Blue Nexus #13: Moving Forward

            It was about ten years ago, a moment Kyle liked to forget typically. He was in his neighborhood with his mom and dad, and several other neighborhood kids were there. Most of them were gone now, but the ones that remained after that still seemed to like at Kyle for it. Except for Kip and Luke, who never really bring it up.

            Really it’s not a big deal. Seven year olds often cry in public. But never did their parents have to come over and comfort them while they were with the other kids. It was the sign of a crybaby, someone who wasn’t really cool.

            What prompted all of this didn’t really help either. Each kid had taken a turn jumping out of the tree in one of the empty lots. Most of the time kids would just climb it then climb down, not wanting to jump. Today they were feeling pretty daring, though, and thus most of the kids leapt out of it. Everyone did it pretty gracefully. There were a few rough landings but nothing much. Kip and Luke went before Kyle, and he was the second-to-last one. Not because he was afraid but because that’s just the order he’d gone in.

            Before he jumped, he slipped climbing up the tree. That got a few laughs. Then, when he got to the thick branch to make his leap, he quickly clung to the thick trunk of the tree. He was so high up, he couldn’t dare move. He wanted to start climbing down, but ran into the next kid, who was older and pushed him forward.

            Kyle stumbled fully onto the thick branch, holding his arms out as a balance. The older kid waited for Kyle to jump so that he could try and prove he could stick the landing the best. Kyle looked back down at the ground that was so far away. He looked forward, half-hoping to see his mother and father there, but they were gone. They never hung out with him while the other kids were around.

            He pushed his weight forward, but that completely ruined his balance. Kyle lurched forward, then his foot slipped, and he hurtled toward the ground. His body turned slightly, and he rammed straight into the ground shoulder-first, his head slamming onto the hard ground at the base of the tree.

            Darkness. Blinding darkness.

            When the light came back, it was blurred and there was a loud scream filling the air. A couple of people were calling his name and two other bodies were on their knees next to him. Then, though, he heard the laughter.

            “Kyle!” a woman’s voice yelled. Mom.

            “Son!” a man’s voice yelled. Dad.

            “Hey, Kyle, you okay?” a boy’s voice asked. Kip.

            “Yeah, Kyle get up,” a second body’s voice said. Luke.

            “Ha-ha-ha,” several children called out. Friends.

            The screams were coming from Kyle, who was crying as loud as a fire-truck. When his vision returned he realized those were tears in his eyes, and when his breath came all the way back to him, he realized it was his shoulder he was crying over. It felt wrong, extremely wrong.

            Then again, so did his ankle. It was twisted in a funny way, and not a “ha-ha” funny way like those kids were making it out to be like.

            “Hey, Kyle!” Dad’s voice exclaimed. He slid down next to his son, then Mom rushed over and scooped his head up onto her knees.

            They both had matching blue bracelets.

            “Kyle what hurts, sweetheart?” asked Mom.

            “M-my s-sh-shoulder!” Kyle exclaimed. “And my…a-ankl-le!”

            He sobbed some more, his vision now almost completely blurry. His ears were hot and his mouth was dry from screaming so much without any liquid to soak it up.

            Some kids repeated what he said, and his father glared back to them, his hand resting over his bracelet. Then, he cracked a smile, and started to laugh.

            “Let me guess, trying to jump out of the tree, right?” he asked, then looked back to Kyle.

            “Thomas, this is serious,” Mom said.

            “I know, Lara,” Thomas said. “But how many times have you done this stupid thing as a kid?” He looked back to Kyle. “And after every time, we just had to keep moving forward. To make the bullies stop laughing.”

            Lara propped his head and Thomas picked him up.

            “It’s all about moving forward,” Thomas said, his blue bracelet glistening in Kyle’s teary eyes. “It’s life’s fundamental assignment.”

            Black Nexus roared with laughter. His black ball of energy hurtled, slowly, toward the Earth, taking Blue Nexus with it. At least that was one less pain for him to worry about. He surveyed his successes. On the moon, Riko was knocked out after taking several serious shots to his vitals. Eclipse, whose only powers stemmed from his mind, was now shut-down due to the overwhelming amount of negative energy he’d been fed in Black Nexus’s mind. The other Nexus had probably been vaporized upon impact with Earth’s atmosphere, and now, Blue Nexus was consumed by total blackness.

            A new power began to make itself known, moving quickly through Earth’s sky. Not one of the Nexus but another…one he’d sensed similar to that of the Fourth Kingdom Planet’s slaves. He laughed some more. A mere slave child coming to attack the strongest of the Nexus? No matter how much power this child had, even two Nexus’s, an Orionian, and an Ulzarian couldn’t defeat him. Talk about range.

            He shortened his laughter as he waited for the black ball to hit. It still had yet to crack Earth’s atmosphere and thus could not start to absorb itself energy. Why was it moving so slow? Was it because of the overwhelming amount of energy the Earth had?

            Sighing, he held out his hand, hoping he would be able to conjure up another black ball without having to gain energy by fighting others. If he wasn’t destroying a planet, then having to keep his body moving supplied him with energy. Black Nexus wasn’t entirely sure how that worked, but didn’t really mind it either. If it supplied, it helped.

            Yet even if he did create a second ball it wouldn’t make much difference. It wasn’t like light, where one could make it brighter or darker. Darkness was darkness, there was no light or heavy version of it. A pitfall surely.

            “Damn you, move!” he exclaimed, then held his hand out, to surge it forward. His eyes widened in shock. Something was blocking it, not that it was taking too long. He pushed forward again, feeling the impediment pushing back with equal force.

            “What the hell is stopping me?” shouted Black Nexus.

           

            A similar incident occurred later on after Kyle started to get into sports, but this time he was only with his parents and they weren’t in a public place. Instead, they were in their backyard. His grandparents hadn’t moved in yet and Kyle was only in seventh grade. He thought he would be cool if he started to dress like some of the athletes and tried to carry himself as such, thus taking himself much more serious. His parents didn’t buy it, knowing it was just a phase. And, obviously, it was. But there was a wake-up call to come with it.

            He and his father were playing some light baseball outside. At first it was catch until Kyle’s father joked that Kyle was throwing so soft a toddler could hit a home-run off of him. Kyle, like a middle school student, got rather angry at him. His father got a bat and lined up for the hits, the two facing away from the house so they wouldn’t break any windows.

            Kyle threw a few hard balls at his father and began to get cocky, his father getting irritated.

            “Son, stop that,” he said, standing up straight. Kyle smirked and prepared the ball in his hand again. Maybe he could try lacrosse, he thought as his father tried to lecture him.

            “Stop what?” he asked, tossing the ball into his mitt. “Smoking you?”

            “You’re getting cocky,” his father said. “Which means you’re going to let up and when you do it’s going to hurt, big time. Don’t think for a second that just because you have the upper-hand for now means you can retain it. Always keep pressing forward.”

            “You haven’t hit a single one of my pitches,” Kyle said. His father signaled he was ready, and Kyle wound up, then threw the ball as hard as he could.

            His father’s blue bracelet glistened for a mere second before Thomas slammed into the ball, the baseball rocketing back at Kyle, and just grazing his forehead enough to make it feel like he’d been punched in the temple.

            Instantly, Kyle dropped, crying out bloody murder. He’d fallen right into the mud, too, ruining some of his cool kid clothing, adding onto his list of things to complain about. Thomas walked over to him, planting the bat in the ground and looking down upon his son.

            “What are you whining about, your look?” he asked. “Oh please. Nobody really cares about how you look now or how you act now. Just be who you are, Kyle. You’ll never move forward if you’re stuck like this.”

            Angrily, Kyle swung at the bat in his father’s hand, but his father moved it away. Kyle sprang to his feet, his adrenaline soaring, and ran toward his father, who dodged his punch easily.

            “Yeah, okay, you’ve got a lot of energy,” his father said. “So what? Just because you’re angry you think you can justify using up all your adrenaline? Why not use it to get more strikes on me instead of throwing me a garbage pitch like that last one? If you’re going to get hyped up on angry energy, make sure it has a target, that it has a purpose.”

            “Why, so I can keep moving forward or something stupid like that?” Kyle asked.

            “That’s precisely why. Because then, when you have focus, you’ll be stronger and a hell of a lot better.”

           

            Black Nexus surged once again with his right hand extended, trying his damndest to push the black ball forward. It slightly moved but other than that it was like trying to drive a nail through a wall with just your fist.

            “Move, damn you!” he exclaimed.

            A moment of silence ensued before a loud roaring screamed through the air, flowing through Black Nexus’s ears and sending a chill down his spine. He’d heard that before, just a few moments ago down by Saturn. No, it couldn’t be.

            He was absorbed by the blast!

            The roaring continued, and suddenly, the black ball began to move forward. Black Nexus recovered his thoughts and retained it.

            On the other side of the black ball was a bright, blue light. It was large and from below it would look like a bright blue flame was battle against a raging sphere of darkness.

            Within the flame was a black-clad, blue-eyed, brown-haired seventeen year-old boy from Adelita. Two blue lines on either cheek ran down his face down to a blue circle on his back, and a blue line each ran up from his hands up his arms and to his back, as well. He had a black cape with black boots and his hood was up. He’d become something of an icon lately, known as the Blue Nexus.

            And he was Earth’s last defense.

            Kyle’s hands were bluer than they’d ever been as his shoulders burned with pain to keep the black ball where it was. He was exerting more energy than ever before into his hands. He wasn’t trying to push, but felt that was the result he was getting. There was sheer darkness staring him down, darkness that wanted to swallow him whole.

            Despite there being no wind, he felt energy rushing past him as he tried to move forward. His aura was humongous, larger than ever before because of all the untapped power. He had no idea where it was all coming from, either, but he was just digging and digging into this source and finding more power.

            Black Nexus continue to shout and curse at Kyle for halting the black sphere, Kyle roaring in response because of the pain he felt in his shoulders. Below him was a whole lot of blue, green, brown, and human lives that he was trying to defend.

            “Grrrr-aaaa!” Kyle shouted, knowing he wouldn’t have much of a voice if he survived.

            He was essentially stuck in his flying pose, too, as he couldn’t push himself off of anything. Suddenly, he felt a crack in the sphere, and a blue line appeared in front of him, then a blue circle over his face. Pure energy started to trickle into the black energy. Kyle’s plan was working. Clearly Black Nexus hadn’t noticed, as he wasn’t yelling about it or anything.

            “Kyle!” a voice shouted from below. He couldn’t spare much of a look and couldn’t sense anything other than the dark energy, but it was womanly.

            Brenda appeared next to him, shocking Kyle but not breaking his focus. She placed her hands against the dark energy, and jumped back in shock as some black bolts came off of it. He tried to say something but couldn’t, continuing to feed his energy into the sphere.

            “Hold…him…off!” shouted Kyle.

            “You want me to kick his ass?” Brenda asked. “Hell yeah. And I brought company, just give him a minute!”

            Brenda soared off beyond Kyle’s sight, but he heard her shout and felt some weight come off his shoulders. She was probably distracting Black Nexus.

            Another blue light slammed into the dark sphere next to him. It was Hood Nexus, who was holding out his hands and was having a much easier time than Kyle had been on the early-going stopping the black ball, instantly joining Kyle as he shot energy into the black sphere.

            “I’ll fill you in…ugh…once we beat this guy,” Hood Nexus said. “Just keep pushing!”

            Up above the sphere, Brenda punched Black Nexus way away from the black sphere, rushing toward him extremely quickly. She took hold of his hood, then threw him down into her knee, slamming them together and drawing dark blood from his face. She kicked him across the head, and then two flat squares appeared and she hurled them at him, trying to slice him half.

            Nimbly, Black Nexus was able to dodge them and moved toward Brenda, punching at her. She absorbed one hit and head-butted Black Nexus, then rushed at him again, wrapping him up in what would have been a tackle if they had somewhere to land. Instead, she gripped his back tightly and punched him thrice in the face before receiving an elbow to the left eye and a swift knee in the gut. Black Nexus pulled back a very dark fist and punched down at Brenda. She cast a red shield that was shattered and she plummeted down toward the black sphere.

            A red rectangle stopped her fall and served as a base for her to get up. She felt a very conflicted source of energy below her, so she stole a look down at the sphere. It looked the same, but she could feel more and more that Kyle’s Nexus energy was creeping in.

            “No, damn them!” exclaimed Black Nexus. “I won’t be stopped!”

            He held out his hand, lowering his guard completely for Brenda to strike. She formed a red square around his hand, then shoved it back into his face. With a pissed-off shout, Black Nexus shattered the red square and refocused his attention on Brenda, who was flying toward him to start round-two.

            Kyle and Hood Nexus were still using up all their strength, Kyle feeling somewhat transformed. He knew his eyes and the lines on his body were glowing a lot more than usual, and it wasn’t necessarily because of the power explosion. He was still finding it extremely difficult to penetrate the black sphere, but Hood Nexus looked nonetheless amazed.

            “We’ll take him down for sure!” Hood Nexus shouted. “Just a few more seconds!”

            He looked over to Kyle, whose face burned with passion and was completely devoid of fear. Hood Nexus broke away from the sphere, which was now about half blue and half black.

            “I’ll set him up, you knock him down!” exclaimed Hood Nexus, then blasted off with a faint aura.

            Once he made it around the sphere, he threw a blue ball of energy at Black Nexus. Brenda had just struck at him, too, but he dodged both attacks. He linked his hands, then swung down and hit Brenda across the face, sending her crashing into Hood Nexus. Brenda helped herself off of him, and attacked before Black Nexus could try to move the sphere against Kyle to regain control of it.

            Kyle felt that now he had more energy fed into it, and was actually beginning to move forward. It still wasn’t any easier, but the energy coming off of it and him was overwhelming. He felt now he could destroy a planet it he wanted.

            Brenda tried to trap Black Nexus in a red square but he escaped, thus Hood Nexus leapt behind him and managed to headlock him, and started toward the black sphere. Black Nexus tried kicking but his legs were suddenly bound by Brenda’s red square.

            “You fool, we’ll both be destroyed!” shouted Black Nexus.

            The sphere was now all pure Nexus energy. Kyle jumped back from it, then cupped his hands in front of him, and with a great surge, shot energy form his hands and pushed the ball away. It ripped free of its former place and raced forward at a much faster pace than it’d fallen.

            “Wrong!” shouted Hood Nexus. “I won’t be hurt by this! You, though, well…”

            “Go to hell!” shouted Kyle.

            Black Nexus let out one final cry before he made contact with Kyle’s attack. From there, all he could do was disintegrate. Black lightning shot out from around him, latching itself onto Hood Nexus for all it was worth. Black Nexus faded slowly into the blue ball, then the lightning faded all around Hood Nexus.

            The culmination was a giant explosion of blue energy, completely blinding Kyle, Brenda, and Hood Nexus. He felt himself becoming almost absorbed in it, but now, instead of what should have been the cold vastness of space was a warm feeling. Kyle shielded himself from the blinding light, shutting his eyes and crossing his arms over his face. He lost sight of everyone and everything around him.

            When it all stopped, he lowered his guard and his eyes adjusted to a familiar sight. It was an open room with a seat at the top of a stairwell toward the back of the room that was lit solely by candles. A man stood in front of them, with a black vest, black hood, and black scarf on his upper-body, and then baggy black pants and a pair of open-toed shoes to match. He had bright blue eyes and was smiling.

            Next to him as a figure on its knees. Black Nexus. His head was bowed and he looked exhausted. Kyle’s body tensed up in preparation of battle but he found he had no strength left to fight anyway. He sensed he wasn’t alone, either, as Hood Nexus was next to him as well, looking horribly beat but standing nonetheless.

            “Well done, Raiden-son,” Aequitas said, his smile unwavering. “You did it.”

            “If I did it, then how come he’s here?” Kyle asked, panting between words.

            “His body deteriorated here,” Aequitas said. “What you did was no simple feat.”
            “Yeah, I’d hope so,” Kyle muttered, then dropped to one knee, ready to either puke or pass out. Probably both.

            “No, not the conversion itself, though that was impressive. I meant how you were able to defeat him. You achieved two magnificent feats. The first being that you managed to open up a portal so significant that I was able to intervene with the battle and take him away, as well as detain his power from him—which is why you see him as such.”

            Kyle nodded, noting that now the pure blackness that was surrounding him was gone and his skin returned to its natural color. Now, it seemed, he was just a guy in a black cloak. No powers or anything anymore.

            “He has absolutely no power anymore,” Aequitas said. “But I won’t detain him to one of our prisons. I’ll grant him the dignity of placing him back on Earth, burying him beneath the Coliseum where our people lay. He was a horrendous person, but still my brother.”

            “He nearly destroyed the Earth,” Hood Nexus growled.

            “Which is why he shall be buried on the planet he tried to destroy,” Aequitas said. “And that will be the end of it. He’s barely holding on as is, once I sever his tether to the Nexus, he’ll be dead in an instant.”

            Aequitas let go of his brother’s back. As he fell, he faded once more, and the room fell totally silent for a few moments. Kyle and Hood Nexus tried to catch their breath as the silence persisted. To break it, Aequitas continued his talking,

            “And second, Raiden-son, is that you were able to ascertain a new form of the Nexus. Sort of a super form, if you will. Instead of simply using the powers from within your bracelet, you were drawing power from the entire Nexus.”

            “How the hell’d I manage that?” asked Kyle, faintly still.

            “I’ve done it before, and it was out of sheer willpower,” Aequitas said. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Instead of trying to draw forth its power I simply let it come to me when I needed its strength most. And once that well is opened its energy can be constantly tapped. The Nexus is now open to you, Raiden-son, though not without a price. Misuse of its awesome power may lead to your demise. But, that’s only if it’s connected through your bracelet.”

            “What do you mean? Of course it’s going to be connected through my bracelet.”

            There was once again a slight silence, but Aequitas broke it again by chuckling as did Hood Nexus, though the latter’s was much weaker.

            “Raiden-son, that isn’t technically your bracelet,” Aequitas said. “I’m surprised you’ve never thought about this. You’re using the power from your parent’s bracelet.”

            “So, you mean I shouldn’t be as powerful?” asked Kyle.

            “Not nearly,” Aequitas said. “Anyone who has a Nexus bracelet will be instantly gifted with its super abilities, but for you to perform such leaps and bounds as you have this battle is incredible. It’s unheard of, even.”

            Kyle blinked, then looked to Aequitas. “Then…when do I get my own bracelet?”

            “Until such time as it is needed most,” Aequitas responded. “Your ally attained his bracelet not through hereditary purposes but because he earned it when he needed it most. You have certainly earned it, but have no need for your own bracelet.”

            “Well when I find my parents and give them this one, then I guess I can have it, right?” Kyle took his turn to chuckle.

            Aequitas’s face fell sullen. “No, Raiden-son. As much power as you have, and your friends, chasing after your parents is still a fool’s errand. You would die surely. There were, and are, forces at work involving them that you cannot get involved with. For now, revel in this victory and recover your strength. There is much evil still on Earth that you need to attend to.”

            Kyle nodded. “Right, I should have figured as much.”

            Aequitas smiled. “So smile, Raiden-son, as you have saved the universe today, and have well-earned a rest.”

            He waved his hand and Kyle felt himself being tugged through the Nexus again. He and Hood Nexus began to separate. Hood Nexus said something to Aequitas, then in an instant, all fell to black.

            A light hanging over his head was what awoke him. The more it came into focus, the more he realized that the light was actually way high over his head. He blinked twice, then began to sit up, all of his muscles being very sore.

            Kyle groaned and rubbed his throbbing head. He looked around. He was sitting in the Zanderian command center, in the bottom right corner of the room. The room was just as it had been before, when he visited some time ago. Nobody was around him, and so they didn’t hear as he sat up on the table.

            For the first time in a while, he noticed, he was out of his Nexus form. It felt a little strange not feeling that coursing energy going through him, especially how great it’d been at the last moment, but it was good to be back to normal.

            Already he was nostalgic for that great rush of energy he felt. That super form, as Aequitas put it. He really needed to come up with a name for that. Super Blue Nexus? No, that was gimmicky. Then again, so was the whole super hero thing, he figured. It would come in time, or he could just have Kip and Luke come up with that one on their own. They were clever like that.

            His heart sunk. Oh God, his family! He hadn’t even told them that he was going to be gone, he’d just left. And how long was he gone for? Being across the universe and back must have taken some decent amount of time, and then there was the fact that he just got up from being unconscious.

            Kyle’s head throbbed again. Voices began to bounce off the wall. Most of them were familiar, too, only two of them weren’t. Kyle looked up, and saw all the other members of the Zanderia standing around in the center of the room, each of them seeming pretty serious. None of them were looking his way, too.

            He slipped off of the table, his footsteps onto the ground causing an echo that drew all of their attention. Instantly, their faces lit up. Brenda yelped and burst toward Kyle, wrapping a red shield around him before hugging him so she wouldn’t squeeze him to a breaking point.

            “Oh…hey,” he said. Indeed, his voice was pretty much gone from the yelling he’d done. It felt like it’d just been a shredder, too. He could really go for some honey, he figured.

            Phoenix approached him next, in costume. Riko was next, he was a little patched up, until finally the last two people approached him: Lalay and Eclipse. Lalay was pretty much all blue except for her white one-piece, and Eclipse was wearing a thick dark purple robe with his face hidden beneath a cloak. His hands were hidden beneath the long arms of the robe, too. Psychics, Kyle figured. Eclipse turned his head as Kyle thought that.

            “Good to see you’re awake,” Phoenix said. “It was kind of weird coming in here and suddenly seeing you just laying there. Those people from the Nexus sure are nice, aren’t they?”

            “Well, they’re pretty cool,” Kyle said, practically having to yell.

            “Sounds like someone still needs to rest,” Riko said. “You’re relieved of your duties until you’re fully recovered.”

            “You make it sound like I just came back from the dead,” Kyle joked.

            Brenda pursed her lips. “Well, we aren’t entirely sure of your condition. There were a few black bolts of energy that came off of you while you were out. It seems to just be some residual black energy but we don’t want you running around unstable.”

            Kyle nodded. He felt shaky, and definitely weak.

            “Fair enough,” he said. “But when can I go home? My friends and family are probably fuming that I’m not home.”

            “They’ll be fine, just tell them you had to stay super late for practice,” Phoenix suggested. “Won’t be a problem.”

            “And take it easy around practice,” Riko said. “I’ll have Brenda keep an eye on you.”

            “Blue Nexus,” Eclipse said. His voice was just as deep and intimidating as it was in his mind. “We would appreciate if you tell us about any abnormalities you may feel, any at all.”

            “Not to sound like your doctor,” Lalay put in. Her accent was a bit foreign. Was she an alien, or just a mutated human? Kyle would have to ask Brenda.

            “There’s little room for risk when it comes to super-beings,” Eclipse said. “Especially you, now that you’ve taken such an enormous leap in power.”

            “You can tell?” Kyle asked.

            “I can,” Phoenix said. “Well, Eclipse can too, but my senses were going off when you were pushing back that black sphere-thing. You sir, would make a horrible enemy to deal with if you got that strong again.”

            Kyle laughed. “I think you could take me right now.”

            “I’m willing to bet I could still take you even when you’re healthy,” Riko said, then chuckled and put his hand kindly on Kyle’s shoulder.

            The fan-boy in Kyle was freaking out. Surrounded by Earth’s greatest super-heroes and he was simply cracking jokes and even getting challenged to battle the most famous and strongest of them all. What a difference a little time made in him. In just the span of a couple weeks he’d gotten this brand new power, and had even saved the universe.

            And if that wasn’t an introduction into being a super-hero, he had no idea what it was. Aequitas promised more threats to the Earth and more times for Kyle to test out his abilities. If he could push himself this far, he knew he could keep on going. All he really had to do was keep moving forward, and he knew, he could become the strongest Nexus there ever was.


Next time: Eight months? Time to train! See how far the group has come after eight months of peace in "Blue Nexus #14--Training Days"