ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (30 page)

He vanished. Q knew that he wouldn’t have run away. He searched for Apocalypse.

He was on a nearby star trying to absorb all that power.

Q waited for him to come back. Apocalypse came back, but only after he had an army of black hole humanoids.

“Didn’t see that coming,” Q muttered.

All the soldiers had a sword and shield each. They rode on some sort of horses that seemed like black holes as well.

They slashed at Q with terrifying force. Q managed to create a force field to hold off the attacks. But even that could hold only for so long and soon it shattered into nothing.

The soldiers rammed into Q, sending him to the ground. Dust blew all around the site of impact. When it cleared away, Q lay down in a crater the size of a football field. The soldiers seemed to have disappeared.

Apocalypse probably couldn’t control them for long enough.

Q groaned as he stood up again.

His bones felt like lead, he felt as though his blood had frozen. His whole body ached in pain.

He began to doubt himself. Was he really that powerful? He had the Ultimate Weapon now. But was that enough?

“It has to be,” he murmured.

Suddenly a huge rock came out of nowhere and slammed into Q, sending him flying.

He landed on the ground hard, the air knocked out of his lungs.

He coughed as he got up. His body felt like it had reached its limit. It was slowly wearing away.

He wasn’t sure he could take anymore of this.

He shook the thought out of his mind and took a deep breath.

”‘I am not going to give up,” Q assured himself.

“I am the Hand of God!”

He looked up. Apocalypse floated above him.

Apocalypse thrust his hand out and a sphere of energy trapped Q inside it.

He couldn’t even move his arms.

He felt like someone had turned him into a statue.

Now he floated inside the sphere. Completely immobilized. Unable to even save himself, let alone the entire universe.

“Now what do you say?” he asked.

A grin crossed Q’s face. “I say goodbye.”

The sphere shattered into nothing. Q floated above the ground. A burning aura radiating from him.

The planet started to hum softly. It started vibrating.

Apocalypse tried moving. He seemed to be stuck.

“W...what is this?”

“I’ve got tricks of my own as well,” Q said, his eyes still golden.

He opened a portal. He could see the white room on the other side. He looked one last time at Apocalypse. The latter’s face filled with terror. This was for hurting his friends.

He entered the portal. The planet started to shake vigorously.

“Looks like I finally met my match,” Apocalypse laughed madly. “Remember. I can never be destroyed. I will meet you again. Beware of Apocalypse! You have made an immortal enemy, Hand of God. Pray I be merciful in our next encounter.”

The planet got blasted to bits.

No, there weren’t even bits of it left.

Every atom had annihilated itself, a disaster which would have no survivors.

A disaster worthy of the name of Q.

Happily Ever After?

Q crossed the portal onto the other side to meet the worried faces of all his friends.

Kai had regained consciousness though Carlos was still knocked out cold. They all sat together, hands around there legs. Q thought he saw Kai biting his fingernails.

As soon as they saw Q, they ran over. Taylor ran over and gave him a hug. She charged into him so hard that he fell down.

“Um... Taylor? A little uncomfortable here,” he said.

She got up, grinning broadly.

“So what happened?” Kai asked Q.

So he told them all about the battle with Apocalypse and everything.

“Hey, why are your eyes golden?” Chris asked.

Q smiled and the color went back to grey. He immediately fell to the floor. Taylor helped him up.

“I’ll get some water,” Kai ran. He came back right away. “I forgot we’re in a black hole.”

Q stirred a little bit. He opened his eyes and fluttered them.

“Where am I?” he asked them.

Taylor looked at Chris.

“The other one had golden eyes. I wonder who he was,” she said.

They made Q sit down and listen to everything that had happened. At the end he opened his palm and showed them the Ultimate Weapon.

“So this thing is supposed to be really powerful, huh?” Kai said.

“So you finally took it back, huh?” a voice said.

It was Carlos!

Q ran over and hugged him. “I missed you so much,” he said.

“Me too. Well technically not me, but..... Ah, forget it!” he said. Typical Carlos.

“Can we please go back to the academy?” Chris asked. Q got into the Orion, followed by everyone else.

“I wanna take a nap,” Carlos demanded. Q showed him the bunks that they had. In the end, he slept as well. Destroying a black hole was much too exhausting.

Kai started the Orion and headed out of the black hole. With Apocalypse destroyed there weren’t any barriers resisting them. The actual surprise waited for them outside. There wasn’t a single black hole in sight.

“Where did they all go?” Kai asked.

“They probably went back to their old positions after Apocalypse got destroyed,” Taylor said.

“That was fast.”

“Just get us home, will you?” Taylor pleaded. Kai was happy. He had regained his ‘Most annoying person’ title, though he didn’t know who it was that had held it before.

Just as they left, the huge black hole disintegrated and faded away.

“With Apocalypse destroyed, the shell probably can't exist either,” Taylor said.

“Well, he might not actually be dead you know” Q said. He remembered what Apocalypse told him about not being able to be destroyed.

“Oh please. There was no way he could have survived that. And if he did, I can guarantee it’s going to take a long time for him to recover”

Q smiled. Maybe what she said was right. It was a big explosion after all.

After about half a day, they went back to Aliea. It was the most pleasant thing that Q could think off.

He had fun, fooling around in all his classes.

Hey, you save the universe. You get to have some fun.

All of the five went to the same academy. Kai though, was learning mechanics at the airport from all the high tech mechanics there. Elizabeth and Taylor kept pestering Q all the time, since they were in the same class as well.

All the secrets that they had collected stayed within and nowhere else. The five received medals from the patrol at a secret meeting. The mission was a secret so the medals had to be secret as well. How did they keep the secret? They took the medal back.

Carlos went to a psychological care centre. Though he hadn't talked much about it, the way Apocalypse had possessed him had left him in a daze. He didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. Those kinda problems.

Jake had mysteriously transferred to another academy so Q never got to find out what had happened to him that night at the lab.

It had only been two days since they finished the mission.

“I’m looking for Q,” a man asked Kai.

“He’ll be somewhere in the lab area,” he told him.

“Thanks,” he said and he walked off.

Kai looked at the receding figure of the man. He wore a brown overcoat. His facial features were hidden by a large cap. He was quite tall and well-built.

I wonder what he wants with Q, Kai thought.

“Could you tell me where I can find Q?” The man asked Taylor.

“He’s in the IT lab,” she directed him to it.

Q was hard at work, trying to hack the patrol server. They had uploaded a picture of him looking horrified when they introduced him on stage the very first day. He needed to take it off the server.

“Where’s Q?” Q heard a voice.

“He’s there,” he heard Elizabeth say.

Q turned. A man eagerly came over to him.

“I need to speak to you privately,” he said.

“Well, I don’t have anything better to do,” Q said.

He decided the server could be hacked later.

They sat down in the cafeteria. The man sat down with a mug of coffee. Q had a plate piled with food. He hadn't eaten much during the mission so he was making up for it.

“So what did you want to talk about,” Q asked in-between mouthfuls.

The man took a sip of his coffee, and then he leaned closer to Q.

“You defeated Apocalypse, yes?” he asked.

Q’s battle senses activated. This man wasn’t any normal guy.

“How do you know?” Q asked, his voice stern.

The man laughed. That threw Q off guard.

“I’m not in the patrol, young man. I’m just.....another character,” he said.

“Uh huh?” Q said. He’d learnt not to trust anybody just like that.

“You may not realize it now. But when you do…” He took something out of his pocket and put it on the table.

Q reached out for it. When he looked up again, the man was gone. He looked around and saw him exiting the cafeteria. He ran after him. He charged outside the cafeteria, but the man was long gone.

“Hmmm. Mysterious guy,” he said.

He put the card in his pocket and went back to class.

The group got a huge room just to themselves, with some help from Carlos. They entered the room and lazed around.

Everyone was so tired that they couldn’t even say anything.

It was deadly silent so Kai tried to start the conversation.

“You know I met this weird guy today,” he said, and told them what had happened and described the guy.

Taylor’s face lit up.

“I saw him as well,” she said.

“Me too!” Elizabeth joined in.

Chris sat in the corner; reading a book silently. Q stayed silent, sulking.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” Kai asked him.

Before he could say anything, Taylor noticed the card jutting out of his pocket.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“The man gave it to me.”

“Wait.... the same man that all of us saw?” Elizabeth asked.

“Uh, huh,” he said, like it was no big deal.

“Dr. Klutz Mortimer,” she read the name aloud.

Kai sat up immediately. Everyone stared at him.

“What’s wrong?” Chris asked him.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just felt like stretching my back,” he said. Though it seemed like a lie, Kai did do silly things like that. It was probably nothing.

Taylor looked intently at the card. She loved solving puzzles and this one seemed good. She just had to know who the man was.

“Let it go, Taylor,” Q told her. He knew about her craze to solve puzzles.

She breathed deeply. “You’re right,” she said and gave Q the card.

“So why were you sulking anyway?” Elizabeth asked Q.

“I hate this class.”

“Why?” All of them asked in unison. They were having a blast during class and here Q was saying he hated class.

“They don’t let you play video games during class.”

Everyone burst out laughing. Q couldn’t help joining in. They all laughed together. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.

He was a kid again. Not some monster-fighting, universe-saving hero.

That was someone else’s job description.

End of Book One

The Zyxian’s Guide to the universe

Adoris
- A chant known and performed by Carlos. It enables him to control any object.

Aliea
- An academy built by Carlos. It focuses solely on training teenagers and preparing them to protect the universe.

Apocalypse
- The conscience of a black hole. He is bent on destroying the universe with power he only can wield.

Atlas
- The ship used by Kai to get Q and co. to safety.

Cleric
- A healer

Coerin Giants
- Giants from the planet Ing. They are very strong and can easily crush a Gaian’s skull.

Dark Knights
- Highly trained knights that protect the universe from harm.

Doctored Sugar cubes
- Sugar cubes that have been doctored to help the body recover quickly.

Eetaris
- A chant used by Q to open portals from one dimension to the other

Eki
- A dragon made completely out of ice. Its blood is multicolored and flows in a line through its body. Its powers are unknown.

Energy Beings
- Most powerful beings in the universe. Their power comes from the fact that they are entirely made out of energy.

Gaia
- The Greek name for mother earth. The Gaia are Zyxians whose origin is that of earth. They are the descendents of Early man.

God of the Dead
- No he isn’t Hades, Pluto or Shiva or any other god. This is the name given to Kai. Technology is not alive and is dead. Kai controls tech. Hence the name God of the dead. Dead as in technology and not Zombies.

Griffin
- Previously believed to be mythological creatures, Griffins are outwardly animals that communicate telepathically and are known to, on occasion, eavesdrop on one’s thoughts. Careful! One might be listening to you right now!