GALACTIC UNITY

By:  Mark J. Hadley

 

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CHAPTER 19:

“Guardian”

 

 

“Wow…this place is huge!” Buttercup remarked, her voice echoing into the distant reaches of the area they had just walked into.  It was a vast underground cavern that looked to be almost a quarter mile in diameter.  Unlike the rest of the temple, which had been carefully sculpted and detailed, this cavern looked natural.  Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and there were stalagmites on the floor as well, although a large number of them were broken off.

Still, the place was well lit.  Some kind of faint blue moss covered the walls, and it gave the entire cavern an eerie blue glow.  As they walked forward, Blossom said, “That’s strange…I don’t see any other way out of here.  Where’s the Omega Particle?”

“Yeah…I thought it would be right here…” Bubbles agreed.  “Maybe they hid it…”

Buttercup tried to fly again, but the dampening field that Drax shot them with was obviously still in place, “Nuts!  Well, we can’t just fly around and look.  What now?”

“I guess we try and look around the conventional way,” Blosom said.  “Maybe there’s some way of…”

A rumbling sound broke her off…the entire floor of the cavern trembled, throwing them all off-balance.  As it shook them around, Bubbles stammered, “Wh-what’s h-happenning?  A-an e-earthquake?”  Before they could find out, the floor of the cavern ahead of them abruptly erupted in a beam of yellow light that shone up to the ceiling.  The girls fell back in alarm…and a moment later, a large, clawed hand reached up from the ground from where the light was coming, propping itself against the wall nearby.

Oh no! Blossom thought.  I forgot…Ghoraan told us there was a guardian protecting the particle!  This is not good…we don’t even have our powers back yet!  How are we going to fight this thing?!

Another clawed hand came up from the ground, propping against the opposite wall, and the Guardian pulled itself up from the light.  It was an absolutely enormous beast that bore a resemblance to the statue they saw on the way into the temple.  It looked like a cross between a giant dog or cat of some sort, and a bull…it had a furry, muscular frame and large horns protruding from its forehead.  The Guardian’s sheer presence was overwhelming; it looked like it could squash any of them without so much as blinking.

The three of them couldn’t move…they were rooted in fear as it clambered the rest of the way out of the ground.  As the light it had emerged from faded out, its bright yellow eyes glared down at them.  Its expression wasn’t one of a wild beast like they had expected, though, but rather, it seemed to show signs of intellect and patience.  It spoke a moment later, amazingly, in English…a deep, yet serene voice that echoed across its lair, “Why have you come here?”

The girls were still stunned into silence.  Without taking her eyes off the guardian, Buttercup nudged Blossom slightly, and Blossom shook herself out of her trance, “Oh…uh…We’re looking for the Omega Particle…we need its powers to bring back our planet, which was destroyed by a collision with an asteroid.”

The Guardian seemed to consider this.  Blossom smiled slightly, and thought, Maybe we’re safe after all…this is obviously an intelligent being, so maybe we can just convince it to give the particle to us…

“Know this,” the Guardian rumbled.  “You may only obtain the particle if you can successfully answer my riddle.  I will only ask you once, and you will be given two minutes to devise a solution between the three of you.  Give me the correct solution, and the particle is yours.”

“A riddle?” Bubbles asked aloud.

Buttercup grinned, “Heh…piece of cake!  Whaddaya say, Bloss?  Should we give it a try?”

Blossom said, “Why not?  It’s worth a shot…we have to be careful, though, because it sounds like we’re only getting one chance at this.”

“We should wait for Xianea,” Bubbles said.  “She’d be a big help for figuring it out…”

The Guardian told them, “I will wait no longer.  Do you wish to attempt the riddle?”

Blossom smiled to herself and thought, It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out…besides, if Xianea comes along later, she can make a guess herself, too, so what’s the worst that could happen?  She looked up at the Guardian and called out, “Yes, we’re ready!  Ask us your riddle!”

 

*              *                *

 

                Xianea ducked aside as Alyxk charged her, swinging a punch towards her head.  She tried to counter his swing with a kick, but he already had his arm up to block the attack.  She immediately slashed both of her claws at him, but again, he avoided them easily with a light leap backwards.

                “Fast, but not fast enough,” Alyxk told her.  He charged forward again, both of his arms out in an attempt to grab her.  Xianea backpedaled, and spun around, trying to use her wing to bash him as a surprise tactic.  Alyxk caught it with his hand and, holding her in place by it, kicked her in the chest, propelling her back against the wall.

Xianea straightened back up stiffly, and clutched her chest where she had been kicked.  He wasn’t kidding, she thought.  He knows my every move before I do it…

                “Of course I do, Xianea!” Alyxk taunted.  “I’m going to enjoy finishing you off.  You Centraxians disgust me, with your never-ending search for knowledge.  Why bother, when the Omega Particle can make me immortal and omnipotent?  The universe is mine…and not you, nor anyone else can stop me from claiming what is mine!”

                “I beg to differ!” came a voice from behind him.  He swiveled around in surprise, and threw himself to one side quickly as a blast of purple energy shot by him, narrowly missing.  Xianea was also surprised at who she saw…it was Mojo, armed with a wide-barreled rifle of some kind.  He was smiling slightly, and fixed his aim so that the weapon was pointed at Alyxk’s new position.

                “What?” Alyxk said.  “But…I didn’t sense you…”

                “Of course you cannot sense me,” Mojo told him.  “You are merely telepathic, and can only read one’s surface thoughts, what they are thinking at that very moment.  However, this is only in the case of a normal being, and I, Mojo Jojo, am far from normal, as I am well above-average in that regard.  My brain, being enhanced by the residual radiation of Chemical X, has a superior mind shield to prevent thoughts from being scanned by the likes of you.”

                “That can’t be!” Alyxk insisted.  “You can hear my telepathic speech right now!  Why?”

                “That is simple,” Mojo explained.  “My mental barrier is obviously selective, which is to say that I choose what it works on and when.  And, as you can probably guess, I would allow speech to pass, but not unwanted entry to my surface thoughts.  Now you have no advantage…you are without weapons or armament, and without a way to sense what I am about to do, so you might as well surrender and give up, for this is a fight that you cannot win!”

                Alyxk considered this, but then said, “That’s what you think…”  He suddenly dove for cover behind the pillar in the center of the room…in mid-dive, he pulled two more laser pistols out from underneath his cloak, firing them rapidly at Mojo, who quickly rolled to one side to avoid it, stopping on one knee.

                With his back to the pillar, he was still facing Xianea, and started opening fire at her as well.  Xianea ducked and ran as fast as she could over to the doorway where Mojo was.  Mojo gritted his teeth in anger and whispered to her, “Curses…I did not anticipate that he would have more weapons.  I have a plan, however, and it is one that will work perfectly.  I must not tell it to you, or he will be able to read it from your mind, and it will no longer be a surprise.  You will know what to do when I give the signal.”

                Xianea nodded…although she wondered briefly why Mojo was telling her this in the first place.  Maybe Alyxk wouldn’t know what’s coming any more than she was, but he’d know something was coming.  Still, she waited cautiously, preparing to react as soon as the plan was put into action.

                Mojo waited a few second, then called out, “Now!”  He didn’t budge, though, and for a moment, Xianea didn’t understand.  Alyxk, however, charged out from behind the pillar just as he shouted the signal, firing blindly in front of him.  He blanched a little as he realized no one was there, and he had just come out from behind cover.

                Lining up his weapon, Mojo fired the purple beam from it again, and it struck Alyxk, lifting him off his feet and slamming him against the opposite wall.  He slumped to the ground, out cold, the twin laser pistols dropping from his hands.  Mojo gave a triumphant grin.

                Xianea suddenly realized what his plan was, and said, “I get it…you told me you were going to try something, just so that he could sense it from me.  That way, when you gave your signal, he’d already be prepared for you to try something, and would make a preemptive strike, hoping to stop whatever it was you were planning on doing.”

                “That is correct!” Mojo said.  “But, I was not planning to actually make an attack.  My shout was merely to startle him into revealing his position behind his cover, so that I would be able to immobilize him with my own weapon.”

                “I must say, that was really very clever, Mojo,” Xianea said, shaking his hand.  “I thank you for your help…we couldn’t have done this without you.”

                Mojo nodded, “No thanks are necessary.  I only hope the Powerpuff Girls have managed to succeed in whatever they were planning.  Now, I will return to ship, and I will be taking Alyxk with me so that I can release him at a station or planet someplace, where he will not be able to interfere here anymore.”  He walked over and picked up the unconscious Alyxk, hefting him up over his shoulder. 

                “Good luck…” Xianea started to say…before she could finish, she felt a tremor run through the ground.  It startled her, and she said, “What was that?”

                “Perhaps it is the girls,” Mojo suggested.  “You must make haste.  Good luck!”  Mojo charged off down one of the corridors, taking Alyxk with him.  Xianea quickly hurried in the direction that the tremors felt like they were coming from.  I hope the girls aren’t in any danger, she said.  I’d never forgive myself if I wasn’t there to help them…

 

*              *                *

 

                The Guardian looked down at the girls, and said, “Very well.  You have two minutes when I finish the riddle.”  As the girls listened carefully, he rose up, almost to the complete height of the cavern, and spoke, his words echoing even more than before:

 

I am the beginning of eternity;

I am the end of time and space;

I am the beginning of every end,

And I am the end of every place.

 

                Lowering back to the ground, the Guardian sat back into its original position and stared down at them once again, waiting patiently for their answer.  The girls were startled, and drew a blank.  Bubbles said, “Uh…well…I…”

                “Girls, huddle!” Blossom ordered.  The three of them huddled together, and she continued, “Ok, let’s try to figure this out.  What could it be?”

                “Beginning of eternity…” Buttercup said.  “End of time and space…maybe it’s ‘Time’…”

                “I don’t think so,” Blossom said.  “You usually don’t put the answer to a riddle right in the riddle itself.  Hmm…maybe its ‘Doomsday’ or something…”

                Bubbles shook her head, “Isn’t doomsday s’posed the end of everything?  But it said ‘beginning’, twice…”

                “You’re right…” Blossom nodded.  “What do we do?  This is tough…”

                “Hey, why don’t we just guess?” Buttercup said.  “We have like a minute and a half left…we can just keep guessing until time runs out, right?  So we’re bound to get one right if we do it that way.”

                “Perhaps…” Blossom said.

                Buttercup broke from the huddle and looked up at the Guardian.  She called out, “I think it’s…’The Universe’!”

                Its yellow eyes glowed brightly, and for a moment, Buttercup thought she was right.  But then the Guardian said, “Wrong.”  Without warning, an intense yellow beam of energy shot out from its eyes, and before the girls could even react, it struck Buttercup in the chest, ripping straight through her and emerging out her back.

                “BUTTERCUP!!” came a cry from both Blossom and Bubbles together.  Buttercup wavered on her feet momentarily.  Her eyes were wide open in shock…not in pain, but more in surprise than anything else.  In the next moment, she toppled backwards, collapsing on the ground.  The girls rushed over to her side, but they could tell it was too late.  She was already gone.

                “B-Buttercup?” Bubbles said, her voice barely a whisper.

                “No!!” Blossom shrieked, her eyes filling with tears…she flashed an angry look up at the Guardian and yelled, “You didn’t tell us this would happen!  Why?!”

                The guardian merely said, “You did not ask.”

                Blossom was furious…If only we still had our powers! she thought.  Buttercup might still be alive…this is all Drax’s fault!  And the guardian…if only we’d known…Buttercup wouldn’t have just guessed…no, this can’t be…

“You have one minute remaining,” The Guardian reminded them.

                Bubbles shook fearfully, as she realized the same thing that Blossom now realized…they didn’t have much longer to figure the riddle out, and if they failed to do so, they would probably suffer the same fate as Buttercup.  She said, “B-Blossom!  What d-do we do?”

                Blossom’s teeth were clenched in rage…she felt terrible about Buttercup, but she didn’t have time to, right now.  She had to solve that riddle…she had to focus, or it would all be over.  Thinking furiously, she said, “It’s gotta be something like…something like…ooh, I don’t know!!”

                “Uh, um…” Bubbles said, trying to think as well.  She was drawing a total blank, though…it was hard to think.  “It could be anything…a star?  No!  Life?  No, that’s not it…”

                Blossom shut her eyes, and thought, Matter?  Energy?  Entropy?  No…no…what is it?  WHAT IS IT?  We have to figure this out…everything depends on it!  The Earth, all the people…our own lives!  And if we just leave it here, Alyxk could come by, just read this guy’s mind, and answer it with no problem whatsoever, and the whole universe will be doomed!  Think, THINK!!

                “Ten seconds,” the Guardian informed them.  Just make a guess, Blossom thought.  Any guess.  You’ve had it either way…and if by some miracle, you’re right…

                She was about to speak, when Bubbles’ face lit up as she said, “I’ve got it!”  She called out loudly up at the Guardian, “The letter ‘E’!”

                There was a long, silent pause.  The Guardian gave a brief moment of thought, and said, “That…is correct.  You have guessed my riddle, so the Omega Particle is now yours.  And now…I bid you farewell.”  As they watched in awe, the yellow light surrounded him from the ground once again.  The guardian slowly began to vanish, and as he did, the light faded out as well, the beam from the ground narrowing to a thin line, until it disappeared altogether.

                Only one light remained, now.  A small pinpoint of light descended slowly from the air…it was a brilliant amber color, and yet, they could not see its source.  As it lowered, Blossom held out her hands, letting it settle onto them, like a snowflake.  It was tiny, like a speck of dust, and it still gave out a bright enough glow to light up the surroundings.  It felt strangely warm in her hands, and she could feel its power, waiting for its final use.

                “The Omega Particle…” Blossom said, breathlessly.  It was incredible, almost beyond words.  She looked over at Bubbles, and said, “You did it…the letter ‘E’, that was the answer…”

                Bubbles nodded, “Yeah…the beginning of ‘eternity’, the end of ‘time’ and ‘space’…it kinda made sense in a way…”

                Smiling, Blossom returned her gaze to the Omega Particle.  This is it, she thought.  We’ve searched long and hard for it, and we finally have it.  But at what cost?  She looked sadly over to Buttercup, who lay lifeless where she had fallen.  The tears returned to Blossom’s eyes again, and she thought, No…I can’t let it end this way…maybe…maybe I should use the particle to bring her back to life again…but then…what about the Earth?  I couldn’t bear to let the Earth go…but I can’t bear to lose Buttercup, either…what do I do?…

 

TO BE CONTINUED…