Drocha quickly returned to his feet and held his chest. “Why... why isn’t this healing?” A trickle of greenish-yellow blood flowed from the hole in his body.
Nova raised his blade, expanding his angelic wings. A hard slam to the ground caused white energy to cut across Drocha, flipping him back and sending him flying across the street before he jarringly slammed into an abandoned building.
Drocha coughed for a moment while a long gash in his body, running from face down to the side of his chest, smoldered. Looking up at the confident Nova, Drocha quickly slammed his hands into the ground, and a wave of earth rolled quickly, a spike of rock jutting up right under Nova’s body. The rock spike caught Nova and launched him. He quickly recovered in the air, gliding down on his wings, his sword ready for another strike.
Clapping his hands together, Drocha summoned the corrupted element of tech within him, and all the technological items in the area swarmed at Nova. He dodged cars, a bus, and two lampposts. Parking meters barraged him, throwing him off course, and he tumbled across the pavement.
“VINCULA LIGA!” Drocha called out, and purple magical chains sprung out of the air and wrapped around Nova’s midsection, his legs, his wings, and one of his arms.
His hands held out with the power in them controlling these ethereal chains, Drocha approached the bound Nova. “You can’t win. You might be able to hurt me, but I control the morphons better than any hero. Tech, magic, strength, all of them... they bow to my will!”
Nova turned his icy gaze onto Drocha. “You have no power, Drocha. The morphons you control are corrupt, vile, evil.”
“They are power, and that is all that matters. You don’t have any idea what I intend to bring into this universe.”
Nova said, “You intend to recreate The Malevolence. You do not know what kind of power you are toying with. It will consume you.”
“I know exactly what I am dealing with. I was there when it was first discovered by Legion.”
Nova said, “I was before Legion ever came to be. I had one mission, one goal in this universe.”
Drocha came close, his confidence soaring at the sight of Nova’s struggle. “What would that be?”
With a hard snapping sound, the chain around Nova’s right hand shattered, and he swung his sword to break the chains on his legs. Soon, he had shattered them all and was ready to cut Drocha to pieces. “Fight corruption.”
Drocha reached up to fight, but the light that came from Nova’s wings pressed him down. Nova raised his sword, his wings spread wide with light exuding from them. “Do you not know why your healing wouldn’t work?”
Cowering in agony, Drocha cried out. “Make it stop!”
“Because with every strike, I destroy another corrupted morphon power in you.” Nova slashed down, cutting across Drocha’s chest, then across his side, his right arm, his left leg. Soon, very little of Drocha remained, yet he still had life in his eyes.
Nova aimed his sword at Drocha’s head.
“Stop!” Drocha rasped.
Nova hesitated. “Why would I?”
“Because you should know that this is utterly pointless.”
Nova asked, “Why?”
“I am a clone; my body is just a manufactured object. My mind... it is being uploaded as we speak.” Drocha smiled, with a wicked flicker in his eyes. “You and your heroes failed, as they were always destined to.” He laughed, and then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell against the ground.
“Failed?” Nova turned around to see the heroes, including Santa and EB, still trying to destroy the box. He realized what Drocha meant. “Oh, no. RUN!” He ran and then took flight toward the box. “RUN, RETREAT! MOVE!” Diving toward the heroes, he shoved as many out of the way as he could while Santa and EB evacuated the others.
An enormous explosion followed a flash of light.
Once the waves of destruction finally passed and the fireball had finished rising into the sky, Nova stood with Santa among the heroes watching the crater burn.
“What happened?” Santa asked.
EB said, “You killed him. Right?”
Nova shook his head. “That was never possible. Drocha... he was always ahead of us. The same tech as the ship in orbit constructed this box, his computer storage. Legions finest couldn’t destroy that. We never stood a chance. His upload was inevitable.”
The Gentleman asked, “Why put us through this fight then? Why defend it as if it were so important?”
Santa looked up at Nova. “It was you. He wanted to kill you.”
Nova nodded. “I underestimated his knowledge. Drocha knows I am a threat to him. At least, he believes that. He hoped to keep me here long enough for that explosion to kill me.”
EB said, “Well, jokes on him, you’re still alive and he’s dead and... ew... in pieces.” He saw the remains of Drocha scattered around the street.
Nova said, “No. That was just a body. He has an army of Drocha clones on that ship. His mind connected to the upload. He is waking up there in a fresh, new body.”
Santa added, “In a ship that controls these spheres and a new era of Legion is about to be born.”
Strange Quark appeared in a flash of blue light. Actually, a large blue platypus appeared, standing for a second before flopping over, swearing, and then finally transforming into Quark. “Sorry, in a hurry. You gotta see the news. Check your comms.”
Everyone quickly flicked on their comms to the INN breaking news. They saw a shaky cellphone video of silver spheres flying upward. A voice from the desk spoke, “We are receiving reports from all over the planet. The Renn Tech spheres are ascending into the atmosphere. Every country is showing the spheres are leaving. The Legion creatures that are in combat with BADGE heroes remain and the fight continues, but the spheres are leaving. Governments are still trying to activate their nuclear arms in response to the threatening vessel in orbit. However, the sight of the spheres leaving is raising optimism among the population, though at this time we are uncertain as to the reason or outcome of the spheres removing themselves from our cities. We...”
Nova cut the comm. “This isn’t right.”
EB asked, “You think this is maybe, possibly, hopefully, a good thing?”
Nova shook his head. “Until we are certain Drocha is dead, any action taken by his tech is a threat. But, something is odd about this.”
Santa said, “Why remove his army from our planet?”
“Precisely,” Nova said. “What is his game? Damn it, I hate being behind our enemy at every step.”
Quark asked, “What do we do?”
Nova said, “You get me back to the station. Santa, heroes, get out there and stop those Legion Creatures we are still fighting. We may be behind him, but we are still going to put up a worthwhile fight.”
Santa said, “We will prove you right. This world is protected.”
EB said, “Hey, you hear something?”
Turning back around, Nova frowned. “Yes. I hear something. It sounds like... music?”
Tri-Blade pointed to the comm. “It’s coming from there.”
Nova held up his comm. “It can’t be. It isn’t... on.” Putting it to his ear, he frowned. “I hear it.”
“Something wrong with the comm channels?” The Gentleman asked.
Nova had the hint of a smile on his face before he said, “Nothing to worry about. Just do your duty. This day is not lost yet.”
In a flash of blue light, Quark transported Nova back to the station while the others left to fulfill their orders.
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