(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!

“Impressive.  So, how tall is this thing and which of the ship weapons do you plan to put on it?” asks Adriana as she looks up at the half-finished tower.  Most of the slick, black walls have not been attached yet, so the super structure can still be seen.  Parked behind the tower is the warship where several aliens are unhooking laser cannons, missile launchers, and other long-range weapons.  From the back of the warship, the other immortals are unloading their personal belongings.

“The tower is about one hundred feet tall as of right now.  I may want to add some more floors on later, so there are structures on the top in order to make extra connections.  As for weapons, I will just attach some of the warship’s launchers, lasers, and bombers.  It isn’t like they can do much against immortals.  And nothing else would be insane enough to attack us.  But you really disappoint me, Adriana,” Mindtrigger replies while continuing to draw more details on the tower schematics.   He is leaning on a solid metal table, which has several dents in it that resemble fist marks.

“I disappoint you?  How?”

“With your reaction.  You stand in the dark shadow of one of the greatest constructs in this entire galaxy and all you can say is impressive.  There is no way to use a single word to possibly come close to describing such an evil masterpiece as the Black Tower.  Your lack of words just wounds me, Adriana.”

“Shrink your ego, old man.  You’ll get a better compliment on your building once the Black Tower is fully completed and operational.  Right now it looks like a children’s building set.  But this project will have to wait for a little time.  I have something for you to do that is much more urgent.  I need something that will keep most of the guardians out of commission while I play with the others.  I want a cage of some kind to keep them around, but out of my hair.  Finish it and then return to the Black Tower.”  She walks over to a large drilling machine and sits down on the tread.  Mindtrigger simply leans against the table while scratching his head and rising an eyebrow.

“Now, I’m confused.  What do you mean by play and keep?  I assumed that we were just going to kill them off in a huge battle.  Everyone has been thinking that would happen since we decided to build the Black Tower and stay on Pluto.  Psylon has been drooling from dreams of the battle all week.  My janitor robot has taken to following her around to clean the drool up.  So, what exactly do you have planned for our enemies?  You can’t be considering keeping them as prisoners.  They are much too dangerous.”

“Calm down.  We will kill them like I promised.  Eventually.  I just want to have some fun and torture them for a few days.  I’d really prefer to avoid a massacre like everyone is expecting.  Those things are long, boring, tiring, and usually ends with my clothes getting dirty and ripped in important places.  And that’s just unacceptable.”

“I see.  Now, we wouldn’t want that.  Your clothes are so much more important than destroying our enemies.  And we all know how modest you are when it comes to people seeing the more enticing parts of your anatomy.”  Mindtrigger rolls his eyes and just give Adriana a smug smirk before going back to work on the schematic.

“Don’t take that tone with me.  I want to keep Solix alive for as long as possible and make sure he sees his new recruits get destroyed.  After that, he will be of no consequence and I’ll just cut him in half,” explains Adriana.

“So, it’s vengeance.  You still don’t like the fact that he tried to destroy the person that he considered his favored student.  What happened between you two that made you so bitter and angry at him?”

“I don’t want to get into it.”  Adriana turns to walk away from the frail man, but he jumps in her way.  She glowers at him and tries to push past him.  Instead, Mindtrigger grabs her arm and tosses her into a nearby chair.

“Let’s make a deal.  I’ll make you a cage to contain Solix and any other guardians if you tell me what happened between you and the Sun guardian.  Did he give you a bad grade or just his sunny disposition?” asks Mindtrigger.  He sits on top of the table as Adriana gets out of the crude chair.

“You know what happened.”  She looks like she is about to either cry or rip something apart with her bare hands.

“Nope.  Sorry.  I must have missed that briefing.  The gossip never gets into my laboratory, so I’m left out of the loop.”

“We became close.  Student and teacher relationship started out fine.  I learned how to use my powers and everything else about the universe.  By doing my own private study, I discovered how to destroy another immortal.  Solix and SEAS never found my data because I wrote it down instead of putting it on the computer.  Then . . . .”

“Then what?”

“Solix has a habit of tricking his proteges into showing their full potential.  A nasty situation that forces them to push their limits and then he uses what they accomplished against them.  Unfortunately, he ignores how their feelings will be affected by his actions.  That’s what he did to me.  He tricked me into using my powers the way he expected me to and used me because of it.  Understand?”

“Not at all.  How did he trick you?”

“Simple.  He made me think that I had him under my control and then betrayed me.  He pretended that my powers had worked on him.  Being young, I thought they had malfunctioned because I never aimed them at him.  He assumed that I tried it on everybody.  I actually had feelings for that old fossil and he used them against me.  That’s why I planned the attack on the original guardians.  Well that and I wanted to rule the universe.  But that is why I left Solix to be tortured.  I didn’t think he would use the Solstar against us.  Now will you make me something in order to contain the guardians.”

“No need,” replies Mindtrigger with a smile.

“What!” exclaims Adriana before she leaps at Mindtrigger and picks up the scientist by his nostrils, “You made me tell you one of my secrets and you aren’t going to go through with your part of the deal?  You better have a good reason because I’ll kill you if you don’t!”  She tosses him into the drilling machine, but his nose gets torn off in her hand.

“Because I already have a machine that can do it.  It’s been ready for months and it only has to be attached to a cage.  I really get bored in that stuffy lab, so I make little anti-immortal weaponry that should only be used if necessary.  Most of them fail, but this one shows a lot of promise.”  Mindtrigger wipes the blood off his face as his nose grows back into place.  Behind him he hears a loud crash and he turns around to see Hellax on his face with broken china all around him.  The immortal cleans it all up and puts it back into the box before running back into the warship.

“Well, he’s in trouble.  Psylon loved that china collection.  So, what does this new toy do when it is attached to a cage?” asks Adriana.  A sizzling sound is heard from the warship, which is followed by Hellax yelping in pain.  A large ball of fire runs out of the warship and starts running around in circles.

“I’ll have to be brief in order to go help Hellax get out of his armor.  Basically, I have do not remember what this invention does.  I’ll have to look into it.  I promise to talk to you later about this.”  Mindtrigger walks off toward the area that Hellax is running around with fire all over his armor.  Adriana starts laughing as she walks back into the warship.