Endgame- Part Two: Divided they fall.
A brief overview of this part of the story- Jimmy and the others go their separate ways to deal with Eustace's attacks, as Carl pursues Zaxert Huterx across the galaxy; Libby encounters the evil Nick Dean once more, and Jimmy and Cindy head to the Sanctuary Base, only to find that evil is never far behind.
I'm so sorry, I just couldn't find my inspiration and focus for this chapter; but I'm back and better than ever. Here's the first chapter of part two!
Chapter One- Parting of the ways.
The ship was designed from chrome, its interior large, with the constant sound of whirring mechanisms as it restored its occupant to full health. Computer screens read every vital sign in Zaxert's body, the shimmering blue light from the machines scanning for any serious injuries. The alien bounty hunter had been forcibly tranquilized, the laboured sound of his breathing alerted the machines and it scanned his lung. After repairing any major damage to the Culat, the ship docked inside the mother ship, before awaking Zaxert from his heavy sleep and informing Nick desired his presence.
Ignoring the snigger's of the officers he passed, Zaxert strolled through the mother ship quickly and angrily, well aware that rumours of his defeat would have been spurned like flames by a gale. After shooting one Gudas for looking at him twice, Zaxert entered the palace of Nick Dean's personal quarters where he stood before the human awaiting judgement on his failure.
"Neutron is still alive, the resistance is still strong, you have failed Zaxert." Nick said softly, not taking his eyes off the bounty hunter for a moment. His dark and emotionless stare analysing the alien just as well as the medical machines had.
"He shall not be alive for much longer, I have already formulated a new plan. This time Neutron is finished." Zaxert challenged Nick's gaze with his own, but he took his eyes away after a moment.
"Lord Eustace has decided that you are no longer fit to destroy Jimmy, he has left Neutron, and the Earth, to me for destroying at my own leisure." Zaxert was incensed, he had nearly succeeded, he had obliterated millions of soldiers, yet he was still treated as though these accomplishments were worthless!
"He is not an easy adversary to defeat, even you might suffer a loss at Jimmy Neutron's hands." The bounty hunter stated coldly, knowing he had overstepped his boundaries and could be struck down by the human machine at any second. Instead of killing Zaxert, Nick instead smirked knowingly, and stayed his hand from the laser gun hidden in his pocket.
"I have encountered Jimmy and his little band before, and I swore that I would meet them again in battle. I have spent time among them; their moves shall be easy to predict and manipulate to my own advantage. As for suffering at his hands, one of his friends once left their mark on me. I in turn have marked one of them, I shall not be marked again." Nick's usually soft voice became angry as he talked about where Sheen had struck him long ago, and his blood stained hand strayed to the scar left on his cheek.
"I only require one more chance, to regain my honour." Zaxert pleaded, kneeling down and clasping his hands together. He was begging, something that he had never done before. Nick regarded this unusual event with some pleasure, he often reduced people to such a pathetic state. It was something he was an expert at.
"Very well Zaxert, but you may only choose one to wipe out. Choose wisely now, only pick the one you want to kill with your own hands. I get the rest."
"Weezer." Zaxert said not so much to Nick as to himself, eyes filling with a hate beyond hate, he would kill Carl Wheezer.
"Very well then, you may kill Carl Wheezer. The rest are mine." Nick's eyes sparkled unnaturally, evil gleaming in the dead pupils. He had expected as much from Zaxert, he had known that Wheezer would be the target. Zaxert was too predictable. Soon he would attack Libby Folfox, soon he would have his revenge on Jimmy, soon the Earth would fall, soon...
Carl Wheezer rocked back forth in a chair, alone with his thoughts. Carl was concentrating on a picture of himself as a child, with his mother and father around him. They had been the perfect family unit, slightly dysfunctional he knew, but still to him; it had been perfect. He looked into his eyes when he had been so young, and saw something there that had disappeared three years before. Innocence. He had been innocent, blissfully unaware of the evil that had so fiendishly enveloped him in its grasp; but Desmond Hunt had introduced to him to the shadows. He was the one, the one who had murdered his father right in front of him for fun. That was when Carl had realised the terrible truth about the universe, no matter how many times you fought evil, you could never win. There was no defeating the darkness, eventually it swallowed you whole. Succumb to the shadows, or perish at their hands. There was no choice there. There never had been. Carl was no longer innocent, he was longer stupid, he knew that eventually he would die at Eustace's hand. Somehow, he would die. Old age had been deemed too good for Carl, he knew that his only way out of life was to be killed. It was his destiny, and Carl welcomed it. He welcomed death, everything had been taken from him, what the point in living for nothing? He had fought the war for Sarah, for the memory of his father, because he wouldn't allow Eustace to destroy everything that people had worked so hard for. He wouldn't allow other families to suffer like his. But now he knew, there was no hope. He had known when Zaxert had survived, when Sarah had died, what was the point of fighting for nothing? Carl closed his eyes to prevent a tear escaping, he knew it was only a matter of time, death had come for him. And I'll let him take me. Carl thought desperately.
King Goobot docked the ship at the Sanctuary Base, the base which the resistance had developed as a secondary command centre in case of a serious attack on Earth. Many other races were here, even whole families fled the massacre of their worlds to come to the Sanctuary Base. The inside was normal, metal machines raced around, registering identities, tending minor wounds, directing folk to the infirmary on the lower deck for more serious injuries. The League had intended to head to Earth, but the planet had issued a crisis warning and said that all people heading to Earth were to head for Sanctuary instead. Tee and the others had left to find someway of communicating with Jimmy, but Goobot had voted to remain on the observation deck and look at Earth. They were far away from the planet, and invisible. Neutron was transmitting a signal that prevented the station from being registered on any scopes, or on any sound wave generators. The base didn't exist, or at least it didn't as far as Eustace was concerned. King Goobot gazed sadly at the Earth, the others hadn't noticed, but he had. An Oblivion Ship. It was on the edge of the solar system, but it would be within firing range in just over twenty-four-hours. Nobody else knew it, but he did. The Earth was doomed.
Jimmy, Carl, Cindy, and Libby were all sat in a large room together, monitoring transmissions from the soldiers as they came in. Everyone but Carl was tending some sort of wound, the Necroy had left its mark and in more ways than one. Nobody mentioned it, but the atmosphere had become darker, heavier, more deadly. Everybody was tired, almost wishing to die just to be rid of the responsibility of saving the universe. Then the wall exploded.
Cindy was the first to react, nimbly dodging to the other side of the room whilst ignoring the excruciating pain in her legs, and she fired a shot at their assailant. The blast halted in midair, and Cindy realised with a sinking feeling that they were trapped in a force-field. Everybody except Carl was frozen inside a prison, able to hear what was happening outside the field, but could not communicate to those outside it.
Carl stood up slowly, grimacing as the dust came to settle to reveal their masked attacker. Behind and around him, Jimmy, Cindy, and Libby didn't move, as if they were paralysed. Two machines followed the assailant loyally, and they wheeled in a projector before Carl. The hood came down, and Zaxert Huterx was revealed smirking from behind it.
"Hello Carl."
A flood of emotions flowed through Carl, but he only took a single step to the side and drew his weapon. He kept his gaze focused on Zaxert the entire time, never taking his steel stare away from the bounty hunter.
"What do you want?"
"Only to show you this." Zaxert clapped his scaly green hands and the projector turned on, a planet the picture it showed. The world was steel, cold and heartless, it bore the signs of one of the many worlds Eustace had captured and converted.
"This is Nudav, a slave world controlled by Eustace." Carl noted the lack of "Lord Eustace," and rather Zaxert's use of the tyrant's first name.
"On this planet, your mother is held captive." The world stopped turning, and silence reigned.
"Nadav has an extraordinary erratic orbit, unless take you there, you have no chance of finding it."
"What do you propose?" The smirk on Zaxert's evil face grew wider, revealing more sparkling, sharp teeth as it did so. He turned, and in one fluid moment shot both the machines.
"I've not come to challenge you for Eustace, but my own gain. Somebody will come to deal with your friends soon enough on Eustace's behalf, but I'm not interested in that. I propose a battle to the death in space itself, a battle not on your primitive world, but on Nudav. If you win, you gain your mother's freedom, and I die. Or you can stay here, and help your friends. You have two minutes before the force-field deactivates, I shall not be here when that happens. Choose Wheezer, this is your final chance."
Carl couldn't believe what Zaxert was saying, part of him accepted it as the truth, after all his mother's remains had never been discovered, but another more cynical part of him said that the bounty hunter was lying to lure him into a trap. Still he had to choose. Carl cast his mind back to not an hour before, how he had wished to be dead, how he had wanted death to come for him. His pleas had been answered. The Reaper approached, reaching out with its skeletal hand, beckoning for Carl to join it in the dark shadowy afterlife of death. Zaxert was his destiny. They were enemies, one could not live while the other breathed, they could only die by each other's hands, much like Jimmy and Eustace. Zaxert was the end. Carl accepted his impending death, he welcomed death, he chose death.
"I accept your challenge." The words were bitter in Carl's mouth, there was no turning back now. From this moment on, he was truly alone. Zaxert was gone, already attempting to jump in to space while he had the chance. Sighing miserably, Carl turned to face Jimmy. There was no need for words between the two of them now, they both understood. Part of him realised that this would be the last time he ever spoke to his best friend, that he should have told him there and then what Jimmy meant to him. He didn't. It was too hard, he couldn't even talk for fear of bursting into tears. Instead he turned his back on his friends, and walked away. He knew they would try to stop him, but it was too late. The Reaper already had hold of him.
The force-field deactivated, and Jimmy sprinted as fast he could after his friend. A flood of tears ran from his shining blue eyes, he cried out his friend's name in the hope of reaching him.
"Carl! Wait!" He quickened his pace, making to the hangar in time to see a ship blast off out of the atmosphere. It was over. Jimmy collapsed onto his knees, unable to believe it. Carl was gone, he had left them. The group was finished.
"Jimmy?" Cindy sat by him, her face stained with tears as well. She understood why Carl had left, but that didn't lessen the blow.
"I'm leaving." Libby said quietly, and Cindy spun around quickly.
"What?" She barked, hoping that her friend had not said what she thought she had.
"Zaxert said that somebody was coming to Earth, I can reach them in space and stop them. I can make sure that they never reach them Earth."
"We can handle them when they come!" Jimmy protested, flinging himself at Libby's knees. He couldn't bare to lose two of his friends in one day.
"No Jimmy, that's a lie. I have to go, you know that. Besides, I have a feeling that I'm meant to find this ship and person, whoever they are." Libby fingered her scar, a gift from Nick three years before.
"You think its Nick don't you?" Cindy whispered, finally comprehending why it was time for Libby to leave them behind. Her friend only nodded in response.
"I know it's him, I don't know how, I just do. I need to face him alone Cindy, I've got to leave. Forever."
"Then go." Cindy muttered, tears stinging her eyes. Libby smiled slightly, and hugged her friends. It was the parting of the ways, the group had to go their separate ways to fight evil. They all had their own destinies, and now each called them.
"What now?" Cindy inquired as Libby flew away. and Jimmy wrapped his arm around her and smiled shakily.
"We head to Sanctuary, I feel like there's something there for us. It isn't our time yet, when the final comes, Eustace will find us. I'm sure of it." As the final ship departed Earth, each friend silently reflected on the others. Fate had torn them away from each other, now the final moves were about to be made. Jimmy was sure of it. Eustace was coming. His destiny approached. The Reaper was calling his siren call of death...