Chapter 40

Bane, now a ten-foot-tall super-void, grew larger by the second, draining the life from everything within the camp. Despite his constant feeding, one thing separated Bane from the void. He would soon need a host body to contain his essence. “Craven,” his gaze locked on the Terovian commander.

“Bane, I-” Craven, suffocating, recognized the voice, his face flushed with fear.

The super-void stalked toward him, ravenous. “I always envied your calm… your poise. I will envy it no longer. Your body will serve me well.” The void opened its maw. Black tendrils pierced Craven’s eyes, mouth and nose, like snakes. The Terovian commander fell to the ground, tremors rattling his armor. His eyes bulged and rolled to their whites, clouding to shining obsidians. Biting through his tongue, blood seeped from the corners of his mouth.

“Ahh,” Bane exhaled from within Craven’s body. He rose, testing his new limbs, smoke-like wisps dissipating around him. He leapt effortlessly to where Norm and Zalee were being held. He stepped on Norm’s mid-section and drove his onyx scepter into Zalee’s wound. “I believe I will like this new body.” Within seconds, the storm and air returned and the melee between the Terovians, blood-gutters and Menehune resumed. The Terovians regrouped, ready to fight. The Menehune, outnumbered and without the element of surprise, fought bravely, but could do little beyond distracting the raider’s defenses.

“Death may yet find this Scion, but while he lives, I will cause him eternal pain.” He drove the scepter into her open wound.

Zalee gritted her teeth in defiance. “He is coming.”

“And too late.” Bane dragged her up by her braids. “My ship is black matter. Enough to annihilate…” Bane grinned, “everything.”

“Not yet, ugly.” Norm rolled and found one of Vorgan’s maces. From his knees, he smashed Bane’s foot. A howling scream followed.

Norm sprang to his feet and swung the mace again, missing his target badly.

“I won’t underestimate you again,” Bane seethed, hobbling backward.

“Neither will I.” Norm wound up and slipped, spinning awkwardly to the muddy ground.

“Craven?” Vorgan asked, immediately recognizing the familiar blackness in his commander’s eyes. “Is it… you?”

“Not anymore.” Bane shook his head as Zalee dove behind the cannon bunker. “He is still here, but not in control. Our agreement still stands.”

Vorgan recognized the voice and nodded, kicking the mace out of Norm’s reach. “You are a fool.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Then how come…” Norm picked up a handful of mud and whipped it into Vorgan’s face. “I keep kicking your ass?”

Vorgan roared and grabbed the mace. Norm scurried for cover behind a scrapped hover jet.

Zalee staggered to her knees. No sign of Bane, she= pain, sharp, in her side. She fell backward, kicking, pushing herself through the mud. Bane stalked her, the confident predator, taunting.

“It was easy for me. It can be for you. Give in to the void.” Bane jabbed the pointed end of his poison scepter to her throat. “And let hate consume you.” Bane’s words echoed through the camp as the storm mysteriously dispersed. The melee waned, the combatants perplexed. Clouds drifted, separating, replaced by stars lining the blue-black night.

-Boom- The mountain shook. A quake echoed from off in the distance. The booming, faster Like the thunderous footsteps breaking into a sprint. Boom- Boom- BOOM-

“He’s coming,” Zalee whispered.

“No!” Bane cowered.

“Now!” She snapped her fingers, igniting enough Lemurian flare dust to distract Bane. She pushed the scepter and tumbled away. The wind churned, trees bowed and swayed, the light of the chakras blazing through the forest above them.

Skell crashed through the trees and stomped the ground, an earthquake rippling through the camp. Dylan sat atop the Skell’s broad shoulders, his chakras pulsing, electric star fire crackling from head to toe.

Norm peeked from behind the wrecked hover jet. “You did it! And you got a ride from- is that a statue? Look out!” The raiders and blood-gutters rushed Dylan, blasts ricocheted off Skell’s stone hide. Dylan clapped his hands. A wave of white-blue energy like an electromagnetic hurricane blasted the aliens across the camp.

Dylan’s eyes, like blue stars, scanned the camp before settling on Bane and his void aura. “There you are.” He leapt off Skell and clapped again, light exploding from his fingertips in a tight burst of energy. The blast knocked Bane over a pile of wreckage. Another pack of raiders fired from the side, their blasts deflecting off Dylan. With a wave, he cast another sheet of electro-magnetic fire through their ranks. Relentless, the remaining Terovians attacked.

“Vorgan, to my shuttle!” Bane’s voice was wrought with fear. He used the distraction to slip into the shuttle. “Vorgan.”

“Commander, I-” Vorgan, still stalking Norm, stopped in his tracks. “There will be another day, human.” He lumbered into the shuttle doorway, scowling at Norm.

“And I’ll kick your ass again, sucker!” Norm said, flipping him the New Jersey bird. The shuttle door closed and lifted into the air.

“Norm, stop them,” Zalee called.

“What do you want me to do?” Norm picked up a rock and threw it harmlessly at the hovering ship before it shot into the night sky. “Yeah, that worked.”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to find him.” Dylan said, striding toward Norm as the last Terovians scurried for cover, the Menehune pursuing them into the woods. “And I’m going to make him sorry for what he did to Max.”

Norm fist bumped Dylan with a slight bit of awe. “Now, that is what I’m talking about. You really did it. You’re the Scion. And seriously, is this guy,” Norm pointed to Skell, clomping up behind them. “Are you from Easter Island?”

“This is Skell, he’s the-Zalee!” Dylan stopped short and rushed to her side, taking her weight across his shoulders before she collapsed. “Are you ok?”

“The synchronicity.” Zalee smiled, her fingers tracing across Dylan’s cheek. “But Bane’s ship, the actual ship, is a black hole! If it gets within range, the planet will be lost.”

“I don’t know how to even reach them to use my power.”

“Can you fly?” Norm flapped his arms.

“I really haven’t tried. And we don’t have time for your tests.” Dylan shot Norm a look. “We have to get back to Telos and Adama. Now!”

Norm and Zalee exchanged glances, neither knowing Alaris’ condition.

“Dylan,” Norm rested his hand on Dylan’s shoulder, “we may have some, well… surprises back in Telos.”

“Good or bad?” Dylan wondered out loud.

“I don’t know, but I guess we’re going to find out.”