Infernum

Alex had just hung up the phone, one more call on a short list of family to say goodbye to when Hope asked him if he was ready to go.

“Almost Hope, just one quick call to my friend Beau and that should be that,” he said. Alex picked up the phone one more time and began to dial Beau’s phone number. Just as he heard the first ring Hope placed her finger on the hook, hanging it up.

“We have to go, Alex… We have to go now!” she shouted.

Alex looked up and saw her pointing out his dining room window; as he looked outside, he dropped the phone receiver as he saw six men all dressed in white armor appear through a porthole on his front lawn.

Hope instinctively opened up a porthole directly in front of her and shouted at Alex.

“Let’s go!”

Alex ran toward her using his ribbons to move faster than his legs could normally carry him. He got through the porthole and Hope was quickly behind him. As her ribbons went through the porthole it began to close behind her; that is until another gold ribbon appeared. The ribbon belonged to Probatus who saw the two attempting to flee and shot his ribbon forward to hold the porthole open. It all happened so fast Alex didn’t even remember activating his armor before he was struck by a ribbon through the open porthole knocking him down to the ground with such a force it took his breath away.

“Alex!” Hope shouted as she reached for him.

The ribbon that struck Alex retracted through the porthole as the six elites stepped through. Alex staggered to his feet looking around the barren landscape that he did not recognize, although the sand and sagebrush reminded him of the Nevada Desert near his house.

As Hope reached for him, she saw a slight movement out of the corner of her eye; it was Aiolus appearing from nowhere as his armor camouflaged him so well. Just as fast as he appeared, Aiolus struck her with his ribbons in the form of a giant hammer making a sound that would render the loudest thunder crack jealous. Hope flew through the air slightly stunned from the blow, her ribbons quickly extended out behind her to ease her fall, landing her upright, ready to fight.

Alex saw Aiolus strike Hope and he quickly returned fire. He shot his ribbons out towards Aiolus with everything he had, only to miss him as he sidestepped through a porthole exiting just behind Alex. Aiolus crouched down briefly then exploded upward striking Alex with an uppercut enhanced by his ribbons shadowing his arm, hitting Alex in the back of his head and knocking him forward; he flipped twice before finally landing face down some 30 feet away. Ariston approached him with a calm, confident walk and used his ribbons to put Alex on his feet.

“You are a disgrace, Gabriel; you and your entire treasonous house will be cleansed from existence,” Ariston told Alex, mistaking him for Gabriel.

Hope looked over to Alex and saw that Ariston had him; she quickly opened a small porthole in front of her and punched as hard as she could through it, striking Ariston in the side of the head some 40 feet away through the porthole. Ariston dropped Alex and nearly fell over as his ribbons caught him. Hope began to run toward Alex when she saw Daire and Danu running toward her from the side. Daire took Danu’s hands and quickly spun her around while he opened a porthole to Hope’s location. Danu let go of Daire and flew into the porthole feet first knocking Hope over as his feet made contact with her side.

Not entirely sure what to do, Alex wrapped his ribbons around him forming a large circle about 10 feet across. He electrified the circle with every ounce of electricity his ánimam could muster as he began spinning around like a top. A closer look at his ánimam would have shown trillions of tiny nanites breaking up atoms and absorbing their energy as they formed the large circle around Alex, the energy was enhanced vastly by his armor as it made its way toward the end of his ribbons, building up a huge amount of energy as it went. As Alex spun around and the charge of electricity built up on the surface of his metallic ribbons a ring of light formed along the ribbons creating a brilliant glow of white light. Alex had his sights fixed on Danu as she had just struck Hope with a powerful blow. Alex began to charge at Danu, ribbons still spinning; he intended to strike her with everything his ánimam had.

As he drew near Danu, Daire watched near helplessly from the distance. Alex was in striking range of Danu when he jumped in the air and let his ribbons go, they flung out away from Alex losing their circular shape and forming a long spear that pulsated with all the energy Alex possessed. As the large spear made its way to its mark, a porthole opened up between Danu and Alex; on the other side was Daire who had opened the porthole to take the hit for Danu. Alex’s spike traveled through the porthole and struck Daire in the chest with the power of a hundred bolts of lightning. The spike touched Daire’s chest plate causing it to crack open, instantly allowing the spike to enter Daire’s body piercing through his heart and out his back. As Alex withdrew his ribbons from Daire’s body, the porthole closed and Alex, Hope, and the other five elites looked over at Daire just in time to watch him look down at a gaping hole in his chest still smoking from the heat where his heart should be and then collapse dead in front of them all, falling first to his knees then flat on his face as his injury still smoldered.

Shock most accurately described the scene as even the mighty Probatus could not believe what he had just seen. The armor of the royal guard was so impenetrable that there had never been a single occasion when it had failed, through countless battles across the galaxy no guard had ever fallen in the line of duty while wearing the lords’ armor, and now one lay dead at their feet soaked in a pool of his own blood still quivering from his nerves dying.

Danu looked over at Daire. “Noooooo!” She screamed as loud as she could, feeling a crushing sensation in her chest as if it was her that had just fallen; this was her twin, her amalgamate and her best friend all in one and as he lay motionless on the ground a piece of Danu had died with him.

Before noticing Daire, Coeus had made his way to Alex through a porthole, careful not to alert him to his presence, and, taking advantage of his distraction, struck Alex just under his chin with a powerful blow causing him to fall backward and lose consciousness. Coeus looked over at Daire and as quickly as the others went into shock at the sight. Hope recovered quickly, jumping to her feet and seeing Alex lying on the ground. Fearing the worst, she ran to him as fast as she could and picked him up with her ribbons. She opened a porthole with Alex in her arms and jumped through with all haste escaping from the grasp of the elite guards before they could regain their senses.

Probatus, still in shock, saw Hope go through the porthole and out of instinct he shot his ribbon outward toward it to keep it open, but as it approached the porthole, it closed at almost the same instant Probatus’ ribbon drew near. Probatus watched helplessly as the porthole closed next to his fallen comrade, and all he could think about was how he was going to make those traitors pay for their crimes.