Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (11 page)

He wasn’t going to give up.

Jack hopped back to his feet and started running.  He heard
Shepherd cry out his name as Jack passed him and hit the cornfield, following
the path Anna and Green had taken.  He shot past Green, whipping a corn stalk
in the man’s face by accident but slowing him down in the process.  Finally, he
caught up to Anna, who had stopped in a small circle devoid of any corn.

Jack stopped, catching his breath.

“What are you doing?” he panted.  “We gotta keep running.”

“No we don’t,” said Anna, pulling a small device out from
the back pocket of her jeans.  “We’re here.”

She immediately began tapping on the rectangular device, as
if she were pressing invisible keys.  Jack noticed strange symbols that appeared
on the smooth stone-like surface of the tablet – but even though it looked like
a rock, Anna’s finger moved around the symbols like they were floating on
water.

“We’re in a cornfield, there’s no temple around here,” said
Jack, “and what the heck is that?”

Anna stopped and looked at Jack.  She was frowning.  “Jack,
I’m sorry for involving you in this,” she said.

Jack shrugged.  “Hey, it’s cool,” he said.  “I mean, it’s
not your fault aliens want to capture you, right?”

Anna was silent.  Just then, Green appeared.  “Princess,” he
said, out of breath as well.   “Please…”

“You know this is the right thing to do, Professor,” said
Anna.

Green nodded.  “I know,” he said.  “Just… promise me when
this is over, you’ll convince Paragon Shepherd of that as well.”

As if on cue, Shepherd broke through the surrounding barrier
of corn.  He stood before the group, his face stern.  Anna and he shared a
glare, and she looked back at him as hard as he looked at her.

“Do not activate that,” he growled.

Anna straightened, and suddenly Jack noticed a strange
change in her.  It wasn’t anything physical, it was more like a feeling he
got.  She suddenly became authoritative, powerful… regal.  It was obvious
Shepherd and Green noticed the change, too.

“All my life, I’ve shouldered the responsibility of my
bloodline,” she said.  “I have trained.  I have studied.  I have prepared – all
for moments like this.  You protect me because I am the heir to the throne of
the Galactic Empire and the keeper of the secrets of the Ancients.  But what
good is that protection if it does not allow me to do what I need to do – what
I’m destined to do?  I am your Sovereign, Paragon Shepherd, no matter what age
I may be.  I ask now that you treat me as such, and believe me when I say… I
can
do this.”

Shepherd gazed at Anna with a slight look of surprise on his
face.  It was the first time Jack had ever seen him look uncertain.  After a
long moment of hesitation, Shepherd’s shoulders relaxed and a sigh of
resignation followed.  He nodded, ever so slightly.

“I am, as always, your loyal servant, Your Majesty,” he said
softly.

Whatever battle of wills the two had been fighting, it was
obvious Shepherd had just surrendered.  Anna relaxed as well, and turned to
Jack. 

“Jack,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“Brace yourself.”

Anna looked down at the device in her hand and flicked one
last symbol into a circular configuration made up of all the others she had
positioned on there.

Suddenly, the dirt beneath their feet glowed with a
brilliant white light – which strangely did not appear to illuminate anything,
as if the light were trapped within the ground. 

An audible, vibrating “hum” could be heard and felt, as the
light beneath them began to swirl around like a whirlpool.

Then, the whirlpool expanded downward at a frightening
speed. 

Jack felt as though he were hovering weightless in mid-air
for a split second, and then, it happened…

He started to fall.

Jack was yanked downward violently,
as though something had grabbed hold of him and was reeling him in with
incredible speed.  It felt like his stomach had been ripped from his belly and
left far behind him, much like riding a roller coaster, only a thousand times
more intense. 

His skin tingled like air was blasting into him with
hurricane-like fury.  However, he did not feel cold, and the wind did not cut
into his skin, but it was there nonetheless.  Jack tried to open his eyes and
focus.  All around him he saw bizarre colors and objects flying by with
frightening speed, all kept at bay by a swirling spiral of brilliant blue
light. 

He looked beneath him, his feet flailing as they searched
for ground that was not there.  Far in the distance below, a burning yellow
glow began to form.  It was rushing up toward him, a swirling mess of golden
magma.  The air around him began to shimmer, as though it were on fire, only
there was no heat.

Then, Jack plunged through the golden liquid, and just like
that, his feet were on solid ground again.

Anna, Green, and Shepherd all stood in the same positions
they had been in back in the cornfield.  As Jack’s brain tried to cope with
what had just happened, the world around him began to swirl, and his stomach
finally caught up with him.  No surprise, it was not very happy when it did.

Dizzy, Jack fell over.  He hit the ground, which felt like
it was moving at odd angles compared to the rest of his surroundings.  A wave
of nausea crashed over him.

Don’t puke in front of Anna,
he thought
.  Don’t
puke in front of Anna, don’t puke in front of Anna…

Then, Professor Green was at his side.  He took Jack gently
by the face to steady him.

“Focus on my eyes, Jack,” said Green.

Green’s face separated into four fuzzy clones of itself and
danced around Jack’s field of vision.

“Wha… why’m I…” stammered Jack.

“Don’t worry, my boy, it’ll pass,” Green said.  “Your body
just isn’t used to the portgating process.”

As Jack tried to focus on Green’s face and clear his head,
he began to notice his surroundings.  The cornfield had disappeared, replaced
by a large cavernous chamber.  The walls and ceiling merged into a dome and
were alive with liquid gold magma that swirled and danced in a beautiful ballet
of chaos.  The light from the dome bathed the entire chamber with a
yellow-orange hue.

Jack was on a circular platform, the same size as the
clearing in the field above, made of a smooth, white metal that pulsed
slightly, like a mirror catching sunlight.  He turned and saw an ornate stone
arch stationed behind the platform, with small crackles of energy dancing
around it intermittently.

The platform had steps that led down to a surface consisting
of cobbled stone.  Two rows of stone columns formed a walkway, which led from
the platform toward some type of temple, about a hundred yards away.  The
temple rose up like a pyramid but flattened out at the top, as if it were
unfinished. 

Suddenly, Jack realized just how huge the temple was, and
the chamber it was housed in was even more massive than he had first noticed – probably
bigger than the entire town of River Heights.

“Where are we?” asked Jack, his head clearing with the
amazement of his new environment.

“We’re in the core of your planet,” said Green.

Jack turned and looked at him, eyes wide.  “The core?  Like,
the
Earth’s
core?  As in the center of the Earth?”

“Exciting, isn’t it?” said Green cheerily.

“How… how is this possible?” asked Jack, dumbfounded.

“Well, if you must know–” started Green.  But before he
could offer any further explanation, Shepherd stepped forward.

“Later,” he said in a tone that ended the conversation for
good.  He reached down and grabbed Jack by the lapel of his jacket and yanked
him up to his feet.  He turned to Anna.

“Activating the portgate will have alerted the Deathlords to
its location,” said Shepherd.  “They’ll be here any second.”

Anna nodded.  “I’ll work fast,” she said.  She turned to
Green.  “Professor, I’ll need your help.”

“Of course,” he replied.

With that, Green followed Anna as she began to run toward
the temple.  Jack was about to go after them when Shepherd’s hand clamped down
on his shoulder.

“No, you stay with me,” he said.

“Why?” asked Jack. “What’s going
on
here?  What is
this place?  Who
are
you people?”

“I know you have questions,” said Shepherd, his voice deadly
serious.  “But right now, you need to listen to me very carefully if you want
to live.”

“Okay…” said Jack, uncertainly.

“Do you know how to handle a gun?” asked Shepherd.

“Um… kinda,” replied Jack.  “I mean, I’ve never actually
fired a real gun before…”

Shepherd grimaced.

“But, hey!” said Jack.  “How hard can it be, right?  Just
point and shoot.  Why?  You, uh… got a gun?”

Shepherd knelt on one knee and put his hand before him,
staring at it intensely.  Jack raised an eyebrow. 
What the heck is he doing
now?
Jack wondered.

The air around Shepherd’s hand started shimmering, and
suddenly, Jack’s vision blurred, as if his eyes could no longer focus correctly. 
Before he knew it, the air around Shepherd’s palm seemed to ripple, and a
strange looking pistol had appeared from nowhere.

“No way…” said Jack, amazed.

The pistol was, for lack of a better word, awesome.  It
looked like a nine-millimeter handgun from one of Jack’s video games, but the
barrel was like a flattened oval, with no opening in the muzzle.  Instead, a
glowing red line followed the middle of it, from one side to the other. 
Shepherd got to his feet and shoved the pistol toward Jack.

“Take it,” he said.

Jack didn’t need to be told twice.  He snatched it up and
looked at it like he’d just found a million dollars.

“What the heck is this?” he asked.

“Not a toy,” said Shepherd dryly.  “In a few seconds, some
very bad things are going to show up.  I’ll try to hold them off as long as I
can, but if any get past me, I’ll need you to shoot them down.”

Jack snapped out of the trance the gun in his hand had created
and looked at Shepherd with surprise.

“Dude,” he said.  “Are you asking me to
kill
people?”

“They’re not people,” said Shepherd.  “Now go take cover. 
No matter what happens, make sure none of them reaches the Princess.”

“Right…” said Jack.  “And just so I’m clear, are you her
dad, or aren’t you?  Because I’m still not sure exactly–”

Suddenly, the arch behind the portgate platform came to
life, trails of electric power sparking around it.  A blue ball of energy formed
under its arms, groaning and shouting, as if it were being forced to open. 
Shepherd turned and looked at it intensely.

“Go now,” yelled Shepherd over the sound of the newly opened
portal.

Jack began to retreat back behind the nearest pillar when he
stopped.

“Wait, what about you?” he asked.

Shepherd turned his back on Jack, facing the slowly growing
portal fully.  Tendrils of blue and white electricity began to snake around him,
moving to his spine and forming into a metal brace.

From that brace, more metal grew around Shepherd’s body,
brilliant silver and blue.  It formed around his shoulders, moving to his
arms.  It crawled down his legs, to his feet.  Jack watched in amazement as a
sleek and powerful looking suit of armor encased the man, making him look like
some type of butt-kicking superhero from the comic books Jack had grown up reading.

Finally, a solid metal helmet covered Shepherd’s face.  It
was smooth, with no slits for his eyes or mouth.  It formed into an obscure
shape of a man’s face, lacking any details, and glowing slightly.

Shepherd tightened his hands into fists, and from the sides,
top, and bottom of his forearms, long, cylindrical cannons snapped up, their
barrels glowing with restrained fury.

Jack gazed upon Shepherd in utter awe.

“Wicked…” he breathed.

Shepherd raised his arms, aiming his quad-cannons toward the
blue portal as it screamed and grew to its full size.

The portal crackled, and with a thunderous clap, two
Deathlords leapt through.  Both were armed with their standard obsidian
rifles.  Before they had a chance to use them, Shepherd unleashed his cannons.

The blasts tore into the two Deathlords, causing them to
erupt into a cloud of black dust.  No sooner had those two fallen, than two
more Dark Soldiers shot through the portal. 

They fired a few shots off before Shepherd bombarded them
into oblivion.  Some shots went wide, but one hit Shepherd full on.  However,
instead of harming him, the blast seemed to be absorbed by his armor.  The man
did not even flinch from getting hit.

Jack backed away and hid behind a nearby stone pillar,
aiming his plasma pistol toward the portal as more Deathlords emerged. 
However, Shepherd’s furious cannon attack was so brutal, none of the invading
Deathlords were lasting that long.  For a second, Jack thought he wouldn’t have
to fire a single shot, since it seemed Shepherd had the whole situation under
control.

Until the next group arrived.

Two more Deathlords emerged, this time followed closely by a
third.  The first two were like the others who had come before – foot soldiers with
obsidian rifles.  But the third one was taller, more lithe, and carried no
weapon. 

His head was wrapped with a black cloth that coiled around
his face like a mummy, covering the area where his nose and mouth would be but
leaving room for two brutal, glowing red eyes.  Small horns crowned his
slightly elongated head, and his arms were armored with guards mounted with
large serrated blades.

The two Deathlord soldiers who emerged before him served as
human shields and absorbed Shepherd’s blasts before disintegrating, giving the
third time to roll out of the way.

As the surviving Deathlord rolled to his knee, he swung his
arm upward gracefully in one quick motion – causing glowing white spikes of
energy to shoot up through the ground before him.

More spikes erupted in front of the last, screaming toward
Shepherd with frightening speed. As the spikes behind them evaporated, the new
arrivals grew larger and more deadly the farther they traveled, like a tidal
wave of jagged death. 

Shepherd leapt to the side, but he was not fast enough. 

The wave of floor spikes turned, as if it knew his reaction,
and impacted his side, sparking off his armor and sending him flying backwards.

Shepherd hit the floor, rolling from the force of the
impact, as the Deathlord leapt into the air and closed the distance between him
and his foe. 

Just as he landed, two more Deathord foot soldiers emerged
from the portal.  But instead of carrying rifles, these two bore a large black
box between them, their taloned hands wrapped around its handles.

Ignoring the new arrivals, Jack took aim at the Deathlord
near Shepherd, who was getting ready to make another attack.

“Prepare to get owned, jerkwad,” he whispered.

He leveled the pistol.

He took careful aim.

He squeezed the trigger.

A red blast of plasma erupted from his pistol, streaking
across the air, heading powerfully and forcefully directly toward the
Deathlord’s head…

…and completely missing him.

The Deathlord, noticing the plasma blast as it passed
harmlessly by, looked over in Jack’s direction, his red eyes burning with fury.

“Oh, crap…” said Jack.

The Deathlord quickly swung his arm in Jack’s direction,
sending another wave of ghostly floor spikes screaming his way.

Jack ducked behind the pillar, and braced himself.  Fear
suddenly found its way into his gut.  Before, when it was just Shepherd doing
the fighting, the whole thing seemed cool, like he was watching the greatest
sci-fi movie ever. 

But now, things were shooting at
him
, and that was
totally
not
cool.

The Deathlord’s spikes slammed into the pillar Jack was
hiding behind with incredible force.  The pillar crumbled instantly and the
blast sent Jack flying forward.  He hit the ground hard; pieces of stone from
his previous cover showered painfully down upon him.  Jack curled up and
covered his head to protect himself from the falling debris.

While Jack was getting his first taste of battle, the two
Deathlords who emerged during the fight set the box they were carrying on the
ground.  Spikes shot out of its smooth undercarriage, burrowing into the
floor.  The top of the box began to grow, morphing into a tall, twisted spire,
its peak shaping into four even blades.

Taking advantage of the distraction Jack had provided,
Shepherd rolled to his knee and aimed his quad-canons at the Deathlord before
him and let loose.

This Deathord was tougher than the others.  He took the shots
Shepherd threw his way, stumbling back as the blasts tore through him and his
armor.

Reacting quickly, the Deathlord flung a ball of ghostly
white energy from his hand, rocketing it at Shepherd like a cannonball.

Shepherd rolled, the blast impacting the ground he had
occupied seconds before, creating a small crater where it hit. 

In one fluid motion, Shepherd reached behind him, pulling
two long, straight batons off the back of his armor while rolling to his feet. 
No sooner did his hands grip the immaculate white sticks than they crackled to
life with a furious blue and white energy.

The Deathlord flung another ghost ball, which shot directly toward
Shepherd.  Swiftly, Shepherd batted it away with his batons, a wisp of the
death energy snaking up his arm as the Deathlord’s attack dissipated from the
blow.

Not missing a beat, Shepherd rushed toward his foe,
attacking the Deathlord with amazing speed.