Somewhere at the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy from Earth…
It was once a normal stellar cluster.
A single core system of worlds orbiting a Population I star that had yet to go nova at the end of its long life, the whole surrounded by dense protostars, dark matter and small gravity wells that would have eventually evolved into worlds in their own right.
Two thousand Earth-years ago, that had been changed.
Much for the WORSE!
Fleeing from the planet Yiziba with a fragment of that strange world's mesonium CORE when they were cursed by the first Dragoness, the magically-mutated white Skrulls who would eventually come to call themselves "Dire Wraiths" would plant the Shadow Sun fragment into the very core of the lone living star that burned in the heart of this galactic cluster. Thus, as the sun turned pitch black and became as cold as space, waves of ebony meson radiation moved to warp the whole cluster into a dark and foreboding hole in space that later travellers would call the "Dark Nebula."
Eighteen hundred years after the Dragoness' vengeance had nearly destroyed the white Skrulls, when the Wraiths had tried to attack and destroy the most advanced society of a neighbouring stellar cluster known as the "Golden Galaxy" to its inhabitants, a lone warrior of that world came to the Dark Nebula in hot pursuit of the shattered attack fleet that had been sent to Galador. Said warrior had unleashed untold destruction on the Wraiths' adopted homeworld before powerful female witches unleashed a holding spell on the poor man to allow their race to flee and scatter themselves across the known cosmos, even all the way back to their race's ancestral home galaxy of Andromeda.
The surviving Spaceknights of Galador were soon right on their heels.
And now…
On Wraithworld, a considerable number of the centuries-old cyborg warriors who had given up their most precious possession — their HUMANITY itself! — to fight for their people stood, awaiting the chance to see a living god feast upon the acid-scarred rock in hopes that the being who lived in a previous universe as Galan of Taa would never again gaze upon their beloved Galador when next he sought a world to quench his hunger.
Unfortunately, there were…problems.
Fortunately, a solution was fast coming over to assist them.
Wraithworld…
"Hey! There you guys are!"
The Spaceknights perked on hearing that cheerful voice with its odd mixture of accents — to the cybernetic oral sensors of the man known only as Rom, said voice had spoken in the Terran language known as English with an accident native to that world's largest city (though mixed with another unrecognisable accent) — and then they looked up.
"What is THAT?!" Landra (Starshine) demanded, pointing.
"A humanoid girl!" Darin (Javelin) said as they looked up at the young teenager in the grey uniform with a white lemniscate insignia on her chest coming down to land nearby. "But how is such a girl able to survive in space unaided?!"
"She must be either Kryptonian or Daxamite!" Aura (Rainbow) stated. "She does not possess the white skin of a Czarnian…and I do not perceive a Power Jewel on her."
"A Wraith?!" Mang (Hammerhead) wondered. "This is their homeworld!"
A glow appeared around Rom's right hand. "Allow me…"
The others waited for the silver-clad cyborg's Energy Analyser to appear in his hand, and then he turned to train it on the just-arrived Infinity. One look…
"GODS OF GALADOR!"
All the Spaceknights gaped at the brilliant white being Rom's hand-held detection device was now revealing, many shielding their eyes. "What is she?!" Starshine demanded.
"Rom-kun, you should turn that thing off. It's hurting your friends."
Were he human — a state he now knew he would NEVER return to — Rom would have blinked several times at that helpful suggestion from Infinity. As he returned his scanning device back to his personal null-space pocket, Rom then gazed on this young woman — he had detected she was Terran despite the incredible amounts of mesonium atoms in her very blood, bone and muscle, all charged with untold levels of energy — who had joined them this day. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Infinity," the newcomer then helpfully said as she walked up to him, ignoring the acid rain pouring down on them…which wasn't healthy for the Spaceknights despite the plandanium armour their outer bodies was composed of; much to Rom's personal shock, said droplets seemed to disintegrate before they could strike this odd woman with the proverbial power of a GALAXY burning with her very body. "I'm from Earth — in Japan; you've never gone there since you came to go beat up on those stupid Dire Wraiths — but my powers come from a planet named Yiziba. You probably heard of it."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Yiziba…!" Starshine gasped.
"She is a child of the Forge of the First Race?!" Hammerhead demanded.
"But what would one of THEM be doing HERE?!" Javelin asked.
"Infinity is Infinity…as Galactus is Galactus, Darin of Galador," a thunderous voice declared from overhead and behind the Spacenights. "Even if I have not met her current incarnation, I will ALWAYS recognise the First Child of the Seekers' Forge, birthplace of the countless Power Jewels scattered across the Universe."
The Spaceknights turned around to gaze up at the star god that they had stood up to — and one of their kind had fallen in battle against — to save their world. "Hey, Galan-kun!" Infinity then said as she floated up to gaze into Galactus' black eyes with their square irises. "What'cha doing here…OH, MAN!"
The Destroyer of Worlds balked. "What disturbs you?!"
A moan. "WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YA ATE?!"
Galactus jolted as he gaped in surprise at Infinity while the Spaceknights below her all experienced a truly unique human expression: the face-fault!
Minutes later…
"Oh, I see!" Infinity said as she crossed her arms. "'Cause your stupid herald decided to run away, you wound up using too much energy to get him back outta a frickin' BLACK HOLE of all things…and now you're next to starving!"
"Aye, Infinity. Since Rom of Galador has led me to this world, I must feed or else I fall unto Death's very embrace," Galactus declared. Much to the shock of the Devourer of Worlds, the Infinite One had created a bubble of clean air free of acid rain around them. Why had this happened? Why had the First Child of the Forge of the Seekers been able to bend Wraithworld to her command when he, Galactus, could NOT?! "I had tried to unleash the Power Cosmic that I weld upon this wretched place, yet it defied me at every turn! It BURNED me! Why is this so, Sister?! Why cannot Galacus feast?!"
Infinity sighed. "Meson, Galan-kun! Look at the star overhead!"
Galactus turned to glance up at the black star overhead…
…and then, on seeing what the Infinite One was now pointing out, he gaped; were he still human and not a living god, Galactus' eyes would have gone VERY wide. "Ebony mesonium…a fragment as large as a major city on any living world!" he declared, which made the Spaceknights gasp in shock; they all knew of the incredible atom that was found within any Power Jewel. "What is this, Infinity? Tell me!"
A sigh. "A fragment of the Shadow Sun — the core of Yiziba — stolen from our world two sagas ago by the Wraiths' ancestors when they wanted to master the power of the Shadow Realm and become overlords of the Chaos," Infinity then declared in a voice that would have made all her friends from Azuma High School gape in shock. "As you know, meson is the one thing even MY powers can't fully lock in on unless it ALLOWS me to lock in on it. And since the version of me that was alive back then wasn't involved in cursing the Wraiths' ancestors to be life-dependant on ebony meson…"
"You had no cause not reason to gaze your all-seeing eyes upon this dark blight existing in this part of the Cosmos," he finished for her. "Who amongst the Children of the Seekers' Forge did such an extreme act upon the former natives of this world?"
"The Dragoness."
A nod. "Ah! The balance-keeper between the 'faces' and the 'heels' amongst those of your kind who deal with Chaos; that which other beings call 'magic!' Now I understand. Even Galactus would view the Sorceress of the Borderlands with respect. That the ancestors of the Dire Wraiths would arouse HER to a level of rage that she would gladly lock their very lives to a dependency upon the ONE form of the ONE element in the Universe that not even Galactus himself could not and WOULD NOT dare consume truly speaks of the insane time on distant Yiziba you and your kin call the 'Dawn of Power.'"
"None the less, Galactus must feed."
On hearing that new voice, Galactus turned. "And you are…?"
"You may call me 'Destructo,'" the Doctor then said.
On the ground below, the woman born Landra gasped. "What is it?" Rainbow demanded.
"Destructo…the Chaos-Bringer, Aura!" the golden-hued cyborg mistress of the Eternal Light of Galador's twin suns gasped in horror as she gazed with her optical sensors upon the silver-clad elderly man now floating close to both the Devourer of Worlds and the Goddess Who Walked Amongst Men. "The Destroyer of That Which Can No Longer Exist! The Changer of Destiny! To believe HE has ARISEN from the Forge…!"
"You know of these…'Children of the Forge,' old friend?" Rom asked.
"Aye, Rom. Before I returned to Galador to be frozen thanks to the mad Mentus' plot to see our beautiful world absorbed by this accursed place, I travelled to a world called Tamaran," Starshine reported. "There, I encountered several races living on the many worlds within Tamaran's home system. They knew of the Yizibajohei; that is what the Children of the First Ones call themselves as a race. To the legends of the Warlords of Okaara, one of Tamaran's sister-worlds in that system, a mightier race of warriors exists NOT ANYWHERE in this universe!" She gazed on the grey-clad teenager floating near Galactus. "They spoke of the Infinite One, the First Child of the Forge. One who welds a power that could cleave stars in half and shatter worlds on a scale that only Galactus' hunger could equal! They spoke of many such beings of that world, old friend!" Her optical sensors focused on the Doctor. "And they warned of HIM!"
"What does his coming mean?!" Javelin asked.
"A time of great change; the legends are confusing and the prophecies many, Darin," Starshine declared. "But his coming is feared even by his own kind…!"
The Spaceknights all turned to gaze heavenward. "What in the name of the Fates have we involved ourselves with?" Rom then asked for them all…
"You can allow Galactus to feast on this world, Destructo?"
"Of course I can," the Doctor declared. "My Yizibajohei-self was born from the living mind of the Forge as Infinity's was born from the Forge's very heart. The damage done unto the mind of the Forge still exists to this day and must be repaired."
"And the Dire Wraiths who aroused the Borderland Guardian's wrath?" Galactus asked with a touch of amusement in his voice, though the cyborgs at his feet wouldn't sense it.
"They will either have to change or die, Galactus," the being born a man named Grigori Wyszynski said. "That has been the way of Evolution since the dawn of Existence, even for those trapped under the grip of ebony mesonium. The evolved white Skrulls calling themselves 'Dire Wraiths' lost all sense of that long before the Dragoness' first-self cursed them so. That was their grave error…but why must the descendants of such beings continue to suffer from their forefathers' and foremothers' wrong choices?" A shake of the head. "But that is neither here nor there for one such as you, Galactus. Your needs are paramount in the grand scheme of things at this time and place in Existence, so if you'll allow both Infinity and I to assist you…"
With that, he held up his hand as Infinity drifted over to grasp it…
"Rom! Look up! Look up, my friend!"
Rom perked on hearing Hammerhead's cry, and then he spun around to gaze up…
"Gods of Galador…!"
…as a bolt of pure white energy lashed out from the two Yizibajohei to rocket into the near-vacuum of space from Wraithworld towards the dead world's black sun…
…and then a flash of light exploded on the dark star's surface!
"The Shadow Sun is healed once more! The Forge is whole and complete!" Galactus then declared. "Now, as this poor system — after being kept silent for two Yizibajohei sagas — cries out for the Final Mercy that only I can bring…!
"AND THUS SHALL GALACTUS FEAST!"
As the star god disappeared into the growing light that was burning away the black surface of the dark star at the heart of the Dark Nebula, a voice then said, "I would think it would be safer for all of you to view this from the safety of Galactus' ship."
Before the Spaceknights could react, they all faded from Wraithworld…
…to appear on a vast city of a spaceship floating safely many millions of kilometres away, finding themselves in the very same place where the man born Tyros in the Birjite city-state of Lantos had returned to after his reconnaissance of Wraithworld. "You have returned," the current herald of Galactus stated. "But what…?"
"Your current employer, Tyros of Lantos, is having quite the interesting meal as we speak," a strange voice stated as Terrax stood, turning to gaze on the amused Earth human male with the white hair, beard and moustache — with eyes that burned with a power that the Tamer had never seen before even during his service with Galactus — standing nearby, he with a slip of a girl in a grey uniform. "Give him time to consume the energies that have been trapped within both the Wraiths' former homeworld and their home primary, and then he shall return, stronger than ever." Destructo then gazed on the unofficial leader of the group of Galadorian cyborg warriors nearby. "You have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams, Rom. Congratulate yourself. But tell me this: What is the PRICE you have extracted from your current foes because of your actions — which led both Infinity and I here — to Wraithworld?" the Doctor then asked. "Not just to yourself…but your friends back in Clairton? Brandy Clark for example?"
Rom seemed to balk for a moment. "What riddles do you speak, Chaos-Bringer?" the silver cyborg warrior then demanded. "With their homeworld gone and their home star destroyed, the Wraiths across the Universe have lost their primary source of magic and energy. By doing that, they will eventually lose all, even their shape-shifting abilities. When that happens, those they would seek to subjugate will know the truth about what lurks amongst them…and when that happens, they will be defeated and never threaten the innocent sentients of the Universe ever again."
"So you propose genocide?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Why do you accuse me of such a thing?" Rom then gasped.
The Doctor smiled. "Remember the examples of Jacob Marks and Michael Baron, Rom. And think well on what they elected to do in the long term. Also tell yourself that if two Wraiths could make such choices, could there be others out there? Not just on Earth but on all the other planets where YOU made them flee to? You will have your answer then, my friend." He raised his hand as energy billowed. "Now return to Galador; I took the liberty of stopping its shift towards this sector of space and restored it to where it should have been before your Prime Director's other-self acted as he did."
And with a flash of energy, the Spaceknights vanished from Galactus' ship…as the star god himself appeared. A glance outside by Terrax revealed a burning white sun and a shattered asteroid field where Wraithworld had once been, the blackness of the Dark Nebula slowly being burned away. "You have sent them back to their home world, Destructo?" the Devourer of Worlds then asked.
"I have," the Doctor replied. "And I have given them — especially the one that led you to this place, no doubt in hopes of seeing you killed by this system's rather remarkable natural defences — some words to consider in their war against the white Skrulls." A sigh. "A war the actions of people on Yiziba made inevitable. If it was not the actions of the Galadorian that would see that chapter of that race's history be finally closed, another race would have done something similar. I will leave you now."
And with that, he was gone. Galactus seemed to smile for the briefest of instances before he gazed on Infinity as she floated up to his head level. "So…did they pass the test, Galan-kun?" the woman born Kasuga Ayumu then asked.
"They did. Galador will be spared from my hunger as long as its native population live on that world. Beyond that, I give no guarantees," Galactus declared.
"Um…Master?"
"What ails you, Terrax?"
"Who is this woman with us now?" Terrax then asked.
"She is Yizibajohei, Terrax. The most powerful of their kind."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"One of the UNSPEAKABLE ONES?! Master, WHY?!"
As Terrax tried not to scream out in horror, Infinity sighed before she gazed on Galactus. «Galan-kun, you REALLY need to get yourself a better herald!»
«I fear you are right, Ayumu,» the star god replied as we now…
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:11)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.