THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

“Well! Look at all of you.” Pt’ron looked down upon Critock and his group with a smirk. “I’m honored that after all this time I still merited an entourage from the mighty Marconian Empire. How many?” He sneered at them, Tom hovering behind Critock even though Pt’ron’s human eyes wouldn’t be able to see him. “How many soldiers and loyal servants did the Qua’roti send for me? What am I worth after all this time? I see you, ‘Kyle’. Who else?”

Critock stepped forward, his voice not quite sounding like the teenager’s but still masking his identity. “Just me.”

Pt’ron scoffed. “Really? One lonely hunter all the way across the universe? Which means…” He started laughing again. “You’ve…had nothing to rely on but humans? This lot? I’m amazed you’re still alive! HA!” He paced back and forth across the top of the stair. “So, how is the Empire these days? Alpha still running the show?” Critock didn’t answer, nor did Pt’ron expect one, and continued with another question. “So, what do you think of my home?”

Critock couldn’t help himself. “Your…home?”

“Well, I’ve been here for a thousand cycles…Oh hell, TWO THOUSAND YEARS! I’ve fought so hard to keep from going native. But it’s not been bad. Oh sure, the people and science and religion and everything are so rudimentary they might as well still be monkeys for all they’re worth, but there is a certain charm it takes a hundred years or so to figure out.”

Phelps was seething, and had to yell out. “I like to think we’ve worth a little more than a monkey! Considering you had to pretend to be one of us for so long!”

Pt’ron rolled his eyes. “Pathetically easy. I’d assume ‘Kyle’ here wasn’t exactly top of his class. First rule. Blend in means you actually try and blend in. Don’t pick a fight with the biggest bully in the school your first day in. A spy you are NOT!”

“Why him! Why Daniel!” Shanna yelled angrily at their adversary.

“Why indeed? Why not. Oh, I’ve been so many different people! Done so many things in so many lives. Did you know how easy it is to maneuver yourself into power on this planet? Just control the right person and presto!” He slowly started walking down the stairs, as Critock and the group held their ground. “I’ve been dictators, I’ve been Presidents, I’ve been soldiers and I’ve been slaves. And now when the time has finally come, there’s no place quite as easy to hide as a child.”

“You’re sick.” Critock spat.

“I’m smart! There’s a difference, my dear hunter. Children here are supposed to be different from one day to the next. So many emotions and hormones and medication running through their bodies. So easy to manipulate. Nobody notices a bully changing his stripes to become respected. Why should they? It’s ‘all part of growing up!’ Nobody actually tells you what that’s supposed to mean, so you can get away with anything! There’s no discipline, no order, just a loosely controlled chaos held together by strings of respect that those in power have in no way earned!” He stopped on the middle step, and Shanna let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding. “My God, it’s beautiful here.”

“So you come here and hide with your little toys. It’s done! Why not leave!” Phelps yelled up, already realizing that his life was forfeit when faced with these otherworldly beings.

“Well, you kind of get used to the smell. I’ve been here a long time. Even with TWO Shards, the Empire only sends one man to face me. Or woman. I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are under there.” Critock stood silently, only giving his old friend a hateful glare. “Nobody out there will appreciate me, at least as I am now. So I will rule. I’ll bring this blight of a planet up to a scale it wouldn’t reach in another million years! This world will become the engine of my new Federation. We’ll gather the dregs of the universe, those the almighty Marconians have forgotten in their quest to be the only power worth anything. And then the Empire will fall! The Mandragora will fall! The new order of the Universe will begin right here, just as it was in the great War of the Shards!!”

“Except you’ve tried all that before.” Critock stepped forward, cutting Pt’ron off. “The great Pt’ron, ruler of all he surveys! It’s a nice fantasy, and would be a hell of a leap considering you started off as a simple traitor.”

“What?” Pt’ron fixed his gaze upon the Marconian.

“So that’s the future. Here’s your past, Pt’ron, unless you’ve been here so long you’ve forgotten it. You were a simple soldier in the Marconian Empire that literally flew too close to the sun. You’re a brainwashed traitor to everything you have ever held close to you, and it was always because of you that you lost everything, no matter how much you wanted it to be someone else’s fault!” Phelps and Shanna were forgotten as Critock moved forward to the stairs.

Pt’ron placed one foot on a step slightly higher from where he stood. “Who are you?”

“Oh, shouldn’t the great Pt’ron know? Shouldn’t he know everything? He’s got the Shards after all. The most powerful things in the universe! Unless they’re still dormant. Then they’re simple, pretty rocks.”

“WHO! WHO ARE YOU!”

“For those rocks you betrayed an empire, and destroyed a friendship that would have defeated anything!”

Pt’ron retreated up the stairs. “WHO!”

“For those rocks you killed billions! You hurt your friends!”

“WHOOOOO!!!”

“For those…You killed her.”

Pt’ron stopped retreating, and looked at the boy a few steps below him with a sudden look of realization and hatred. “No….”

Critock reached behind him and pulled out the Sword of Kon, it igniting as he swung it around and placed it between him and his enemy. “You know my name.”

“NOOOOOO!!!” Pt’ron had reached into his pocket and retrieved his ice weapon, which he quickly and frantically pulled out and fired at Critock, who held the sword in front of him as if a shield. The blast harmlessly ricocheted off of the sword into the floor, which formed an icy patch.

Critock kept advancing. “Give me the Shards, Pt’ron. That’s all this has ever been about.” He waved his sword as he moved up the steps. On one of the waves, Pt’ron saw a small opening. He launched himself at Critock, who wasn’t able to move his sword back in time to end this quickly. Pt’ron’s full weight landed on Critock, who was able to stagger to the side instead of tumbling down the stairs. He let out a groan as his already sore back hit the banister, and found himself struggling with Pt’ron, who had one hand on Critock’s wrist to keep the sword at bay, and the other reaching for Critock’s throat. Instead of protecting his throat, Critock immediately brought his other hand to the sword hilt and was able to exert the needed strength to push the sword back towards Pt’ron’s body, despite the hand that was now trying to squeeze his life away. As the sword sparked, Critock was able, despite Pt’ron’s best efforts to pull it towards his enemy’s hand. Just as the first electric arc hit Pt’ron’s hand, he lurched back in fear of losing a limb. He stumbled back up the stairs as Critock rolled his shoulders, reasserting himself as he began to walk up towards his old friend, Tom, Shanna and Phelps below watching and never wishing to be more invisible than they were right then.

“NO! YOU CANNOT HAVE THEM! NOT NOW! NOT EVER!” Pt’ron spat at Critock even as he retreated. Critock simply waved the sword in front of him again.

“It’s over, Pt’ron. You’re not the only alien on this planet anymore. And you’re out of practice.” He had almost reached Pt’ron, and his adversary tried to scramble away fruitlessly onto the second floor landing. Critock was tired of this already. Pt’ron was even farther gone than he remembered. There was truly no trace of his friend left in this insane shell. Just a madman who had been waiting lifetimes for a single moment and was desperate to not have that moment stripped from him. This needed to be ended quickly, if not for the planets sake, than for his own. Critock quickly slashed the back of Pt’ron’s ankle, and he collapsed with a loud yell of pain. Instead of crawling away, the traitor turned on his back and propped himself up on his elbows.

“It doesn’t matter! None of this does! You’ve already lost! This changes nothing! You can’t run from what you did! What you did to her! It was all your fault!” He yelled into Critock’s face, who sighed. This had gone on long enough, and he had had a very, very long couple of days.

“I’m sorry Pt’ron. Sorry I couldn’t have done this sooner.” He raised the Sword of Kon, ready to make a final slash and end the thousand years of what might’ve been, end the risk to Earth, and end Pt’ron once and for all!

As he did so, a small arc of red electricity arose from Pt’ron’s pocket. As the sword slash came down, Critock was caught off guard when it suddenly stopped in mid air as though it had hit a wall in it’s path. Confused, he tried to move it, but the sword refused to do anything but stubbornly hang in mid air. He looked at the sword, and then up at Pt’ron, who was now smiling again with an evil tooth-filled grin. The next thing that he knew, he was flying backwards, pushed by a wave of red energy, through the air and down onto the floor with a grunt, and sliding right into Shanna and Phelps. While Phelps and Tom couldn’t take their eyes off of the other Marconian, Shanna kneeled quickly to Critock. “Cri-Tock! Are you all right!” She was almost screaming with worry.

Critock shook his head quickly, warding off a spot of dizziness from the shock. His back was screaming at him from the punishment it had taken, but he didn’t think anything had broken beyond repair. He gingerly rose to his feet, Shanna supporting him, as he looked at what both Phelps and Tom were staring at, mouths agape. All that he said was, “Oh no.”

Pt’ron was no longer laying down at the top of the stairs, nor was he standing. Instead he was floating, his body incased in a thin see-through red bubble of energy, red electricity arcing off of it in every direction. The bubble was floating very slowly, but approaching the stairs again. Inside, Pt’ron was laughing uproariously, again raising his outstretched hands to the ceiling. “AT LAST! ATTT LAST!”

He raised a hand, and a red bolt of electricity fired off of the bubble and down at the group. “DO YOU SEE, CRITOCK? DO YOU SEE NOW THE POWER THAT YOU SCORNED?” It was Phelps that grabbed them and threw them all to the side, as the bolt struck right behind them.

They hit the ground hard, but had only moments before they had to quickly move away from the stairs as Pt’ron threw another bolt, and another. “WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS PLANET WILL CALL ME, CRITOCK? SHALL I BECOME GOD?” As Critock stood again, Pt’ron twisted his hand slightly differently, and red streaks of electricity arced through the air as though a lightning storm. Critock quickly held his sword vertically, and the electricity seemed to arc right to the blade, catching each electric string and absorbing it. For a moment, the two were at a standstill, the powerful energy cascading from Pt’ron’s hand, streaking through the air and terminating at the sword. Shortly after, Critock took a step forward. The powerful energy had a force of it’s own to it, and it was tough to push forward against, but he refused to let Pt’ron win. So what if the Shards activated? He had accepted that as an inevitability only a short time ago, but even with that, there was still hope. As long as the missiles had not impacted Earth and ignited her oxygen, there was still hope. So he moved towards Pt’ron still, who by now was calling forth energy from the awoken Shard with both hands.

The energy was unstable and arcs from Pt’ron’s manically waving hands were not just going into Critock’s sword but also throughout the room. Phelps, Shanna, and Tom had retreated behind a small pillar near the entrance, where they didn’t have to worry about a stray bolt catching them, but still could watch Critock try and save the world.

Critock continued to move forward, speaking loudly as he went to ensure that Pt’ron could hear him, despite the task at hand. “I’m sorry, Pt’ron. I don’t know what she did to you...I should have been a better friend, but this has to end.” If Pt’ron was hearing him, he was hiding his impulses well as his face was the same shade of red it was when they had begun facing him. His facial expression was manic. The heat from the otherworldly energy that was coursing through the awaken Shard, through his body and channeled out through his fingers, was growing the more he sustained the power, but he couldn’t, wouldn’t stop. Of all people throughout the universe, they had sent him! After all that he had done! After he had worked so hard to put the memory of Critock behind him, and what he had done to her... His rage fueled his power, feeding off of the limitless energy provided by the Shard, drawing from an unknown source. The heat grew the closer Critock came, forcing Pt’ron to step back, again back up the stairs as Critock climbed them, effortlessly using the sword to contain the red electricity.

In the middle of the stairs Critock caught back with Pt’ron by suddenly doubling his speed, marching up the stairs, bringing his sword down while still collecting the Shard’s energy and using it to strike the protective bubble of energy that surrounded his enemy. He didn’t know what would happen when he did so, but as it was the only thing keeping him from Pt’ron, it had to go. When the point of the metal blade pierced the energy, Pt’ron looked on in shock and ceased his electric attack as the sword seemed to absorb the energy completely, the bubble around him unraveling and gathering into the sword itself. Critock’s eyes widened as the sword changed colors from it’s usual orange tint to red, which grew brighter and brighter the more of the energy it had absorbed. As the energy bubble disappeared, the hilt of the sword itself turned from black to bright red and Critock suddenly yelled out in pain, his arm lurching and letting go of the handle, sending the Sword of Kon falling off the stairs and down to the floor of the lobby.

Pt’ron was seething at the loss of his shield, but he still had his power, and his enemy was defenseless! He lifted up his arms and again began coursing energy out through his hands, and this time Critock had no ability to block the power. The red power was not electricity per se, but it certainly felt like a strong electric shock to Critock once he felt the energy hit his body, feeling as though every cell in his body was screaming. He felt himself being pushed back, down the stairs, and rolling on the ground. He tried to yell out in pain, but all that happened was he felt his mouth open, and red arcs of power surging between his teeth. In his head though, there were two sets of screams, his, and Kyle’s.

Pt’ron laughed as he stopped the attack, and looked down at his adversary. How weak he still was! “Poor, poor Critock. Couldn’t finish me then, can’t touch me now. I wish you could taste this power! To know what it feels like to hold the fate of the universe in your hands!” He began to walk down the stairs towards Critock, who was still shaking from the aftershocks from the power. “You cannot imagine what it feels like! I feel like I can crack the walls of reality!”

Critock tried to prop himself up on his elbows. “You...failed...before. You’re doomed...to lose.” He wheezed out every breath, as Pt’ron shook his head with a sad smile, stepping off of the stair and striding forward.

“What power in the universe is going to stop me, hm? In one moment, I have surpassed the ability of this entire solar system to even attack me!” Pt’ron waved a hand upwards, and Critock was picked off of the floor, trying to struggle but held uselessly in an invisible grip. Shanna, still watching from her hiding place, put a hand over her mouth, trying to remain quiet lest they become Pt’ron’s next target but not wanting anything to happen to Critock and Kyle.

Pt’ron stopped right in front of Critock. “You see, Critock, you’ve wasted your time. I imagine you’ve thought a lot about me, hm?” He started walking around the helpless Marconian, taunting him. “I haven’t given you a thought in a thousand years. I’ve been waiting for my ascension. I am glad, though, that you made it here to witness it. It’s fitting since you’re the cause of all of this.” With a quick wave of his hand, Critock was thrown back once again, hitting with a hard crash against the gymnasium doors. Somehow, he still had the energy to move now that he had been released from the hold, but it was painful and difficult just to lift his head, let alone rise to his feet.

“You have no comprehension of what I am now, do you! What just one Shard has given me! Imagine what will happen in a few minutes when the other one activates!” He raised one hand at the ceiling, and looked up as a wooden support plank began to shake, and then was ripped off the ceiling, flying through the air with no physical reason why, aiming right for Critock’s head.

Critock slumped down to the floor as the plank struck the doors above him, narrowly missing catching it full to his face. Pt’ron laughed as he raised another arm, and two more planks wrenched loose from their anchors. Critock was forced to find energy deep with him to climb quickly to his feet, groaning as he did so, and quickly moved out of the way before he was struck with one or both of the boards.

Pt’ron snarled at the continuing determination of his enemy, trapped in a weak human shell. This was taking too long. It made him a lesser being to not be able to finish a battle with one Marconian, considering he was going to have to fight millions more in the cycles to come! “I’m tired of these games, Critock.” He said his name as a curse, and again approached Critock, who had by now fallen to his knees, finding it very difficult to breathe. He didn’t use any of his newfound Godlike powers now, it was more personal than that. When he reached the struggling soldier, Pt’ron simply reached down, grabbed him by the throat, and pulled him up, pressing him against the wall and squeezed his neck. Critock grabbed onto his arms uselessly, not having the strength to pull them away, and stared into his enemy’s eyes, the black ring now shining in the light and taunting him for not having noticed it earlier.

Pt’ron stared back, wanting to see Critock’s own life drain away. He had lied about not thinking about him. In truth he had fantasized about this very moment almost every single day he had spent on this planet. Critock would have been his first goal once he was able to leave Earth, and the result of his vendetta would have been very similar to what was now playing out.

It was right then when Tom, knowing that neither Shanna nor Phelps had the ability to help Critock in any way, summoned all his bravery, and with a yell, began flashing white light as bright as he could, desperate to distract Pt’ron by any means necessary. Pt’ron heard him coming, but paid him no mind, as a bolt of red electricity suddenly shot out from the Shard, searing through Daniel’s pocket and striking the soul directly head-on. The energy sent Tom flying backwards out of control, hitting the ground and bouncing a couple of times before sliding to a very still stop.

As Critock struggled to gasp, and Pt’ron smiled at the thought of ridding the universe of her murderer, They were suddenly jolted, both falling to the floor as Claire, having snuck downstairs from her hiding place to witness most of these events, ran full speed into Pt’ron. Without the benefit of knowing that she was attacking, Pt’ron had no ability to block or shield himself, and he hit the floor as anyone would, hard and painfully. When he landed, the awoken Shard slipped out of his pocket and slid across the floor, leaving his possession and taking its power with it.

Claire seemed possessed as she kept the attack up on her former boyfriend. She didn’t know what was going on or how any of this was possible. All she knew was that somehow this wasn’t Daniel, he had hurt people, and now he was going to hurt her friends. Not if she had anything to say about it. She rained blows down upon him, and before he could regain his senses she took her hand and clawed his face with her long, sharp nails, leaving red streaks of blood in a diagonal streak. Finally he slapped her with all of his strength, and she flew off, sliding away, her face bruised already from the hard strike.

Critock saw this and had to swallow his urge to help her because he also saw the Shard lying on the ground, no longer under Pt’ron’s control. With every ounce of energy he had left he started crawling across the floor, willing himself to move, reaching out for the Shard...

Pt’ron saw the effects when Critock grabbed the Shard, but couldn’t do anything about it. When Critock’s outstretched hand closed on the shard, he felt a rush of energy unlike anything he had ever known. It was different than when he had been struck by Pt’ron’s fire, instead of hurting him it was energizing him, bringing him back to life and then beyond peak condition. His body was drinking in the unknown energy and was using it to fuel him endlessly. He now knew what Pt’ron had been talking about, how he could break down the walls of the Universe and stride across any barrier. Defeat any enemy. Visions of dominating the Empire came unwillingly to him. It was addictive. And it was all his.

Much like Claire, Pt’ron took the advantage as he saw it. He lowered his shoulder and ran full speed into Critock’s side. Not expecting the sudden strike, Critock lurched in pain, and his palm opened, sending the Shard flying again. As soon as Pt’ron had struck, he had moved away from him, expecting the Shard to be jarred loose. He watched for it to hit the ground, and when it did, he sprinted towards it.

At the same time, Shanna had watched what happened when Critock had grabbed the shard, how he rose to his feet and seemed to recover immediately from the damage that had been done to him, and knew that Pt’ron could not be allowed to gain control of it again. Without any word to Tom or Phelps, who were silently watching the battle, unable to help lest they be as hurt as Critock was, she quickly ran out from their safe place, and ran to where the Shard was falling. It was a foot race between her and Pt’ron, and unfortunately, Pt’ron got there a moment sooner.

As soon as he grabbed the shard off of the floor and felt the energy rushing through him, Pt’ron sent out another wave of energy to force Shanna off her feet and sliding backwards. Critock felt the wave but being slightly farther away was able to keep his footing. “ENOUGH!” Pt’ron bellowed, as Critock stared at him but also trying to see where the Sword had landed. “I have no more patience with this! As though a human could ever dream of holding this power!” He sneered at Shanna, who tried to scramble backwards, Phelps and Tom still unable to join the fray and Claire unconscious.

“I’m tired of this human shell. Tired of hiding what I really am. I AM A MARCONIAN!” Pt’ron yelled to everyone, but seemingly mostly to himself. “All I see around me is the meek. The pitiful. I will show you what a God looks like!” He then spread his arms wide, and Critock closed his eyes, letting out one horrible Marconian curse, not caring how much it hurt his throat.

The human body that Pt’ron inhabited seemed to fold in on itself, and blue electric arcs began to mix with the red emitted by the Shard’s power. A large blue and white light seemed to begin at Pt’ron’s stomach and spread out until his entire body was no longer visible. There was a terrible scream from Pt’ron himself, and then a brighter light that forced all watching to turn their heads, as though a nuclear bomb had gone off right in the room with them.

When the light faded, they first saw Daniel’s lifeless body fall to the ground next to a giant black leg, three claws on the bottom holding it to the floor. The leg was thin but wide, and stretched up and up easily twelve feet in the air, eventually connecting to a thin circular flat orb, only with the thickness of a full school backpack, but as wide as a human body laid flat. In front of the orb, There was a single red eye, incased in a shiny coating. Two slightly smaller appendages, the ones that more resembled spider-legs and had been responsible for ending the lives of Travis and his fellow bullies, extended out from both left and right front sides of the orb, and on the back of it were two more. Finally in the middle of the opposite side of the orb there was another leg just like the first that extended down and terminated with another three claws.

Critock took a step back as Shanna screamed and the others looked on dumbfounded. This was what he had always jokingly referred to as a Marconian’s ‘battle form’, something that most Marconians never transformed into in their entire lives. The amount of energy expended must have been insane, and yet here it was. Unstoppable on most planets, invincible here even without the Shard, which still was contained within the pocket of Daniel’s jeans.

“YOU SEE, HUMAN...” There was no visible mouth but every one in the room could hear Pt’ron speak. “YOU ARE WEAK.” He moved a mighty leg forward, and Shanna tried to run away, but Critock knew she wouldn’t get far. How could anyone? He muttered a ”God damn it.” And then ran at the being. All hope was lost, but he could save her from a horrible fate at Pt’ron’s monstrous claws.

It was doubtful that he could have done anything anyway, but Pt’ron knew he was coming as he opened another eye on the side of the orb, one that was fixed right on Critock’s approach. He stopped mid-stride, steadied himself on one leg, and then swung his claw leg back. Critock never had a chance. He caught the leg dead on in his stomach. While he was fortunate that the giant claw never hit him which would have stabbed or sliced him in half, he was still sent flying through the air from the impact, and directly into the closet that Shanna and he had hid in previously. The force of the impact caused the surrounding brick and construction to fall down, effectively creating a makeshift tomb, trapping Critock inside.

“HAHAHAHA!” Pt’ron laughed, his voice distorted and almost mechanical. “THERE WILL BE NO SAVIOR! MARCONIA WILL FALL! THE EMPIRE WILL FALL! THIS IS THE FATE OF ALL THAT FACE ME!” Forgetting the unretrieved Shard for the moment, he made two quick strides and stood above Shanna, who, looking up fearfully, realized that she never told her mother how much she loved her, despite their differences.

“AND YOU, MY DEAR...WILL DIE.” He began to lean down, eager to grab her body with the two pincer-like legs in his front, when he heard a noise. A muffled yelling, and then a thump. The thumping grew louder, and Pt’ron swiveled around, looking for the source of the noise. The thump became a pound, and the vibrations from it were causing dust to shake off of the various trophy cases and displays throughout the room. Pt’ron’s eye narrowed as he realized that the sound was coming from where Critock had been thrown.

Immediately after his realization, the rubble that had fallen in front of the closet erupted outward, and a single red-and-black striped leg stepped out, followed by its connecting head and other leg. Kyle’s unconscious body lay on top of the creature, which carefully reached up and prodded the body to the ground. Satisfied that Kyle was unharmed physically, the creature took another step forward, facing off with Pt’ron, his form a solid black with no stripes of any kind.

Critock stood, fueled with the residual power of holding the Shard, and said a prayer to the Five. Then he attacked.