Welcome Back

Reality set in quickly after we returned from Russia.
 
Lil’Rocket had returned Aaron to the medbay at Homestead within moments of the XPlore Plane explosion, but I couldn’t hear him the entire time we were in Russia. I knew he wasn’t dead…but why couldn’t I hear him?
 
So when we were back on solid ground — Lil’Rocket’s speed is intense — I portaled into the medbay to see Aaron for myself. Holding his hand, I felt helpless. He was cold and motionless…thoughtless, even.
 
And his body was slightly green. There were no runes covering him. The knowledge we had ignorantly called the ‘runeforce’ wasn’t in him anymore…it’s inside me now.
 
But the ‘runeforce’ isn’t just about ‘runes’. It is the legacy of an entire civilization. All of the knowledge and energy of a star system…encapsulated inside Aaron…and now me.
 
But why did it leave Aaron? To protect us during the explosion of the XPlore Plane? And why didn’t it return to him afterward? Oh God, if Aaron had the ‘runeforce’ right now, he wouldn’t be in a coma.
 
But there was no time to think about these things.
 
Destroyer’s raids against resistance forces were becoming constant…and the New Champions received two urgent pleas for help within seconds of each other.
 
I went with Max and Dragon Lady to the requests that came from a cargo ship not too far from the city. Ghost, Sandcrab, and Lil’Rocket went the distance to a resistance cell in Nebraska. I didn’t even know there were resistance fighters in Nebraska…I thought they just had farms.
 
When we got to the cargo ship, Max went into action first. I couldn’t see Dragon Lady, though I could sense her mental prowess when I embodied the form of the Abril Legacy. In that form, every mind in the nearby vicinity became ‘near’.
 
But Max…I was close enough to see the devastation he caused. Black Talons are some of the most ferocious mechanisms we’ve seen. They obliterate entire resistance cells. But Max’s electrical blasts devastated them.
 
Admittedly, I’m still learning about the Abril Legacy…but their ‘Power of Knowledge’ is something I have found extremely useful. Locating the mind of the human inside the Black Talon suit, I commanded it,
 
“POWER DOWN”
 
It resisted for a second, but then I thought the words again — penetrating his synapses with the sheer force of truth — more forcefully, I shook the words into his skull,
 
“POWWERR DOWWNN!!!”
 
The hulking Black Talon collapsed under the weight of gravity as its rocket boosters shut down and its visor dimmed. The mech splashed into the water.
 
I could sense the minds of many resistance fighters on the ship, but only two other’s loyal to Destroyer. So I prepared to shift form back into Lyzen (the Oqthcalian word for “Vessel”), in that form capable of portaling between time and space. But in that moment, I heard the sound of cracking electricity — the unmistakable warning sound of Destroids portaling onto the scene.
 
So I continued shifting into Lyzen and then portaled onto the highest lookout of the cargo ship…and right next to two Destroids. Instinctively, I shifted forms a second time…into the Legacy of the Kazar Warriors — a giant with enormous arms and hardened skin. But to no avail, my first swipe at the Destroids was foiled by their intangibility.
 
Their tactics disgust me. Robots commanded from afar by a coward. Their intangibility is only proof that Destroyer knows we’ll win, eventually. When they turn solid, Max will obliterate them like he did in the warehouse district.
 
Maybe Dragon Lady and I can asses the damage that has been done to the ship?? I sure wish we had the XPlore Plane on-hand.