Void Horizon: Illuminati Ex Machina
The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.
Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.
Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.
Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.
Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.
Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.
Chapter 2
"The end of the world? No way…" Piper said in shock as she too stared at the orange colored skies that swirled overhead.
"Unfortunately, it is as I say, the Stormweavers herald the destruction of our world, a lost chapter from our history, one which even we suppressed. You see, during the first war, the Stormweavers discovered a way to destroy the surface of our world. By using the source of all crystals, the Source Crystal that underlies the entire surface, the Stormweavers can annihilate anything they choose provided they hit the right harmonic resonance points. Their first and only use of this weapon transformed the Wastelands from a verdant jungle paradise into the nightmare you know it as today as well as fractured Cyclonia and many other terras. I will not even mention the lives and civilizations lost as a result of that infernal device, and hopefully we can stop them before they use it a second time." Vespos said in a dour tone as he tore his gaze away from the burning skies. "Unfortunately, I do not know how to stop it, those events occurred long before I became the leader of the Ancients. We must return to Terra Anki and investigate the records; they may have some clue as to how we can destroy it or where it might be."
"So let me get this straight, you guys feared this weapon so much that you hid knowledge of it from yourselves even? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea if the weapon should ever be used again?" Stork asked, his eye twitching at the prospect of impending doom.
"We kept the records safe in a spot only I know of so that no one could ever find out about the weapon. It is bad enough that the Stormweavers know about it, could you imagine the horror if Master Cyclonis had even heard legends about this device?" Vespos said in a quiet tone.
"Good point, let's head to Anki then to find those records." Piper said, trying to convey some sense of urgency to the discussion, particularly considering the subject under discussion.
"Piper is correct; we must not waste any more time since it is time we truly do not have to spare." Vespos agreed as he quickly strode off to where his skimmer was parked. "Follow me if you wish."
The changes so easily observed in Atmosia were less apparent in Cyclonia, owing in large part to the ambient atmospheric conditions that already existed. Despite this however, the sudden lack of clouds separating the Wastelands from the inhabitable areas of the Atmos had not gone unnoticed and had raised concern among the Talons, who were nervous about the way the creatures below watching them with feral hunger. In addition to this, Master Cyclonis also had another problem to deal with: the absence of Marrshal. True, the spymaster had gone missing for extended periods of time before, but never without telling her or for such an extended period of time. It was possible that he had been captured by the Sky Knights or killed by the death throes of Terra Rex, but she doubted either was a probability. Marrshal was too crafty to be captured for long, hated fighting outright and was too cautious to be killed in such a happenstance manner. There had to be a third option she had not considered, but for the life of her, Master Cyclonis could not figure out what that option might be, especially considering the time frame. Today had been an especially bad day, since her plans needed Marrshal to investigate the Great Expanse and associated phenomena in order to proceed.
"Greetings my lady…" a familiar voice suddenly said from off to her left and Master Cyclonis turned to find Marrshal standing there, looking as if he had not moved.
"Marrshal, so good of you to return, where have you been for the last three months?" Master Cyclonis demanded, her voice taking on a threatening undertone lest the spy provide an inadequate answer.
"I am so sorry Master Cyclonis, but I did what had to be done to save the Atmos from destruction, even if it means the end of Cyclonia…" the man said in a remorseful voice as Master Cyclonis glared at him.
"You what!?" Master Cyclonis said malevolently as a black aura of seething energy shrouded her. "You betrayed Cyclonia? What convinced you that you would survive such a foolhardy move?"
"Not what but who, Master Cyclonis." A new voice said from behind her and she whirled to face this new threat. To her surprise, there were four cloaked figures facing her, the one nearest her being the one that had spoken.
"And just who do you presume to be?"
"The Ageless Specter, at your service… Or rather, you are at my service." The Ageless Specter said darkly as he glided forward, surrounding Master Cyclonis with a black fog which pulled her aura of energy away from her and seemed to consume it. "Cyclonia will now serve my purposes directly; my designs shall be your orders as you have bound yourself to me through your choices."
"Serve you? I don't think so." Master Cyclonis said with a dismissive chuckle as she focused streamers of chaos crystal energy into a small sphere she held in one hand.
"So that is your choice? Pity you have decided to make this hard on yourself…" The Ageless Specter said idly as he nodded, sending a wave of black mist surging toward Master Cyclonis in response. Without hesitation, she fired the sphere of energy into the wave, dispelling it as the orb blasted through and slammed into the Ageless Specter himself. To her surprise however, the normally lethal attack did nothing besides tearing through her opponent, the expected result but not the expected reaction. Normally an opponent hit with such an attack would at least cry out in pain or flinch or fall over dead, but this Ageless Specter did none of that, instead standing there as if he were not missing most of his torso.
"Excellent opening move, I do hope that was not your strongest attack." The Ageless Specter said in a slightly mocking tone as his cloak bulged outward on both sides of his body and the missing portions of his form filled themselves in. As Master Cyclonis watched, the bulges metamorphosed into loose sleeves which covered arms encased in gothic style armor. "If that was your best attack, then this will be a very short courtesy fight."
"Far from it…" Master Cyclonis said ominously as several crystal pillars rose around her, transforming into crystalline soldiers as they rose. With a gesture, the eight statues stomped forward, raising their weapons to strike down the fool who dared to oppose their master. The Ageless Specter was unimpressed however and lashed out with a sword to cut through each of the statues in turn, leaving them to topple over in his wake. As the crystal behemoths collapsed, he turned to face the Cyclonian leader, pointing his blade at her as if to indicate that she was next. Rather than let herself lose the initiative though, Master Cyclonis generated a number of wispy tendrils around herself and directed them toward the cloaked figure. With inhuman speed, the Ageless Specter deflected each of the tendrils in turn, easily repelling as many as fifteen at once with no visible effort. In response, Master Cyclonis increased the fervor of her assault, accelerating the pace of her strikes as well as adding more tendrils to each attack wave, but nothing seemed to help or even faze her opponent as he easily compensated without expending any more effort.
Suddenly, the Ageless Specter vanished, appearing an instant later above her and lashing out with a wave of blood red energy that pulsed off his blade. Her shield easily dissipated the attack and she countered with several bolts of crimson energy to distract him as massive spines of firebolt crystal stabbed upward to impale him. Irritatingly though, the Ageless Specter somehow dodged horizontally, in defiance of the laws of gravity. Master Cyclonis had suspected that defeating him would not be so easy however and reacted quickly by redirecting the spines of crystal to cage the Ageless Specter in. With a sudden burst of focused effort, she forced the crystal to grow faster than the eye could follow, encasing her opponent inside a sphere of crystal in an instant. Without pause, she touched one of the spire bases near her, sending a pulse of energy through the firebolt spires that would instantly fry anything caught within the shell of crystal she had crafted. As the brilliant glow that had illuminated the sphere faded, she closed one of her hands into a fist, forcing the prison to contract to the size of a bowling ball and explode in a display of pyrotechnic fury. As the remaining shards of crystal fell to the floor they were accompanied by a viscous black fluid-like solid that poured onto the plating, the only remnants of her foe.
"That was an interesting fight, but it appears to be over." Master Cyclonis said as she turned to face the traitor and his cohorts. To her surprise however, Marrshal appeared to be the only one who was not wearing a placid expression on his face and his expression was one of remorse rather than fear. This was not exactly how she expected them to react to her slaying their leader… This meant that he must still be alive.
"Interesting tactic and, under normal circumstances, very lethal to anyone unfortunate enough to be caught by it." The Ageless Specter said suddenly as he appeared behind her, the black matter on the floor flowing into him as he called it back to him. As Master Cyclonis whirled to face this renewed threat, she suddenly found herself falling through the stormy skies outside of the tower, staring back at the massive hole that marked where she had blasted through the walls of the tower. Reacting on instinct, she reached out with her hands to grab onto something, anything that would halt her plummet and was mildly surprised when she grabbed onto a platform of floater crystals. Not one to question this fortuitous event, she quickly climbed onto the platform and whirled back to face where she had fallen from, certain that her opponent would pursue her. A moment later and her fears were confirmed as the wall she had crashed through exploded outward and the Ageless Specter shot outward. As soon as he was clear of the tower, he looked down at the Cyclonian leader, his eyes burning into her for an instant before he vanished again.
"How shameful…" he said as he reappeared next to her in a blur that quickly resolved itself into his physical form. "With the power you wield you could fly and yet you choose to stand on a disc of crystal? I see this will be a very difficult lesson for you to learn…"
Tired of his pompous tone already, Master Cyclonis lashed out with a dozen streamers of crimson-black energy, each burning with the power of a Dying Light crystal. In response, the Ageless Specter glided backward, his arms turning into a blur of motion as he used his swords to deflect and dispel each of her attacks; but Master Cyclonis would not let him frustrate her this time, she would maintain her focus. It was then that she noticed that each time his blades contacted her streamers there was a pulse of shield crystal energy combined a moment later with a flash of leecher crystal energy. As she continued to feel out the energies he was releasing, she had to fight to stop herself from smirking as that would undoubtedly tip him off as to her plan of action. While she kept up her furious assault with one hand, she quickly began crafting a new crystal in her other hand. As soon as it was finished, she brought her hands back together and focused the energies of her Chaos Crystal through the new crystal she had developed. The effect was immediate and impressive as dozens of lances of black energy shot forward, seeking out her opponent's swords and blasting through the shields to break each blade. Without pause, she launched another assault, this one directed right at the Ageless Specter. With inhuman speed though, the specter sidestepped her attack and shot in to grab her dark form, his eyes blazing with wrath as he punched her through the disk of crystal she was standing on. Once again in free fall, she focused on creating another platform to fight from, but he was too quick, appearing right next to her as she fell and punching her back into the main tower of Cyclonia. As she crashed through the outer armor and slammed through a Talon barracks, Master Cyclonis was suddenly very grateful that she was using most of her power to maintain her shield. Without it she certainly would have been turned to pulp by now. After a second, a foundation wall combined with her own efforts halted her crash course through the tower and Master Cyclonis stood up to find the Dark Ace and Night Aerrow looking down at her in confusion.
"Master Cyclonis…?" Night Aerrow started to say before her furious glare stopped him short.
"Arm yourselves, quickly!" Master Cyclonis shouted as both commanders pulled out their blades and ignited them, both turning to face the new tunnel she had plowed into the structure. As they did so, the Ageless Specter landed on the cusp of her entry point, looking as if he had done nothing more than step forward. With almost casual slowness, he brought up both his hands and held them straight out in front of him, his palms facing his opponents.
"Clever tactic to use a new crystal that could penetrate shields to destroy my previous swords… I would say you have earned the right to see my true blade, particularly now that you have allies to fight me with." The Ageless Specter intoned as a line of black fog formed across the span defined by his palms. As she watched, the fog quickly condensed into a one-handed sword with an obsidian blade and a black metal starburst hilt. Upon closer inspection, Master Cyclonis could make out wispy red ribbons of energy that seethed inside the blade itself, an unnerving effect that reminded her greatly of her own Chaos Crystal. "Ah, so you did notice…" The Ageless Specter said suddenly as his sword finished forming, "Your suspicions are correct, this blade is made from a kind of Chaos Crystal, although it is far different from the one you wield, as you shall find out soon enough."
"I have had enough of your arrogant posturing!" Master Cyclonis shouted as she focused energy from her Chaos Crystal into the piercing crystal she had developed. Linking with Night Aerrow and Dark Ace, she quickly told them to distract their opponent while she readied a series of crystal energy assaults to finish him off. He might be able to survive being crushed or having most of his body mass disintegrated, but she was not going to do anything so mundane. Since he seemed to be made of some kind of fluid or something, she would crystallize him instead, freezing him in place forever and circumventing his apparent immunity to physical damage. As she continued concentrating her attack, her two commanders charged forward to strike down the Ageless Specter. The specter countered by charging forward as well, blocking the Dark Ace's sword while a jagged monolith of shield crystal erupted from the plating to repulse Night Aerrow. While the Ageless Specter turned to concentrate on the Dark Ace, several spines of crystal erupted from the monolith and shot toward Night Aerrow, forcing the commander to go on the defensive as additional spines grew around where he blocked the individual attacks. Meanwhile, the Dark Ace was faring little better as the Ageless Specter launched a prolonged series of rapid tempo strikes against him, forcing him to focus all his attention on deflecting the attacks. Knowing they could not hold out much longer against this foe, Master Cyclonis pushed herself to the limits of her focus, trying to speed along the her attack's coalescence. After what seemed like a small eternity, she was satisfied that her attack was potent enough to achieve what she wanted and she rapidly raced forward and slammed the orb of crackling energy into the Ageless Specter, the added power of the piercing crystal allowing her to shred through his chest armor with ease. As the sphere slammed into the actual form of the Ageless Specter, a wave of brilliant light exploded out from him, hurtling the three Cyclonians backward into the nearest walls. As her eyes focused again, Master Cyclonis looked up in amazement to see the twisted, contorted form of her opponent, which had spikes of firebolt crystal sticking through the armor where her crystallization effect had created extra crystal. A look of sheer horror was frozen on his face, he obviously had never considered her enough of a threat to think that he might be injured, let alone lose. As she stood up, Master Cyclonis sighed and looked around before she went over to help Night Aerrow and the Dark Ace; although she remained alert for any trick from the Ageless Specter, just in case he was not actually dead.
"That wasn't too difficult…" Night Aerrow said as he was pulled to his feet by a levitation field Master Cyclonis produced using a levitation stone. "He must really not have been expecting that you would figure out a way around his immunity to physical damage."
"Let's not get over confident." Master Cyclonis admonished as she helped the Dark Ace to his feet. "Even if he is dead, he has four allies up in my throne room, including Marrshal."
"Marrshal betrayed us?" the Dark ace asked incredulously, unable to believe that someone who had done so much for Cyclonia would be a traitor.
"Yes, I did… Our world is more important than Cyclonia." Marrshal said suddenly as he appeared behind them. A moment later and he was joined by the other three figures Master Cyclonis had encountered in her throne room, the four forming a circle around the Cyclonian leadership.
"Humph, you chose the wrong side to save the world, the Sky Knights are doomed and your boss just died." Night Aerrow said as he pointed his blades at his former friend.
"It is rather grotesque is it not?" The Ageless Specter said suddenly as he appeared next to his frozen form, seeming to examine it in detail. With a sudden flash of red light from his eyes, the crystal doppelganger shattered into millions of fragments that fell to the plating in a crystalline rain. Having destroyed the mock up, he once again turned to face Master Cyclonis and her commanders, his sword reforming as he did so. In response, the four escorts he had brought with him backed off, retreating to the farthest points of the room. With a gesture from the Ageless Specter, a sudden whirlwind picked up that cleared away the debris from their previous engagement.
"How did you survive?" Master Cyclonis demanded; frustrated that not one but two lethal attacks had failed to kill the man. Everything she knew told her that he should not be standing before her now, yet here he was.
"You are familiar with the Oracle, yes?" The Ageless Specter responded, catching her off guard since she had not expected him to answer in any form.
"Yes…" she answered hesitantly, not particularly understanding how they related.
"We are the same in many aspects; she is a being formed of energy who was imprisoned within a statue and the Oracle Stone. My true body is the same, what you see here is a body I constructed for myself to reflect my self-image. In this universe, I have standardized myself to be made of crystal; allow me to show you…" He replied as he pulled off a glove, revealing a hand made of transparent indigo crystal shot through with shifting red and black energy ribbons. "It is worth noting that your melee weapons are useless, this type of crystal repels almost all other types of crystal, save the Chaos crystal you wear Master Cyclonis. Not that you would have noticed prior to this, since I have been able to hold your swords at bay with my own blade."
"What about the gel you turned into earlier?"
"Sorry, you have not earned the privilege of knowing that information yet, but if you can fight a little while longer I might tell you." The Ageless Specter said idly as he put his glove back on and pointed his sword at Master Cyclonis, "Come now, I have been enjoying this fight immensely, do not tell me you are out of tricks already?"
"As a matter of fact…" Master Cyclonis said ominously as she asked the Dark Ace and Night Aerrow to attack the Ageless Specter again to cover up her plan. As the two raced forward to engage him, she called the remaining fragments of the Duplication Crystal to her and began reassembling the crystal. True, it would not be as powerful since most of its energy had been lost as it was destroyed, but she could still create an army to overwhelm her opponent. With a flash of green light, she recreated the snowflake-like Duplication Crystal and activated it by channeling the energy from her Chaos Crystal through it, suddenly filling the room with a dozen duplicates of herself, each with its own Chaos Crystal. While two of the duplicates telekinetically pulled the Dark Ace and Night Aerrow out of harms way, the other ten versions of her smashed the Ageless Specter with massive beams of black energy. With inhuman speed, the Ageless Specter dodged out of the way however and tackled the real Master Cyclonis, somersaulting in midair to build up momentum as he drove her into the floor. As she lay in the crater created by her impact, Master Cyclonis thought desperately to herself, trying to figure out how he was doing all this without her picking up dozens of different crystals. Instead all she sensed was a low thrum of crystal energy that she had never encountered before.
"You are over-thinking this Master Cyclonis, after you, you do not question how Marrshal is able to shapeshift without the use of a chroma crystal or a cloaking crystal." The Ageless Specter said in a reproachful tone as two rings of crystal formed around one of his hands. Instantly, Master Cyclonis sensed a resonance between one of the rings and her Chaos Crystal at the same time she identified the smaller ring as a geyser crystal. What was he doing? She thought to herself as both crystals illuminated and black matter began flowing into the geyser crystal from the chaotic crystal. An instant later and her questions were answered as a massive fount of black gel slammed into her and enveloped her, crushing her like a vice. A moment later and a torrent of electricity washed over her, causing her consciousness to flicker under the combined assault. Before she could fully recover even, the Ageless Specter cracked his arm like a whip, an action that was amplified as it traveled down the stream of matter that connected the two of them and, as a result, smashed Master Cyclonis through the ceiling before slamming her back into the floor. As the gel slowly dissolved around her, Master Cyclonis coughed harshly, amazed that she was not suffering from internal injuries before she remembered that she technically did not have internal organs thanks to the blight that had consumed her body. As she slowly stood up again, her mind was racing to determine how she could possibly defeat this pest. Suddenly his earlier comment came back to her… he was like Marrshal! He had integrated crystal energies into his body, eliminating the need to use actual crystals to manifest their effects. However, he must have integrated some crystals of his own design or something to have all the abilities he had shown. In that case, perhaps she would need to integrate a crystal or two of her own, considering the state of her body it should be easy enough. Without hesitation, she plunged the Duplication Crystal into her chest and focused on absorbing its power, a task which she found to be amazingly easy. Suddenly she felt a kind of shift within her and she opened her eyes to find that she was now dressed in a black hooded cloak similar to the one the Ageless Specter wore, although hers had obsidian pauldrons connected to a series of spikes that surrounded and protected her head, similar to the spines of her hood when it unfolded. Not wanting to waste time considering these changes, she closed her eyes and focused, opening them a second later to find herself surrounded by at least three dozen replicas, each with a Chaos Crystal.
"It is about time you decided to really test your abilities." The Ageless Specter said confidently as he took up a fighting stance Master Cyclonis had never seen before. With a sudden blur, he disappeared and immediately took out three of her duplicates before he reappeared floating above the crowd and pointed down at the ground. In response, a massive shard of oblivion crystal erupted from the plating and started firing bolts of oblivion energy at the various clones. "Truthfully though, you are still far too slow."
"We'll see about that…" Master Cyclonis shot back as she brought an eruption crystal down onto the oblivion crystal, blowing both crystals up in a spectacular fireball. As her clones kept her opponent occupied, she focused on crafting together a portal crystal and a dozen velocity crystals, a combination which would allow her to move at increased speeds as well as create portals through which she could step to dodge incoming attacks. Without waiting, she integrated the new crystal into herself and activated it, vanishing in an instant as she accelerated to speeds faster than the eye could follow. As she raced into the Ageless Specter, she focused chaotic energy in both her fists, pummeling him with savage ferocity and sending the man flying through the wall behind him. As she straightened up however, he came flying at her, slamming her back through several walls and possibly a Talon before he punched her on ahead while blasting her with a blood red energy beam from his other hand. Just in time, Master Cyclonis raised a stronger shield that barely repulsed the attack, dissipating it in a crimson nimbus around her as her shield shattered like a glass sphere. Rather than risk another direct assault, she quickly manifested dozens of clones to attack the Ageless Specter, each using her most powerful skills, even though they were diluted by the presence of so many duplicates. As her clones battled the specter, she focused on weaving together a multitude of crystal energies that one would normally not mix, similar to an eruption stone and a slimer crystal. As she finished the new crystal, a wave of energy washed off the jewel, disintegrating nearby matter and absorbing it as energy, causing the yellow crystal to illuminate like a small star. With a gesture, she pushed her clones out of the way to clear a path to her target and activated the crystal. With a concussive blast, the gem shot out a small point of blinding light that quickly accelerated past mach ten before slamming into the Ageless Specter and blasting crystalline shards of his body across the chamber, the white hot fragments raining down and sizzling against the cool metal plating. As she collapsed from the effort, Master Cyclonis kept her eyes on the spot where her opponent had stood, hoping that he would not reform, fervently wishing that her crystal had been strong enough to affect the creature's real body. If one could even truly attack a being whose true form was supposedly pure energy. If not, she needed a new plan, perhaps something involving leecher crystals…
"An excellent assault there Master Cyclonis, it was almost powerful enough I think… Although something was missing, not exactly certain what, but I am sure you figure that out soon enough." The Ageless Specter said from behind her suddenly. As she whirled to face him, he swung down with his sword, forcing Master Cyclonis to sacrifice one of her duplicates to prevent him from cleaving her in twain. Two more clones quickly pulled her to safety as the force of the blade's impact blew the duplicate into shreds of energy that quickly dispersed. As she leapt to her feet, Master Cyclonis thought through every type of energy she had amassed to form the crystal, trying to think of what might be missing… Then it occurred to her: she had not added in any chaos energy from her own crystal, the incident with the Devastator had prompted her to cease adding in Chaos energy. In this case though, perhaps it was necessary if she were to defeat the Ageless Specter. In any case, she had nothing to lose; she concluded as she focused on integrating the energies of her own Chaos Crystal into the gem she had just created, trying to remain calm and focused even as she noticed her duplicates dissipating in droves. Comparing rates of progress, she almost immediately knew that the Ageless specter would finish off her defenders before she completed her crystal. Just as she reached that conclusion, it was confirmed as the specter blasted her remaining clones with a wave of crimson lightning and charged toward her, his blade raised for a killing blow as she flinched and closed her eyes. To her surprise however, the strike never landed and she looked up to see the Dark Ace and Night Aerrow blocking the Ageless Specter's sword, their arms visibly shaking with the strain of holding him off. With a wordless glance, Night Aerrow told her that they would not be able to hold him off for long though and Master Cyclonis quickly redoubled her efforts to finish enhancing her crystal.
"Pardon me, this turned into a private fight the moment she had her clones pull you two out of harm's way." The Ageless Specter said in an ominous voice as his eyes flashed with a red-orange hue. Immediately following his statement, the blade of his sword began to vibrate, as if his anger were resonating with the weapon itself. With a flash of light, the blade exploded into thousands of crystalline shards that tore through the Dark Ace and Night Aerrow, the force of the impacts throwing them back past Master Cyclonis and leaving her defenseless once more. Instead of attacking however, the Ageless Specter pointed the remaining hilt of his sword straight out, a black aura of energy surrounding him as he did so. In response, the scattered fragments of his blade flew off the floor and began reforging the blade in the same fashion she was able to repair her own staff when it was broken. Once the sword was reformed, the Ageless Specter stabbed it straight down into the floor before he looked back at Master Cyclonis.
"Pardon me, I have an interference issue to deal with…" the Ageless Specter said in a hollow voice as he suddenly appeared right in front of Master Cyclonis and grabbed her Cyclonian seal before she had a chance to react. As his eyes blazed like dying stars, the seal shattered, revealing the Chaos Crystal it had been hiding, which suddenly began to glow with a brilliant dark light. Behind her, both the Dark Ace and Night Aerrow suddenly screamed in pain and she struggled to see what had happened to them. The sight that greeted her however was far from what she had expected: black veins were spreading through their skin, following the routes of major veins as the blight spread across their bodies and paled their skin to a deathly blue-grey color. As soon as both stopped writhing in pain, the Ageless Specter released Master Cyclonis and palm-heeled her in the chest, smashing her into the wall in-between where her commanders lay. As she collapsed onto the floor between her friends, she looked down at the two, catching their wide open yet sightless stares, an expression she had only seen a few times before…
"They are not dead, if that is your concern." The Ageless Specter said in an oddly reassuring voice as he levitated Master Cyclonis back to her feet. "I merely infected them with the same chaotic matter that now serves as your body, it is a condition known as Spectrosis and I find it is quite effective at causing unimaginable amounts of pain, so much so that it shut down all their sensory neurons. About all they can do now is lie there and breathe… Well, their hearts and central nervous systems can still function too and I made sure that certain embarrassing situations are avoided, but beyond that, they are essentially rag dolls."
"How? You never even touched them." Master Cyclonis ground out as she worked to keep her growing outrage under control.
"I did not need to; your link crystals provided all the connection I needed. Is that not what they were for? To enable you to share your powers and abilities with all your commanders?" The specter replied in a slightly mocking tone as he walked slowly toward Master Cyclonis.
"This was never my intention." Master Cyclonis said quietly, more to herself than the Ageless Specter.
"Nonetheless, this is what is happening now; everything that has happened is a result of your decision to learn the secrets Magus Psi offered you. Consequences must follow every action; no one is immune to that existential constant, even those who can bend time are subject to it."
"So I take it Magus Psi is some little simpering minion of yours?" Master Cyclonis shot back, her patience for his lecture on philosophy wearing thin.
'Not quite.' A voice echoed in her mind as the other hooded and cloaked figure floated up and levitated the two Cyclonian commanders off the floor, holding them in less awkward positions. 'I am Psychos, right hand of the Ageless Specter and I was the one who acted as Magus Psi, the one who presented you with the choice.'
"Now, now Psychos, this is not the time to be discussing our machinations…" the Ageless Specter interrupted as he telekinetically pulled his sword out of the floor where it had been.
'Generally true, but I wanted her to think that her little diversionary tactic to give herself time to finish her crystal had been successful.' Psychos commented as he backed away, pulling the commanders with him so they would be out of harm's way.
"So true." The Ageless Specter said as Master Cyclonis looked at them in shock; surprised that their overconfidence had been a ploy to make her think she had distracted them. She quickly suppressed that instinctive reaction however and activated her newly finished crystal, firing a blazing point of light at the specter. Unlike last time however, the Ageless specter sidestepped and appeared above her, bringing both hands down in a blow that drove her through the floor and into a large chamber below. Using her powers, she created a ring of levitation crystals around her and used them to halt her descent, giving her a bird's eye view of the arena where the Talons watched fighters battle for entertainment. Even though the arena was currently occupied, none of the Talons looked up to see the source of the disturbance, instead remaining frozen in their places.
"What in the…?" Master Cyclonis asked as she floated over to the frozen crowd and waved a hand in front of the Talons' faces, getting no reaction out of any of them.
"Psychos used his unique abilities to freeze their higher brain functions, they are incapable of thought, not that your average Talon is really all that capable in the first place…" The Ageless Specter answered as he floated down through the hole Master Cyclonis had entered through. "There is no one to help you Cyclonis."
"Then I'll just have to take you down myself." Master Cyclonis said as she whirled back to face the Ageless Specter and fired another blast of energy from her crystal. As predicted, the Ageless Specter dodged, but Master Cyclonis was ready for it this time as she shot the bolt with a streamer of crimson energy, causing both to detonate in a brilliant pyrotechnics display. The blast knocked the Ageless Specter back through an empty section of the bleachers around the arena and Master Cyclonis wasted no time in capitalizing on this, firing several additional blasted into the hole he had left. To her surprise though, nothing happened: there were no explosions or brilliant illuminations that would indicate that the energy spheres had detonated. A moment later and she had her answer as to why when a massive sphere of darkness emerged from the chasm in the benches. The sphere slowly dissolved, revealing the Ageless Specter, although he now looked different from before. While his main body was unchanged, he now had ten massive elongated blades of oblivion crystal floating just behind him, five on each side. The blades on each side were mirrors of the other side and on each side the blades formed a vaguely wing like design with the bottom blade being the shortest and the blades growing longer progressively as they ascended. Connecting the blades was a halo of oblivion crystal that also served to frame the specter's upper body.
"Do you like it? It is my Dark Oracle form, something I had not intended to show you originally, but I figured that you deserve it for putting up such a great fight." The Ageless Specter said nonchalantly as the crystal wings bent around him to form a kind of protective shell with the sharp blade tips pointing downward. Suddenly, both wings whipped back into their original shapes, sending arcs of violet energy hurtling toward Master Cyclonis. Not wanting to find out what would happen if one of those arcs hit her, she quickly created a portal for herself to escape through, appearing an instant later above the Ageless Specter. Without hesitation, she rained dozens of tiny explosive stars on the Ageless Specter, enveloping him in a multitude of explosions. As she watched however, those explosions slowly began swirling around where the Ageless Specter would be, flattening out into a spinning disk of energy as they were drawn inward into the same sphere of darkness she had seen earlier. As the last remnant of the incandescent disk vanished, the Ageless Specter blasted out of the darkness and grabbed Master Cyclonis by the neck before hurtling her into the arena floor with meteoric force. Without pause, he then smashed into her, driving her deeper into the crater she had been lying in. In retaliation, Master Cyclonis blasted him with the full might of her new star crystal, the individual pin points of light fusing into a massive beam of power that carried the Ageless Specter out of the hole and into the ceiling above. Momentarily free, Master Cyclonis climbed out of the hole only to be grabbed by a massive torrent of black matter that extended from one of the Ageless Specter's sleeves. In a blur of movement, the Ageless Specter spin around, whipping Master Cyclonis around the room and slamming her through the stands encircling the room, sending Talons flying in every direction as she collided with them. When she finally stopped, she was enveloped in another deluge of the gel-like matter that threatened to consume and chock her. As the dark matter closed over her, she desperately sought a means of escape from this trap. Without some form of matter to fuel it, her crystal was useless and the matter surrounding her could not be used as the fuel, she had already tried. Perhaps if she used her Chaos Crystal to create crystals around her she could use those instead, she thought with a sudden start as she quickly enacted her plan, only to find a moment later that no energy could traverse the matter she was encased in. Perhaps if she formed the crystals around the crystal itself… provided she did not integrate them, it should work. As she tried it however, she felt the matter around her shift, tearing away the crystal as she formed it.
"How can I escape?" Master Cyclonis asked in frustration as she gave up trying to create more crystals. "The only way to power this thing is if I incorporate it into… myself…" She continued as realization hit her. Why did she need to subject her crystals to possible damage when she could just form them inside her and channel the energy as she saw fit? With her mind made up, she quickly integrated the star crystal into herself and created additional crystals inside herself to power it. She smiled to herself as crackling golden energy formed around her hands, quickly building to critical under her direction…
An instant later and the mass of gel that had been encasing Master Cyclonis blasted outward, propelled along by the concussive explosion produced by her attack. Having sensed the building energy, the Ageless Specter had already backed off to a safe distance, watching in amusement as the wave of black matter rained down, coating the floor in a layer of darkness. An instant later however, Master Cyclonis streaked up through the dark 'rain' and tackled the Ageless Specter, driving him up through the ceiling of the chamber and through several floors until the two burst out into the skies around Cyclonia. Unfortunately, the Ageless Specter did not take kindly to this and punched Master Cyclonis in the face, sending her hurtling back into the arena like a meteor crashing into a planet. With incredible speed, he appeared in her path and slammed her straight downward, sending her crashing into the same crater she had climbed out of earlier.
"I will admit, your combination of velocity and portal crystals does make you incredibly fast by the standards of this world, but I am an Oracle, time is meaningless to me, particularly so since I know how to make a crystal that allows me to step through time. No matter how fast you are, you are still limited by time." The Ageless Specter said as he landed next to the crater where she lay. "And speaking of limits, you are nearing yours; you are not used to using your powers in this fashion nor are you used to such prolonged intense usage."
"I will not give up, haven't you learned that? That is why Cyclonia will be victorious in the end." Master Cyclonis said triumphantly as she climbed to her feet and turned to face the Ageless Specter.
"That will be quite enough; it is now time to show you why you never stood a chance in this fight." The Ageless Specter said suddenly as he appeared behind her and locked her in an arm bar that prevented her from moving. With a flash, a wave of crimson energy exploded off the Ageless Specter, searing the Cyclonis duplicates she summoned to attack him into nonexistence. "Your role in this will not be denied, particularly when you have embraced it in the past with such enthusiasm."
"What do you mean?"
"When Magus Psi gave you the Chaos Crystal we knew that you would use it to create any crystal you needed, integrating its power into yourself. We then ensured that you would lose Night Aerrow and Dark Piper before we gave you a means to bring them back permanently. When you stepped into that other universe to recover them, the Chaos Crystal's full powers were awakened and consumed you, replacing your normal body with a Specter body and fully Specterizing you, all according to my plan." The Ageless Specter said confidently as he released Master Cyclonis. "All this was done to provide a willing puppet who would act on my behalf, for I am King of the Specters as well as the Dark Oracle, all Specters obey me if I so choose and right now you must decide if you will serve willingly or by force. What will you choose?"
"I am Master Cyclonis, leader of Cyclonia; I bow to no one else."
"Very well… Kneel." The Ageless Specter said in an odd tone of voice and before she knew it, Master Cyclonis found herself bowing to the cloaked figure. Rage exploded inside her and she fought with all her might to stand up straight, but to no avail, her body simply would not respond.
"What did you do to me?"
"As I explained, all Specters, even specterized humans, must obey me if I so choose it. Granted, I have never had to use this ability before since there has never been a need, but you are powerful and determined. Admirable traits really, except your disobedience would ensure the doom of this world." The King of Specters responded as he helped Master Cyclonis to her feet. "And that is something The Four asked me to prevent."
"I will not give up you know, I will ensure that you fail in your so called mission to save our world." Master Cyclonis shot back, not willing to let him have the final word.
"You know nothing of my plans; in fact, the only way you can thwart my plan is to let me win. In defeat I succeed in my plans and if I win I can force everyone to do as I wish, ensuring that my plans are successful anyway." The Ageless Specter intoned without a trace of overconfidence or arrogance in his voice, just the flat tone of someone factually stating a universal truth. Somehow though, Master Cyclonis found that far more frightening than any ominous threat or eerie proclamation…
Author Note: Please check my profile for the latest news on story progress, I have now updated it to include a news section.