• • Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way
• October 23, 2024

Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way (Chapter 10)

Clayton Knight

There Will be Blood

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I’ve seen a lot of wacky things in this short life of mine. Never a giant drill. 

When I turn around, I do for the first time.

The drill is the size of a hallway, and that’s when it stops spinning. 

It gets even bigger when it opens outwards allowing several soldiers to come out dressed in the shiny Regnorian combat suits. After the soldiers get out, they line up and train their guns on us. Not gonna lie, that kind of says alot that they don’t come out shooting. 

There’s someone or something here that they want.

Another comes out last, purposely posed to be in the middle. I can tell he is the leader based on his suit. 

This Regamorph is wearing a full suit of armor made out of some kind of metal. It clings close to his body, but has protruding plates on the elbows, shoulders, and knees. The helmet has weird swirling eyes, and a circle over its mouth. 

When the lining of the suit began to light up, the spirals of the eyes and circle over its mouth did too. It kind of made it look like it was sucking a pacifer, or like a dark Bumblee, like the transformer. 

This should be more dramatic, I realize this, but… I mean… they’re just men, in stupid little suits. What do I have to be afraid of?

The only thing that stands out is that color of the suits lights, similar to the light my body gives off when I use my powers. It’s eerily similar. 

The leader holds his hand up and lowers it, which tells the soldiers to lower their weapons. 

I turn to Hideo. “Hey, get them all out of here, Challan too, we probably need him and Tyraid.”

“You want me to leave you alone?” He is uncharacteristically worried.

“What? Don’t think I can handle myself?”

“No, I just know you want to have all the fun by yourself.”

 I chuckle and turn back towards the soldier and their leader. Now I actually notice that the leader has a cape falling from his back. He’s one of those… actually, you know what, it’s probably the coolest part of the suit.

“I’ve got this, now go. I’ll meet up with you after I’m finished with them.”

“I’m sorry but that just won’t do.” 

The leader’s voice is covered up by this loud vibration.

“These guys,” he says while pointing his finger at those around him, “are here for the scientists.”

I hear Hideo behind me start shoving Aleti and Tyraid away. 

“We can’t just leave him!” I hear Aleti say. 

It’s touching that she thinks that, but she truly doesn’t realize the lack of danger these guys pose to me.

“Trust me, he’ll be just fine.”.

“Like I said, they’re here for the scientists,” the leader repeats. He can’t let his men shoot since they’re just as likely to hit them as they are me and Hideo.  

Or at least that’s what I thought until he closes his hand into a fist. 

I’ve been in enough fights and seen enough movies to realize that’s the signal to start firing. 

As the soldiers raise their weapons, I quickly move to the desk to my left. I bring my hand down through the top, and tear it out of the floor to use as a bullet shield. 

Bullets never come, instead come blasts of blue-green energy. 

“Cosmic energy,” I mutter as I feel the force actually move me back each time they hit the desk. This isn’t going to hold. “Hideo! Move faster!”

“Take Tyraid first!” I hear Aleti say. I look back to see Hideo fly up then take Tyraid by the shoulders to fly him to the elevator. I start walking backwards with the desk in my hand. A stray shot goes under the desk and burns the floor right near Aleti’s feet, which causes her to jump. 

“Stay directly behind me!” 

Have to give her credit, she does what I ask, most don’t. She grabs my shoulders and lines herself directly behind me so she won’t be hit. 

As we keep walking backwards I can feel this long desk falling apart against the barrage. I want to know what this desk is made out of as much as I do their armor. A portion of the bottom falls apart, leaving my legs vulnerable, which is immediately capitalized on. 

ZAP! is followed immediately by a sizzle as my right shin burns. 

“Ah, fuck!” I groan in pain. 

“Are you alright?!” Aleti yells in my ear. 

“No! I was shot!”

“Clay! We’re just waiting for you and Aleti! Come on!” I hear Hideo yell to us. 

I turn to Aleti. “Go, I’ll cover you!”

“You’re coming, right?!” she asks me with concern. She cares too much.

No, seriously, it’s getting annoying, the second I can put down this desk, the second I can start shooting back lasers.

“I’ll be right behind you!” I lie to her. To be honest, I want to be able to fight without having to worry about collateral damage.

She holds a gaze between us, and I don’t think she believes me, but she nods her head and runs towards the elevator. 

I charge my energy into my eyes and lower the desk. In a line I blast heat from my eyes, getting the guns and chests of the first three before hitting leader. 

When my blast hits the leader, it’s like I’m throwing water at him. No, worse, it the light falls like water, but before it can even touch the ground, the suits seems to grab it and suck it into his suit.

Great.

Then he raises his own weapon, which has a significantly bigger barrel. 

It sounds more like a cannon when he shoots it, and its ammunition isn’t far off. It shoots a ball, probably a cosmic grenade. 

“Crap,” is all I say as I blast it in the air through my eyes, causing a huge explosion to destroy the desk and send me barreling backwards to collide into someone. 

I feel a sharp stab of pain in my back, in all too familiar spot. I roll off the person I collided with, and reach to touch the spot on my back where I had been shot by the Kiyayya Cikin Jiki. I feel the hole, and it hadn’t healed right.  

“I should probably get that checked out,” I think out loud. 

“Clay, you’re bleeding!” 

I think I know who I fell on.

I turn my head to meet Aleti’s worried expression. 

“You okay?” I ask her. 

My body hit her pretty hard so she could be hurt.

“I’ll be okay, you’re bleeding!” 

I’m really not bleeding all that much, I’ve had worse done to me before, but she wouldn’t know that. 

I was going to tell her, but I hear the leader yell, “Aim for the door panel!” 

Their cosmic blasts are about to come over us so I roll onto Aleti to shield her with my body. I yell to Hideo, “Shut the door! Now!” 

“I’ll be back! I promise!” I hear him make his promise as the elevator door shuts and the blasts start heading towards him.

ZAP!! SIZZLE!

I get shot again in the back, but this I’m prepared for it.

When the elevator closes, the blasts stop. I hear the footsteps of the soldiers start heading towards us. I look at Aleti, who has an awkward look on her face for some reason. 

“Are you okay?” I ask her. 

“Hm hm,” she mumbles with a nod of her head. 

“Okay, stay behind the desks as I handle these guys.” 

The footsteps sound like they’re right on top of us. I spin around to meet them head on. 

I go from thinking in real time, to moving beyond them.

I count three with guns and three without, with the leader walking calmly behind them. 

I quickly run up to the front man whose aiming his gun in slow motion. When he pulls the trigger I duck my head.

I grab the barrel of his gun and push it up towards the ceiling. I see another armed soldier to my right, ready to fire, so I grab the first soldier and move him between us to take the blast.

Splack! 

When the blast hits his shoulder it burns through him, blowing blood and guts all over my face. I move out of the way of the blast just in time myself.

It’s best that I don’t waste anymore time.

I dash at the soldier who just tried to shoot me, and strike his nose with my open palm. I can feel his skull crack and collapse on his brain under the force of my hand. I normally don’t want soldiers to get off easy just for following orders, but efficiency is the name of the game.

Click.

Not efficient enough. I turn around and raise my hands in time to block a blast from the last armed soldier. 

“Errrgggghhh…” The sounds I made as the skin on my forearms bubbled and sizzled was less than dignified.

I can already hear the click as he squeezes the trigger again, but whether its the cosmic energy or the time it takes to squeeze the trigger, it doesn’t matter. 

He’s too slow.

I’m running at him as the gun fires, and I learn that cosmic energy is much faster than I remember. 

I leap and flip over the blast, watching it just barely singe the tip of my hoodie.

As I land I bring my foot down on his gun. With a move Alloya taught me — a manji kick — I dive down by releasing my knees, avoiding whatever he was going to do, and bring my leg up and across his chin. 

Snap!

With my speed and strength, I turn his head completely around. A quicker death than he deserves.

Now… all that’s left is the leader. I’m back on my feet in a flash, and he’s just standing there with his gun… watching. 

He stands there, calm, cool, collected, gun pointed down, and without a hint of fear for me in his body… or maybe her, could just have a deep voice.

“Sorry, but you’re not taking anyone without getting past me,” I warn him.

That understandably motionless helmet tells me nothing of what he thinks of my warning. Then suddenly he lets his cosmic grenade launcher fall to his side, so he can bring his hands together. I watch closely, for anything. 

Then he begins clapping. 

His hands are gloved so it doesn’t make a clapping sound, but the act itself is patronizing. Then I can hear him laughing as he dips his head back. Something is up, so I’m gonna take the risk that this isn’t the time to charge at him.

“The Captain trained you well in the art of hand-to-hand combat. I can see her fighting style written all over the way you carry yourself on the ground and in the air.” 

Could someone know that Alloya trained me, or did he figure it out by only watching me? No, he had to know beforehand somehow.

Then comes his goading, where he tries to patronize me. 

“Oh, and don’t worry about me going after the scientists. The soldiers are here for that, but me, I’m here to take you out.” Upon revealing this information to me, he takes his weapon off of his shoulders and throws it onto the ground. Then he gets into a ready fighting stance.

‘Don’t underestimate that armor,’ Sera warns. I guess that means that Hideo is far enough away. ‘We don’t know what it’s made out of. Could be as hard as diamonds but as malleable as steel under special conditions.’ 

So glad that you could join us, I think to say sarcastically.

‘Don’t play around. Your blasts don’t work, and unless you plan on breaking open a hole into space, don’t use them.’

Why do you care about me blasting a hole to space? The only person that would be hurt is Aleti. Do you actually care? 

It’s not like Sera to care.

‘If Alloya’s daughter died on our watch… well, she would not be incapable of killing you, and therefore me.’ 

Of course.

‘Grow up and listen. If you’re in a bind, I’ll help you out. This man gives me bad feelings, and that should say something.’

What kind of bad feelings?

‘Ever since this battle started I’ve felt like I was being drained, but not from any specific direction. Power has been borrowed little by little, so nothing that a being like me can’t replace in seconds.’  Still, that is slightly frightening news.

I ready myself, fists up and hopefully ready for anything. We stare at each other for a few seconds, and I realize that he isn’t going to make the first move. To attack him head on will likely be an error unless he’s bluffing me. 

Let’s put him on the backfoot. I bring my hands together and build up a small ball of energy. Then in a flash I stretch it out so it explodes. What this does is create a miniature solar flare that doesn’t have the strength or heat to burn anything, but what it does do is create a flash of light that can momentarily blind anything with eyes.

The armored soldier brings his hands up to his eyes like they always do, as if that will somehow fix the blindness. 

I dash at him, a blur of light as I close the distance of a few yards in less than a second. I’m floating above the ground as I move, allowing me to swing my leg at his left ankle with more force than any man who bows to gravity. 

I should have shattered his stance, his ankle, his leg, and just about everything else. I would have settled for toppling him over. But that didn’t happen. 

Bong!

When my leg makes contact with his armor, it stops me cold, and my bones reverberate like a gong. 

I don’t retreat though. I resign myself to using grapples and throws… which are not my specialty. The idea to take his gun and see if his suit can absorb cosmic blasts does go through my head. His gun probably isn’t going to work but I’m running out of ideas. 

I can’t stop to think about it too long. I pull my leg away from his ankle and move to grab both of his arms as he’s blocking his face.

Then as I am about to take hold of his arms he moves them out of the way. 

“Hmph,” is all he says as he grabs both of my arms by the wrists. 

Fuck.

CRACK! 

I feel my nose crumble into pieces when his ugly helmet smashes into my face. 

“Did you really think your flash would blind me? I just pretended so I would get you where I want you.” 

I fucking figured.

If I want to win this battle I’m gonna have to take some risks with my power. 

With enough strength that should launch a person through the wall and into space, I fly up and bring my right knee into his chin. 

Crack!

Maybe it’s the pain, but I get the feeling it was my knee that cracked, rather than his chin. 

But I broke my arms free at least. 

He goes a few solid feet into the air, but does a backflip back onto his feet and one hand on the ground. I fly higher, twenty feet above him roughly. 

I look back at Aleti to see how she is doing, and a frightened kid stares back. I smile at her to maybe instill some confidence. 

I have no plans to lose this fight just yet. 

I look back at the armored soldier and see that he still wants to make this a hand-to-hand fight. His gun is nearby but he hasn’t glanced at it. 

I decide to really test his durability by flying straight down at him. Half-way down I flip forward, trying to give myself as much momentum as possible before I bring down the house. 

The back of my foot makes contact with his arms as he blocks above his head. 

BOOMMMM!!!!

When my leg connects with his arms, it creates a loud boom that sends everything remotely close flying like a bunch of oversized bullets.

I hear Aleti screaming because of some things probably flying at her, but I don’t have the chance to check because this guy suddenly grabs my ankle, and brings me down to my back. 

That’s when Sera decides to pitch in. ‘Quickly, grab his hand so he can’t get away and barrage his helmet with your fist. Keep punching, even if your bones break!”

Now you decide to help?! With that basic ass plan?! 

That being said, I totally do what she says.

He locks onto my right leg, so I grab his arm in my left hand then float up to get a beeline on his head. Then I reel back my fist to start letting him have it.

Bam!

When my fist smashes against his helmet, it feels like it’s going to crack, which is a feeling I’ve never had before. I’ve brought down buildings, crashed from orbit, smashed astroids, but when my fist hits his helmet, it’s like all my strength drains away and I’m just barely strong enough to give this guy a concussion.

My fist may be more durable than most, but this is not what it should be. The first punch only has him reeling and trying to get free of me. He really begins to freak out as I lay into his helmet. At the fourth punch I feel the helmet dent as my knuckles definitely crack. At the sixth his spiral eye cracks, and at the eighth he lets go of my leg completely.

At this moment, I bring my leg back and swing it upwards into his chin with the same force as when I brought my leg down on his head. I don’t break his helmet, but it flies up and off his head, revealing what I already knew. 

He’s a generic looking Regamorph soldier. He falls backwards and brings his hand to his bleeding lip as he gets back up. His blood is blue. 

He cracks a smile, but at least he has a normal voice. “I’ll admit, I didn’t think the stories had much truth, but you’re something, Solar Flare. Break your hand to hurt me? Most can’t do that.” 

Then he spits out some blood. 

“I know you!” I hear Aleti yell behind me. I turn back to see that she’s relatively unscathed asides from a few scratches, which is bleeding ever so slightly. 

“You know him? Why?” 

When did this kid have a run in with a soldier?

Aleti explains, “He was the one who would follow and spy on my mom! She said his name was Chronos.”   

I turn back to him to see if he owns up to it. He has this devious smile and I know all that I need to know. 

I rush him and grab him by the throat, then raise him above my head so he dangles above the ground. Nobody harrasses my teammates, my family, especially not Alloya. 

I squeeze, choking the air from his lungs. “This is the part where you die.”

Chronos still cracks a smile, as if dying sounds like a good time. 

Staph!

He grasps hold of my arm with both hands as blue-green lights pool into the chest plate of his armor. In seconds, a swirling circle of cosmic energy circles around the center of his chest. I let go of his throat to get away but he holds onto my arm and slides it across the ground with me. At this range I can’t block what’s coming. 

“I think I’m about to become a Guardian killer instead.”

BOOM!

The worst thing about being able to think as fast as I move, is that shit hurts more for longer. It’s not hurting in real time, it’s hurting in slowed down time.

The energy his chest shoots punches a hole the size of my fist right where my sternum is. I can feel the blast burning away at my defenses, and shoot right through me. I can feel my flesh being burned away, through the bone and organs I can’t name. It’s not like a part of me is missing, a part of me is being stolen. 

In real time, the blast only lasts a second or two. 

To add insult to injury, the force sends me careening across the floor. 

I hear Aleti scream as slide a few feet before I…. before I roll flat on my back… 

The world feels cold where the hole is, but everything else feels like its melting. It’s the worst of being hot and cold. 

“No, no, no, you’ll be okay, you should be healing,” Aleti rambles softly. She’s closer than she was before.

“Not from that,” Chronos tells her. “Cosmic energy fuels this cantorium suit. I used the rest of my reserves to put that hole in his chest. Cosmic energy, the stuff that fuels your mom, is the stuff other Guardians don’t come back from.”

I reach out for Sera, Please… help me…. You could heal me, or at least-

Chronos interrupts my thoughts to say, “Well, not without his demon.” I look at him to see that he is picking up his gun. “Finishing him off now will keep his demon from saving him.”

Sera!!!

‘I’m trying… The drain on my power is so much greater than before!

What? Why?

‘I don’t know! It got worse, ever since…. Ever since that brat laid her hands on you.’ 

I didn’t even notice that she was touching me. I had already lost feeling in my chest. I try to keep my eyes open as things grow numb. I look up at Aleti… and she is holding her eyes shut…. I don’t see what she’s doing… 

Aleti growls, “I won’t let you hurt him again….” 

This aura, of solar power… starts to radiate from her closed eyes…

But Chronos doesn’t see that.

“How are you going to stop me?” he asks as he trains his weapon at us.

Then she looks up, her pupils are these skinny slits, like a wolf’s. 

“I’ll kill you,” Aleti promises.