(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

(Again, we shall revel in my teenage originality.  Everyone groan in unison.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

Mindtrigger and Draveon had landed on Pluto’s desolate surface about twenty hours ago.  All they had to do was build some kind of base on the desolate planet, which was much easier done than said.  Mindtrigger had quickly designed a giant, black tower that he admitted wasn’t as powerful as their warship.  Yet, it was still powerful enough to destroy a small moon or a young planet.  The two immortals had taken one hundred members of the Clan of Fire to help with the construction work.  The Clan of Fire is the evil immortals’ immense, brainwashed army.  These obedient, mindless soldiers are a collection of aliens from different galaxies and planets.  Most of their weapons are sun forged like the guardians’ nonmagical weapons, although the Clan of Fire’s weapons was not forged in this particular galaxy’s sun.  They are all wearing oxygen helmets because none of them are immortal like Draveon and Mindtrigger and the atmosphere stabilizer has not been installed.

“Hey!  You with the drill bit!  Put that drilling equipment down and go help them finish the infrastructure!” yells Mindtrigger to a multi-armed alien.  Draveon and the other soldiers are already close to finishing the tower’s immense infrastructure of alien metal.  Flying aliens are whizzing around firing bolts into the metal while the land-based aliens are climbing around to put the girders in place.

“A couple more minutes before we can start on the floors and walls, father,” announces Draveon while walking over to his creator.

“Great.  Have there been any unseen complications?  You know how much Adriana hates having those.  Unless she is the one who causes them.”

“Nothing big.  Two workers have fallen off the top of the infrastructure and one of the Maviks went berserk.”  A terrified scream is heard from the top of the metal structure and is shortly followed by a sickening splat.

“Now, it’s three workers.  What did you do to the Mavik?  I really hope you didn’t kill the monster.  Those things are impossible to find these days since we are the ones who stole them and domesticated them.”

“No way.  I’m not an idiot like Hellax.  That giant lizard does a lot more work than the soldiers.  It was scared by a clumsy worker.  The person who was responsible for the accident has been . . . taken care of.”

“Good to see you can keep them in line, son.  Just don’t put too many of them in line because we’re on a schedule that’s as tight as Adriana’s wardrobe.  If such a thing is possible in this dimension.”

“She’s going to love that remark.  What weapons do you have planned for the Black Tower?  You do have some weapons in mind, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.  First, I plan to put a special shield generator under the basement of the tower.  The shield will only allow immortals and the Clan of Fire to pass through.  Anyone else who tries to sneak in, and is not immortal, will be painfully disintegrated.  This does mean that the planet guardians can sneak in, but it is much more enjoyable to fight them face to face instead of having a machine do it for us.  For most of the offensive weapons, I can simply use some of the warship’s guns and missile launchers.  We have hundreds of them on that outdated, floating piece of scrap metal.  Most of those weapons haven’t even been used.”

“Nothing else new and impressive?  That’s very disappointing.  I thought you could do a lot better than that, father.  You’re slipping in your old age.”

“Don’t complain.  It makes you sound like Kilanus before we fixed her damaged psyche.  If you must know, I do have a long-range laser cannon in mind that can dissolve all forms of organic materials that the weapon’s wide beam comes in contact with.  The only problem with the weapon is that I don’t have, and probably never will have, the needed materials for it.  Well, that and we couldn’t possibly use the weapon without destroying ourselves with the laser cannon’s target.  That is not a good, or clean, way for any of us to die.  And the beam would kill us because all of our atoms would be disintegrated.  At least I think it would.  None of us have ever tested that theory and I don’t plan on being the first.”

“Oh!  Should we tell Adriana about our progress?”

“There is no need to report.  She already knows about our progress.  Did you hear all of that, voluptuous one?” asks Mindtrigger.  A holographic image of Hellax and Adriana is projected from Mindtrigger’s buzzing wristwatch.  Instead of a clock, the watch has a small, crystalline face with two buttons on the side.

“We heard everything.  Do you want me to send down the heavy stuff with the blinking lights?” answers Hellax in his usual dumb tone.  Adriana just holds her head in her hands as the hologram of Mindtrigger grows a painful frown.

“Stuff with the blinking lights?  What the hell are you talking about, you idiot?  Make some sense for once in your useless life!  And for your information, I was talking to Adriana!  Not you, Neanderthal!” yells the evil scientist.

“Calm down, Mindtrigger.  For once don’t let Hellax’s stupidity get you angry.  Although I have to agree that his moronic comments get very irritating.  He does have one use that I can take advantage of, but I don’t think I should get into that.  Anyway, he means the equipment needed to set up your intergalactic sensor grid and the final components of the atmosphere stabilizer.  Go bring the equipment down to them, Hellax.  Oh, and I like the nice explanation of how tight your schedule is, old man.  If it wasn’t true, I would have had you launched into the nearest dwarf star.  Now, I’ll only slightly beat you up for the joke.  The hell are you waiting for, Neanderthal!  Bring down the equipment or I’ll feed you to Psylon,” orders Adriana.  Hellax just gives an idiotic smile and marches off to deliver the sensor grid and atmosphere stabilizer.  A departing crash tells her that he walked into a door before asking it to open.  Adriana breaks contact with Mindtrigger and Draveon as soon as the resident moron leaves the room.  She was in her bedroom enjoying Hellax’s company, but now that she is alone, Adriana lies down on her enormous bed with her emerald eyes shut.

“You really need to get some sleep.  Those short catnaps do not help you,” mentions Startrix.  She had walked in only a few seconds ago, but she still knows everything that  has occurred.  Adriana has been like a daughter to the enigmatic Startrix since the orange-eyed woman was hired as the midwife and teacher for a young, and surprisingly innocent, Adriana.  In fact, Adriana is the only one in the galaxy who has seen Startrix’s face before it was hidden under the ebony helmet.

“I know what I need, but there are still some things that I have to do,” mumbles Adriana into her soft, blue pillow.  Startrix walks to the bed and sits in the comfortable recliner that is next to the blonde’s bed.

“Kilanus has gone through some changes that I did not predict.  Her attitude is much more like that of a teenager than her previous state of mind.  She has also changed her outfit and daily clothing to something that resembles your. . . . revealing fashion sense.  Only the girl prefers pure black instead of pink and she does not wear that silly tiara.”

“Good point.  Tiaras went out so long ago and they probably won’t be mainstream again unless I do something.  I’m never wearing that stupid thing again.  But is there any problem with my daughter wanting to be like me?”

“Yes, but that is not the point I wanted to discuss with you.  What happened to her?  How did you fix her shattered psyche?  We all thought that it was irreparable.”

“Simple.  I had asked Mindtrigger to build a machine that could turn Kilanus into the type of immortal that I always planned for her to be.  What is the point of having a genius like Mindtrigger on your team if you don’t use him to your advantage?  Of course, his invention ended up working much better than I had ever hoped.  Look, I promise that I will talk to Kilanus about the planet guardians and her recent changes.  I swear on my life and the life of my daughter that I will take care of everything.  Now, is there anything else you have to say?”

“Yes.  I had another vision of the new guardians.  This one was very clear and went straight to the point.  They will be arriving on Pluto in a couple of days.  I suggest that we land the warship and prepare a trap for their arrival,” says Startrix.  She stands up and silently walks toward the open door.  Adriana, while grumbling to herself, takes her glowing staff from its stand in the corner and wearily follows her friend to the star room.

On the way there, Adriana childishly asks, “Why couldn’t you have your visions when I’ve had a good night’s sleep?”  Inside the dark helmet with horns, the seductive leader can almost make out a smirk on Startrix’s face.