Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (50 page)

Even after fighting the Sulan,
Jason still didn’t deal with Shopper, Eiteuoo and Luee. Shopper and Eiteuoo let
the guard down after a while, then one day Jason killed both of them after
dinner. He struck Shopper first, but he didn’t kill Shopper until Eiteuoo came
to save him. Then Jason ran after Eiteuoo and quickly caught up with him and
pulled his spine out of his back. Guards watched all these, but none of them
came to stop Jason. Luee was so scared that he hung himself in the cell. Since
then no prisoner dared to cross Jason.

Jason
didn’t use his reputation to take advantage of other prisoners. His principle
was simple: You stay out of my way and I stay out of your way. Things stayed
quiet and Jason kept fighting and winning.

One day
he was having dinner alone. Yawon walked to him and acknowledged him.

Jason looked
up and smiled reluctantly at Yawon. What they went through last time did pull
them closer, but Jason wasn’t really interested in making friends.

“You are
Yawon, right?” Jason said.

“Oh, you
remember. How nice of you.” Gloria said happily.

“Why are
you in here?” Jason asked.

“Murder.
I am not as lucky as you. I can’t hook up with the Hylocan queen.” Gloria said
ironically.

“Why you
always bring this up?” Jason whined. He recalled the several recent
conversations and Yawon always found a way to irritate him by linking something
to the Hylocan queen.

“Because
you never give a straight answer.”

“Answer
what? Whether we are in love or not? What the fuck is your problem?” Jason said
angrily.

“I can
tell you two are going through some hard time. Is that the reason she didn’t
come to save you?”

“Fuck
off!” Jason snarled.

“I guess
she doesn’t love you that much. At least not as much as Gloria does.”  Gloria
said easily.

Jason
looked at Yawon in surprise, his mouth opened and his eyes bulging. He was quite
sure that he never mentioned this name to anyone since he got here.

“How the
fuck do you know this name?” Jason asked hastily.

“Surprise?
Huh? What do you think?” Gloria said happily.

Jason
thought for several seconds and whispered, “Gloria sent you? How is she? Is she
alright?”

“She is
fine. She sent me here get you out.” Gloria said in a low voice.

Jason
heaved a sigh of relief, reclining against the back of the chair.

“She
wants me to tell you that she loves you.” Gloria said emotionally.

“I love
her too.” Jason said immediately.

Gloria
smiled quietly. She wanted to hold Jason’s hand, but she realized that she was
still Yawon.

“So what
is the plan?” Gloria asked.

“You
came here and asked me for a plan? Really?” Jason said in surprise.

“She told
me you always came up with plans when you were in the situation.” Gloria said
innocently.

“But not
like this. Hey, did Gloria contact my other friends in training center?” Jason
asked curiously.

“Yes,
she did and I get in here with the help of Titainein. They have a vessel ready
as we speak now. If we can get out of here, we just need to call it in.”

“It is
easier said than done. Except the asteroid field, the surrounding area is
filled with mobile mines disguised as rocks.” Jason sighed.

“Come
on! Jason! This is not like you.” Gloria said as she poked him on the shoulder.

“Don’t
act like you know me. I am just telling you the truth.” Jason said quietly.

“Gloria
knows you and she says you are a man who will fight to the last drop of your
blood.” Gloria said emotionally.

“Oh, by
the way, you must bring some kind of communicator here right? Can I use it?”
Jason said in a begging voice.

“You
want to call Gloria?”

“Yes.”

“No. You
can’t. It’s meant to be used as the very critical moment. Not for you to show
your love. You understand?”

“Come
on! Man! Just one minute. Or maybe 30 seconds?” Jason said in a begging voice.

Gloria
showed Jason an ice cold face.

“Alright,
it’s your call.” Jason sighed.

They
further talked about the prison security details and routines. Later they both
concluded that it was impossible to break free from Listan even if there was
help from outside. They decided to seek the opportunity when Jason fought in
another prison. Jason was happy and motivated. He knew Gloria was waiting for
him now.

It was a little more than three
months since Jason arrived at Listan. Now it would be his first time or only
time to leave Listan. The fight would be held at a Dolanz prison Azacaliz on
planet Weithei. The warden moved the fight date ahead a little bit, because he
was concerned that the war between Oepttese and Dolanz might undermine the
fight. The war unlike previous ones had escalated to a full-scale bloodshed
with battlefields at all fronts. Backed by Human, Oepttese was determined to
fight to the end of whatever. The prison was right on the edge of a
battlefield. Dolanz was still holding the ground, but the warden just wanted to
be on the safe side.

Right
now, Jason and Gloria were on a cargo vessel, accompanied by Hwoei and 10
guards. They just left the asteroid belt and were on their way to planet
Weithei. Jason made a request to the warden to take Yawon as a company. The
warden wasn’t happy about it, but it was too late to find another fighter, so
he granted it and doubled the guards.

Gloria
contacted Titainein when she went for restroom. When she told Jason that his
friends were on the way, Jason was both thrilled and worried. Gloria was
confused at Jason’s reaction and she asked, “What is your problem?”

“I don’t
want to drag my friends into this.” Jason said quietly.

“Then
how are we going to do this? Even though Dolanz’s prison was not as bad as
Listan, we can’t make it by ourselves.”

“I
know.”

“So what
are you whining for?”

“You
probably don’t have many friends. That is why you can say something like this.”
Jason said calmly.

Gloria
fell into silence for several second and suddenly whispered, “What is the first
thing you will do if you actually see Gloria?”

“I will
have sex with Gloria.” Jason said quietly.

Gloria
smiled happily and said, “I am quite sure she wants that too.”

“You
know her that well?” Jason asked unhappily. 

“Oh, are
you jealous?”

“I never
asked before, but what is your relation with Gloria?”

“What
are you talking about?” Gloria put up a straight face.

“You
know what I am talking about.” Jason said firmly.

“Man,
you think I am Gloria’s ex-boyfriend?” Gloria said ironically.

“If that
is the case, I am really worried about her taste.” Jason said with a bitter
smile.

“You
will know their relationship once you met her. Now stop thinking things like
this. You need to put yourself together and we will stick to our plan. We will
make it!” Gloria said confidently. 

“I hope
you put yourself together, you will see her. I have called Gloria and they know
where we are going. They will help us from outside, but we need to break from
inside.”

Jason
nodded and said, “By the way, you called Gloria and you couldn’t give me like
ten second to talk to her? Man! That is just mean.”

“You
will have all the time you need. But right now, you need to focus.” Gloria said
seriously.

“I am
not a five year old kid. You don’t need to tell me again and again.” Jason said
unhappily.

“You
know, if you don’t love Gloria, you probably won’t get into all these
troubles.”

“The
best thing in my life is Gloria. I never regret any decision I made for her.”
Jason said decisively.

After
five hours, the vessel touched down at prison Azacaliz which was in the middle
of a desert. Azacaliz was Dolanz’s main prison and had around 50000 inmates.
Because of the sandstorm, most of its structures were underground.

Hwoei
walked to Jason and shouted, “Get up! Move your ass!”

Jason
and Gloria stood up and guards cuffed them in chains. They walked out of the
vessel slowly.

It was
late afternoon on planet Weithei, warm and dry, stiff breeze blowing in from
time to time. Dozens of hemispherical buildings scattered around the area.
Jason and Gloria walked into a nearby building. The fight would be at night, so
they still had some time. 

Erikon and Lucis were asleep
when Titainein called them. They shot out of beds and headed to the hangar
right away. When they got there, Sayilin and Titainein just finished preparing
the vessel. Orizy and Idi arrived two minutes later. They swiftly took off,
heading to planet Weithei.

Titainein
told them that Jason and Gloria would be on Weithei for several hours and it
would be their only window to save Jason. They were aware that the planet was
right on the edge of the battlefield between Dolanz and Oepttese, so anything
could happen. They planned to cut the power supply to the prison, free
prisoners and save Jason in the chaos.

Two
hours later, they saw Weithei from the bridge. Its dayside was sunny but its
nightside was ravaged by sandstorm. Since Idi was a Dolanz, they quickly passed
the security check and flew to the prison which was now at the nightside of the
planet. The vessel shook left and right like an old man stumbling down a steep
alley. Orizy threw up everything on the dashboard; Erikon broke his nose;
Sayilin twisted his arm and others were doing just fine.

After a
bumpy ride, the vessel landed near the prison perimeter. Titainein looked
around at everyone and said, “Guys, this is it. Jason is counting on us. Orizy,
you stay on the vessel and keep it ready. We need distraction. Orizy, send a
robot with charge to the other side of the prison and wait our call.”

“Got
you.” Orizy said.

“Once we
get in, prison security will find us pretty quick.” Sayilin said in a worried
tone.

“We will
free prisoners and it will buy us some time.” Titainein said calmly.

“Alright,
let’s do this. After this, Jason owe us a big dinner.” Erikon shouted as he
loaded his rifle.

Under
the cover of night and sandstorm, Titainein, Erikon, Lucis, Idi and Sayilin
quickly reached the exterior wall of the prison. Two guards and a few robots
were standing on top of the wall.

“Orizy,
you ready?” Titainein said to the communicator.

“Yes,
the robot is in position.”

“Light
it up.” Titainein said.

“Boom!”
The sound of explosion alerted the guards and they left the wall.

Just at
this moment, Sayilin stuck a plate like device on the wall. Within three
seconds, the device gnawed a hole through the wall. They crawled through the
hole and dashed to the closest building.

“Where
is the power plant? We gotta hurry.” Sayilin said hastily.

Titainein
looked around and caught a huge vent on one of the hemispherical buildings.

“That is
the one.” Titainein said confidently as she pointed at the building.

“How do
you know?” Lucis asked.

“We will
find out, won’t we?” Titainein said.

They
crept into that building. It was indeed the power plant. Dozens of industrial
robots were running the facility.

“Titainein,
Titainein, this is Gloria. Do you copy?” Gloria called in on the family badge
she gave to Titainein.

“Gloria,
this is Titainein. What is your status?”

“Jason
will start the fight in about 20 minutes. Right now, we are at the north of the
prison, but I think we will move to underground very soon.”

“We are
not ready yet. We can’t do it now. We need about 15 minutes. I will track down
the communicator and locate your position.” Titainein said.

“Got
you.” Gloria hung up.

Titainein
and others quickly set the explosives on the main power line and the auxiliary
power system. Then they headed to Jason’s location.

When Jason and Yawon left for
planet Weithei, Mark was also on the way to Weithei. He couldn’t find the
opportunity to save Jason when he was in Listan, but he did dig out when Jason
would be travelling to Weithei for the fight. He knew this was the perfect time
to save Jason. After he arrived at Weithei, he put on the face transformer and
looked just like a guard. Jason arrived an hour later and Mark followed Jason
into the build.

The
fight was about to begin and Mark watched Jason and Gloria walk into a room in
chains. Hwoei and 10 guards were right behind them. Mark caught up with those
guards and followed them into the room. Hwoei saw Mark and gave him a blank
stare, but he didn’t say anything.

It was a
small room with a big window on one side. Hwoei motioned guards to unhook Jason
and said, “You better win this one. If you lost and were still alive, you will
be mine.”

“I will
keep that in mind.” Jason said calmly as he glanced over at Yawon.

Hwoei
pressed a button on the wall and the door slowly opened.

Jason
walked into a big room the size of a basketball field. There was no audience
but only several flying drones. As he looked around cautiously, he smelled
something like bad shrimp. Then he saw a creature with a shark head, six limbs
and a long tail. It smelled so bad that Jason suddenly understood why there was
no audience.

The
thing walked to Jason leisurely and stopped about three meter away from him,
flashing its white triangle teeth. 

Jason
could imagine that this thing must come from some lab. Two of its four arms
looked like sickles attached to rotating cranks. The other two looked just like
Human arms. Its feet were big and webbed.

Jason
slowly backed off and kept a distance. Suddenly it shot its tongue out and
grasped Jason’s right arm. It pulled Jason closer and then leaped in the air,
swinging two sickles at Jason’s neck. Jason dashed forward and barely missed the
sickles. But it grabbed Jason with the other two arms, its tongue pulling Jason
to its mouth and its two sickles swinging around.

Just at
this moment, lights went out. Jason knew it was the time. He jumped up and
kicked the thing with both feet. He got off the tongue and ran away. At the
same time, Mark was blasting his rifle in the room.

Gloria
was hit and dropped on the floor, but she struggled to stand up and pressed the
button on the wall. Jason followed the sound of gunshots and found the door. He
rushed into the room and locked the door behind him.

“Jason.
Jason!” Mark shouted excitedly.

“Dad?”
Shocked and thrilled, Jason couldn’t believe his ears.

Mark
turned on a flashlight and pointed it at Jason.

“Dad!”
Jason shouted and jumped into Mark’s arms.

“Boy, I
miss you.” These two hugged each other tightly.

“I miss
you, too. Dad.” Jason shouted.

“Gloria,
Gloria, do you copy?” Titainein called in.

Jason
recognized the voice right away. He took over the flashlight and found out the
voice was coming from Yawon’s body.

“You are
Gloria?” Jason asked in surprise.

Gloria
slowly sat up and removed the device from her chest. Her appearance changed
back to the gorgeous Glycan girl.

“Gloria!”
Jason shouted as he hugged Gloria.

“Jason.”
Gloria said emotionally and broke into tears.

“I love
you.” Jason said as he kissed Gloria on her lips. Gloria kissed back
passionately.

“Boy,
can we do this sometime later?” Mark said in a joking tone.

After
several seconds, Jason and Gloria finally let each other go. Right at this
moment, somebody bursted through the door. Jason pointed the flashlight at the
doorway. It was Erikon and Titainein.

“Sorry,
we are a little late.” Titainein said quickly.

“Oh,
man, it seems you don’t need us.” Erikon joked.

Lucis,
Idi and Sayilin came into the room right after Erikon and Titainein.

“Thank
you, guys. Oh, by the way, this is my father.” Jason said as he pointed the
flashlight at his father Mark.

“Let’s
do the introduction later, we need to get out of here first!” Mark said
hastily.

“Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!” A series of explosions rocked the prison.

“I don’t
think that was our bombs.” Erikon said.

“No, we
only set off the power plant and the control center.” Titainein said in a worried
tone.

“Titainein,
Oepttese is attacking the prison.” Orizy called in.

“Copy
that. Listen, we got Jason. We are heading to the surface.” Titainein said
quickly.

“Let’s
go! Now!” Mark shouted.

Jason
carried Gloria on his back and ran out of the room with others. They reached
the end of the corridor and Mark blasted through a door which opened to a
stairwell. They quickly got in there, heading to the surface level. Several
minutes later, they heard screams and heavy tread of footsteps below. Thousands
of guards and prisoners were thonging on stairs. It seemed they were both
running from something.

“What is
it?” Gloria asked curiously.

Jason
pointed the flashlight down and saw waves of dog like creatures flooding the
stairwell.

“That is
Qityea. We got to go. Faster.” Mark shouted.

“Oh,
my.” Lucis sighed.

“Let’s
go! Let’s go!” Sayilin said in panic.

The
crowd of guards and prisoners were quickly closing to them. Jason suddenly
stopped, kicked open a door and shouted: “This way! This way!”

“What, Jason?”
Eirkon asked in confusion.

“Right,
that is a good idea.” Titainein said as she ran to the door.

“Hurry!”
Lucis shouted and followed right behind Titainein.

They all
left the stairwell and locked the door behind them. Mark, Lucis, Erikon and
Sayilin pressed their bodies against the door.

Barks,
yelps and blaring screams came first. Then it felt like a train passed right
over the door. Mark and the other three held tight on the door and could barely
keep it closed. After some 20 seconds, it started to quiet down.

Mark,
Lucis, Erikon and Sayilin slumped on the floor. They all heaved a sigh of
relief.

“We need
to wait here for a second.” Jason said tiredly. He slowly put Gloria on the
floor and checked the gunshot on her shoulder. It was bad and Jason couldn’t do
much except temporarily stop the bleeding. Gloria was fading away bit by bit.

“We
can’t hide here.” Lucis said anxiously.

“Even if
we reached the surface, Oepttese will be waiting there.” Sayilin said in a
worried tone.

“Orizy
won’t be able to pick us up in front of Oepttese.” Titainein sighed.

“Gloria,
how long will take a Glycan combat vessel at Sylareon to get here?” Jason asked
hastily.

“Less
than 30 minutes. Why?” Gloria said in confusion.

“Gloria,
we have to get you to a doctor right away. You need to call Klaycon now.” Jason
said calmly. He really hoped he had another option.

“Jason,
Klaycon will kill you or at least send you back to Listan.” Gloria said
listlessly.

“Are you
sure this Klaycon won’t kill us?” Mark asked as he looked around at others.

“We are
in the same training center. We should be alright.” Idi said innocently.

“I don’t
know about that.” Sayilin sighed.

“I will
take Gloria with me. The rest of you surrender to Oepttese. Dad, you take care
of them.” Jason said decisively.

“You are
my son, I won’t leave you.” Mark said firmly.

“I will
stay too.” Erikon said emotionally.

Others
nodded at Jason.

“Sorry,
I hope I have better ideas.” Jason murmured.

“But
some Glycan fleets may be far from here.” Lucis said in a questioning voice.

“And
some might be near to us. Oepttese is not stupid enough to shoot down a Glycan
combat vessel.” Titainein said.

Just at
this moment, Gloria fell into coma and slumped on the floor.

“Gloria,
Gloria!” Jason shouted desperately. He held Gloria in his arms and said,
“Titainein, call Klaycon now!”

Titainein
used Gloria’s badge and made the call.