(Disclaimer: A warning to those who continue.  This is a sequel to a previous story.  Both of these were written in the mid-1990’s.  While the first one was slightly edited and vanity press published, this one has not been touched in over 20 years.  I figure I should do something with it and people may get a laugh or fright from how I used to be.  Every author comes from somewhere, so this is part of my origin.  To that end, I am deeply sorry for whatever nightmares I will inflict on the literary world and the American English language.  Enjoy?)

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Draveon returns to the museum as soon as the starless darkness covers the scared city.  When he finds the cut ropes and puddles of damp blood, the immortal lets out a bone-chilling howl of pure anger.  He frantically searches through all of the exhibits and occasionally stops to release some anger on cowering tourists that had been too scared to leave the building.  Draveon finally stops in the two-tier room with the elephant herd in the middle of the lower floor.

“I knew they would eventually manage to escape.  But I never expected them to run away like yellow-bellied cowards,” the crimson-eyed villain says.

“You aren’t that lucky, gruesome.  Surprise!” hollers Adriana as she drops from the shadowy ceiling.  Draveon gets whacked in the head with her staff before he can react to Adriana falling from above.  But as soon as the blonde hits the ground, she feels a strong grip around her throat.

“Uh, Draveon.  Could you loosen your grip a little?  I can’t breathe.  You’re kinda choking me.”

“You always were a very slow-witted bimbo.  That’s the idea, psycho slut.”

“Oh.  My mistake.  Let me show you an idea that I just thought of.”  Adriana swings her feet into the large man’s groin at full force.  The only reactions she gets are a cunning smirk and a much tighter grip around her throat.

“You didn’t hurt me at all.  So, where’s the Mars guardian hiding?”

“I knew I was right when we first met, Draveon.  You have to be a eunuch if you didn’t feel a shot like that,” mentions Fate, who flips off of the room’s second floor balcony.  He lands on the bigger immortal’s shoulders and jabs his thumbs into the genetic weapon’s eyes.  Adriana is spastically thrown into one of the displays and lands on top of a black rhino’s back.

“I could have lived without that save, Slane.  Do you need any help or should I leave you two boys alone?  Hey!  Are either of you guys paying attention to me?  Hello?  Men.  If I didn’t enjoy them so much, I would gladly kill them all,” the voluptuous blond mutters.

Draveon finally gets a hold of Fate’s legs and starts pounding him into the floor like he was a doll.  After a few, long seconds, the battered guardian screams, “Adriana!  A little help here!  We’re supposed to be a team!”

In total silence, Adriana charges at Draveon and leaps at his back.  She grabs his shoulders in order to pull herself into him as hard as possible.  Her knees smash into his upper back, which causes an echoing, crack.  The ultimate killer lets Fate drop and then collapses in a heap of agonizing pain.

“Thanks.  But you couldn’t have done that earlier?”  Adriana makes a fake laugh and uses her staff on them.  Since Draveon stops moving, the immortal femme fatale decides to stand on top of him like he was a hunting trophy.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.  He could be playing possum,” Fate cautions while he takes out the sword of light.

“Calm down.  He’s down and out for a long time.  If I know anything, it is when someone is faking it.  Stop laughing, Eddie.  I wasn’t talking about that.  Well . . . I wasn’t originally talking about that.”  Suddenly, the still form of Draveon roars and jumps up to his feet.  Fate is lightly batted away like an insect and Adriana is tossed on her butt.

“I thought you said that he was unconscious.”  Fate swiftly tackles Adriana before she gets mashed into the ground.  They swing off an elephant’s raised trunk and gracefully land on the second floor.

“So I can only tell when I’m faking something.  Don’t bite my green-eyed head off about it!” shouts Adriana.

“Sounds like he’s gone into some kind of battle rage.  Like we didn’t have enough trouble with this fight already.  Well, curvaceous one.  What do we do now?”

“Simple, lucky one.  You stay here and keep him occupied while I set up a little trick for the big guy.  Unlike you, I know his real weakness.  I won’t take more than five minutes because what I need is hidden nearby.  Try to stay in one piece, so I can give you your present.  Don’t want this trip to be a total waste.”

Adriana sprints out of the room as fast as she possibly can after Fate jumps to the ground.  He lands behind an overturned bench and has to leap onto one of the stuffed elephants when Draveon attacks him.  The guardian tries to jump onto the brown-haired villain, but misses and gets violently kicked in the stomach.  He sails into a display case and even makes a hole in the back wall.

“At least Adriana was smart enough to run away.  Of course, that means that I have to try to keep you alive until I can catch that cowardly slut.  I’m in the mood for a real challenge,” growls Draveon.  He backhands Fate through the leg of an elephant, the rest of which ends up falling onto him.  No matter how hard he tries, the Mars guardian can’t lift the heavy object and get free.  The sword of light is a few inches away from his outstretched fingers.

“You’ll have a much better chance of killing me when I’m by myself.  That is if you have the brains for it.”  Draveon picks up the sword of light and starts to charge it up with a death blast.

“I guess a change in my plans won’t hurt anyone.  Well, everyone except for you.”  A soft, girlish sneeze is heard from behind Draveon, who quickly turns to shoot at the noise.  He automatically thinks that Adriana is behind him and shoots to kill the source of the noise.  Only, it wasn’t Adriana that was standing behind him.  Draveon watches the blast hit a young child that could not have been any older than six.

“Draveon!!!” roars the guardian before he throws the heavy elephant through the ceiling.  The angry guardian kicks the shocked villain in the back and continues to hit Draveon with his fists that start to feel like they are made of solid steel.  The sound of breaking bones fills the room and white blood eventually covers Fate’s hands.  The ultimate genetic weapon lands a couple of painful hits to the young hero’s head, but they don’t even slow down Fate’s assault.

“I killed a child,” mumbles Draveon after he knocks Fate off of him and gets to his feet.  He carelessly drops the magic sword at the guardian’s feet before stumbling toward a wall.

“Get back here!  You’re going to pay!”  With a half smile, the large man turns to the angry immortal that is slowly advancing on him.  They suddenly charge each other at full speed, but when they get close to each other, Fate thrusts the sword of light deep into Draveon’s chest.  The magic blade slices through the bones and heart of the killer as if he wasn’t even there.  Fate wasn’t ready for the lack of resistance, so his arm keeps going until his elbow is in Draveon’s chest.

The larger immortal falls on top of Fate and whispers, “Thanks.  I think I actually deserved this.”  The muscular body and the pool of blood turn into a fine, yellow mist, which quickly dissipates into the winter air.

“Sorry about that, Slane.  I honestly didn’t think that you would fall for it,” says Adriana.  She comes up behind the guardian and drops the wrapped present in front of him.  A small piece of burning machinery is in her hand and she throws it through the hole in the ceiling without any explanation of its purpose.  At the same time, light snowflakes start to fall on the two survivors.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know that poor kid that just got toasted like a marshmallow?  She was nothing more than a very intricate hologram courtesy of Cybro’s personal projector.  He took it upon himself to program it and give it to me this morning, so I could use it against Draveon.  Of course, the hologram’s supposed death ended up frying the projector.  Too bad because it was one of a kind.  Irreplaceable.”

“Well, I’m just glad that a real child wasn’t killed.  But, what happened to the body?  Draveon just dissolved in my hands.”

“That was peculiar.  Honestly, I have no explanation for that.  Now, open your present and then we can go our separate ways.  Or not.  It really depends on what you want to do after you open the box.”

Fate carefully opens the present and waits for a small explosion or a muffled gunshot.  What he finds is a stuffed animal that is on the very edge of his earliest memory.  It is a brown dog with big, floppy ears and a plastic nose that is covered with little teeth marks.  The right ear is barely kept on with some gold-colored thread.  The underside of the toy has a big, stitched up scar down the middle of it.  This children’s toy has definitely seen better days.

“This looks like. . .” starts Fate as he holds and pets the lifeless doll.

“You named him Sparky when you were only three.  That fake dog never left your tiny, little hands.  The only time it did was when you were asleep and I decided to take it from you.  It reminded me so much of you that I actually needed the toy a lot more than you did.  Do you have any idea what I’m trying to say to you?” asks Adriana from a few feet away.  She has a few warm tears running down her face, but whether pain or joy causes them, Fate can only begin to guess.

“You’re . . .you’re my mother?  But how is that possible when I was on Earth for the larger part of my life?”

“I told you that I lived on Earth for a couple of years after I returned to this universe and that I knew your father.  I really don’t want to get any further into this discussion right now.  It’ll make me cry more than I am now.  I’ll explain everything at a later date.  Right now, I’m still trying to get over the fact that I’ve finally found you.  My son.”

“Son . . . How long have you known about this?  You owe me that much information before you leave me.  Again.”

“Please don’t say that.  It hurts more than you can know.  I owe you a lot more than an explanation for abandoning my only, dearest son.  But if you must know, I have known about our relation since our shared death in the comet.  Well I guessed at it, but I didn’t want to believe that my own flesh and blood was my enemy.”

“Am I still your enemy?”

“As long as you are a planet guardian, we will be enemies.  We both have our roles to play in this universe.  Anyway, I will definitely be seeing you again.  So, don’t forget to think about your young mother.  And I do not want you to even hint at our relation to Kilanus.  She might get a tiny bit angry with the both of us.  She thinks that being my only child makes her the most important creature in the universe.  And I swear on my life that I will tell you the truth when next we meet.  I just need some time to get used to all this and I think you need some time to let all this settle in.  Until the next time we meet.”

Adriana kisses Fate on his head and then starts to bounce off the walls toward the hole in the ceiling.  Once she lands on the roof, the blond villain looks down to yell, “ By the way, Eddie!  Nice job getting us out of those energy draining ropes by using that lance.  You’re definitely my son if you can think of escape plans like that.  And say hello to Kelly for me.”

Minutes after Adriana leaves, Infinity arrives to help his friend with the fight that has already ended.  The only thing that the Earth guardian finds is a snow-covered Mars guardian sleeping on a bench with the glowing sword of light in one hand and a stuffed animal, named Sparky, in the other.