Many people hail Boomerang as an honorable idiot, and others as a selfish idiot. Honorable, because he was the only individual to ever come close to single-handedly destroying the Lavoids. Selfish, because if he had asked for help, he might have succeeded. But in reality, he was neither. He had no interest in helping humanity and the other sentient races of the universe, not even his own kind. His fight against the Lavoids was not based on revenge; at least not as we know it. His attempted assassination was only because the Queens were taking control of a galaxy that he perceived as belonging solely to him. His strongest wish was simply to live as a brave warrior, and die as one as well. In his own eyes, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
- Latulla Carev, The Definitive History of the Lavoid Race
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30,000 A.D. (Elosia Reckoning), Planet Heptlavica
"Dark Lord of the Sith?" Terminateria snorted. "Dearie, I don't think being the leader of a group of ancient, self-destructive, inept chi-users is anything to brag about."
Laria though, was grinning deviously. She spread her fingers out, and long claws quickly extended from where her nails had been. "Before we get started, as fair warning, I should tell you that all the powers of darkness in the universe combined can't hope to stand against even a single true agent of Chaos. And you're standing against six of them."
Boomerang was twirling his odd sword hilts more rapidly now. "You can spout off all the Chaos dogma you want, but we both know that's complete bullshit. Before anything existed in this or any other universe, there was darkness. When all is said and done, the stars have all died, and every last drop of Chaos has been used up, there will still be darkness."
"You idiot. Chaos is hardly a finite substance." Sanal scoffed.
"Eh." He shrugged, apparently indifferent, angering the Queens at his lack of respect. Now, a strange device materialized on his face. Laria though it looked kind of like a battle monacle, a concept that made her laugh. With his free hand, Boomerang tapped the side of it, and turned around slowly, staring at each of them for a couple seconds, tapping the device each time he moved. "My scouter reports that four of you have power levels of 25 million." He turned back to Laria. "You, 30 million." Now he turned to Aruna. "And you, 50 million. Nice." He whirled back to Terminateria. "But not nearly nice enough to save you. If your puny brain can comprehend what I'm measuring, you'll see I'm over 300 million when I get warmed up."
"If you actually manage to top a million in any category," Terminateria snorted, "we must be talking about chi. And if chi is all you're measuring by, you're a true idiot indeed."
"Oh, I know you have quite the impressive mastery of time magic." Boomerang said smugly. "I also know that it won't be enough to save you either."
"Uh..." Laria turned to Terminateria. "I hate to break into your pre-battle boasting session, but how much time are we going to give him to get ready on whatever move he's planning over there?"
"Oh, there's no need to give me any more time." The demon said, and the lower part of his metal face lifted up, suggesting a smile. "I'm ready to go, right now." Then, his other arm shot up to the sword hilts, and a split second later, a huge, glowing blade shot out of each end. Each was at least five feet long, and glowing a bright purple. As they rotated rapidly, a thumping sound, like a helicopter blade, echoed throughout the crater. Boomerang stopped the rotation suddenly, one end of the dual blade pointed at Laria. "Starstorm Scream!!" Bright orange bolts of jagged energy rained down from the sky, converging on her. Before the explosion had even dissipated, the demon was facing Terminateria. "Kaioh-ken times eighty!! Hyaaaaaaah!!!"
Even as a fireball at least four times the size of his body engulfed him, he had already closed the distance to Terminateria, and was slashing away with his weapon. The eldest sister had a few close calls at first, but she quickly sped up the timestream immediately around herself, until she was keeping up with him easily. "I see you took a page from the book of Exar Kun." She said calmly, as if having an ominously humming, allegedly dangerous weapon slashing at her ten thousand times a second was about as trying as taking a nap.
"Ah, you mean Atma Demon Sabre Lucied?" Boomerang gave the impression of smiling again. "More from Darth Maul, actually. The hilt on Exar Kun's was so cramped, I don't know how the idiot managed to avoid cutting his own hand off."
"The Sith were from a galaxy which ceased to exist over forty billion years ago." She rapidly jumped backward as his vicious attack continued relentlessly. "Why devote yourself to such an outmoded order?"
"How would you know what happened forty billion years ago?" He demanded. "Lavoids didn't exist until way after the space age on Earth."
"Lavoids exist in all times." Terminateria smiled. "How do you think it came to be that humans evolved on Coruscant and Onderon?"
"What?!" She jerked her head back, as he almost got her in the eye with that outburst.
"Earth is the human home planet. Where humans first evolved. And the only place they would have evolved, if not for us."
"You lie!!" Boomerang shouted. "They evolved on Filgaia! That's firmly in the heart of metal demon space! No Lavoid has ever gotten within ten systems of it!"
Terminateria just grinned wickedly. "Believe what you want to."
"Gyaaah!!!" The demon roared, and a mouth finally revealed itself to bellow that shout of pure rage. It was accompanied by a burst of chi that sped up his actions even more. Terminateria hurried to compensate, but as she lunged backward, he landed a slash across her right cheek. As they both momentarily stood in silence, an orange ichor began to run down her face.
"Ryah!!" Boomerang whirled around, bringing his sabre up in time to parry a slash from Laria's claws. He twirled around, slashing at her neck, but she ducked, then jumped up again as soon as the sabre had passed over her head, slashing into his back. He whirled around, jabbing at the ground, but she jumped above the blade, and slashed at where his eyes would be, if she could see them. He jerked his head back, and she slashed down into his stomach. However, while her claws passed into his metallic flesh easily, he did not seem to show any signs of pain. She twisted her claws around inside his torso, and while a black liquid that might have been blood began to drip from her hands, he still made no movement. She looked up in puzzlement, just in time to see two white points of light that must have been his glowing pupils.
As his gaze met hers, a sudden swell of chi sent her flying backward through the air, to land tumbling end over end in the dust. She picked herself up, spitting dirt out of her mouth. 'A ki-aigan! He blew me away with a simple little ki-aigan!!'
"Well done!" Terminateria applauded lightly. The demon turned to face her again. "If you have more tricks like that, you may prove to be entertaining. Here, how about this? I promise not to use any time manipulation in this battle except for speed to match your chi boosts. Sound like fun?"
"If you want to seal your own fate," the demon spat at the ground, then cracked his neck, "so be it." He assumed a battle stance, waiting for Terminateria to make the first move. She held up her hand, and a sword hilt materialized in it. A second later, a reddish-orange lightsabre blade shot out of it, but soon expanded to a more complicated design. "That's... the Dreamblade." He whispered.
"Indeed, this is the personal weapon of Lathain of Zeal. Or at least, a remarkably accurate facsimile that's just as powerful." She nodded, then aimed the blade at him. In truth, she wasn't sure at all that this was Lathain's weapon, but she wasn't about to let him know that.
"But how... how did you..." He shook his head, glaring all the while.
"Unfortunately, I didn't get to kill the little pest myself, if that's what you're thinking." She sighed. "It was a gift... from an Elder of the future.
Boomerang laughed out loud. "An Elder. Right. And, he just showed up, gave it to you, and left without helping you solve any of the wide variety of other problems your race has?"
Terminateria laughed too. "It's not my place to understand the motivations of an Elder."
"Whatever." Boomerang angled his body forward. "Wherever you got it, Lathain's TAG won't be enough to finish me."
"Oh, don't worry." Terminateria brought the blade tip to rest on the ground, slightly behind her. "This isn't my... Trump Card!!" As she shouted, she swung the Dreamblade upward faster than the speed of sound. The resulting shockwave had transformed into two bursts of energy by the time it reached the demon. They converged on him, and his form was lost in the resulting explosion.
Terminateria let the sword drop as dust filled the battlefield. "Jeez, Garrett was better at that than you." A smug voice drifted out of the dust cloud. She instantly raised the sword up again, just as she felt a chi boost that meant Boomerang had activated a Kaioh-ken. His form blazed out of the cloud, and stopped dead in front of her. However, as she slashed at him, his body became transparent. Before she even realized what had happened, Atma Demon Sabre Luceid stabbed through her back, over four feet of the glowing blade appearing through her stomach. "As I said, you're no match for me. Goodbye." He dropped the sabre, which instantly cut through her intestines, pelvis, and genitals, until it hit clear air, and clattered at her feet, orange blood spraying all over it. Terminateria tried to speed up the time flow around her so should could cast a healing spell uninterrupted, but it was already too late. "Gyarriku-ho! Gallic Gun!!" He shouted, bringing his palms together, fingers spread apart. A huge, purple beam of chi slammed into the Queen's body, which was vaporised instantly.
As Boomerang's arms dropped back to his sides, his vision seemed to blur. A second later, as he watched a time wave dissipate in all directions around him, he found Laria blocking his stab into Terminateria's back with her claws. Of course, the events of the past few seconds had been changed by a time warp, and Terminateria was just fine. Then, the older Queen started to applaud once more. "Well, you are entertaining! Not many beings can speed up faster than I can increase my time flow."
"You thought that was fun?" The red metal on the demon's head raised in surprise. "You're even more twisted than Alhazad was. What a sick bitch." She laughed aloud, and started to say something else, but Boomerang lost all interest as the significance of what had just happened hit him. The timeline had been changed... He had never slain Terminateria in the first place, yet she remembered it. Of course, he did too, but that was only because of the temporal shield emitter in his scouter, which the Queens hadn't noticed yet. It was lucky they had only sped themselves up, rather than trying to slow him down. As soon as they did, they would know something was going on. Terminateria, however, had no such device. It was possible that an internal organ had a similar function, but since Lavoids had been engineered by humans, that wouldn't make sense.
Of course, as the acting Traveler in the timeline change, Laria would remember what had happened. She could have quickly communicated what had happened to Terminateria telepathically. It would have had to have been really quick, but that had to be what had happened. Because if it wasn't...
"As I thought, your temporal manipulation is amazing." He said out loud. "But as I stated earlier, that won't be enough to save you!" He noticed that Laria's amazing, impervious claws seemed to be wavering in their contact with the demon sabre, and he quickly twirled out of her grasp, shearing off most of the claws as he did so. The temporal sensor in his scouter beeped as it registered the time waves around her speeding up, as she tried to dodge the attack she knew was coming. As he was in the second half of his three sixty, he was impressed to see her nearly out of his way already. But not so impressed that he couldn't just blast into a Kaioh-ken, slicing her head clean off at the start of the explosion that sent him hurtling toward the other four Queens. They were spaced reasonably far apart, tense, but not so much that he couldn't trap them.
"Graaah... Renzoku Energy Dan!!" He rained chi down into the crater with lightning speed. Three of the Queens managed to speed themselves up enough to get outside his blast radius, but one was trapped inside. He tossed the demon sabre up into the air, and raised his hands above his head. "Masenko-haaa!!" Even as the Queen raised her hands up to form a chi barrier, Boomerang caught his descending sabre and blasted straight at her. He flew straight through his still dissipating Masenko explosion, and swung his sabre down just as she was opening her eyes.
He was delighted to find his blade stop short against a Shield spell. He floated down to the ground, and smiled. "I see you actually comprehend the true tactics of this battle."
"Yes." He was surprised to hear her sigh. She slowly looked up at him. "I know what you intend to do. But I wish you wouldn't. Killing you is not something I'm interested in doing. It makes no sense for you to die here."
"You? Kill me?" The demon's brow furrowed, before he showed his glinting teeth again. "I see you're into psychological warfare too. So then, Aruna." She gasped, quietly. "It's true what they say about you. You're the most human of them all. Which makes you the most dangerous."
She smiled softly. "I'm not bluffing. If you continue this battle, you will be destroyed. Though I admit, it's not I who will kill you."
"It seems you thought of everything." He continued in a friendly tone. "That leaves me no choice but to do something completely unexpected!" He raised the demon sabre back up, burst into a high Kaioh-ken, and rapidly hacked away at her Shield.
"What are you doing?! Stop!" She cried out, which was puzzling, but he continued his relentless assault. Suddenly, Laria appeared a few feet to his right, smiling.
"Why waste your time fighting- aaaauuggghhh!!!" She screamed as he fluidly disemboweled her, not even pausing before resuming his attack on Aruna. They flew off to the west, leaving Laria spilling her blood into the dust.
"You are not worthy of my attention." He said over his shoulder.
"Please." Aruna said softly. "Surely you've realized by now how you will die if you continue."
"I've known all along." For a moment, his features lightened enough that she could make out his face. It contained a truly happy wry grin. It quickly darkened again. "What makes you think I care?" He raised his sabre high, and fire engulfed both blades. "Ryaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!" His shout seemed to dissolve into an bestial snarl, and with a sense of dread, she detected a fluctuation in the magical field, and knew what he was going to do.
Atma Demon Sabre Lucied smashed through her Shield spell, sending visible magic waves arcing into the ground, then carved deep into her abdomen. He expected her to lash out at him, or set off a spell right in his face. Instead, she held her hands up to her eyes, weeping openly. He was perplexed, but he couldn't have hoped for a better reaction.
As he turned to look up at the other Queens, he was surprised to find tears in his eyes, but even more surprised to find tears in theirs as well. Absently, he raised his left arm, and fired a chi blast that destroyed Aruna's shell. A piercing sound filled the air, and he whirled around to see Sanal emitting a shriek that slowly dissolved into the Lavoid race's traditional battle cry. As one, the Queens rushed at him, all claws extended, magic spells flying, and chi blasts aimed at him. As enough impending destruction to destroy a solar system roared at him, Boomerang closed his eyes, and mused softly to himself. "Well, it appears that the human feeling of kindness still exists in Lavoids, even in the blackest of hearts. No matter what happens now, I've already won."
As the Queens descended on him, he allowed them to rip him to shreds and blow him apart. But he infuriated them by continuing to smile until the very end.
The next thing he was aware of was seeing his sabre firmly embedded in Laria's stomach, which had all somehow mutated into titanium, trapping the blade there. Aruna was sprawled in the dust, having been shoved out of the way by Laria. Rather than attack each other, the demon and the Queen were both transfixed by the time wave which was blasting outward from them. Most time waves just rippled the landscape a little, and looked basically like a collection of heat waves. This distortion stained the ground different colors as it went, and seemed to be almost a kilometer in width. It was visible in the sky as well, the clouds stretching and compressing as it passed.
As one, they turned back to Aruna, who was crying openly. "She does not interfere in the affairs of worlds with sentient species. She never manipulates time unless it cannot be avoided." Laria said in a monotone. Boomerang blinked a few times, then understood. Their eyes fixed on the bulge in Aruna's stomach.
"Thus, the massive time distortion was caused by the child." He concluded. He turned slowly, until he was facing Aruna. "I knew they would erase what I did. I wanted them to. But now, it appears I must repeat the event, and preserve it."
For the first time since he had attacked Aruna, Laria smiled again. "No." She said simply, then sent him flying through the air with a vicious backhand. He finally skidded to a halt over two kilometers away, rubbing his jaw.
"How can this be?!" He demanded as he stood up. "My power is more than sufficient to-" He was cut off as Laria materialized in front of him, slamming a kick full out into his chest. He toppled end over end for nearly five hundred meters before grinding to a halt on his neck.
"Your power is nothing." She said simply. "We were playing a fun little game, allowing you to delude yourself into thinking your were more powerful than us."
Boomerang hunched over, then his metallic muscles tightened as the white fire of a pure chi power up surrounded him. "I'll show you power!! My chi is-"
"Overrated." Laria finished for him. "As Terminateria said, you rely on chi far too much. We can draw upon sources of power you cannot imagine. We were beating you at your own game, until you called game over." They both glanced at Aruna, who was still sitting in the dirt. Blue, glowing tears were streaming down her face, dropping into the dirt, where they did not evaporate. A feeling of dread crept up Boomerang's spine as he saw those. He had to play his ace in the hole very soon.
He tilted his head back and let out a loud guffaw. The other five Queens glared at him. "You were beating me at my game? That's funny, because I was under the impression that I was playing your game." The five collectively raised an eyebrow now. "If I was in any way boring you, I do apologize." Suddenly, he whipped out a device that looked like a white and black egg cobbled together with tubing made out of coral. He pressed a button, and a blue flash blinded everyone for a second. "Do you know what happens when you mix a Chrono Trigger and a Tempo Trigger together?" He asked as his vision returned.
"You didn't!" Jaira shouted.
"I most certainly did." He said smugly.
"What? What did he do?" Laria demanded.
"Well, you'd expect some really weird time distortion when detonating those two at once..." Jaira began.
"But actually, they simply prevent time from being distorted in any way." Boomerang finished. "By anyone. Even those with a natural gift for doing so."
Terminateria tried to speed up the temporal flow around herself, and growled as she realized he was correct. "Finish him! Right now!!" She barked.
Boomerang assumed a defensive stance. "Sources of power I can't imagine? Sorry to break it to you, but imagination is my strongest power of all. There's no way any of you can finish me."
"Talk talk talk!" Laria wagged a wickedly clawed finger as she rushed at him. "If you think we haven't dealt with punks like you before, you're dead wrong."
Boomerang remained motionless until she was almost on top of him, then a white glow surrounded him, and he shouted out, "Righteousness!!" His muscles instantly exploded to nearly triple their former size. He pivoted on his left foot, and landed an absolutely brutal kick to Laria's left cheek. Her head smashed face first into the dirt, but somehow, her feet kept moving, and planted a massive kick under his ribs, sending him flailing through the air. As he was regaining his equilibrium, she activated a chi boost of her own, and rushed up to elbow him at the base of the spine, sending him back into the dirt. She pulled a fist back, ready to shatter his sternum, or whatever passed for it in his metal body. Just before she connected though, his right leg shot into her gut, then slammed her into the ground, creating a sort of miniature crater within the larger one. Boomerang used that momentum to fly back into the air himself.
"Jesus, this is going to take all day." Terminateria groaned. Boomerang glanced back at Aruna, to see that her glowing tears had coalesced into a pool. It was shooting a soft beam of white light high into the the air.
"No, it isn't." He said. "I will end this right now." His body took on a brilliant red glow, and he stuck his arms out at right angles to his body. "Rrrrraaaaaah! Lightning Wave!!" A brilliant wall of energy burst out from his body, quickly rising to over two hundred feet in height. What appeared to be a glowing white tidal wave at first, upon closer inspection, was revealed to be tens of thousands of bolts of lightning, all moving in cooperation with each other. No explosion took place as the spell connected with the Queens, but when it moved on, they were sprawled on the ground, their charred bodies trailing plumes of smoke.
He saw Terminateria raise her head, and instantly burst into a Kaioh-ken. Jetting over to the eldest sister, he kicked her scorched body into the air, then proceeded to land a flurry of kicks that resulted in a series of successivly louder cracking sounds coming from the Queen. He suddenly remembered his demon sabre, and with a tug of the Force, it returned to his hand. Just as he turned to slice Terminateria in half, a blow to the back of his head snapped his neck forward. He whirled around to glare at his attacker, and Jenyel was hurled to the ground with another ki-aigan. Laria raced up at him now, and his eyes glowed brightly green. A small burst of Hellfire erupted across Laria's chest, and she fell back toward the ground screaming in pain. He saw Sanal stirring, and quickly used the Force to hold her down. Finally sure that he had everything taken care of, he turned back toward Terminateria, who was somehow managing to stand on wobbly legs. A healing light repeatedly fell on her, and her broken bones instantly mended up. However, the severe burns inflicted by the Lightning Wave would not heal. "H-how?" She gasped out. "Tell me that much, at least."
"Very well." Boomerang raised the demon sabre above his head, ready to split her in half. "If there is force that pervades this and every other universe based on pure chaos, would there not also be a force derived from pure order?"
She gasped. "You're an agent of Order? So that's how you defeated Chaos?"
"No." He reached a new level of smugness. "I didn't need to tap into Order to deal with the likes of you. As I said, all of you combined can't beat me at my own game. Goodbye." His muscles tensed.
"I can beat you at every game!!" A voice boomed from the heavens.
Boomerang's eyes widened until they were visible. "No!" He shouted, scanning the landscape. "No!! It's not possible! It's...!" He trailed off as he saw Aruna, still sitting calmly in the dust. Either she had protected herself from the Lightning Wave, or something else had. He had a pretty good idea of who that something else was.
He had failed to notice that while they were fighting, the clear blue sky of Heptlavica had become dark with thick clouds, blotting out the sun. Now, the clouds directly above him parted in a perfect circle, and a human shape floated down in the beam of sunlight. Boomerang felt an odd vibration on the side of his face, and realized that his scouter, long-since forgotten, was going nuts. He ignored it for the moment. The human finally landed about twenty feet away from the demon, arms folded calmly. "Just as I thought." Boomerang whispered to himself.
"You are truly impressive!" The man said in a genial voice. He looked to be in his mid twenties, close to six feet tall. He was in good physical shape, but not the mightiest warrior who ever lived. "You really could have killed them all! Unfortunately, I can't allow you to do that."
"Unfortunately?" Boomerang raised an eyeridge. "Why would the Emissary of God think it unfortunate that I was going to kill Lavoid Queens? Aside from your love for Aruna, that is."
"I see you've done your homework." The human nodded. "Yes, I love Aruna with all my heart. And while I wish I could let you slaughter the rest, I cannot."
"Why not? What, is the scourge of the universe officially sanctioned by God?"
"Yes." He said sincerely. "God, the Seraphim, Galaxy Weapons, and Star Weapons have all concurred on the necessity of Lavoids. They are an integral part of the divine mission."
"Then the Seraphim deserve to die." Boomerang said. Growing tired of all the holy talk, he finally took a look at his scouter. Amazingly, he saw it was still tallying numbers, even though it had been a while now. When the last number slammed into place, the CPU instantly exploded, and the crystal display cracked in several places. Even though it was exactly what he expected, what he had expected all along, he still had to gasp as he saw the number in front of him: "Chi power: 999,999,999"
"I thought God believed in the ability of sentient beings to solve their own disputes." Boomerang's calm voice belied his nervousness at the fact that he was moments away from death.
"Normally, yes. But you really would have succeeded in killing all the Queens, even the Queen Mother. I can't allow that."
'Here it comes.' Boomerang thought.
"I'm authorized to stop you however I see fit..." The human trailed off, looking at Aruna, who finally smiled back up at him. "But seeing as you killed the two people most important to me," his voice took on an angry, rasping quality, "in such a brutal manner, I see fit to hang your internal organs out to dry from Elysium's highest spires!!"
"No matter what you do, I- Huack!!" Boomerang had a moment in time where he could clearly see his black blood flying out of his mouth, along with a chunk of metallic flesh. Then, time sped back up to normal, and he skidded into the ground, digging a deep trench. As he sat up, shooting pains ran through his spine. Looking down, he saw that a portion of his torso had been permanently bent out of shape. He looked up. "Your actions are meaningle-auck!!"
He saw far too many teeth go flying out of his mouth, along with a spray of blood, as a kick connected. The side of his face was numb at first, but as feeling returned, a shooting pain went with it. He weakly stood up. "Yeeth, not even gonna let me make a sp-augh!!" The human nailed his legs with a sweeping kick, dropping him instantly. Then the demon felt himself being picked up, and the next thing he knew, he was being rocketed high into the sky.
He blinked rapidly, to make sure he was awake. He had been thrown clear of the atmosphere in just a few seconds! He was in the blackness of space, stars glaring balefully at him. While his metal cells suffered no damage, his organic-based blood cells began to explode from the pressure change. He used a chi burst to fly back into the atmosphere, resigned to his fate. He heard a rattling sound, and realized it was coming from his legs. He looked down just in time to see one foot break off completely, while the other was hanging on by not much more than a wire.
When he began to glow orange from the heat of reentry, the metal holding his foot in place melted, and soon, it did too. Boomerang felt his skin begin to run in rivulets down his wiry muscles, spraying out behind him as he blazed onward, not flinching.
Finally, he plowed through deep blue sky, then a thick layer of cloud, and spotted the human. He flew even faster, ready to deliver a molten punch to the jaw. As he neared the ground, the human easily sidestepped the blow, then delivered a kick to the chest just before the demon rocketed into the ground. The combined effects served to shatter the already battered body into dozens of pieces. Somehow, the voice of the demon still drifted through the dust. The human raised an eyebrow. When the dust cleared, he could see that the head and shoulders of the demon still remained intact, almost like a bust.
"I told them..." the head rasped, "no matter what happened after, I had already won." The head paused to hack up blood. "Your actions here were meaningless." Then the head closed his eyes and frowned, almost as if in concentration. "While I am resigned to my fate, that does not mean I will just submit to it."
The human heard a low humming sound, and whirled around just in time to see Atma Demon Sabre Lucied whirling at him. It slashed at him as quickly and skillfully as if Boomerang had still been wielding it, and he actually had to strain to dodge in time. Boomerang grinned as he manipulated his blade, until he suddenly realized what was really going on.
The human had danced around the blade until it was between himself and the demon, where he abruptly stopped. The sabre slammed into his shoulder, then stopped as if it had hit diamantium armor. The human gave no sign of discomfort. "These actions were not meaningless." He said calmly. "They gave meaning to what was otherwise a bully taunting his lessers."
Boomerang smiled condescendingly. "So anyone who is more powerful than those he fights against is a bully? What does that make you?"
"Bored by this whole thing!" The human smiled, then held his hands up above his head, palms together, fingers spread apart. "Raijinhameha!!" A brilliant ball of yellow chi several miles in diameter instantly burst into being above him, and he slammed it into the ground without a second thought. The explosion doubled the size of the crater, and vaporised the demon's body and sabre in the same instant. It would have vaporised the Queens too, if he hadn't thrown chi barriers up around them. At his direction, the explosive energy shot up hundreds of miles into space, rather than expanding within the atmosphere. The final detonation was visible several systems away.
The human found he was now floating several miles in the air, and the bottom of the Queens' landing zone was now flooding with lava. He had inadvertently done them a favor. He dropped down in front of Aruna. "Call me sooner next time." He said, giving her a tight hug.
She brushed a few remaining tears away. "I didn't think he was really that stupid."
"I don't think it was stupidity so much as he just didn't care." The man responded. "Though I'll bet he cared a bit at the end there." He finally let her go, then smiled.
"So, are you coming home for dinner tonight?" She asked.
"You better believe it!" His grin broadened. "The Farilii brought us a Pizza Hut today."
"A what?" She looked puzzled. "I don't understand this preoccupation you have with ancient Earth food."
"You like it too, don't you?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, I suppose. But considering it's something of a stretch for me to eat physical food in the first place, you could at least take me to a romantic dinner at that restaurant over the Falls of Singh on Arydesh." She looked at him pointedly.
"It's a stretch for you to eat physical food according to them." He waved at the other Queens dismissively, before turning back to her. "But according to... oh." His expression brightened as he finally saw the look in her eyes. He laughed in what would have been an arrogant manner, had he been talking about something else. "Will do then."
"Will you two shut up?!" Terminateria barked, wincing as she got to her feet.
"For Dakama's sake!" Laria groaned, also standing up. "You're even worse than I thought!"
The man glowered, then whirled around. "Do you want me to heal you or not?!" Not a sound was heard. "That's better." He snapped his fingers, and a white burst of light emitted from them. The Queens paused to check themselves over, and found that all of their wicked burns had instantly healed over. Looking up at the edge of the crater, they saw their shells were all in pristine condition as well. He turned and kissed Aruna on the cheek. "I may be a little late. The Elementals are running amok in the south quadrant again."
"I'll wait up." She responded. He effortlessly rocketed into the air, going about twenty times the speed of sound by the time he hit the cloud layer.
While the rest of the Queens waded into the lava for a relaxing soak, Laria and Terminateria remained on the bank. "I want to know where that kid was getting all of his power from." Terminateria growled. "People with intimate knowledge of the Kaioh-ken and a chi level of over 300 million don't show up every day."
"I want to know as well," Laria nodded, "but first, I have a little reality phasing to do."
Terminateria looked surprised. "You're going to Tejran in person?" Laria nodded. "Who's after you that you have to reality phase?"
"No one." Laria grinned. "I just want to screw with the LEA and the Hunters, make them think there was some reason I couldn't just time warp."
Terminateria laughed. "You are a wicked one. Well, sounds like we should both get going then. I'll see if I can find out where our mysterious guest came from, and you... create a god, I guess."
"I guess." Laria nodded. "I'm really not sure what will happen, but his project has intrigued me." They began to walk out of the crater, but Laria stopped, and turned around. Terminateria raised an eyebrow as Laria waded into the pool of lava. She stopped when she stood over Aruna, who was floating lazily. The Emissary's wife looked up in surprise. "No one deserves what he did to you." She said sincerely. "But you least of all." Then, to Aruna's immense surprise, Laria leaned over, and embraced her tightly. "No matter how crazy I think you are, you're still my baby sister, and I love you. You certainly have the right to make your own choices."
"Laria... Thank you." Aruna finally returned the embrace. Then, Laria turned away, and walked straight up the side of the crater, not looking back.
"I didn't realize the demon's actions had affected you so intensely." Terminateria said as she fell into step beside her younger sister.
"I was referring to the human." She grinned. They reached the top of the crater, and each headed for their separate shells.
Looking up and magnifying her vision, Terminateria saw that the Magmeinars above the atmosphere were all hurrying away from this part of the planet. They were probably afraid that they would get in trouble for not racing in to help with the battle. She had more important things to worry about now. As her shell opened to admit her, she had already forgotten about it.
As she sank into her armor in the core, Laria's voice entered her mind. 'By the way, do you need any gates?'
'You've gotta be kidding.' Terminateria said dryly. 'I've got about sixty in here already. Save them for your new boy toy.'
'Will do.' Laria responded. 'See you in a few million years. Take care.'
'Take care yourself.' Terminateria replied as her shell began to lift off. 'There's more going on here than meets the eye. Or the mind.'
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"Father! Father!! Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.
Father, into your hands... why have you forsaken me?
In your eyes forsaken me?
In your thoughts forsaken me?
In your heart forsaken, me?! Oh,
Trust, in, my,
Self righteous suicide!
I, cry, when angels deserve to die,
In my self righteous suicide,
Oh, I, cry, when angels deserve to die..." - System of a Down - Chop Suey!
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