Blue Nexus #12--Black Nexus

            Kyle and Hood Nexus stood motionless as Aequitas finished his tale, Kyle slowly feeling the weight building on his shoulders. He had to kill the Black Nexus, and save the entire universe.

            The universe.

            That thing that nobody on Earth could comprehend in their wildest imagination. That vast expanse of emptiness save a couple of energy balls and rocks floating in it. The universe.

            A number not identifiable in any rational way was the number of inhabitants that were relying on Kyle. His knees slammed to the ground, his arms shaking and he felt vomit beginning to form in his throat. A tear formed in his eye.

            “Perhaps I was too direct,” Aequitas said. He continued his stride toward the two Nexuses. Hood Nexus stooped down to Kyle.

            “Listen,” he said. “I know that killing this guy is pretty scary stuff.”

            “It—it’s not that,” Kyle said shakily. “I have to save…the entire…universe.”

            Hood Nexus clamped a hand on his shoulder, tightening his grip. Suddenly, the vomit was gone from Kyle’s mouth as he felt pain erupt in his shoulder. Angrily, he looked over to Hood Nexus, who was smirking.

            “The hell is this about you saving the universe?” he asked. “I think you mean we, Blue Nexus. I want to get this guy just as bad as you do, and it’ll only help if the two of us take him on together. It’ll be like a learning experience for the two of us, some good bonding.”

            “How can you be so light-hearted?” Kyle asked, his heart continuing to thumb as fast as he flew, vomit forming once again and the nauseous feeling landing in his stomach. He placed a hand over it, keeling over again.

            “I’m not,” Hood Nexus said. “I’m just not going to waste time freaking out over this. I want to kick this guy’s ass so bad right now. If he thinks he can just wipe out all the stuff I’ve been fighting for then he’s going to have another thing coming. Plus you’ll finally get to strut your stuff against a real enemy, unlike that loser Gargador. You’ve gotta be in, Kyle. Yeah, the whole universe is on the line, but we’ve got some of the strongest allies in the universe. Him going to Earth is going to prove to be his worst idea yet.”
            Kyle, dumbfounded, looked up to Hood Nexus who had a fist clenched in confidence and a smirk on his face. Kyle couldn’t see through to his eyes but only saw a fiery blue behind the shadows, waiting to ignite his foe with his energy and power. He was raring to go, he was completely unafraid of this guy.

            Earth, that’s where Black Nexus was headed. He was headed for Mira, for Sandy, for Kip and Luke, and for Brenda. For the legacy his parents left him. For his remaining family. He was headed straight for the heart of Kyle’s existence.

            Kyle was a Zanderia, and they protected the Earth. They stood for the Earth, and fought anything that attacked it. No amount of dark energy had gotten in their way before. But it wouldn’t be enough this time. This time, they desperately needed the power of the Nexus, and two of its users were ready to go and were just a step away from taking on the universe’s greatest terror. Black Nexus was nothing but a shadow of chaos, un-sided with the War Gods or Twelve Kingdom Planets and wanted nothing but darkness.

            Kyle’s hand lit up with blue energy as he clenched a fist, then moved his hand away from his stomach and pushed himself up, his aura helping to illuminate the room. Hood Nexus beamed and his aura expanded as well. The two Nexuses stood looking, confidently, into the eyes of the Sentient Aequitas, who merely nodded.

            “I see you’re both just as eager to fight him,” Aequitas said. “Very well. But be prepared for your greatest test of power and will. My brother will not hesitate to use his mind against you. The negative energy of the Nexus is powerful but has one weakness…the Nexus itself. He’s so far gone past the point of purity that harming him with your energy is the only way to defeat him. Sure, others can harm him, but it won’t be nearly as impactful as your energy will. Only a powerful blast from the Nexus will be the killing blow, too.”

            “But, wouldn’t he just absorb it as another being of the Nexus?” asked Hood Nexus.

            “Exactly,” Aequitas said. “Positive and negative energy of the Nexus cannot exist in a single entity, so it will cause an overload of sorts and overwhelm his body, killing him instantly.”
            “Can’t the same be said for us?” asked Kyle. “If he attacks us with his dark energy, aren’t we pretty much finished?”
            “No, the pure energy of the Nexus does not allow for intrusion like the dark energy,” Aequitas said. “That’s why it took him so long to absolve all of the energy he has now, and that’s also what makes him so treacherous. Fighting him will be like fighting one of us, he knows all the secrets of the Nexus and is more than aware of how he is meant to be killed. That’s why it’s going to take everything you have to beat him.”

            “Have you sent anyone to try and stop him?” asked Kyle.

            “A few, and they were destroyed,” Aequitas admitted. The three fell silent for a moment, the stillness of the room settling in.

            Hood Nexus, his face now serious, exerted more energy. “Well destruction isn’t my thing unless I’m the one destroying. We’ve burned time here, Kyle, we need to split. Aequitas, it was good seeing you, thanks for the insight.”

            Aequitas nodded. “Raiden-son, when you finish your battle with my brother and should you survive, I request your presence back into the Nexus when you can. Good luck for now, though, defeat him. Tell him to go to hell.”

            Kyle nodded. “Will do.”

            Aequitas lifted a hand to the two, and the same teleportation feeling rushed through Kyle’s body, but in a much quicker instant, the two were standing in the wide field planet of Orion Eight.

            “No time to lose,” Hood Nexus said. “Let’s get to the wormhole. If we’re quick enough, we can maybe catch him in the asteroid belt or by Mars.”

            Without saying anything or gesturing, Kyle and Hood Nexus shot off of the planet, out of its atmosphere in mere seconds. Kyle wasn’t feeling drained at all, but was determined beyond belief. The two segued quickly into their space jump, moving with the light of outer-space as they did to reach the wormhole. Kyle had a much easier time locating the wormhole’s energy tear this time around now that he’d experienced it before.

            In the minutes they flew, Kyle kept thinking of Black Nexus beating them to Earth, launching a black energy ball at Earth. As much as it frightened him, it also pushed him forward. He and Hood Nexus had to get in his way, they had to stop him. If they could, then they could buy the Zanderia enough time to come in for back-up. Having the ultra-powered Riko standing alongside them and the psychic Eclipse would be a humongous help. Perhaps Eclipse could even take over Black Nexus’s brain or something.

            Kyle’s blue field of vision was suddenly cut short as the two stopped at the wormhole, jumping right in. Their auras cut off as their light was eaten up by the wormhole, and in the blink of an eye, they were on the other side of the universe, back in the Milky Way Galaxy.

            “Can you sense him?” asked Hood Nexus.

            “Yeah, and I don’t know how,” Kyle said. “Normally I can’t sense energy, so if I can this time, then that means…”

            “Well that means he’s probably putting off all that energy because he knows we’re coming, and wants to find us,” Hood Nexus finished. “He’s near an asteroid, I can track him.”

            The two shot forward again, flying relatively slower than just before, toward the Earth, though were not veering too much off of a straight path.

            Kyle wanted to ask Hood Nexus something but realized that even with the energy of the Nexus, the speed of sound was still ridiculously slower than the speed of light and yelling at him would just burn his vocal chords.

            An asteroid appeared in the distance. It was about the same size as the Moon, though was much more rugged and was not spherical. It probably had been, given the chunks taken out of it maybe by other asteroids, though. It also was not blocking the sun, but they were still far enough away to the point where it was in their eyes but not an annoyance.

            Kyle and Hood Nexus gradually slowed until they were halted about a couple hundred feet from their foe, who was likewise floating in space. Kyle grimaced at the sight of him.

            Black Nexus, like he saw him before, was hardly anything more than a shadow with humanistic features. His arms were crossed and his toes pointed, as if he were levitating. He raised his head, and revealed olive-colored skin beneath the cowl. A black aura appeared around him, though was thin enough to see through it. Kyle and Hood Nexus’s auras were already up.

            Still, Black Nexus wasn’t even doing anything and Kyle could feel an enormous amount of pressure radiating off the guy. Did using his energy really make him that strong? Or was he, dare he think it, already that strong when he had the Nexus previously. Kyle wasn’t retracting his desire to fight Black Nexus, but was trying to run through, logically, how the heck they were supposed to beat this guy.

            “Aequitas sent you?” he asked. His voice was deep and had no accent, like Aequitas. That was probably because of the Nexus, though. How would a Roman know English?

            “We’ve been looking for you ever since Orion Six,” Hood Nexus replied. “He just told us how to kick your ass.”

            “He might not have sent you, but he sent his ambition,” Black Nexus said, keeping his villainous smirk. “That’s my brother for you. Foolhardy as ever to send a couple of children of the Nexus to fight me.”

            “To beat you,” Kyle clarified.

            “Silence!” Black Nexus shouted, waving a hand. As he did so, he revealed that he wasn’t dressed like Kyle, as expected. In fact, he was wearing clothing just like Aequitas, only, it was all black. His chest was exposed like Aequitas’s, too, but in the center of his chest was a black star imprinted. It seemed to glow for as his power momentarily grew, then the glowing faded. He continued, letting his arms stay at his side, “You, the newest to the Nexus, have no room to talk to someone of my status. I’m a destroyer of worlds, you a destroyer of nothing. I’ll see to it that your venture with the Nexus ends here and spare you the trouble of my brother.”

            “Aequitas is a friend.”

            “And he was my brother until he stole my glory and all I wanted out of my former power.” Black Nexus laughed. “Though I should thank him, as without him imprisoning me I wouldn’t have discovered the darkness and found this awesome power to do as I wish. I can reshape the entire universe if I desire. And none of you can stop me.”

            “What are you talking about, we’re the exact guys who are going to stop you,” Hood Nexus said, raising a glowing blue fist.

            “I know all about how the positive and negative energies work, fool, you won’t be able to beat me like that,” Black Nexus said. “I’m too fast, too strong to be hit by one of your little beams.”

            “Try me!” shouted Hood Nexus, and jabbed at him. A beam of blue energy burst out of his hand, shooting across space right toward Black Nexus, who dodged it then vanished.

            “Damn it,” Kyle muttered. A shadow appeared over Hood Nexus. “Move!”

            Kyle dashed over him, kicking upward. Black Nexus dodged his kick, but was too slow to dodge Hood Nexus’s punch. Kyle followed suit by bringing down his leg and kicking Black Nexus in the back, then the two fired an energy beam at him.

            Black Nexus vanished again, this time in front of them.

            “Let’s waste this guy,” Hood Nexus muttered, and shot forward. Kyle was right behind him.

            Hood Nexus jabbed twice again, both times missing as Black Nexus moved in on his opponents. Much quicker than anticipated, Black Nexus ducked beneath Hood Nexus and punched him right in the gut, taking hold of his ankles and throwing him away.

            While his foe was looking away, Kyle shot forward, trying to use the speed of his space-jump but Hood Nexus dodged even that, moving up and launched a black energy beam.

            Kyle swiped at it, accidentally launching an energy beam into space. Still, the black energy beam was only able to graze him. He cried out, his shoulder pounding from the pain. He rolled it, biting his lip as he did so.

            “How weak,” Black Nexus muttered.

            “Shut up!” shouted Hood Nexus, who burst out from behind Kyle and nearly punched Black Nexus straight in the face.

            Black Nexus was able to catch the fist, though. Kyle decided to reinforce his friend, launching a much larger energy beam than he wanted at Black Nexus.

            “No control!” Black Nexus shouted, avoiding the attack while throwing Hood Nexus right toward the asteroid. Hood Nexus crashed into it, forming another crater.

            “I don’t need control against you!” shouted Kyle, shooting forward.          

            “Bring it,” Black Nexus demanded.

            Quicker than he’d ever done it, Kyle punched at Black Nexus. Surprised, Black Nexus took a hit squarely in the face. Moving off his great speed, Kyle kneed Black Nexus in the chest, then elbowed him in the neck, slammed his head into Black Nexus’s forehead, and kicked him away. Taking in a deep breath, he pulled back his arm, holding an energy ball over it, and threw it as hard as he could at Black Nexus.

            The blast made instant contact, blue energy erupting out around Black Nexus and lighting up space momentarily.

            “Finish him!” shouted Hood Nexus, who was clambering out of the crater.

            Kyle nodded and moved forward, pulling back a shattering-punch. Out of the blue, though, came Black Nexus, with a fist of his own. His hood was slightly torn, revealing pure, terrifying, black eyes. Black Nexus caught Kyle off guard and punched the boy straight in the face, sending him spiraling downward. Kyle caught himself, but found himself also caught in a black energy blast, pushing him further down.

            He managed to shove it off of him, but felt seriously weakened. His aura was faint around him. Coursing the energy through him, he managed to light the aura up once again and burst upward toward the floating Black Nexus.

            Hood Nexus was out of the rubble and was making his advance on Black Nexus. Hood Nexus jabbed at Black Nexus again, who dodged all four of the attacks with ease, then made his own advance on Hood Nexus. The latter took a direct hit to the face, but then began to force his way back by taking hold of Black Nexus, spinning him around, and moving toward the asteroid. Black Nexus punched Hood Nexus twice, forcing the latter to release his grip.

            Kyle, with blinding speed, shouldered Black Nexus away, stopped, then moved upward once again, linking his hands and swinging down at Black Nexus’s skull. Black Nexus vanished again, then pulled the same move on Kyle. He thought his brain bounced around his head as he soared down onto the asteroid, creating a bigger crater than before.

            He wasn’t knocked out but could hardly see anything. He thought he heard someone call his name, then a flash of blue light told him Hood Nexus was attacking Black Nexus once again.

            Kyle’s thoughts slowly came back together. His name as Kyle Raiden, he was seventeen years old, and he was fighting some super-guy who was thousands of years old and could make entire planets disappear like nothing. And he was tossing the two of these guys around like rag-dolls.

            A warm fluid made its way down Kyle’s head and down his nose. He wiped at his nose, seeing blood. Twice, he blinked hard, trying to clear his vision of all the stars. And not the ones surrounding him.

            He looked down at the Nexus bracelet, rising to at best his knees. It wasn’t damaged, and looked perfectly fine. So it was all a user error, great. Kyle rubbed his temple, still unable to really feel anything below the neck and was just moving his appendages based on instinct rather than consciously doing so.

            A scream above made Kyle looked up, and he saw Hood Nexus plummeting toward the asteroid with his arm twisted behind his back. He landed much softer than Kyle had, but clearly his arm was broken. Growling, Hood Nexus pushed his way up with just one hand.

            Black Nexus landed in the crater in front of Kyle, looking at the two of them and shaking his head.

            “A shame,” he said. His outfit was a little more torn up—his hood was completely gone and his face was exposed, he had a bruise on his cheek—but besides that he looked fine.

            “We’ll—stop you,” Hood Nexus said.

            “Not if you’re dead,” Black Nexus said.

            Hood Nexus roared and ran toward Black Nexus, who merely chopped at him and knocked his lights out, sending him floating into space.

            “No, damn it!” Kyle shouted. He moved to help Hood Nexus, but a sudden darkness and BOOM knocked him right back out.

            Kyle  stood up suddenly, his senses more awake than ever. That was only for a second, though, as he suddenly became aware of someone shaking him and of the pounding in his head.

            “Hey, hey, HEY, wake up!” Hood Nexus shouted. He pulled back a fist.

            “Wha—what!” exclaimed Kyle, pushing himself away from Hood Nexus.

            Hood Nexus sighed. “Ah, good, you’re up. Don’t worry, we were only out for a few seconds, but Black Nexus managed to get away. I wonder if he thought that would finish us off or not.”

            A bit of the now-destroyed asteroid floating by them. Kyle’s head pounded again, and his vision blurred for longer than before. His aura was still faint around him, as was Hood Nexus’s. They, clearly, seriously weakened.

            “Doesn’t really matter,” Kyle said. “He’s probably thinking that if he gets Earth, he’ll regain all that energy he just lost.”

            “We’ve gotta go, then,” Hood Nexus said. “If we’re lucky, Riko and Eclipse will have already taken to fighting him and will hopefully be beating him.”

            “Right,” Kyle said.

            Hood Nexus turned and flew away, moving at incredible speeds. Kyle, taking longer than usual to charge up his energy, finally got himself together and burst forward, though at a considerably slower speed than Hood Nexus was flying off at.

            Despite the complete blur of stars and asteroids soaring by him, Kyle was still aware of the fact that his mind was not completely in the game. He was able to sense Black Nexus, yes, but not as acutely as he had before. His bracelet was undamaged, it was all him. His concentration was broken. The body, the vessel, had taken far too much damage to sustain more fighting.

            Yet fight on he had to, Kyle knew. Besides, this wasn’t his first beating. Gargador managed to get a good lick in on him and he kept on moving. The only difference here was that he could hardly concentrate and could hardly see. His senses were all over the place.

            Suddenly, Kyle stopped. He was by one of Mars’s moons, and its gravity pulled him in. He landed softly, laying down on the ground. He tried pushing himself up but found he had hardly the strength to do so.

            “Die you monster!” a voice shouted in his head. “This is for Orion Six!”

            Eclipse! Kyle could at least recognize that name. In front of him the craters fazed in and out of clarity. Or, it was Eclipse, right?

            The voice said something else, and screaming ensued.

            “Damn…Blue Nexus, get here now!” he shouted.

            The voice was in trouble! But…who was Blue Nexus?

            Kyle, hardly aware of his surroundings, tried pushing himself up but merely tumbled down into a deep crater, rolling to the very bottom of it. The avalanche caused several more boulders to fall down on him, crushing his arms and legs and burying him in total darkness.

            It was…unsettling. Kyle closed his eyes, seeing no blue light around him for the first time in a while. And it was uncomfortable. He was completely boxed in, he had nowhere to go. He tried to move all of the boulders off of him, but as he did, they only seemed to pile onto him more, weighing down even greater on him. He clenched a weak fist, but had to release it, not having the strength to even grip that.

            “Blue Nexus…please,” the voice called out. “The negative energy…disrupting…even…my mind! I can’t hold this any longer.”

            Kyle, though muffled, tried to say, “Who is the Blue Nexus?”
            “Well great, whose our town hero then?”

            Kyle looked from the TV to his grandfather. Who was he?

            “He’s the Blue Nexus,” Kyle said proudly.

            Who was he? Who am I, Kyle thought.

            The town hero. A fist. A Zanderian. A push.

            Some rubble moved but the boulders were giving way to something.

            “I know who I am!” Kyle shouted. “Eclipse! Hold on!”

            The town hero. A Zanderian. The Blue Nexus. His blue aura exploded around him, forcing all of the boulders away. Kyle got to his feet, his vision coming in and out of clarity. He began to float, turning toward Earth, able to sense the growing energy of Black Nexus.

            He burst toward the Earth with great speed, feeling his second wind indefinitely kick in. Within two mere minutes he was at the Earth, cutting himself off as he saw Black Nexus being cast in the powerful blow of Riko.

            Kyle smirked. “Looks like I’m hardly needed,” he said to himself.

            Riko punched Black Nexus toward the Moon, but the villain managed to spin out of his path, make a wide turn, and break for Riko. The alien did the same, shooting toward Black Nexus over the Earth. He caught him in a headlock, though Black Nexus seemed pleased by this.

            Black Nexus managed to flip himself over Riko, then elbowed Riko in the face and kicked him in the side of the head. Riko, his eyes completely white for a second, was vulnerable to attack. Black Nexus took him by the shoulder, punched Riko just as he was coming to, then pulled back, and with a mass of black energy, sent Riko careening into the Moon.

            From Kyle’s right, a bright blue light of energy zeroed in on Black Nexus. Black Nexus looked up, seeing Kyle. He frowned, and held up his left, hand, then fired an equally powerful energy beam toward Hood Nexus, who was using both hands to force the beam at Black Nexus.

            “You survived, how unfortunate,” he called out. He shoved his left arm out, a wave of black energy overwhelming Hood Nexus. Kyle, taking advantage of the moment where Black Nexus arrogantly looked to see his victory, advanced toward Black Nexus, pulling back a blue fist.

            Black Nexus, smiling, punched Kyle just as the hero was going to give Black Nexus an Earth-shattering punch. Kyle suspended in space until Black Nexus kicked him away.

            “I’ll deal with you with the rest of your planet,” Black Nexus said.

            Hood Nexus, his energy apparently recovered, now took his turn at Black Nexus. He was extremely fired up, as Kyle could tell, since his aura was expanded and as powerful as Kyle had ever seen.

            He was firing off shots and energy blasts at a speed Kyle could barely even keep up with, though Black Nexus was doing a damn good job of it. Kyle, angered that he couldn’t keep up, decided to start charging up his own energy blast. Like Black Nexus remarked, he found controlling it to be difficult.

            Hood Nexus landed two punches, energy punches no less, on Black Nexus, who instantly returned them. Kyle noticed that Hood Nexus had little remaining energy and that this fight was going to go badly really soon.

            Black Nexus lifted up his leg and kicked Hood Nexus in the temple, then elbowed him in the shoulder and head-butted him down. He pulled back an open palm, a black energy ball appearing, then launched it at Hood Nexus, who just barely managed to deflect it away from the Earth. He caught himself, breathing deeply as his aura flickered between huge and weak.

            “Give up,” Black Nexus insisted.

            “Look up,” Hood Nexus smirked.

            Black Nexus, confused, did so. Kyle, knowing his window had arrived, fired the beam with everything he had charged up. Hood Nexus shot toward Black Nexus, a blue fist pulled back once again just as Kyle was going to land his punch.

            “Fools!” Black Nexus shouted.

            Much quicker than the beam or Hood Nexus, Black Nexus appeared behind Hood Nexus, punching him straight into the path of Kyle’s beam. It hit him dead on. Hood Nexus sharply cried out, then it faded as he began to plummet toward the Earth, gravity finally sucking him as he had lost the energy to fight.

            Black Nexus vanished then reappeared between the Earth and the Moon, his hand pulled back. Darkness formed over it, and it grew. And grew.

            “No,” Kyle muttered.

            “I’ve toyed with this planet and its heroes long enough,” he declared. “As my old home, I see it fit that I destroy it. Stop me, Blue Nexus, if you dare! Die, Earth!”

            With a long swing, he launched the black ball of energy down toward the Earth. Kyle’s heart stopped, and his broken mind took over, sending him straight into the path of the black ball of energy. His hands lit up, and it came in closer, growing as it did so.

            “DIE!” shouted Black Nexus.

            “NO!” Kyle shouted, and shoved his hands forward.

            But the black ball wouldn’t move, and Kyle felt his strength fail him. The black ball of dark energy began to fall toward the Earth, shaking it to its core. Darkness dropped straight toward the planet…unguarded.


Next time: The fate of the Earth revealed in "Blue Nexus #13--Moving Forward"