CHAPTER 15

The swarm of daily commuters flying under the transparent shield of Pangaea bursts into clear view when the Nemesis soars beneath thick clouds in Earth's lower atmosphere. Poised to make its first strike on the Yhemlen city, the Nemesis cloaks its outer shell in a field of quantum deflectors that make it invisible to radar and sensors. The Yhemlen have another way to detect intruders, however, using an invisible net of quantum disablers. Defense drones surround the outside of the transparent shield, constantly surveying the area outside Pangaea's bounds.

Venture far enough, and field workers of Yhemlen's labor class can be seen riding on the saddleback of dinosaurs, among other animals they have managed to domesticize at least for a short time. Many are merely herbivores that do not eat other reptiles—Riojasaurus, Sauropelta, and some select flying creatures work best.

When the starship Nemesis comes too close, a Riojasaurus shrills, startled by a faint gust of wind. Its cry is brash, but not threatening. A tired Yhemlen sits up in the saddle, pulling his mount to an abrupt stop. He and his dinosaur companion look up at a faint glow in the sky. An electromagnetic field pulsates vividly upon the outer rim of the shield. Many more Yhemlen stop to watch as the starship Nemesis's quantum field breaks down in incremental steps, pulling at the bubble, the shield, to penetrate it, but it isn't exploding that easy. The Heinemann are at the edge of space right atop the Earth's atmosphere and enter and reenter many times to gain momentum and heat.

"I think we need to deactivate the Q-thrusters and initiate regular fuel for propulsion to save energy," Jasper says. His father Gereon—sits motionless in the Captain's seat.

Heavy thoughts about how to conquer the Yhemlen are slowing their reaction time. Ria hasn't moved from the back lodging, and while Jasper stares out of the window, cracks are forming at the outer edge of the quantum field deflectors. Their translucent glow sparkles in watery waves of blue.

"It's going to give!" Jasper shouts in his pinched voice.

Leaning his body to his right, Gereon's slender arm is covered by a sleeve that latches onto a few buttons aimlessly before it reaches an appropriate nozzle on the Nemesis control panel. Gereon's finger is smooth all around, and the wrinkles where his nail should be throb when he presses the switch for thermonuclear propulsion. The sunny day returns to a clear view, along with the curvature of the horizon in the distance. They'll have to lower altitude if they want to avoid the danger of Yhemlen defenses firing at them.

Fortunately for the Yhemlen, they have already spotted The Concord starship's belly protruding through the clouds. Yet, the Yhemlen are not attacking them. Captain Gereon is well prepared for this offensive, and it soothes the worries of Jasper and Ria who've joined him in this fight.

"Now that we're hovering, I can let you take over the duties of commanding the ship. I'm proud of you, son." Captain Gereon's reflection in his son's eyes distorts his body even more. The pitch-black balls surrounded by almond rings change the color of his eyes to a lighter shade when dilated under darkness. Gereon knows that when he steps out of the starship Nemesis, his eyes will be seething with a vengeance, and black, closed off from the sun's rays once the pupils shrink back in once more. There is more to this than what they can see, and it's what's lurking in dark crevices of the domed city of Pangaea that they must watch out for.

Ria finally stands up straight, puzzled by Gereon's haste. "Shouldn't we wait for reinforcements?" she asks. This is an argument that continues to resurface.

"Precisely, but I'm too old for waiting. Take care of the ship," he says.

"Father, where are you going? Do not do this."

"I'm going to make good on my promises to Grandmaster Frost and the rest of The Concord," he says adamantly. Standing atop a teleportation module, Captain Gereon, along with a slim belt of gear, mounts himself on a patch of land near the dome of Pangaea when coils of light wrap his body and transport him there instantly. When he does, Ria runs to the cockpit beside her brother. They weren't expecting him to teleport out of the starship like this.

"Activating power thrusters. All power online?"

"Sir yes sir," Ria announces.

"Regenerating deflector shield," Jasper says, continuing to flick operational switches above and below them in the starship's cockpit. "Photons, plasma, all systems go, check?"

"Check!" Ria affirms.

"All systems ready, hold on to your britches Madame."

The Nemesis rises over the clouds so that they aren't visible to the naked eye. When the Q-thrusters come back online, they make a quantum leap to outer orbit. This attack on Pangaea isn't the offensive firefight they were preparing for, not yet. When the Yhemlen in the saddle saw them breaching the outer atmosphere, there was no contact with defenses made, but there's no need to since they already know what's coming. The Yhemlen and Grey Order each learned their lesson from the last skirmish when disaster almost wiped them both out of existence. Their strategies are similar, to do the most damage without annihilating themselves in the process. The Class-A starship is the Yhemlen's main spacecraft, aside from plentiful strikers.

Tuas and Cira mimic the Heinemann siblings when they park the Class-A deep within the ocean, protecting the quantum field that is dampened by surveillance underwater, miles beneath the surface, protecting the ship from surveillance. Even the most powerful sonar could not detect it. It's the Class-A starship that's sunken there which can withstand the pressure and time. If the Yhemlen activates its power at the right time, the humans across parallel universes will be able to use it as a vessel against the Grey Order. It's their time to transfer power to a more willing opponent than themselves.

In low orbit, the starship Nemesis is parked peacefully while it waits for reinforcements. Below, their father Gereon is approaching the electromagnetic field of Pangaea's city dome, trying to find a way in after teleporting himself out of the starship.

The outer rim of Pangaea's shield is hard to penetrate, but the Yhemlen Overseers are baiting him with their retreat. They know he can penetrate it, even without the grey goo. What Gereon needs is confirmation of what may lie on the other side of unseen threats. He can hear Yhemlen in the saddle shrilling along with grazing dinosaurs, but none of them seem very worried at his meandering. Gereon's going to enter undeterred with a quantum deflector, the same type that the Yhemlen used to disable his force fields. The quantum internet needs to be free of interference to work clearly—and so too does the cosmic web for them to teleport.

Once he teleports to the inside of the city's covering, Captain Gereon gets spotted by a drone that alerts the authorities. Overseers are on the way. Tuas and Cira know that Captain Gereon is asking for a fight. This time, he'll get one, and it won't end the same way as before.

"I believe our father has eluded the Grey Order's policy for so long, he's just never realized it. He's breaking so many rules." Madame Ria says in the cockpit.

Jasper thinks of him similarly, but he prefers not to mention it. "I like to give him the benefit of the doubt," he says. "But if he doesn't return, we'll know why. He's stubborn."

As of late, Captain Gereon's brazens acts point to faults in his character that are getting in the way. What he needs most is rehabilitation. While the Heinemann siblings sit, Grandmaster Frost sends them a message.

"I have placed coordinates for the reinforcements to follow. They'll arrive shortly. An army of troopers and androids are prepared to be deployed in an airdrop."

"What about the bounty hunter? Has Xavier Moth made any contact?"

"He is in a similar predicament to you all; we'll have to cross channels there as well to make contact, but he is not free from danger either as the power of the Overseers has seeped over to the human timeline. The quantum field connection there is very weak."

"The humans a major threat," Madame Ria reiterates, but Grandmaster Frost isn't worried at all.

"The Yhemlen are our main priority. I'm in Convoy 8. A band of frigates and tankers are transporting the troopers, along with myself, in a squadron."

"I'd hate to see you get hurt," Jasper says to Frost with a friendly demeanor.

"Hah! That's one thing I'm not worried about."

The emotional tug of war with The Concord ideology has gotten to Captain Gereon who insists on having a solo retreat in the most dangerous of places within parallel universes. This sort of activity is uncalled for. Yhemlen Overseers don't plan on backing down, either. He is going to have to fight his way out.

Hiding near some brush on the outskirts of the city, Captain Gereon's small frame does him good now that he is dwarfed by the sheer size of Yhemlen's buildings. While Gereon jogs deeper and deeper into Yhemlen territory, fly-by commuters above him and skyrise buildings replace wilderness at the outer edges of the city.

At the city's edge where Captain Gereon disabled the quantum field, contaminated zombies that were infected as volunteers begin entering Pangaea's dome city in a primal urge to quench their hunger.

The Grey Order rarely activates their astral stones, except for special situations such as this. Gereon is inching closer to his breaking point, and when he finally reaches his threshold of tolerance, it will unleash a power within him that shapeshifts him into a powerful monster, some behemoth force. Yhemlen hybrids when they shapeshift, except they aren't reptilian monsters, but humanoid. For Captain Gereon, he's managed to skillfully evade these urges in small scuffles in favor of remaining tranquil. Coming face to face with Tuas will change all of that now in a coming battle that Gereon has been waiting for.

Captain Gereon's astral stone is pinching at the chest where his sternum used to be. Now there is a radioactive crystal emitting rays of energy dragging him deeper into a rage. The deadly combination of radiation will mutate Gereon from a miniature Grey into a giant. If Tuas can get to him before then, he may be able to stop the transformation from happening. Meanwhile, the city's patrons continue to go about their daily lives in hovercraft and flying vehicles, oblivious to the attack commencing on their city.

There is no more brush to hide behind and as the city grows busy, Gereon ducks for cover as the flying commuters jettison by him overhead. From this point on, Captain Gereon will be a mutated giant. A circle of light on his chest has a crescent covering the crystal that is activated. These thoughts of rage and vengeance are the emotions that the Grey Order warns about. Except he is bringing on the mutation by himself. Gereon is in control of the mutations.

The first thing to alter is his arms. And when he punches a fist firmly into the pavement, the molecules in his body grow exponentially, bursting through the solid ground. Cracks in the pavement leave residue of flesh as pieces of some synthetic material fly all around him in a dust bowl.

Gereon gargles in rage, before letting out beastly wrath.

A multitude of veins forms ribbed lines that accentuate his body's chiseled physique, revealing a shredded build after his gold-plated suit retracts into an electromagnetic vapor. Gereon rises to his feet, and as he extends to an elongated 8 to 9 feet in height, Captain Gereon sniffs to take in the Yhemlen stench.

His voice is hoarse, battered by the transformation. "It's good to be back," he says himself. Gereon's steps rumble the ground, and it is the first time he's been here on foot.

Before he can take his first step, a flying commuter rams into the back of his head. The violent collision hardly moves Gereon who gets rocked to one side, a mere scrape that doesn't bother him. It was flying too low. The ache in his neck lasts but a few seconds.

In utter discontent, he decides to slap a commuter out of circulation. All of Pangaea's sky traffic has stopped. The backup causes hysteria for Yhemlen citizens going about their business. For those at the back of the buildup, they haven't the slightest clue what's transpiring ahead. Traffic is stopped, hovering in space with the pile-up.

At the front of traffic, an intersection of low-level commuters is backed up by Gereon's march forward. A few manage to move up to higher-level traffic, but if too many interchange lanes at once collisions are inevitable. When they do happen, most of the vehicles lose weight beneath their sails and wings before gliding safely to the ground. One-way traffic is a must now. All it takes is a single wayward vehicle to cause the worst kind of accident, one that's explosive. The procession drifts to one side in the opposite direction so that when Gereon's newly minted body gets too close they can escape. Some are turning back. With each step forward Gereon huffs big gulps of air rich with oxygen.

The Yhemlen citizenry up close begins to recognize the threat. Gereon can hear the horns made of animal tusks warning others to retreat. All around him, the bustle increases. At a far end of the metropolis, Tuas and Cira are intertwined in a battle of wits to figure out how to proceed.

"We shouldn't be fighting alone, Tuas. We've got to assemble all of the Overseers and announce the air raid." Cira's telepathic thoughts ring loud in Tuas' ear. He'd rather speak, but the shrill in their voice is loud enough to capture onlookers. He doesn't mind lowering the volume on their conversation, especially now that they've returned inside Pangaea's dome for safety.

"It is a time of prophecy, one that we must fulfill," he returns.

"By losing?" Cira asks wearily.

"No! By handing over our coveted possessions to someone more fit to handle them. The humans have recovered our child, safely."

They both agree on the prophecy, but the outcome hasn't been settled, maybe they're supposed to win, after all. Cira is pleased, glancing to a pouch near the front of her abdomen where her egg used to be. She can't dwell on that now. If it's a war they want, then it's a war they will get. Farther away, behind a plethora of high-rises, Gereon's roar bellows through the city center of the metropolis. Tuas can't be bothered to restrain himself from fighting alone.

"These are too valuable to let go to waste," Tuas says, placing the underside of his hand on Cira's breastplate. The astral stones have been coveted by the Overseer class for almost a thousand years. "It's about time we use them."

Both Cira and Tuas are weighed down by the headdress that lines the back of their skulls. Since there are thick horns above their necks, this helps to deter radiation from moving down their bodies in electric static overhead. The coil of energy at their head is unmistakable. Tuas would rather take his off, and he does. The mask behind his skull comes off easy when he grasps it with both hands that have webs between the few fingers.

"The Class-A starship, let's recover it." Cira isn't convinced by Tuas. They need to put up a more valiant fight if they want to survive.

"We have time to spare." As Tuas undoes the metal contraptions meant to assist him, he recognizes the beauty the Yhemlen have been neglecting. His broad shoulders, gills that allow him to traverse the open oceans, and feet strong enough to propel them faster than most other mammals, give these reptilians an advantage.

Gereon isn't that far away, and the flow of air traffic points of him coming their way fast. Where Tuas and Cira are, a small patch of grass holds them up near some trees in an old park. The botanical gardens are for Yhemlen like them to socialize, but the mingling is over. Tuas isn't going to wait any longer. Quickly, he decides to mobilize his tail to activate the astral stone on his breastplate where a lightened shade of brown meshes with green. The tip of his tail signals the stone as it swells from within as the electromagnetic force builds. All it takes is a single click. The glow in Cira's eyes is unmistakable as she backs away.

"Tuas, he's coming closer." Cira stares at Gereon's body in the distance, mounting itself mentally on a bold plan, to destroy any Overseer that stands in his way. The primal instinct has led him right to them.

While Tuas begins his metamorphosis, Cira considers what plans Gereon has in store to undermine Pangaea's city. Either that, or him being alone means that his fleet abandoned him. For what, she won't know until they end this battle.

A shrill so loud that it pains Cira's ear pushes her back in retreat. It is Tuas. She should have shapeshifted alongside him. Instead, she is going to sit by idly and watch the confrontation first-hand in case some other fight that needs her help arises. Gereon's muscle-bound body lurches and bounces forward until he's sprinting. When Gereon's close enough to Tuas' 10-foot reptilian figure, all he can do is smile at the lizard monster. Overseers like these have avoided such battles because of the damage they will cause, but this is an opportune time. Each thrust of their fist, each kick, and claw send a barrage of radiation airborne. Anyone near will suffer the consequences of secondhand radiation that's unrestrained from the monsters. Not only that, but Gereon is only sparing time until Concord reinforcements arrive.

Face to face with his arch-enemy, Gereon flexes his chest and jumps forward. He plows into Tuas' midsection that is backed up by an elongated tail. The two of them ricochet as their intertwined bodies hit the ground before rolling into the park evergreen that he and Cira were conversing at. They roll hundreds of feet before Tuas' tail coils into the shape of an ouroboros eating itself on the grass. When they finally come to a stop, Tuas tries to suffocate Gereon with his tail, but Gereon's grip is too strong to let it happen.

After Tuas wraps his slithering body around Gereon's waist and moves to his neck with a lizard's tongue, Gereon's triceps bulge with the push away from his body. His grimace proves stressful in physical exertion as the scowl that Gereon makes wrinkles his mutated forehead with masculine fervor. Gereon's face shines with a sparkle from radiation, like glittering clay. His jaws clench to show teeth that are pearly white. When he thinks of it, Gereon insists on biting Tuas where it hurts, that same tail, and Tuas recoils it from being wrapped around Gereon's whole body. The move paralyzes Gereon momentarily from surprise, and the shock of release is numbed by Gereon's rage mounting, he's getting more efficient by the second.