Adventures of John: Heart of the Void
Chapter 1: Voice of the Void
"Captain!" Jack shouted, climbing up the steps to the helm. "How far are we from our destination?"
"We're getting close," I told him. "It won't be long before we arrive. Are you ready to face whatever it is we will find there?"
Before he could answer, a voice rang out from all around us. "THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU. YOU RUN TO YOUR END. ALL THAT AWAITS YOU IS EMPTINESS. YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU LOVE WILL BE CONSUMED UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT. LEAVE NOW IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY WHAT LITTLE TIME YOU HAVE LEFT."
I laughed. "So the Void finally speaks. I wondered when you would find your voice. And no, I don't plan on turning back now. I'm going to find your heart and bring an end to your schemes."
"SO BE IT. YOU WILL FAIL, ADVENTURER. ALL THAT YOU LOVE WILL BE DEVOURED AND ALL OF CREATION WILL END. THIS POINTLESS CYCLE WILL FINALLY BE OVER, AND ALL THAT SHALL REMAIN IS VOID. " With that the voice faded, leaving us with the Void's regular level of creepy nothingness.
"Are you bloody mad?!" Jack exclaimed. "You just threatened the Void itself mate!"
"I know," I replied. "Did you listen to it? It's frightened of us. Why else would it even bother to speak to us? The Brotherhood of the Void is destroyed and Shade is waging a war within himself. The Void's most powerful weapons are gone, so it threatened us in an effort to scare us away. Besides, we are already going to attack its heart, I don't think we can make it any madder than it already is."
. . . . .
I let Jack have the helm, as I was in desperate need of sleep. There may not be time inside the Void, but I hadn't slept since several hours before finding that last Brotherhood base. I drifted off to sleep quickly, but it was not restful.
I dreamt that my crew and I were at the Heart of a Void, a swirling vortex of nothing, like a black hole, except unimaginably worse. Millions of Void demons swarmed us, covering every inch of my ship. At the beginning my creation energy shone bright, burning the creatures before they could even come into contact with it, but that did not last long. Under the sheer amount of Void energy pummeling it, my creation energy began to fade. All of us fought bravely, cannons firing away, Wiznet even managing to control some of the creatures with his own Void magic, but it was not enough. My creation energy flickered and vanished, and we were consumed. With us gone, the rest of creation fell apart, and all that remained was Void.
. . . . .
I woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. That was no ordinary dream. Much like the dream I had after confronting the alternate version of Elsa, this was a vision of the future. We were not enough. I was not enough. Despite all that I had done, all that I had gone through, I still could not defeat the Void alone. My crew was good and true, but they would not be enough to help either. I needed more, or all was lost.
I conjured up a cell phone and prayed that I remembered the number correctly. I typed in the number, and a miracle happened: he picked up. "Doctor," I said. "I need your help."