Fury to the Stars (Universe in Flames Book 2) (7 page)

“That can’t be good,” Tar’Lock muttered.

“Agreed,” said Ryonna. “Let’s pick up the pace.”

They started sprinting as fast as they could, but
they could hear laser fire and people screaming all over the place. They didn’t
know what was happening but it sure sounded like trouble. Soon, they reached an
intersection and took a left. They were still sprinting when suddenly two
figures appeared in the distance. A man and a woman running towards them.
Ryonna swore she recognized Sarah and stopped short. She couldn’t tell if the
man was Chase; he looked like him somehow, but something was off.

“What is it, Mom?”

“I know that woman… but something’s not right.”

The pair stopped running and started to walk in
their direction.

“Ronan, Tar’Lock, be ready to fight!”

“Understood,” said Tar’Lock. Ronan nodded.

Ryonna swayed herself into a fighting stance as
Sarah and the man that looked like Chase stopped a few feet away. The man
stepped forward even further with a hard smile.

“I presume you are Ryonna?”

“Who the hell are you?”

“My name’s Argos. I am Chase’s brother.”

She frowned warily. She didn’t like the look of this
man. “Why isn’t he with you?”

“He had other business to attend to. Droxia is under
attack from the Obsidian Empire and he sent me in his stead.”

Inside her mind Sarah tried screaming all she could,
but nothing happened. She could scream at Argos, however. He could hear her.

“You son of a bitch, why are you doing this?!”

“What did you expect? Would you rather I shoot them
on sight?” he answered her mentally, keeping a fixed smile on Ryonna. “No, I
need them as bait for your boyfriend.”

Ryonna didn’t look convinced at Argos’ statement.
Instead, she looked at Sarah. “Are you alright, Sarah? What are you doing
here?”

“We came looking for you, of course,” Sarah’s voice
answered beyond her control. “We told you we’d help you as soon as we could.”

“I had a plan to get out of here,” Ryonna fumed.
“You might have jeopardized it now.”

“It’s alright, Ryonna, we have a way out. And I see
you found your son,” the possessed Sarah offered sweetly.

“Yes, but we need to go. Soon this place will be
crawling with deadly sentries.”

“Right, follow us, we have a ship waiting.”

Ryonna felt a weird sensation in her gut. Was it her
instinct trying to tell her something was off, or was it just the nanite
factory acting up? She decided that under the circumstances, she had very
little choice anyway.

“Lead the way.”

“Chase! How’s that plan coming? We’re pinned down
here.”

Laser fire grazed Chase’s cheek and he took cover
again. “Thanks for reminding me. I hadn’t noticed!”

“We need to make a hole, or we’ll get stuck here,”
Daniel shouted over the noise.

“Alright, prepare to cover me in three, two...”

Chase took the grenade from his belt.

“One...
Now
!”

Daniel started laying cover fire while Chase sent a
grenade flying in the air. He then jumped on his side, aligned his shot, and
fired at the grenade once it reached the multiple sentries. It exploded and
took out three of them as well as pushing the others out of the way. Chase and
Daniel took advantage of this opportunity and picked off the rest of them with
precisely laid laser shots. With most of the sentries now destroyed or
disabled, they continued firing until every sentry in the area was annihilated.

“About time! How long did we get stuck here, do you
think?” Daniel panted.

“I don’t know, but way too long. I’m not even sure
if the ship is still cloaked.”

“Yeah, that’s also my concern. What if it isn’t?”

“I’ve programmed the onboard computer to lock the
canopy and raise shields if anyone besides us approaches it.”

“Good thinking. But if the black fighter fires on
it, surely shields won’t last too long.”

“They’re a better design than our Manticores and
F-140s, but I agree, they probably wouldn’t last very long.”

Daniel shook his head dismissively. “Later,” he
instructed. “Where to now?”

“I’d say this way.” Chase pointed to a corridor
nearby.

They started walking towards it when they heard
footsteps and five shadows appeared.

For the second time that day, Chase stopped dead in
his tracks.

Was he dreaming?

The first person he saw was Sarah, next to Ryonna
and what probably was her son standing behind her. On their left was also an
insectoid.

But it was the last member of their party that made
his blood run cold. There was no mistaking it. It was the man from his
nightmarish vision.

Argos took a step forward and looked straight into
Chase’s eyes, not saying a word. Chase’s heart pounded so strongly against his
ribcage he thought it might break through.

Daniel looked at Argos, then back at Chase.

“Who the fuck is this guy? Why does he look like
you?”

Ryonna stepped forward. “I thought Chase was
supposed—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Argos flipped
his left hand. Ryonna flew through the air and crashed against the nearest
wall.

“Mom!” Ronan ran towards her and kneeled by her
side. She was unconscious and bleeding from the left temple where she hit the
wall. The young Droxian got back up and started running towards Argos, who
flicked a finger and sent him crashing into the same wall as his mother. With a
dull moan, he landed unconscious on top of her.

Daniel and Chase didn’t wait to react. They both
took aim at Argos and fired multiple shots with their rifles. But Argos put his
hand in front of him and stopped every one of the shots with an invisible
shield. He then made a fist and both rifles exploded in their hands.

“What the hell?!” exclaimed Daniel, looking at his
singed hands.

The insectoid teleported to their side. Chase cast
him a look.

“Friend or foe?”

“I’m Ryonna’s friend. My name is Tar’Lock.”

“Alright then.” Chase gathered his thoughts quickly.
“Sarah isn’t to be hurt, no matter what she does.”

“Understood, but she seems in cahoots with him.”

Argos lowered his hand and spoke. “Hello, brother.”

“You are no brother of mine.” The anger in Chase’s
voice was thick.

“All evidence to the contrary.”

“What do you want? Is Sarah your prisoner?”

“More like a partner.”

“I don’t believe you!”

“Everyone has a breaking point, Chase, even Furies
like us.”

A thick rage started to engulf Chase’s body. He
could feel a tremendous amount of power run through his blood, every part of
his body under so much pressure it was about to explode.

“Daniel, Tar’Lock, this asshole is mine.”

Argos just laughed in response. “Do you think you
can take me? Come on, bro, show me what you’ve got.”

A second later, two blue fireballs blazed in Chase’s
hands.

“Kick his ass, Chase!” Daniel called.

“With pleasure.”

Chase’s eyes shined bright purple. He launched the
first fireball, then immediately launched the second towards Argos’s head. But
quick as they were, Argos blocked both of them with each of his palms, crushing
them in quick succession.

“Thanks for the power up, Chase. Not that I needed
it but…”

A second later Argos disappeared then re-appeared
behind Chase, smashing his elbow against his younger brother’s face. Chase
smashed into the ground, coughing up blood.

“That’s all you've got? I’m disappointed,” Argos
said with a smirk.

Chase thought that his blood was in danger of
literally boiling over, but he remembered what Aphroditis had told him. He had
to control his rage or it could have catastrophic results.

“Or maybe you’re afraid of hurting your friends?”
Argos guessed.

Chase’s eyes flashed to his brother’s face in fear.
Could he read minds?

“Let me help you here then. I don’t want you
distracted.”

“Wait—”

Bur Argos got into a stance and pushed both his
hands to the side. A powerful shockwave sent everyone but himself and Chase
flying in every direction. Daniel crashed against the floor, Sarah was
propelled backwards, and Tar’Lock’s body hit a rock formation nearby with a
crushing sound followed by an agonized moan.

Then Chase lost control.

He screamed so loudly that the rock formations
around him started to crack. The amount of energy being emanated from his body
unhinged small rocks and floated the destroyed sentries and sent them flying
around him. Argos looked up at the destruction, but before he could react,
Chase was flying in the air, crashing down on him with hands joined atop his
head and smashing him into the ground.

Chase didn’t wait for him to get up. He kicked him
in the face, and Argos flew in the air. Chase caught him in mid-air and
squeezed his hand around his throat, using an enormous amount of pressure.
Argos was clearly suffering, but he kept smiling. He kept smiling right until
the moment that Chase sent him crashing into a nearby wall with a well-placed
and powerful kick to the thorax. Parts of the wall cracked under the impact
with Argos’ body.

“Very good, brother!” he shouted, spitting blood
onto the ground. “You have potential, I’ll grant you that. But look at you. You
have no control whatsoever. You simply let your rage dictate your every move.”

“I will kill you,” Chase swore.

“You’re welcome to try, but you’ll need to channel
way more hate and energy to do so.”

With another wild shout, Chase unleashed half a
dozen fireballs at his brother at an impressive rate. Argos deflected them all,
scattering them around a wide arch and scorching huge holes in the ground,
walls and high ceiling. But Chase kept firing more attacks until the resulting
debris and smoke blocked his vision of Argos.

But when the dust settled and the smoke had cleared,
Argos was still standing.

“You’re a pathetic Fury, Chase,” he said with a
smile. “Let me show you real power.”

He pointed a single finger at Chase and a thin red
laser pierced through his brother’s shoulder. Chase cried out in pain and
clapped his hand automatically over the wound.

Chase was trembling now. Not so much with fear of
Argos, but fear of himself. Fear of what he might do if he wasn’t careful. If
he lost control.

He had to find a way out of this situation. He had
to find a way to protect the people he loved. But he was running out of energy.
The last attack had drained him more than he knew.

“Oh, poor brother, running out of juice already.
Just when I started to have fun.”

Chase opened his mouth to say something cutting, but
stumbled back a step with a quiet gasp, still clutching his shoulder.

“Do I have to kill one of your precious friends for
you to show me what you’re made of?”

“Don’t!” Chase shouted earnestly. “If you do, we
will all die here!”

“I don’t think so, Chase. You don’t have that kind
of power. And even if you did, you are in neither the shape nor state to make
good on that threat. Who should I kill first?”

Then Chase heard Aphroditis’ voice in his mind. “Chase,
you cannot defeat your brother Argos today. You need to outsmart him. This is
your strength; use it. It is the only way.”

Argos looked left and right, then shouted, “Stay out
of this, bitch! I’m coming for you next!”

He could hear her too!
How was that even
possible?

Chase didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter. He
had to think of something and fast. He looked at Tar’Lock, the only body still
moving, barely. He focused on him and concentrated on speaking only with his
mind.

“I might need your help. You seem fast.”

Tar’Lock nodded slightly and Chase sure hoped Argos
couldn’t hear every thought. But Argos was very distracted with what had just
transpired.

“Fucking Olympians! You think you can meddle in the
affairs of other races? You will pay for this. You and I both know you are not
allowed to interfere!”

Taking advantage of Argos’ distraction, Chase turned
to Daniel. He was still breathing but his face was bloody—he would need medical
attention very quickly. Then he noticed the cluster of three grenades on
Daniel’s belt and his eyes widened. Tar’Lock saw what he was looking at and
nodded, understanding.

“I don’t care if you’re my brother, this ends here
and now, Argos.”

Argos whirled around. “I don’t remember telling you
my name.”

So he hadn’t heard what Aphroditis had said. He’d
just sensed her presence.

“It doesn’t matter. Today is the last day it will be
spoken.”

“You’re funny, I’ll give you that.”

His focus was entirely on Chase now. Perfect window
of opportunity. Chase maintained eye contact, but mentally shouted with every
last bit of strength he had.

“
Now!
”

He launched himself at Argos, who saw him coming and
entered into a defensive stance. But at the same time, Tar’Lock teleported and
took the cluster of grenades. He also quickly recovered the quadrinium bomb
from Ryonna, spat on it, and stuck it to the grenades before teleporting behind
Argos, who was still distracted by Chase’s charge towards him. Without a second
thought, the insectoid shoved the explosives into Argos’ clothes.

Argos whirled around and send Tar’Lock flying with a
power blow, but the second his back was turned, Chase rushed forward. He threw
back his head and released a scream that sounded like it had come from the
depths of hell.

A powerful beam of blue light erupted from both of
his palms, melting the grenades deep into Argos’ back and sending him flying in
the nearest corridor before they suddenly exploded. Everyone in the area was
blasted back out of range as what was left of the corridor collapsed in a
smoking heap.

The dust settled and Chase ran towards Tar’Lock, who
looked to be in really bad shape.

“Thank you! I couldn’t have done it without you,” he
said in a rush.

“It’s not like I had any choice. This mad man would
have killed us all,” Tar’Lock groaned in reply. “And it was a good plan.”

“Will you be okay?”

Tar’Lock tried to smile. “No, I don’t think I’m
gonna survive this. My back is broken in three places; I can feel internal
bleeding.”

A sudden thought occurred to Chase and he leaned
down. “Hang on.” He closed his eyes and put both his hands on Tar’Lock’s body.

“What are you doing?” the insectoid asked.

“Trust me.”

White light glowed from Chase’s hands and started
radiating all around Tar’Lock’s body. The result was almost instantaneous.
Bones began to repair. Cuts began to close. After just a few seconds, Tar’Lock
started to feel better than he had in years.

“Thank you,” he gasped. “I bet that sure comes in
handy!”

Chase smiled weakly, just thrilled by the fact that
it had worked.

“Especially when considering I had no idea I could
do that.”

Tar’Lock’s eyes widened. “I find that both
fascinating and terrifying.”