CONTENT WARNING: There is a fair amount of violence in this story, and I'd say this isn't for the squeemish.
“We have done it, my friend! We are victorious!”
“Aye, tis true. Yon Broob hath been beaten back, and thine people art free! Yea, the bards shall sing of the bravery and might of Gamma Ray Gary!”
“And of Donar Oldmanson, whose strength of limb is only matched by his sense of honour!”
“Let us hie to the hall of fabled Ausgard that we may drink to thine triumph!”
“Our triumph, my friend. I could not have done it without you. The Equinites will be forever in your debt.”
* * * * *
There was carnage everywhere. The ground was littered with bodies, the ground beneath stained crimson. It could not be said that this was a battleground; it was a killing field. The victims had only one hope against their attackers.
“Foul creatures!” Gamma Ray Gary screamed. He swung his enchanted weapon, Ljouis, through the head of one of his assailants. Two more took his place. “You shall not claim another!”
Standing behind him was a small child, a girl. Gary struggled with a full dozen of the creatures assailing him, desperately trying to keep his powerful form between the girl and the murderous throng.
He called upon the lightning that was his to command. A bolt from the heavens stuck the mass of bodies piled on him, sizzling their flesh. Ozone mixed with the stench of burnt hair. The topmost creatures fell to the ground, charred to the black.
Gary staggered to his feet, tossing aside several of the horde. The ground was uneven beneath his feet. He spared a glance downward, and realized he was not standing on the ground. He was standing on bodies.
“Lay down your arms and surrender,” a menacing voice intoned from behind him. Gary whirled around, Ljouis at the ready.
A figure in blood red armour, his face hidden by the shadows cast by his helmet, stood holding the girl. A sword that Gary could barely perceive was held against her neck. He could easily see her tears.
“Release her! NOW!!!” commanded the Equinite. On the periphery of his vision he could see the creatures surrounding him, eager to tear the flesh from his bones. Only the word of their commander was holding them in check.
“I think not. Drop your weapon or she dies.” To emphasize the point, the molecule-thick blade bit ever so slightly into her neck, spilling two single drops of blood. She was too frightened to scream.
Gamma Ray Gary looked at the forces arrayed against him. His mind was racing, desperately seeking a way to save the girl. Other than he himself she was the last of their kind. It was his sworn duty to protect her, to save her. Even at the cost of his own life.
Ljouis clattered to the ground, and Gary sank to his knees. The Equinite looked pleadingly at the armoured man. “Take my life, but spare her, I beseech you.”
The small army surged forward and seized Gary, binding him with their bodies. The armoured man approached him, then released the girl. “I shall take your life indeed, warrior.” The blade blurred through the air, cleaving the head of the Equinite from its body. “But I shall spare no one.”
* * * * *
A galaxy away, Donar Oldmanson was given pause. It nearly cost him as the Avawarrior he was battling sunk its teeth into his shoulder. “Away beast!” he cried as he hurled the minion of the Parody Master through the nearest titanium-reinforced wall.
“Something is amiss,” he said to himself as he shattered the skull of the advancing Avawarrior. It was not something he could easily perceive, more of a feeling. A feeling that a brother-in-arms needed his help. Help that, with the invasion of Earth, he could not give. “Gary, mine Oath-brother, I pray to the Oldman that thou dost not require mine aid.”
Donar then refocused his attention on the battle at hand. There was a bond between he and Gamma Ray Gary, one that only wielders of their enchanted weapons could share. Donar hoped that Gary’s own weapon would be enough to see him through, as Mjalcom’s bearer could not.
* * * * *
Gary looked on at horror as the corpse of the girl slumped to the ground. “You,” Gary hissed through gritted teeth, “You butcher!!” With a heave of his mighty shoulders Gary threw off the creatures binding him. His enchanted baseball bat flew to his hand.
The throng surged forward again, eager to take him, but their master halted them. “Stop. I shall finish this one myself.”
The Avatar bent to the ground and wiped the blood from his blade contemptuously on the shirt of the beheaded child. The act was enough to enrage Gary even further, a warrior madness overtaking him.
There were no words spoken from the last of the Equinites as he surged forward, hurling Ljouis at his foe. The Avatar deflected the missile with a flick of his blade, then thrust forward with the point, skewering the hero.
Gary grasped the blade, ignoring the edge biting into his hand, using the pain to fuel his rage. He ripped the sword from the Avatar, then pulled it from his stomach with a howl of pain. He could feel the breeze on his back where the blade had exited.
Gary swung the sword at his adversary, but the speed of the Avatar was too great as he blurred out of range. Gary felt the blow from behind before he could find his quarry, a strong punch right where the blood was seeping from the sword wound. Gary stumbled forward, losing his grip on the sword which the Avatar quickly reclaimed.
It was then that Ljouis returned to Gary’s hand, just in time to parry the killing blow from the Avatar. Two of the most powerful weapons in the universe clashed, sparks flying where they met. The Avatar attacked again and again, Gary desperately fending off what strikes he could. The speed of the Avatar was too great though, as Gary felt more and more gashes on his hide.
Gary once more called upon the elements, summoning the most vicious storm he could. The hail pelted the two warriors, the rain mingling with the blood on the ground. The air crackled with electricity and the ground shook with the force of the thunder.
The Avatar was unimpressed. “You seek to distract me with the elements? Fool! My Master is the embodiment of the universe itself!”
Gary parried another strike. “I shall give him your regards then when I deliver unto him your corpse!” The Equinite could barely be heard over the thunder.
The Avatar stumbled back then as the first of the lightning strikes found their mark. The next one was not as successful, however, as the Avatar seemed to ignore it. His armour smoldered but the Avatar kept coming.
“Your cause is hopeless!” the Avatar shouted above the storm. “Let me grant you peace!”
“Peace?! PEACE?!! After what you have done this day, I fear I shall never know it again! The cries of my people fuel me, monster, urging me to avenge them! And avenge them I shall!!” screamed the Ausgardian-powered warrior.
The Avatar lunged forward with his Avasword, attempting to decapitate the last son of the Equinites as he had their last daughter. Gary slammed Ljouis into the ground, the tremor causing many of the Avawarriors assembled to lose their footing. The Avatar stumbled, for his weight was fully committed to his attack. Gary then hurled Ljouis, but the Avatar jerked his head aside in time to keep it.
Before the Avatar could recover from the tremor Gamma Ray Gary was upon him. A powerful backhand disarmed the Avatar as Gary seized his throat with the other hand. He squeezed with as much force as he could. He then removed the Avatar’s helmet, leaving his face exposed.
Gary began to punch him, the shockwaves from the blows deflecting the rain away from the combatants. Again and again his fist fell, the Avatar helpless to defend himself.
Finally Gary stopped, his hand still wrapped around his enemy’s throat. “Is that all you’ve got?” spat the Avatar.
“No. It is not.” It was then that Ljouis returned to his hand.
With a satisfying crunch.
Gary dropped the lifeless Avatar to the ground, then faced the Avawarriors. “Come and have a go then,” he growled, “if you think you’re hard enough.”
* * * * *
Gary slumped to his knees as the last of the Avawarriors was defeated. All around him lay the bodies of the Parody Masters minions and the Equinites. The storm began to ebb as did the rage that fueled it. His rage was spent.
Now there was only his sorrow.
* * * * *
Gary stood as he finished burying the last of the Equinites; the little girl. She had been the last to fall in life, and the last to be laid to rest. As he had with each of the graves, he stood before it with his head bowed in respect for the dead.
After a few moments he looked up again, over the row upon row of disturbed earth. It had been a long while since he had been able to see where he had started.
“I have been different from you for a long time now,” he said softly to his people. “You chose me above all others to be your defender, your protector. You placed your faith in me that I would be strong for you, that I would never fail you. But fail you I have.
“There was a time during the battle that I thought of laying down arms. Of joining with you in the next life. But then my failure, and my shame, would be far greater. I am the last of the Equinites now. I shall ensure you are not forgotten.
“I swear this to you. While my body still draws breath, I will see you avenged. I will see that this Parody Master does not destroy another race as he has ours. I will see him dead.”
A fire burned in Gary’s breast as his tears finally began to fall. He took to the skies, leaving the small planetoid the Equinites had come to call home only a few scant months ago behind. He was the last of the Equinites.
And if he was to become the last Equinite to fall, he would ensure the Parody Master would fall with him.
To be continued...
NOTE: I hope I didn't screw up the Avawarriors too much. I was thinking of them along the lines of Parademons with the Avatars being the less savage of the PM's forces. If I got it wrong then I guess the No-Prize answer could be there are multiple types of Avawarriors.
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