Shrine of the seers

… (Whispering) A child unborn, a son of X. thy future come, a King dethroned.
Listen to these words Uriel of Zalahar! A child born of X shall come back to lay claim to his heritage which you have stolen from him, a future you stole from X. He comes with the power of the gods and the wrath of the titans. Your actions now shall determine the future of X and ultimately yourself. Do not take these words lightly for they hold the existence of X. The Seers have spoken! Now go.
As the seers turned their backs and faded away from view, the Temple now apparently empty was exited by Uriel who was either in a rush or in a fit of fury and perhaps fear.

SAME DAY ON X
 
 “(Giggling) Awwww, he’s so beautiful.”
 “I know honey. Isn’t he? Hey he looks just like me!” Jhon exclaimed as he and splash looked at the computer imaging of their unborn child. Splash evidently heavy with child was beaming smiles as the computer had announced the sex of the child to them.
“I told you he’d be a boy” Jhon said triumphantly to splash.
“No, I told you he was a boy” splash countered ‘And now we can finally start talking about the house.’ ‘I want everything to be perfect for our child.’ ”
“We’re gonna need help, diapers, a lot of diapers, and a whole lot of food!” Splash giggled.
“Ah I bet he’s gonna wanna exercise too. He’ll be athletic just like his big ol dad’ ‘ha-ha, awww too bad he doesn’t have any siblings. He’s sure gonna have quite a childhood’ ”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… who said he won’t have any siblings?’ there’ll be lots of time for us to make more company for him’ ” Jhon said laughing as he playfully tickled splash’s stomach.

Crack, crack (some sparking sounds could be heard as a hologram popped into life out of nowhere bearing the ever bleak face of cosmos)

“Uh-oh! That can’t be good” Jhon said the smile immediately vanishing from his face with splash equally bearing a sullen look. They both stood up and went outside to meet an even bigger hologram which was now crowded by a throng of nearby people who had equally come to listen to cosmos’ speech.

Echoing throughout all of X, a message was being passed by Uriel (The tyrannical ruler of Planet X now known as Cosmos after bonding with the delta force) who instantly popped up as holograms all around planet X;

“Citizens of X, bear this information for all time. No child born on X shall be allowed to live, neither shall anyone be allowed to leave or enter X until this law is lifted. Do not attempt to breach this law as offenders will be deemed traitors to X and eliminated on the spot!”

Fear and panic gripped everyone as the live message was announced in every location on X. There was instant chaos on X as everyone rushed to get home. Some ran to unknown locations all over X all as part of futile failed attempts to hide from cosmos and his law but were instantly shot down by cosmos’s army. All over X, screams were heard from people’s houses as soldiers broke down doors and ransacked homes without waiting for permission dragging children away from screaming parents.

 “What do we do jhon?”
“We can’t let them do this. Not to him.”
“But what do we do splash? We can’t run away. We can’t hide from cosmos. The minute we step outside that door, we’ll be killed”
“I would rather die than see our child killed jhon”.
Oh splash… “We’ve got to escape. We have to!”
And jhon nodded in agreement.

Later that night, Splash and Lava (known on X as Jhon) left their house and setting it on fire, they moved in the darkness as Lava creating an underground tunnel of lava, carried splash as they glided through the lava-filled tunnel to an unknown military location. “We’re here” Lava announced to Splash as he brought them out of the tunnel and signaled to her to follow him. As soon as they stepped out of the bushes, floodlights were cast on them and shouts of “don’t move!” were heard across the military base.
 They both froze as the warning went out again. “Don’t move or we will be forced to fire” “Jhon? We can’t let them do this”
“Everything will be alright. Just run when I give the signal.”
Lava looked back at her and turning into a red-hot rock with lava flowing down all of him and with glowing red eyes, he looked at the direction the light was coming from and yelled “Our son will LIVE!!!”
“TAKE HIM OUT!!!!” A soldier yelled. Splash ran and Lava let out a volcanic blast that destroyed the towers on which most of the soldiers were and took out all of the floodlights. He then punched the ground with his lava covered fist and everything around him burst into flames and there was a light earth tremor as ground glowed red and became a lava pool. Gun rays whizzed past him as he threw lava all around the camp with some movements of his hands. “Ugh” he groaned as some gun rays hit his strong rocky back.
AAAARGH!!!! He yelled as he sent the lava flying now at twice the speed in every direction and then raised both hands up and slammed his two clenched fists into the earth. The wave alone from the impact knocked the soldiers away before the lava engulfed them.
Slowly, he raised his head up and looked around. The military base had been leveled to the point where it could not be recognized as nothing other than a previously active volcano site. Everywhere was red, hot and smoking. He immediately seeing that no one was around, left to find Splash.
He finally found her standing in front of a space jump. “This is it. You ready?”
To our son! Lava said as he held splash close to himself ready to jump into the space jump when they heard a crackling warbling noise from the space jump and they watched in horror as the space jump closed up before their eyes.
“You cannot escape this!”
“For treason against the empire, you shall pay with your lives”
They both turned back slowly to find themselves surrounded by cosmos’s army with an enraged cosmos sitting on a floating chair behind the armies.

 “Cosmos, we are leaving” Lava said.
 “No you’re not! Take them out”
Lava transforming into his rocky lava self again punched the ground once more and all the soldiers encircling them were immediately flung away. Lava had made the wave from his earth tremor to spread out in all directions when he punched the ground with his fist but allowed it to pass splash without hurting her.
The soldiers fired but he created a wall of earth around him and splash and used that to shield them from the rays while occasionally tossing lava at the soldiers. He created a pool of lava which surrounded the wall preventing the soldiers from advancing any further but they still fired rays.
“I’m going to get the link hole open” splash said as she changed into a living water sculpture and began moving her arms around in a sporadic gyral manner and bright bluish energy began to flow from her body and a buzzing warbling noise started emanating from the previously closed link as cracks appeared out of nowhere from the air.

 The soldiers finally managed to destroy Lava’s wall of earth and cosmos looking, saw the portal being reopened and with an echoing “NO”, he ripped his robes apart and released a wave of delta beams from his chest at the same moment splash shouted to Lava “It’s open”.
Lava had heard splash and turned around to look at splash not seeing the delta beams approaching. Splash saw the impending danger and immediately created a wall of water which exploded as cosmos’s delta beams hit it. The explosion from the beams flung them along with nearby soldiers with a great force. Wasting absolutely no time, she created an even greater wall of water and secured them further by turning the wall into a ball of water which surrounded the both of them. This way, even rays fired from above would not be able to touch them. She sustained the ball of water and amidst the shots being fired by the soldiers at the wall, she still managed to sweep most of them away drowning them in little orb-like water prisons. All the while, cosmos watched waiting for the soldiers to break through the barrier and arrest and eliminate the offending traitors when he saw that splash had left a part of the ball open and un-guarded and was about entering the link hole with Lava. Seized by fear, and an even greater rage, he fired his delta beams at the wall this time greater than the previous wave. Splash had her back turned to cosmos and was facing Lava and as such, did not know the beams were approaching. Lava seeing the beams coming at an alarming velocity reached out to splash in an effort to drag her into the hole before the wave hit but as soon as he touched her, there was a loud explosion and they were both flung into the space jump.

NO!
NO!!
NOOOOOO!!!!!! Cosmos yelled after the smoke from the explosion cleared.

“Should we go after them sir?” a soldier asked.
No.
“Now, we prepare for war!” Cosmos said smiling evilly to himself and so they marched out of the base while cosmos flew directly to his palace on his chair.

MINNESOTA, U.S.A. 10:00pm

Crack, crack, buzz…
“Hmm?” a passer-by said to himself.
A warbling, buzzing noise was echoing throughout the plains coming from nowhere in particular when all of a sudden, there was a bluish bright light just visible as it appeared from thin air.
“Ah show people! They never relent.” The man said to himself and continued walking with his back turned when he had a whoosh sound a very bright flash of light.
(Thud)

“Aaaarrrrgh”
“Oof!”
Lava and splash both said at once as they fell unto the ground from the portal which had promptly closed up as soon as they landed.
The passer-by looked back and saw where the light appeared before; two objects obviously way taller than him. He almost mistook them for objects when Lava stirred and the man obviously scared for life ran off immediately.

“Raaaah” he yelled muttering under his breath “Stupid kids! Bloody government, well I’ll be pissed!”
They both opened their eyes to find they were no longer on X but on earth. They had landed on Minnesota at exactly 10:00pm to be precise. Lava quickly looked around surveying the landscape and checking for any signs of danger. The environment looked strange. Instead of the usual green soil on X, he saw rich, brown earth and the surrounding vegetation which was brown in colour and had dried up after harvest. He looked around some more trying to make anything out which was similar to what they had on X but he found nothing. Sighing with an ignorant satisfaction, he laughed and turned to look at splash who had fallen quite a few feet from him. “Ha-ha-ha. We did it” jhon beamed with a smile only to find splash with a sullen look in her eyes.
“Splash?”
“SPLAAAAASH!!!” He yelled as he ran to her just in time to catch a falling splash. “No” he said as he saw the big hole just inches from her waist which had gone clean through her. Being the closest to the explosion, the delta beams had ripped right through her before Lava could have a chance to drag her into the portal. Her wall of water albeit uncontrolled, had reduced the velocity and strength of the delta beam making it to only kill her without reaching Lava.
“We made it.”
“We did it.”
“Our son can live away from the tyranny of cosmos and the harshness of X” Lava said trying to be hopeful and force the tears that had welled up in his eyes to go back in but he could not.

“I’m sorry” splash said. Perhaps we should have stayed back on X. At least our son would have lived.
“Don’t speak like this splash. You’re going to be alright okay?”
“You’re gonna live and see our boy grow up and become a man. Just hang in there.” Lava said trying to convince her he held her in his hands and cried.

He was still crying when splash’s hand went limp.
“Splash?”
 “SPLASH!” He yelled but was futile as splash had already died. No splash. You can’t die he said burying his face in her neck and sobbing.
Splash suddenly began to glow a bright blue colour which made him raise his head up from her body and as Lava watched, she transformed into a water sculpture and slipped from his fingers and landed on the earth where she was quickly absorbed by the rich loamy soil.

“No, No, No…”
“NOOOO!!!!!!” Lava screamed as he began to glow a bright red colour while his body became completely covered with lava. At the time, he was a dark brown rock but unnerved by splash’s death at the hand of cosmos, he changed to a red-glowing hot volcanic rock. He covered his face with his hands as lava began to stream from all of his body.

His eyes were becoming increasingly red with hotness and intensity, he gazed up at the sky. “AAAARRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!” he yelled as he erupted with such a force that as the eruption moved away from the point of origin, it changed into a fiery explosion that moved with a wave so great that it destroyed everything in its path for at least 5 miles in every direction. The resulting crater which formed after the blast was 10 miles wide and 200 feet deep.

Lava in a great anger, thinking and believing all to be lost with nothing to lose, said “I will avenge you!” and with a face full of rage, he jumped back into the space jump to planet X but not before swearing that cosmos would pay for his sins. Lava went back to X and faced cosmos in his fit of rage ultimately beating him but for the use of cosmos’ delta beams which Lava easily lost to and so cosmos beating him almost to the point of death, banished him to the depths of the world. The battle was fierce and the results catastrophic. Nearly more than half of cosmos’ palace was destroyed which promoted cosmos to banish Lava immediately to prevent any further destruction to come to the palace.
As soon as the battle was over, cosmos summoned his armies and commanded them.

“Sweep the planet!”
“No one leaves X. Not today, not ever” cosmos yelled to the soldiers as they immediately scattered in all directions. Some minutes later, soldiers were seen arriving at bases and immediately leaving in a great haste as if preparing for all-out war. And they did have an all-out war as they marched all around X, they were greeted with great hostility as everyone, apparently thrown into a state of anguish coupled with anger did not care if their lives were lost in the process. A great riot broke out on Moltin which was the region where Lava and splash had left from. The place was instantly thrown into a state of great chaos as the denizens of the state saw the soldiers approaching. At first, they were hiding behind curtains booing loudly when one of them in anger threw a rock at one of the soldiers which prompted instant retaliation from the soldiers as large numbers of them immediately rushed at the person who had thrown the rock to arrest him but other bystanders began their own assaults and the soldiers, in efforts to defend themselves, fired rays from their guns and killed many bystanders but the bystanders killed by the soldiers was nothing compared to what the denizens did to them. The soldiers were killed in their numbers and were almost completely eliminated save for some few who escaped with injuries but the rest were killed as the denizens used their powers to attack the soldiers. They hurled rocks, created windstorms, electrocuted some and even made some turn against each other; killing others and themselves too.

In the chase by the denizens against the soldiers, they entered different towns and states and killed any soldier in sight. Other groups also joined them and their numbers despite haven fallen before, increased incredulously and soon they waged an all-out war ultimately arriving at cosmos’ palace. The entire planet which was normally green was now red, Smokey and glowing with fires.

 Cosmos wiped everyone in the palace out with pure strength battling with them in hand combat and when he finally came out of the palace which was now almost complete rubble and cluttered with debris, they would all almost jump on him and subdue him when he released a massive wave of delta beams which instantly threw everything and everyone surrounding him a distance of at least 5 feet into the air in all directions. When they landed, he summoned them to him proclaiming himself undefeatable and told them not to challenge his power.
“Go home. Rest, this is not your fight and should there be any rebellion, I will make sure that it will be your last”
“Now go!” Cosmos said as he dismissed them with a wave of his hand and that settled everything as the citizens went back home convinced there was no hope of things becoming better.

 Lava roamed the underworld looking for a place to say and fighting everything that dared challenge him. He ultimately had to live in the underworld at the depth of the world in agony and shame but he built himself a temple which is known there as the lava temple where he lives to this day as Lava the lava king.

PRESENT DAY, MINNESOTA

 “Welcome to Planetary Vision” a young ebullient woman chimed out to a group of people who had walked past the door and into the building as she handed them some leaflets. They were obviously here for a tour and as soon as they collected the leaflets, another attendant met them and took them away showing them about the building. Everything was going smoothly. Tours were being conducted, leaflets were being handed out, in the manager’s office, an interview was being conducted, crates and boxes were being arranged, it seemed everywhere one looked, there was activity. Somewhere in the background, a young man was arranging some radio equipment in boxes and carrying the boxes to a table at planetary vision. He had blue eyes and white hair and was working quickly. Planetary Vision was a Non-Governmental Organization which dealt mainly with galactic stuff and things relating to the universe, solar systems, ancient civilizations, aliens, etc. they were basically the one place to find information about any planetary or galactic enquiry you wished to make. He moved quickly and worked hard totally unaware that he was being watched by a young woman. He was at his last box when he heard a voice behind him say amidst laughter “You work too hard”
He turned around to see the young woman staring at him and grinning mischievously.
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“Sorry. I’ve kind of been stalking you for some time now” she said.
“Stalking?” he laughed. “Why would anyone want to stalk me? I’m not exactly some top secret government project” and they both laughed.
“I just do that sometimes when I’m bored. Hey you wanna grab a coffee or something sometime later?”
“Yeah, sure”
“Aight” “So… I’ll see you later” she said licking her lips as she turned her back to leave.
“I didn’t catch your name.” he said.
“I’m Ginny” she said with a beaming smile
“Max”