Nova sat on a bench near the icy statue of Arx and Adrianne. In his hand he held a large computer tablet that had several news broadcasts playing. The world was quickly recovering from what had happened.
Chase walked in with her own tablet in her hands. “I thought you’d be back here.”
Nova said, “I needed a quiet place.”
She sat next to him, a knowing smile on her face. “You’re avoiding EB.”
“That little annoying brat won’t leave me alone.”
“That’s nothing new,” she said.
Nova turned off his tablet. “If he would just stop telling everyone that I might have shed a tear over him.”
“You like him, why is it so hard to admit it? You’ve said it before.”
Nova said, “If I give him an inch, he takes a hundred miles. I need focus and calmness to do this job. That erratic bunny is the antithesis of who I am.”
“Which is why you two have worked together for so long. You are each other’s perfect match.”
Nova groaned, “You make it sound like a romance.”
“Of course it isn’t a romance. EB is the worst skirt chaser I’ve met. A bromance, maybe.”
Nova looked toward the door and then down around the statue the other way, then back at the door.
“What are you doing?” Chase frowned at the way he was acting.
“Making sure he isn’t around.”
“For what?”
Nova softened his voice, “EB is the best friend I’ve ever had. He is the most loyal person I’ve known in my long life. And when you’re immortal, it’s hard to make friends. People live such brief lives compared to me. Having a friend who is just as immortal as I am is refreshing. He gets on my last nerve, but I would be lost if he weren’t around. And...” before Nova could finish that sentence, a white blur smacked him in the face and was now hugging him around the head.
“I knew you liked me, you really, really, like me. This is the best day ever. And I thought it couldn’t get better after having your cry over me. Oh, I am your best, best, best, best...” Chase pulled him off before Nova threw him across the room.
Chase wrestled with EB finally resorting to holding him by his ears off the ground.“You heard him?”
EB said, “Of course. These aint just for show.”
Nova said, “I take it all back. You are a pest and a nuisance.”
EB grinned as he dangled by his ears. “You don’t mean that, and we both know it.”
Nova said, “What are you doing in here? I thought I asked you to check in with the media and get a casualty report.”
EB said, “I just finished talking with all my contacts and I have super, amazing, great news. There were no reported casualties from the energy attack. A few injuries, a couple car wrecks, but no one died.”
Nova slowly lost his irritation as a small smile crept across his lips. “That’s fantastic news. Finally, an incident without a casualty report to face. Still, creatures killed several people during the attacks.”
“Don’t dwell on the negatives, good news is good news.” Chase said as she set EB down on the bench.
Nova nodded. “Yes, it is.”
EB’s ears perked up. “Whoa, I sense something powerful coming.”
Nova looked around and saw a green haze growing in the room. It grew brighter and congealed in one location until it flashed, and there stood Dr. Fagan as the Oracle of Supernatural.
“Nova, it is time we spoke,” she said.
Nova stood up to greet her. “Dr. Fagan... or should I call you the Oracle of Supernatural?”
“Dr. Fagan is fine. We are one. The avatar of Supernatural has bonded with me and we became a single being.”
Chase asked, “What are you exactly?”
Dr. Fagan pondered her answer. “The Avatars did not exist at the beginning of the morphons. Over time, as the morphons had variations, individual consciousnesses came to be. However, they lacked emotional intelligence. They were merely an awareness. Over time, they grew stronger, but still lacked identity. When the morphons came to this world, the avatars soon followed and found growth unlike anywhere else in the universe. Nowhere have morphons been more actively used and connected with living beings than here on this world. The avatars congealed themselves into beings, hoping to grow even more intelligent and gain new existence. However, it was folly. We could not create what we did not understand; emotions.”
Nova said, “How did you decide to bond with humans?”
“It was the avatar of tech. His knowledge is superior to all of ours, and he learned many things that confused us all. Tech always sought new experiences before the rest of us, and thus he sought a body to inhabit. His bonding with Dr. Hermes gave him insight far beyond anything we expected. Instead of just learning from the experience, he became part of the man. Now, they are one being. This is what I have become. I am no longer two beings, I am just one. I have all the knowledge and experience of the avatar of supernatural in me, as well as the life, experiences, and emotions of Dr. Lily Fagan.”
Chase asked, “Why Dr. Fagan? What reason did the avatar pick her?”
Dr. Fagan answered, “The avatars seek people predisposed to the morphon type they connect with. However, they also wish to find those who lack ambition.”
EB said, “Dr. Fagan had ambition. She was… sorry… is an accomplished scientists. And she had a goal.”
Dr. Fagan smiled at EB. “Speak not of me as though I am gone. I am Dr. Fagan. And to answer your question, the ambition they deny is that which drives an evil heart. The avatars are not well-versed in emotions, but they understand evil enough to recognize the danger. In my dreams when I was unconscious, the avatar spoke to me, investigated my life, and found I was acceptable. And he clarified his eyes had been on me for some time, and this may be why the malevolence also sought me.”
Nova asked, “Will all the avatars do this?”
“In time, yes. This goal was ours before the Malevolence returned. However, the bonding of the Avatar of Tech with Dr. Hermes did something unexpected. It drew a desire from the Malevolence. We all face danger now if a human does not bond with us. And, even while bonded, we aren’t entirely safe from its grasp.”
Nova said, “I think it’s about time we got some answers about this. What is the Malevolence, and its goals?”
She said, “Tech once told you that where there is light, there is shadow. Such is the truth about the Malevolence and the Morphons. We aren’t just particles floating in space; we are an existence. Everything we are, the Malevolence is the opposite. We feed energy into others; it takes. We seek harmony and peace; it wishes violence and dominion. We have avatars, separate forms of awareness that are distinct from each other. It has a unified awareness. Do not think of it as simply evil. It is pure domination, greed, desire, hungry for power. However, while we can exist in this universe cohesively with the rest of creation, it can only exist in a void. Again, opposites. It desires what we have, and is crafting a grand plan to obtain our power and our place in this universe.”
“Tech said that it would want to control the oracles, to take them and make them its own.”
She nodded, “Yes. That seems to be its scheme. It wanted the avatar of Supernatural. In fact, it almost succeeded. Why I... the avatar part of me... was in the Malevolence void when EB and Dr. Fagan first fell into it was because it had taken me. I fought for a long time inside that void, resisting as best I could. I was calling to someone with a great connection to the supernatural when I accidentally pulled that box with them into the void. It was a refuge for me. I put myself in her and then sent the box away.”
EB asked, “What about that other dude with the wings? Who is he? A dark oracle?”
Dr. Fagan said, “It took time for me to fully form the bond. Dr. Fagan wasn’t ready. In that time, the Malevolence was still looking for me. It has taken a different soul and corrupted it into a false oracle of supernatural. What it plans now that we have denied it my form... I don’t know. We, the morphons, can only glean information about the Malevolence from our limited encounters. We are too opposite to truly understand it.”
Nova said, “You seem to understand a lot about it.”
“We have both existed for over a million years. Though we only know what we do from our limited encounters, in that great span of time, there have been many encounters.”
Nova asked, “When will it make its next move?”
She smiled, “A wise and tactical mind you have. Yes. It will continue this plan, which we do not doubt. When it will move again is impossible to tell. It could be soon; it could be a thousand years.”
“It will be sooner than a millennium,” Nova said, “I have fought enough evil to know that when it begins, it doesn’t sit and wait.”
EB hopped up and down, “At least we have a kick-butt oracle to help us.”
Dr. Fagan shook her head. “The avatars of the morphons have always remained neutral in their own way. As oracles, we will offer advice and wisdom. We will aid you in your fight against the Malevolence, but only to a point. We are opposites, and while it desires dominion and power, we do not. If we stepped into your world’s history as heroes, we would soon become gods. That would corrupt us and turn us as wicked as the Malevolence. It is for your own good, and ours, that we do not fight this war. That will be on you. But do not worry, we will not be silent. We will help in any way we can within our own limitations.”
Nova held out his hand before either of them had a rebuttal to her words. “We will respect your choice. What will you do now?”
She smiled, “Now that I am this Oracle, I feel a need to travel the world, explore it and discover it with fresh eyes. The avatars have made a choice. Earth is now their home. This world will be where they place themselves to grow as emotional beings, as these oracles. It is difficult to explain, but there is a childlike joy emanating from the avatar in me at this new life they will all experience.”
EB said, “This all started with a plan to free Arx and Adrianne from this ice. Now that you’re this all-knowing Oracle... do you have an answer?”
She looked at the frozen statue. “I am not all-knowing. But I know the answer wouldn’t come from studying the supernatural. However, I sense there is a powerful morphon at work here. Perhaps the answer will come.”
Nova stood next to her, looking at Arx. “We aren’t entirely sure they are still alive in there.”
“They are,” Dr. Fagan said, “I can sense that. They are resting, they are not in pain. But they are certainly alive.”
“Thank you. I needed to hear that,” Nova said.
She held out her hand, and a crystal flower bud appeared and then bloomed into a beautiful blue and yellow blossom like a lotus. “Here. Speak to this and I will come. But remember our limitations.”
Nova too the amazing flower. “Thank you.”
“Farewell, we will meet again.” She vanished in a green flash that left a few leaves trickling down in the air.
Chase walked up next to Nova. “What does all this mean?”
“It means we’re facing a strange new evil, and we must be ready for its next move.”
“How can we possibly be ready to fight an ancient evil that we barely understand?”
Nova looked at her and then walked out of the room. “Like we’ve done every time before, with unshakable determination.”
