How do you tell your friends that the death, destruction and darkness they've been experiencing is about to get a whole lot worse? That is the question that circles around my noggin as I fly to our base from the school. But also there is the potential that all life is soon about to end, because a bored yet murderous alien warrior on a longer streak than the Undertaker in his prime is coming, dead set on making Earth his 71st destroyed world. By the time I land i realise there really is no way to drop it gently, so I just drop it.
I tell them what Marlea told me, the details of what's coming in living colour, the details of the intergalactic tournament of power experiment we as a planet have been a part of this entire time, without our consent. Then I sit back and wait while the silence grows into a gigantic elephant that demands to be addressed.
Marc speaks first, "So all the fighting, all the dying everyone's been doing lately. And that fucking science psycho in a white suit, the world being turned upside down. Is all because some alien war-god wants someone who can punch him hard enough?"
I cock my head, "Pretty much, yeah?"
"Can we take him?" Toni asks
"Doesn't sound like there's much choice in whether or not we can, with or without putting up a fight this Rekith is coming." I say
"Kinda makes me wish maybe we hadn't killed Carmichael, just to throw him at this guy first. Bet he'd have been useful." Nicole says with a chuckle
"He needed to die," I reply darkly, thinking of Winter's body in my hands and the pain of her death, though I do add, "but I would kinda pay to see that, him ripped in half by a space warrior."
"What powers does he have?" Toni asks
"I don't know, T. But from what Marlea said I don't think he knows what our powers are either." I say, my mind trying to formulate a plan to fight our version of Thanos.
The others look thoughtful, a little dejected and honestly I can't blame them. The last few months have been rough, life as a fugitive is not all it's cracked up to be. Is it crazy to say I miss my parents, and actually being a kid, what I wouldn't give to be a first year at some university worried about parties and assignments. Makes me wonder how Toni feels a little being a kid in an teenager's body.
"What are you cooking over there, chief?" Marc asks, I realise I was starting to drift down the rabbit hole of random thoughts, but I can't tell him that.
"We have less than two weeks, and we need all the help we can get."
"We have our army waiting," Carla replies
"You really wanna throw a bunch of bodies at an intergalactic gladiator?" I ask
"They're going to die anyway if just us go up against him and lose." Nicole says
That sounds about right, but the Allied Shinobi Forces got decimated by Madara too so there's that, and they definitely had a lot more in their ranks than we do. The logic was sound apart from the certain death part for just about everyone who would go in front of us.
"We throw a bunch of bodies at him then what?" I ask looking around at them.
Toni shrugs, "You said yourself, Marlea didn't exactly write the five of us off to lose. They can wear him down, maybe collectively with the Revolution of Five army we can find an opening, our fifteen abilities combined between us five gotta put a dent in him or something."
"He's got a point," Janice steps into the room, joining the conversation.
"You get a peek into the future or something?" Marc asks hopefully.
Janice shakes her head, "But, from the sound of it I might need to save the few peeks I got left for what's coming."
She steps up to me placing a hand on my shoulder forcing me to lock eyes with her. "Since the day you five broke out and became popular world wide for better or for worse everything you've been doing has been to bring change, and yeah the potential of throwing people into a buzzsaw is.... a heavy choice. And this might be a terrible example but for all his shortcomings Frank understood that, even Carmichael understood that, yes the way they went about their business was shrewd and dark but they saw the sacrifices the way they needed to for their sake. You can do things your way, but everyone choice to be here, the members of your army chose to join up. Why don't you let them choose if they want to die for their planet or not?"
Damn, with a speech like that maybe she should be leader of this thing over me. But yeah I do get what she means, the choice should be theirs, it doesn't change the fact that we need some big guns, we've faced a few but I don't know if the team's going to buy what I'm about to sell them.
"Thank you, Janice," I say smiling and gently tapping her on the shoulder. "I needed that."
A pang of pain hits my heart because I almost asked for Winter to help with broadcasting, another reminder of her needless death.
"I need to get the message out, about Rekith's coming. Set a place for our last stand, evacuate nearby settlements or cities. Whoever wants to fight for the planet will meet us there." I say to Janice, who nods.
"How sure are you when Rekith comes he won't decimate other parts of the planet where we aren't, innocent people could die." Toni asks
"Because I'm get in touch with Marlea, to tell him we're calling him out to face us, if he's that thirsty for a showdown he will come to where we are." I say taking a breath to steady myself for what I want to say next.
"Why do I sense a but?" Nicole narrows her eye as she asks.
"But we need all the help we can get. The black forms, the Shudder sisters, and Lecob." I say
There's a moment of silence amongst everyone, before Carla speaks.
"An hour ago with no context I'd have called you crazy, but they could actually be game changers considering what's coming. The question is where do we find any of them, and how do we even convince them to join the cause?"
"The same way we reach everyone else, we put it out there with the broadcast, call them out specifically and hope they're listening."
"And if they don't see the broadcast?" Nicole
"That's where I'm hoping a little of that psychic projection of yours comes in handy." I say chuckling nervously.
Nicole does not look impressed. "You want me to throw my mind around into the heads of psychos hitting them with the good old 'join us' routine huh Prime?"
"Would it help if I said throw my mind at them instead?" Marc asks
"Fine."
"That means we need those black deployment boxes Carmichael keeps the black forms in." Toni says, "Anyone know how he controlled them?"
"Yeah... I hadn't thought that far yet. For now let's figure out how to get them." I say biting my inner lip thoughtfully.
"I don't think WECA will loan them to us will they." Marc jokes dryly
"So what's the game plan this time, chief?" Marc asks.
"I'll record a message for those that joined up with us that are left, and drop a location for the battle."
"Which is?" asks Carla
"I don't know yet..." I say
Janice snaps her fingers after a moment of thinking, her eyes brightening at whatever lightbulb went off in her head.
"Kolmanskop, Namibia. Its been abandoned for over 70 years, and its 10 kilometers from the nearest civilian population, which we could also evacuate."
"Abandoned is good, we can maybe hold him there, assuming his powers aren't too destructive an---"
"There's someone else we're going to need for this." Toni says raising his voice, turning everyone's attention to him.
"O.R, his time travel power, we'll need it." he says
Marc growls, "That bastard doesn't care about the world, he only cares about the past. There's nothing we can offer him that'll make him join up with us."
"Yes there is," Toni persists, "His power only allows him to stay a certain amount of time in the past right? And he milks every second he can by returning here to present day as soon as possible to mitigate the cost of using it, which is his reverse aging. There has to be a here for him to return to in order for that to happen. That's his stake, that's how we get him."
We all exchange looks, Toni's right, O.R might not care too much about the present time but it is essential to his time travel life, at least until he runs out of time and ages in reverse too far.
"Still, I don't think he'll give us all his jumps." Marc argues still, though with less conviction in his voice.
"Yeah, but we only need one. And it wouldn't be as far as he usually goes." I say.
"I don't like how this sounds," Nicole says, "Between you and Toni, you're making it sound like this Rekish is gonna wipe the floor with us and we'll have one reset button."
"That about covers it, if he does wipe the floor with us we need someone who can who jump back to warn us," I say looking at Janice, "Just as much as we'll need Janice to glimpse forward to guide us. I know it's sounding real Days of Future past, but Toni's right if we're going to survive this and dare to dream of a win. We'll need every tool in shed. Because at some point we'll be out tricks and it'll be all or nothing vs Rekish."
Reluctantly everyone nods, approving the idea.
"Alright, Carla, its you and Toni to meet O.R and convince him. Janice and I on the broadcast. Marc and Nicole you two reach out to our unlikely recruits. We all meet up in Kolmanskop in three days try and set up a camp of some kind, train while everyone arrives. Then we try and save the world." I say.
Marc sighs, "Aren't we always."