… She heard a scream from behind her, yet before she could turn, pain exploded in her back and stomach.

Screaming, she noticed a sword sticking out of her stomach. Her pain turned into fury, and her hands, one free of her dropped Bane, one with a deep gash, grabbed hold of the blade, breaking it off right where it exited her stomach. Letting the half-sword drop to the ground, she flipped around, pulling the handle out of the hands of the startled Destroyer behind her.

Her hands joined, and she whispered an underbreath incantation. Her dripping blood coagulated into a thick slime, before hardening in a sharp tip within a fraction of a second. Her wounded hand came up, and charged.

The coagulated blood-tip went through his eyeball, into his brain, before her power tore into him, making his entire head explode, covering her in slime and blood and bone of a Destroyer’s simulated body dying explosively.

She reached behind her, yanked the blade out with a sharp cry of pain, and sunk to her knees, her right hand summoning her Bane of Darkness to her. Tears streaked her face as her body shivered in pain and shock. She coughed up blood. He had gotten her good.

For long moments, Ami sat like that, on hands and knees, watching the battle as if in a daze, seeing her allies fall, seeing the attackers fall, seeing the battle turn and sway as if it were drunk and didn’t know which way to go.

 

Somewhere, somewhen else, a Frederic sank behind a terminal onboard the biggest space-base ever created. “How bad is it?” he asked the terminal, voice dark and ominous.

The terminal answered with a matching voice-infliction. “The Destroyers have all been annihilated, Father. However… his omniverse isn’t doing so well.”

The terminal’s display shifted, showing a twelve-dimensional tree, before isolating a single six-dimensional tree, and focusing solely on it. “The Destroyers’ numbers are dropping rapidly. However; the forces on the side of balance and order are falling. The lesser gods have been devastated, The Gods of the Universe are meeting overwhelming odds, their power level is bleeding rapidly… the Jokilar Gerius are in battle, in the midst of it, but their power is waning, too. The ESMF is scattered; trying to fight the uprising forces of darkness, unleashed when the Destroyers broke down the barriers that shielded the Hell dimensions from the moral realms.”

Frederic growled. “We need to help them, LOBO.”

LOBO would have shaken his head, had he had one. “We can not, Father. Hyperversal crossing has been forbidden. I forgot about the ways to do it 20 years ago. We need to let this run its course.”

Frederic’s hands clenched deeply in the armrests of the chair he was sitting in. “Re-invent it, LOBO. We need to go there, and help them out!”

LOBO remained silent for three long seconds. “I can not, Father. Things are as they must be… we saw it 20 years ago. We knew then… what was to happen. Your counterpart knows it now, too. That is why he has yet to join the battle… he still wishes to escape. But he knows he can not.”

Frederic shook his head angrily. “One thing you have to learn, LOBO. A Frederic never, ever, will succumb to fate. He knows he can escape destiny simply because he must.” He drew a deep breath. “The only problem is… when he has to escape that… there is no way he can.”

“And as such…” LOBO started.

“He will do the impossible yet again,” Frederic replied. “Like 20 years ago… when he merely scratched the surface of that terrible secret buried within him.”

 “Oh, no… Father…” LOBO whispered, the display-screen shifting attention to a single universe within the six-dimensional omniverse that had been there earlier.

Frederic’s eyes opened wide, and his mouth sagged open. For ten long seconds, silence reigned within the auxiliary control room of LOBO’s Dyson’s Sphere. “Im… impossible,” he whispered.

“It has started, Father.”

Frederic nodded once. “It has, LOBO.” He drew a deep breath. “LOBO, signal all fleet, all personal… End of Time scenario.”

LOBO was silent. “I… yes, Father. Signaling, all stations, all fleet, all personnel… End of Time.”

Once again, silence descended over the small octagonal room. “Father… I am afraid, Father.”

Frederic drew a breath. “We all are, LOBO.” He swiveled his chair around, stood up, and walked to the exit. “Believe me, we all are…” He vanished through the doors, wishing for one thing, and one thing only: his family.

 

“We’ve successfully landed our primary invasion force on the Australian subcontinent,” one admiral reported to Frederic, the three-dimensional map floating in between them. “The base has been constructed thanks to the enhanced biomechanical nanoprobes, and the command post in established and operational. We’re now officially starting to fight back. Preliminary strategy is to clear Australia, and blockade it. We’ll have a secured base of operations then… and we’ll commence our push against the demonic invasion from then on.”

Frederic dipped his head. “Use whatever resources you need… let the nanoprobes loose on whatever resources you can find and convert them to tools or energy as needed. This is no time to be worried about nature… survival comes first. We can always rebuild nature; transplant it from other dimensions if needed.”

The admiral nodded. “Very well, sir,” he said, starting to tap on his pad. “We have air superiority. The fighters made short work of the flying demons and the dragons that were present. And thanks to orbital cover from the fleet, we can eliminate large hotspots from orbit. It becomes more difficult when there are human life-signs, though… we can’t bomb them from orbit.”

Frederic sighed. “I know. But I won’t be the one to give the order to bomb innocents from orbit.” He looked up at the admiral. “And you and the ESMF are too human to accept the order, even if I gave it.”

The admiral nodded. “Fighting demons and aliens is one thing… turning on our own, that’s another.” He bent back to the map. “I suggest we move up through Indonesia and south-east-Asia up into Asia, and conquer Asia and Europe from there, then down into Africa, before tackling the Americas. Unfortunately, that’s where Glorificus is, so we’ll save the heaviest resistance for last.”

“If she doesn’t come down and start kicking our asses before then,” Frederic grunted darkly. “Admiral, tell your men that, the moment contact is made with Glorificus, they’re to contact us, and withdraw. We’ll get a Gerius down there. No sense letting good men be slaughtered against a foe they can’t take.” His fist clenched. “We lost too many good people against her.” Silently, his mind wandered to Vicky and Sarah, the Deadly Duo he had rescued from Zells, whose adaptation to humanity he had been able to watch personally.

He felt the sting of death in his heart.

“Of course, Sir,” the admiral said, tapping more commands into his pad. Suddenly, the admiral stopped tapping. Something shifted through him, and he frowned, looking up to his commander. Frederic had turned ashen-gray, and was staring into a certain direction. Next to him, Jennifer stood, with an identical expression, also staring in the same direction.

“Sir?”

“No…” Frederic whispered. “Impossible…”

Jennifer’s mouth sagged open, closed slightly, sagged again, doing a good impression of a fish trying to breathe out of water. “They… they’re gone…”

Frederic sunk into a command chair that wasn’t there moments earlier. Claudia appeared before him. “Your Lordship, what are your orders?”

Jennifer sunk to her knees next to the chair, grabbing Frederic’s hand. “She’s right,” Jennifer whispered. “You’re him now, Love.”

“Excuse me? What just happened?” the poor admiral asked, so far out of his depth it was preposterous.

Claudia was the one to turn to him. “The Gods of the Universe have failed, Sir,” the simulated redhead replied coldly. “The Universe exists now without guidance or balance; for the Gods of the Universe have ceased to exist.” She turned to Frederic. “You are all that is there, My Lord. What are your current orders?”

“As she goes,” Frederic replied mechanically. “Just… keep going.” He shook his head. “I’m not going to start making changes… the omniverse is screwed up enough as it is.”

Claudia dipped her head. “As My Lord commands.” She vanished. Jennifer’s hand clenched harder around Frederic’s.

“I never… never thought they’d fail,” she whispered.

“I never thought they’d fail either,” Frederic whispered in answer, turning to face her. “That was the last time, Love.”

She nodded. “The last chance.” She drew a breath. “We both know what must happen now.”

Fire returned to his eyes then, and he turned to face her fully, hands grabbing her shoulders. “Unacceptable! That reality… that reality will never come to pass! I will not allow it!”

Jennifer swallowed compulsively. When Frederic got like this, you did not want to go up against him. He stood up; the chair vanished. Jennifer pulled herself up from her knees. “Love…”

“No!” he snarled, spinning around to the admiral and the holographic map. He shifted some troops. “Make haste, admiral. Clean that planet as soon as you can, for time may be running out on all of us!” he spun once more, and vanished through the door leading to his office, one deck higher.

Jennifer’s fists clenched, trying to stop the shaking of her arms. She wasn’t entirely successful, but drew a breath and forced herself to relax; right before vanishing into the Gerius shift to Frederic’s office. She knew better than to bring it up again, so instead, she just sat on the armrest of his chair, leaning against him as he sat, staring out through space. 

It was ten minutes later that displacing space alerted them to the arrival of an entire group.

“I… I hope you’re happy,” a broken voice croaked from behind them before Frederic had time to swivel his chair around. When he did, Jennifer was away from the chair and halfway through the room in the blink of an eye. Frederic was not far behind her.

For those who had teleported into the room where the 24 Jokilar Gerius that had been out there, fighting. And all of them were in worse condition: Most were bleeding profusely; some were actually missing one or more body pieces.

But all of them were still alive.

“I hope you’re happy, Dad,” David grunted as his arm grew back when Jennifer supplied him with some of her energy. “You are uninjured.”

Frederic’s eyes were closed, and his fists were clenched as he pumped energy into the combined group.

“Shut up, David,” Daphnix growled, sitting up now that his legs were back. He put a hand on Frederic’s shoulder. “How bad is it?”

Frederic let out the breath he had been holding. “The Gods… The Gods are gone.” His fists shook. “The omniverse… it’s trembling. On the verge of collapse.” He looked at the tip of the conical room. “It’s keeping together on spit and chewing gum…”

David fell silent; he hadn’t even known the Gods had died! Had he really been so engrossed in battle? He shook his head. Important things had yet to be dealt with! “There’s about forty Destroyers who survived, Dad. The forty strongest! We barely made it out alive… I think they’re going to establish themselves as rulers now, but I don’t think it’ll take long before they come after us. We’re too much a threat.”

Daphnix nodded. “We have 75% odds that it’ll take them at least three hours before they come after us,” he whispered to his friend. “Fifteen percent says they’ll take over six… five percent says they should have been here already, and a further five gives miscellaneous scenarios, including a barricade.”

Frederic nodded, and stood up as the group was now fully healed. “Grab some shut-eye, all of you. You did well… all of you.”

Jennifer watched her husband with worried eyes. She knew the things he didn’t say, the decisions he’d have to take now. The group filtered out, leaving Frederic and Jennifer behind, exchanging a couple of worried glances, before vanishing together.

Jennifer didn’t say anything, just stood there, before him as he faced his weapons on the wall of their quarters. “I can’t go through with it, Jenny.”

“I know, My Love. But we have to… we can’t run. The Time Line… the true Time Line we saw when you accessed the Power of Creation… it won’t let us.”

“It will if I say it will,” Frederic grunted, putting one hand on a clear section of wall. The two Swords and the Necklace pulsed angrily. “I can not… will not… lose you.” He shook. “I’m scared, Jenny. This time, there’s no afterlife to catch you. You will die… and that will be it.” His second hand joined the first on the wall, so he was leaning against the wall. The swords and the necklace were no longer pulsing, their energy seemingly vanishing, leaving but ordinary-looking items. “The one Truth… the one Reality… I will not, and can not face.”

She walked up to him, putting a hand on his back. “But remember after that.”

He looked up at the necklace hanging right in front of his face. “Darkness.”

“Yes. We don’t know what will happen after I go. You might still be able to bring me back. You always have, just as you always came back yourself. The one wall we can not look past may not be anything more than you…”

“Jenny…” he croaked, twisting around, back thumping against the wall. “I’m afraid, Jenny.”

She stepped forward; hugged him. “So am I, My Love. So am I.”

He lost track of time as they stood there thus, hugging each other on the eve of the final battle. The final battle both knew was unavoidable; for they had been trying for the last twenty years to avoid it. The final battle during which they knew one, and possibly both, of them would die. But finally, they separated, and shifted to the command center.

“Claudia,” Frederic whispered, falling into the command chair that reappeared out of thin air once again. “Claudia, AI Borne of technology, mind and Gerius Power.”

Claudia appeared, looking confused. “My Lord, why the formality?”

“Claudia, we have reached End of Time. Initiate the necessary protocols, and prepare to assume solo command,” Frederic stated.

“M… My Lord?” the redhead asked. “E-End of Time?” she shifted to Jennifer. “My Lady?”

Jennifer nodded. “Initiate End of Time protocols, Claudia. Assume full strategic command and unlock all the offensive weaponry.”

Claudia swallowed. “Lady Linda?”

Linda appeared, and nodded. “Initiate End of Time Protocols, Claudia. Assume full strategic command, unlock all offensive weaponry, and prepare the Solar System for combat.”

Claudia swallowed, her simulated form shaking slightly. “Lord Borlan?”

Borlan sighed. “Claudia, Initiate End of Time Protocols. Assume full strategic command, unlock all offensive weaponry, prepare the Solar System for combat, and end the camouflage modes.”

Claudia trembled. “Authorization, Claudia Self-Governing System. Claudia, Initiate End of Time Protocols. Assume full strategic command, unlock all offensive weaponry, prepare the Solar System for combat, end the camouflage modes, and prepare to eject the Outer Shell.”

Claudia blinked. “Five Command Codes have been locked and accepted. Lord David and Lady Jessica, Final Authorization Sequence?”

David and Jessie appeared on the bridge at that time. Together, their voices modulated carefully. “Claudia, Final Authorization Sequence: End of Time, Strategic Command, Unlock Offensive Weaponry, Solar System, Camouflage Ends, Eject Outer Shell. Authorize, Acknowledge, Accept, and Implement.”

Claudia nodded, and trembled as she turned to Frederic. “My Lord… I’m scared, My Lord.”

Frederic stepped up to her, pulling the simulated redhead in his arms. “I know, Claudia. We all are.”

Claudia hugged him back, holding him tight as energy washed over her; engulfing her in a bright golden glow. When the glow died out, her flowing white gown had been replaced by a black tight body-armor covering her legs, arms and torso, and her head was covered in a black helmet that left her face bare, and allowed her red hair to escape along her neck.

A shudder went through the command room then, as bright golden energy seemed to engulf her and Frederic, still clutching her tightly to him. Her voice was heard, screaming in a strange mix of sheer pain and utter ecstasy as the bright light increased in strength, forcing the people present to look away.

As Frederic held her, he felt the tremendous energy whirling through Claudia’s holographic body; energies stored and built up for years finally releasing as the sequences played out. Her voice rang in his mind as she screamed out the status of her systems.

Earth trembled on its axis as the generator buried deep below its surface came to full power, the inner surface of the 700-kilometter thick wall of living metal warping and distorting under its power; revealing holes shaped especially for the fleet of the ESMF. Docking connections which were rapidly filled by the ships present, their systems linking directly to Claudia’s, their generators boosting the capabilities of the Battle Station to previously unknown heights.

A new shudder went through the station then as SpaCECoB’s own interface was fully opened; the generating capacities added to the Claudia Self-Governing Defensive And Offensive Protective Base.

Her voice rang through Frederic’s mind as the next stage of the programming became active. Blowing the Outer Shell!

The shudder that went through the floor then was different from the ones up until that time, a harsh and violent quiver that revealed that something was happening to the very nature, the very fabric that made up Claudia’s existence.

Earth’s surface supported life; plants, flowers, trees and animals… and all that was about to change, as the very fault lines that made up Continental Drift glowed golden. Earthquakes transcending magnitude ten transplanted across the surface, generating tidal waves, leveling forests and mountains alike while simultaneously pushing up new mountains in other places as Earth’s entire biosphere seemingly went insane.

Snow fell in the Sahara while the North and South poles suddenly got an influx of searing heat, melting the icecaps and lifting the global water table.

And then… then it was over.

Golden energy spilled out from the continental fault lines, boiling oceans and destroying atmospheric pressure. Seconds later, the entire outer crust was blown away, revealing the shining grayish-black living metal of the Claudia Battle Sphere. A perfect sphere she was, armored weapon’s bays sliding open, deploying massive energy-based weaponry the size of some small countries.

In Frederic’s arms, the artificial Claudia-hologram opened her eyes as her energy levels kept increasing, powering systems never before under her command. Claudia trembled with the power of it, scared yet attracted to it at the same time. Her self-governing personality damped her emotions, leveling her head as the End of Time Protocols continued.

All throughout the Solar System, the planets were glowing golden amber, right before similar processes ejected their outer shells. Shining crystals revealed themselves, riding on the power of magic binding the Universe to the Divine Grid, taking special pre-determined places around Earth, generating a seemingly impassable wall of sheer power around the Battle Sphere that was the ESMF’s home away from home.

The golden glow that had permeated everything on the SpaCECoB central command room died out as Claudia’s protocols engaged fully. It had lasted less than fifteen seconds…

She stepped away from Frederic, and nodded gratefully at him before her smile hid itself and she took on an air of command and control. As her lips and mouth moved, no sound came out. Rather, the sound came over the ship’s PA system.

I am Claudia. As of this moment, End of Time Protocols have been authorized and accepted. I have assumed full strategic control over all ESMF forces. The solar system is in combat mode; all offensive weapons systems of the Battle Sphere Earth have been unlocked. We have ejected the camouflaging Outer Shell, and are standing by for combat.

She seemed to draw a metaphysical breath then, and the hologram continued her speech through the PA system. All ships, all systems, all forces. My name is Claudia and I am now your sole Commanding Officer. She looked at Frederic. He nodded. As of this time… Frederic Fromthefield and the Jokilar Gerius are lost to us.

Frederic sighed, grabbed a microphone. “All stations, all ships, all forces. This is Frederic Fromthefield… standing down from command. As of this moment, Claudia has assumed full strategic command. Treat her as you would treat me… and may the omniverse have mercy on all of us.”

He clicked off the microphone and turned to look at the forces on the bridge, some were family, some were closer, but all of them were friends. “Should we survive,” he added silently to his speech. He looked at Jennifer. “Come, Love. We have a little while longer before the Destroyers show their ugly heads… We should get some rest, recuperate at least some strength.”

She nodded, and the two of them vanished. David and Jessie vanished right after, leaving the command crew to Claudia, who started in right where Frederic had left off… planning the battle for the Lost Earth. Now that she had assumed full command… she was no longer responsible for just the ESMF. She had inherited humanity as well, and she would use all assets at her disposal to save this Earth.

 

Deep inside the bowels of the Ortega were a set of quarters that hadn’t been lived in for over twenty years. Yet now, on the eve of the final day, Frederic and Jennifer had retreated here, to those same quarters where they spent the happiest years of their life. The quarters that had witnessed the birth of their children, had seen joy and friendship, yet had also seen wars.

It was in these quarters that felt like home. Not the supremely comfortable rooms in SpaCECoB, nor the luxury of the mansion on Earth 001, but these simple rooms on board the first real warship built by the ESMF. Using the transporters, Frederic had gotten rid of the seats and the large round table that had housed so many lunches, dinners and breakfasts, and replaced it with a large concert piano.

His nimble fingers plied the keys, mind switched off and eyes closed, just listening to the music his fingers generated from the beautiful instrument, seemingly without his intervention. Yet on top of the piano lay Jennifer, also with eyes closed, singing the corresponding chorus. Once again, in their hours of need, their souls had drawn so close as to be able to feel each other out without need the need for speech or glance or thought to be exchanged between them.

Almost as if they were a single entity.

On and on his fingers went, and on and on Jennifer’s voice sang, the musical notes bouncing off the reinforced walls.

Finally, the music died out as Frederic’s fingers played the last note, and Jennifer’s final note reverberated along with the last keystroke of the piano throughout the quarters. Slowly, two sets of eyes opened, staring deep into each other’s souls.

“It’s going to happen,” Frederic whispered.

She merely dipped her head. “Yes,” she replied in a whisper.

“I wish you would stay here,” he stated. “Safe…”

She shook her head. “I will never be safe with the Destroyers out there. And we know the alternative… if I am not there, you will die. And the Gerius will die. And then… then Claudia… Claudia will…”

He took her hands into his own. “I know,” he whispered, gently rubbing her shaking hands. “If you aren’t with me, I can not…”

“You’re our only hope, My Love,” she whispered. “If… if I go before you…”

His hands grabbed hold of hers with increasing strength. “No,” he grunted. “Not if. When.”

She drew a deep breath. “When I go before you… I only hope that it’ll trigger it again.”

Frederic shook his head, releasing her hands. “You know that’s impossible. After last time…” he drew a breath, stood up from the piano. “I sealed the Gates. I couldn’t run the risk.”

“I know, Love,” she whispered, sliding off the instrument and joining him as he stared out the small window of their home. “I know you sealed them. On the life force of your own existence, you sealed them, never to be opened-”

“- in this life ever again,” he finished. “Too dangerous… too much… too much…”

“Shh,” she hushed, putting her finger to his lips. “No more, Love. We need to conserve our strength.”

“For when they come,” he whispered, staring out the window. “When the fate of the omniverse is decided.”

She shuddered. “I can feel it happening. The Destroyers are taking over…”

He tensed. “Life is screaming in agony throughout the omniverse. We are lucky, protected by the walls of Claudia around us… but outside…”

“We need to stop them,” he grunted after a terse, five-second silence. “We need to stop them,” he repeated, softer, as she hugged him to her, and his arms came up automatically to encompass her. “I will not let you go easily, My Love,” he whispered to her. “That I swear.”

 

Fourteen Destroyers appeared around the Battle Sphere Earth mere hours later, each of them facing the protective barriers created by the planets’ alignment around Earth itself, like a strange conjunction traveling around the sun at exactly the same speed, keeping in tight formation as they went.

The leader of the group lifted his hand, and blasted a beam of power directly at the spherical shield. His eyebrow lifted slowly as his deep-black burst of energy shattered on the amber-golden shield, translating around it, dispersing as it went.

He chuckled as his eyebrow went down again. “A Universal Interface Shield,” he said with a grin. “Okay.” He rubbed his hands. “Let’s do this.” Balls of black energy glowed in his hands, and he prepared to fire. All around the Shield, Destroyers powered their own weapons of war, preparing to take down the shield.

Inside, Claudia’s eyes glowed golden with releasing energies. Her lips moved, yet once again, her voice resonated throughout the entire ESMF fleet. This is Claudia. Cry Havoc Once More, for the Destroyers have arrived!! All crews… focus mental energies on the reactors, and prepare for battle! Let loose the Dogs of War and prepare for all-out combat!

She felt energy burn through her metaphysical veins, and the world darkened around her as she shifted into full combat mode, all of her awareness focused outside rather than inside the Battle Sphere. Stars and planets appeared in her view, and the amber-golden grid that signified the Universal Shield featured prominently in her awareness.

The black armor-clad lifeform reached out to the nearest Destroyer, and screamed as power released itself from her outstretched fingers. The Battle Sphere grunted, and the Destroyer screamed as the first volley from the humongous energy-weapons reached its intended target in no-time.

“What the…?” the Assassin screamed when he saw one of his cronies scream and actively fighting to retain cohesion. He glared at the Battle Sphere through the semi-transparent shield. “You have some impressive technology,” he whispered, before slowly evolving a grin. “Good. I was fearing this would be a push-over.”

“Everybody! Full-out attack!” the Assassins creamed, powering more energy, and blasting at the shield.

Claudia grunted when she felt the drain on the Shield. It was powerful, yes. It had huge reserves, too… but not even it could last forever against fourteen level-two Destroyers. Her right hand clenched shut, blue-white energy streaking off it like lightning. Once again, she felt the huge Magneto-Optical Fusion Inducers come to life.

This time, she targeted the leader.

Assassin screamed as the no-time blob hit him, and he felt pain pulse through his body. Pain like he never felt before. He screamed louder, balling his fists, and finally grinned as the pulse died out. Good! Pain was so invigorating! He charged the shield directly, the Destroyers following his lead right after, powering their energies directly into the shield.

Claudia took a step back in her simulated environment as the drain on the Shield almost overcame its ability to protect. The redhead screamed, lifting her hands, and slipping into a combat stance. The shield won’t hold much longer. Preparing stage two.

Assassin grinned as he felt the Shield waver under his direct feed, and shouted at his subordinates, “Prepare for battle! This thing is about to fall!”

Claudia heard him. Oh, you don’t want the shield to fall… She felt her control slip as the combined might of the Destroyers started to overcome the direct feed the Shield had on the Divine Grid. One huge connection against fourteen smaller ones… Claudia had hoped it would have lasted longer than this.

But now she had no choice.

A single thought later, the Shield vanished, catapulting fourteen Destroyers straight forward as the resistance fell away. Planets glowed amber, and realigned, forming a new pattern around both Battle Sphere and the sun.

Claudia’s simulated form flowed through martial arts patterns to the nearest Destroyer. Her hand touched his chest.

In reality, a massive beam of pure force lashed out from the sun, striking the Destroyer dead-on in the chest, burning a huge hole through his body, coming out the other way.

As the beam discontinued, the Destroyer screamed in pain, the massive wound healing only slowly. Claudia growled. “Hard-ass, huh? Okay, take this!” Her graceful body charged him anew, and the Destroyer screamed in pain once more as an even bigger beam took off his head. The body vanished, and Claudia nodded angrily. “One down.”

Assassin burst out laughing. “Well done, Lord Frederic!” he shouted directly at the Battle Sphere. “I had so hoped to face you directly in battle, though. But, unfortunately… that honor is preserved for the Lord First. You are hereby ordained to report to the New Divine Palace, you and your entire pitiful band of Jokilar Gerius, or the Lord First will personally annihilate every pitiful human he comes across!”

Claudia merely charged.

 

Deep inside the Battle Sphere, Frederic, Jennifer, Daphnix, and the other Jokilar Gerius heard the Assassin’s speech. As one, they gathered in the old quarters deep within the Ortega.

Frederic swallowed gravely. “The time has come,” he whispered, sharing a last, sad, look with his wife before his emotions hid themselves and he straightened out. Power gathered within his body, and the weapons vanished from the wall in his quarters on SpaCECoB, to appear directly in his hands, the Necklace settling around his neck.

“The time has come,” he repeated forcefully, “to fight for the very survival of the omniverse! I can feel it screaming in pain as the Destroyers twist and turn it, and no longer will I tolerate this to continue! With the Gods’ death, I, Frederic Fromthefield, Leader of the Jokilar Gerius, am responsible for the Balance of Good and Evil, and I will take up that job, with the help of all of you!”

The Gerius assembled nodded gravely, even David nodded and accepted his father’s status as leader once again. The Old Frederic, the one they all had believed dead after the Entity, had reappeared once again! The Frederic that led them into battle would lead them once again, and that knowledge filled them with a pride and a power they hadn’t felt since the olden days. 

As one, the entire body of the Jokilar Gerius vanished… the Gerius were going to war.

 

A beam of energy struck one of the Destroyers, catapulting him back, making him scream in pain.

“How are they doing this!?” another Destroyer screamed at Assassin. “It’s impossible!”

Assassin closed his eyes, letting his awareness flow. “No… they are using the power of the Gerius, harnessed by an artificial being.” His eyes opened, a ferocious look entering his eyes. “An artificial being of tremendous force and power.” He let out his breath, and continued, “Feel it out, and anticipate it. Its attacks are unavoidable, using temporal distortions to cross in no-time. Anticipate it.”

Claudia heard his speech, and felt ice settle in the conduits that were her veins. They had figured her out! Her fists balled, and energy sprung like lightning in her eyes. Screaming, she jerked both hands in the direction of Assassin.

The being screamed as twin beams of energy struck him, shooting out from the sun and striking his directly in the chest, throwing him back regardless of the speech he had just given.

The other Destroyers, however, had started to act on their leader’s knowledge regardless of what was happening to him now. The first one to get a decent look at Claudia metaphysical consciousness was a blonde female Destroyer, and a glob of blackened energy soon slammed into the last defense of the ESMF.

Claudia screamed, feeling her power levels oscillate as the Destroyer’s energy acted and reacted with the combined might of Gerius power, Universal Energy, and Zero-Point reactors. Her simulated arms trembled as she flowed away from three more bolts, stretching out her arms in either direction, blasting two Destroyers at the same time. Her lips curled back, teeth showed, and ferocious anger showed in her eyes. Claudia was reaching ‘pissed off’.

And the Destroyers would soon find it out.

 

Twenty-six Jokilar Gerius were floating, face-to-face, to twenty-six Destroyers. The twenty-six most powerful Destroyers including its nine leaders.

Somewhere in deep space. Frederic felt his blood boil at the very thought of what the Destroyers had done to the site of the Divine Palace. Nothing was left… the entire region had seemingly vanished, to be replaced by an absurd imitation of stars and planets in no constitution he could remember. Not that he wanted to remember them, for they brought out the terrors of the Gerius’ subconscious mind, the terrors of Old.

Figures that the Old Gerius once had to face were immortalized here in a cacophony of shining stars and bright nebulae, and it worked on Frederic’s nerves. Of Frederic and all the Gerius.

“First,” Frederic growled.

“Fred,” the First replied back, actually smiling, his voice calm and pleasant. “How nice of you to join us.” He motioned to Second. A new Second, the replacement of the Second Frederic had once killed, a long, long time ago. “My companions and I wish to offer you a position within the new established order of the Omniverse. As you no doubt know… the Gods are gone, and the only one standing in our way for total and unrestricted control… is you. So, surrender, and we won’t kill you, your wife, your family, and everybody you cared about.”

Frederic’s fists balled. “I killed Second,” he growled. “And I will kill you.”

First chuckled. “You killed a Second restricted from using the Second Level powers, an outcast out of the order of Destroyers. And back then… you were a Divine Being, a Phalanx we haven’t seen since the days of its conception! Now you are nothing, a mere Jokilar Gerius. True, you control space and time… but you gave up your greatest weapons when you gave up being a Phalanx.” First teleported deep within Frederic’s personal space, literally touching noses.

“Remember the first Destroyer you ever faced. Remember that lowly foot soldier in what you called Universe 254. Remember what happened when you entered the Temple. You gave up your greatest weapons then, too. And it nearly killed you!”

Recollection flooded from Frederic’s memories, and his mouth sagged open. “Yes…” First drawled. “The greatest weapons in the Omniverse! The Power of a Phalanx’ Mind at war!”

The First of the Destroyers turned his back to Frederic, and started floating back to the line of the Destroyers. Halfway, he stopped, and looked over his shoulder. “You can’t even go Level Two anymore.” He indicated the Gerius Rangers. “It took six of them to kill one of us at level two. Do you really think that you stand a chance in one-on-one against the twenty-six most powerful of us?”

Frederic eyes were closed, his body shaking. I was a fool… such a fool… He opened his eyes, glared at First. Nothing beats a Phalanx. A Phalanx is the ultimate being, built of Gods and Destroyers, from where the rule stems that he or she should die at victory. His fists balled. And I gave it all away from more authority! Gods-damned I was a fool!

His entire body trembled, and his eyes opened, glaring at the First. This is it, the point I spent the last twenty years trying to avoid. He drew a breath, letting his anger drain away. It is time. He drew a second breath, letting it out slowly, feeling the last residual anger flow away along with his metaphysical deep-space breath. I must fight. Fight and win, even though I see no escape from the horrible fate Time has in stall for us. He glanced at Jennifer, and she glanced back at him at the exact same moment.

Through their link, their minds touched one final time, before the shields went up and Frederic’s eyes settled on the First of the Destroyers one final time. “Jokilar Gerius, as Supreme Commander, I, Frederic Fromthefield, am authorizing the release of the first level powers, and the breaching of the final seal.”

The omniverse shook as twenty-six Jokilar Gerius released their full potentials… ready for war.

 

Claudia’s simulated eyes shot fire in her simulated environment as her legs and hands reached out, reaching for the various Destroyers circling the Battle Sphere, testing and prodding for the slightest weakness to exploit. Energy lashed out at them from the Sun and the Planets, driving them back each and every time.

But time was running out for the AI, and she felt it. With each circle, with each prod, they would get closer. And each time, it became harder to drive them back. They were meticulously breaking down her defenses, and it was only a matter of time before they breach through the second line of defenses.

She simply didn’t have enough power to get rid of them in a single shot.

Killing a Destroyer took time. Precious time.

Time the other would exploit, and attack the one thing Claudia could not, would not, allow to be attacked. The Earth Battle Sphere, the last refuge of the Earth Strategic Mental Forces.

She was being pushed back fast now, blue-white energy lashing out at Assassin, driving him back, right before a second Destroyer flung a ball of red-black energy at the Battle Sphere. Claudia warded off the blast, threw energy of her own after him, but he had vanished already. Her senses cast out, a mere fraction too late. Pain burned through her nerves, and Claudia’s metaphysical form screamed in pain and rage as the blast of a female Destroyer struck in the exact opposite direction where the first attack had come from.

The earth Battle Sphere was well-protected by thick armor, and the blast had done little real damage, but it drove the point home. The Destroyers’ morale rose. Claudia’s waned as she became acutely aware of the numerical advantages the Destroyers were holding.

She simply couldn’t be everywhere and every time at once.

She was but a single being.

Screaming in rage, Claudia felt her power levels oscillate dangerously. She couldn’t give up! She wouldn’t!!! Snarling, her simulated fists shaking with energy, she pumped her hands together, and lashed out at the female Destroyer. A thick, pure-white beam lashed out from the Sun, striking the female dead-center in the chest, burning a hole through her body.

Still the creature lived. Snarling, Claudia jerked her hands, and the left-over of the penetrating beam turned around, making a perfect U-turn, and smashing into the back of the Destroyers’ head. That killed her.

Scanning around, Claudia tracked the remaining Destroyers, who had scattered and were circling the Battle Sphere once more. Like vultures, they circled, and Claudia started to feel the drain. Even with the connection to the Divine Grid, and the additional boost of the entire ESMF’s fleet of zero-point reactors, she couldn’t keep fighting a dozen Destroyers for long.

Suddenly, all at once, they came at her.

Or rather, they came after the Battle Sphere, and Claudia felt the pain of the blasts she missed surge through her. She felt the pain of the ships she was supposed to protect, she felt every bit of. Her teeth gritted together, and her entire simulated body shook within its simulated environment as the AI’s rage took over. Her hands came together, and she unlocked the first weapon she had vowed never to use.

But this was ‘never’. This was ‘it’ and this was ‘final chance’. Deep within her kernel programs she unlocked the first of the two weapons. She couldn’t bring herself to using the second one.

The first one was bad enough… she couldn’t justify to herself using the second one. Her hands displaced, unlocking the secondary securities on the program. Her vibrant green eyes turned an electric blue and her mouth opened in a silent scream.

The Battle Sphere shuddered, and the Destroyers backed away, feeling something shift deep within the balance of power in the region. The super-connection to the Divine Grid actually became visible, ablaze with orange-red energy as the Claudia System unleashed its First Secret Weapon.

The MOFI-guns retracted into the Battle Sphere, and for a few nanoseconds the Sphere was a perfect sphere once again. Then, before the Destroyers realized what was happening, one end of the Sphere opened up, the semi-alive armor rotating open like a giant eye, revealing a hole, which became ablaze with the energies drained from the zero-point reactors of the ESMF.

That was when the energies drained from the Divine Grid kicked in.

In less than a fraction of no-time, Claudia displaced all the planets of her System into Protective Formation around the Battle Sphere, the earlier omni-shield lifting into existence once more, expelling the Destroyers from the immediate vicinity of that which she was sworn to protect.

May Lord Frederic forgive me…

Claudia’s simulated hands displaced a second time, her fingers forming a third pattern, releasing the weapon’s firing sequences. The entire Battle sphere vibrated as the weapon discharged.

“What the…?” Assassin growled angrily, pounding his fist against the shield. “This again?” then, something flashed by him, and he looked over his shoulder. Nothing.

“What happened, boss?” one Destroyer asked.

Assassin shrugged. “It’s getting desperate. It knows we can breach these shields. Okay, boys! Pound it!” His hands burned with energy as he prepared to lash out at the shields. Yet, before he could fire, he felt something tug at the edge of his awareness. Something was doing bad things to the omniverse. Worse things, for he was used to the feeling of the omniverse screaming ever since First had taken over.

He looked over his shoulder once again, and frown slowly appeared on his face when he discerned a tiny black pinprick surrounded by orange-red energy.

“A black hole?” he asked stupidly. “What’s she doing with a black hole?” His frown deepened when the hole grew, and the orange-red vortex surrounding it washed out in size, the tug doubling in strength. “That’s not a black hole!” he screamed to his underlings. “Get away!”

He fingered his powers, displacing himself away.

And reappearing on the other side of the orange-red phenomenon. “Gods-damned wormhole weapons!” he cursed, “she’s actually insane enough to use Gods-damned wormhole weapons!?”

The wormhole doubled in size once again, now four times as large as the original pinprick had been. Assassin knew it was far from over. He displaced again, trying once more to get away, only to find him back on his original location. The others apparently hadn’t had more luck than he had, for they were clawing at the Shield, trying desperately to hold on against the suction of the wormhole weapon, now that it was eight times as big as the original one had been.

 Assassin felt it tug at him, and it was using a lot of his power just to keep in place. He bit off a curse when it doubled again, now to sixteen times its original size. The drain on the omniverse increased dramatically, and Assassin saw the sun, outside of the Shield’s protection, vanished into the weapon, faster and faster. Thirty-two times its original size it was now, and Assassin’s field of vision was filled with a giant orange-red vortex swirling away lazily as it devoured everything it could grab.

Already Assassin could see his weakest underlings loose their hold and vanished into the massive vortex.

Like any Divine Being, Assassin knew that nothing survived a wormhole weapon… the suction of a wormhole combined buy the ferocious gravity of a black hole created a physical power not even a Destroyer could circumvent.

Maybe a Gerius could… they were above physics… Assassin glanced at the shield, as solid and powerful as ever. Gods-damned Gerius, empowering lesser beings…

The wormhole was no less than one-hundred and twenty-eight times as large as it had been originally, and Assassin could see the last of his underlings vanish. He was alone now. But his powers were stronger than his underlings. He planted his feet in mid-space, and powered himself, drawing energy from the Divine Grid, just as the Shield behind him was doing, using the Power of the Omniverse against the Laws of Physics, protecting himself against a wormhole that was doubling in size every so-many seconds.

In her environment, Claudia cursed. It wasn’t working! The leader was still there! The wormhole was 512 times as large as it was originally now, the edges almost reaching the Assassin himself, but still he was there.

And thus, it was almost touching her Shield. Claudia knew better then to let the wormhole weapon touch her Battle Sphere. She was protected… but nothing prevented a large-enough Wormhole Weapon to devour the shield entirely, and everything inside it along with it. Only nine doublings, she thought to herself. Maximum theoretical size of a wormhole in twenty-seven times… She swallowed a lump in her throat. We need to survive. We will not survive a wormhole weapon of that size.

Her hands displaced, triggering the end-program phase. The massive gun discharged, and Claudia felt pain ripple across the surface of the Battle Sphere as energy cascaded over it. But she didn’t allow herself to feel it… deep in her core she was hoping fervently that the counter-program would work.

Slowly, the orange-red vortex dissipated. Assassin grinned, flying away from the Shield, and turning toward it.

“Nice try,” he taunted, releasing the energy he had drained from the Divine Grid to protect himself.

Claudia swallowed when she felt the massive amount of energy around the man. No way could she fight something like that… no way she could…

The Second Weapon.

Claudia closed her eyes. She heard Frederic’s voice in her mind. That weapon can not be used, Claudia. You can not and will not use it.

She drew a breath, opened her eyes, and looked directly at Assassin. But he will destroy us, My Lord. I must protect the ESMF. It is the final choice. I already did the second most-unspeakable thing. All I can do now is do the most unspeakable act.

“I, Claudia, AI borne of Gerius Power, of Mind and Technology, Self-Governing Protective System of the ESMF’s Battle Sphere Earth, am authorizing the release of the Final Weapon.” Her metallic blue eyes shifted color again, this time becoming an obsidian black.

“Borne from the minds of the Fromthefield Twins, I am releasing the trigger for the most destructive weapon in the history of the Omniverse,” she whispered on, her black combat-armor shifting color, radiating a dull red energy. “Program, FH. Authorized and acknowledged. Execute.”

The massive Battle Sphere rotated in no-time, pointing the massive gun at the Assassin. He had time to smirk before a tiny thing seemed to shoot out in his direction.

He had the presence of mind to get out of the way, only to find the mysterious time to come to a stop directly in front of his face. “Explosives!?” he asked incredulously. “You’re turning explosives on me!?”

Then, the device detonated, and Assassin felt nothing anymore.

For he wasn’t anymore.

Claudia screamed, feeling the energies cascade along the Universal Shield, the horrible effects of physics running rampant through the Galaxy. In one nanosecond, she had been forced to cut all of the Zero-Point generators throughout the entire ESMF fleet, and she was now drawing in more energies from the Divine Grid than the connection could provide for. She could feel herself, her protégés and the connection tremble on its foundations.

Her entire being was ablaze with pain and fire as her sheer Will overcame the forces unleashed by the final doomsday weapon under her control… Secret Weapon Two… the Fromthefield Hole.

Finally, the pain subsided as the laws of physics literally became void around her, and slowly Claudia opened her eyes.

Inside of the Universal Shield, the eight planets still were in their guardian positions around the Battle Sphere, the blue-white grid of energy that was the Shield snugly around them. Outside, there was nothing.

No stars, no planets, no clouds, no nebulae. Nothing.

As far as her sensors could see, there was nothing. The Fromthefield Hole, in its current configuration, should have expanded to a size of about 10,000 light-years, expanding only when it came into contact with artificially refined Zero-Point energy. Usually, that energy was only found in a Zero-Point generator.

In this case, it had found a more potent source: Assassin, at level two, and with it, a wonderfully active connection to all the Zero-Point energy the Hole could ever want, or need.

Claudia wept at the loss of an entire Universe… only her people were safe. She had atomized an entire universe to get rid of a single Assassin. Killed, everything in it. Even if the ESMF’s senses couldn’t detect sentient life within the ten closest Galaxies didn’t meant there wasn’t sentient life somewhere else… and if there had been, it was gone now.

A single nanosecond, a single thought; that was all it took. A decision made, a program executed, and Claudia, Self-Governing Protective Entity, had wiped clean an entire universe.

The being curled into herself, and wept.

 

Frederic shuddered as awareness swept over his senses, and he glanced at his friends. They all looked back, and a single thought went between them. Claudia…

He shook his head. Worries for later. If there still was a later. The omniverse groaned; the Destroyers’ grip had tightened again, and their influence was starting to show more and more. Creation was trembling on its foundations here, the closest point the omniverse had to a point of origin.

“Are we just going to stare at each other all day?” First asked, a cocky grin plastered on his face. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Oh, in case you didn’t feel that just now… your pet computer blew up that universe your followers were hiding in. I think I like her sense of enterprise… I could use someone like her. You don’t mind if I hire her after we get rid of you and your brats, do you?”

Frederic’s scowl only lasted for a second. “If you can meet Claudia’s price, I have no problems,” he grunted coldly. “But I’m afraid she’ll ask too steep a price for you to meet.”

First shrugged, and grinned. “If you say so.” He fell into a combat stance. “Now, are we going to do this, or not?”

Frederic matched the stance. “Sure. Let’s do this.”

The next moment, twenty-six Jokilar Gerius and twenty-six high-class Destroyers vanished from sight, each selecting a target and going for it.

As First had predicted, the fight was far from even. However, thanks to Frederic’s presence, and the final authorizations that incurred, made sure it wasn’t as uneven as the destroyers would have wanted it to be.

Ami led her group consisting out of the Gerius Sailors and the Quest Team through the fight, trying to minimize the damage they took from the seriously faster and more powerful Destroyers.

Buffy, meanwhile, had her group jump a Destroyer together, overpowering it through sheer force of numbers. For the moment, it was working, the gross of the Destroyers focusing on Ami’s high-profile assaults. The Gerius Rangers, meanwhile, were covering Frederic, Jennifer, and Daphnix, protecting their backs as the three leaders showed off again First’s group of Destroyer Leaders.

The battle’s progress turned and twisted, raging back and forth through the small universe that used to house the Gods of the Universe.

 

Claudia shuddered in her virtual housing, opening her deep-green eyes for the first time in long minutes, feeling the tremendous cold of the Fromthefield Hole press all around her Universal Shield. She drew a trembling breath, and stood up. Her sensors cast out, encountering nothing but sheer emptiness outside the opaque blue-white energy grid protecting the Battle Sphere, its companion planets, and its occupants.

Eight planet-sized crystals were all that were standing between her, the Battle Sphere, and its obliteration.

She knew that not even they could protect her forever. Claudia knew… knew that time was running out, fast. Spreading her arms, she channeled more energy from the Divine Grid, mixing it with the supercharging zero-point engines from the entire ESMF fleet. The Universal Shield trembled; the Fromthefield Hole we sensing its food beyond the barrier, and was redoubling its efforts to get to it.

Claudia drew another metaphysical breath, if for no other reason but to calm herself down. This needed precision; her emotions would only get in the way. This was the point, the one point where she needed to be computer first and AI later.

It would take approximately .005 nanoseconds for the Fromthefield Hole to get the Battle Sphere after the Universal Shield dropped. Claudia’s mental processes raced as the Battle Sphere continued to draw metaphysical and zero-point energies into itself, storing it deep within its living metal hull. The governing intelligence needed to get this exactly right.

Point-zero-zero-five nanoseconds. That was her window… Claudia closed her eyes, focused deeper. Her mind reached out, finding an uninhabited region of space within Universe 001. The Holy Universe, direct line of descent from the Big Bang.

For about .000009 nanoseconds, she told herself it was no wonder that Frederic Fromthefield had arisen there, seeing how it was the straight line from the Big Bang. But, as soon as she thought of it, she forgot about it again, the situation urging her on, forcing all trivial thoughts from the mind.

With all storage charged to capacity, she calculated, it would take about .009 nanoseconds to open a Quantum Displacement wormhole to Universe 001. She was in trouble now… she couldn’t start to open a wormhole unless she dropped the Universal Shield. That would leave her with .004 nanoseconds too little time to get out.

She needed to get an extra four thousandths of a nanosecond.

She tried the Shield; it quivered, refused to expand further out. The Fromthefield Hole had them, and had them forever.

Or so it seemed. Claudia scowled, focused deeper. How could she get an added four thousandths of a nanosecond?

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t get four extra thousandths of a nanosecond. But maybe… maybe she could open a wormhole faster. The QDD was at maximum tolerance. She had seen to that… but what if… what if she changed it?

She needed a way out, and the QDD wouldn’t do. It just wasn’t fast enough. But she still had a lot of other technology at her disposal… among other things.

She started going through the collective knowledge Frederic and the Gerius had deposited in her when she had been created. There had to be other means of transportation.

The Gerius Shift… it was fast and reliable, yet it too couldn’t go through the Universal Shield. It took .007 nanoseconds. She was down to point-zero-zero-two nanoseconds.

Better, but no cigar, she told herself. There had to be other means… She blinked. What if she channeled a Gerius Shift through the QDD? Both were based on zero-point energy now, one on Gerius Authority, one in technology. Claudia’s mind protested trying to reconcile exotic interdimensional metaphysics with Interdimensional Quantum Physics.

Point-zero-zero-four nanoseconds. Claudia blew out her breath. She had a window of opportunity of .001 nanosecond. That meant she’d better be at the top of her game.

Shifting her attention away from everything in the Battle Sphere, focusing all her energy on her thoughts, her powers, and her Quantum Displacement Drives, she ignored things like internal security, life support, gravity, and everything else an AI should keep in mind while governing a Battle Sphere.

Yet it was only for a few moments… Claudia shifted her attention to the Gerius Shift, and started channeling it through the QDD. The systems redlined instantly, and Claudia’s perception shifted. Time slowed down for her, each thousandth of a nanosecond taking forever. The Universal Shield fell, and the Fromthefield Hole immediately rushed in.

Her slowed perception of time saw the blast-wave approaching, eating the planets on the first tick. The QDD overloaded. The blast-wave had consumed the planets, and was reaching for the Battle Sphere Earth. Tick two had passed. Her energy stores exploded, the Hull of the Battle Sphere rippled with power and energy, the small universe that was left quivering with quantum-stresses of unimaginable power. Tick three…

She could feel it reaching her, eating the Moon, a relic of ancient time, somehow having survived the battle with the Destroyers. Tick four… the blast-wave ate what was left of the ejected outer shell of the Battle Sphere, the continents, the atmosphere, plants and animals… Claudia screamed.

Tick five… Contact.

Her scream became a howl as pain shot through every sensor she had, briefly flooding her awareness, overriding anything and everything else. Slowly, it eased… and Claudia dared to open her sensors. She felt… she existed.

In Universe 001… A smile curled her lips, making her entire face light up beautifully. Her own shout of joy at life was drowned out by similar screams reverberating through her inner working, where the entire ESMF realized the same thing at the same time. They had survived, and the Destroyers were dead!

Claudia directed some nanoprobes to the armored outer hull, its thickness having depleted by over 600 kilometers. This was one time her thick outer shell had sure come in handy… and Claudia refused to even think about where the .00005 nanosecond deviation in the hyper-dimensional calculations had come from.

 

Destroyers and Gerius flashed over and through each other, hitting, punching, kicking, and blasting at each other, Gerius Weapons clashing with Negative Energy Weapons wielded by the Forces of Darkness themselves. The Banes of Darkness released Blast after Blast, trying unsuccessfully to even make a dent in the Supreme Destroyers.

But still… the battle was uneven, and slowly, the Destroyers pushed back the Gerius, doing damage upon damage, not giving the Gerius a chance to get their wits together.

Usagi was doing as Ami had suggested, and jumped the Destroyer from the back, just as Minako and Makoto were distracting him. As her arms encircled his torso, her hands locking in front of his chest, her legs and feet locked around his waist. For a fraction, the Destroyer was stunned into inaction, and the other Senshi immediately took advantage and charged.

Minako and Makoto screamed in rage, blocking the pain the numerous Negative-energy wounds on their bodies, as they charged him with Banes held high. As their strikes were about to hit, two more Destroyers suddenly flashed into existence, blocking their strikes, and attacking the stunned Gerius. Lightning reactions bled into existence, allowing them to block the first three strikes… before Negative Energy penetrated their chests, sticking out from the back in black-glowing deep-gray sword-tips.

Ami screamed; charging the second Destroyer’s back, hoping against hope that Usagi would be able to keep the first Destroyer locked in her holding pattern. As her target jerked his sword up and through Minako’s beautiful body, Ami heard a scream from behind her, letting her know Usagi had let loose and charged the third Destroyer, his sword still in Makoto’s body.

Ami had no more time then; brought up her Bane of Darkness to block the downward strike. She had just enough time to watch the Destroyer’s free hand come up, power and blast, and disintegrate Minako…

The blue-haired warrior’s universe colored red that moment, charging with all the might of the Gerius behind her. She didn’t even hear the thumping of Usagi’s similar condition next to her, as Makoto fell directly in Usagi’s line-of-sight. Rei flashed into existence from her tactical point, jumping the same Destroyer Usagi was fighting.

The Universe groaned, pumping power into the fight between Gerius and Destroyers.

Buffy screamed as Xander fell, engaging the laughing Destroyer at point-blank range, literally shoving a Blast of the Heavens down his throat. The evil being screamed, stumbling back, and Buffy was just about to shove a second Blast in his face, when she heard a scream from behind her. She was just in time, to flash around and see Willow catch the blast intended for her back…

The leader of the Sunnydale Master Slayer growled darkly, feeling Gerius Power bubble up from the depths of her being, going into overdrive. Charging the Destroyer that had killed her best friend, Buffy totally ignored the still-alive Destroyer recuperating from her first Blast. Her Bane struck against her second target’s sword, sending sparks and Divine Energy flying in all directions as the two mighty weapons faced off.

Buffy reversed her grip, brought her weapon away and preparing a second strike, when something jumped her from behind. The first Destroyer… laughing. Insanely laughing… Buffy’s mind reached for holding points, eyes flashing madly around. Everywhere she looked… friends falling, friends dying, laughing Destroyers… her mind broke, releasing its energy, throwing the Destroyer off her back. Mad with grief and rage, the blonde Leader of the Sunnydale Gerius charged the second target, striking off his head, before flashing around to her first target.

She was about to reach him when her second target regenerated his head, and blasted her back. She screamed… and died, only to revive instantly thanks to her Gerius abilities. Her head came clear of her shoulders a mere fraction of a second later, and again, she felt her abilities start the regeneration process. Like the Destroyers at level two, a decapitation wouldn’t permanently kill a Gerius. As her awareness flooded back, she opened her eyes… to see a mighty pitch-black blast approaching.

Her sore muscles reacted slowly, the connections not yet fully restored with her still-regenerating head, and she managed to half-dodge the blast, and Buffy screamed when it took off her right arm, right leg, and the right part of her torso. Again, regeneration cut in, repairing not just her head, but also half of her body. The two Destroyers laughed, enjoying taking shots at the struggling Gerius.

Buffy screamed, dodging yet another blast, eyes reaching out in desperation for help… any help! Xander and Oz where fighting back-to-back against an overwhelming force of no less than six Destroyers, so they were no help. Buffy looked further, seeing the Gerius Sailors’ ranks deplete sorely. Ami was madly hacking and slashing at a Destroyer, while a second one as going after Rei and Usagi… where were Makoto and Minako? Buffy’s mind regressed, knowing instinctively where the answers lay…

Where are the others? Where were they? Frederic… she needed Frederic…

Nine other Gerius had banded together, the Quests having joined the Gerius Rangers, forming a single massive group of nine Gerius, attempting to get the jump on any solitary Destroyer. However, being a large group attracted a lot of attention… and soon; they found them outnumbered by the bulk of the Destroyers, even the Lower Leaders joining in the fight against them.

Fourth directed his forces with military precision and tactical insight against the large group of Gerius; first depleting their strength, and then picking them off as they started to tire with strain and exertion.

Jonny never knew what hit him as he charged one Destroyer, and a second one fired a disintegrating blast in his back. Jessie screamed, and Hadji actually growled, for the first time since long feeling anger override his emotional controls. The two of them charged the blind-siding Destroyer, intent on showing him the error of his ways.

Tommy screamed after them, trying to warn them for the danger they were in… to no avail, and he and Rocky charged the two Destroyers sneaking up on the backs of Hadji and Jessie. No sooner had they saved Hadji and Jessie when they heard a scream from Aisha and Kimberly behind them… turning around, both male Rangers could see the bodies vanish…

And they vanished just in time to escape from the slashes from the swords of the two Destroyers that had been attempting to blindside Jessie and Hadji.

Jessie’s foot connected with the Destroyer’s cheek, catapulting him toward Hadji, who was intent on impaling him on his Bane of Darkness. And then the scream came from Aisha and Kimberly, and both warriors lost their focus for just a few moments.

Moments the Destroyer used to escape their enraged clutches.

Moments used to overpower them, as more Destroyers came in. As Hadji fell, Jessie had just enough time to cast a last look around. A look that reported the grim truth… they were getting killed, overpowered by these high-class Destroyers, using the power of the Divine Grid… level two. All around her, death reigned, Destroyers flashing, disappearing, reappearing, blasting, maiming… killing. Their numbers were dwindling, fast.

Frederic felt his friends dying. The pain in his chest was overwhelming, driving him on, powering his charging strikes as he and his family fought side-by-side.

Four, five, six times his Bane clashed with Second’s sword, before he took a blast to the chest that catapulted him back. How could I misjudge so drastically… he wondered as he reappeared out of Super-Light, and charged Second once more, who had been forced to focus on Jennifer, who had charged in right after her husband had taken the energy. Destroyers are nothing at level one… at level two they are beyond us.

His eyes squinted in anger. Damn the Gods of the Universe! They told us we’d have the power for this!! Energy glowed around him as more of his friends died, and he charged in over his wife’s head to Second’s unprotected head.

The Higher Destroyer acquitted himself nicely against Frederic and Jennifer, actually fighting both of them at the same time, seemingly without too much effort. Next to them, Daphnix was fighting alongside David and Jessica, fighting Third, who was smiling and laughing loudly all throughout the fight.

A little further away, First stood, arms crossed over his chest, grinning. “This is it, Fred. It’s over… your Gerius can not go up against all the Destroyers. All of them against one, yes… but not in a situation where they’re forced to fight one-on-one.” He glanced to the side, where the remaining Destroyers were standing, watching for an opening to join in, and have some fun by themselves. First grinned under his hood. This was what it was supposed to be… a total, humiliating defeat of Frederic Fromthefield. How long he had dreamed of this day!

First slapped his hands together. This was it! He could feel it! The Gerius were falling, the Gods were gone, the lesser gods were gone, the Q were gone, the Angelic corps was gone. All that was left for total control were these brats. And they were falling, fast.

Surveying the entire battlefield, he could see Ami tear the head off the lowest-powered Destroyer in the entire invasion force, just after he had killed Usagi and Rei. This was it, First knew… Mizuno Ami, Field Battle Commander of the Jokilar Gerius, was the last of her group. Her mind was shattered, he could see it in her eyes and she blindly charged another Destroyer.

Buffy hacked and slashed at the Destroyer that had taken out Xander and Oz and Angel… she too, was the last of her group. First grinned. The blonde ex-Slayer had spunk… she had, somehow, escaped the ‘game’ being played by two of his force, long enough to recuperate fully and charge after the one who had killed her friends.

But it was an uneven battle, and the blonde was going on guts and spirit alone, her body long ago out of power. He could see it in her movements and in her techniques. All the beauty and the sophistication had gone out of her movements, and she was going on pure instinct.

On the other side of where Frederic and his ‘family’ were fighting, Destroyers were making minced meat out of the former Rangers, Tommy and Rocky the only ones left, fight back-to-back, unable to do more than hold off the circling Destroyers, hanging like vultures above dying prey. First knew the two Rangers were already dead, even if they didn’t realize it yet.

“It is time,” First whispered, clapping his hands three times. “Get them, lock them.”

Frederic’s eyes opened wide in surprise when Second and Third suddenly appeared next to Jennifer, grabbing her arms, locking her firmly in place. Next to him, he heard startled grunts as more Destroyers grabbed his friends and his children, bringing them next to Jennifer, standing them in a line.

His hands grabbed his Banes firmer, and Frederic prepared to charge Second. He knew Jennifer would be able to fight off Third by herself… if he could get Second off of her…

Just as he was about to go, pain flooded his system, and he screamed out in pure pain. Looking down, he saw a glowing dark-gray tip of a Destroyer’s sword stick out of his chest, the Negative Energy overcoming his Gerius-healing as long as it was present. Letting go of his Banes, his hands started to come down, making to grab the tip of the sword sticking out of his chest.

Two more Destroyers materialized next to him, both grabbing his arms, the one behind him ramming his sword in deeper, keeping one hand on the hilt, locking his free arm around Frederic’s throat, locking firmly in place, only able to move his legs, totally out of reach of any of his assailants.

First threw back his hood, and floated to the ‘battle’ scene. “This is it, Frederic,” he sneered. “I will make you pay for everything you have done… and I will make the pain last.” He looked at the row of Gerius. “We will kill each and every one of them, forcing you to watch, as I was forced to watch as you killed my Destroyers in the past. And this time, the battle shall be uneven in my advantage, rather than yours.”

Frederic growled darkly, struggling his arms against the Destroyers hanging off them. “No use,” First said with a smirk. “Not even you can overcome three Destroyers, not with that sword still in your body.”

Frederic’s body was shaking with pain and rage. His growl bared his teeth, his eyes shooting sparks.

“My, my… what an ugly expression for the leader of the forces of Light,” First taunted, turning to the Destroyer holding Ami. “Kill her!”

Daphnix screamed. Ami vanished. The Destroyer holding Daphnix increased his grip, a second one joining him. Frederic howled, his eyes casting ghostly luminescence through the region of space.

First snickered at the sight, turning to the Destroyer holding Rocky. “Kill him.” The woman nodded, and Rocky vanished, making Tommy scream. Frederic screamed with him, a brownish-reddish spot growing on his forehead.

First lifted an eyebrow, before bursting out into laughter. “Oh, my this is fun!” He turned to the Destroyer holding Tommy. “Kill him.” Tommy vanished.

Frederic’s scream pierced the Heavens, hell, and Earth, the dot expanding, brown-red lines snaking out and covering his face. “Seals, huh?” First said with laughter in his voice. “Too bad you can’t seem to release them…”

“Lord First,” Second asked from where he was holding Jennifer. “Are you sure that this is a wise course of action? If he is still sealed by something…”

First waved the concerns off. “What’s the worst he can do? He’s a mere Gerius!”

Second fell silent, tightening his grip on Jennifer’s arm. He could feel her strength increasing, and it worried him. If she could, then how much was beyond those seals…?

“Kill the bitch,” First told the Destroyer holding Buffy. As her body vanished, Frederic’s seals exploded rapidly, covering his entire body with spider-web-like designs, strange, ancient writings appearing in between the intricate designs.

Deep within his mind, Frederic’s avatar was screaming, the Control Spire trembling on its foundations. Next to him, Shadow appeared.

“We must release those seals!” Shadow screamed. Frederic turned to her, a crazed look in his eyes. “They’re bound to our life-force! They’ll release only when we’re dead!”

“That was kinda the point,” Shadow whispered. “But now… we need their powers!”

“Impossible!” Frederic shouted.

Outside, Daphnix’ body vanished, and the seals on Frederic’s body glowed a dangerous, murky red. Foaming at the mouth, Frederic snarled at First, actually advancing a half-step before the three Destroyers got a stronger grip on him, forcing him to stop once more. All intelligence seemed to leave his eyes as he reacted on sheer instinct, rage and grief pumping like liquid fire through his veins.

“And now his two brats,” First said with a grin.

“Dad…” David whispered.

“Daddy…” Jessica said, along with her brother.

Both vanished, simultaneously. The scream that tore from Frederic’s mouth startled even First, making his take a step back. Semi-Bluish mist hung around Frederic’s body, power leaking even through the life-seals.

“We have to…” Shadow whispered.

Frederic turned to her. “IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” he screamed. Shadow shook her head.

“We bound the seal to our life-force.” She brought her hands together. “Promise me you will kill them.” Her hands formed a seal. Heart. Frederic’s eyes opened. WIDE.

“Shadow!”

“Kill her,” Frederic heard First’s voice penetrate the fog in his mind. Unfocused, his eyes registered Jennifer’s demise with a dispassionate complexion, his entire body slackening in the grip of his captors. All life was gone… the soul had shattered.

Heart, Mind, Body, Soul… Life and Death! Shadow’s scream was the last thing in Frederic’s mind. “Open the seals!” She vanished, and Frederic felt her go…

Alone.

He was alone.

Since long, he was alone.

And he screamed.

The Control Spire atomized instantly, his mind vanishing in the pure-white glow of super-charged neural connections within his brain.

First looked at Frederic, shaking his head at the empty shell his Destroyers were holding. Then, the semi-blue fog that hung around Frederic warped, exploding outward at the same time the seals regressed to the single point on his forehead, and vanished. A scream of pure bloodlust tore from Frederic’s throat. The next moment, the three Destroyers burned into ashes.

Frederic straightened out, the sword in his torso shattering as his body healed. His eyes, shining bright red with bloodlust, focused on Second, who had killed Jennifer. He snarled, charged, and vanished a mere fraction later, reappearing around Second, arms locked around the Destroyer’s torso, legs wrapped around his waist. Snarled and screaming like a wild animal, Frederic buried his teeth in Second’s throat. Each second, the bright red energy waving off him increased in strength.

First stared.

The motion was easy to understand… the gulping of the throat showed that Frederic was literally drinking Second’s blood… with each gulp, his energy became stronger. The Destroyer screamed, and vanished.

“Im… impossible!” First screamed. Just how high is it going to go!?

Frederic fell into a combat stance, charging Third, the second Destroyer who had held his wife. Third tried to defend himself, soon finding his arm ripped off, before Frederic’s vampire-like teeth sunk deep into his throat. This time, it was over quick. Third died less than a second later.

 

“It’s happened, Father,” LOBO told GEXFred. “Across the Hyperdimensional barriers, I can feel him standing up. I can feel his power reaching out. It is only a matter of time.”

GEXFred sighed. “For twenty years, we have feared this, LOBO. There was no way out, not even the Gerius abilities of my twin could find a way out, not even with twenty years to prepare. The time has come.”

LOBO sighed as well. “It was an honor, Father.”

“It was an honor knowing you too, LOBO.” With those words, GEXFred turned to his wife, hugged her close, and cried.

 

Deep in the Temple of Ages, the huge man opened his eyes, staring out into deep space, even through the ceiling of the room he was in, buried deep within the Temple. “My Lord, the time has come!”

He vanished, reappearing on the battlefield.

Frederic charged a third Destroyer, but the Stone of Ages blocked his path. “The time has come, My Lord.”

Frederic looked at him for a few seconds, then growled, charging past him. Again, the man reappeared, blocking Frederic’s path. First’s mouth fell open. No Destroyer could hope to follow, yet this fellow did it twice in a row? Just what was going on!?

“I know you want to kill them all,” the man stated, lifting one hand. “But rejoining the Mind with the Soul will enable you to do that, too.”

Frederic snarled, preparing to charge past the man once again. The huge man lifted a single hand, blocking Frederic’s path. “You know Truth when you feel it,” he stated. “Rejoin with me, and let us became the United Mind and Soul.”

Frederic’s animalistic state didn’t let up. He growled. The man nodded, and touched Frederic’s forehead, vanishing in the process.

Immediately, Frederic stood up straight, eyes closed, a cold and impassive expression on his face. Where he had been over-expressing emotions mere moments before, now he didn’t express any at all. He was total emotionless state, observing his surroundings.

“Jennifer,” he stated, turning slowly to look straight in First’s eyes. “You killed my soulmate.”

First merely nodded.

Frederic dipped his head, bringing his hands together. “No matter.” First’s jaw dropped, and his eyes bulged out. “I shall retrieve her.” Above them, the Divine Grid became visible, beautiful golden energy lines crossing ever at right angles.

Frederic’s hands separated, energy leaping between them. The omniverse around them groaned, and the Divine Grid… started to warp, the beautiful golden lines twisting and turned, spiraling down to the space between Frederic’s hands, even as his body trembled, and a bluish-white orb started to grow between them.

As he spoke, he spoke in words First did not understand. That alone was a fact that scared him, yet the very tone and nature of the words frightened him to his core. Finally, the orb appeared to be at its desired size as Frederic smiled, hefting it in one hand.

“Arise, My Love.” He flung the orb away, to right before him, where it grew and warped, taking on human appearance once more. “From beyond Death, I have retrieved you, My Love.”

“My Lord,” Jennifer stated, dipping her head.

“My Lady,” Frederic returned, bowing his head in response. He straightened up, and looked around. “The nineteenth incarnation of the hyperverse is another failure.”

“Lasting for nineteen billion years, it’s the most successful one yet, My Lord,” Jennifer replied, calmly. First stared from one to the other, not comprehending in the least what they were talking about.

“I am in luck I have had you with me for the last ten incarnations, My Lady,” Frederic answered his wife. “Or I would not have awakened now.” He looked at First. “The first time in nineteen incarnations I came close to death.”

“We must end it now,” Jennifer replied, looking around calmly. “Start over…”

One of the lesser Destroyers, a particularly thick-headed one, charged Frederic. Before he was even one-tenth of the way there, Frederic’s arms had reached out, one finger pointing at the Destroyer in question. The being stopped immediately, and started to scream. Slowly, his skin peeled away, vanishing into dust. After that, his muscles started to vanish, and the pain and intensity of the screams increased. Slowly, the muscles peeled away, revealing the internal organs, the skeleton, and the nervous system.

Careful to leave the lungs and the heart, so the being was kept alive, Frederic’s powers then started to lay into the skeleton, slowly dissolving the skeleton while keeping the nervous-system’s ability to transmit pain intact. Only after the skeleton was gone, did he start with the internal organs.

And then… when all that was left was a brain, a spinal cord, a heart, and a set of lungs, did Frederic dissolve the nervous system and kill it.

“That was cruel,” Jennifer stated calmly.

“I hate insects interrupting me,” Frederic answered, just as levelly. First shook in his boots. “But now… now it is time to start the twentieth incarnation of the omniverse.”

“Before we leave, My Lord…” Jennifer started.

Frederic smiled. “I know, My Lady. I did not forget.” He brought his hands up. “For the first time, we have had children. I can not leave them any more then you could.” Twenty seconds later, David and Jessica appeared.

“O-oh,” David whispered, looking around. “Why do I feel so different?”

“You have been awakened to your true selves,” Frederic stated calmly. “As the son and daughter of the Beings who start and end the omniverse.”

“Uh,” Jessica grunted. “What do you mean?”

Frederic smiled, lifting one hand. Clouds formed in deep space, slowly materializing a giant dark-gray orb in between them, before dissolving as quickly as they appeared. “I was the first life, appearing on a single planet revolving around a single sun. The Ancient Planet, upon which my true home lays, the Temple of Ages. As I was alone, yet had vast powers, I started to experiment… and built the first omniverse, to try and have company, dissolving my heart, mind, and soul to release my power, and be able to live among those I created.”

He drew a breath. “Those first universes were not a big success, and they grew unstable as fast as they were created… it took me six tries to get any longevity out of them. And then, in incarnation number nine… I met her who would be sharing my long life and travels across time and space…” He motioned for Jennifer. “Juan-Aproagh.”

“For ten omniversal incarnations, we were always together, always reincarnating, always finding each other. But this… this is the first time we have had children. And as such, you are able to go with us,” Jennifer stated.

“Wow,” David and Jessie whispered at the same time. “But… what now?” David asked.

“We shall end this hyperverse, and start over,” Frederic stated calmly.

“Hey now… end the omniverse!?” First screamed. Frederic turned to him, causing the being to actually start backing up. “Eh… eh… I mean… ending the omniverse entails killing everybody… and… eh… aren’t you the good guys?”

Frederic looked at him for a few more seconds. “Morality is below me now. I will end this hyperverse, and start anew. Someone saw fit to screw up the balance of good and evil, so it will disintegrate on its own anyway.”

First gulped. Frederic turned to Jennifer. “What lies beyond the skies?” he asked, voice-timbre changing oddly, as he formed ancient words with modern vocal cords.

Jennifer replied, voice modulating in exact accordance with Frederic. “Leading the Lost Child back to the Mother. Exile!” The sphere above groaned, warped, and started to deform.

Once again, I shall unlock my heart, Frederic thought as he looked up. Once more I shall end another omniverse, and start anew, in search for the perfect stability… stability in which I can live for eternity without disturbance! “The wave that colors the Earth in Gold!” he shouted at Jennifer, her own volume increasing to match.

“The Breath of Spring that bringeth life… the wheat-covered Earth!” she replied, the sphere deforming into a ship more clearly now.

Frederic lifted a hand to the ship, feeling ancient connections for once more. “The path of the angels, descend!”

“Thou art part of the Great Winds! The Grand Stream!” Jennifer replied, also lifting a hand to the Exile, the ship in which Frederic’s heart of power lie contained. They felt power rage through their bodies, lifting them to higher powers. David and Jessie, getting the point, lifted their own hands, and immediately, they were recognized by the ship, sharing its power with them as well.

Frederic’s voice decreased in power, to the point where it was an almost-whisper. “What lies beyond the memories?”

“The place where everything comes from… and everything returns to,” Jennifer answered. “The Blue Planet!”

The Exile, the dimensionaalschip, hung in space above the group of frightened-to-death Destroyers and the small band of Creators. Frederic lifted his second arm. “Exile, verbal command… Genesis of Rebirth!”

The Exile shuddered, ancient control panels activating. Genesis of Rebirth!

On the Ancient Planet, the skies glowed, and the present peoples, the first ever created even before the first omniverse had been built, stared at the beam leaving the Temple of the Ancients. “It has happened!” the elder whispered. “Praise the Lord, Our Creator, for He shall soon grace us!”

The first thing First felt was a shudder, almost like turbulence passing through the omniverse. Then, a bright white spot lit up, and ghastly powerful winds tugged at his clothes, at his body, even at his very connection to the Divine Grid. Beyond him, he could see planets, stars, and entire galaxies drift toward the bright-white glowing Super-Black-Hole in space that was literally the End of Time.

As he started to slip, First barely had time to recognize that Frederic, Jennifer, their children, and the Exile had vanished. Then, the winds overpowered him, and he too, vanished into the sinkhole of End of Time.

On the Ancient Planet, Frederic, Jennifer, David and Jessica were looking up, to where the white-out of matter vanishing into the Exile was bright in the skies. All around them, people were on their knees, praying.

“These are my first companions,” Frederic said, motioning to the people on the ground. “I created them before I even started thinking of an entire omniverse. And no matter how many times I tell them to, they will not stop worshiping.”

“For You are the Creator,” the head-priest whispered reverently from his position. “And from You and to You we all come.”

Frederic rolled his eyes, and smiled at his family. Once again, he looked up. “Exile is almost done.” He closed his eyes, letting his Mind connect to the Heart in orbit around the Ancient Plant, his true home, now that his memories from the Stone of Ages were returned. The white-out vanished then; and Frederic felt… empty. It was all gone, and he remembered once again why he did what he did.

The next incarnation of the omniverse, he thought to himself. Gods and Destroyers were well-balanced… but the balance faded. But still… they lasted for nineteen billion years. Hmm… maybe I should try something different.

He screwed his eyes shut even better, and formed a mental picture of a new omniverse, governed exclusively by the laws of physics. Completely throwing out all magic, all supreme beings, lesser gods, Gods of the Universe, Destroyers, even demons, vampires and Slayers. Okay, I tried this before, and physics ripped itself to pieces… but now I’ve got more experience, and I can produce better laws of physics. Let’s give it another shot…

The mental picture formed completely, and Frederic felt Exile integrate itself within him. Heart, Mind, and Soul united, and his power flared. Exile separated, vanished, and produced a Big Bang, forming the Laws of Physics, and spreading the fabric of the omniverse out through the tiny ball of material the newly born universe still was.

And seeding it with the building blocks of what would be stars, planets and life in a couple hundred million years.

Soon, Frederic knew, he and his family would give up their memories, and seal them within a new Stone of Ages, ready to insert their souls within the cycle of reincarnation, starting to cycle all over again.

 

 

The End.