Incident 27 (17 page)

“Well
done,” Arcturus said. “You figured it all out. And I went to such great lengths
to keep it a secret. But you got me. Yes, I’m going to activate the Ark and create the perfect world.”

“Fool!
Few things are forbidden to the superman, but this is strictly prohibited. You
intend to create an absolute truth—
your
absolute truth—something I’ve
always said can never exist. You are a nihilist, the one true evil in this
world.”

“And
what’s wrong with nihilism? To me, the greatest quality of the superman is the
willingness to abandon this broken world and start over, to say, ‘No, I do not
accept this; I will
change
it’.”

“Then
you understand nothing,” Set said, turning to walk away.

“Now,
wait a minute. You were nice enough to ‘enlighten me as to the true extent’ of
your knowledge, so I think I should do the same.”

Set
stopped and looked over his shoulder at him. Arcturus continued. “I was in Zero
Grade long enough to know how things work. I even know how this flying
monstrosity operates.” His mouth hung open for a moment. “Damn—I seem to have
forgotten something. Tell me again—what’s the protocol for capturing a fugitive
of the organization?”

Set
shook his head, but decided to indulge him anyway. “To remain where we are,
send a report to the Flawless Few and await further orders.”

Arcturus
gave him a sly grin. “Right, that’s it. You captured us at Stonecroft, so we
should still be hovering above it, albeit with the cloaking device engaged.”

“Get
to the point,” Set said.

“Now,
now. This takes some explaining. You see, it’s been billions and billions of
years, so you probably forgot how the Ark works. In fact, as far as I can tell,
everyone
at Zero Grade forgot. Everyone, that is, except for Belial.
That’s because when the previous universe ended, he made sure to safeguard the
ancient scrolls that detailed how it works and how to release it from the Tower of Babel. Then, several years ago, he made me memorize them. The Ark was to be his
trump card in case things didn’t go his way. Of course, arrogant as he was, he
didn’t believe he’d ever need to use it. He just liked the idea of having it
around.”

Set
said, “And how, pray tell, does the Ark work? You were correct in assuming I
had forgotten. The organization never had any intention of releasing it from
the Tower.”

Arcturus
explained, “Well, you need four things. One—the Jar of Manna which acts as the energy
matrix. Two—Aaron’s Rod which transfers energy from an external fuel source.
Three—a location specifically designed to amplify that fuel source. Four—the
fuel source. It has to be massive, something on par with, say…oh, I don’t
know…the Jericho Reactor on board this vessel?”

Set
began to tremble as horrifying realization struck every fiber of his being.
“No!”

As
if on cue, the
Sancta Praesidium
shook violently. Set ran over to the
wall panel next to the door and pushed a button. Some guy Arcturus didn’t know
appeared on the screen. “Report!”

The
man was visibly shaken. “A powerful force has grabbed a hold of us. It seems to
be coming from underneath the stone monument below us.”

Set
turned to glare angrily at Arcturus. “That’s where you hid it!” To the
subordinate on the screen, he said, “Get us out of here!”

“We
can’t. The unknown force is siphoning off our energy reserves at an exponential
rate. We’ll lose power completely in about fifteen minutes. I recommend—”

The
screen went dead. Almost immediately, Arcturus’ restraints went slack. Without
the massive power of the Jericho Reactor behind them, they were useless.

“Arcturus!”
Set roared.

Arcturus
held out his hand. A familiar red key appeared. “Time to make sure you don’t
interfere with what’s about to happen.”

Chapter
XII

Upon
the sudden shaking of the
Sancta Praesidium
, Ev and Maya’s cell suddenly
went dark and they found themselves freed. “What do you think’s going on?” Maya
said as they broke loose from the bizarre contraptions.

Ev
shrugged. “Maybe Arcturus had a plan after all.”

“Get
real, Ev. His ‘plan’ was to hand us over to his superiors in Zero Grade.”

“I’m
not so sure anymore. If he wanted to do that, he had plenty of other
opportunities. And why would he suddenly cause a power outage once we were
captured?”

“We
can figure that out later. For now, we need get off this thing.”

The
door to the room slid open without resistance. After carefully sticking their
heads out to examine the hallway, they confirmed it was empty. Empty, though
still strange. “What
is
this place?” Maya whispered.

“Hell
if I know. This hallway looks like a five-star hotel. There are chandeliers hanging
from the ceiling, nice carpeting, and look…” He showed Maya where the inner
side of the door was metal, but the exterior was painted like wood.

“Zero
Grade must really like the finer things,” she mused. “Or, at least, the
appearance
of finer things.”

“You
should’ve seen the house we trashed. It was way nicer than this.”

“Oh,
well. Who cares. Let’s just get out of here.” They ran to the end of the
corridor where there was a sharp left turn. A dozen people, who looked to be
technicians of some sort, came running frantically from there. Ev and Maya
braced for a fight, but the techies ran right by them without so much as a
second glance.

However,
following behind them were several more Zero Grade thugs in suits who tensed up
when they saw Ev and Maya. “The prisoners have escaped!”

Ev
clenched his fists, ready to pound them, but Maya simply conjured her bow and
dropped them in rapid succession. “We don’t have time for this,” she said when
Ev gave her a look that said she just stole his thunder.

The
wall here was lined with full-length windows. These were probably the panels
they had seen from the outside. They were remarkably clear, not showing so much
as a single smudge or imperfection. The Tru Republic countryside spread out
before them, offering an impressive view.

“I
think we just found our way out,” Ev said.

Maya
nodded. It wasn’t elegant, but they would be exiting this way.

The
whole structure suddenly tilted beneath their feet. “Time to go,” she said.

* * *

Freya,
Brandon, half the faculty and the fifty or so students following them stopped
within a couple hundred feet of the
Sancta Praesidium
. A massive beam of
violet energy was coming up from the stone monument below the flying fortress
and had enveloped its lower half.

“Damn
thing’s been harpooned,” Atlas said.

Aphrodite
nodded. “That must be why it’s just floating there, naked for everyone to see.”

Brandon
popped his knuckles
and got literally fired up. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s—”

He
stopped short as their attention was diverted by a crash from one of the panels
on the
Praesidium
. Two figures violently exited the fortress.

“It’s
Maya and Ev!” CiCi declared.

Brandon
, waving to them,
yelled, “Guys! Over he—”

Again
his words were cut off, but this time not by the
Praesidium
. A multitude
of rifts opened in the sky. Those who had witnessed this occurrence before knew
exactly what was happening. “Shit,” Freya said. She didn’t usually swear, but
they could all agree this occasion called for it.

A
host of giant beings, wearing white robes, descended from the rifts and crashed
to the ground below. Some of them landed on the
Praesidium
, smashing the
panels and shredding metal.

The
Nephilim had returned. Not since the Stiftung Crisis had anyone seen them—they
normally stayed dormant within the mystical realm of Gehenna—but now they were
back in full force.

Brandon
remembered the almost
unimaginable destruction they had caused, and to his horror realized they could
easily do the same to the Tru Republic.

Without
waiting for the others, he dove in to take them on single-handedly.

* * *

“Arcturus
has unleashed the Nephilim!” Maya said, stating the obvious as they hung in mid-air
over Stonecroft.

“No,”
Ev replied. “I mean—why would he do that?”

“Because
he’s a lunatic! I’ve said all along he can’t be trusted.”

He
could no longer deny it. “I hate to say it, but I think you’re right. We’ve got
to stop the Nephilim before they smash up this whole country.”

Bow
in hand, she answered, “And there’s only one way to do that. Let’s go!’

They
dropped to the ground and found themselves surrounded by Nephilim. Maya let fly
with her arrows, but they proved to be only minor annoyances to the massive
giants. The projectiles simply weren’t large enough to do any real damage,
piercing the Nephilims’ flesh but inflicting only superficial wounds.

“I
think you’re gonna need something bigger,” Ev quipped. He leapt at a nearby
giant, punching him square in the jaw and sending him to the ground. A mound of
grass soil exploded where the Nephilim landed. Ev was pleasantly surprised by
his strength. He had come a long way this past year; during the Stiftung Crisis
it had taken a whole team of students to bring down one giant at a time.

“I
think you’re right,” Maya said, jumping out of the way of a Nephilim fist.
Wait—what were they talking about again? His distraction by his own strength
made him forget.

She
conjured a quiver full of new arrows and proceeded to draw her bow with them.
Ev couldn’t see anything different about them; they looked exactly like every
arrow she had ever used.

But
then she shot one at a Nephilim that was trying to grab her. It embedded itself
in the giant’s eye, causing him to cry out in pain.
That won’t be enough to
kill him,
he thought to himself. But the sudden explosion violently proved
him wrong. The giant collapsed in a squirting, headless heap.

“Explosive
arrows,” Ev said. “Nice touch.”

“Thanks.
Chemical reactions are tricky to conjure, so I’m glad I didn’t blow
myself
up.” OK, now he wasn’t so sure explosive arrows were a good idea.

A
female Nephilim was creeping up on her. “Behind you!” Ev bounded over her head and
delivered a savage knee to the giant’s chin, launching her backwards towards
the violet light that had taken hold of the
Sancta Praesidium
.
Strangely, the closer she got to it, the more she accelerated.

Ev
watched this play out in macabre fascination. “What the hell…?” When the
Nephilim finally hit the beam, she was sucked into the ground. No, that wasn’t
quite right; it was more like the light compressed her entire mass. She shrunk
to a pin-prick before his eyes.

Maya
stood beside him, equally enthralled with the spectacle. “Isn’t that where we
buried the Ark last night?”

He
nodded, too dumbstruck to say anything else.

She
continued. “Arcturus must have somehow activated it. It’s sucking in anything that
gets close to it.” Indeed, there was now a crater where Stonecroft had been.

He
grinned. “I think we just found an easy way to get rid of the Nephilim.”

“Wait
a minute! If I’m right, the Ark is feeding right now. There’s no telling what
will happen if it keeps absorbing things.”

Sighing,
Ev said, “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.”

“Not
as hard as you might think, mate!” Jaysin and CiCi dropped in behind them.

Maya
embraced CiCi. “It’s so good to see you guys!”

“The
team is back together!” Ev declared.

“Well,
except for Daryn,” CiCi said. “He’s not much of a team player these days.”

Ev
happily noted, “Doesn’t matter. Looks like you brought more than enough friends
to compensate.”

“And
this time we won’t need a vault door to stomp these giddards.” More Chrichton
slang from Jaysin.

“All
right!” Ev said. “We fight back to back. Everyone, watch out for that giant-ass
beam. You get too close to it, you’re dead.”

“Understood,”
CiCi said.

Jaysin
nodded. “Right. Better scratch ‘Get sucked into giant beam’ off my to-do list.”

* * *

Freya’s
order to stick together was almost immediately abandoned as soon as they
arrived. Jaysin and CiCi left to rendezvous with Ev and Maya, and everyone else
scattered when the Nephilim came at them. The battle was now one big, chaotic
free-for-all revolving around the
Sancta Praesidium
. Students and giants
collided everywhere, and everyone ignored the chain of command.

The
faculty members separated to the far corners of the battlefield to aid the
students as much as possible. Only Brandon and Freya remained on the western
side of the flying fortress.

Using
his fire, Brandon lit up a row of Nephilim. They flailed about wildly,
screaming in unimaginable agony before succumbing as charred corpses. This
bought the two some time. “We have to stop the Ark from fully activating,”
Freya said.

“Yeah,
but how? No one even remembers how it works.”

“That’s
not true. Arcturus Reich knows how it works.”

He
surveyed the chaos around them. “We don’t even know where he is. He could be
long gone by now. I doubt he has much reason to stick around now that he’s done
what he set out to do.”

“Then
we’ll have to stop it ourselves. Got any ideas?”

His
settled upon the flying fortress. “What if we shoved that thing down the Ark’s throat? Might clog it up or something.

“We
don’t know that,” she said. “If might make the Ark activate even faster.”

“Well,
we’re running out of time, so we’d better try
something
.”

She
turned to him and said, “Fine. Do whatever you have to do.”

“I’m
on it.”

He
soared into the sky until he was a good several hundred feet above the
Sancta
Praesidium
. Then, without waiting any further, he launched himself
downwards onto the top of it with the intention of forcing it into the crater
below.

However,
its structural integrity proved inferior to the task at hand. He slammed
through the glass panels and went through a dozen floors before coming to a
stop.

He
got up and shook the glass, metal, and a hundred other things off of him while
cursing his lack of engineering knowledge. Well, he thought, maybe he should
have blamed Zero Grade for their shoddy construction work. After all, if it
couldn’t withstand the might of a full-fledged god like him, it wasn’t worth
building.

He
would have to approach this from another angle. Brandon smashed his way out and
set about finding Atlas. In the throngs of combatants scattered all around the
Sancta
Praesidium
, he had a hard time telling who was who.

He
closed his eyes and honed in on the big man’s psychic frequency.
Atlas!