Chapter 8

Horsemen United?

“No matter how many reinforcements you geeks bring in there is no possible way you freaks can beat our infinite power!” screamed an outraged Pokey to see his spider machine violated by having someone cut off a leg out of the twenty in one swipe.

“Infinite is quite the understatement isn’t Pokey, if I’m not mistaken, and by prophecy you can’t even defeat us. Even though there are only two active horsemen here right now along with four others partially weakened from battle, I don’t think you have much of a chance. Just remember though, the word horsemen of whatever is only a title, anything else assumed by it is mere stupidity. Maybe if you surrender now, you may not get your butt kicked so badly” explained a seemingly calm Tom.

“Enough with the chit-chat, you morons need to die now, and I’ll start with the horseman of time who’s just waiting to die without even knowing what hit him!” sneared a devil looking Pokey just wanting the opportunity to kill the supposed leader of the horsemen of light.

<Everyone DO NOT worry about Mike. From when I fought with him, he has a little ability Pokey will soon find out about that will buy us some time to take out some of these forces and have maybe two of us stall Giygas. Just let Pokey go ahead, he has always been a pyro-freak if you catch my drift.> Everyone else who heard Ness’s telepathic message just nodded their head signaling that at least he or she understood.

“Alright then, enough with this blaberring and let’s just get this under way, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can beat these monsters” said Casie.

“Ness and Paula, you two take Giygas since you two seem to work together the best. Everyone else, take the large group of cohorts that stands in front of us. Look guys, we cannot fail or make any mistakes. Anyone of those could possibly cost us our lives, and that’s something I don’t feel like giving up right now, even I swore I would for Ness at any given moment” explained Poo while turning his head to look at the coming onslaught.

“Casie, Tom, do you two have any power left whatsoever” said Jeff.

“Very little, and I’m only going to use it if I REALLY need to” explained Casie.

“I lack psychic powers but I pack quite a punch. If I need healing though, I have a few home-made healing elixirs that will help if anyone needs one. Unfortunately, they don’t work well after several uses as you can see with Mike over there” explained Tom.

Meanwhile over where Mike was, “Die! Die! Die! DIE! Die you moron! This will show you what happens when you mess with the embodiments of evil itself! Hahahahahahahahahaha!” screamed a seemingly hell bent Pokey as he tried destroying Mike with every laser in his arsenal. “What the! How is it possible he doesn’t have a scratch on him! Oh well, must be some type of special energy shield that I’ll have fun blasting apart anyway so let the fun begin!” About ten minutes later… “How is it that I can’t scratch him with any energy blast? He should have been incinerated long ago” questioned a shocked Pokey.

“Come on, can’t you two amount any type of worthy assault on me in my weakened form! I was expecting a fight for the two mainly responsible for my defeat before!” screamed Giygas while continuing his onslaught of both Ness and Paula.

“Fine, if it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you will get, say hello to my Fate… … Polaris!”

“Paula, don’t do it! The attack might not phase him whatsoever, remember our powers did nothing to him before!”

“I don’t think she cares anymore Ness. I think she just became a monster like me, only wanting to inflict pain with that gifted mind of hers!” explained Giygas bracing himself for the knowing on coming onslaught of power.

“Giygas, you’re wrong. I don’t want to inflict pain on you. I want you off this planet, and to stop doing what you are. Since neither of those are possible though, let’s just see how much that weakened form can take!” screamed Paula as anyone with the ability to even see her could see the extreme amount of energy her body alone was giving off. Ness at that moment started to duck for cover in the snow having seen this technique once before, having had it used on him once. Paula tapped in into her very life force and started to unleash a furious assault of psychic powers and energy blasts that not even he could have imagined possible.

When Paula unleashed a supped up freeze omega, Giygas just deflected the attack with ease, like it was nothing to him. Paula at that point fired a volley of seemingly near five-hundred different types of alternating blasts repeatedly for about five minutes until even Paula started to run out of power. With every attack though, it seemed like the devil’s machine battle all over again. No matter what psi technique or energy blast she used Giygas just deflected it effortlessly, even with the numbers coming at him. “Did you forget about my ability to deflect your psi powers when I’m in a weaker state? I see your body is now regretting the decision you made as you have nearly run out of power. Now your ripe for attacking once again” explained a seemingly overjoyed Giygas as he was about to take out Paula.

At that second, Ness blocked Giygas’s attack with his bat possibly saving Paula’s life. “Giygas, for a moment there I thought you had her there but you forgot about me though.”

“I see you don’t want to give up either. You’ll pay for that decision with your life!” screamed an angered Giygas as he charged Ness.

“Let me see here. I don’t have enough power to do that technique this time around. Let’s just see if he can deflect this energy blast though. I don’t even think he can stop this power. Well, let’s just see if he can. Giygas, you may have been able to deflect every assault Paula threw at you but can you deflect this point blank! Feel the mighty power within my body, Courage Ray!” With that, Ness fired a massive ray of energy straight from his right palm that hit Giygas dead on. It looked like Giygas could deflect the attack for a moment but miserably as Ness just increased the intensity of the blast and easily blew Giygas away. “Darn, I didn’t think it would take that much power to take him out with that. Well at least this has the property to beat any psychic defenses with maybe the exception of Mike’s energy absorption.”

“What the! What was that energy that was fired in Giygas’s direction? No time to waste my time with this napping piece of crap. Still, he hasn’t been phased by single energy blast I fired. Is this guy human even?” While Pokey was walking over to see what had happened he saw Ness lovingly clenching Paula’s exhausted and now unconscious body. “Ness! You, you, you actually beat Giygas one-on-one! How is that possible! Only Godan is superior in power to him!!!!!!!! You’ll pay for what you did and the pain will be long and excruciating, I guarantee it!!!!!!!!!!”

Right when Pokey saw the massive beam of light so did Giygas’s cohorts and the rest of the group. The cohorts were so afraid of whoever fired that beam would attack them very soon and they all quickly retreated for their lives. “Woah! What in the heck is that thing! I mean that has to be the most beautiful and destructive blast I’ve ever seen. Who fired that thing?!” screamed a very stunned and afraid Tom as he was in awe of what he just saw.

“That would have been Ness. He must have gotten desperate and used it against Giygas” Jeff quickly explained. “It’s called the courage ray. It is an extremely powerful blast of energy using his very life force. I just hope he’s not in any danger after using that blast, even though Giygas in his weakened state probably couldn’t have withstood it.”

“You mean Ness killed him! You know what that means if Giygas is dead right Jeff!” yelled Casie holding the point of her staff to Jeff’s throat extremely angry.

“No, I meant he would have weakened Giygas to the point of having to retreat. You see Giygas could only be defeated by the heavens last time and the power of the entire human race in prayer. Nothing like that courage ray could have destroyed Giygas, not by a long-shot. Now could you get that thing off my neck!”

“Sorry, my temper seems to get the best of me at times.”

“Ummm… guys I hate to break up the celebration but isn’t that Pokay charging at Ness and Paula full speed” quickly said Poo.

“Oh crap! Yeah that is, come on guys! We have to stop him! Those two probably can’t defend themselves in the state their probably in!” screamed a now running Tom.

“Ha HA! Now I have you, you little pest. Feel my wrath as I send this spider leg straight through your heart!”

Just at that most something struck Pokey spider leg about six inches away from Ness’s throat, saving him for the mean time. “Oh well lucky shot, I still have about ten more I can u…se! What the heck is going on here!” The rest of Pokey spider legs he had just point at Ness had been taken right off. Then Pokey got a look at the projectiles taking the legs off from under him just simple looking arrows that would be shot from a bow. “I’m getting out of here, whoever shot those is too powerful even for me. I’ll take care of you later!” At that moment, Pokey ran as fast as the remaining legs of his spider machine could take him.

“Who the hell just made Pokey retreat like that? It obviously wasn’t any of us since Mike’s out cold, Ness and Paula can’t fight, and none of us could attack from that distance that fast, not even me!” screamed a startled Jeff from what he just saw.

“There in the cavity of the snow bank that Ness blasted open with the courage ray, hey you wait! We need to talk to you!” hollered Casie trying to communicate with a seeming spec from the distance whoever it was was at. Once Casie yelled for whoever it was, he ran off very quickly.

“You think that might have been the last horsemen Casie?” said Poo.

“Yeah why?

“Tell Ness and Paula that I went after him. I need to see if my instincts are right on this one! Don’t bother chasing me though, none of you could keep up with me or him anyways!” yelled Poo as he ran off in the distance chasing the shadowy figure.

“Got… ya… wow that was fast. He could even give Mike a run for his money. Mike! Oh crap, I almost forgot about him! I hope Pokey didn’t do too much damage to him!” screamed a running and worried Casie as she ran off towards where Mike’s body still lied seemingly lifeless.

“So, what happened there guys, why didn’t Pokey kill me there?”

“Hey Ness, you shouldn’t be walking right now, especially while carrying Paula” said Jeff.

“Here let me take Paula for a while so you can regain some of your strength” asked Tom.

“Here you go then Tom, she’ll be better with you anyway since I can hardly stand as it is.”

“What happened that she looks so drained Ness?” asked Casie.

“Don’t tell me she used THAT Ness” asked a slightly shaking Jeff fearing Ness’s answer.

“Yeah, she used Polaris. I told her not to but she did anyway. Giygas just deflected all of her attacks like back during the devil machine part of the battle when we faced him.”

“Hold it, you mean to say Giygas can deflect energy techniques effortlessly!” screamed an astonished Tom.

“Yeah, what did you think Mike was the only one who could do that did you?” Jeff questioned.

“Yes, I did. This will make things more complicated then. At least, we know he can do that though.”

“We better go see how Casie and Mike are doing then. If Mike woke up from Pokey’s onslaught, he’s gonna be ticked and I have to make sure he doesn’t go ragin’ finale, again *sigh*” said Tom.

Over where Mike was lying in the snow, Casie quickly rushed over to see if Mike was okay. “Good, it seems the nimrod only used energy on you before going over to Ness. I’m surprised that you’re not awake though. Oh well, since you’re easy to wake up through pain I might as well. Just don’t kill me.” Right then, Casie gave Mike a swift blow to the gut, knocking the wind out of Mike and waking him up very quickly.

“O… *gasp* … kay, that wasn’t completely necessary Casie since I was trying to rest some more but okay. I won’t kill you though since I you didn’t know I was awake and felt Pokey’s entire attack. What a recharge that was though!”

“I’m glad you’re reenergized since the rest of us are absolutely exhausted.”

“Yeah but no one else can absorb energy like I can though, can they?”

“You’re right on that one. Hey, Poo went chasing after someone he thought might be the last horseman. You should give chase. With your speed, you can ctach up pretty easily.”

“Hey Mike! I’m glad to see you’re alright.”

“Hey Tom, Ness, I’m taking a guess you are Jeff if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yeah, it is nice to meet the guy who’s come up with the preliminary theory of intergalactical space travel.”

They shook hands. “Oh crap, I have to go up to Snow Wood for that tour soon, might as well do it now since there’s no immediate threat for the time being. Jeff you are coming with me right. I might as well get to know the place first hand right.”

“Yeah I guess so, but shouldn’t we be preparing for what’s to come though? I mean, how could you possibly be so calm after what two of those horsemen of Apocalypse did to us in just two battles?”

“One, they are also weakened. Two, there’s no real use in preparing ourselves to exhaustion right now anyways. What we all need to do is get some rest and relaxation. Oh yeah, I won’t be chasing that figure you guys saw. My mental powers may have had a recharge and physical are somewhat but hardly enough for me to chase someone anyway. You still coming Jeff?”

“Sure.”

“Alright then, I’ll see you guys later. PSI Light Warp Omega!” Mike and Jeff were off to Snow Wood at that point with Ness, Paula, Casie, and Tom without a direction to go.

“You guys want to see how Poo is doing? I mean he hasn’t tried his telepathy in a while so I’m sure he’s still running” Ness explained.

“It will be slow going but why not. We do no good staying here anyhow” said Casie.

While chasing his unknown person Poo was starting to really think this was the last horseman. Poo even at his full speed could hardly keep up. From what he could see, whoever it was wasn’t even trying. “How fast is this guy? If he traveled all this way, any normal person would have been completely exhausted by now. He has to be a horsemen. No normal human could keep up this effort, even for this short duration. I’ll try brainshock, maybe that’ll stun him just enough for me to at least catch him. PSI…” Once Poo let out that phrase, the person just vanished without a trace. “What the, where’d he go? Only by teleportation can someone move that fast, or one other mean. Still though, it’s unlikely he would have learned shadow movement for as young as he looked, especially in these surroundings. Oh no! What if he’s a…” before he could finish the phrase Poo got into guard position. Next thing Poo saw was a volley of arrows from his left coming his way at high velocities. Poo managed to dodge quickly backwards but only to have something point right to the back of his head.

“Great thing about learning how to hunt in the snow, once you learn how to blend in, no one can touch you” explained the person who was pointing whatever it was at the back of Poo’s head.

“I can see you’re experienced in hunting. Who are you?” Poo asked.

“I should be the one asking the questions around here. First, those guys come up and throw up that huge barricade building some huge weapon on my hunting grounds. Then you and your buddies show up and take care of them almost getting yourselves killed, not to mention when I was about to take them out myself.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you could have done it all by yourself too.”

“You saw how fast I took out the fat boy in his spider thing that was only my warm up. Now I’ll ask the questions. Who are you?”

“My name is Poo, crown prince of Dalaam.”

“Why are you here?”

“To look for someone.”

“For who exactly?” the person sounded like he was starting to pull the string back on a bow to make a threat.

“To make it short, a descent of Avalon, we think he might be someone of importance.”

“Now you caught my interest. I’ll lower the bow but don’t strike back, or I’ll dice you before you unsheathe that blade of yours” he withdrew his bow and arrow but did not allow Poo to turn around. “Okay, now give me the whole story.”

“Alright, those people down there were here because they wanted to destroy you and any trace of you completely. We came to find someone called the horseman of power but ran into them along the way. We saw you after you annihilated, his name is Pokey, him in his spider robot. That’s when I took chase and the situation that we’re in has now occurred.”

“If what you say is true, then prove yourself right now! Prepare to feel the mastery of my art.” Poo had to quickly draw his sword of kings just to block the attack. What he saw was astonishing. The guy was a kid no older than Paula covered in every type of archaic weaponry imaginable. Not to mention to fierce looking blade that Poo was now trying to parry.

“Who are you?! No one, especially in this area, should have those types of weapons! Not to mention your power is absolutely incredible for the age you look!”

“My name is Dave Evangale. I am one of the few descendants of Avalon who ancestors survived it’s destruction. My family was banished to Siberia by the Romanov’s for supposed false prophecies that somehow came true. My family has been here ever since. My family has completely mastered every form of hunting, tracking, and stealth combat in the known world and has passed them down through the generations. I’m the last living descendant of my family and have mastered these fighting forms. Why exactly do you think I’m this horseman of power.”

“First, I was told that the horseman of power was a descendant of Avalon by my master. Second of all, you seem to be quite the candidate!” Poo screamed as he was finally able to parry Dave’s blade.

“I am slightly surprised. No one person has ever been able to parry this sword before. Oh well, I might as well go along with you guys anyhow, seeing that your group couldn’t even take care of itself. I’ll meet your friends and all of that but if I’m not this horseman of power you speak of I’m gone” Dave explained.

“Deal. We might as well head off then. I see no purpose of staying in this baron wasteland.”

“Alright but we’ll go to my place after we meet up with them. It’s only a short distance from here and it’s warm so your group should be able to relax there for a while at least.”

“Alright, let me see if they set off on foot first. <Ness are you there? If you hear me, I found the person and I was able to get him to come with us. He’s offered us shelter until we recover. Where are you guys at?>”

<We’re able to see you two right now. You guys didn’t get off too far so you should be able to see us as well. We’ll be there in one sec.>

Once Ness and the others had arrived, they were shocked more than Poo when they got a look at Dave’s face. They were thinking that they were dealing with someone much older, not someone their age. “I guess I should get the names of everyone here. What do you guys call yourselves now?” said Dave while sheathing his sword.

“Ness”

“Casie”

“Tom, and the one unconscious on my back is Paula.”

“Wasn’t there another kid who was out cold and a kid with glasses also with you guys when you were fighting?”

“Yeah, there were. The former is Jeff, the genius of the group. The latter is Mike, the leader of the horsemen of light. Oh and by the way, they both have glasses” said Ness.

“Oh well can’t get them all. My house is about one and a half kilos from here so if you guys don’t mind the walk you can make yourselves at home. Oh yeah tell the blond when she gets up that’s she’s cute. *wham!*” Once Dave let out that phrase, Ness hit him upside the head and hard. “What was that for?”

“I forgot to mention that’s my girlfriend right there!”

“God, did you have to hit so hard though?”

“Would you?” said Ness.

“Okay I get your point” said Dave. “You might as well start walking now because the snow’s going to kick up again, and at the middle of the day the snow can get nasty in this area.” About a mile and a quarter later, Ness and everyone else saw a small house that was around absolutely nothing.

“Don’t tell me that’s your house Dave” said Ness.

“It only looks small, over half of it is underground for purposes of heating, storage, and living. Go in and make yourselves at home for the time being.” Once they got inside of Dave’s house, they were amazed by the décor and splendor of what covered his walls. The weapons, paintings, and artifacts were just amazing. It looked like a small palace with everything that was in it.

“Wow, I think there might be more artifacts on this first floor then in my entire palace. This is absolutely amazing. Where did you get all of this stuff though?” exclaimed an astonished Poo.

“Some of my ancestors were able to gather some things while Avalon was being sacked so a small amount is from that. The majority is from expeditions my family has gone on in past whenever someone found a horde of these heirlooms to the royal family. The rest are remains that have been traded or bought over the years.”

“Umm….Dave, where can I put Paula so she can lay down since she probably won’t awake for a while.”

“Go down two floors to the guest room, she’ll be comfortable there.”

“Thanks” said Tom as he went with the still unconscious Paula to put her somewhere more fitting for rest rather than his back and shoulder.

“Dave, I have a huge question to ask you. How did Avalon fall? They were at one point the Atlantis of the world and all of their technology was lost. Who could have stood a chance against Avalon at all?” asked Poo.

“Let me say it in one word, Giegue. He came from another world and that’s all I know about him. My people were brutally slaughtered but also caused his army some serious damage that he would never forget. The battle ended when a great warrior calling himself only by Zumon came along and destroyed the rest of his army easily and Giegue ran at his first chance out of fear of his destruction. Afterwards though, Avalon was completely leveled with maybe a thousand survivors at the most. Those who survived migrated all over the world to start over again and pass down their wisdom. People might be descendants and not even know it since some lost the will of carrying on traditions after a while.” Dave told the story with a slight tear in his eye.

“What happened to that warrior named Zu-mon if I’m not mistaken that was his name?” asked Casie.

“I don’t even know what happened to him. Legend says he came, destroyed Giegue’s entire army effortlessly, and told us to move on and left once Giegue retreated.”

“Hold it! Have you been saying Giegue?!” yelled a seemingly astonished Ness.

“Yeah, you know something.”

Ness unrolled a scroll looking at something. “I thought I heard that name before somewhere. Dave read this, even though you might not like what your about to read though.”

“Okay, how bad can it be though” Dave said while taking the scroll.

“It’s more or less disbelief, trust me” explained Ness.

When Dave finished reading the scroll, he looked to be in complete shock. He could not believe what he had just read. The destroyer of his people and the nation they used to live in had returned. “Where did you get this Ness?”

“I believe I can answer that. My friend Mike has three of those scrolls. As you read, he is also the leader of the horsemen of light. I guess you just read Gieuge’s name on that scroll” explained Casie.

“Yes, I… did. Ness when do we leave to start going up against these guys or at least prepare for any type of an attack?” said Dave with a ferocious look on his face with his hands shaking extremely violently.

“Once we’ve recovered from our last battle completely, we’ll see Mike and determine our next move.”

“That’s fine with me” said Dave with that same look.

“We might go looking for Nolan and Ryan next. Those two are powerhouses to the extent of the word. We’re going to need those two” said Tom while coming back from putting Paula onto the guestroom bed.

“Who are they anyway? I heard Mike talk about them before, they sound like juggernauts” said Ness.

“They aren’t juggernauts, by far they aren’t. Those two are very good at what they do though. Nolan is a heavenly endowed fighter with a very large assortment of modern weaponry. Ryan is a tactical specialist who has a very large assortment of techniques to use if he needs too. Anyway, we need to get to bed anyhow. We’ll decide our next move from there since Mike will want to check out Snow Wood tomorrow a ton, so he’s out along with Jeff currently. We should be able to come up with something though, good night guys I need some friggin’ rest” explained Tom.

“Agreed, everyone get some rest we’ll play it by ear from there so good night. Just make sure you don’t get up until you’re good and ready” Ness ordered.