CLASH OF TITAN

Part II

By Anthony Crute

There is one person in the whole universe who you are destined for. This is something I truly believe, despite the fact that I am a scientist. I know it is a ludicrous proposition given the number of sentient beings in the universe that there is only one person who is perfect for you. Even the concept of perfection is a foreign one to my mind and yet I know it is true. I loved Mar-Vell, he was for the short time we were together the reason the Sun rose and set. The answer why Titan orbited? He became the father to my children and the wound in my heart. Then he came back, he came walking back into my life with my son only to be taken away again.

“Mar-Vell must die!” screamed the computerized voice of ISAAC which resonated around the room as the security laser blasters began to fire wildly at the small group who were in the centre of the science suite.

The computer terminals sent up showers of sparks and licks of flame as they were struck by laser blasts meaning our heroes had to dodge two sets of danger with each blast.

“You have a knack of making friends wherever you go, Mar,” cried Eros as he rolled across the floor, dodging blasts with every ounce of his energy. He bounced from his toes and tackled Elysius to the floor just narrowly having some blasts miss her.

She landed with a loud ‘oof’ sound. “I need to get up to the computer and shut down the protocol!” she barked at the three men in the room. Elysius was basically the right hand woman of Mentor leader of the Eternals. She knew every system inside and out and was very much used to giving orders.

Her son Genis nodded and gave a signal to his father who was crouched behind another control panel. Laser blasters were firing from three separate corners at them shifting between one and the other. He began to flash light from his hands very rapidly communicating an idea to his father.

Genis exploded upwards into the air beaming energy from his body. The laser blasters shifted and opened fire on him. Several blasts hit him dead on in the chest, the Avenger whose skin shone with the light of a million stars and the darkness of infinite space to highlight it simply grinned. He could absorb any form of energy going with little to no effect, even the highly advanced blasts of the computer ISAAC was no different.

Mar-Vell followed his son’s plan and rolled into a clearing between machines. His hands glittered for a mere second before blasts fired in two different directions taking out the laser blaster array before it had a chance to shift to his position.

“I’m its main target! I should draw all fire and you can shut him down,” screamed Captain Marvel as he quickly dodged the blast from the last set of lasers. Genis shifted his position perfectly and fired his blast with perfect precision to disable it. Elysius watched her son and the man who seemed to every sense she had and every memory in her head to be the man she loved, the father of her children.

The room was quite again. “Excellent!” laughed Eros as he threw back his head and ran his hands through his air. “I often forget how exhilarating battle is stuck up here, a visit to Earth and The Avengers may be soon on my cards I think.”

“The fact that we’ve just nearly been blasted to death by the computer which runs your entire planet thanks to some rogue programming from your evil brother doesn’t even phase you does it?” Mar-Vell asked. His face was as stoic and serious as ever but there was a hint of some emotion in his voice, an almost audible smile. Elysius watched him carefully, she was the one who knew him best, knew the soft spot he had in his soldier’s heart for the Titan known as Starfox.

“Well there’s that… it happens from time to time,” Starfox shook his head and brushed it off with a shrug.

“Does the fact that Thanos has managed to infect him for all this time despite all of the computer purges we’ve run not really worry anyone else?” Genis asked, he had inherited some of his father’s seriousness and much to his uncle’s chagrin seemed unable to lose it for a more carefree attitude.

“When I wipe it this time I’ll run a complete system shut down, the Titans can do without data streams for a couple of days if needs be” Elysius nodded. She was checking her weapon. “I’ll have to go to the main core to do that.”

“And you’ll need your weapon in the lift because?” Eros asked.

“You think Thanos’ protocol will just have a one wave attack to destroy his sworn enemy? This is just the beginning. They handled the lasers but the full security protocol will be activated no doubt. Attack droids are en route and will be here in moments. We can only hope that the program doesn’t override protocol 1, which I wouldn’t put past Thanos.”

“Protocol 1?” Mar-Vell asked. He had already assumed it was bad judging by the look on the Eternal’s face.

“Protocol 1 is to protect all Titanian life,” Genis began with a solemn nod. “If that’s been overwritten then ISAAC may have already begun the core self-destruct.”

“The core is made up of elemental energy more powerful than the Sun itself, which is needed to keep all of this running… should it go it takes half of the milky way with it. Everyone ready to move out?” Elysius asked as she cocked her weapon and motioned towards the door.

“Swarming with killer droids you think?” questioned Mar-Vell. He looked at his former love who honestly he felt very little for at the moment. Their relationship being one of the things lost in the mists of his mind currently.

“ISAAC no doubt has the entire place loaded with droids at every vital part of the journey from here to the main computer, we’ll have to fight through them the whole way probably without a chance to catch our breath and think.”

Mar-Vell nodded as he began to weigh up the situation. He was not a genius by any stretch of the word like Elysius but he was one of the highest decorated soldiers in the Kree army. A race who devoted their entire existence to their military and wars. He was a brilliant tactician. “We change the route before he has a chance to recalculate, get ready to fly.”

He powered up a blast in his hands and threw them out towards the walls. The explosion set the entire room shaking and any alarms which weren’t currently blaring around the city now began. There was no rubble to come flooding down on the people below as Mar-Vell had made sure to use enough intensity over a small area to turn it all to dust.

Mar-Vell was the first to take to the air accelerating out of the hole followed by Genis. Eros pulled Elysius up into his arms and followed the two Vells through the hole.

Eros had lived on the Moon of Titan for the vast majority of his life, he had been living on the moon for nigh on a millennia. He had never seen it like this.

His eyes shifted quickly over the vista which he looked out upon. The Titanian Eternals were in trouble. They were technologically advanced, super strong, super quick and had a whole host of other powers depending on their generation and how they chose to focus their energy but they were a people of peace. The only weapons on the planet were under the control of ISAAC (and, it seemed, Elysius) to protect the people. There was no crime, no murder, hardly ever any violence… other than by his brother. His people were being cut down by the security systems.

They weren’t warriors, they weren’t soldiers and so despite the fact most of the blasts would not be fatal to the Eternals they were like fish in a barrel. It tore at the fun-loving Eternal’s heart.

Genis took strongly after his uncle in many ways and so he was the first one to speak. “We have to help them, we have to protect them!”

Mar-Vell slowed down and turned to face them. “They’re after me,” he said with a voice like steel. The others could already hear what was coming next and he wanted no argument. “I’ll draw their attention and fire. Eros get Elysius to the computer and get all of this shut down.”

“I should help my people,” protested Eros.

Elysius spoke before Mar-Vell had a chance to open his mouth. “We’ll need two people with clearance to override the system, you’re the only one who would be capable.”

Genis suddenly let out a yell and shot forward. A blast collided with his chest and he stiffened to absorb the energy. It was a greater amount of energy than he thought and so he hadn’t prepared himself. The blast would have done more damage to his father if it had been allowed to hit.

“Cruisers! Move!” yelled Elysius. Eros dropped quickly from the sky with her in his arms.

Mar-vell steadied his son in the air for a few seconds until he was clearly able to support himself and then he swept away. He had so much he wanted to say to his son but this wasn’t the time. The cruisers were coming in quickly and he needed to draw their fire. A glance over his shoulder showed them whizzing past his son who began to charge a blast. “No!” screamed Mar-Vell at him and watched to make sure he hadn’t.

If Genis had fired they may have broke off after him. He watched as his son turned and streaked towards the walkways below in the city. He had robots to smash and people to save like the hero he was.

Mar-Vell put on a burst of speed. The cruisers were slightly curved disc controlled by ISAAC, they were essentially the air force of Titan used to protect its inhabitants from any airborne threats. They moved at Mach 6, silently and carried more firepower than a fleet of earth jets. He would need to pull out some fairly fancy flying to shake them.

He fought off the little smile that came to his lips. This would be the chance he’d been looking for to put his new speed to the test.

Meanwhile, 1,355,357,880 km away on Earth…

The Warden sat in the blinding light of the corridor and leaned forward in his chair. He had a visible paunch and a small visible hump that several years of orthopedics and two minor surgeries in his youth had failed to correct. It had been a point of much pain in his youth, his psychiatrist traced it back to be the source of some of his personality (one amongst many childhood causes).

He had used his distance from his peers to focus on his education. It meant all of the brilliance that his mind was capable of was focused. It meant he could achieve his potential and rise to his current position as one of the world’s foremost experts on extraterrestrial life.

It also meant he had a mean streak a mile wide. When he was a child he would dissect live animals to see how they worked, worried (unjustifiably and this he knew) that should they be dead when he dissected them they would not be the true animal anymore.

Here would have been something which was different.

His time in school and college was violent, aggressive and bitter to everyone around him. Those who lived the life he wished he could. He would often lash out at the world and his mother and grandmother who cared for him. He felt no remorse for this even to this day.

He tilted his head causing the straggly hair which surrounded his bald patch to brush against his warty face. His left hand man was approaching him.

He flicked his eyes back to the figure he watched writhing.

The white haired figure did not scream. He simply grimaced and twisted his body as the pain raced through his body. He could feel his joints sizzling, the meat on his body becoming slowly cooked and cursed in his mind for the pain which he currently felt and the waves he knew would come.

Noh-Varr however was no stranger to pain. He had at one point or another had his limbs blown clear off and regenerated them. The same is true of several other fairly important organs. It was even part of his training to withstand interrogation. The slow death of every cell in his body however was a little beyond the pale of what he was professionally prepared for.

The Warden watched him with a smile. “Sir I thought the Kree had withstood the torture and the psychic department had extracted all the information they thought we could get?”

“They did,” nodded The Warden. “This is just for fun to pass the time,” he shrugged with a smile.

Noh-Varr stored the image in his mind, one day he would have revenge.

Back on Titan…

Mar-Vell barrel rolled in a massive loop pouring on his speed. A golden trail arched across the sky behind him and a stream of laser blasts streaked through it. ‘Think Mar’ he commanded himself, he was being hunted by four top of the line Eternal cruiser droids which didn’t tire like he did and made constant calculations with possibly the most advanced computerized brain in this Galaxy controlling them. It was going to take some considerable skill and good fortune to take them all out.

He watched the path before him carefully, his eyes moving over the terrain. There were small fires cropping up from explosions and laser fire and there was rubble dotted around the city.

He strafed suddenly to the left towards one of the tall towers that were spread across the city. He angled his body and darted through one of the narrow windows. He quickly rotated in a circle in order to make sure there was no one inside this top viewing platform and then poured on the speed. He cleared the tower about half a second before one of the cruisers slammed into it exploding in a fire ball which seemed to continue the chase of him that it had when it was a ship.

He threw a glance over his shoulder as he accelerated away from the remaining three cruisers, he hoped that they would crash in the resultant explosion but it seemed he wasn’t that lucky. He thought a Kree curse word, which he was much too well trained to say.

The cruisers monitored as the tiny figure they were following darted this way and that. Their relay to ISAAC read the maneuvers and analyzed them in a split second. He was conducting evasive maneuvers, it was working so far as they couldn’t lock on to him long enough to get a truly successful firing option. Strategy was however being formed.

Two of the cruisers strafed sideways around a row of towers leaving only one in direct chase. It fired a rapid round of blasts in a varying pattern. It nearly worked as Mar-Vell almost spiraled right into it, he managed however to change his direction at the last second.

Two blasts hurtled past him from the side. A quick glance confirmed that the two strafing ones were now coming back. He turned left to avoid them.

He was now on the main ‘strip’ of the city, the large central walkway that ran through the city, surrounded by the towers and the greenery of the mini forests.

A memory flashed through his min a vague recollection of walking down here with Rick, the Earth boy amazed by the sheer scope of the massive area which dwarfed New York City in its entirety. It currently looked like a war zone.

There were scuffles and fights on the ground below. The Eternals in small groups had begun to fight the robots and droids a little, inexpertly and clumsily but given their immortality and their strength they were doing okay.

There were Eternals he could see in safe places, safe so far at least on balconies and higher walkways that looked down on the lower places. A large blast hurtled past him flying too far wide to be accidental. It collided with one of the walkway struts, which caused the entire structure to scream and twist. The strut began to crumble under its own weight.

Mar-Vell covered his face as he accelerated through the rubble as it fell, he turned in the air and fired a low intensity blast into the centre of the mass sending them flying backwards like projectiles into the cruisers.

The metal chunks tore through the first of the three but then the others managed to dodge effectively. Mar-Vell prepared to burn away when a scream from above drew his attention. A woman had been thrown from the side of the titling walkway and hung by her hands over a sheer drop below her. He guessed by her shriek that she was now a flier.

He altered direction and shot skyward without a second thought. He slowed his speed to about half of his speed and grabbed her. If she was human he would have went slower but thankfully she was far above the other Terran species.

“Sorry about this,” he spoke as quickly as he could as he accelerated towards the ground. He waited until the last possible second before releasing her in a tumbling bounce along the avenue and immediately started to climb again.

The two remaining cruisers followed suit as they tilted their angles and followed him along his path. They slowly drifted apart so they were chasing him in a two-pronged attack.

Mar-Vell was planning as he flew. He had a long history of military service with the Kree army. He had fought species which ranged from Xanlurians with their massive rhinoceros like bulk and energy projecting horns to the winged warriors of Xavun-5 and more than enough ships, drones and flight suited aliens. He was simply winnowing them down one by one. His next move would more than even the odds.

He instantly cut his forward momentum and slammed himself into reverse. His backwards speed, linked to their forward speed, made the two of them pass him rapidly. He reached out his right hand and gripped the edge of the cruiser. He threw all of his strength behind a pull from his left shoulder and span in a circle.

The cruiser span helplessly as he released it. He launched forward after it and drove it into the floor with a small explosion. He was thrown back by the force.

The red-and-blue-garbed hero had to recover quickly and launch himself back into the air as the last cruiser turned to fire on him. He fixed his gaze on the silver chrome finish of the cruiser and surged forward. He was sick of running, now was the time to fight.
He charged energy through his fist and swung a punch at the unmanned drone. The metal dinted and the cruiser wobbled sideways. It span on its axis and powered towards him again, its lasers started to blast wildly.

Mar-Vell dodged sideways strafing away from the blasts but carefully moving forward. His hand grabbed the edge of the craft and then was blasted square in the chest. He refused to release the drone. He launched his other arm forward and grabbed its side.
His hands gripped tightly. He received another blast directly to the chest, causing him to scream through gritted teeth. He wrenched his hands apart ripping them clear of each other and dragging large hunks of the metal apart.

He stumbled to his knees. There was no doubt in his mind that other robots and cruisers were coming after him right now. If there hadn’t been on the way before the destruction of the last one would have summoned them then and there.

There were places he needed to be, he climbed up to his feet from where he’d been crouching. The energy blasts had obviously done more damage to him than he thought it would have done. His entire body ached.

He stumbled to the edge of the walkway and hopped over the railing, his body caught him in mid air and he began to hover. He looked around and got his bearings, the area had changed a little (Eternals because of their long lives have massive redesigns of everything every couple of decades to keep things novel). He decided on the correct direction and moved off.

It wasn’t long before he found what he was looking for.

Starfox stood feet firmly apart at one of the entrances to the main computer chamber. He was being swarmed by battle droids. Mar-Vell watched him as he zoomed towards him. It was like watching ballet.

Eros span, twisted and turned with every opponent that attacked using some form of alien martial art that Mar-Vell couldn’t recognize.

The Titan’s face lit up as he saw his friend. It exploded into sheer glee as the blonde haired Kree began to fire blasts at the robots and landed beside his friend. “Any word?”

“Genis is on his way here, he drew enough robot attention that the others managed to get their act together. Elysius is inside, I’ve heard nothing from her… go!”

“You need my help,” spoke Mar-Vell as he unleashed a two handed blast at a pair of robots who were charging the two friends.

“Please, this is a relaxing day on Titan for me,” Eros grinned masking as he always does his real concerns.

Mar-Vell shot a concerned look back at his friend and then shot through the doorway at his top speed. The pathway to Elysius was clearly marked by smoking control panels and sparking hanging wires. It seemed ISAAC didn’t want her progressing any further but the doors weren’t up to much compared to her mechanical understanding… or a laser blaster.

It only took him a minute to reach the main control room of ISAAC.

The chamber was about the size of a football field and filled with blinking lights and illuminated screens that flashed, blinked and bleeped. This system monitored all the different protocols that ISAAC controlled and all of them, he had no doubt, were currently trying to kill him.

A giant red countdown of Eternal symbols hovered in the air in the centre of the room. It was usually the central place reserved for the giant floating face of ISAAC. Mar-Vell had never seen anything but that metal face hovering in that position. He didn’t think it could be good.

Elysius was crouched next to one of the panels. It was opened stretching the numerous wires, cables and components up into the air where it was both connected to the outer panel and the base unit. “No luck?”

Elysius threw up an aggressive glare. She had wires and cables wrapped around her shoulders as she routed through the base unit. “The Mar-Vell I knew didn’t ask such stupid questions!”

“I think I’ve changed,” he said with a furrowed brow. He hadn’t really thought about his own mystery since ISAAC flared up trouble. The words sounded right to him, he felt different than he thought he should like something was different to what he expected it to be.

“What can I do?” he asked as he moved towards her.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing I’m handling this,” she growled and continued on with her work.

“I thought you needed two to shut it down,” he queried. He stood tensely close to Elysius, every muscle in his body screamed for action and yet all he could do was stand by.

“I’m completely locked out, the countdown had already begun when I got here,” she swore and tore some wires clear and rushed to the centre of the room.

There, on top of the visual screen that was horizontal and about the size of several king sized beds, was a series of components and wires which seemed to have been connected and fused together. She set about wiring the latest component to the one that was already there.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m working… stop bothering me and let me work,” she grumbled. She shot him another disdainful look.

“You wouldn’t be speaking to me like this if you thought I was the real Mar-Vell,” he criticized and watched her carefully. He was no stranger to advanced tech, he may have been able to figure out what was going on.

“Correct… he didn’t ask stupid questions and pout. If he did I’d talk to him exactly the same.” She moved off to another control panel and tugged on it. It didn’t open. Mar-Vell crossed to her and with one hand wrenched it clear.

“Thank you,” she said almost absent-mindedly and launched herself into the innards of the machine. She began to speak. “ISAAC needs rebooting to stop the countdown. The only way to do that on his system is an EMP blast directly to his central processor. He has automated droids to do that but they’re offline.”

“So you’re building and EMP device and you’re going to get it to the CPU and that’ll stop the moon wiping out the solar system.”

Elysius wrenched out another component and went back to the table. “Hopefully,” she nodded. “If I can discharge it directly in the centre it stands the best chance.” She tightened a nozzle and turned the laser blaster onto it, a gentle glow shot forth acting almost like a welding torch. “Done!”

She picked up the device. “Rip the table up!” she commanded. It was the quickest direct access.

Mar-Vell nodded in agreement and grabbed the mechanical slab. He bent his knees, tensed his arms and with one solid movement ripped it clean from its moorings and sent it tumbling across the room.

He looked down into the raging maelstrom below them. It seemed that the CPU was in a similar place to the power source deep within the moon’s core. He looked into the pit at the arcing electrical bolts and torrents of information and energy that shot and bled around the computerized core.

“How are you planning to get in and out?”

Elysius silence told him everything he needed to know. She wouldn’t be coming back, there was no way she could survive the energy in the core of the planet. He however might.

He held out his hand to her to take the machine. “What makes you think I’m going to give it to you?”

“You’ve got nothing to lose, you don’t think I’m Mar-Vell so it’s not like you’ll have to deal with the guilt. I may also not be Genis Father but you’re definitely his Mother. I couldn’t do that to the kid. Now give… I might even survive and we can talk about it then.”

Elysius watched his face for a second. She recognized the stubborn glare well and passed the machine to him. She began to press some buttons and press some switches. “It’s on a timer, get as close to the centre you can before it goes off.”

“What are my chances of coming back?” he asked as took off into the air.

“Raging energy in there, EMP blast at point blank range Vs the fact you’re either Mar-Vell or something else entirely,” she flashed a slight smile. “I’d say 50/50.”

Mar-Vell smiled and gave a mini salute “Even if I’m not him at least I can go out in a way which would probably make him proud.”

Mar-Vell dropped from sight down the hole. His body shifting so he was facing into the depths head first. He kept tight hold of the device and poured on all of his speed.

The world turned to nothing but a blur to him. A blur and an unexplainable pain which tore through every cell of his body. The energy in the centre of the computer was immense and it was currently charging through him.

The device beeped loudly and then the entire world went white.

Minutes later, Titan…

Genis and Eros rushed into the room where Elysius was hammering wildly at the control panels. She was trying to keep ISAAC running while he repaired himself before the entire life support system went down. “Mom, where is he?”

“He flew into the centre of the maelstrom… I think he’s gone. I’m sorry.”

Genis turned his head in anguish. He wouldn’t cry; it wasn’t like he even knew the man. It wasn’t like he was definite that he was his father, but he had begun to hope.

Eros moved to Elysius and put his hand on her shoulder. He tightened it gently as a signal of compassion, for he recognized the timbre in her voice well. In those moments before Mar-Vell vanished she had, on some level, started to believe.

Elsewhere…

Mar-Vell awoke in the vacuum of space. He floated there as he began to come around. His vision was blurry at first but quickly became clear.

He looked at the stars before him. Someone else may have wondered at their beauty or amazed that they had managed to survive.

Mar-Vell first of all began to plot his location as best he could. He looked for familiar constellations and recognized them instantly.

He turned in the vacuum and faced towards Uranus. He face at least to where Uranus should have been but instead all there was to be found was a small meteor belt.

The thing, which was just beyond the belt, was the thing that really drew his attention though. An armada, an armada of alien ships of a design he didn’t recognize.

They began to charge their weapons.

A shot fired passed him from behind. It sent his body spinning in its wake. He straightened himself and stared at the ship that had launched the blast. It was sailing very close to him and from his perspective it was immense in size.

He read the name of the ship: Captain America II.