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Shadowlight1 -> The Origin of the Universe (6/15/2012 22:55:22)
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Written by myself. Character names taken from actual players with a few made up. Feel free to discuss here
Chp 1: Dark memories
Eclipse placed his palm on the ground and felt something cold and metallic. A railroad track. He pushed himself off the ground and blinked back the stars that were in front of him. The pain in his forehead was intense, despite the protection from his helmet.
He looked down the long, dark tunnel and saw a light quickly coming closer. “Why do I keep getting myself into these situations?” he thought.
Eclipse was known as a hero, meaning he placed the well-being of others in front of his own on a nearly daily basis. The people on the train were in danger, but Eclipse was as well. It was either him or those people.
“But this was the promise I made. I will do this even if it kills me.”
He could see the train bearing down on him. Using all of his energy, he created a repulsive barrier around himself. It wasn’t enough.
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30 minutes earlier…
Eclipse was in his moon base repairing several pieces of equipment that had been damaged as well as modifying some others. “That Lunarox,” he muttered with disdain, “he made a mess of my base. He’s so…”
Eclipse welded a large crack in a circuit board using solar energy without bothering to finish his sentence.
Lunarox. The moon spirit that had merged with Eclipse’s body and first gave him his powers. That had taken over his body during an alignment, created a voodoo version of the Earth in another dimension that was known as Dimension Zero and caused great damage to many parts of the world from it. Who even created a digital dimension inside of a supercomputer and forced many heroes to play in several games just for his amusement.
Fortunately, thanks to Clown the Jester, a psychotic villain whose actions were unpredictable even to him, Eclipse and Lunarox were separated and Eclipse managed to trap him inside Dimension Zero. A fine ending, except that Eclipse often heard Lunarox’s voice within his dreams sometimes. As if he was anxious to seize control once more. But they were nothing more than an occasional faint, incoherent whisper; evident that Lunarox was in no position to do any harm.
Finally finished with his repair work, Eclipse turned on one of his many monitors and flicked to the local news channel for Super City. The announcer was giving a live broadcast on Clown the Jester having hijacked a subway train.
“A subway train? How lame, he must be running out of ideas.” Eclipse leaned back in his chair and was lost in thought for a moment. Then he decided.
“Alright then, I might as well go do something about it.”
Eclipse donned his specialized armor and flew towards the Earth. On the way, he passed by a huge cannon floating in space between the Earth and the Moon.
It was several kilometers long and was possibly the technological epitome of Lunarox’s expertise.
"This brings back memories, Lunarox used it to fire dark matter energy and create clones of planets in Dimension Zero. Fortunately the link between Earth and Earth Zero was lost when Lunarox and I were separated…ah, can’t forget my mission.”
Eclipse quickly reached the subway station and saw the subway train rush by at a much faster speed than it should have been. Eclipse used his ability to travel at great speeds and quickly got on the last car and rushed to the front, passing crowds of scared passengers.
Reaching the front, he saw Clown the Jester, with the bloody body of the conductor on the ground next to him.
Clown was wearing the conductor’s cap over his purple hair and was staring casually out the window with a grin on his face.
“Well hello there moon boy. I was expecting Drakkoniss, but you’ll do for now. Just give this train a minute to reach the nearest highly-populated area, and the high-yield explosives I placed in this thing will cause some fireworks worth seeing.”
He laughed maniacally. Eclipse knew better than to waste words or time with this guy a long time ago. He sent bursts of solar energy towards Clown who dodged them with insane speed. Clown took out two switchblades and attacked Eclipse, coming within inches of his throat.
Eclipse then used his gravity powers and smashed Clown against the ceiling. Then the side of the car. Eclipse sent him flying around the car like a pinball ball on bumpers until he landed in a heap on the floor.
Eclipse ran to the controls and saw that Clown had torn the throttle off. He heard the madman rising behind him. Eclipse turned around, his hand sparking with plasma energy, but hesitated when he saw that Clown was aiming at Eclipse’s forehead with a popgun. The cork was clearly visible on it.
What’s the matter moon boy? Don’t like my toys? They are tons of fun, why don’t you see for yourself?”
He pulled the trigger. The cork struck Eclipse with such force that he was blasted through the front of the train and landed on the tracks several hundred meters away. And now he had a splitting headache.
Eclipse pulled himself up and saw the train quickly moving towards him. He created a barrier of gravitational energy around himself to stop it. But it didn’t slow it down in time.
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Eclipse felt like he was floating in nothingness before his feet seemed to touch something solid. But there was nothing around him at all. Just him. Alone in an empty world. His shadow (if nothing was there, how was there a shadow?) rose up behind him and changed form. Eclipse turned around and found himself staring at the eyes of his foe, Lunarox. He had taken on a form identical to Eclipse but with piercing red eyes instead of Eclipse’s light blue.
“Why hello there my old host, you seem to be doing well without me. Can’t say the same for myself, though. It’s really boring living in an empty world alone you know, and in my current state, I can’t even pick up a magazine. Hm, you seem to have taken a pretty good hit it seems. Were you hit by a train or something?”
“Something like that…” Eclipse answered quietly. He couldn’t say that he was happy to see his enemy in front of him, even as a mirage. “So, trying to get into my head again? Didn’t I finish you off last time?”
“Wrooong,” he replied, “there’s no stopping me, there’s only delaying me, and I think you’ll be interested in hearing what my next, and greatest plan will be.”
Eclipse didn’t reply. He knew that Lunarox would tell him even if he didn’t care. He loved to show off.
“It involves the origin of the universe, to put it simply. Do you know how this universe came into being, hmm?”
“Of course, the universe was contained in an incredibly small, dense mass. Eventually, the Big Bang…”
Lunarox cut him off, “WRONG! All wrong.” Lunarox moved uncomfortably close to Eclipse’s face.
“People always say the Big Bang created the universe, hasn’t anybody considered any alternatives? Honestly. A couple of scientists throw out a teaspoon of evidence, and everybody assumes it’s true. Well it’s not. There is no Big Bang. At least not the way people believe. You got that?”
Eclipse wasn’t sure whether or not Lunarox was trying to fool him or if he was being serious. “OK then, if there wasn’t a Big Bang, how was the universe created?”
“I’ll tell you later,” he replied, “if I told you everything at once, it wouldn’t be any fun. But once you find out, it’ll be too late to stop me.”
“But you can’t do anything right now. You’re stuck in Dimension Zero and the only way out is a two-way dark matter-based portal; one in Zero, and one here in Dimension Prime. Even if you can make a portal there, you can’t cross over without one being here as well.”
Lunarox moved behind Eclipse and put his arm around him. Eclipse could feel an intense, irritating aura emanating from him.
“That’s true,” Lunarox said, “but I always think one step in advance. But also, in my spirit form I can’t do any harm to anybody. I need a host body until I can find a way to reconstruct my own. And because of what happened oh so long ago, I can only bind myself to one with your blood, Eclipse.”
“And I won’t allow you to do that again.” Eclipse replied.
“I find it odd. You and I have separated, yet you still possess some of my power, I wonder why. However, note that I said I could only bind myself to one with your blood. I didn’t say you specifically, Eclipse.”
“What do you mean?” asked Eclipse quickly.
Lunarox leaned very close to him until his mouth was right next to his ear, “Isn’t it obvious? It’s… “
“Clear!”
Eclipse felt a jolt of energy shock his chest and he jerked back to reality. He opened his eyes and saw a worried Dr. Blackshock standing over him.
“That was close. A moment later and we would’ve lost you.”
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