Chapter 9: Sunset
"Lúmes?!" is heard through the room, ringing, consuming in a flurry of worry. A voice retaliates with a stronger pitch, lifting the mood of the room and blanketing it in a temporary shine of light. The light blinds the room, and binds it in a contract of faith and understanding. This room... is committed. The room of ever-changing, the room of morphing, the tranquil paradise of thought.
***
"LÚMES!" a voice screams.
"THE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!" A voice to a person not currently present in the room. It is the mother of the screaming voice, Ella's matriarch. There is a light, as the body of Lúmes flashes and twists, changing about until it morphs into the current form. The room around her reflects the light like a dozen mirrors, and when the blinding light clears, the entire room is a huge crystal cave, lit up by the glowing presence in the center, the Luma who has progressed into a hero. She stands high, and the light dies down.
"Lúmes?" Ella wonders. "Is that..."
"Me?" Lúmes asks. "Yes. I've... changed. In a sort of vision, triggered by the telling of your past. I saw your mother there, and she guided me into a new future. I've undergone a similar change to that of my sister. I suspect that she and I are now a perfect match for each other, light and dark."
"Wait, so you're telling me that the prophecy has come true?" Ella asked. "That means it's time for you to..."
Lúmes looks down, the impact of what she has to do finally coming to her as sadness fills her face.
"Oh! Lúmes... I guess it won't be so happy after all. But, thinking about it, it seems as if it's necessary in order to save the lives of millions. I'll be with you all of the way!"
"I guess it is necessary. But... I just don't know if I can do it! Well sure she's different, well sure she's not the same, but she's still my sister. My only sister... from birth. We were so happy, and joyous as twins. How did this all ever happen? Was this... Was this all destined from birth? Why did this happen... How.... I just..."
Despite her efforts to stay calm, Lúmes breaks down and begins to sob.."I can't do this... I can't. I can't kill her! She's my sister! How am I supposed to kill my best friend... from birth?" Lúmes begins to wail as the full impact of what she has to do sinks in. Ella comforts her, trying her best to calm her companion.
***
Above the underground cave lies the icy frozen landscape of Iceria, now at sunset. As the sun goes down, the moons shine brighter in the sky and the sun grows dimmer over the horizon. Now, it is near night, and the games will begin under the darkened tri-moon sky. Iceria has seen its last sunset.
***
Rosalina and the Lumas struggle in the mucky paste that binds them, and stop as a single noise strikes fear into their hearts. It is the noise of a door opening outside and creatures filing in. There is silence, as the door closes behind them.
"Mama," Luma Pete asks, "what is tha-"
Luma Pete is cut off by a screeching sound. The door is knocked off its hinges and an insect-like creature blasts into the room, followed by others. It has a brown body with a topsoil texture. Its eyes are on stalks, and are creepy and lizard-like. It has six legs, each ending in four claws, and a huge talon. On its body are red wings, with the veins visible and bug-like. At the front of its body is its mouth, behind large, sharp-toothed claws. The Lumas are too frightened to try to wriggle free, but Rosalina tries to reach her wand, which is cemented in the muck nearby her. The insect creatures leap forward at the defenseless cosmos residents.
***
In her dark chamber, Klúmes calls in CirCrisen. The squid crawls into the room and bows to his master. "Yes?"
"Did you send out the execution order?"
"Yes, my Lady. I've sent out 'them' to destroy the cosmotians."
"Fabulous. Now, there is work to be done. I want you to contact our bases on Iceria's three moons, and tell them to commence the operation. The time has come to expand my power. I grow weak. When those meddling Lumas and 'Mama' are lying on the cold, hard floor of the deepest caverns below this castle, bring me one. Not just anyone, but I want Rosalina. It's time to show Mama who's boss."
There is a pause, as the devious Luma smirks. "Lady Klúmes?" CirCrisen asks.
"What?"
"There's one more thing..."
"And what is it?"
"You know how you disposed of the threats to your empire?"
"My sister and her friend, yes. What about them is so important that you need to waste my time?"
"Well, I sent 'them' to check if the meddlers were still alive, but there was some sort of cave-in caused by an unknown force. It was as if the cave voluntarily collapsed, blocking every entrance into it. How is that possible?"
"They're not dead?! THEY'RE NOT DEAD? Destroy the cave then. I want nothing to get out!"
"Well that's the problem... You see, the cave won't clear away, it's like it's invulnerable to attacks."
"Well if we can't get in then they can't get out! Now, it's time for me to begin Phase Two of my plan. After setting up moon communications, you will meet me in the lab, and we'll begin configuring the machine to ensure the ultimate destruction of Iceria, but a faster one than your Dark Lord envisioned. The Ice Stone can be used in conjunction with the Emerald Spirits to power the machine in a faster and more powerful way, so I can ensure that Iceria has seen... its last sunset."
***
Rosalina struggles to move around in the solid muck to reach her wand, but it is too late. One of the creatures jumps on her and sinks its fanged teeth into her neck. Meanwhile, the Lumas have managed to escape and band together, all but Luma Pete, who is still struggling to release himself. Redar flies around and distracts the insects while Lumaria tries to pull Luma Pete out using her Pull Star. She struggles, and he is finally released from the cement-like stuff and joins her as they both try to pull the insect off of Rosalina as venom sinks in to her.
They manage to get it off and the beast goes flying across the room and hits Redar, who sinks into a crowd of the insects. Rosalina is out like a light, falling unconscious. The insects jump at Luma Pete and Lumaria, who use their Pull Star in reverse to push them back. Redar gets out bit is then struck by an attacking bug. He goes flying into the other Lumas and they go flying into a vent, jam-packed down the tube. The beasts jump at the vent, but are too big to fit inside, so they try to content themselves with snapping at the Lumas.
"Hurry! We've got to get away from here!" Luma Pete exclaims.
"We can't just leave Mama here!" Lumaria confronts Luma Pete.
"Well, if we're captured, than who is there to try to break her out?" Redar asks. "There will be no one. There are no villages that we know of that are inhabited, the one we're in right now is dead. The twins are dead, and Rosa is all but captured, who else is there?"
The other Lumas nod and hurry down the ventilation system, as their Mama is taken away by strange insect creatures.
***
Above the barren planet, the Comet Observatory faces the oncoming ships. More join them until there is a small fleet of ships challengingly floating before the visiting craft. Each ship is like a black pear lying on its back, appearing only like a pear from an above view, with a metallic finish. There are two green dots on either side of each pear-shaped ship, and a trail of light that emits from the back, like the trail from a blazing rocket. There is no visible windshield or any sort of weapons, but something tells Polari that they are there. He rushes to the control room. "Can someone contact one of those ships? I want to see-"
He is cut off as one of the ships contacts them first. "You have been deemed dangerous by the High Lady. Prepare to be annihilated," A robotic voice eerily threatens.
The fleet forms together in a four by four formation. The front ships begin to glow in a green color and the green dots on the front shift a tad to the right, forming a small, ovular opening. The top of the ships in the next two rows open like an automatic sliding door. A straight up and down shape begins to rise out of the hole. It is dark gray in color, with rectangular indented ridges running the whole way around until they reach a black stripe near the bottom that connects to a cannon-like axel and base, both black. The top of the shape is an iron rod that splits into a satellite disc-shaped piece at the end of it. Emerging from the satellite dish is a faint radioactive glow. The shape goes from up and down to straight ahead, like a cannon, pointed directly at the Comet Observatory.
The ships in the back do the reverse. The bottom opens up to reveal a small dome that lowers downwards into the depths of space before abruptly halting. Inside the tome is a small cylinder with three arms that connect to the inside wall of the glass dome. On the end of each arm, just before the connection in the wall, is a small orb that is in three colors, one for each or the arms. One is green, the other black, and the last one is a medium tan-like color. The arms begin to spin and the colors leave trails behind them that run into the next orb. Eventually the rotating shape is just a blur, followed by the different colors. There is a small chemical reaction in which the colors combine and release a flash of light that reflects off the glass of the dome and back into the center.
Eventually a large ball of different colors is formed, each color reflecting off the glass and into the center, which soon becomes a glowing ball of light. The dome swings off hinges on the back of it, the front coming off the bottom of each ship and swinging to an area behind the spaceship. The rotating arm spins off its connected point on the ship's bottom and flies forward into the comet, alongside three other similar formations, each carrying a similar ball of light. The ball and arm both impact the Comet and explode in a multicolored explosion that emits a deafening, electronic war.
Each of these "bombs" hits the Comet
in areas such that not much damage is caused, but rather shows off power
as a steaming pile of ash remains where metal, glass, or stone once resided.
The Lumas begin running to hide in a chaotic pandemonium. The front ships
release their glowing charge, and an ovular beam of an awkward fire emits,
shooting into the crowd of fleeing Lumas.
The cannon turrets on the top of the
two middle rows of ships begin to vibrate. The metal rod turns red and
a chemical reaction occurs as the rod glows neon green and emits a gas.
The satellite tip ends emit a red light that reflects through the dish
and combines with the radioactive green rod. A flash flies through the
air at the Observatory and hits the Kitchen. The radius of impact flashes
as all color fades from the damaged portion of the Comet's dome. The blank
white color darkens and the impacted area crumbles into a gray dust. The
turrets reload and fire again.
"Permission to fire-" a Gearmo starts speaking to Polari in the Control Room, but is interrupted.
"Just fire it!" Polari panics.
Outside the room there is a glow from the very top spire of the Observatory. A shooting star materializes out of nowhere and zooms straight down into the fleet of ships at an incredible speed. There is a flash as the shooting star bursts right in the center of the armada in an explosion of light, leaving a sparkling mist of Star Bits as the incinerated remains of the ships float out into open space.
Polari's jaw drops. "When did we get that?!"
"After the whole incident with Mario and the Center of the Galaxy. Rosalina decided we needed emergency defense systems."
"Speaking of Mama, can someone reopen the communications line with them? We lost transmission after they went looking through that lab or wherever they were."
One of the Gearmos presses a buttons, sending a transmission request.
The controls flash, signaling an incoming transmission. On the video screen, the destroyed communication center is seen, lifeless.
"What happened there?" Polari is appalled.
The line cuts to static before showing a scene of a dark, icy room. Someone can be seen floating through the dark before stepping into the light from the glow of the computer scene. It is Klúmes.
"So. It appears you have destroyed the fleet I sent to destroy you? Well played, I must admit!" she muses.
"Klúmes?! What are you doing-" Polari is interrupted.
"It's Lady Klúmes to you. And I'm new and improved. But, enough small talk. I'll give you an option. Join me, or die!"
"Who are you?! What happened to-"
"The fun-loving, nice, kind Klúmes? I've already had that spiel. Listen, if this is so emotional for you, then I guess it's time for you to perish!"
The video chat closes, as Polari has an emotional breakdown. In the distance, a swarming armada 50 times larger than before begins its way towards the Comet.
To Be Continued...
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