ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (12 page)

The armor was pitch black with streaks of red in it. The red streaks pulsated giving the suit a cool look.

You just can’t go wrong with black and red.

Next to the sword were two small cylinders of metal. He picked them up. They were about as long as his palm and not very thick. His fingers could wrap around them comfortably.

He wondered what they were.

He heard Taylor’s voice behind. “Q?” she called out.

“Here!” He let her know where he was.

She exclaimed when she saw the armor.

“How did you get these?” she asked Q.

“Carlos left them for me here.”

Taylor was not able to believe what she was seeing. “You lucky dog! This is even better than the gear the dark knights get!”

“What are these things?” Q asked Taylor.

She looked at him quizzically. She took them from Q and inspected them.

Great! Even Taylor doesn’t know, Q thought

Taylor threw the cylinders to the side.

“Why did you do that?” Q asked.

“They’re probably just junk.”

Q looked at the suit of armor before him.

“Could you help me put it on?” Q asked her.

She smiled. “Just say ‘Ethosien’. The armor will take care of the rest.”

“Ethosien,” Q said.

“I would have done it with a little more drama, but yeah,” she said.

Q’s armor cracked in the middle and smoke came out. It opened up and attached itself to Q. A few seconds later Q was armored up and ready to fight.

“Cool!” Q said.

“Well, lookie here,” said Kai as he walked in. “Carlos helped you after all. Big time!”

“Wait. Didn’t Carlos give you a sword or anything?” Taylor asked.

“Nope.”

Taylor rolled her eyes and walked to the hangar wall. About ten swords were fixed to the wall. Taylor detached a sword and threw it at Q.

Just as Q was about to grasp the sword’s hilt, something knocked it away from him.

Q looked at the sword lying on the ground. It had cracked in half!

Taylor exclaimed and pointed to the ceiling.

Q looked up. There were two hollow discs with rims of pure light floating above him.

Suddenly, the light disappeared and two familiar metal cylinders fell into Q’s hands.

“So that’s what they were,” Kai said.

“What are they again?” Q asked.

“It’s a Durendal,” Taylor said. “Two discs of terrifying energy. A legendary weapon used in the war with the Megethos. It’s actually said to be a weapon created by the Megethos. They apparently used a secret procedure to create the weapon. No one knows what it was. This weapon was by far one of the strongest in this universe.”

Q’s hands started to tremble. Was he worthy of a weapon like this?

They heard an explosion and felt the ship rocking. That had been the third blast. Could the Orion take any more?

“Guys, fight now, talk later,” Taylor urged.

“Ethosien,” they both said.

Taylor drifted up into the air. She literally floated!

Her watch slowly expanded till it became a fully functional armor.

Her armor was black just like Q’s but there was something different about it. It almost looked as if there was some sort of power radiating from it.

She looked distorted as well. Q realized that there was a black fog that seeped out of her armor.

Cool special effect, he thought.

Kai didn’t have any dramatic changes. His armor started unfolding from his feet. It was a sleek metallic grey; one that made him look exactly like a medieval knight.

Q realized that Taylor’s sword too emitted the black fog. He wondered if it hindered her opponents somehow. It probably scared them as well!

In that outfit, she looked like the goddess of death. He’d only finished saying that when he saw a black fog around him.

His first impression was that it was something that Taylor was doing but her face clearly said that she had no idea what was going on.

“Dude...” Kai said “That is so cool!!” his face lit up.

“What? What?” Q asked.

“Your armor just turned into the same thing as Taylor’s.”

Q looked at himself. It was true. His armor had become exactly like the one Taylor had!

How did his suit change form? He’d thought how Taylor looked like a goddess of death and his suit changed.

Maybe that was it! He had thought how cool her suit was. Maybe all he needed was an image.

He thought about his armor growing. He imaged himself becoming bigger and bigger.

He opened his eyes. Kai’s face was somewhere near his hip! It worked! Q’s suit was twice its normal size.

Q had cracked the armor open; figuratively speaking of course.

Taylor interrupted him. “I’m sorry Q, but this fashion show’s got to wait. Why don’t we beat the pirates first and then watch episode 2?”

“Game on,” Kai said.

They went up to the pit. They passed by the bunker where Elizabeth was sleeping. Her face looked so peaceful that Q didn’t have the heart to wake her up.

It was only when they reached the pit could they actually
see the pirates’ ship. They wished they hadn't. Those guys were on a different level of technology.

You think the Orion was huge? It looked like an ant next to the pirates’ ship. Kai’s jaw dropped.  He had been bragging about his ship so far but he just had those rights wrapped up and minced back to him.

The pirates’ ship came closer to the Orion. Taylor could see two long mechanical arms coming out of a hole that had just opened up. The arms latched onto the Orion and reeled it in.

The inside of the pirates’ ship was dark but Kai had a feeling it was better that way. There was no guarantee that he’d like what he would see. Actually there was a guarantee he wouldn’t like what he would see.

They heard banging from the outside.

“I think that’s our door,” Kai said.

He was hyperventilating. Q wondered if the guy had ever been in a fight before.

“Just relax. It’ll all be fine.” Taylor put her arm on his shoulder.

“We’ve got to surprise them,” Q suggested.

“I say we let them wear themselves down banging on the door,” Taylor said.

“We have no idea how many of them there are, they could keep banging on the door all day long.”

“But if they get into the ship we’re dead meat,” Kai caught on to Q’s idea quickly.

Taylor saw it as well. “Open the door and launch an attack. On three. One, two, THREE,” she yelled.

She charged at the door……

………and hit it smack in the face.

Q looked at Kai. “Oh! Was I supposed to open it?” he asked.

Taylor got up. “Don’t tell me that you didn’t know that,” she said between clenched teeth.

Q opened the door before Taylor got any angrier.

On the other side were about thirty really surprised pirates. They were regular looking humans but Q had to remind himself that everything in the universe looked somewhat like humans. The women looked even more ferocious than the men. The way they brandished their blades sent shivers up Q’s spine.

He still restrained himself. His conscience wasn’t letting him fight. These pirates came from the same galactic family as Q did. Could he kill them just like that?

One of the pirates fired a laser at Kai. Kai flew back a few meters and into the Orion. He was dazed but still alive.

Q turned his gaze towards the pirates.

“They are not human. They are savages who’ll do anything to kill us. Is that what you want?” he asked himself.

He yelled out a battle cry and charged at the pirates.

Taylor fought the few pirates who were unfortunate enough to try to kill her.

Slash, slash and slash.
Three pirates fell to the ground.

“Who else wants a piece of me?” she bellowed.

Meanwhile Q in his giant armor was slowly shrinking. Taylor wondered if something was wrong. Then she realized that it was a stupid question. Why? Read on.

Q’s armor shrunk back to its normal size but there was something different about it.

It had reversed colors. It was now a red suit with pulsating streaks of black.

Q raised his hands. A burning black flame covered his whole suit. The Durendal appeared in his hands. Two circles of black energy. A photograph of the scene would’ve probably sold for a million dollars. That’s how cool it was.

Oh! yeah. Back to the fight.

Q just slashed and slashed and didn’t stop. Taylor didn’t have to do anything but that wasn’t going to stop her from getting a piece of the action.

Kai was the odd one out; sitting at the entrance to the Orion, a spectator to Q and Taylor’s carnage.

“Time to get serious” Taylor grinned at the pirates.

She twirled around twice and sank into the floor. After that everything was chaos. She would rise randomly from a spot and maul everything around her and then sink back in, again and again.             

A few minutes later nothing remained of the pirates. With danger out of the way, Q’s armor kept folding up till it disappeared.

“Hey! Where did it go?” He turned to Taylor. She put her sword back in and helped Kai up.

Q was relieved to see Kai safe and sound. He’d assumed the worst when he saw him fly into the ship.

“Your armor hid itself. All you have to do is say ‘Ethosien’ whenever you want to arm yourself and your armor will come out into battle.”

They walked into the ship. Kai and Taylor went to the pit to start the ship. The first thing that came to Q’s mind was to check how Elizabeth was doing. He was walking towards the bunks when he heard a blood curdling scream.

He ran towards the noise. He rushed to the bunks and found the door locked. He backed up and rammed on it. It broke down easily.

On the other side was a scared Elizabeth.

A blue haired female pirate stood next to her. Her sword poised; going for the kill.

Answers

Q didn’t have any time to react. He had only taken a few steps forward when the Zyxian brought its sword down on Elizabeth.

Q closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see his friend get butchered. There was silence for a long time.

She…she’s dead, Q thought.

He tried opening his eyes slowly. He didn’t want to see the terrible sight.

The Zyxian had just frozen with the sword inches away from Elizabeth.

It had a horn growing from its stomach. It took Q a while to realize that it wasn’t a horn. It was a dagger. Chris stepped out from behind the Zyxian.

“Good thing I didn’t come out to fight, huh?” she asked, her voice deathly quiet.

Elizabeth was still frozen. Her brain was still processing why she hadn't died yet.

“ELIZABETH!” Chris yelled into her ears.

Elizabeth flinched a little bit and turned normal again. She just stared at Chris and then realized what had happened.

“Thank you so much!” she said, and hugged Chris.

“Umm... you’re welcome?” Chris didn't know how to react.

Taylor and Kai came running in.

“What happened?” Taylor asked. “We heard screams.”

Chris told them the whole story. At the end of it Taylor’s face was full of awe.

Elizabeth punched Q. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Taylor too looked at Q.  “Yeah... why didn’t we wake her up?”

“Well she did faint and we didn’t know how much she could fight, so the best thing to do was to let her sleep,” Q said.

“So how long till we reach?” Taylor asked.

“About half a day or so,” Kai said.

“We haven’t got much time; we’re going to have to rush,” Q told Kai.

“About that” Taylor started. “You never really told us
what
it is that we’re after.”

Q hit the panic button. He didn’t know if he should tell them the truth or not. If he did tell them, they might panic, like he was doing; but they did have a right to know. He decided to take a plunge for it and tell them anyway.

So he told them the whole deal. The super black hole, the other black holes that were making him bigger and worst of all, their seven-day deadline till a hole was ripped in space-time and the universe ended.

“Didn't see that coming,” Kai said.

“So do you know where it is that we’re going?” Taylor asked him.

“All Carlos told me is that we’ll meet a guy there who’ll tell us what we’ve got to do,” Q replied.

“C’mon guys. Just relax. We’ve got half a day to burn,” Elizabeth suggested.

After that, everyone went about doing their own stuff.

Q picked up a superman comic that Kai had brought and flicked through the pages. Chris studied Elizabeth to try and figure out why she had fainted like that.

Taylor sat in the bunks practicing her sword stance. She had started acting more seriously now that everyone knew that she was a dark knight.

Q wondered if this was her actual personality and the ‘always cheerful’ Taylor was just a gag.

Kai sat in the pit looking at the constellations in space. He had a lot on his mind.

What Q had told them only gave them a general idea and not the complete picture. He hoped that this guy that they were going to meet would clear it up for them.

Q put the comic down after a while and went over to Taylor. She was sitting on her bunk looking out into space.

“What’s wrong?” she turned to Q.

“I was just wondering why this stuff was kept a secret from me for so long,” Q said.

Taylor sighed. “You weren't ready. The universe wasn't facing any threats either. I may be wrong, but I think the whole reason Carlos brought you into this now is because he thinks you're the only one who can save the universe.”

“Isn’t that kind of funny? I mean, why can't you do it? Why can't Elizabeth? All those kids from the other classes? Carlos himself could take on this mission.”

“It’s simple really. None of them ever created a force field.”

“I don't even know how to wield a sword!”

“And yet you were able to beat a seasoned swordsman,” she said. “Don’t underestimate yourself. You’re much more than what you think.”

Q recalled Carlos telling him the same thing. “Thanks Taylor,” he smiled.

He walked back to the pit and picked up another comic.