CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Greetings Backstreet Boys. I have been awaiting your arrival.” CHAPTER FIFTEEN “Which way do we go?” Nick asked as they stopped at a t-junction.
The voice filled the entire docking bay and everyone turned around to look for Zator. But the voice was coming from a screen on the wall. Upon it, Zator smiled smugly.
“Looking for something?” Zator enquired.
Zator moved out of the way of the camera and Zanell and the guys could see Brian and Justin. They were tied up on the floor. Beside them was a strange archway of some kind. They could see a slight flicker from between the two sides of the arch.
“What’s that?” Nick asked.
“That looks a bit like the portal thing Justin told us about!” AJ said.
“Correct! Very soon, your friends will pass into the Daori dimension! Then, I will be able to conquer your planet!”
“I thought you were helping us!” Lance said.
“Don’t be stupid,” AJ muttered.
“Alas not,” Zator said. “I just thought that you incompetent fools might help me. Obviously I was wrong. I didn’t expect you to work things out so quickly. You’re smarter than I gave you credit for.”
JC was just about to reply until Zanell cut him off.
“What do you want with Brian and Justin, father?” she asked. “Why are you sending them to the Daori dimension?”
Zator sneered, “Originally I was just going to send the little Backstreet Boy through, but since Justin betrayed me I think he deserves to go as well.”
“But why send Brian in the first place? What’s in it for you?” Nick asked.
Zator laughed. “It is a deal. The Daorians will help me to conquer your pathetic puny planet, in return I am sending them your friend. It is what they asked for. As for what they will do to him, that is none of my concern.”
Nick tightened his fists in anger. They had to do something.
“We’ll stop you!” Nick threatened.
“Come and try it,” Zator taunted.
Zator’s image suddenly disappeared as the screen went dead. Zator had stopped transmitting.
Nick withdrew his two swords and began to march towards the door.
“C’mon guys! We’ll show him not to mess with us!”
“Nick, wait!” Zanell said, “This sounds like trap.”
“I agree,” Kevin said.
“But we can’t just let him send Brian to another dimension!” Nick said.
“Or Justin!” Joey added.
None of the Backstreet Boys said anything.
“They’re not going anywhere,” Zanell said. “He needs the amulets to open a doorway, remember?”
“She’s right. I bet Zator wants us to go storming around the ship so it gives him a chance to attack us and get our amulets,” AJ said.
“And there’s N*Sync. We can’t take them with us, it’s too dangerous,” Howie added.
“Hey! We can do anything you guys can!” Joey said.
“Not without super hero powers,” Kevin said. “I think it’s best if you guys stay here.”
“But what if Zator sends robots after us or something?” JC said.
“One of us will stay here with you. Any volunteers?” Kevin asked to his three bandmates.
“No way am I staying!” Nick said. “I wanna help Brian!”
“Me too,” AJ said.
“I’ll stay,” Howie sighed.
“No I will,” Zanell replied. “Your illusion powers may come in handy. I’ll stay and look after these guys.”
Nick stared at the four N*Sync members. He looked as if he were about to argue.
“C’mon, Nick, let’s get going!” AJ said, grabbing the blonde’s arm and dragging him towards the door.
“You sure you’ll be okay?” Nick called back to Zanell.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry,” she replied.
“Zanell can take care of herself,” Kevin said.
Nick gave her one last smile as AJ pulled him through the door into the corridor beyond. Kevin and Howie followed them. As soon as they stepped through the door, they all stopped and looked back at it.
“Did you feel that?” Howie asked.
“Yeah, a weird tingling as we stepped through the door,” AJ replied.
“It was a bit like an electric shock. What the hell was it?” Kevin said. He walked back into the docking bay and shuddered as he felt the same tingling sensation all over his body.
“It’s probably nothing,” Nick said. “Let’s go!”
Kevin shrugged and stepped back through to join the others. Then they all began to move cautiously along the corridor, not giving the strange door a second thought.
******************
“What just happened?” Brian asked, staring at the archway.
At first there had just been blue buzzes of electricity jumping between the two sides but suddenly they had increased dramatically. Now, the electricity met in the centre of the archway and formed a kind of bizarre electric whirlpool. It was as if there were a hole in the air in front of them.
“I think the doorway is beginning to open,” Justin replied, fearfully.
“But how? You said that it needed the power of all six amulets to open it!”
Zator laughed from the other side of the room. Slowly, he walked towards them.
“Your friends have arrived,” Zator commented.
“We know. We heard you talking to them,” Brian said.
“The power of their amulets is opening the doorway to the Daori dimension,” the emperor replied.
“But you don’t have the amulets!” Justin protested.
“I don’t need them anymore. I’ve rigged the door in the docking bay. As your friends step through it, power is drawn from their amulets and to the gateway,” Zator said, grinning at the horror upon the two men’s faces. “Four of them just stepped out of the docking bay with the amulets. When Zanell does too, the doorway will be completely open. Then you two will be gone for good.”
“But she said she’d stay with my friends!” Justin said.
“We’ll see about that. I think I should go and talk to my daughter. Maybe I’ll pesuede her to leave the docking bay.” He grinned at the two of them tied up. “I’ll goodbye and good riddance now.” He gave a booming laugh and left them alone in the room with the buzzing archway. Brian could no longer see straight through it to the consoled beyond. There seemed to be a black and blue hole there. The doorway. One more bit of power and it would be open.
“We’ve gotta do something!” Justin said.
“What do you suggest? We can’t do an awful lot when we’re tied up!”
“Can you get to your amulet?”
Brian’s amulet lay on a table beside them. But it was just a tiny bit too far away for Brian’s hand to reach.
“No good,” Brian said.
“Well what do we do?” Justin said, frantically.
“Pray.”
“I don’t know! I’ll try and look for a map shall I?” AJ said, sarcastically.
“Maybe we should split up,” Nick said, ignoring AJ.
“I think we should stay together,” Kevin replied. “It’s safer.”
“Yeah but that way it take forever to find Brian,” Nick argued. “We’ll be fine in two pairs.”
“That sounds like the best plan,” Howie agreed.
“Alright then,” Kevin said. “I’ll go with AJ. Howie you go with Nick. Okay?”
The others nodded and then Kevin and AJ turned left and Nick and Howie went right.
“This ship is really creepy,” Nick said to Howie. “Where is everyone?”
“Don’t panic Nicky, I’m sure Zator has plenty of jerks looking for us by now,” Howie said.
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
The two friends walked uncertainly along the dark, metallic corridor. So far they hadn’t seen any of the crew. It was good in a way, but it was also damn scary. Where was everyone?
Howie stopped as they came to a door set in the wall.
“Let’s look in here,” he said, touching the panel by the door to open it.
The door whisked open. Waiting on the other side were five of Zator’s crew. Each one was armed with a huge gun. The leader fired at the two Backstreet Boys.
“Duck!” Howie yelled, dragging Nick to the floor with them.
A thin, bright beam of green laser light sliced above their heads and burned a big, gaping hole into the wall behind them.
“I wish we could have took the left turn!” Nick said, as he rolled out of the way of another blast from the Zophacian’s gun.
Nick jumped to his feet and withdrew his two ninja swords ready to fight. The leader of the gang of Zophacians, a tall bald man laughed.
“They’re not going to help you much against this,” he said, tapping his gun.
“I think it might be better if you two boys just come with us quietly,” a second Zophacian said.
“I don’t think so,” Nick replied, jumping forward to attack.
Suddenly, the air in front of Nick rippled and a huge, monstrous head appeared. The face was framed with a mane of blood red hair and two curved horns adorned it’s head. It’s red eyes glared at the Zophacians and it bared it’s fangs. It was like a cross between a lion and a bull.
The beast roared at the Zophacians who were rooted to the spot by fear. Then they began to scream. Four of them ran off down the corridor, leaving their leader behind.
“Come back you fools!” the leader yelled. “We can destroy this creature easily!”
The beast roared again, right in the Zophacians face. He gave a high pitch squeal before dashing after his companions. Then the beast turned to Nick and growled threateningly.
Nick felt his legs begin to go weak with fear, until he heard the snigger behind him.
“Your face, Nick!” Howie laughed. “You look terrified!”
“I knew it was you! I did!” Nick shouted back.
“Yeah, sure you did. That’s why you were about to start screaming!” Howie said. He raised his arms and the illusion of the beast he had created using his powers disappeared. “Admit it, Nick, you were scared.”
“I was not! It was obvious it was made by you! What would a monster be doing on Zator’s ship?”
Howie grinned evilly. “Whatever you say Nicky!”
“Are we going to find Brian or what?” Nick said, moodily.
“Yeah let’s get moving to take your ickle mind off of da big monsters!” Howie laughed.
“Which way? Down the corridor or into that room they were guarding?” Nick said, trying to ignore his friend’s taunting.
“Let’s have a look in that room. Maybe it leads somewhere,” Howie said. “I’ll go first to make sure there are no evil beasties!”
Nick rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long day…
***********************
Kevin and AJ hadn’t run into any trouble yet. They had explored several empty rooms but so far they had found nothing which might give them a clue as to where Zator was holding Brian.
“I wonder if Howie and Nick have found something yet?” AJ pondered.
“It’s a pity we have no way to contact them. For all we know, they could have found him and be waiting at the ship for us,” Kevin replied.
“I doubt it. We only left them twenty minutes ago. Hey look, there’s an elevator,” AJ said, gesturing to the end of the corridor.
“Well we haven’t found anything on this floor so maybe we’d better try somewhere else,” Kevin replied as he examined the panel beside the elevator.
He pressed one of the glowing buttons and there was a slight hum before the door to the elevator opened. Kevin stepped inside and AJ followed. The doors slowly slid shut and Kevin pressed the button for the floor above.
“I just hope Zator hasn’t set a trap in here or anything,” Kevin said.
“You had to wait until I was inside before you said that didn’t you?”
They felt the floor beneath them jumped slightly as the elevator began it’s journey upwards. Then it stopped. The doors did not open.
“Oh this is just typical,” AJ commented. “Um, Kev? What’s that little blinking green light in the corner?”
Kevin looked at where AJ was pointing. There was a small box mounted on the wall with a green light upon it. It turned to point at AJ and began to admit a high pitched whine.
“I don’t know but I think you’d better get out of the way!”
AJ flattened himself against the opposite wall just as the box fired a green laser beam at where he had just been standing and sliced a deep groove into the wall. AJ exchanged a look with Kevin and the two of them ran to the doors. Kevin pushed the panel to open them but nothing happened. They were trapped.
The laser began to whine again as it began charging up for another blast. AJ grabbed his light beam guns and fired at the box. It exploded in a blast of brilliant green light. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now how do we get out of here?” AJ asked.
Kevin said nothing. He grabbed the edge of the door and began to pry it open. Super strength definitely came in handy when you were stuck in an elevator. Soon, Kevin had opened the door enough for them both to squeeze through. AJ stepped through first.
“Um, Kevin, we have a problem.”
Two huge robots were waiting for them.