Chapter 21

Dave walked to them and blinked. Standing before him were his friends Staci Rivera and Hardy brothers!

“I suppose you three can tell me what’s going on?” he demanded.

Staci sighed. There was no use in creating a long story. When it came to Dave, it was nothing but the facts or face the consequences.

She stood before him and looked up into his eyes. “We were brought here a few days ago. It seems that all of us, including you two, plus the possibility of some other hidden people, all were at one time part of another planet; A planet where the people had mutant like powers. We were all killed during a war that had engulfed our planet and sent to be reborn on Earth to remain safe. Now we’ve been brought back to finish the alien army. The bird that possesses me, which is similar to the one that brought you here, has been revealing all this to me and more.”

Dave looked around at what looked like a group of kids to him. How could such young people be expected to fight in any kind of war? None of them looked like they had any previous military training. Then looking further he could see a group standing apart from them. Two of them he could tell right away had military experience.

“Good, hopefully they’ve been putting these kids through hard paces,” he thought as he moved towards the second group.

Patrick and Noel came over to him.

Noel looked him over. “I see you’ve been through the military too.”

Dave nodded. “Special forces. I was with them for four years before I left. Have you been putting these kids through that kind of training?”

“As much as we can.” Patrick answered, “Though I don’t think it’s been enough Maybe you can create a training schedule to really jumpstart their awakening.”

Angel came over to them. “Think you can create one within the day?”

Dave gave a quick glance to the other group before turning back to the guardians. “I’ll have one ready within the hour.”

Only Frank and Joe had a small idea of the training schedule that Dave would create. Having had spent some time with Lt. John Elliot, they knew some of the drills they would have to go through. Dave had increased the danger by adding live fire blasts to many of them. Several of them were injured, only to have Dave physically pick them up and order them to keep moving. Joe wanted to stand up to him, but a quick glance from Frank told him not to. They had to learn under fire or die by it.

Running through an obstacle course? Now they had to run through it with laser blasts coming up behind them. Swimming through the lake? Now those who had swimming powers had to dive through a lake filled with depth charges. Fields changed in the middle of running through them, from plain grass to swamp to lakes. The schedule didn’t let up until noon when they were finally allowed to break for lunch.

Frank looked around when lunch turned into an unusually quiet time. Even people like Vanessa, who sometimes could talk a mile a minute, were quietly eating lunch. Others like Brian who had telekinetic abilities, were using their food and utensils for practice.

He looked over at his girlfriend and saw something he hadn’t noticed before. Her eyes had changed color. Instead of their usual chocolate brown, they had turned deep ruby red. There was a hint of red hair around her temples. Her upper arms, instead of being thin now showed muscles. Looking over at his younger brother, he saw that Joe’s eyes had turned to a deeper shade of blue. He wondered how much of his self had changed.

Joe looked up. “Is something wrong?” he sent.

Joe noticed that Frank’s eyes had changed. Instead of being dark brown, they now seemed to change between blue and brown when he blinked. He had become quieter than usual, yet he could feel his bond with him growing stronger.

Frank shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just not used to the silence,” he sent back.

Joe nodded slightly. “I know what you mean. I guess it’s better for everyone to focus on what’s going on right now and not worry about anything else.”

Frank looked into his brother’s eyes. “Are you feeling OK? Any pain or dizziness?”

Joe shook his head slightly. “I was feeling dizzy when we came here for lunch but that’s past. I guess using these mutant powers took a lot more out of me than I thought. I just have to be careful.”

Frank was about to say something else when his stomach growled. Looking down at his plate, he began eating some of the sandwich he had made. His stomach cramped as the food and water entered his system. A clear sign his body was starving for nutrition. Finishing the sandwich in record time, he knew his was going to have to eat more for the afternoon’s exercises.

The afternoon’s weather had been changed from pleasant to hot and humid. Dave wanted everyone to get used to working in a changing environment. Experience had taught him that conditions are rarely ideal.

Angel and Noel helped him split the groups up so each one could get tested in an environment that hurt them. Those that had cold powers now found themselves training in a desert. Those that could fly were now under water. Those that couldn’t fly were training on the side of a cliff. Every bit of the drone attackers were real.

The running exercises had fire power coming from all directions. Joe could barely focus on one thing before something else came at him. His head began to hurt as he focused his powers in more than one direction. Soon he found himself firing in five and six directions.

Frank remembered a lot of John Elliot had told him. Dave couldn’t afford to be gentle or let people pass by. John said that he Seals were trained to be tough and get through any situation. They were to survive on their own and not rely on any outside help at all costs. Joe looked over at his brother and knew he was thinking the same thing. From this time until tomorrow, training was only going to get harder.

Frank could feel his anger nearly boiling over as he helped his brother into the medical room. Joe had suffered a bad injury to his upper right leg. They were both positive that the bone was broken. Patrick came over to them and handed Joe a glass full of a milky looking liquid.

“Drink as much as you can. It will mend your leg and deal with the pain,” he said, before moving onto other injured people.

Joe cautiously sipped it. The liquid smelled faintly of sweaty towels and grapefruits. When the first sip hit his tongue, his nose wrinkled as the taste of bitter herbs, limes, and something else blended together. His stomach lurched at the thought of drinking it, but a fresh wave of pain from his leg told him another story.

Frank held onto his shoulders. “Whatever it tastes like, it’s probably better than the pain from this leg which is only going to get worse.”

Joe took a breath and quickly downed half the glass before his stomach stopped him. Closing his eyes he tried to will the nausea away, knowing he needed to recover from the wound. At the encouragement of his brother, he swallowed the rest. When the last of the liquid was gone, he felt a burning sensation replacing the pulsating pain in his leg.

“Joe?” Frank said as he helped his brother lay down on his bed.

He had felt his heart grow cold when he saw his brother’s face contort in pain. Looking down at the open wound, he could see it slowly closing in on itself. He hugged his brother as the liquid worked its way through his whole leg.

Joe blinked again as the burning was replaced by a strange numbing feeling. Looking down at his leg, his eyes went wide as he saw the wound closing itself. It was only a couple of minutes before the wound no worse than a bad burn before the skin began to mend itself. Then just as quickly, the skin healed over leaving no scar. He reached down and gingerly touched it.

“No pain… Just what was in that stuff?” Joe thought as his brother handed him a cup of Gatorade.

Frank looked down at the wound. “Amazing… if only we had that medication on that night when Joe…”

Frank closed his eyes and tried to block out that memory. Each time the memory came back it brought with it a fresh wave of fear and sadness. The freezing cold, the sounds of gunshots, the pool of dark blood, the scream, Joe’s body growing cold… He swallowed and pushed away the memories. If the day’s training was anything like the battle ahead, he could afford any distractions.

“I’m fine big brother, no need to worry now,” Joe said as he flexed his leg, amazed that there wasn’t a hint of stiffness.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” Frank thought as he watched his brother carefully testing out his leg. “Let’s see if we can find you some undamaged jeans.”

By the time Frank had his own wounds treated and they were back in their room, Joe was no longer limping. An announcement came over the intercom saying that dinner would be served in twenty minutes and afterwards drills would continue.

Joe sat on the edge of his bed looking very tired. “When is this going to end? More drills, people being hurt, training and constantly being reminded one or all of us could be killed…”

Frank sat down next to him and hugged him. “We’ll get through this baby brother. We’ve always battled the bad guys before. Now is our chance to do that for a whole lot more people than just a client.”

Joe nodded. He didn’t want to understand it, but something always assured him that this is what he was born to do. This was the reason why he always felt different from everyone else in his group of friends.

“I guess this is why I always knew.”

Frank looked down at him. “Always knew what?”

Joe looked at his hands. “That we were different. That are bond was so strong, so connected that we had to be something more that just brothers to each other.” He looked into his brother’s eyes. “That we somehow just didn’t belong.”

Frank had to stop to think. He had tried to ignore it. Ever since he was old enough to read books, he knew. He always knew. Somehow he and his brother were different from everyone else.

Frank hugged him. “I knew too baby brother. I guess for the longest time I didn’t want to believe it. I forced myself to ignore it, but every once in a while that feeling came back. At the times when I would look through my telescope…you remember the one mom and dad gave me last Christmas? ” Joe nodded. “I always wondered why it seemed like home was out there, not where I was standing.”

Joe paused as tears filled his eyes. “It’s never going to be the same again? Like when we were little kids, pretending in our tree house?”

Frank hugged him again. “When we get back, I’ll take you to that new movie and hopefully we can forget about it, if just for a little while.”

Joe sighed wondering if anything could help him forget. “I think we better head to dinner.”

Frank silently agreed as they both walked out of the room.

Joe knew some people were thinking that Dave would let up with the evening drills. He knew that as the battle drew near the drills would only be more intense. Looking up at the sky, he had a feeling that within the next three days the alien force would be there.

Looking back towards the scene, he had to blink when his field of vision changed. Briefly he thought he saw everything differently, as though he were watching it through a pair of nightvision goggles. In what he could guess was thirty seconds, he saw everything as clearly as if there were direct sunlight over them. He saw everything that had a heartbeat standing before him. He could see their features, what they were wearing… then everything return to normal.

Dave came over to him. “You saw something different.”

Joe nodded, causing Frank to come over. “What did you see?”

Joe blinked. “It was like I was wearing a pair of nightvision goggles for a few seconds.”

Noel came over to them. “It looks like you’ve discovered night fighting abilities. We’ll have to find out if it works by using infra-red or sonar waves.”

Frank wondered what was troubling his brother and came over to them.

Joe looked into his brother’s eyes. “I keep seeing things in the dark. They’re telling me we have to figure out if I can see using infra-red or sonar.”

Frank nodded. “That means if you see things using heat or sound waves. We can do that once the sun completely sets.”

Noel turned to him. “Have you found anything new?”

Frank looked around before looking back at them. “Just in the middle of some of the exercises, some things tended to slow down. I look around and once I thought I could just reach out and knock something away.”

Angel came over to them. “That happens when you’re moving much faster than the environment. Everything around you slows down. You have to be careful because although things have slowed down around you, you can still be hurt by them. You can still fall down.”

Angel sent Frank and Joe with the rest to water up before the exercises would continue. Motioning he brought Noel and Dave over to him.

“Dave, Noel can move in and out of the fourth dimension, allowing him to appear anywhere around here at will.”

Dave looked over at him. “Is that true? How many times can you do that?”

Noel shrugged. “As many times as I want. To me it’s as simple as moving in and out of a doorway.”

Dave nodded. “Then I’ll need you to attack them in and out of the fourth dimension. They are getting better at targets they can see, but now I need to get them used to attacks from anywhere. Try and move quietly. I want to see if some of them have precognitive abilities.”

Noel nodded and disappeared in front them. He was amazed that he could still see the others walking around even though they could not see him. Moving in and out of dimensions, he hit the group with surprised attacks. Many of them, who were unused to not seeing their targets, fired their powers wildly.

Frank shoved Joe to the ground, just narrowly missing a stray energy blast from Vanessa who was knocked off her feet from a sonic blast from Loren. Joe felt something about to hit him and he rolled with Frank, just as Noel appeared right on the spot where they had been. Ray moved his hands trying to use his diamond blades to cut through the air where he thought Noel would appear only to be knocked down from behind.

Noel moved in and out of the dimensions, trying to hit every member of the group at least one time. Cliff tried to use his music powers to create sonar waves, but discovered too late that his waves only work on objects in the third dimension when Noel’s laser sword missed his face by less than an inch.

Joe moved around again and suddenly time began to slow down around him. He could see a hand coming through what looked like hole in mid air. Moving as fast as he could, he grabbed Noel’s armed hand by his wrist.

Angel looked over at the group. He knew right away that Joe would be one of the strongest among them. Looking next to him and seeing his brother, he wondered if they knew yet how to combine their powers.

Frank’s eyes went wide as his baby brother grabbed the arm that had appeared out of thin air. Suddenly, Noel appeared from that same place. Joe threw him to the ground.

Noel looked up and smiled. “That’s a first.” He jumped to his feet. “Joe, it looks like you have a sixth sense.”

Frank came over to them. “I’ve always known he had an extra gift when it came to sensing danger.”

Joe shrugged. “It’s always been that way with me. Like I can always tell when something bad is going to happen. Frank started doing that too only when he was older.”

Angel appeared before them. “I want you two to see if you can combine your powers see if you can amplify both or make a new power.”

By now everyone else had stopped in their practice runs. Dave brought everyone else around to see if they could learn anything from his new friends. He could see Joe looked nervous. They were running short on time.

“Joe, concentrate,” he ordered.

Joe looked into Dave’s eyes and nodded. He took hold of his brother’s hand and closed his eyes. Concentrating, he increased his own energy. Sensing Frank next to him, he could see his brother’s energy increasing. Then in the darkness he could see a glowing energy next to him. He reached out to that energy, feeling his own merging with it.

Angel watched as the separate glows from Frank and Joe merged into one.

Joe reopened his eyes. He and his brother moved their hands at the same time. They fired their combined powers at a very large flying drone. Feeling his entire body burning in pain, he collapsed, just as the drone in the sky exploded into tiny fragments.

Chapter 22

Joe heard several voices calling out to him. Through the pain and haze that seemed to engulf him, he focused on one of the voices. He could hear Frank’s panicked voice over all the other ones shouting at him. The pain in his eyes made him wince. Every time he tried to open them, the bright light felt like daggers. Moaning, he turned and tried to go back into the bliss that was in the darkness.

Suddenly he felt healing warmth flooding through every cell in his body. Every ache and pain left, letting him finally open his eyes. His vision cleared and he could see the worried faces of Frank, Angel and Noel standing around him.

“You OK baby brother?” Frank asked, worry clouding his voice.

“Y-yeah,” the shaky reply came.

Frank inwardly sighed with relief as he helped his brother to sit up on the ground. Patrick brought over a canteen full of a cool water potion for them. Joe gratefully slowly sipped at the water, feeling every bit as it went down his throat. He was still trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Frank looked up at Angel. “What happened?”

Angel’s face didn’t change. “You two have the ability to merge your powers. Think of it as two lasers focusing together to create a stronger laser. The process creates an incredible energy source but at the same time drains it from the two of you. Merging your powers should be used only as a last resort.”

Big Jay came over to them He knelt down and began using his scanner equipment. “Joe, you’re pulse is high, but it’s calming down. Do you feel any dizziness?”

Joe took another sip of water. “No, I feel fine, just a little tired. I don’t even know how I’m managing to stay awake.”

Noel looked around the two brothers, still awed by the amount of power they were able to generate. “You two might want to experiment tapping into dimensional power. You two could still combine your energies, and it wouldn’t be as draining.”

Joe looked up at him. “Dimensional power? You mean like when you appear and disappear?”

Noel nodded. “Something like that. For me it’s as is as walking across the room. You two might have a harder time but because you both already have a sixth sense it might not be as hard as you think.”

Frank helped his brother to his feet. “I think I know what you’re talking about. You don’t physically walk though each dimension. You become part of the energy that runs through it, which is why you can appear and disappear at will and create energy fields.”

Noel’s hand instantly pulled a laser sword out of the air. “You’re right in that I can create energy fields into shapes like this sword. I can travel physically or become part of the energy of most dimensions. There are some yet I can’t travel to. Some people would refer to the energy field in the third dimension as chi or if you want to reference movies, a force.”

Dave came over to them. “It’s what my martial arts instructor told me. He said that there are very few who can tap into the energy fields, let alone harness the energy that’s in them. If you two figure out how to do that, you better be careful. There’s no telling what can happen.” He looked directly at Joe, “You think you can continue?”

Joe could feel Patrick’s special medicines working. His muscles no longer were burning and his energy levels were rising. “Yeah, I think so. Whatever Patrick puts in those potions works great.”

Dave nodded. “Good. Then let’s get back to training. We don’t have much time left and everyone has a lot more to learn.”

Frank nodded, understanding. One look from his brother told him he understood as well. Even with the near two weeks worth of training with the SEALs, they were hardly prepared for the rescue mission. Now with barely two days left, they were still learning about their own powers, and trying to teach their friends how to fight in battle. He looked around as Dave went to change the exercises into time trials. He wondered if his friends knew there was a possibility, a strong possibility, they could die in this war.

“I know how you feel big brother,” he heard Joe’s voice as they walked over to the group. “I’m scared, too.”

“Don’t let anyone know you’re afraid.” Rob’s voice came over to them. They turned to see the guardian looking at them. “If there’s one thing that these alien fighters will feed off of is your fears. Once they know your greatest fear, they’ll use it to crush you.”

Frank thought about that. About the one deepest fear that he kept buried in the darkest part of his thoughts. The fear of losing his little brother… a fear that would wake him up in the middle of the night and wouldn’t let him rest until he made sure Joe was breathing. He knew the aliens had already tried to separate them before and tried again when they almost killed his brother on the battlefield.

Joe could feel the fear in the back of his mind. He worried that one day he’d lose his brother forever. It was the same fear that kept him fighting back from every cold, every wound, every severe injury, so he could make sure his brother was protected. He wasn’t going to ever stop protecting him.

Rob looked at Joe. “Joe, keep your mind focused. Any deviation and your worst fear could be realized. You must stick to the training.”

Joe took a deep breath and gave him a small nod. He turned his attention to Dave.

Dave looked them over. “You’re all starting to get used to using your powers in a combat situation. Now, I’m going to increase the amount of danger that is involved in training.” He saw a few surprised looks. “Now look, it’s just going to get harder from here on out. Don’t expect any coddling from me. These alien fighters will kill you without a second thought. They know you’re greatest fears and will use that to their advantage. You can not allow your thoughts to deviate from anything other than victory.”

Noel moved around them. “It’s not the fear of dying yourselves that the aliens will prey on. You’ve already proven you’re not afraid during the first battle. This next wave will use your greatest fears and use them to either get you to destroy yourself or someone else here. From here on out never underestimate anyone or anything. Expect the unexpected. There will be things you’ll see in battle that you’ll spend a lifetime trying to forget. It’s easy to allow emotions to drag you away, but you can never allow that to happen. Always keep your mind focused on winning the battle.”

Angel finally spoke. “You are the last line of defense between this moon and your planet. You may think your nation has strong enough defenses against this invasion fleet. It will defend itself and defend itself hard, but there will be no victory for either side. And to finally get rid of the last of the aliens would come at a terrible cost.”

Joe looked over at him. “Are all alien people like this?”

Angel shook his head. “Not all of them. There are dangerous aliens out there, but there are also races capable of incredible good. You and your brother and living proof of that. It’s people like all of you that have to stand up against those that would destroy peace.”

Noel looked the group over. “Now we have to get back to work.”

Joe gave Frank a quick look. They both knew what was coming next. Now they just had to help their friends survive.

Throughout the day, there were a lot of injuries. Chet had fallen down a steep incline, breaking his leg. Vanessa received a third degree burn on her back when one of Loren’s reflected fireballs bounced off her back. Eric was nearly crushed when Ron’s soundbeams blew up a nearby tank drone.

Dave ignored the tears as he pushed everyone to move faster. He knew the aliens were ruthless and wouldn’t be stopped by tears or voices of reason. They would simply crush everything to get to the planet. He ignored the ones that complained of muscle cramps and of being tired. He told them to ignore everything and keep moving.

Joe could feel every muscle in his body screaming for rest as he heard Dave’s voice screaming in his ear. He concentrated on focusing his powers, ignoring the pain his arms. He was positive that he had ripped some of the muscles in his back. The snaps he had felt in his chest followed by the fire left no doubt he had broken at least two of his ribs. He couldn’t use any of his energies to extend any mental shields to block others from feeling his pain. Blinking and taking a deep breath, he continued on, unwilling to show any weakness.

Frank looked over and for the first time in his life couldn’t stop to do something to take care of his little brother’s pain. He could see the pain in his face, wishing there was something he could do to take it away. Hearing Dave’s voice screaming at him followed by Noel’s orders caused him to focus again. Forcing the pain away, he concentrated his fire power. If he couldn’t take away his brother’s pain, he’d do everything he could to protect him.

Ray had long gotten used to being on the planet. He couldn’t explain why he was so attached the moon like he was on Earth. Rob had mentioned that because he had the ability to interact with the natural environment around him, any place similar to Earth would feel like home. So far he knew he could manipulate the Earth, allowing him to create earthquakes and large crevasses that he could then close back up. If only the people on Earth could see what he could… how much life was in each little bit of the planet, in every drop of water… He focused again and this time combined and earthquake and landslide, crushing a multitude of battle drones.

Dan looked around the whole group. Dave and Noel reminded him a lot of the captains of the guard that his father’s armies once had. They were strong and tough. Neither of them wanted an army that was anything less than perfect. Since perfection in everything was impossible, they made sure to come as close as they could. No one complained though, having such a strong army helped the citizens feel safe. The captains became his stand in family since he rarely saw his parents. They helped him grow his powers and use them in battle. A period of time that had started since his powers began to surface.

It wasn’t like this. These kids were barely in control of their powers, let alone ready for war. A sudden feeling of dread came over him.

“Stay focused,” Angel’s voice broke through in his mind.

Dan looked over and looked into his eyes. “They hardly know how to use their powers. How do we expect them to be read for war?”

For a moment he thought he heard Angel sigh.

“There really was no choice. Their mutant powers could not appear any sooner. They had to be united by friendship in order understand and learn from each other.”

Dan focused and fired at a battle drone. “I know. I just hope this small amount of training is enough.”

“Just stay focused. Let me do the worrying for you.”

Dan took a deep breath and went back to focusing his powers. Today in just a few minutes he would start to use his crystal. He had never tapped into its deepest powers before. He had been warned since the first day he had received it to never tap into its deepest powers unless it was absolutely necessary. Then a brief instance told him to merge the crystal he had with the one Cliff possessed. Suddenly a voice shouted into his ear. It was Dave, telling him to get his legs moving.

Cliff and Staci were in the skies, exploring more of the abilities that the guardian birds had given them. Now with the power of flight, they were testing to see how far in the atmosphere they could fly. At first Staci had been hesitant to take to the sky. There was something unreal about not having solid ground or water underneath her feet. Then as she moved through the air, it felt as natural as walking.

Cliff flew by her. At first he found it hard to believe that the stuff that came from his dreams to his pens were not just things born out of an active imagination. Looking at how his thoughts were actually real memories, it should have sent shivers down his spine. It should have had him questioning his sanity. As he raced with Staci into the sky, his thoughts became clearer. Flying seemed as natural as breathing. It was then that a distant memory came to him.

He was standing on a distance mountain. The castle in all its glory was in the distance. The Phoenix had been fully intertwined with his being. As he sat out on a boulder, taking in the landscape, he could hear the Phoenix talking in his mind.

It’s beautiful isn’t it?

Yeah, I can’t imagine doing anything else. So why am I so worried?

Times are growing dark. Peace will soon leave this planet, and its people will soon know war.

But why? All the citizens have lived together in peace for as long as people can remember.

It is not a war of their making. It is a war that will be brought to them from an evil outside of this planet.

Should I warn the royal family?

They already know. They have made preparations to send several unborn to be born on a planet called Earth. There they will grow and learn, to some day return and rid their home of the evil that will come.

Is there anything I can do?

For now we will defend this planet for as long as we can…

Cliff was brought out of his memory at the sound of Staci’s voice shouting at him. Looking around he could no longer see the ground below him. Just above the two of them was where the dome in the sky ended. The artificial sky looked like it went on forever, but when he looked closer he could see what Staci had seen, what should have been a change in color at their altitude from bright blue to dark blue had not happened and instead they saw feint traces of Titan’s atmosphere.

Staci came over to him. “We can’t go any further. That’s methane out there. If our fire touched that atmosphere there’s no telling what kind of an explosion we’ll set off.”

Cliff nodded as he and Staci began their flight back to the surface.

Angel watched as the two guardian birds came down from the skies. He could see how reluctant they were to come back to the ground. He knew the feeling all too well as he often found himself more at home in the skies than on the ground.

Dave nodded and shook his head. He looked over at Noel and could see the same frustration in his eyes. This group was no where near ready. Some in the group were still hesitant to use their powers while others had not yet let go of their fears.

“Come on move it!” Dave shouted at Vanessa, throwing a spark by her foot causing her to move faster.

Joe would have personally attacked Dave had he not been given a warning glare from Dan. The younger nodded and continued moving around the obstacles, blowing apart boulders whenever he could. If someone couldn’t learn to keep up they’d be killed in battle. He concentrated and used a wave of energy from his right arm, mowing down a wave of battle drones. At first it using his powers required a lot of concentration, his muscles burning badly. Now that it felt natural to use them, he couldn’t believe how easy it could be.

Frank noticed that the uneasiness he had sensed from his brother was slowly dissipating. It was just like his little brother to not be afraid of anything. Something he had admired about him. He could feel Joe sending out that courage and could feel the warmth spreading over him, allowing him to let go of his own fears. He concentrated and could feel his body tolerating the higher energy demands.

Noel looked out over the group. The battle drones had worked and now more of them were splitting off and fighting on their own. Phil had let go of his feeling of being weak and was now taking out drones by the dozen. He was not showing any fear as his powers increased.

Chet, someone who was probably teased about his size, was now using his size as a weapon. He had already morphed into twenty different animals and now was trying larger forms. His current form of a metallic Siberian Tiger was every bit as ferocious as the real thing.

Biff’s boxing skills had already given him confidence to fight the battle drones. He was one of the first to charge headlong into the practice field. Now he had figured out that his sonic punches could be used to create things like knockdown waves and mini earthquakes.

Then there was Tony. At first he repeatedly ducked incoming fire until he was comfortable using his own form to deflect them back. His speed had increased fifty times and now he was a blur on the field.

The royal family’s other friends were doing just as well. They were finally letting go of their earth-bound fears and limitations, allowing them to discover new ways of using their new powers while revealing hidden ones. It was everything the Phoenix had told to them. Training, battles… every bit of it could not have come any sooner.

He could feel a mental nudge from Dave as he worked the group harder than he had in the morning. There was going to be a small break for dinner and a nap later on but Dave had already warned all of them that it was all in terms of rest. He had warned all of them that they had at most two days to finish training. He didn’t care how tired they were, he didn’t care about their fears. If they were slacking he’d make sure they’d know about it. He wasn’t going to hear any complaints. He finished before anyone could say anything back by looking out over the group.

Dave looked over them again as they were looking back at them. Some were still a bit skeptical. Two had eyes that were begging for a little bit of compassion. He looked at all of them before giving him is final warning.

“There were no time outs in a battle.”

Just beyond Pluto an alien army appeared in space. Ugly and massive, the mother ship followed several fleets of smaller ships. The aliens within only had one goal in mind, the water planet closet to the star. Its nutrient rich soils and waters would provide it all the energy they’d need for their next conquest. Those insects that remained after they were through could fend for themselves with whatever had been left behind. If anything was left behind.

Chapter 23

Joe couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness as time passed. His powers had continued to gain in strength, and his muscles didn’t burn when he used them for a longer period of time. Every time he looked at the sky, an overwhelming sense of dread nearly stopped him cold. Visions clouded his eyes. Nightmarish visions as the sky darkened above him. All around him the sounds faded as he could hear nothing but the rumbling sound coming from the grey mass of clouds that was spreading across the sky. The sky opened up and he could see it… the ugliest looking space ship he had ever seen. It looked a lot like a beehive on its side. Covered in metal, his eyes widened as the mother ship began breaking into pieces, leaving the core behind. Smaller wasp-like ships came down to nearly above him. The wasp-like ship deployed drones off its back. He couldn’t blink as he came face to face with a drone. Its ugly insect face looking menacing… his last thought as the multiple red ‘eyes’ shot out laser beams at him.

Closing his eyes, he blinked and just as fast as the images came, they disappeared. He looked up at the sky again to see the bright blue contrasting with the puffy clouds.

“Joe?” a familiar voice called to him.

Joe blinked as sound once again filled his ears. He turned to see Frank standing next to him. “What?”

“What did you see?”

Joe’s jaw dropped. “How did you know?”

“A feeling… and the way you zoned out when you looked at the sky. You’re eyes were not reacting to the light.”

Noel materialized next to them. “Why are you two standing around?”

Joe looked straight at him. “I saw the alien ships.”

Noel looked into his eyes. “Are you sure?”

Frank could tell his brother had definitely seen something that scared him. “My brother doesn’t lie.”

Noel turned to him. “I know that, I just meant sometimes people who see things like your brother does can confuse past images, say of alien beings that visited here, with present images like the war ships that are on the way.”

Joe glanced at the sky again before looking back at the guardian. Angel appeared next to him. “I know what I saw.”

Angel glanced at the sky. “Can you describe it?”

Joe took a deep breath before trying to describe what he had seen. The closet way he could come was to describe the insects the machines had resembled. The look in Angel’s face hadn’t changed, but Noel seemed to take on a more distressed look.

“So what do we do now?” Joe asked, uneasy with their silence.

Noel shrugged. “There’s not much we can do. At least you have some idea of what the ships look like. If you get any visions on how they move or what kind of firepower they have, you let me know.”

“The last thing I did see was their red optics firing laser beams.”

Noel sent a mental message to the other guardians. “If you see anything I don’t care how small it is, you let me know.”

Joe shuttered at the thought. He didn’t think he could take seeing any more of the alien fighters than needed. He was positive they’d give him permanent nightmares. Noel snapped an order to him and he went back to training.

Frank looked over and could sense that his brother was still troubled from what he had seen. He knew it took a lot to frighten his normally fearless younger brother. Trying to mentally reach him, Frank couldn’t get past the blocks that Rob had taught them to create.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down to him. Turning around he could see a larger boulder heading for him. He looked harder and could see it coming closer. Ducking, the boulder moved past him, landing harmlessly in a field. It was almost like when he had stopped that attacker from hurting his brother. Only instead of teleporting, he moved faster.

Angel looked over and nodded slightly when he saw just how fast Frank had moved to get out of the boulder’s way. The look in most of their eyes had changed. They had gone past fear and now had come to acceptance. The ones in the royal family were different than the rest. It was the way they could each move effortlessly from one element to the next. It was now how they were combining their powers to form stronger ones. They had learned so much in such a short time. He glanced to the sky and could only hope that it was enough for them to survive.

Quietly it moved past Pluto. A brief trace of a solar flare slowed it down. Now it was moving closer towards the moon called Titan. The mission was clear. Eliminate all the lifeforms hidden on the surface. Then move to the little water planet. Eliminate any resistance. Set up bases for immediate invasion and take over of entire planet. Begin transmissions.

The metallic drones inside had no feelings. Their metallic bodies and armor programmed only for war. They didn’t remember the thousands of species they had already destroyed. Creator programming erased the memories so that nothing would cloud the next mission. They only obeyed the computer that ran the ship. Now they sat ready for their orders.

Their creators no longer existed. Their own existence, plagued by wars and violence finally died out, now the only thing left were their machines of war. The last of the machines were now running on a single destruction program. Machines that had brought destruction to whatever planet they had encountered. A warrior class of machines, with the ability to destroy them, was more than several galaxies away. There was no way they could be reached in time for help.

Now that programming was targeting the moon of Saturn…Titan.

Angel looked up at the sky again and couldn’t help but feel the shiver run through his entire being. He gave himself a mental shake and focused on the group in front of him. They were training and training hard. Although there was the occasional complaint every once in a while, all of them came to understand their true purpose… the real reason why they had been sent to Earth and why they had had been called to fight.

Frank could feel Angel silently watching over all of them. Even Noel, as hardcore with his training as he had become, spoke more than him.

“Keep moving,” Angel’s voice came through his mind.

Frank nodded and went back to moving around, jumping from boulder to boulder. He couldn’t believe how easy it had become to move and fire his powers at the same time. It was now as easy as flexing an arm. Looking over at his brother, he thought for a moment he caught a glimpse of a smile.

Dave looked over the situation and frowned. He quietly sighed under his breath. The group was getting better, but they were still far behind. He barely had two days left, and they were still making mistakes. He could see the training that Lt. Elliot had given the Hardy Brothers as their moves were nearly flawless.

“If only John could be here,” Dave thought as he shouted more commands at the trainees. “Keep it moving… faster!” “It’s too bad he couldn’t reveal himself right now. Wow, his powers would blow all of them out of the water.”

Ray took a deep breath as he stretched out his hand. The ground in front of him responded by opening with a large tear. Several drone machines fell into the opening before the ground closed itself around them. Turning he swatted his hand at several other targets. Several large boulders followed the motion, taking down more drones. Looking over at a group of trees, he could see Vanessa was taking on several drones that were three times her size. Sending a thought into the trees, one of them instantly collapsed into two of the drones, allowing her to get the upper hand.

Vanessa was surprised as the tree fell on two of the drones, taking them down. Smiling she didn’t feel as she extended the length of her hair, nor did she feel her hair turning into long metal spikes that were almost six times the length of her body. Swinging her head around, the metal spike easily sliced through her remaining attackers, leaving their remains scattered around.

Chet couldn’t believe the amount of freedom that came from merely running through a large group of drones. He effortlessly morphed from a metallic rhino to a large lion. The drones couldn’t adapt fast enough, and he used his powerful jaws to rip into them. Then he leapt into the air as he sensed a change in the ground. A sonic wave from the fist of a metallic Biff rushed underneath him. He didn’t have time to think as he was joined by Boomer in his true form as his paws hit the ground.

Staci could feel the energy flowing through her as the guardian bird filled every pore. She looked over and could see Cliff easily moving through the energy hoops. She knew tried to take in the power of flight while she could. Once they returned to Earth there was no telling when they’d be able to take to the skies again.

Cliff could see the expression on Staci’s face. He knew how she felt. The power that the flaming board had given him had no words to describe it. The nearest he could describe it as being inside computer generated graphics timed to powerful music. He knew what his purpose in life was now, even if it could be just for a brief period of time.

Dan looked over the scene as he ran along a very narrow path up the side of a mountain. He was relieved that his new brothers and their friends had finally accepted who they really had become. Before the war it would take years for their warriors to acquire the necessary skills. The Phoenix had assured him that all was proceeding well and everyone would be ready by the time the alien forces had arrived.

He had learned more about the crystal over the last night. The Phoenix had told him that not only could it create power on its own, it was also a power amplifier. The stronger of its powers was not to be used unless it was of last resort. His instructors only mentioned of its strongest powers. When pressed further he was told never to even think about using them.

The alien army moved past Neptune. A meteor shower slowed it down a bit as it moved past the feint ring, and Uranus came onto its scanners. The programming was moving at a faster pace as the destruction code fueled it. The battle drones patiently waiting in the cargo holds while the ship moved closer. All the weapons were fully charged and ready to be used. Everything was set for its mission.

As the ship moved closer to Uranus, there was no emotion, only a patient waiting.

Joe was struck with another myriad of terrible visions that caused him to collapse

“Joe!” Frank screamed, causing everyone to stop.

Joe couldn’t hear the frightened shouts around him as pain filled his head. He could feel the blood gushing from his nose. The visions had left him scared to the core. They had been worse than anything he had seen in horror films.

Frank ran to his brother and turned him to the side. His heart nearly stopped when he saw the amount of blood coming out of Joe’s nose. Using his hand he wiped as much as he could from his nose. Somehow a large towel was passed to him and he used it to gently clean the blood from his mouth, allowing him to breathe.

Big Jay came down and scanned him with a small scanner in his hand. The device in his right hand looked no bigger than a large chess piece. He looked at the scans from an Iphone looking data pad in his left hand.

“He’s just had an information overload. He’ll be fine once he calms down,” Big Jay announced.

Frank let go of the breath he was hold. With the help of Ray they sat Joe up, allowing the remaining blood to drain from his nose.

Patrick handed Frank a small vile of purple liquid. “Get him to drink that, it will give him an energy boost.”

Joe felt his lips being pushed apart and something very sweet flowing into his mouth. He could feel the searing pain starting to leave as his thoughts began to clear. Opening his eyes, his vision cleared as he saw everyone standing around him.

“Wha… What happened?” his voice croaked.

“You screamed and collapsed,” Frank said, grateful that Joe seemed to be snapping out of it. “What happened?”

Noel appeared next to them. “You saw something didn’t you?”

Joe weakly nodded. “Yeah. I saw the alien war ships. I saw what they did to other planets. I saw into their minds.”

Angel appeared next to Noel. “Can they be reasoned with?”

Joe shook his head. “No. They’re some kind preprogrammed machines. They were once used for war until the only thing left were the machines.”

Frank stopped for a moment. “So they weren’t turned off.”

Noel looked around then turned to every around him. “We’re dealing with mindless machines. Don’t bother using pity. Don’t bother trying to reason. We have one simple objective when they get here. We have to destroy every last one of them. I don’t care how small it is, we’ve got to neutralize it all.”

Phil thought for a moment. “That means we have to make sure the main computer is taken out. That won’t affect anything else as far as the programming, but that would keep the smaller ones from getting anywhere else in the solar system.”

Randy looked around. “We have to learn to spread out our attacks. One on one combat will not reduce the numbers fast enough before our energy runs out.”

Noel looked down at Joe. “Joe, did you see anything else? Methods of attack, weapons, their numbers, anything?”

“The images came too fast. I could only pick out one here and there.”

Angel looked at Frank. “You’ve always had the ability to pick up on your brother’s mood, at times sensing pain or fear.”

Frank nodded. “Of course. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.”

“Maybe with that same gift. You can tap into your brother’s memories and see what he had seen.”

Frank was shocked. Did Angel expect him to read his brother’s mind? “Maybe the images are gone.” Everyone was looking at him. “Do you realize what he’s asking me to do.”

“Frank…” Joe’s voice croaked again, “Do it. We need some kind of battle plan. We have to take that chance. I trust you.”

Frank looked down at his hands. He wasn’t sure if he could trust himself not to hurt his brother.

“Frank…” Angel’s voice flooded his mind, “… you have to trust yourself…”

Then Joe’s voice came through. “I trust you.”

Frank took a deep breath as Joe sat down on the ground. Both Jays sat on the ground with him, ready for any emergency.

Frank sat down and took a deep breath. He put a hand to his brother’s forehead. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Slowly the world around him grew quieter, until he could hear nothing but his brother’s thoughts. Then just like watching a download on his computer, the images began to play across his own eyes.

He could see the terrible images… horrible scenes of war and destruction. The last of the creators, desperately trying to stop their own machines of war before they fell… A dead world. Then the machines moving on… an entire army led by a single thought of destruction. Dozens of other worlds, the people on them destroyed and their planets stripped of all life. He could see everything about the machines before the images stopped.

Frank opened his eyes and looked down to see his brother with his eyes still closed.

“What did you see?” Angel asked.

Frank looked up. “Everything. I saw they’re tactics, what they look like, their weapons, everything about them.”

Noel looked into his eyes. “I’ll have to get all that information from you, in the same way you were able to tap into Joe’s memories.”

“I know. Take them now, while the memories are fresh,” Frank said as he stood up from the ground.

Noel looked into Frank’s eyes as he placed hands on Frank’s head.

Frank only felt a small warmth as Noel carefully read through all the memories he had seen through Joe. It was a weird sensation. He could feel Noel’s presence in his mind, reading everything on a 3D level. The presence felt like a ghost, like if he reached out in his mind he’d be able to talk to him. Then just as suddenly as it appeared, the presence was gone.

Opening his eyes he could see Noel looking at him.

“Don’t worry. I have everything I need to come up with a battle plan. You take your brother to be scanned and make sure he didn’t suffer a hidden injury.” Noel looked over to the rest of the group. “Take a break. Get something to eat, take a nap if you must but no one is going to bed.”

Phil rubbed his temples, feeling the rush of the day catching up with him. A nap sounded great right then. A week’s worth of sleep sounded even better. When he looked down at Joe and could still see the remains of terror in his face, he could only imagine what the alien race would do to Earth.

Chet nudged him, breaking him from his thoughts. “Let’s go eat.”

He nodded and watched as Big Jay and Little Jay helped Frank take his younger brother to the medical building. Dan and Ray were following, unwilling to leave them behind.

The group of guardians remained outside as the others left the grounds.

Angel looked up at the sky. “There isn’t much time left.”

Noel took a deep breath. “I know from what I’ve learned, we can destroy them. They’re not invincible.”

Dave looked at him. “Then why weren’t they turned off?”

Noel took a brief look at the sky before tuning back to the group. “The program was told to target all enemy robots. What happened was that once the enemy robots were wiped out, the programming was stuck, it perceived everything as enemies and destroyed its creators. The creators wanted robots that would make them invincible to the enemy, only they forgot to build it specific targets.”

Rob thought for a moment. “I get it. The robots are on autopilot. They’re killing everything because that’s what they were programmed to do.”

Dave sighed. “An extremely efficient way to deal with your enemies. Only the idiots that created them forgot to build in an off switch.”

Chad stretched his arms. “At least we know what we’re dealing with. If the mother ship is coming, we know that this is it for the robot fighters.”

“Now we just have to keep this group alive.” Randy said as he looked around, making sure everyone had gone in for a break. “Once the robots are destroyed, we’ll have to find some way to melt them down. We can take the chance that anyone or anything else tries to duplicate them.”

Noel looked up at the sky. “We’ll leave them in the Titan’s atmosphere. It’s too cold to support any life, and if one of those things tries to come back to life, the slightest spark will blow it up.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Angel decided, “Let’s all go in and take a break ourselves. Noel, you come up with that battle plan as fast as you can. Randy, you make up whatever you need to keep everyone on their feet. The rest of you make sure everyone has eaten and is relaxing a bit. I have a feeling those fighters will be here by tomorrow afternoon.”

They all took one last look at the peaceful sky before heading into the buildings. All of them knew that by tomorrow night, the outcome of the battle would be decided.