Excelsior (25 page)

His attention shifted as he saw Excelsior attempt to stagger to his feet, as clumsy as a new calf. “Danaak… as long as my blood… flows through these veins… you will never succeed.”

Danaak placed his hand over the jewel to recharge for a blast when with an unexpected surge; Excelsior thrust the gleaming sword deep into his stomach. Danaak let out a howl of pain and wrenched his body away from Excelsior, who pulled the sword free.

Danaak saw the once-bright sword darken with his blood and laughed: “If you are trying to destroy me, Excelsior, you will have to do much better.” He moved the hand that had been sitting on top of the gem and pressed it against his wound, sealing it up. A hiss of something akin to pleasure escaped him and he closed his eyes savoring the release: “Ahh!”

Seizing the moment, Excelsior slipped inside the Leap of Faith. “Seal, door,” he told the computer.

The whisper of the closing door made Danaak’s eyes fly open. “Where are you, Excelsior?” he demanded. He could see on the skin of the unit a hologram of galaxies flashing by. “Are you running from me like the coward you are?” He studied the hologram. “You do not even have coordinates. You are running in fear. Coward!”

He studied the control panel and tried to institute an override, but it was beyond his ability. Enraged that he didn’t dare blast the sensitive equipment, he unleashed a blast against a small stool. For a moment Danaak considered the melted metal and acrid smoke, then he turned toward the chamber door. “Did you see what I have done to this tiny piece of furniture, Excelsior? It is nothing, NOTHING, compared to what I will do to the people after you disappear. They will be at my mercy!”

There was a whisper as the Leap of Faith doorway opened, an enormous blue jewel of a planet shimmering. Excelsior stood before him, his sword sheathed. “You do not know mercy… because you are less than a Krunation. There is no longer any purpose for your existence.”

“What do you know of Krunations?” demanded Danaak advancing on him.

“I know that they would do far better without the like of you,” Excelsior replied and he charged Danaak, catching him around the waist and driving his fist into the scaly face. Without breaking contact Danaak returned the blow to the side of Excelsior’s head. The two wrestled as they rained blows onto one another, Excelsior struggling to breathe through the blood and the pain even as Danaak seemed to gain energy.

Glancing over his shoulder, Excelsior drove a left hook into Danaak’s temple and rolled them both toward the opening of the Leap of Faith, even as he felt a vicious knee snap something in his midsection. Krunation and Denarian blood sprayed the air, mingling against the gleaming steel floor.

Seeing where they were, Danaak struggled to get up. Excelsior summoned the last of his strength and grabbed him in a tackle that threw their bodies into the shimmering gateway of the Leap of Faith.

“What are you doing?!” Danaak screamed as the curtain of galactic matter rushed up to meet them.

The last thing he heard before the universe consumed them was Excelsior’s voice: “Let’s find out together!”

A mingled trail of blood pointing to the Leap of Faith was the only evidence they were ever there at all.

*   *   *

Matthew flashed back to the present and took a deep breath as he realized the magnitude of the situation. He felt every blow that Danaak had delivered, they were like swinging sledgehammers, multiplied in force by the jewel in Danaak’s chest. And that jewel was still there; Matthew could see Danaak’s hand glowing with energy.

An expression of near glee spread across Danaak’s face as he lifted his hand and began to blast the humans closest to him. Officers screamed in fear and agony as they were hit and their bodies dissolved into ash; others took cover behind their cars. Danaak paused as he noticed this obstacle.

“Hmm, I wonder,” he mused as he placed his hand against the jewel and hidden officers opened fire. He opened his palm against the nearest police cruiser. Instead of dissolving, it exploded, knocking everyone in the vicinity to the street.

Danaak put both hands on his head as he watched the fireworks, ignoring incoming bullets and fleeing humans. “I LIKE IT!” he exalted unharmed.

Unnoticed, Radifen grabbed his communicator. Things were not exactly going according to plan. “Grannik, where are you? We need you here now!”

*   *   *

As Zorribis watched with morbid fascination, he realized that humans expressed their frustration when they were stuck by making as much noise as possible. That could only explain the consistent honking of horns and yelling of colorful epithets that had been going on for the past twenty minutes.

Grannik and Zorribis seemed entirely relaxed, despite the circumstances and being completely locked in by surrounding cars. Grannik absently fingered the transfer device and Zorribis kept looking out the window, watching the surrounding frenzy. Jason, on the other hand, was practically hyperventilating. He did all he could to keep from crawling out of the car and fleeing by running on top of the car roofs. The situation made his skin crawl and threatened to drag him down into the sucking black wound of the past.

Suddenly, Grannik’s communicator lit up and the booming voice of Radifen filled the car. “Grannik, where are you?! We need you here now!”

Much to Jason’s surprise, the Denarians didn’t relate their position. Instead, Grannik slapped the transfer device he was playing with onto the outside of the car door. Zorribis produced a small controller.

“Ready?!”

“
NOW
!” Grannik yelled.

Zorribis pressed the button.

CHAPTER 12

The chaos around Tollund Laboratories increased into full-blown pandemonium as an explosion of light signaled the disappearance of a police car. When the brilliance dimmed, in its place was Jason's car – and a nearly hysterical Jason.

“Calm yourself,” ordered Radifen watching Jason’s bulging eyes.

“What the...” was all Jason could force out of his mouth.

“I promise you,” Grannik said as he opened the car door. “When all this is over, I will tell you all about Denarian technology.” He quickly pulled out his pistol, took aim at Danaak and fired. The laser blast struck the Krunation in the shoulder, and left a dark burn mark. His eyes narrowed as he recognized who had just shot him. “You,” he hissed. Another burst of energy shot from Danaak's hand that just barely missed Grannik’s head. Everyone else behind him was smart enough – and agile enough – to get out of the way.

Grannik, Radifen, Zorribis and Karini crouched down behind Klierra's car and checked their pistols. “So what do we do now?” Karini asked.

Radifen spoke like the born leader he was. “We have to destroy Danaak so that Matthew won't have anything stopping him from becoming Excelsior. Ready?”

The other three nodded and cocked their guns, then stood up as one. “Will all innocent bystanders please get out of the way?!” Zorribis announced to every human in the vicinity, who conveniently started stampeding down Broadway and out of reach. Oddly fascinated, Zorribis shrugged and shouted again. “Klierra, Jason has the sword with him! Get Matthew over there, and be careful!”

Klierra quickly grabbed Matthew and pulled him out of the car. “Ready?” Matthew nodded, his mind a total blank.

While the Denarians opened fire on Danaak, they created the ideal cover for Klierra and Matthew to duck into Jason's car. Jason kept looking at his hands and the rest of his body, making sure everything was in its proper place. “So that’s what it’s like to be transported?”

Klierra responded with, “That’s right. Where is the sword?”

Jason pointed to the back seat of the car, where the sword was safely tucked away. He was so preoccupied with what was going on, he nearly failed to notice what Matthew was wearing. He still wasn't wearing the helmet, but he had it in his hand, and Jason could feel the electricity of seeing a character that he had helped nurture come to life.

“Remember when we talked about how you thought Excelsior would look like a cheap costume party reject if you were to ever see him in a live-action story?” Jason asked Matthew.

Matthew hesitantly responded. “Yeah?”

Jason nodded. “That's not the way you look. You look like a real superhero.” Matthew smiled when he heard that. The last thing he needed to hear right now was someone telling him that he looked like a goofball with the Excelsior outfit on.

“I leave you alone for, what, one day and you got yourself muscles all of a sudden. You look great, kid.”

“Thanks. You too,” Matthew responded. “You finally lost that gut.”

Jason ran his hand over his newly formed abs. “Ain’t it great? Didn’t even have to give up eating pizza.”

Matthew looked at Klierra, who was standing by and watching the family bonding. “So I guess I'm supposed to pick up this sword now and get the rest of Excelsior's lifeforce?” Klierra nodded. “And you promise me everything’s going to be fine?” Matthew asked one last time.

The Denarian Elder placed a motherly hand on his shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. “Everything about you is going to join hand-in-hand with the lifeforce of Excelsior. I promise you, you are going to be better than fine.”

Matthew took a deep breath and looked at Jason. “You sure I'm the right guy for this?”

Jason answered. “You're the only guy for this. But I want to tell you something and I know this may not be the right time under the current circumstances, but I don't know what's going to happen to you after you take that sword. So I need to get this out now.”

Klierra understood what was happening, so she stepped away. “Better make this quick. I don't know how much longer they can hold Danaak at bay.”

“Thank you,” Jason said to Klierra before addressing his nephew again. “I know I'm not your real father, but for the past seven years I've looked at you as a son. And I know that your parents would be very proud of the young man that you've become. As you've grown up, I've felt nothing but guilt over how they could have been here if it weren't for me...”

Matthew cut him off. “Jason, I know what you're going to say. And it's okay. Yeah, it was rough when I found out that they were coming back from seeing you, but after you left rehab, you kept yourself clean and did your best to look after me. You were there when my parents couldn't be, and I can't thank you enough.”

Jason felt tears rolling down his cheeks and seven years of guilt sliding off his back. “You mean that?”

Matthew gave his uncle a long hug. Jason returned the hug and held his nephew tight.

“Matthew! You ready to go yet?” Karini yelled toward the car. “He's about to blast us again!”

Danaak fired another destructive shot that completely decimated the last of the Denarian soldiers’ cover. They were now out in the open and had to spread out so that they couldn’t get picked apart as easily. Zorribis and Radifen ran to the side of the laboratory entrance to see if they could flank the Krunation,. They opened fire. While one shot was deflected by Danaak’s own blasts, he was too slow to dodge Radifen’s hits to his back. Danaak stumbled and almost fell over, then turned around and fired again, using the power of the jewel before retreating back into the laboratory.

“I got him!” Karini yelled out to everyone as he made an attempt to run into the laboratory. Before he could get anywhere, Grannik reached out and grabbed him by his shirt, stopping him in his tracks.

“We go in there running, yelling and shooting and he’ll finish us off one by one,” he reminded Karini. “We did what we needed to do for now. We have the sword.”

Klierra nodded and then looked back at Matthew, who was walking with Jason toward the Denarian soldiers. The older man was holding the sword tightly. Klierra motioned for him to hand it to her.

He did as he was asked, passing the sword to the Denarian Elder and making sure not to touch the handle, just in case. “Are you ready, Matthew?” Klierra asked.

This was the moment that Matthew had been awaiting and dreading at the same time. He glanced at his uncle, the only family he had left, then looked at the Denarians. Even though he hadn’t known them very long, he still considered them to be almost as much family as his uncle. Klierra smiled anxiously as she waited for Matthew to reach out and grab the sword’s handle. As Matthew looked at the sword, the jewel in the centerpiece started to hum, the remainder of Excelsior’s lifeforce calling to him.

The young man took a deep breath and closed his eyes, forcing as many different memories to come to him as possible. He saw his parents bringing over a restaurant waiting staff to sing to him on his 10th birthday. He saw the fateful trip to the museum that changed the course of his life forever. He saw his release of the first Excelsior comic on the web. And he saw just two days ago, watching that 83 on his final English grade be changed to an 85, making him exempt from the exam. As they flashed one by one before his eyes, Matthew trembled as he pulled off his right glove and handed it to Karini, then reached out and slowly wrapped his hand around the grip of the sword.

As his grip tightened around the sword, Matthew felt a tingling sensation going up his arm and into his chest, before spreading through the rest of his body. He started to shiver as the tingling grew cold, and he then felt it rushing up to his head. Matthew inhaled deeply and when he exhaled, the Denarians and Jason could see his breath. The humming started to subside and Matthew – who had his eyes shut tightly during the transfer – slowly opened them and looked around.