STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 80

Isis McGowan ducked just as a high-energy blast zipped past her head, missing her by inches.

The other Starchild took up station in front of her and threw out a similar blast of cosmic energy to counter the attack. But Keron–Nemesis–wasn’t stupid. She blocked the beam with little or no effort on her own, before diving down on her, intent on a fresh kill.

Isis McGowan yanked her counterpart aside, surprising both her other self and Keron at the same time and then sidestepped the charging woman and grabbed her by the throat and spun her around with such force that the air cracked violently.

Letting go only for an instant, the young woman teleported in a bang of cold-white light, before nailing her from the other side.

Her counterpart jumped in at the last second, getting her from the front with a straight punch that rocked her world. Isis snap-kicked her hard in the face when she came around, spinning her another one-hundred and eighty degrees.

Keron snarled through gritted teeth, before attacking the Starchild directly, bringing her tapered nails into play and raking them across the young woman’s face in an attempt to slow her down, to blind her, to do something.

Isis evaded the strike with relative ease, but she knew that this was only a simple ploy and the rest of the fight was going to be just as hard, if not difficult. But then Keron reached out and grabbed her front and pulled her close to her and the surface dweller could feel her warm breath on her face, never mind the icy-cold glare that emanated from her eyes.

“Silly girl. You think you’ll win this, don’t you?” She asked seductively.

Isis squirmed, nearly breaking free of her iron-handed grip. But Keron held onto her tightly.

“Whatever it takes, Nemesis.”

Keron laughed. “Don’t be sure. I wield enough power to take you and your counterpart there out without batting an eye. Do try to remember that, okay?”

The surface dweller’s eyes glowed brightly in anger. “Remember this.” Without warning, she reached up with a free hand and ripped Nemesis’s away from her chest, twisted her wrist around sharply, then with her right, discharged a point-blank salvo right into her face.

The woman screamed.

Both Isis McGowans fell back and as one, cut loose with twin beams of untamed power directly at their tormentor.

Keron’s raging voice didn’t die, but instead, intensified, before she swept aside both incoming waves of destruction and unexpectedly vanished in a cold flash of white light, the exact opposite of what Isis had been able to do.

Before either of them could do anything, she was here and there and everywhere all at once, striking at them with impunity, showering them both with painful globes of energized starfire.

Isis McGowan took three in the breadbasket, folding her over, while her counterpart was hit with the same number. But she didn’t cave in unlike her counterpart. The shots just didn’t seem to have any affect on her.

“Paralyze...ing...” The other Starchild whispered, as Isis took her injured counterpart under her wing; supporting her the best she could.

“Shields enhance.” She said calmly, watching as the purple and gold energy barrier solidify over them both.

Keron dropped in unannounced and unexpectedly tore through the Starchild’s defensive grid and ripped the other Starchild from her care.

“Die screaming.” Keron chirped lovingly, before a surge of incredible power arced through the other woman’s body, causing her to scream.

Isis didn’t stand by and allow this to happen. Not while she drew breath anyway.

She came at with every clear intention of putting her lights out permanently, but Keron–as usual–appeared to have the upper hand.

She reached out with one hand and a blowtorch of energy erupted, charging straight for her.
Isis dodged as before, but the energy construct followed her wherever she went.

Damn thing’s dogging me! Isis grated, trying to ditch the persistent whatever-it-was. There was no sufficient words that she could use that could adequately describe what was after her. She could see that it was semi-translucent at times, wavering and changing substance from the previously described state of being to one of complete solidity.

It was this part which reached out like a tentacle and slammed her sideways, crushing the wind out of her.

The Starchild backed up and away from the thing, always trying to remain one step ahead of the thing, but for some reason, it was a great deal faster than she was; nearly tagging her again.

The near miss rattled the young woman’s body, making her teeth ache from her brush with death, but all the while, she was only able to look on helplessly as her counterpart’s life was being steadily drained away.

Damn! She complained with clear irritation. I’m not going to get to her in time!

The construct lunged at her again, this time billowing out like a sentient cloud and using parts of itself to attack the fleeing surface dweller simultaneously.

Isis did what she could, getting more scared than pissed with each passing second. Only because if too much time elapsed, the other Isis McGowan would die.

All she could hear from her was the screaming. The pain. The agony. Even the humiliation.

Failure is not an option! She declared rigidly. There has to be another way!

Then she saw it.

Speed.

The young woman realized that this thing had been dogging her, but not quite overpowering her each time it came within range.

Does this thing even have one?

There was only one way to find out.

Punch it as hard as I can and double back, she realized. Fast as I can, even faster than ever thought possible...

So she fled the scene, flying hard and fast.

Isis turned slightly, knowing that this thing would be hot on her tail, but she wondered just how fast it could go.

She turned it on, flying past Mach 1, accelerating even faster with each passing second. Her own body becoming more streamlined as she raced for the open expanse of the simulated sky that was above her, which was surprisingly intact in this section of the ruined city.

The entity was still behind her, keeping pace.

The Starchild pushed it further, knowing that she had a comfortable safety margin, straining for the impossible.

Mach 2.

Still the energy thing kept with her.

Isis kept going until she approached Mach 3.

The entity kept pace. Isis didn’t feel the least bit winded, but more excited. She hadn’t done any speed trials in a long time. She had forgotten what it was like to be one with everything around her, while still being able to keep control of who and what she was.

Two halves have to work together, Isis. She remembered Keron telling her. It cannot be one over the other. The definition of being the Starchild is much more than one person can so easily define.

The entity had formed itself into a missile at this point while still keeping pace with the Starchild.

Mach 5.

The surface dweller felt incredibly energized by this thought, thinking that she could even go faster, knowing that she could accomplish anything if she put her mind to it.

Mach 6.

Five seconds was all it took to reach that speed. At this point, she was seeing everything in slow motion as she was speeding up, even though the scenery around her was now just one big monumental blur.

Mach...7.

Isis hesitated, sensing something behind her.

It was the missile. And it was dropping off, falling behind the faster she went. Right now, one hundred yards separated the two, instead of the thirty that had become rather problematic as of late.

Bingo! She crowed exhaltingly, before coming about like some ancient sea-going vessel and brought all of her power to bear on this rather annoying pain in her ass.

Her hands exploded with a surge of yellow cosmic energy and everything she had left her like a string of taffy being stretched out–hitting the missile dead-on.

The construct detonated with unexpected force, sending the Starchild backwards and out of control for a few seconds, while the grossly huge display went on for several seconds more before fading away.

Isis came to a complete stop and was treated to the most unexpected shock of her life. The thing had grown two-fold. It was now almost as big as she was.

“Shit!” She howled in mild frustration. “What’s it going to take to get rid of this thing?”

The missile construct changed form once again, becoming an immense globe. Then it turned and bore down on top of her.

The Starchild was sunk.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 79

Chaos and a state of unimaginable disarray greeted the displaced surface dweller, as the pair walked unchallenged through what remained of the shopping district.

“As you can see, there is nothing left of this once proud and bustling metropolis. Just empty shells and destroyed lives, nothing more.” Isis McGowan’s counterpart said.

Isis could sense the deep sadness and regret in her double. She wished there was something that she could do to help make that go away.

I am doing all that I can just by helping her, she thought. What more is there to do?

You have done what no other Starchild has done, Isis. You have given her hope. The Source of Chaos informed her quietly.

But she seems on the verge of giving up! Isis retorted sharply. How can I be giving her hope?

By being here, Isis. Just by being here.

The Starchild navigated the broken staircase with great agility, leaping over giant slab of rock that had imbedded itself into the middle.

Then she started floating away.

Startled by this unexpected change, the young woman brought herself to a complete halt.

“Let me guess: No gravity?” Isis commented wryly.

Her double nodded, before joining her, leaping up gracefully, before coming up next to her.

“Not in this section of the space complex. The Praetorial Guard has managed to restore some gravity in the lower levels.”

This caught the surface dweller off guard.

“Praetorial Guard? What happened to Stratos City’s maintenance personnel?” She asked.

“Killed.” The other Starchild replied. “The first attack wiped out the section they were normally stationed. The second crippled the gravity generators. The last two wiped out the space complex’s defensive systems–including the ancient weapon arrays that were supposed to protect us against the God of Insanity.”

Isis couldn’t believe the awesome destructive forces that had been used against the space complex and against this Earth itself.

The will and the master have to be as one in order to carry out such acts of cruelty, she recalled Tarnek telling her, three months after the prison break incident. Nemesis is one of the few rarest of people that have managed to accomplish both. In all of my travels, I haven’t had the opportunity of encountering a mortal that could equal to whom she had already become.

The young woman hovered there, thinking that there had to be a line drawn somewhere, some place, where everything came together.

It is there that this madness will end and one of us will be victorious. But I swear that it won’t be Nemesis! Isis reaffirmed, keeping light with what she had to do in her own universe.

“This could’ve been either one of us...” She finally chimed in, before shuddering, the thoughts–once again–unpleasant.

“True,” her other self agreed. “But because of our upbringing, we were spared the temptation to be solely destructive.”

Isis wondered if that was it. If that was the only thing that spared them this kind of fate.

“That can’t be right.” She said. “There has to be other reasons why.”

Isis McGowan looked around her, before picking up a couple of broken pieces of shattered rock, each with a considerable thickness of about two inches on one end and an inch an a half on the other. But in relative terms, the chunks were thick and very hard–unbreakable.

She tossed one of them to her counterpart.

Isis looked at her doppelganger with relative confusion.

“What am I supposed to be doing with this?”

The Starchild from this universe squeezed her sample, causing it to explode in a cloud of dust.

Isis held onto hers.

“Go ahead.” She prompted.

The surface dweller squeezed as well, creating a similar cloud of dust.

“See?” The other Starchild motioned with a dusty hand. “Nothing to it.”

Isis didn’t fully understand.

“I don’t get it.” She said. “Does this have something to do with what I said?”

The other Isis nodded, then reached and took her hand into hers, holding it up between them.

“Most people would only see the untamed strength and power before us. They would use that to their advantage and destroy everything that they once held dear, thus becoming their own worst enemy. But you...all you see in front of you is the possibilities that don’t exist yet. As do I.”

“But what makes us any different than either my Nemesis or yours? We all wield the same fantastic power–!” She broke off suddenly, feeling another presence.

Her double felt it too. “Uh-oh.” She whispered, not sure if she was going to like what she was sensing.

It was too familiar, to obvious. Too...

A part of the upper section of the space complex caved in with a fiery display of pyrotechnics, showering most of the surrounding area with large chunks and other pieces of space debris.

Both of them sighed simultaneously.

“Isn’t this where I left off?” The first Starchild remarked to the second.

Isis disagreed. “Where we both left off, I’m afraid.”

Nemesis had returned–at least the one from this universe anyway. And she didn’t look all that happy either.

* * *

Calis’s comm link beeped for his attention and he reached up from what he was doing in the large work bay and answered it.

The portable vid-screen glowed to life, giving the old man a good look at the scenery around him, which wasn’t much from what he could garner. Just a couple of empty terminals behind him and a large white inlaid-white bricked pathway.

“Hello, Bayen. How are things going with you?”

“Not good, Calis. We kind’ve had a run in with Cara, as you probably already know and let’s just say that we didn’t fare any better.”

Calis nodded, recalling the conversations that he had with Tarnek since dropping Jonas off at his old homestead two hours ago. It had just taken him two hours to get back.

“How did it turn out, Bayen?”

“A lot of guards were killed when the east wing of the prison was destroyed. I’ve got a broken leg that’s on the mend still after my run-in with Cara.” He paused for a moment. “And she’s taken her mother.”

The auto-frame mechanic’s heart drastically sank. The repercussions of this kidnapping could be disastrous to the extreme. He was beginning to think of what Tarnek might be saying at this moment.

“That’s not good,” he muttered softly, wishing that Isis was here instead of God-knows-where-else.

The sky dancer nodded. “And here’s the kicker: Cara plans on turning her full power onto the space complex itself. I’ve already alerted Pulver to the fact and he’s promising that he’s putting the space complex on full tactical alert.”

“First time that’s happened.” Calis mused, wondering if that would be enough.

As if reading the old man’s mind, Bayen added, “We hope that will be enough, but so far, no one’s figured out how to access the ancient weapon systems that were added so long ago. The thing–as far as I can tell anyway–is bio-locked with a specific DNA code in mind. Once the person of that kind of DNA sequence enters the code, the door opens into a room. But beyond that, it’s just a wild guess as to what will happen next.”

Calis was curious. “I was told that the whole thing was computer-controlled, specifically programmed in the event the God of Insanity returned.”

Bayen nodded on the vid-screen.

“That’s what everyone else thought, too. But according to the automated system, the entry code requires a sample of a specific person’s DNA.”

“That’s odd.” He said, before adjusting the thin-probed tool that he carried in his hand. “I wonder how a state-of-the-art computer system such as the one helping govern Stratos City would require a DNA decoder to unlock the ancient defense systems?”

Bayen didn’t know the answer to that one. He even said so.

Tarnek appeared next to him, saying, “I do.”

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 78

Alcoix Creek.
Seven hours later.

Jonas thanked Calis for the ride on his hover transport, and watched as the lumbering vehicle shot off into the darkness.

And sighed.

Things were finally starting to calm down, but in his mind, that was only a fantasy. Talia’s disappearance worried him, and neither Calis nor Tarnek himself could figure out where she’d disappeared to five hours ago.

So–after inspecting the breach and finding nothing of consequence–Calis volunteered to take Jonas home until Talia returned. From wherever she had gone to. Jonas thought as he crossed the dirt way to his house, and opened the gate.

The first thing he saw was that the lights were on and his girlfriend talking to someone out of earshot. Jonas’s hand moved towards his blaster, but everything looked normal from his point of view, so he released his grip on it.

No need to go overboard. He silently counseled himself. Things may be nuts as it is, but–and stopped at that point: Once he finished crossing the short walkway, he opened the door and looked inside.

“Sara?” He called out. “Honey?”

“In here.” A familiar voice returned warmly from the small dining area. “I’m in here.”

Jonas breathed a small sigh of relief and closed the door behind him. So his worst fears hadn’t been realized after all. Everything was as normal as they should be.

Normal–that is–until he walked into the dining area and got a surprise.

“Talia?!?” He croaked–seeing the younger teen sitting cross-legged at the table and quietly munching on a piece of buttered bread. The remains of her soup sat at the bottom of the now pushed aside bowl, leaving the man no reason to further guess at what she had been doing earlier.

“B-but how?”

“How?” The girl reasonably questioned back with curiosity. “Oh! You mean how I got here?”

“Yes!” Jonas returned with a mix of relief and excitement, before taking a seat across from her.

“Soup?” Sara smoothly interjected, before her lover looked up at her distractedly and nodded. The woman silently departed for the kitchen, while Jonas pressed on.

“We didn’t know where you vanished after we got to the interdimensional fissure.”

Talia shrugged nonchalantly. “Didn’t see the need to stick around.”

“We all thought that you were going starside to tangle with Nemesis…?” Jonas threw out with sheer uncertainty.

Talia swallowed the hunk of bread she had been eating and said, “Not likely. It would suicide at that point. But she definitely has a few surprises left in her. That‘s for sure.”

“Like what?”

“Trans-dimensional travel. I didn’t think this Nemesis had it. I was under the assumption that only my sister had that capability. And then we found out later that our Nemesis did to. I never took into account that it would be the same in this universe.” The girl explained over the last piece of bread, before popping the remnant into her mouth, before licking her fingers calmly, and then finally using a nearby napkin to wipe both her hands.

Placing the used wad in the bowl, she added, “I didn’t think a confrontation then would be wholly productive–seeing that I would be stepping into a world that is just as alien to me as this one is right now.”

“But you’ve grown accustomed to it!” Jonas breathed. “How can you still say that?”

Talia paused only long enough when Sara appeared with a bowl and a fresh side of baked bread.

“Thought you could use another round.” She offered with an impish smile. The moment of tenderness and intimacy broke the somewhat tense atmosphere, and Jonas had reason to forget about the question at hand as he encircled a loving hand around his girlfriend’s waist–pulling her close to him.

“Thanks babe. You’re the greatest.” He whispered, face buried into her hip. Sara ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

Talia watched the tender moment with breathless abandon and a bit of pain in her chest.

There was so much about this world that she had longed to see in hers, and this was one of them.

Even despite how bad things were around here, people still found time for the most important things in life, and in each other.

Not like mine. She thought with heavy regret, before reaching over and selecting a good-sized piece of sliced bread, and taking a bite out of its flaky hide.

She watched as Sara bent to collect a kiss from her man, before reaching over to retrieve Talia’s empty bowl.

“More soup?” She offered.

The girl nodded. “Yes, please.” I’m probably going to need the extra energy when I tangle with Nemesis the next time we meet. She silently added, watching her go, before answering Jonas's earlier question.

“Because no matter what, Jonas, this place will always remain a stranger to me–even in the short time I’ve been here.” She said.

Jonas paused in the middle of his soup–spoon suspended in mid-transit to his mouth–before he quickly finished the motion, and dipped his spoon back into the bowl.

“I see.”

“You can’t expect me to transition here so easily, can you?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to.”

“But it sounds like you wanted me to.” Talia pointed out dryly.

“I just wanted…” he began, but fell silent for a second, before starting again. “I just want you to feel at home.”

“Home…” Talia whispered, thinking about how much she missed her sister already. And her mother, and her brother, and everyone else that she knew and accepted in her circle of life. She sighed and shook her head.

“Not here. This place–no matter what its wonders or treasures–cannot replace what I feel inside of me. Inside of my heart.”

Jonas nodded. “I know that. I was never asking you to forget where you came from to start another life anew.”

Talia ate out the middle part in her bread. “And I know that you weren’t trying to. You just wanted me to have a place of security, safety, and love.”

“Huh?”

“You’re girlfriend is a remarkable woman. I can see why she cares for you so much.”

Jonas blushed a little. “I guess I’m just lucky that’s all,” he mumbled.

“And from that translate into so much love and respect.”

Sara came back with the soup and told the teen to dig in.

“It’s a bit hot.” She warned. “So no burning your tongue, okay?”

Talia nodded back, taking in her bowl of steaming broth and chili. A few pasta noodles surfaced inherently, floating about in a lazy manner.

Talia dipped her spoon into the soup, playing with them in turn, but not really doing much until it cooled to some degree.

“Yes. It does.” Jonas wholeheartedly agreed. “What about your family?”

“We…have our moments, but they are such a rarity these days.” The girl openly admitted. “Not with all the problems we’ve been having as of late.”

“Is living amidst a threat that difficult?”

“Yes.”

“How often does your Nemesis attack you?”

“Every other day or so–or so as it seems to me. My sister has been running ragged nonstop since Nemesis returned.”

“How did she return?” Jonas asked curiously. “From what Calis told me, this version was locked away in a stasis chamber and buried by both the earth and time itself.”

“From what I know from Calis–my Calis–someone stole the stasis chamber and she somehow got loose on her own. About eight or nine thousand years ago.” Talia recalled, before dipping her spoon into the cool soup, and then began to eat a little vigorously.

“But who would do such a thing? And why?” Jonas asked.

“No one really knows. The ancient records never spoke of such an instance. But Calis has every reason to believe that someone visited our world in the past and did it.”

“Strange.” The man noted in puzzlement. “How very strange.”

“How did yours escape?”

“She didn’t.” Jonas told her. “From what Calis filled me on, she’s been trapped ever since the Fall–according to the scant info found in the space complex’s ancient records.”

It was then that Sara came back–with a concerned look on her lovely face.

“Jonas? You’re computer system is on the fritz again. It says that someone has entered the underground repair bay at your old place.”

The man sighed. “It’s not a fritz. It’s a pre-set signal to me if something were to go wrong.”

“Has it?”

Jonas thought back to his first encounter with his estranged daughter, and wondered if something else hadn’t turned up again.

With her, you never know. He told himself.

“No. I’ll take care of it.”

“Would you like some help?” Talia volunteered.

“Mmm…” Jonas mulled. “Probably not.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes. Finish eating and get ready for bed, if you please.” He said, before getting up. “I shant be long.”

Both Sara and Talia watched him go.

“Somehow, I don’t think so.” The girl muttered out loud.

Sara looked at her. “Why?”

“I think it’s best if I tag along–but at a distance.” She said, before getting up as well, lingering at the table for five full minutes, and then added: “Because with Nemesis in mind, things like this usually end up being a total disaster.”

Alarmed, Sara asked, “Will he be all right by himself?”

Talia couldn’t help but grin. “With me around, he should be fine.”

* * *

2 hours later.



Cara put her mother to bed in her spare bedroom and retired to the main work area close by to the Skyhawk S-3, not bothering to change her attire.

A shadow stepped out into the light, illuminating his drawn face, smudged with trans-axel grease.

“I see that you’ve been busy.” Jonas jumped in suddenly, watching as her only daughter spun around and faced him with a tight scowl, eyes blazing with cold fury.

“Don’t ever attempt to sneak up on me again, do you hear me?” She shouted.

Her father wasn’t fazed by her obstinate behavior.

“That wasn’t my intention. I was merely implying that–” He started to say, but Cara cut him off rather abruptly.

“Imply no more! I have other things to attend to and I will no longer brook any interference from no one!”

Jonas’s eyebrows raised just a bit from the young woman’s outburst.

“Really? And how do you explain what you were doing earlier? Fighting in Stratos City and here on the surface, with Isis McGowan no less?”

Cara was silent, as she adjusted something in the tool chest that was sitting next to the auto-frame, before taking it out.

Waving it in her father’s general direction, she said proudly, “My fight with the accursed Starchild is no longer relevant. I have completed what I had strived to attain for.”

“By making her go away? What would that accomplish?” Jonas asked, thinking back to what they found at the interdimensional fissure.

Cara stepped over the port wing assembly and made a slight adjustment to one of its panels, before popping it open.

“Everything.” The woman said. “In order to rule this planet, I can’t very well have countering resistance every step of the way, can I?”

“Rule this planet?!” Jonas squawked sharply in astonishment. “What are you talking about?”

Cara paused with what she was doing, one hand extended inside the panel sideways, while she twisted herself around to look up at her father.

“Always have been the inquisitive sort, weren’t you, father? My own dealings, my own plans and goals are my own business and not of yours. Unless, of course, you would like a taste of what pain feels like?”

The man paled, seeing how serious she was.

“You wouldn’t–!”

Cara shrugged, before turning around, lying flat on her stomach, legs raised up a bit, while she studied the inner workings of the port wing assembly, seeing a possible problem with the third fuel calibrator.

“I have no time nor the patience for significant delays. I have done what needed to be done and now I am carrying out the wishes of someone else, so that she might walk on this planet once again, for the first time in ten thousand years. Then–and only then–will you be answering to her and not me.” She said, before taking the thin-probed tool and touching the point here and there, causing small sparks to fly.

“What will happen to you?”

“This power transfer was only meant to be temporary, until Nemesis’s body has fully energized. But I am currently having second thoughts about that. You don’t know what it’s like to have power such as this. The sheer strength, the sheer control over such an entity that could devastate an entire planet...” The young woman licked her lips seductively, before tightening her control on the wavering instrument. “It’s intoxicating.”

“It’s insane.” Jonas verbally dared.

Cara looked over her shoulder.

“What did you say?”

The man knew he was treading water dangerously. But he wanted to see how far he could push it, even if it meant losing his life while trying to bring back his little girl.

“It’s insane.”

Cara stared at him through luminous eyes, a hint of anger in them. Then they glowed.

“Pain.” She spoke softly.

Instantaneously, the man felt something sharp rip into the depth of his guts, twisting them this way and that, knotting and squeezing mercilessly.

Jonas Hastings collapsed to his knees, grunting in surprise, while squeezing his eyes shut in an effort to hold back the flood of tears. By this time, he had wrapped his hand around his middle to try and stifle the pain on his own accord, but he was unsuccessful. The agony kept mounting and mounting, threatening to tear him apart at the cellular level.

The man didn’t fight the urge to cough either and when he finally did, dark red blood hit the cold floor of the large work bay.

Jonas gagged loudly, before falling sideways, supporting himself by one hand, then one arm, before laying on his back suddenly, moaning.

“W–why...?” He choked out.

Cara’s eyes narrowed with contempt.

“Because of your flagrant disregard for my position and for your continuing disobedience.” The young woman stated before rising, walking over him. Looking down, she kicked him hard in the stomach, driving what little air remained in his lungs and forcing the man–who was her father–to pass out from the torturous pain.

Shaking her head, Cara muttered with great dissatisfaction, “Pathetically weak. I can’t believe that I came from a part of your gene pool, foolish mortal. Let this be a reminder of things to come, the next time you try and thwart me from my goals.”

Then she walked away, leaving Jonas behind.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 77

Isis was in shock from the close-ranged explosion of heat and light.

Her senses swam, her own consciousness dipped dramatically, making her believe that she was just lying in the desert on a hot, sunny day with gusty winds blowing over her.

Isis! Keron and the Source of Chaos urged. Wake up!

Screaming filled her ears and she wondered who was doing the screaming.

It was Keron.

But not the one she was familiar with.

The woman’s face was burned on one side, her hair scorched and trailing fire on a few strands before being snuffed out by the sudden changes in air pressure and extreme velocity. Only then, did the Starchild realize that she was spinning out of control, with nothing to hold onto, nothing to arrest her momentum.

But at the very least–she saw–she was free from Keron’s clutches and was able to move around; albeit weakly.

Then a hand–a gentle one–grabbed her and pulled her close.

“Got you, Isis. Sorry about cutting it so close. But I was asleep at the time. Calis commed my mother and woke me up in order to tell me you were going after Keron–even after I said no.” The other Starchild said with some disappointment in her voice.

The surface dweller nodded weakly.

“Y-yes...” She whispered through cracked and bleeding lips. The taste left in her mouth was funny, all metallic and bitter. Isis spat, but didn’t see any blood, but she could imagine that’s what it was.

“I’m amazed that you lasted this long against her. I’m impressed.” The second Isis commented dryly.

The other woman laughed and gazed at her counterpart, seeing worry in the long and haggard look she sported.

The battle against Nemesis really must be a drain on all fronts. I’m amazed she’s kept it going this long.

Both Starchilds hovered there, one supporting the other. Her counterpart kept watch against Keron’s possible return, while Isis recovered sufficiently in order to speak.

“Thanks.” She said in gratitude. “I needed that break.”

Isis accepted it with a smile.

“Considering what you probably did, I’m eternally thankful. The battle with Nemesis has been brutal, as you can probably guess.”

Isis nodded, having pieced some things together since she had arrived.

“I know. And I’m sorry.”

Her counterpart accepted her condolences gratefully.

“I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to last against her, Isis. In less than a year, this planet dies and with it, every hope for a lasting civilization.”

Isis was quiet for a moment.

“I recall Keron saying something about Stratos City. What happened up there?”

Her counterpart said, “Let me show you, Isis McGowan. Show you the carnage that was left behind in Nemesis’s wake.”

* * *

The space complex that was once a teeming city, fraught with endless possibilities and crystal dreams.

Now, it was a derelict hulk, gaping holes in the center of the main body, some of the appendages that ringed the complex were either partially destroyed, or in the cases of two, completely destroyed.

The chaos that centered around it seemed to linger, a never ending story of human suffering and all consuming hatred.

Both Isis and her namesake counterpart stared at it, one filled with astonishment, while the other was full of deep pangs of sadness.

“This is what is left.” Isis heard her double say miserably. “The complex barely functions nowadays, but there are some people left...forty thousand at the least. But the majority of the sky dancers have already gone and what technology they’ve managed to salvage is now on the planet’s surface.”

“In camps.” Isis figured out. “Is that why Keron keeps attacking them, is because of what they brought back with them?”

Her counterpart shook her head, while drawing herself and her double closer to the space complex, feeling like she had failed once more. But in reality, it was just another cog in the universe’s great wheel of risk and chance.

There was no reason for her to feel this way, but Isis couldn’t help it. She felt responsible for allowing Nemesis to slip by her and attack the complex directly, resulting in thousands of deaths.

“No,” she finally answered in a shaky voice. “Keron is determined to destroy what is left of humanity. With everything going on these days, she might as well be succeeding. I have no real power left to give Isis. I am on my last leg here. One of these days, she will catch me off guard.”

“What about tonight? You seemed to be handling yourself quite well in my opinion.”

“That’s because you are here, Isis. You have served to give me hope again. I promise you I won’t fail next time. Next time, Keron will go down and thus ending the threat that she poses.”

The two drifted closer to the complex, allowing Isis McGowan a good look at the still enormous space complex, astonished by the amount of destruction one being could cause.

Now she understood why fighting Cara was so dangerous.

Paired together, we could tear this planet apart as a whole and not break so much as a sweat doing it. I can see that now.

“I know that, Isis. But what I don’t understand is how did Keron become Nemesis? What drove her over the edge?”

As if in answer, a ghost-like entity shimmered off to the side.

“Jalena!” Isis said in shock. “Y-you‘re here?! But how? I thought you were with my sister–?”

The woman shrugged, her long blond hair waving to and fro, weightless in a vacuum, zero-gee environment. She was costumed in a two-pieced version of the other Starchilds, sporting a stunning purple and silver variation with its sole white emblazoned star instead of the yellow that both Starchilds wore or the red that both Keron and Cara Hastings wore.

“Nope.” She said. But before she could further explain, Keron appeared next to her–hair shimmering–a look of shock and disbelief planted firmly on her ghostly face.

“Jalena! You live?!?” She barked uncharacteristically. “But I was there at Pasik III after that horrific battle! I held your lifeless body in my arms! How can you still be alive?”

The Isis of this universe and Jalena were equally stunned by Keron’s appearance.

“But you’re Nemesis!” They chorused together as one unified voice. “How can you be here?”

“I am linked to this Isis McGowan, Jalena.” The woman explained. “As it appears that you are linked to her.”

“Yes. Once the young one fell into the interdimensional rift, I silently re-linked myself back to her sister.” The woman finally revealed. “As I did when I managed to save myself by linking my spiritual essence to the last shard of the Source of Chaos, before it disappeared into the time stream so many years ago.”

“Same here.” Keron echoed.

Eyebrows raised in curiosity, Jalena asked, “So it is the same in your universe?”

Keron shook her head. “No.”

“You didn’t become Nemesis in your universe, did you?”

“No. How did I become Nemesis in this universe anyway?”

Jalena looked into space, as she pulled back everything from the past, back into the present, all the memories that she had at her disposal.

“You–at least the one we’re talking about subjectively–lost your mate to the Devourer.”

“I know.” Keron said softly, recalling that horrible day, centuries ago. “I once shared that experience with Isis not too long ago.”

“But you also lost your only son, Jared to it as well. You were unable to cope with the loss and your mind snapped as a result. When the Ancient Ones tried to intervene later on, you sealed off the Realm of Dreams, cutting me and a few others off.”

“What happened to Rahalay at the time? The last Starchild from Ober IV? Did she kill him in order to possess his powers?” Keron asked.

“Rahalay was the one that died at Pasik III, instead of me, Keron. I arrived there too late to help stop the invasion of Devourers. The Pasik, Oglamar, and Shina star systems were wiped out as a result. The Ancient Ones decreed that no more Starchilds in the future would be asked to make such a sacrifice if it didn’t bring great honor to the Realm of Dreams.”

Keron was stunned by this.

“The Ancient Ones in my universe ordered two Starchilds and a Watcher to the scene where the invasion was finally halted, but at the cost of their lives. I got there just in time to retrieve your lifeless body along with the other three.”

Jalena was silent.

“Was my death an honorable one?”

Keron nodded. “If it wasn’t for you, the star systems you named would’ve perished, along with the billions of inhabitants that lived in them. Is that honorable enough?”

Jalena’s eyes glistened with tears and she took a moment to wipe her face, even though everything was insubstantial.

“Yes, thank you.”


Bayen stepped lightly over one of the decimated bodies that had been crushed by the huge iron-plated door, which had been reinforced according to the guard that limped beside him.

“I was lucky to get away, though not from here,” the man was saying, before he made a face. “Ugh! There’s not much left of this bunch. Won’t be enough for a proper DNA scan.”

The sky dancer saw that the door itself had be perforated in several places, but it hadn’t completely sat evenly on the floor. It was still being held up by something and the man could only guess at to what that was.

Bayen shivered.

“Sick.” He said. “And it’s probably going to get worse before it gets any better.”

“Seventeen levels in this section of the east wing alone are either totaled or completely destroyed.” The medic recalled, going over the initial damage report from the prison’s main computer system. “And that’s not including the wreckage of a three hover tanks out in the main court yard, or the guards that were killed standing outside the main entrance to the lobby area.”

“Definitely fits her pattern.” The sky dancer said. “Destruction border lining on chaos, or the other way around, depending on her state of mind.”

“Such power...” The other man commented, before stepping through the ruined doorway and found what they were all expecting.

The torn wires and tubes were draped across the bed in every manner possible, with the blanket piled in one spot on the floor.

But the bed itself was empty.

The guards all went around checking the room out for anything that might’ve been left behind as a potential clue. However, nothing was left behind. The room was clean as a whistle.

Bayen picked up the padd that was pinned to the end of the bed and tapped the green screen once to access the patient’s history.

Lines of information flowed down like a waterfall before stopping, highlighting most of the data in electric blue, before the sky dancer used his forefinger to scroll up; changing it to white highlights instead.

Bayen changed the interface to the HUD option, allowing the information to change into the 3-D format. The information went from two dimensional flat screen to a perfect cube.

The sky dancer read what was on there.

“Transferred to the east wing after the trial. Sedated for the last two years on 300 milligrams of Tiopsolene.”

“300?!” The medic exclaimed, awestruck. “Are you sure?”

“That’s powerful stuff,” the third man commented off to the side. “I’ve heard that drug makes a normal person go zero gee after awhile even on twenty milligrams.”

Bayen nodded before showing the padd to the medic. The man scanned the information and whistled.

“Holy shit!” He breathed. “Someone really must have it out for Rayna to knock her out with that dosage. But why two years? Why that long?”

“She was suffering from what I was told was complete insanity.” The sky dancer told the man. “Maybe that was the reason for the high dosage.”

“But two years at that level...” the man muttered, shaking her head. “She’d be a human vegetable, totally devoid of everything that she once was.”

Bayen felt incredible sympathy towards the former captain of the Praetorial Guard, even though she tried to have him killed once.

“That’s terrible.” He said, trying to imagine what it might be like to lose everything that made a person a person and just be left with an empty shell of a human being.

“Nah.” The second guard commented from behind him. “That’s nothing. You should see some of the whackos we’ve got locked away here. It would make Rayna’s present situation a walk in the park, sort to speak.”

“But those whackos are runnin’ loose–at least some of them are.” The injured guard pointed out.

“Not to worry, we have guards on call looking for them. They’ll be taken care of.” The medic reassured him.

Bayen gazed at the information once more, only half-listening to what the other men were carrying on about. So far, the information only displayed her vitals and what she was currently on. But the information also carried a warning as well.

Patient must be administered every four hours or...

The HUD died on him unexpectedly, then the padd itself croaked with an audible snapping sound.

A wispy curl of smoke rose up, wafting past the sky dancer’s nose.

Bayen smacked the thing a couple of times, but the device was truly dead.

Great. Now we don’t know what will happen in the next four hours. He thought.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 76

Bayen stirred, coming to with one monster headache pounding out repetitions inside his skull.

As soon as it stopped, he was greeted to a world of destruction and a few Praetorial Guardsmen that had somehow escaped the carnage. One of them was obviously injured, by the way he was using his own pulse rifle as a makeshift crutch.

The other one was limping, but able to make his way around under his own power. The third one was currently surveying the carnage and death lying around with his own eyes.

“Man,” he was saying in a low voice. “I can’t believe that bitch would do something like this! And for what? A drugged patient?”

Drugged...? Questioned a part of his mind. Something came to life in his memories and he thought that he had a definite idea as to who it was that Cara had taken.

Rayna Hastings.

Bayen grunted as he struggled to get up, feeling like his left leg was busted.

Looking down, he saw a piece of bone sticking out the flesh, the point glistening with his own blood.

“Ugh.” He complained, feeling stabs of pain arc through his lower body like hot picks. “That’s just great.” Not that it was--in his opinion--but there was nothing that he could do. Looking around him, he found that his quarterstaff was lying fifteen feet in front of him, skewed off to the side.

Out of reach.

The injured Praetorial Guardsman looked down the wrecked corridor and found Bayen just lying there, half propped up, his leg clearly broken.

“We’ve got a live one here.” He said humorously. The other two guards perked up and saw where he was pointing.

The second, uninjured man ran over to the sky dancer, looked him and over and then took a portable bone/skin regenerator from his utility belt and ran the device over his leg once, before the device beeped at him, indicating something of some significant importance.

“I’m no expert, but it looks to me that you’ve broke your leg,” he said with a grin, before applying it to his leg, then turned it on. “Luckily for you, I’m your basic field medic.”

“Joy.” Bayen answered somewhat cryptically, feeling a dull warmth run down his injured limb. “I’m feeling just better now.”

“Mmm...” The man droned for a moment, before getting up before giving his partner a wry look. “That’s gratitude for you, these days.” He said.

After a few minutes of sitting still, the uninjured guard helped the sky dancer up carefully and went and retrieved his quarterstaff.

“Here.” He offered it back to the older man. “You might need this.”

Bayen folded it back into its original book-sized format and slipped it into a hidden fold within his long trench coat.

“Some good it did me.” He answered tightly. “Cara still kicked my ass.”

The guard didn’t smile at that bit of news. He was still shaken up over the deaths of his fellow Praetorial Guardsmen.

Bayen took a deep breath. “How many guards died?”

The medic’s injured comrade shook his head and said, “Somewhere in the 350 range. But we haven’t finished counting the bodies and that’s not including the various body parts that we’ve been finding off and on.”

Bayen felt oddly sick to his stomach. Maybe it was because of now drifting odors of burnt flesh and metal, mixed with the latent scent of ozone in the air.

“Cara’s been busy, that’s for sure. No definite pattern in her case. What she wants, she definitely gets.”

“But why would she want a drugged patient?” The medic asked.

The older man paused for a moment, wondering if it was the right time to tell him the cold truth of the matter.

They’ll find out sooner or later. He decided quietly, then replied, “Because that drugged patient is her mother.”

The three guards looked at the mess that surrounded them from all sides.

“Man,” the third man in the party of now four commented sourly. “No wonder she’s pissed.” The other two agreed, but the sky dancer wondered if that was the actual truth to the whole thing.

* * *

Isis sighed then. “So what if I‘m not from this Earth? What’s it to you?” She challenged contritely.

Nemesis shrugged nonchalantly.

“Oh, just because. Quite simply, I’m amazed. I didn’t realize that you had developed interdimensional travel. There were very few Starchilds in the past that have. I must say, I am impressed. You are more versatile then ever.” She complimented rashly.

Isis McGowan paused, seeing some vital clue that wasn’t there before.

She doesn’t realize that I didn’t come here willingly! My world is safe because of that flaw! With that in mind, she pressed on.

“Unfortunate for you, huh?” She nagged.

Nemesis either didn’t care, or she was completely blind to the fact.

“No matter, I still intend on ending your life before these pathetic imitations end theirs.”

“Over my dead body,” Isis countered rigidly.

Nemesis smiled at her coldly.

“That’s the general idea here. Are you availing yourself to me for that distinct honor?”

The Starchild of Ancient Lore shook her head.

“No. I mean to kick your ass up around your ears first, so you can listen to me beating the unholy snot out of you.”

Nemesis stared at her for a second, not comprehending what had been said.

Glancing back up at the breach in the atmosphere, the Starchild then asked, “So why did you go ahead and breach this planet’s atmosphere? You think that taking out this world’s Starchild wasn’t enough of a challenge?”

Nemesis gazed at her. “She isn’t worth my time, Isis McGowan. But you are. I’m actually most eager to pit my skills against yours.”

Isis chuckled. “From what I’ve seen already, it wouldn’t be a fair fight, Nemesis. So if you aren’t Cara and you are not Rinia, who the hell are you...really?”

The woman stepped forward and for the first time, shock and astonishment registered on not only Isis’s mind, but that of Keron’s and the Source of Chaos.

“No...” Isis whispered, horrified beyond words.

“What’s the matter? You act like you’ve seen me before.” The woman asked, eyes glowing dangerously.

“Y-your not who you are supposed to be! It’s not possible! How could you be here and still be inside my mind?”

Nemesis didn’t understand what she was driving at.

“Inside your mind? Why would I want to debase myself in that manner?”

Isis backed up, prepared herself for a new confrontation, one that she didn’t want to face, only because the truth was to terrible to grasp.

Pointing a trembling finger at her, she cried, “Because you are Keron! Keron!!”

“So?” Keron said with little emotion on her part.

Isis stared at her.

“So? Is that all you can say is ‘so’? When did you decide to become Nemesis? When?!”

Keron was starting to get really tired of this endless questioning, so she decided that she was going to end it right here, right now.

“I have a proposition for you.” She offered suddenly.

Isis went tense, while a part of her brain still grappled with the concept of mutual duality.

“What might that be?”

Keron looked at her right hand and then the other speculatively.

“I will tell you why I became Nemesis, but only if–if!–you can beat me, Isis McGowan. If you can accomplish that much, then I will divulge my past to you. How does that sound?”

Great. She thought. I knew there had to be a catch somewhere...

You can’t fight her! Keron pleaded desperately. There’s no telling what she will do!

Keron! That’s enough! I don’t need your fear of her overwhelming me, okay?

But–

Listen to me and listen well. This version of you is just as crazy as Nemesis is in my universe. It’s plainly obvious. But I’ve got to try and stop her at any rate.

And if you can’t? What then?

Isis didn’t want to think about that outcome. She had enough to deal with as it is.

Later. Right now–

Keron punched her in the mouth as hard as she could, sending the young woman flying backwards. Isis saw stars at that point and the front of her mouth was numb from the pain.

Guess...guess that answers my question. She mused groggily, sensing that she was close by and coming into range.

Shaking her head, she glared at the other woman.

“I didn’t give you my answer yet! I wasn’t ready!”

Keron didn’t show any signs of slowing down as she came at her at full speed.

“Too bad. I only give my victims five seconds to reply before I decide to kill them. You took too long. So I made the decision for you. Are you ready?”

Isis didn’t see that she had a choice. It was either do or die. Put up or shut up.

The only problem was, she didn’t know how deep she would get before this whole thing was over.

Man, and I thought my counterpart had bad days! She thought, before Keron struck her again.

But Isis was faster and she intercepted the blow with very little anguish on her part and pulled the other woman around and then pulled her down before letting go, watching her uncontrolled freefall towards the desert floor.

Deja vu wasn’t a pleasant feeling for her, since she had done this once before, but Isis saw that she had no other choice. Pulling every bit of power that she had at her disposal, Isis used that against someone whom she knew intimately.

The skies lit up at her awesome show of force as it traveled and connected to its target just short of the ground.

A giant flare of heat and light snapped into existence, briefly snuffing out the pale moonlight for a time, buffeting the entire area with gusts of wind and heavier than normal G-shock. Isis was tossed around for a few seconds before she was able to ride out the effects.

But she wasn’t done. The first time this happened, she got careless. Never again.

Not two hours here and I’m already starting trouble. She thought, before throwing her right hand back smartly, drew everything into one spot–all of her anger, hate, loathing, and fear, and uncorked a giant force beam at her target–letting it go with delicate, but deliberate grace.

The thing carved night into glorious day–pounding out heavy amounts of energy trails along the way–before slamming the ground again. It struck with so much force, it cracked open the desert floor for six miles long–while causing 1,300-foot fissures to form in the process.

The explosion cracked like an earthquake had gone off, but the Starchild didn’t wait for Keron to show up.

She came charging up at her like a bull, while Isis was on the verge of coming down to see what remained of a hated foe from a completely different perspective. Keron halted her flight and discharged something red and huge in her path, striking the young woman dead center and sending her flying off like a rag doll.

The Starchild couldn’t believe her mistake and she sensed that she had made a fatal one, before Earth’s gentle gravity tugged at her and started to pull her back down.

Sensing her opponent, the surface dweller twisted her body in mid-air, bringing both hands to bear on her target and fired.

The large power beam did two things: First, it traveled upwards towards the intended target. Second, it only succeeded in pushing the Starchild down even further and faster than before, causing her to belly flop onto the hard desert floor like a dead fish, before she bounced a couple of times.

Still, her momentum was still in play. Reaching down, she dug her hands into the ground and flipped up in an effort to get herself stabilized. Then she somersaulted once and landed nimbly on her feet. However, she was still moving, so she applied the brakes briefly, digging hard into the sandy ground, chewing up huge chunks of pulverized rock that lay beneath it.

Just as she launched herself skyward, a bright beam from the heavens homed in on her, but she swung left in order to avoid it and kept coming.

The cosmic mechanism devastated the ground beneath her, foreshadowing the Starchild’s flying form.

At this time, however, Keron was already in motion, having dealt with the power beam in a manner befitting her skills and bore down on the seemingly determined young woman–having discovered that she didn’t even come close to hitting the young woman.

They came abreast of each just within mere inches, before Keron lashed out with her left foot, but Isis vanished again–her blurring afterimage the only thing left for her to deal with. Isis reappeared in back of her and punched her solidly in the back, forcing all the air out of Keron’s body and causing her cry out in surprise. But then Isis grabbed the woman in a standard headlock and back-flipped her neatly, before ramming her knee into the other woman’s stomach.

Nemesis cried out sharply, gasping and wheezing like a fish out of water, before the Starchild took one of her discus-shaped charges and utilizing her own energy, slapped the thing onto the upper part of the woman’s back and pushed her away like a drunken sailor.

Keron clawed for the innate device, but Isis wouldn’t let her have the opportunity to remove it.

Closing her fist tightly, the device exploded, taking Keron with it. A thunderous eruption filled the night sky, filling it with a billowing cloud of smoke. But when it cleared, there was no sign of the woman anywhere.

Puzzled, Isis started looking around for her.

That explosion wasn’t powerful enough to take her out completely! So where–? Isis evaluated, before a figure slammed into her from the six o’clock position, wrapping powerful arms around her and carrying her up and away.

“You little bitch! That hurt like hell!” The voice screamed in her ears. “What did you do that for?”

Isis reached up to extricate herself from the woman, but Keron kicked her savagely in the side, causing a massive amount of pain to flare up, before the woman kicked her again.

Isis felt extremely nauseated and weak from the assault, but that didn’t stop Nemesis from performing an excruciating choke hold on the surface dweller.

Isis thrashed around feebly, knowing that if she didn’t do something soon, she would die.

It was then that Keron got tapped on the shoulder by someone else.

“Excuse me.” The voice directed in a pleasant voice.

The woman turned around briefly, bearing her load at the same time.

The other Starchild stood there with a tight smile plastered on her face.

“Your in so much shit right now, do you know that?” She stated infallibly, before she blasted the woman and her would-be victim from close range.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 75

The psychiatric ward was probably one of the most heavily guarded areas in the entire prison, mainly because most of the prisoners there were considered extremely dangerous and therefore unfit for rehabilitation. There, these unfortunate souls would live out the remainder of their lives under heavy isolation and under constant sedation--depending on the patient and the circumstances.

Cara simply made short work of the guards that stood in her way, followed by any medical personnel that happened to stray into her path.

The screams of the dying rang in her ears, adding to the sweet melody of chaos she was going to soon create. Just as soon as she took care of some long, unfinished business.

She strode down the, white, desolate, corridor, seeing each door as a barrier to something long since forgotten. The woman wasn’t interested in these decrepit individuals.

Only one.

A minute later, she found the name of the person she was looking for: Rayna Hastings.

“Mother...” The young woman whispered, before taking a hold of the door handle and twisted.
Because of her immense strength, the thing came off unexpectedly, leaving the door itself intact.

Cara didn’t have time for the usual niceties.

Stepping back just a bit, she gut-checked the door sharply, causing the whole thing to implode inward. Stepping through the ruined doorway, the young woman came under fire from down the other end of the hallway, hosing down the entire area with concentrated photon and pulse rifle salvos. Explosions ricocheted all around her, some hitting her, but not causing any significant damage or injury.

All it did was piss her off.

Picking the door up by hand, she rotated herself around, as most of the hits started slamming into the door with compounding intensity. But that didn’t seem to faze the woman.

She simply heaved the door in the direction of the fire, watching it bounce a couple of time, throwing a plethora of sparks up along the way before landing on top of the large squad of Praetorial Guardsmen that had come in response to the growing problem at hand.

The shooting stopped abruptly, as many of them died from the sudden impact of metal meeting human flesh. The few remaining survivors moaned and flopped around weakly, trying to escape from the dead weight that had been dropped right on top of them.

Cara threw her hand out and ended their suffering with one quick blast of red cosmic energy. The resulting explosion ripped through the corridors, puncturing or collapsing some of the walls and other doors that held back the dregs of society.

Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Cara Hastings ventured inside the bare, white-walled room, devoid of every necessity usually found in a room. There were no paintings, no trappings, not even a window or two to help dispel the illusion between night and day.

The only thing that was there, was a beige and yellow tiled floor, and a small island of instruments sitting next a bed; with small tubes and wires snaking over a body that was as sullen and decrepit as any of the other patients that were in the ward.

Cara wasn’t pleased at all with the result.

Her mother looked pathetic. Just like the rest of them.

Her mother’s normally exotic features--much like her daughter’s--was now a pale imitation. A shell.

A ghost.

Cara’s face tightened and a scowl formed.

“Drugs.” The young woman muttered, not happy with what she was seeing on the surface. “Nothing but drugs to sap the greatest conniving mind ever conceived by a mortal. Even one that has failed to impress me.” On some level, Cara knew it was Nemesis talking through her lips, but somehow, she felt it was herself.

And she hated it.

“Stay out of my mind!” She screamed. “This is my show now, not yours!”

The presence of Nemesis retreated for the moment, allowing her the luxury of being herself.

Cara looked at her mother, both happy and sad that she had to see her like this.

Strange that she never got the chance to know her mother any better.

But first things first.

Ripping away wires and the tubes, Cara scooped her mother up, trailing the light blue blanket behind her, before yanking it aside and throwing it onto the floor.

“Come on. This is going to be the last trip you’ll ever take.” She promised lightly, wishing that she hadn’t gotten rid of Isis McGowan so easily.

Giving her pain would’ve been more enlightening after what I’ve just seen. She thought, before vanishing in a bang of cold-white light.

* * *

Isis flew towards Dead Man’s Bluff, high up and able to see what this alternate Earth had to offer her.

Nothing but destruction. She saw with the moonlight playing softly across the desert, seeing craters large and one small neatly carved one into the ground like a stone cutter chiseling his greatest masterpiece. Just like mine in the back of Calis’s junkyard, the surface dweller recalled, thinking about the stunt she had pulled that had temporarily cost her the use of her hands.

But these look fresh...recent too. Man, I can’t imagine who would pull off something like this.

I would. Keron said softly from inside her consciousness.

Isis slowed down just a bit, but didn’t stop.

Who? She asked.

Before Keron could answer, a bright light punctuated the darkness for a brief moment, before something white-hot burned past her face, missing her by inches.

“Holy crap!” She blurted out in pure astonishment, seized by the strong rush of adrenaline. Pulling up short, she hovered and looked around rapidly, trying to find out who was doing the shooting.

Three more points of light illuminated the desert floor just above and to the left her. The Starchild looked up just in time to see a vanishing figure disappear just as the trio of lethal energy bolts rained down on top of her position.

Isis dodged the attack with relative ease, finding the exact spot between the three, before emerging into the clear and accelerated upwards in a desperate bid for more space, while down below, the ground blossomed into three separate conflagrations.

The surface dweller spun around, not knowing where the attack was going to come from.

But whoever was trying to nail her made that decision for her.

“I cannot believe my luck! And I thought I would never see you flying again, not after what I had done before and sent you scurrying away like the scared mouse you are.” The person spoke in a chiding tone, one meant to convey fear and terror.

Isis turned around again, seeing the person in question, hovering no more than fifty feet away.

From this angle, the Starchild couldn’t see who her opponent was, but she could already hazard a guess.

“Nemesis.” She answered tightly, changing combat stances. There was no way she would be caught off guard again. Not like the last time.

But unfortunately for her, she hadn’t had the time to be completely healed. She still was hurting from their last encounter. But she felt that she had sufficient strength and power for this one.

“Ah, so you do remember who I am. Good. Then that means killing you will be so much sweeter.” Then she paused dramatically for a second, before plunging on. “You know, you should’ve just given up on our first meeting. I’m much more powerful than you are. I can even sense that your injured.”

Uh-oh. Isis groaned silently.

“Prepare to die.” Nemesis declared in a stiff voice, before she launched herself at her, intent on landing the first of many blows--all designed to either cripple or kill. It mattered not, just as long as the job was done and she can get on with what she really wanted to do.

A split-second before the killing blow landed, Isis vanished, her form an invisible blur in the darkened background.

Nemesis stumbled forward for a few seconds, before she arrested her own momentum. “What the–?” She began, startled by the young woman’s tactics. She hadn’t expected that–let alone seen it!

The surface dweller appeared sixty feet down, none worse for wear.

Isis looked up at her opponent.

“What’s the matter, Nemesis? Having problems already?” She fairly taunted, still not realizing who she was fighting.

Nemesis spun around in shock, staring directly at her.

“You’ve never done that before! Never!”

Isis McGowan hovered for a long moment, thinking that one over.

Never? What does she mean by that?

“Come one, Nemesis. You and I have done the disappearing trick many times over. This stalling trick of yours won’t work with me, not like the last time. Last time, I was foolish enough to fall for it. This time...never again.”

The other woman shook her head with vivid desperation.

This could be bad...Came a brief thought inside the other woman’s head, before it dissipated all together.

“I have never done the disappearing trick before! I can’t!” She shouted, then turned her palm out and ignited a large ball of brightly lit cosmic energy that burned an intense red.

The thing was like a sore thumb to the Starchild and her eyes momentarily hurt from staring at it. She turned away for a brief moment to rub her eyes and then look back, squinting them the best she could.

“That’s a load of shit, Nemesis. And you know this! You can pull off the same stunts as I, or better yet, you can one-up me even better!”

The woman threw her hand down suddenly, releasing the charged salvo, watching it sail straight and true at the surface dweller.

Isis was surprised by this maneuver, but rose up and knocked it aside as soon as it entered range, watching as it skewed sharply to the right and away, exploding in the far distance.

Her left hand burned a little and she shook it to get rid of the pain that plagued it.

“Ouch!” She complained, shaking it some more. “That one hurt!”

Nemesis was stunned. “There is no way that you could avoid that! It is specifically designed to kill you!”

The Starchild shrugged. “Guess it failed, Nemesis. Too bad for you, huh?”

Nemesis fumed. “This isn’t right! You’re different than before. You should be weak and depressed from your fights with me!”

Isis agreed with her on that. “You know what? You’re right about one thing: I am a little weakened, but not too terribly. As for the depressed parts…? Nah. I have to kick your ass first before I even get that depressed.”

Nemesis didn’t approve of the other woman’s sense of humor. She felt like she was being cheat of her long time prey.

“When did you find the time to become such a comedian, huh?”

Isis shrugged. “My mother always said to make the time, so I suppose that now is a better time then ever.”

“Very funny. You know, I haven’t had time to exterminate all of you vermin. I thought that I did so when I nearly destroyed Stratos City, but thanks to the breach in this planet’s atmosphere, I won’t have to wait for very long.”

Isis’s heart practically dropped to the bottom of her red boots.

“B-breach? What do you mean? What did you do to this planet?” She demanded.

Nemesis extended a casual finger upwards. “Take a look, Starchild of Earth.”

Isis did and found to her horror the devastation and the utter, senseless cruelty that one being could bring onto so many others.

Holy god–! She thought, completely stunned by what she was seeing.

The breach in the atmosphere was clearly visible as a large dark hole devoid of stars, visible by the pale moonlight. It was like someone had cut it out using a pair of scissors. But she could see clouds being slowly sucked into the breach and into outer space.

“The breach is actually a tunnel that extends from space to the very lower depths of this planet’s oxygen envelope. I’d say five, maybe six miles.” Nemesis bubbled proudly. “So what do you think of my handiwork?”

Isis was at a loss for words. This type of brutality was inconceivable, even by Cara’s standards. Sure, she probably killed people, but why go to these great lengths?

“You cold-hearted bitch!” She cried out. “These people don’t deserve to die like that!”

Nemesis was pleased, but at the same time, she was a little puzzled by the woman’s strange behavior.

“But you should know already what I’m capable of, Isis McGowan. You’ve seen it with your very own eyes. Of that I’m pretty sure.”

I have. She silently admitted. But you are not the Nemesis I know. You are someone completely different.

So she decided to test her by asking a very obvious question.

“You’re not Cara Hastings, are you? Rinia perhaps?”

The woman froze and Isis felt dread freeze her soul, realizing that she might be up against someone who she thought had been buried in the stasis chamber.

Then she smiled.

“Wrong on both counts. Why would I avail myself to become the lowest mortal female on the chain of humanity anyway? As for Rinia, she’s...let’s just say that being dead hasn’t improved her attitude as of late.”

Isis felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach.

“What?” She whispered.

Nemesis nodded while staring at her. Then she inquired, “Tell me, Isis McGowan. You’re not from around here are you?”

The surface dweller didn’t know what to do. She was quite astonished by the information that had been fed to her directly.

“What do you mean? Of course I’m from here!”

Nemesis chuckled. “Always the mistress of deceit. Your tactics may have changed, but the underlying principle of who you are hasn’t. You are the Starchild of Earth, but not from this one. This Earth anyways.”

Isis felt sunk. If Nemesis had discovered the truth about how she arrived, there would be two of them to contend with on her Earth.

And she didn’t think she could handle that. Not after what had just happened.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 74

Isis McGowan couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t sleep. Too much was going through her mind to allow for that simple luxury.

Must be nearing eleven o’clock at night. She guessed off-hand, staring up into the black, featureless ceiling, even though from here, she could pick out a couple rafters and maybe a crossbeam or two.

Turning over onto her side, the Starchild stared into nothingness, until her eyes grew heavy and she finally did fall asleep.

* * *

Bayen slipped past the carnage that had afflicted almost three-quarters of the east wing, wondering time and time again what exactly Cara was after.

Bodies of the deceased littered the area like bits of trash, giving the sky dancer the chills.

There had to be something that she was after, but what? He kept going over again, as he past the wrecked shaft of a turbo lift. One of the doors was ripped clean off, while another hung ajar. The cage itself was blown to smithereens and Bayen only caught a glimpse of a partially charred human torso.

The sight sickened him, but it also gave him more reason to keep going.

And quickly.

Thirty minutes of jumping over things and dodging fallen partitions, wall enclosures and even more mangled bodies, the sky dancer came across an undamaged lift.

The doors were closed and the light indicators on the access pad were still active.

Doesn’t mean crap. Bayen thought, before taking out his quarterstaff and extending it, twirling it slowly, before stopping, using the point of the multi-purpose weapon as an extension of himself and tapped the access pad randomly until he heard a buzz.

Leaning closer, he found that it required a card that he didn’t have.

Nuts to that! He complained morbidly, before looking around for a dead guard in hopes that he might be carrying a card.

The only problem was that there were none where he was. He would have to go further until he found one; not that he was wishing ill-fortune on the unfortunate slob that happened to stray into Cara’s path.

So he had no choice but to continue on.

Sprinting down the next corridor, he turned the corner and came to a skidding stop.

“Shit!” He yelped reflexively, but it was too late.

Cara dropped the guard she had just killed and turned around, surprised but not totally.

“You know, the problem with a place like this, is that it not only takes forever to case it, but you have to deal with people along the way.” Pointing at the poor soul whom she had just murdered maliciously, she said, “Just like this one.”

Bayen backed up, holding his weapon out in the guard position, while the rest of his body tensed for the unexpected.

“What do you want, Cara? What’s the deal with killing all these people? You realize that you won’t be able to get away from here in one piece.”

The young woman stared up at the untouched ceiling for a moment, before dropping her gaze back down onto him.

“What I want is none of your damned business. My reasons for killing is not for the timid or the meek. And yes, I will get out of here. Why do you ask? Because I can. Because none of these simpletons can hold a candle to me.” Then she added, “But you shouldn’t worry about what I’m going to do. You should worry about whether or not you’re going to either live...” She held out her hand towards him, relaxed, but firm at the same time. “...or die. It’s your choice.”

“Not by you.” Bayen debated, swinging his staff around. “Living or dying isn’t a lottery that can be made by one individual. It is a biological function that has spanned time itself. You should be fully aware of that by now, Nemesis.”

Cara had an annoyed look on her face.

“How many times do I have to say it?! I’m Cara! Not Nemesis!”

“Not until you relinquish your hold on Cara, Nemesis. Not until then.” Bayen said unmovingly.

The young woman’s face went slack, before she smiled cruelly.

“You know? That’s what your girlfriend said. She was a real pushover come to think of it. Always so naive and gullible. Not to mention pathetic.”

Bayen didn’t buy into that load of crap.

“You always do get a kick out of picking on the weaker sex, don’t you, Nemesis? Choosing those who willingly do your dirty work. But you don’t dare get your hands dirty, do you? You’re too busy hiding in that damned stasis chamber of yours.” Antagonism was such a wonderful tool these days...the older man mused. Too bad that it is lost on some people.

“I don’t need to hide from the likes of you, Bayen Yelou. I know your disposition towards dying, so killing you right now would bring me no great amount of satisfaction. I suggest that you leave before I change my mind.”

Bayen wasn’t about to take off just yet, not when he had to go and find Barc, Leona, Lara and the rest of their gangs. But the sky dancer realized that in order to do that, he would literally have to go through Cara just to get there.

The two would-be combatants stared at each other for a long time, one waiting for a reply from the other.

“I cannot.” Bayen voted at last. “But nor can I allow you to continue either, Nemesis.”

Cara looked at him in utter disbelief.

“What is it with you mortals, anyway? Are you that eager to die? Why can’t you just accept the way things are and live with it?”

“What you propose is pure and simple slavery. And I’d rather die stopping you then to be a slave to your every whim and desire, Nemesis.”

“Both you and the Starchild have expressed the same notion. Interesting. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to test this theory once I put a stop to all this pathetic squabbling and resistance.”

Bayen froze. “What do you mean?”

The young woman smiled.

“Why the destruction of this space complex, of course. What do you think?”

“I think your fucking crazy, believing that you can go to great lengths as to wipe out the planet’s only source of defense against the God of Insanity.”

“This ‘source of defense’–as you call it–is a cosmic joke. The God of Insanity–the being that I had fallen in love so many a eons ago, will obliterate it without a second thought. I’ve decided to give Him a helping hand instead. Hope you don’t mind your home being destroyed and all.”

Bayen raised his quarterstaff at her in a threatening manner.

“As a matter of fact–I do mind.”

Cara looked at him askance, then shook her head.

“Still that eager to die?” Sighing heavily, she put a hand to her forehead, then glanced up at the older man. “I guess I can’t deny you that. I just hope it was worth your meager existence, sky dancer. Isis knows. I sent her away...permanently, I might add.”

“What do you mean?” Bayen asked.

“She’s gone away...even I don’t know where. But the important thing is, she is no longer here to give me trouble.”

The sky dancer’s heart fell to the pits of his stomach, as a part of him digested what the other woman was trying to tell him.

A flood of anger and loss hit him like an intense tidal wave. But he had to remind himself that he had to remain cool throughout the whole ordeal. It was absolutely imperative.

If I can keep her pinned here...he propositioned quietly, trying to come up with an exact plan of action. A new one and not the one that he was already trying to carry out.

Then he hit upon an idea.

“What do you think you’re mother would say, Cara? To everything that you’ve done and what you’ve become?”

Cara grinned, then chuckled.

“I’ll be sure to ask her when I see her.” Then she started to walk away.

Like an open book, Bayen quickly put two and two together and swore.

“No! You can’t–!” He shouted desperately, reaching out to her, bringing his quarterstaff around for a quick strike, one swift attack.

Cara spun around, eyes blazing bright emerald green with cold fury.

She held out her hand and before the sky dancer knew what hit him, he was thrown bodily down the hallway and slid another couple of lengths down, before coming to a complete stop by ways of the corner wall partition.

The sky dancer’s limp form slumped over–in the possessed woman’s satisfaction–and did not move for the moment.

Cara waited for a second, strode down the hallway and stopped well short of the reasonably unconscious sky dancer.

“So now you know what it is like to deal with the likes of me.” Bending down and patting the older man’s cheek, she whispered into his ear, “But don’t worry, you won’t suffer for very long. I can promise you that.”

Then she walked away.

* * *

Calis shook Isis. “Hey!” She whispered urgently. “Wake up! I gotta tell you something!”

The surface dweller groaned and tried to roll over, but the old woman stopped her from doing so and shook her some more.

“Wake...up!!” She pleaded. “You have to wake up! Now!”

Isis didn’t want to. She made it plain in her own way that she wanted to sleep.

“Leave me alone...” She complained softly.

“Can’t.” Calis insisted. “It’s urgent.”

Isis opened her eyes, seeing only a formless shape in front of her. A momentary freeze in fear was alleviated by the white wash of a miniature pen light, illuminating the now familiar features to the Starchild.

“Calis...? What’s wrong? Why are you here?” She fired off successfully in growing puzzlement, even as the woman in question moved out of the surface dweller’s way–so she could slide off the bed and get up on her own.

“Camp #51 is under attack,” the old woman told her in a rush; as she drifted by.

The words didn’t register on her one bit.

“Camp #51...?” Isis echoed in confusion. “What’s that?”

“A place sixteen miles west from here. In an area known as Dead Man’s Bluff.” Calis answered.

“I know that place. It’s where a friend of mine–Pauline Anderson–lives at the Twenty-Four/Seven bar–”

“–destroyed...” The woman cut in.

Isis went white with shock.

“What?”

Calis nodded. “The whole settlement was destroyed last week by Nemesis. There were no survivors.”

The surface dweller felt sick to her stomach.

“Gods...” She croaked. Memories of her past childhood surged forth, playing games with both Pauline, Cara, and herself. Watching the races on the old vid-screens and drinking sparkling soda till it came out of their noses; giggles, snorting and high-pitched laughter filling her ears as the young woman remembered each of those special moments.

Calis on the other hand, could sense the other woman’s pain even from where she was kneeling next to the bed.

“But it’s nothing that you could’ve done–I mean my young charge, that is.” She corrected.
Isis knew she was trying to deflect the severity of the incident the best she could, in the only way she can.

With the blind truth.

“I know it’s not my fault.” The Starchild said, before stepping up to the exit and opening the door. Pale moonlight filtered through, illuminating her graceful form and the emblazoned yellow star on her chest.

A symbol of power. A symbol of hope.

“But I can’t stand idle here and let your world be destroyed. I will help my counterpart, even if it means my own destruction towards the end.”

Then she stepped through and was gone.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 73

Isis McGowan ate in silence, trying to come up with a way to explain to her mother and her younger brother Trell what had happened. What had happened to her sister. But so far, she had struck out on all fronts and frustration had mounted within her, threatening to explode at a moment’s notice.

“Honey?” Maye asked, while getting her a glass of water from the fridge.

Isis accepted what her mother was giving her and drank it down slowly.

“I’m sorry, mother. But there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What?”

“While I was on patrol, looking for signs of Nemesis, I came across someone.”

“Another survivor?” The woman blurted out unexpectedly, knowing what her daughter was going through. After the near destruction of Stratos City, sky dancers from the crippled space complex started to shuttle down and make camps all over the place in an effort to escape the carnage that had happened in the last week. But then the unthinkable started to happen: Nemesis started attacking the city camps ruthlessly, killing a great deal of the people that were both helpless and innocent.

For the last couple of days, survivors from those camps started showing up in the Western Desert, or in Shark’s Bay, with the slim chance of survival.

If that wasn’t bad enough, in of the surface dweller’s battles with Nemesis, the insane woman created a catastrophic breach in the Earth’s atmosphere, allowing the life giving air to slowly escape little by little, disrupting the planet’s fragile ecosystem even more.

It was the only way she knew of to force the young woman into an impossible stalemate.

Maye was proud of her daughter, for the way she had been handling these many crises to date, not showing the insurmountable strain and stress that she must be feeling right now.

“No, not a survivor.” She said after awhile, toying with her food in the process. “Someone that I had been in contact with over the last five years. I had hoped and prayed that she would somehow find a way here, but knowing how fragile the universe is, I knew it to be an impossible dream. Until today.”

“You mean that girl who you told us looked like you, but was different?” Talia asked, brushing her auburn red hair out with the brush she was carrying. Her sky blue eyes matched her sister’s and despite their slight differences in hair color, both Talia and Isis could easily have passed for twin sisters. However, Talia was three years younger than her sister, but she was an exceptional pilot, much like her sister and adored her deeply.

Trell was younger than both of his sisters, sporting a mop of blonde hair and blue eyes. He had just had his twelve birthday recently and was heavily into tinkering with electronics and other gadgetry.

“There’s another one of you?” He antagonized with clear mischief in his face. “I don’t know how the world could begin to cope with two Isis McGowan’s, let alone just one.”

Talia punched her brother in the shoulder before Isis could retaliate.

“Quiet.” Her mother scolded the boy firmly. “Let your sister finish.”

Trell lapsed into an awkward silence, but didn’t try to push the envelope any further.

“Yes,” the young woman answered both her sister and her mother respectively. “The other me.”

“She’s here?” Maye asked.

Isis nodded.

“Right now, she’s sleeping at Calis’s workshop. I didn’t think it would be right to bring her here right off. The shock of just being here has upset her enough. To see the rest of you would probably cause deep-rooted panic or something.”

“Well, you did the right thing, honey.” Maye murmured approvingly.

Isis sat back and stretched, then got up. “Well, I think I should get to bed. It’s been one hell of a long day.”

Maye didn’t object, but acknowledged her daughter’s request with a discernable nod.

Isis went back to her room, thinking of what she said, but also thinking about how much she missed her younger sibling.

And she would imagine what she would say–that is if she were here right now. So in the tradition of make-believe, Isis imagined that her sister was her right here with her at this moment–having gotten up from the table and followed her into her bedroom.

The ghost of Talia followed her sister while Trell stayed behind to be with his mom.

Sis! She called out, before the young woman stopped just shy of her bedroom door. The other girl came abreast of her and quietly asked: How powerful is your double?

The surface dweller blinked her eyes at the door, not expecting that kind of question from a ghost.

“I don’t know.” She answered stonily. “Why?”

Well, maybe you ask her in your struggle against Nemesis. Maybe she could lend a hand.

“It’s not a struggle.” Isis said emptily. “Just a few setbacks, that’s all.”

The ghostly image of her sister just rolled her eyes in the semi-permeable darkness of the hallway.

Sis, don’t kid me. I know how bad things are going. You are close to losing, aren’t you?

Isis was silent. Then she said, “Yes. Some Starchild I turned out to be, huh? Boy, I wonder if Rinia knows this revelation.”

Rinia and Calis do know, her ghostly sister revealed to her. But they are afraid to come out and say it. They still believe that you can defeat Nemesis, if you find a way. Well, I believe that the other Isis McGowan is that way. She could help you, you know. All you have to do is ask.

Isis shook her head, not wanting to believe it “But she doesn’t belong here, Talia. She belongs in that other universe. There is no way I’m endangering her just for the sake of what’s happening here.”

Isis imagined her sister smacking her on the shoulder sharply, not so much as to hurt her, but make her come to her senses.

Have you been stuck on stupid again? You just can’t stand here and ignore the perfect opportunity to get yourself out of this major pickle! The other Isis wouldn’t either, I’ll bet. But you can’t seriously believe that you’ll be able to undo all the damage that Nemesis has done and beat her to death afterwards! It’s suicide!

“It’s my choice.” Isis said unswervingly. “Not yours.”

Talia stood there, not believing the absolute stubbornness her sister was exhibiting. She loved her deeply, but she wasn’t going to stand around and let her get herself killed.

Fine. Be that way. She finally acquiesced, before walking away and vanishing.

Isis reached out for her then, but then dropped her hand, realizing just how futile the discussion had been–even if it was just a fantasy.

In all of her years as a surface dweller, there always had been openings and paths to chose from. Some of them weren’t easy, but she knew that with persistence and determination, she could accomplish anything.

But within a year’s time, nothing will matter, will it? She thought sourly, thinking back to what Rinia said after Nemesis created a breach in the planet’s delicate atmosphere.

In one year, no life will exist on Earth.

None.

* * *

Cara meted out death and destruction wherever she went, not really caring who got in her way, just as long as she reached her intended destination.

This is too easy, she thought, as she watched another innocent human being vaporize into nothingness. It could’ve been a doctor, it could’ve been a secretary, guard, or someone who worked at the main prison.

It could’ve been anybody.

Not that she cared anyway. With the Starchild permanently removed–in her mind at any rate–there was really nothing that could stop her from accomplishing everything that she had set out to do. Not even the most powerful weapons that had been developed with the Starchild in mind could stop her.

All they did was make Cara Hastings mad.

The hallway she was strolling through was a scorched mess of human remains and senseless destruction. Walls with holes in them, or ceiling partitions that sagged down from intense heat and various interfaces with chunks of wiring hanging down like vines.

A jungle of agony and pain. Just the way she liked it.

Another guard–hidden in the shadows–jumped out to confront her in the flickering light, both fear and blind determination masking his face. He was too scared to do anything else but try and put a stop to this madness.

Raising his rifle at her, he fired, shooting out a blue paralyzing beam that encased her, freezing the young woman in her tracks.

Lowering his weapon in victory, he grinned through a soot-caked smile.

“Gotcha.” He gloated openly.

Then, without so much as a warning, the woman’s form vanished and so did the blue paralysis field that had trapped her.

The guard looked at the spot where the woman had been before and was mortified beyond words.

“What the–?” He murmured in astonishment, before an intense force ripped into his back, crushing his spinal column in two places, killing him instantly.

Cara pulled her hand out from the dead man’s body, covered in blood and gore, but none worse for wear.

The guard’s dead body crumpled softly to the floor, a hole visible in the man’s armor where she had punched through.

“Animal.” She spat.

Stepping over him, she continued on.

STARCHILD DUEL--CHAPTER 72

Talia continued ahead for another 10 miles, homing in on what she thought was an interdimensional breach. The radiating purplish-black blob in the distance couldn’t have been a complete coincidence in her book.

This was the same method upon which my sister had used to bring me here! But who else besides her had this arcane ability? She thought to herself, as she dipped lower to just skim above the desert surface–approaching Mach 1 quickly–and was upon the source of the disturbance in seconds.

Talia did a velocity dump–hovering over the newborn fissure all at the same time–while studying the thing.

There was nothing out of the ordinary that she could see, but nor could she detect a true opening from it either.

“Whatever it’s purposes where for…it’s completed its primary objective.” She murmured to herself–sensing something else about it as well.

So she was here as well, huh? Oddly enough, that this version of Nemesis has the ability for interdimensional travel as well like our version…the girl continued to contemplate, turning her head and facing starside. I guess there is some differences between our universes after all.

No matter.

It would only be a matter of time before the two paired off again–and this time, the stranded surface dweller would have a surprise or two waiting for her.

Looking down at the fissure, she felt a pang of sadness wash through her. It was just too bad that this version of her sister would be missing out on the fun that lay ahead.

Then she vanished in a bang of cold white light.

* * *

Tarnek appeared to Calis a half hour after the two had concluded their own separate affairs.

“Calis.” The ex-Watcher intoned calmly, causing the old man to reflexively bang his head on one of the underlying consoles that he was presently working on.

“God Tarnek!” He growled. “Haven’t I told you never to do that to me?”

The spirit deity apologized.

“I am sorry. But this is most urgent.”

“So is getting this hulk moving again.” The old man said.

Tarnek glanced around for a second from where he was standing.

“I’m serious, Calis. Talia McGowan is gone.”

The old man stopped what he was doing. “Define ‘gone’. She told me that would be scouting ahead for the fissure.”

“She was.” Tarnek answered cryptically. “Now she’s finished. Now she’s gone.”

Calis’s eyebrows went up with a bit of surprise, before his face colored with dismay.

“No! She couldn‘t possibly think about tangling with Nemesis again!” He inquired. “She doesn’t have the power!”

Tarnek sighed, then shook his head.

“She doesn‘t seem to believe that.” The ex-Watcher countered. Then said quietly, “She’s convinced that she has a few tricks which could turn the tables on Nemesis once again.”

Calis thought over that one.

“It didn’t help her the last time.” The old man pondered. “She could very well get herself killed without even trying Cara’s patience.”

“Talia doesn’t see it that way. I think we’re underestimating her resilience in this crisis.”

“As have we all.” Calis muttered, wiping his hands down the sides of his pants. The repairs were going well, but he’d soon just get back to the workshop as soon as possible.

“I still don’t understand how Isis could vanish like this. How’d it happen, old friend? I thought Isis–” but was stopped when Tarnek gave him a strange look. “What?”

“Cara got the best of her at the last second and shoved her into what appeared to be some kind of transdimensional portal. Where she’s gone, I couldn’t even begin to guess.”

“Transdimensional? I wasn’t aware that Cara possessed that ability!” The old man pondered with amazement in his voice.

“It is how Nemesis got here, old friend.” Tarnek explained. “In her twisted quest to find the God of Insanity.”

“It looks like Cara has it now.” Calis sighed heavily.

“She does,” the spirit deity agreed. “But it didn’t stop her from using it to get Isis out of the way.”

That notion didn’t sit well with the old man. Not one bit.

“So what is she going to do? Wipe us out?”

“She intends to rule this planet. And the first thing she’ll probably do is make sure there is no one around to resist her.” Tarnek guessed off hand.

Calis snorted. “From the way things have gone, she wouldn’t have much of that either. We’re just toys to her now. And without Isis, we’re good as dead.”

* * *

Bayen left the Arts and Crafts shop around ten, feeling wary, due to an increase in Praetorial Guard patrols. From what he could see walking down the plaz