Friends
Written by Amazonia V
Chapter 21:
Green Lantern's departure with Aphrodite filled the group with dismay. So quickly had they lost one of their number. And so easily too.
"Ares will use our weaknesses against us. We must remember what Wonder Woman said," said Black Star.
"And he's effectively nullified Green Lantern," said Fanci sadly. So much for the famous will-power that Hal Jordan was reputed to have.
It was Superman who cheered the other two, saying, "We'll overcome whatever challenges we need to."
As he spoke, Black Star and Fanci felt themselves being pulled away with a terrible force.
So strong, so powerful was the pull that Fanci blacked out for some time.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a place that was very stark, cold and silent. Smoke swirled in delicate patterns all around her in the darkness. Her breath came in white clouds that mixed briefly with the smoke and dust in the air before it dissipated quickly. Flames flickered nearby, giving the scene an orange glow. She felt the heat from the flames on her skin, but they gave her no warmth. Her bones ached and her skin was sore.
There were other movements in the shadows now.
Dark shapes, ungainly and misshapen, had begun moving towards her with relentless purpose. They were the minions of Ares – the Death-raiders, to face and to destroy.
They wielded axes, waving them grotesquely around their heads. One came closer to her.
She felt the glimmer of its heat and instantly switched her optic screen to infrared. Now she could see it more clearly, a large bipedal form, bigger on one side than the other. It held a double bladed axe in its larger hand. She activated her body suit, her tactical systems locked on to it even as it saw her, her head-up display framed it in green as it strode towards her, its axe raised.
Information spilled across her field of vision; giving her distance, elevation, speed, mass. Even as the data became apparent in her mind, her armour and weaponry was already changing….
The planet had once been beautiful. Even in the darkness, the elegant and almost delicate form and construction of its architecture was quite clear. Every building had a different decorative style, with different materials and shapes used in the construction, giving each building a distinctive look. Embellished with windows, balconies, columns, all colors available were to be seen. But one aspect was common to all. The buildings were tall and imposing, towering high above ground level, the tops of some of the buildings covered by cloud formations. But appearances were deceiving. The city had been over a thousand years old. Now it burned.
Into this scene of sadness and despair had fallen Black Star.
As he watched, the tall and elegant buildings toppled. One by one they had been hit by the laser blasts fired from below and they came crashing down in a grinding of metal and a burst of glass and masonry. Some struck other buildings as they fell, causing them to shake and crumble, until they, too, gave way, dropping in a shroud of black smoke and debris. Many of the buildings that still stood were burning and fire spread throughout the city, the black smoke billowed up overhead, turning the skies grey.
Black Star activated his Geo-Sat locator. He was on an unnamed, unidentified planet, in the midst of a raging war. The planet had been attacked by the Death-raiders, Ares' elite guard. So he was to fight them, then?
They ran among the dead and dying, alien, asymmetrical forms clad in black armour, like giant insects from a child's nightmare. They wielded axes, dispatching without mercy any of the occupants of the planet that they found alive.
Black Star steadied himself and unleashed his omega beams. The first beam of orange light pinpointed one of the Death-raiders as it raised its weapon, and it burst into fragments.
A yellow beam quickly followed and another Death-raider was blown to a fiery death. Black Star looked to the origin of the beam and saw a grinning Fanci giving him a thumbs-up. As he flew across to join her, he let another omega beam loose at the Death-raiders.
In an instant, all the Death-raiders had unshouldered their weapons and began to return fire at Black Star. They continued to fire at anything that moved, but always the orange beams picked them out, bursting them and splashing the metal with their blood. Black blood.
In the darkness and the smoke of the confines of the wreckage around him, confusion reigned supreme. Beams of light criss-crossed as Black Star and Fanci flew from point to point, and as each side fired at the other. Weapons were wielded and frail bodies were smashed, the blood of the victims making the footing treacherous.
Black Star and Fanci compared notes. She had dispatched the few Death-raiders who had attacked her, and then used her radar to locate Black Star. As they discussed the best methods of dispatching the rest of Ares' troops, the Death-raiders attacked.
At such close quarters, laser sabers proved more efficient than rifles.
Fanci activated the weapons that she held in each hand, rotating them as she jumped in their midst. Flashing blades, like rotating circular saws, sliced through limbs.
Nimbly Black Star jumped from the dark and sliced at backs. The Death-raiders were cut down, sliced in half, mutilated.
The blood mixed and splashed as the warriors of two different races fought fiercely, each side uncaring of their own survival, each bent only on the other's destruction.
Until finally, it was over.