Eye of Ra (18 page)

As Anubis gripped his fully transformed weapons, liquid gold poured from parts of his armor coating him as Laurence’s Menos did him, except instead of stopping at his neck, it began to cover his entire head.

“Why does he look like he came to start some shit?” Laurence stammered, “And what’s up with his Menos?”

“Clearly his armor is an upgraded version of your armor,” answered the familiar.

“How upgraded?” he swallowed.

As Anubis’ Menos enclosed his face, it shaped and hardened itself into a visage of a creature similar to a jackal. The eyes of the helm blazed with the same untamed Awakening energies that poured from the blades of his khopeshes.

“Twelve thousand years upgraded,” it confirmed.

“He doesn’t need to be up close to hit me with those things,” Laurence took another step back. “Does he?”

“No he does not.” It answered.

Without a shred of wavering, Anubis began to twirl his blades with swordsmanship skills Laurence had seen in countless kung fu movies. He was transfixed with awe of how someone so large and powerful could also be so fast and graceful.

“Prepare to evade now,” commanded the familiar.

“What?” A terrified Laurence requested.

In one single fluid motion the Annunaki warrior executed a wide sword swing, which sent a powerful flash of blue cosmic energy from his right handed blade slicing through the air and solid ground right at Laurence.

He awkwardly dived for cover with nanoseconds to spare as the energy attack sliced through the thick foliage he stood behind before dissipating. His eyes nearly popped from his skull as he turned to see the fatal damage one energy-powered swing could do.

“W-w-what do I do?” Laurence stammered.

“Option one is to retaliate,” it suggested. “However …”

“Retaliate!” Laurence screamed. “Retaliate!”

“Extend me, and aim,” instructed the familiar.

A quaking Laurence aimed the staff again using both hands this time. The parts of the staff made of Ember began to glow shaking the Earth as the familiar opened its mouth releasing near-deafening volleys of primordial projectiles back at Anubis.

The blades of the Egyptian god’s khopeshes glowed brighter as he skillfully twirled and swung them, deflecting the destructive blasts. Everything rattled all around them as Laurence’s energy attacks dissipated against Anubis’s effective energy charged defense.

“This son of a bitch can block energy attacks?” 

“Anubis’ familiars possess the same abilities and properties as my model,” answered Laurence’s familiar. “He has honed his combat capabilities since childhood.”

“Familiar …” Laurence trembled.

“Yes?”

Laurence turned on his heel and sprinted for his life through the forest of Rwanda.

“I take it you have chosen option two,” the familiar confirmed.

“Yes!” he screamed. “Hell to the yes!”

Laurence prayed his armor-boosted superhuman speed would get some distance between him and the alien warrior hell-bent on killing him. The hairs on his body stood on end as the forest erupted in flame, blazing with the projectile attacks Anubis unleashed.

“Dis dude crazy!” Laurence frantically panted. “He crazy, yo!”

“I believe his mental faculties are intact,” the familiar informed him.

“Figure of friggin speech!”

With a one-track mind to avoid being murdered, Laurence bolted through a Hutu hunting party of twenty men. The men scattered for cover, but before they could comprehend who or what had charged right through them, they were scorched from existence by the destructive output of the Awakening energy unleashed by Anubis’ projectile attacks. 

They came across an abandoned shack. Laurence slid to a halt and quickly dived behind it to collect himself.

“What the hell is his problem?” he asked the familiar, trembling. “Why is he trying to kill me?”

“As I said, I am unable to read minds, so I cannot tell you what his intentions are.”

“So why don’t you
start
with how the
hell
he found me?” Laurence demanded.

“Armor synchronization automatically sends a signal back to the home-world that someone within Ra’s bloodline has activated the armor and is currently using it,” said the familiar. 

“This is about the goddamn armor?” Laurence was frantic. “Tell him I’ll gladly give it back to him if he wants! He can take you and it, drop my naked black ass back in Brooklyn for all I care, and go!”

“That is impossible.”

“Why not?” He yelled.

“Armor synchronization is permanent,” answered the familiar. “Once the bond has been completed, no one else can wear the armor until the current wearer’s lifespan has ended. Also, my primary order is to obey and serve the Earth-born descendant of Amun-Ra without fail until their life is extinguished, which is currently you.”

“Only if I’m dead, that’s the
only
way he can take you and the armor? If I am dead?” a stunned Laurence braced himself on the wall of the shack. “And he knows this?”

“Correct,” answered the familiar. “All Annunaki know this.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” He screamed.

“You did not ask.”

Before Laurence could curse the familiar out, the shack they hid behind was blown to splinters around them. This projectile attack from Anubis’ khopeshes was unleashed much faster than the others. Not even Laurence’s familiar could warn him in time.

The blast sent Laurence flying through the air at fatal speeds, smashing through several small and midsized trees. His armor was the only thing protecting him from the reaper’s embrace. Laurence awkwardly smacked into the ground, rolling several times and coming to a painful halt.

Pain was nothing new to Laurence; he was a former member of the gridiron gang. As a football player, it was an occupational hazard every time he suited up. And there were days, almost weeks, when he weathered through the pain of his once-ruined knee before he could take no more and shot up.

A fractional hit from raw Awakening energy at near point-blank range dwarfed anything he had felt … ever. Laurence felt it on a molecular level …if that was even possible.

  He was sure he was deaf. White noise violated his eardrums, and his bones refused to stop rattling. Through blurry vision he could see his familiar, now in its serpent mode, slither over to him after he released it in mid-fling. He groaned as he dug his fingers into the soft dirt attempting to get up, but slumped back down onto his stomach. Laurence was sure the familiar was talking to him through his helm, but his ears would not allow any more noise in. The vibrations were messing with his equilibrium.

Laurence watched the familiar preparing to defend him. Its serpent form increased to five times its original size as it laid down a rapid vicious salvo of return fire in the direction of the attack that had sent Laurence flying.

He mumbled an order for his faceplate to rise so he could spit out the blood swishing in his mouth. Laurence’s returning vision could see Anubis wading through the building-toppling cover fire his familiar unleashed to defend him. Anubis deflected it easily.

Time in that moment stood still. Laurence saw in Anubis everything that he felt he was not: powerful, disciplined, fearsome, fearless, and determined, most notably at the task of attempting to kill Laurence. A tiny part of him almost found it admirable.

“Laurence Danjuma!”

His hearing had returned. Laurence finally heard his familiar’s voice booming inside his helm.

“I cannot hold him back for long. We must mount a proper retreat to regroup. I am requesting authorization to take control of the armor in order to ensure escape,” the familiar said.

He fought with his battered body, forcing it to crawl to its side.

“Authorized!” he groaned. “Authorized!”

Without hesitation, his familiar collapsed into a smaller form and slithered onto his back converting into scepter mode. His armor’s housing locked the scepter into place once again. Taking control, the familiar brought down the faceplate to his helm.

Laurence’s body was no longer his own. The familiar, now in control of the armor, got him to his feet and launched him toward the stratosphere before Anubis could unleash another volley. Laurence could hear the beginnings of Anubis’s howl of frustration and the ignition of his own form of propulsion. Anubis was taking flight to continue the hunt.

His familiar straightened out his body in his armor, increasing speed and greatly lengthening the gap between them and Anubis.

“Initiating Celestial mode,” informed the familiar.

Before Laurence could ask what it had planned, he felt the back plates to his armor open up and move about while his Menos covered his hands, creating gauntlets. A large Alder and Ember sundial disc formed on his back and lit up with Awakening power along with the other Ember on his armor as they went hypersonic, diving into a large dimensional portal that opened up in front of them.

No sooner had they dived through it, the familiar opened up another portal inside of it, and they dived through that one, too. Portal after portal, they rode the dimensional stream to the unknown at unimaginable speeds. Laurence was disoriented and on the verge of passing out as his familiar rocketed them to a destination only it knew.

˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

The rays of a blinding sun woke Laurence up. They dived out of their final portal and were rocketing over a massive body of water.

“Jesus Christ!” he screamed.

It was large and airborne, about the same size of a blue whale from head to tail, gliding across the ocean. Crimson and gold-etched scales covered it from head to tail and glinted in the sunlight. Its wings, which were the span of an airliner, were nearly transparent; hints of red could be seen here and there in the light. Its fan-shaped tail was the same except for specks of blue hidden amongst the red.

A matching transparent dorsal fin on its back and webbed feet hinted that it had aquatic capabilities. But the large array of horns on its head along with the huge daggers it had for claws made it something not to be trifled with. As it glided across the ocean, one of its red and yellow eyes glanced Laurence’s way. Using its long swan-like serpent neck, it lowered its head with jaw open into the water, scooping up any sea creature unfortunate enough to get in the way of its mouth. Then it raising its head again, allowing the excess water to spill out as it chomped away at its seafood lunch with its swords for teeth.

As it glided away to find more food, Laurence came to the realization that flying with what could only be described as a sea dragon meant he was no longer on Earth. His senses began to crash.

“Where … where are we?”

“We are currently on Gendari, approximately twenty light years away from your current solar system,” the familiar answered. “It is a fairly young planet, atmospherically equivalent to Earth despite being fourteen times larger, with no current intelligent life on it.”

“Land …I …want … to land … now,” he mumbled.

“Approaching a large land mass at current speeds in less than a minute,” the familiar said.

Converting back to sentinel mode in midflight, they touched down on a beach which was inhabited by a flock of horse sized versions of the beast Laurence had just encountered. A better look revealed that they were a different breed; they were equipped with only one fin-like horn on their heads, and instead of mouths with rows of sharp teeth, they had pointy beaks. Their wings were also more solid, while their tails lacked the fan that the massive beast’s had.

Some were solid yellow, some orange, others were bright green, and still others were purple. A few lifted their heads, curious about the invader who had interrupted their sun bathing.

Laurence looked away from them just in time. He mumbled a command for his faceplate to rise and hurled whatever was in his stomach out onto the Gendarian sand. A moment later he removed his entire helm, dropping it on the sand as he fell onto his hands and knees, still hacking up the mostly liquid contents of his swirling stomach.

His body trembled violently.

“Your armor indicates that you are not suffering from any physical trauma, and the planet does not have pathogens that could cause you any type of lethal illness,” the familiar reported slithering up to him. “I detect that you may be suffering from some type of anxiety attack.”

“Get the away from me … right now,” he groaned.

“Hear me half-breed!” Anubis’s eerie voice boomed from Laurence’s discarded helm. “I know that you are listening!”

“Does he know where we are?” Laurence whispered harshly, picking up the helm.

“Negative,” it answered. “During our escape I completed twenty dimensional jumps. With each jump, I transmitted a false energy signature approximately twenty thousand times. It will take his familiars quite some time before they will be able to decipher which are the false signatures and lock onto us. He can transmit a message to all of the locations he believes we are including our current one. As long as we do not respond, he will be unable to pinpoint our location, so I advise that we do not.”