Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion (4 page)

“He is welcome to
try.”

“And what if he
kills you?”

“Then I will join
Sarah at the gates of heav . . .” Chase let the sentence hang as more
tears flowed down his face.

“I see. Look, I— What
the?”

“What is it?”

“Oh no! He’s
here!”

“Who’s there?” asked
Chase with genuine concern.

Chase heard an
echoing voice in the valley.

“Speaking to my
brother, Ares? Say hello for me, will ya?”

Ares looked at
Chase with terror in his eyes. Chase’s blood started to boil.

“Where are you,
Ares? How can I help?”

“You can’t. It’s
too late. I’ll have to face Argos myself.”

“But you said—”

“Yes, Chase, I
know what I said. I will try to hold him off as much as I can, to give
Aphroditis a fighting chance to escape, but you must help her! Please help
her!”

“Ares!” said
Chase as his mentor’s body faded away before his eyes.

The sky turned
dark red and lightning strikes fell all around.

“Tell me where
you are!!!”

“We’re in the
Megara sector, Chase. Goodbye . . .”

“Aaaaaaareeeeees!”
shouted Chase, before falling to his knees as the world around him was
destroyed a little more with every new crimson lightning strike.

*  
*   *

Chase awoke and
felt his wrist buzz and vibrate. He blinked his eyes multiple times and a foul
odor reached his nostrils. A Brin was reaching for him.

“Get the fuck
away from me!” he muttered.

The Brin grinned,
jumped back to his feet and took a blaster out of his holder.

Not in the
mood
,
thought Chase.

He jumped to his
feet and kicked the Brin in the guts. The Brin fell to his knees, dropping his
blaster, his wind cut from the impact of the kick.

A wave of hate
permeated every fiber of Chase’s being and his eyes glowed intensely. He took a
step towards the Brin and put his palm on the Brin’s head. The body instantly exploded
into a million pieces and splattered blood all over Chase and his surroundings.

“Ooops,” said
Chase out loud.

Right, side
effects
, he remembered.

He looked at the
blood and guts on him and all around. He made his aura glow and it burned every
trace to ashes.

“Sorry, dude,
don’t know how to heal someone in this . . .”—he made a face that
clearly expressed his disgust—“state.”

He looked at his
wrist and saw he was already late for his meeting with Keera.

“Dammit!” he said.
His feet elevated from the ground and he flew within the corridors at maximum
speed.

*  
*   *

Keera was
standing in launch bay seven near Chase’s craft, looking at her wrist.

“Where are you,
Chase?” she said out loud.

She heard
multiple steps coming down the nearest corridor. It was Tron’Tak and five of
his goons. She did not like this one bit.

Tron’Tak was a
tall and muscled blue-skinned humanoid with brown dreadlocks of dirty hair,
yellow teeth and more than a few scars on his face.

“What is this,
Tron’Tak?”

“I changed my
mind. You can’t have that ship.”

“A deal is a deal.
You owed me anyway.”

“I didn’t owe you
that
much.”

“That’s not for
you to decide. Back off, Tron’Tak! Get your goons and go back where you came
from, if you value your lives.”

“You’re good,
Keera, but you’re not
that
good.”

Sensing the
inevitable, Keera sprang into action without waiting another moment. She took
two small blades from her back and threw them at two of the goons. Both blades
landed firmly within her targets’ brains and they collapsed to the ground. She
then took her blaster from her holster, but Tron’Tak was faster and shot it out
of her hands with his. It flew backwards and sparked upon impact with the
ground. The other three goons ran towards her and turned on their light-blades.
She parried the first incoming blade, ducked and unleashed a powerful, circling
kick that swiped her assailant off balance. She grabbed his light-blade and
used it to stop the attack from the next goon. When the blades collided, they
crackled loudly. She kicked the goon hard in the face and used her blade to
impale the previous attacker before he had time to recover from his fall. He
screeched briefly before his eyes turned dead.

The goon she had kicked
got back up and raised his blade in a defensive stance, while the other ran
towards her, screaming from the bottom of his lungs.

Amateur,
she thought.

She easily dodged
his incoming blade and, in a fluid motion, she decapitated him. His body kept
running while his head fell near her feet and rolled a little, his lifeless
stare locked into a state of utter terror. She lost no time and threw her light-blade
spinning towards the last goon. He blocked the blade with his own and it fell
to the ground, but by then she was upon him. She took a thin, sharp, long blade
from behind her skin-tight body armor and before the goon could react she
sliced him in two with a fluid, vertical motion.

But then it all
went bad. She felt a dart impact her jugular. She pulled it from her neck, but
felt the effect of the poison almost immediately. She swore as she heard
Tron’Tak laugh. She turned towards him and saw a sick smile on his face.

She tried to take
a step forward but she couldn’t feel her muscles anymore. Her grip on her blade
loosened first, and it fell to the ground with a metallic clunk. Her legs were
next to give in and she fell down face first. Her head hit the ground with
pounding pain, and she almost lost consciousness, but could still hear the
maddening laugh of Tron’Tak as he approached and grabbed her by the hair.

“Don’t touch me!
What the hell did you do to me?”

“It’s my favorite
poison; very fast acting. It numbs my prey but they stay awake, so they can
still feel the pain of what’s coming next.”

“You sick fuck!”

He dragged her
and placed her belly down on a nearby crate. He then approached her face and
licked it with his foul-smelling, blue tongue.

“I’m gonna kill
you for this, Tron’Tak!”

“Uh-huh. I would
like to see you try. I liked our partnership in the past, but I always wanted
to fuck you, and looks like my wish is about to come true.”

“You worthless
pig. Don’t you dare touch me!”

He grabbed her
pants and pulled them down.

This can’t be
happening!
she thought, her brain paralyzed by the
sheer terror of what was unfolding, with her body utterly powerless to do
anything about it.

Tron’Tak
unbuckled his belt and ripped her panties off.

“You better kill
me after or I’ll cut your junk and make you eat it, you sick fuck. Don’t you
dare touch me!”

“You mean like this?”
He put his dirty fingers between her legs. “But don’t worry. I’ll probably kill
you during, but I want you to feel me deep inside you when it happens.”

She felt his
vicious hand between her legs, and rage and disgust overwhelmed her thoughts. Her
brain panicked, unable to process the nightmare. But she was simply powerless,
unable to move a single muscle.

“Now for the fun
part.”

“You’re a dead
man!”

“Nah, I’m a lucky
man,” he said as he took his manhood out and readied himself to forcefully enter
Keera.

“Hey, asshole!”
heard Tron’Tak just before entering her.

Clearly startled,
Tron’Tak turned around.

“Rape this!” said
Chase, with a look radiating amethyst, as he released a fireball.

Before Tron’Tak
could do anything his genitals exploded into pieces and blood spattered
everywhere, some on Keera’s bare skin, accompanied by a jolt of tremendous
pain, utter shock and a loud shriek.

“What did you d—”
But he never finished his sentence.

Chase moved so
fast he nearly teleported next to him and severed his head from his body with a
fast, waving slice of his hand. It fell and rolled on the ground, ending in
front of Keera. She could see his lifeless eyes and the look of terror and
shock locked into his lifeless face. He twitched creepily.

Chase took the
shirt off the now-collapsed body of Tar’Lock and ripped it. He then gently
wiped the blood from Keera’s back with his eyes closed. He brought her pants
back to her.

Tears flowed down
her face. She was panicked, paralyzed and ashamed at the same time. She felt
Chase’s hand on her back as well as a warm, bright light above her. Soon the
sensation returned to her muscles.

She stood and
turned her back to Chase, putting her face in her hands and sobbing.

“You’re alright,
Keera?”

She didn’t
answer. She spat on Tron’Tak’s face and then kicked his head with all her
energy, sending it flying against a nearby wall.

Chase moved next
to her. “It’s over. He will never hurt anyone anymore.”

Her stomach boiled
and she fell knees first to the ground and vomited.

After a minute
she started to tremble uncontrollably, and Chase put his hand on her shoulder. It
startled her.

“I’m sorry,
Keera, I . . .”

She rose and took
him into her arms, crying all the tears of her body.

“Thank you,
Chase.”

“I’m so sorry for
being late.”

“You arrived when
it mattered. Please tell me you arrived before . . .” She couldn’t
bear to say the words.

“Yes. He didn’t.”

She exhaled
strongly and cried some more in Chase’s arms for a few minutes.

“You’re gonna be
okay?” said Chase as he stroked her hair gently.

She sniffed,
wiped her tears, looked at Chase and nodded.

“Ready to leave
this place?”

“Yeah
. . . The sooner the better.”

Ares stepped down
from the platform and took three cautious steps towards Argos. His heart pounded
in his chest. He could barely hold on against Chase during their last training
visions. How was he to contain someone as powerful as Argos? But he only needed
to delay him and let Aphroditis escape. Her powers of foresight could be the
difference between victory and defeat in this war. Ares didn’t really know if that
was the case, but if he didn’t do anything, they’d both be killed anyway. And
that was not an option, not if he could do anything about it.

On the other side
of the room, Aphroditis was shaking from fear.

“Let her leave.”

“Why? She’s the
one who’s been boosting my brother’s morale, to the point where he almost
killed me last we fought. She must pay for that.”

“I trained Chase.
Your beef is with me.”

“Well, my beef is
with your entire race, really, so whether I kill her today or tomorrow, she’s a
goner.”

“Not today,
though.”

“Oh yeah? Wanna
bet?”

“Not
. . . today,” said Ares, strengthening the tone of his voice.

“Do you think I
fear you even an iota? Dude, you’re already dead. She’s next, and in time we
will eradicate your race, like we should have done so long ago.”

Ares raised an
eyebrow. “Who’s we?”

“None of your
business.”

“If we’re dead
anyway, why can’t you tell us? Unless you think you could fail at your objective
today.”

“Oh, believe me,
you’ll both be dead by the end of the day.”

“So?”

Argos looked
deeply into Ares’ eyes.

“So nothing. I’m
not here to explain myself to you. I came to punish you for intervening. You
know full well you were not allowed to.”

“Neither were you
to strike a deal with the Zarlacks and then the Obsidian.”

“Technically the
Furies are dead, so . . .”

“Seriously,
that’s how you justify getting out of a rule that also applies to you? Furies
are an old race. When we defeated you, we, the older races, all agreed we
wouldn’t interfere with the affairs of the younger races, now that the war was
finally over.”

“Well it’s not
over. I’m still fighting for my side.”

“You’ll lose!”

“Uh-huh, alright,
sure; but not by your hands.”

“Let’s see, shall
we?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve
been waiting for a long time to kill my first Olympian, so come on, old fart,
bring it on!”

Ares looked at
Aphroditis, who had witnessed the verbal exchange from a few feet away. She
still looked terrified, but upon meeting Ares’ look, tears flowed.

“Aphroditis! Get
the hell out of here. NOW!” said Ares as he jumped towards Argos, launching a
powerful series of blows.

She ran towards
the exit of the communications room and didn’t look back.

Argos dodged or blocked
every one of Ares’ attacks with ease. In fact, he looked bored. In the middle
of Ares’ next combo Argos eyes blinked red for a brief instant before he
clocked Ares in the head with a circling kick. It sent Ares crashing against
the nearest wall.

“Very
disappointing,” said Argos, shaking his head from side to side.

Ares created a
green fireball in his hand and shot it towards Argos, but it missed him by a fair
margin, to Argos’ surprise. It was not until it blew away part of the structure
near the door behind him that he understood what Ares had done and why.

“This won’t trap
me here, you know that.”

“It will give her
enough time to get away from you.”

“I’ll get her
anyway, now that I know how to track you.”

“Let’s see if you
survive, Argos, because I’m not ready to let you live one more day.”

“Not in your
control I’m afraid, old man.”

Ares smiled. He
launched himself at Argos with a powerful uppercut that Argos dodged by arching
his torso backwards. But then he was grabbed from behind.

“You were
saying?” said another Ares, with his forearms firmly lodged against Argos’
throat.

The other Ares
turned about and sent three successive, powerful knee strikes towards Argos’
thorax. Upon the third blow, blood escaped Argos’ mouth. As the first Ares sent
a fireball towards his target, Argos arched himself forwards and exposed the
Ares holding him to the path of the attack, but the second Ares vanished right before
the impact, successfully throwing Argos down as a result.

Ares knew that
all his tricks would not allow him to defeat Argos, but he really needed to buy
Aphroditis enough time to get out of Dodge.

Argos stood,
dusted himself off, and wiped a little blood from the corner of his mouth with
the back of his hand.

“Not bad, but
this trick won’t work twice.”

Argos vanished,
appeared behind Ares and planted his elbow strongly in Ares’ back, sending him
flying forward. While Ares was still in midair, Argos re-appeared under him and
catapulted him to the ceiling with a powerful kick. After Ares impacted with
the ceiling, and as he fell back towards the ground, Argos clocked him once
more with a powerful right hook. Ares flew and crashed face first into the
ground a few feet away.

He moaned as he
tried to get himself back up.

“You do realize
that this fight is already over?” said Argos defiantly.

“The way I see
it, it’s just begun.”

Argos lifted his
right hand with an open palm towards his opponent. “Let’s see,” said Argos,
before unleashing a flurry of small, red fireballs towards Ares.

Ares jumped
around to dodge the first salvo, and then managed to deflect another three attacks,
but there were simply too many coming too fast for him to keep up. The last few
all impacted on different parts of his body, and he was again thrown to the
ground. Smoke rose from his body and blood flowed from a few of the impact
wounds.

“Shall we
continue?” inquired Argos with a broad, defiant smile. “Or did you have enough
already? I can make this painless, you know.”

Ares rose as best
he could, his knees trembling, having a difficult time keeping himself upright.
He spat blood on the ground.

Get the hell
out, Aphroditis
, he thought to himself.

Ares had no doubt
that the end was near, but he still had some juice in him, and intended to
fight Argos till the very end. He closed his eyes and brought up as much energy
as he could muster for his next attack. His aura intensified and glowed bright
gold. When he opened his eyes, an air of confidence and determination could be
read on his face.

Argos smiled.
“You know you’re never gonna win and yet you keep fighting. Why?”

“Because people
like me . . . that’s what we do. We fight evil like you. We gladly
give our lives because we know that one day, hopefully soon enough, we will
defeat you.”

“That’s almost
hilarious.”

“Tell that to
Chase the next and probably last time he comes for you.”

Argos’ smile
vanished. Ares knew he had put the finger right where it hurt Argos’ gigantic
ego. Argos’ mouth clenched and his teeth showed. He was getting angry. Perhaps
that would make him less efficient, Ares hoped.

It was time to
unleash the attack Ares had been powering up for. He sent three duplicates of
himself to attack Argos from all sides, but Argos had no issue dealing with
them. In the meantime, Ares kept powering up his aura, with his fists firmly
pressed against his body at belt level. When he saw Argos dispatch two of his
copies he transferred all of his energy into his right hand and launched
himself into the mix. Argos saw him coming, dodged his right blow, and answered
with a knee to the thorax that Ares blocked with his left forearm. Then the
last Ares copy dropped to the ground, doing the splits, and punched Argos straight
in the knee. He registered the pain from the blow and that was all Ares wanted:
a little distraction. He landed the powerful right blow on which he had
concentrated most of his energy in Argos’ stomach. It sent him gliding back a
few feet while blood flew from his open mouth.

Argos’ look of
hate intensified. Clearly that blow had hurt him, something he wasn’t expecting
at this point in the fight. Argos clenched his teeth and fists and released a
haunting growl as he used his rage to grow his aura, burning a flaming red.
Lightning bolts danced all around him. His eyes glowed strongly as he put both
his hands in front of him.

This better
work
, thought Ares.

In between Argos’
hands, a dark, red fireball came to life, with black lightning crackling all around
it as it grew and grew. When it reached four feet in diameter, Argos threw the
attack at Ares, who reacted instantly. He drew a circle with his hands and
created a mirror shield.

“Perseus’ mirror shield!”
shouted Ares as the fireball impacted the shield and was sent back towards
Argos, whose eyes widened in surprise.

Argos extended
his hands to block his own attack, but the moment he did so, Ares was upon him;
three instances of him, in fact. One grabbed him from behind and locked Argos’
shoulders against his torso, while the other two each kicked one of Argos’ arms
out of the way. Argos was engulfed and burned by his own attack. The resulting
explosion sent every duplicate Ares flying. The two copies disintegrated from
the blast, while the original landed against the ground nearby, breaking a
couple of ribs upon impact.

As the dust from
the explosion settled, Argos was on his knees, black and red smoke rising from
his bloodied body. His red, glowing eyes, enhanced with rage and exploded blood
vessels, gave him a psycho-madman look.

Blood flowed from
his mouth as he spoke. “You little cockroach. You’re gonna pay for this!
Tenfold!”

Ares never really
hoped that this trick would do anything but delay the inevitable, but seeing
how powerful the attack had been, he had hoped it could perhaps put Argos
temporarily out of commission; but no such luck. Argos was panting heavily but
the look he cast Ares froze his blood. His mind raced, trying to figure out
something else to throw at Argos, preferably before he healed himself. Then it
came to him.

Ares threw a
fireball at the rubble he had created to let Aphroditis escape, which surprised
Argos, and started running down the same corridor she had used minutes before.

“You’re not going
anywhere, coward!” shouted Argos as he rose to his feet and started chasing
Ares, who had a good head start.

*  
*   *

Aphroditis
arrived at her ship and lost no time powering it up. After a few seconds she
took off from the huge asteroid in which their base was hidden. She could sense
Ares’ life energy drain more with each minute since she flew the communications
chamber. Tears still flowed down her face. Ares was one of the Olympians’ most
fearless and skilled fighters, but she knew he was no match for Argos. No one was
but Chase.

She maneuvered
the ship out of the asteroid field, entered Earth’s coordinates and jumped her
ship.

“Goodbye, Ares. Thank
you,” she said, while looking outside her cockpit at the lightshow of
hyperspace travel with a heavy heart.

Chase, I beg
you, come back to us before it’s too late
.

*  
*   *

Chase felt as if
he was a prisoner inside a tank filled with liquid. His heart pumped hard but
he couldn’t move a single muscle. He wanted to pound against the glass through
the green liquid but he was paralyzed. Something was running through his veins
that prevented him from moving, no doubt delivered by the tubes entering his
body and holding him in place within the green-tinted tank.

That’s when he
heard her voice in his mind, as if it was his own thoughts.

“Help me, Chase,
please help.”

He felt dread
mixed with intense sadness at hearing Sarah’s voice. Another nightmare, the
same he had been experiencing every single night since he blew her ship. That
thought alone sent him towards a whirlwind of self-hatred. But, like every time
before, nothing happened in the dream. He was there, powerless to do anything
but experience the repeated scene again and again, every time he managed to get
some shut eye.

But then
something different happened. The door into the darkly lit lab opened and a
shadow entered. It took a while for his eyes to focus and see in the darkness, but
he recognized the shape as his eyes adjusted.

Argos!

He wanted to feel
rage and explode his liquid prison, but instead he was afraid, terrified even.
He didn’t understand why. He was not afraid of his brother. In fact, since he
had defeated him on Damocles station, he was looking forward to their next and
last meeting. Still, it was clear that the emotion coursing through his body
wasn’t hatred or rage, but fear. It was as though the emotion he was sensing
wasn’t his own.