Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (57 page)

He looked up as he saw the army of Deathlords above him
engage their jetpacks, charging down in pursuit.  Further back, he saw the
central eye of the mothership, swirling chaotically with ghostly white energy,
growing brighter and brighter by the second.

“Oy, Greenskin,” shouted Scally over the blasting of air as
they continued their descent.  “Keep an eye on that mothership weapon, let me
know the second it’s about ta fire.”

Green glanced up at the seemingly shrinking mothership, the
energy rumbling about its center swirling even more chaotically as he and
Scallywag continued to plummet down the tunnel, the Deathlords in hot pursuit
directly behind them.

“I say,” cried out the Professor.  “How am I to know that?”

“Yer supposed to be smart, ain’t ya?” replied Scallywag.

“Being smart doesn’t make one an expert on knowing when a
massive death ray is about to engage.”

“If ya don’t keep an eye out, we’re gonna be caught in that
blast,” barked Scallywag.  “And I, for one, wouldn’t care for that at all.”

“Then should you not simply stay away from the blast
radius?  Perhaps stick to the edges of the tunnel?”

“If I did that, me plan wouldn’t work.”

“You have a plan?” the Professor blinked, confused.

Scallywag looked over at the Professor and smirked.  “What? 
Ya think you and the Earthman are the only ones who can come up with terrible
ideas?”

Scallywag’s moment of levity was short-lived; plasma blasts
started raining down around them as the Deathlords above opened fire. 
Scallywag adjusted their descent, spiraling away from their attackers as he
continued to corkscrew down the massive planetary tunnel.

Professor Green squeaked at the maneuver and hugged the rail
tightly, burying his head into his shoulders.

“Oy!” yelled Scallywag.  “Eyes topside, remember?”

Green looked up at the twenty Deathlords looming over them. 
A small group was following closely behind, while others fanned out trying to
get a drop on their position.  Green squinted his eyes as some of the
Deathlords became tiny black specs against the ever growing light from the
mothership’s central weapon.

“Um… dear fellow… Mr. Pirate?”

“Name’s Scallywag.”

“Indeed.  You know how you told me to tell you when the
weapon was about to fire?”

“Yeah.”

Green gazed up as tendrils of energy started to snake out
from the glowing chaos of the mothership’s center, like worms bursting forth
from a rotten apple.

“I think it’s about to happen…” Green said.

Without a word, Scallywag abruptly turned the hovercraft,
shooting toward the wall of the tunnel.  The adjustment was so abrupt, Green was
afraid he’d spill his stomach contents (but considering he couldn’t remember
the last time he’d eaten, there probably wasn’t much danger of that happening).

High above them, the Deathlords scrambled to adjust to their
prey’s new course, just as the mothership unleashed its fury.

A solid pillar of sickly white light rocketed downward,
enveloping fourteen unlucky Deathlords in its path.

Scallywag reached the edge of the tunnel just as the death
beam shot by.  The pirate recoiled slightly as the energy blasted past them,
with only a few feet between it and their vessel.  No heat came off the beam,
but an emotional wave of fear and despair hit Scallywag like a truck.  He
glanced over and saw the swirling beam of light, churning chaotically, its sound
like the screams of a million beings crying out in agony.

Within the beam, it was almost as if he could see images. 
Faces of people he wanted to forget.  Memories of deeds he wished he could take
back.  Emotions he never wanted to experience – they all flooded over him like
a cresting tidal wave.

“
And here… I thought you loved me…
” came the voice he
never wanted to hear again, from the memory he so desperately wanted to forget.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still as events from so
long ago flashed into his mind.  The memory came back so vividly, that for an
instant, it felt to Scallywag as though he were there, actually reliving the incident
that changed his life forever.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, salty tears blurring the edge of
his vision.

Then, he heard Professor Green scream, snapping him out of
his trance and back into the urgency of their current situation.

“Look out!” cried the Professor, mere seconds before blaster
fire rained down around them.

Scallywag moved the hovercraft, but they were boxed in between
the death beam and the edge of the tunnel, with almost no room to maneuver.  Scally
glanced behind them and saw six Dark Soldiers, including the one with his head
wrapped in rags.  He held a ball of death energy in his hands, waiting to
unleash it.

The pirate looked back down at the control panel.  The
readout on the display showed they were getting close to their destination. 
Scallywag just hoped they could survive that long.

“Hold on tight, Trundle,” said Scallywag.

“I’m already holding on tight!”

“Hold on tighter…” said the pirate.

Scallywag could see the half-moon opening coming up before
them quickly.  One last glance behind him revealed the lead Deathlord
unleashing his ball of death energy.  Scallywag hit the reverse on the
hovercraft’s engine and angled the circular vehicle toward the wall, bringing its
side up at a forty-five degree angle.

He punched the acceleration just as they came to the opening
to the Great Seal’s tunnel, shooting the hovercraft toward it.  Their momentum
brought them crashing up hard against the side of the hallway’s wall, but the
angle at which Scallywag had brought the vehicle in had allowed the brunt of
the impact to be distributed evenly across the bottom of the craft.  It scraped
against the wall with a screech of metal on stone, and the entire hovercraft
shook in protest.

The death energy blast from the Deathlord hit the side of
the entrance, knocking off a chunk of the wall before the Deathlords followed the
craft into the tunnel.  One Dark Soldier, however, couldn’t adjust to the angle
in time and evaporated in a puff of dust as he slammed into the wall of the
entrance, his jetpack exploding, shooting a fireball of ignited rocket fuel
down the tunnel.

Scallywag straightened out the hovercraft as he looked at
the explosion behind him.  Much to his dismay, he saw the five remaining
Deathlords emerge from the ball of fire, angry smoke trails billowing off of
them as they raced after their prey.

He glanced down at the Professor, who was looking even more
green than usual.

“Cheer up, Trundle,” smiled Scallywag.  “At least we ain’t
dead!”

Scally increased their acceleration as blaster fire erupted
behind them, rocketing faster down the hallway.

“Not yet, anyway…” muttered the pirate.

"Anna?  Anna, wake up…”

Anna’s eyes fluttered open.  Jack’s
face slowly came into focus as it hovered above her.  She gazed at him a
moment, the numbness in her mind morphing into a tingling feeling of
disbelief.  Was this a dream?  How was this even real?

“Jack?” she said hoarsely.

“Hey,” he responded with a smile.  “How you feeling?”

Anna reached out with a shaky hand and cupped Jack’s face,
as if to reassure herself he was truly there.  She gazed into his deep green
eyes and felt her heart race, beating with a sense of joy, excitement, and
relief all balled up in an explosion of emotion that coursed through her body. 
She sat up with a start, wrapping her arms around Jack’s neck and hugging him
like a drowning person would a life preserver.

“You’re real,” she gasped, choking back a sob of pure
happiness.  “I can’t believe it!”

Jack held her gently in his arms while patting her back reassuringly. 
“Not that this isn’t awesome,” he said, “but could you relax the kung fu grip? 
I kinda like being able to breathe…”

Anna pulled back, a nervous giggle escaping from her lips,
which she quickly covered shyly with her palm.  Her brain was still buzzing
with disbelief.  She had been on death’s doorstep, at the mercy of a foe she
was sure would kill her.  One moment, she had been facing her own mortality,
defeated by her enemy, shrouded in the shame of failure – and now, from what
she could tell, she was safe!  The feeling threatened to completely overwhelm
her.

“Wow,” said Jack rubbing his neck.  “You know, if the whole
Princess thing doesn’t work out, you could totally have a career as a
professional wrestler.”

Anna couldn’t keep herself from grinning; she was smiling so
hard her cheeks were hurting.  Tears blurred the edge of her vision as she
grabbed Jack’s hands tightly in her own, as though he could siphon away some of
the emotion that was causing her to feel as though she were making a complete fool
of herself.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Despite what
some people
might think,” said Jack,
casting a wry stare in Grohm’s direction, “I totally saved the day.”

Grohm grunted.  Anna looked over at the hulking alien as he
went back to unstrapping a large weapon from the back of a massive hoverbike
and holstering it across his back.

“Don’t mind him,” said Jack.  “He gets kinda grumpy when
there’s nothing around to smash.”

Anna looked back at Jack, noticing for the first time that
he was wearing body armor and had a blaster gun strapped to his side.

“You… you came back for me…” she said.

“Of course,” Jack replied.  “I’d never leave you behind.”

Anna bit her lower lip.  She still couldn’t believe it. 
Jack had always been an interesting boy.  She’d never met someone who could
make her laugh or have a good time quite like him.  He’d shown astounding
bravery and resourcefulness during their time on the Deathlord ship, which was
amazing in-and-of itself.  But now, as she looked at him, Anna saw him as
something more.  Something she never would have suspected from the boy she’d
always catch shyly staring at her in homeroom.

He was a hero.

“Thank you,” Anna said, meaning it with every fiber of her
being.

“No problem,” replied Jack, completely missing the weight
with which Anna had said the words.  “But now we really need to get out of here
before the planet blows up.”

Anna blinked at Jack, as though she didn’t comprehend what
he’d just said.  “Wait… what?” she asked.

“Long story short,” explained Jack, “we have to blow up the
planet to save the universe, and we don’t have a lot of time left before it
happens.  So I need you to get on the bike so we can get back to the ship and
jump out of here before everything goes boom.  Cool?”

While Anna was still trying to process what Jack was saying,
he hopped up and helped her to her feet.

“Oh, and uh… there may be an evil tornado thing on the
surface that’ll try to eat us once we’re up there, so try not to touch the
ground.  Or it.  In fact, try not to even look at the thing, ‘cause it’s pretty
creepy.”

“Huh?” said Anna, her previous jubilation now suddenly
replaced with growing concern.

“Relax,” smiled Jack, patting Anna on the shoulder reassuringly. 
“Short of an army of Deathlords showing up, I can’t think of anything that
could possibly mess up our escape.”

“Oy!  Earthman!” Scallywag’s voice rang out from the comm
unit in Jack’s ear.  “I got an army of bloody Deathlords on me tail, and we’re
headed yer way!”

Jack sighed.  “I really gotta be more careful about what I
say.”

“I can’t shake ‘em!” said Scallywag urgently.  “If I don’t
get some help soon, the Trundle and I are gonna be wet spots on the walls!”

Grohm growled and straddled his hoverbike, the massive
machine humming to life.  “Battle,” he said.

“Looks like it,” said Jack, more than a little annoyed. 
Jack hopped on his hoverbike and motioned for Anna to join him as he started it
up.  She climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Hold on tight, Princess,” said Jack.  “Looks like we’re not
out of the woods yet.”

The walls of the Ancient hallway raced by in one direction
as plasma fire streaked in from the other.  Scallywag gritted his teeth as he
crouched low over the control panel of the hovercraft, trying to maneuver in
the confined space of the hallway. 
We ain’t gonna last too much longer like
this
, the pirate thought.  Indeed, though the hallway was large, it did not
give him enough room to maneuver.  The Deathlords had been relentless, and it
had taken all of Scallywag’s skill as a pilot to keep from getting hit by the
lead Deathlord’s cannonballs of death energy.

“Scally, you there?” came Jack’s voice over the comm.

“Where else would I bloody be?” replied Scallywag testily.

“Pretty soon you’re going to be coming up to an area where a
lot of hallways meet,” said Jack.  “You’ll want to take the exit to the far
right.  The far right, understand?”

“Aye, and where’s that lead?”

“To a tunnel that will take you to the surface.”

“Fat lotta good that’ll do me if I’m blown ta pieces in the
meantime!”

“Relax, Grohm and I got your back,” replied Jack.  “Just
remember – the far right tunnel, ‘kay?”

Scallywag grumbled in response and looked down at the sensor
readout on his control panel.  The area Jack had mentioned was coming up fast. 
The moment they entered the half-moon area where all the hallways seemed to
converge, Scallywag banked the hovercraft sharply, angling for the exit
farthest to the right.  The Deathlords behind him did not miss a beat, staying
stubbornly on his tail.

“I’m here,” said Scallywag into his comm.  “Now what?”

“Now, DUCK!” replied  Jack.

Red plasma fire streaked by Scallywag.  He watched as one of
the Deathlords following him was hit by the blasts, lost control and crashed
into the wall, causing its jetpack to explode.  The hum of hoverbikes echoed through
the hallway as Jack and Grohm rocketed forward, blasting their weapons directly
at the Deathlords who scrambled to avoid being shot.

Scallywag couldn’t help but cheer as his allies raced by him
on either side of the hovercraft, a blast from Grohm’s massive shotgun taking
out another Deathlord.  Abraxas twisted around as the duo shot by, his fiery
red eyes meeting Jack’s for the briefest of moments.  The smug smile on the
boy’s face sent shivers of unadulterated rage up the Deathlord’s back.

“EARTHMAN!!!!” he screamed.

Jack and Grohm hit the brakes, their hoverbikes skidding
forward as they turned, crisscrossing each other’s position before gunning
their engines and racing ahead, now behind the three remaining Deathlords,
their weapons blazing.

“Oy, Greenskin,” said Scallywag, grabbing the Professor by
the collar of his shirt and pulling him toward the controls.  “Take over.”

“What?  Me?” replied Green.  “But-but-but… I’m no pilot!”

“How are ya with a gun?”

“Horrible.”

“Then yer now a pilot.”

Scallywag left the nervous Trundle alone to steer the
hovercraft as he turned and unholstered his guns, smiling to himself as he took
aim.  “Time for a bit o’ payback,” he said to himself as he opened fire.

His blasts narrowly missed Abraxas, who quickly spun out of
the way.  The remaining Deathlords were now caught between Scallywag’s fire
from in front, and Jack and Grohm’s fire from behind – a situation that did not
please Abraxas one bit.

Green looked down as the control panel on the hovercraft
beeped at him.  The sensor readout showed the exit tunnel to the surface
rapidly approaching.

“Um… Mr. Scallywag…” he said nervously. “The tunnel to the
surface is approaching…”

“So?”

“So it… ah… it doesn’t seem to go there right away.”

Scallywag turned and raised an eyebrow.  “What?  Where’s it
go?”

Green looked up as the hallway’s exit rushed toward them. 
The illuminated metal rings of the greater tunnel into which it emptied lay in
the distance.

“Um… down!”

Green braced himself against the control panel.  Scallywag quickly
wrapped his arm around the side railing of the hovercraft, and not a moment too
soon as they emerged from the hallway and Green angled the vehicle downward
sharply.  Scallywag briefly lost his footing, his legs kicking up into the air
as the floor of the vehicle fell out from under him.  Gravity soon caught up,
and he crashed back down.

“Bloody hell!” spat Scallywag.  “What was that???”

“The tunnel angled in such a way so that we could only
follow it downward at our current velocity,” Green said.

Scallywag quickly holstered his weapons and pushed Green
aside.  “Look at the size o’ this tunnel,” he said.  “Ya don’t need to make
sharp turns like that.”

“I told you - I’m a scientist, not a pilot,” whined Green.

Scallywag glanced at the sensors.  The tunnel they were in
seemed to straighten out horizontally for a few miles before curving upward for
the surface.  He looked behind them to see the Deathlords were down to three,
but Abraxas and his two remaining minions were better able to dodge the blaster
fire in the larger tunnel than they had managed back in the Ancient hallway. 
Jack and Grohm found themselves having to adjust course constantly to try to stay
on the Deathlords’ tails.

Abraxas saw Grohm veer to the side, taking aim at one of his
Dark Soldiers.  He summoned another ball of death energy into his hand and
seized the opportunity.

“FALL BACK!” he ordered.

Immediately, he and his two remaining followers cut
propulsion to their jetpacks, slowing their momentum and allowing Jack and
Grohm to overshoot the Deathlords before they re-engaged their forward thrust. 
No sooner had Jack and Grohm passed than Abraxas hurled his death energy right
toward Grohm.

Grohm saw the attack heading directly for him and tried to
adjust his course, but it was too late.  The death energy hit his hoverbike’s
rear stabilizer just enough to take a rather significant chunk out of it,
causing its engine to whine loudly in protest.

“Grohm!” yelled Jack as he watched the Rognok’s hoverbike
spin out of control, sparks flying and smoke billowing from the damaged
vehicle.

Scallywag glanced behind him to see Grohm’s bike flip over,
the massive alien falling from its seat before it veered off wildly and smashed
into pieces against the side wall of the tunnel.  Immediately, Scallywag cut
the acceleration of the hovercraft, allowing it to slow enough to meet Grohm’s
velocity as the Rognok plummeted toward the ground.

Grohm landed flat on his back in the center of the
hovercraft’s passenger platform, impacting its floor with a loud
THUMP
. 
The weight of the alien’s landing forced the hovercraft down, its bottom
skimming the surface of the tunnel.  The entire vehicle rattled violently
before Scallywag could correct its motion and compensate for their new
passenger.

“If we somehow manage ta live through this,” Scallywag
yelled at Grohm.  “Yer going on a bloody diet!”

Grohm only had a chance to growl in response before blaster
fire erupted around them.  Scallywag swerved the hovercraft to and fro as he
tried to avoid the blasts while gaining altitude once again.

Jack banked to the side just as Abraxas let loose another
ball of death energy that rocketed by him.  He glanced down and saw that Grohm,
Scallywag, and Green were all in the hovercraft, but they were having a hard
time avoiding the relentless blaster fire from the Deathlords who now enjoyed
the advantageous position of being on the craft’s tail.

“Jack,” he heard Anna say in his ear.  “Try and hold it
steady for a little bit.”

“What?” replied Jack.  “Why?”

“You can’t dodge these attacks and fight back at the same
time,” said Anna.  “I just need you to keep the bike steady long enough for me
to do something.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“This,” said Anna as she angled her left leg across Jack’s
lap and reached across his chest with her hand to grab the handlebar of the
bike.  In a quick motion, Anna spun herself around Jack and into his lap, so
they were now face-to-face.  Jack locked eyes with her, wide-eyed at the
maneuver.  Anna smiled as she grabbed Jack’s pistol from his hand.

“You keep us alive,” she said.  “I’ll keep them off our
backs.”

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Jack, smiling.

Anna hugged Jack close, bringing his chin up to her shoulder
so he could see past her.  She raised her arm over his other shoulder and
opened fire, hitting the first Deathlord before he had time to react, striking
his jetpack and sending him spiraling out of control.  He crashed into the wall
of the tunnel in a fiery explosion.  Anna smiled to herself as her heart
pounded in excitement.  It felt good to be fighting back for a change.