THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 36

Two giant creatures, the likes of which had not been seen on the planet since the advent of the Dinosaurs, came together in a crunching sound as Critock launched himself at Pt’ron. He had quickly decided to sacrifice any sense of finesse and strategy in favor of brute force, hoping to catch his enemy off guard. Pt’ron would most likely be completely out of practice when it came to an actual fight, especially one where he didn’t have his precious Shards with him, still held by Daniel’s unmoving body. Pt’ron staggered back, teetering before he caught himself with his back appendages. Critock kept the attack up, punching and clawing with every available bit of energy he could summon.

Pt’ron was indeed surprised by the attack, as he maneuvered to block Daniel’s body, along with the precious Shards. But the surprise didn’t last long. As he had fallen back, he had reached back with his left clawed leg, and found a wooden board that had not broken from his earlier assault. As Critock paused briefly to strike with his right claw, he was instead caught from the left by the plank, slamming into his orb body and sending him flailing, more shocked at the unexpected attack than hurt.

Critock hit the ground hard, but quickly rose to his ‘feet’, helped by the extra appendages that moved in conjunction with each other. He saw Pt’ron come towards him, swinging the board he still held between his claws, and quickly moved out of the way, replaceing a loose board of his own as he clambered over it. Quickly grabbing it, Critock lifted it up, pointing it directly at Pt’ron’s eye, which narrowed from its vantage in the middle of the orb body. Neither moved for a moment, until almost simultaneously, both letting out an unearthly roar, they began to come at each other, each swinging their board.

Together, swinging, dodging, and grunting from swings that found their mark, the pair danced around the room, narrowly missing and in some cases actually hitting and bouncing off the largely decorative pillars. There was nothing else to them, no shards, no people, no planets, only millions of years of Marconian instinct working in concert against an enemy they had to defeat to reach their goals. Only one thing stood in their way: each other.

As the fight went on, a rogue swing from Pt’ron succeeded in knocking over a heavy stone pillar that would have fallen directly on Mr. Phelps if not for Shanna breaking from staring at the unworldly fight in shock to notice it teetering and pushing him out of the way. The force of the push sent both of them directly underneath what their minds could only process as ‘creatures’, who seemed to have forgotten that they were even there. For a few terrifying seconds, as Shanna clutched Phelps’ arm with one hand and Claire’s with the other, everywhere they seemed to move was blocked. A clawed leg here, a dangling appendage there, everything seemed to thwart their attempts to escape the field of battle that used to be their school. Finally, Critock moved a giant leg to sidestep an attack, and Shanna saw her opportunity. Grabbing Phelps and Claire with one hand each, she pulled them under Critock, oblivious to the teenagers and the teacher, and made a mad dash towards the exit door. Not stopping, she threw her weight towards the push bar on the door. It swung open with the force, and they made their exit without looking back. Shanna hoped Critock could defeat Pt’ron, but she knew there was nothing else she could do. They were on their own.

Out of the corner of his one gigantic eye, Critock noticed the light from the outside door as it closed, and realized that the humans had escaped the arena. Knowing that they were safe, at least for the moment, seemed to feed his energy, and he began striking with newfound vigor, swinging his board, occasionally connecting, and driving his enemy back. Knowing he didn’t have the advantage any longer, Pt’ron attempted to roll past Critock to try and get to Daniel’s body. To regain his Shards, and end this pointless exercise. Critock was ready for him though, having kept the location of Daniel at the front of his mind as they moved around, and Pt’ron’s move caused his guard to be lowered just for a moment. This was the moment Critock needed. He blocked him with a swift kick from a clawed foot, slicing across Pt’ron’s eye. As a bellow came from the Marconian, Critock struck next with the board, slamming it into his body, and with the weight of the strike Pt’ron flew across the room, crashing painfully into a wall, on the other side of the lobby from the Shards.

Critock advanced on Pt’ron, anger and righteousness showing across his body, a look that would be imperceptible to any other race. He was ready to end this quickly, knowing that if he turned his back to reach the shards he would lose the momentum and let his guard down. Pt’ron, who had a death grip on his board, picked himself up to face his enemy. Seeing Critock begin to swing his weapon, Pt’ron swung his as well, and the two wooden boards met as though in a swordfight. The strength of both of their swings destroyed the boards entirely in an instant, and their bodies continued the follow-through. Pt’ron managed to think quickly and pull up a back leg, supporting himself entirely on his appendages while he kicked at Critock. The bounty hunter wasn’t expecting an attack, even a weak one, and fell back with the hit. Now knowing that he didn’t have the advantage, his last fight having been hundreds of years behind him, Pt’ron knew his only hope was to change the venue. Trusting that the Shards were safe for the moment, with the humans having run for their lives away from their only hope of salvation, Pt’ron chose not to advance on Critock, who was even now back on his feet and advancing. Instead, he jumped backwards, his giant legs moving back behind him, and their claws imbedding into the wall. He then began climbing the wall, his orb body moving around, keeping an eye on Critock, who had stopped, watching his enemy defy gravity and climb up the side of the wall towards the ceiling. After a moment, Critock jumped up, sank his claws into the wall as well, and began to chase Pt’ron.

The two enemies met again in a clash that was more calculated but no less explosive and dangerous on the side of the wall directly above the gymnasium doors. They held on to the wall precariously with one imbedded claw apiece as they used the other leg and claw to swing and stab at the other. They alternated each leg in and out as they moved, desperately trying to gain advantage and neither replaceing one. Soon they were completely upside down, so absorbed in their battle that they didn’t notice their altitude, now above the staircase, above the second floor. Pt’ron swung a claw and missed, but it was sharp enough to replace the one thing that could be damaged, the chandelier that had seemed so out of place. It fell to the ground, thousands of dollars destroyed in a crash of glass and anger. Neither of the two cared.

Making his way to a window facing the rear of the school, Pt’ron swung wildly at Critock. The swings seemed without any kind of strategy and thus were unpredictable, and Critock kept his distance for a moment. Seizing his chance to change the location of the battle again, Pt’ron quickly released his appendages from where they were clutching tightly onto the wooden beams. With just one claw imbedded, he swung backwards, impacting with the window. The glass was strong, made to repel bird impacts and strong weather, but it was never intended to withstand a one-thousand-pound being that should have never existed on this world. It shattered, cutting Pt’ron, and causing blue blood to begin to seep from a dozen small cuts. He didn’t feel the pain, even as his free claw impacted the side of the building from the outside, digging itself in. Once he had hit his goal, he quickly released the leg still inside, and began crawling quickly up the side of the building, hoping to get out of sight of Critock, and get back into the building to recover the Shards. He wasn’t worried about Critock taking the chance of letting him get away in order to collect the artifacts. If he had learned anything, he had learned that Critock would be singularly focused on him.

He was more right than he realized, as Critock quickly moved out the window behind him, moving much faster and would soon overtake him.. His plans dashed, Pt’ron clambered as fast as he dared, knowing that falling off the building, while likely not fatal or even very damaging, would expose him to Critock and certain doom. He reached the roof and turned upright, and as soon as he was able retracted his claws and leaped towards the other side of the roof, narrowly missing being swiped by Critock. He landed on the ledge overlooking the parking lot, as Critock moved steadily up the roof, stopping at it’s peak to look down.

At first Pt’ron thought he was looking at him, and wondered why he wasn’t resuming the attack. Then he heard screams, and realized that it wasn’t just automobiles that were in the lot. With a quick glance behind him, he saw them. The entire assemblage of the high school had gathered together at the front to await police and fire officials, who in the scant few minutes since being contacted had not arrived. Right now, every single one of the teachers, students, and workers had their eyes skyward, staring at the two monsters on the roof, a wave of fear and confusion spreading through them.

This wasn’t Pt’ron’s original plan, but it was even better. It would keep Critock busy, unbalance him, and give him the advantage. He knew why Critock had stopped now. He hadn’t been here long enough to learn to despise humanity yet. He hadn’t had to wait thousands of years for one moment, having to hide amongst the rabble for that long lest he be noticed by an authority on high, whether it be Marconians or the Mandragora or anyone who would know that Pt’ron’s continued existence meant the Shards still existed. The moment had arrived, and Pt’ron had no problem taking his anger out at these primitives. He looked back at Critock, frozen and waiting for his enemy’s next move, and let out a quick yet sinister laugh. Then with a yell, he launched himself off of the roof, directly towards the crowd below.

The two missiles were still far away from their destination, at least in terms of miles or any other human designation. But in the terms of distance that they were designed for, they were nearly to their targets. The missile designated to strike the first Shard slowly began to edge ahead of the other one, in case the second Shard was destroyed before the first and the planet could still be saved from its Armageddon. Soundless and with no way to halt their movement other than the disappearance of the radiation emanating from the Shards, The missiles continued to move in tandem, though no longer in parallel, as they gained their first sight of their last landmark; Earth’s Moon.

If the situation wasn’t so insane Shanna would be very amused at the attention that Claire was getting, both from her brother and her once-suitor, as they took turns hugging her. The blonde girl accepted the embraces but did not return them, as she was still in shock both from replaceing out the truth about her loving boyfriend, and then him becoming a giant murderous monster. Jim understood the shock, so despite his curiosity, he didn’t press her or Shanna, who hadn’t offered up any details. Phelps had went off to the other teachers, trying desperately to get them to move their students away from the school, but was having a hard time convincing them of what he had seen.

John was not as observant about Claire’s state, and while he was inwardly scared about what he imagined was happening in the school, he couldn’t stop a rapid barrage of questions. “Seriously? Giant spider aliens? Both Kyle and Daniel? How big are they? What are they doing now? Can Kyle beat him? Has he always been an alien?” Tears streamed down Claire’s face as her mind moved a million miles a second trying to process all of this.

“John…” Jim attempted to warn him off.

“Well for Christ’s sake! Can you blame me!” John waved his arms around frantically, yelling loud enough to get the attention of a close by class. “There’s two monsters in there tearing each other apart, and we’re out here scratching our butts! We gotta replace out what’s going on, so we can…”

“So we can what.” Shanna whirled around, her red hair whipping around with her and in front of her eyes slightly. “There’s nothing we can do! We had a chance to stop this before it started…” She turned back at the school. “…And we screwed it up.”

Just then, both John’s questions and Shanna’s self-loathing were interrupted by Claire starting to scream loudly and in an extremely high pitch. The group, and the students and teachers surrounding them quickly looked at her, then followed her gaze up to where she had caught movement where nothing should be at this time, on the roof. There she, and now every individual standing outside where they had escaped for safety, now saw the source of every rumor that had sent them running in the first place. The giant spider-like monster stood still for a moment, looking both at them and at something else on the roof. Then it jumped.

It seemed to hang in the air for a moment, its split legs spread apart and slightly bent to absorb the impact from the landing on the concrete below. It hit the ground with a light sound, and the orb’s one red eye seemed to stare straight down, as though recovering from the jump. Then it looked up suddenly, its legs straightening. A growl emanated from the creature as it looked at the assemblage, still shocked from the sudden appearance. With sudden unexpected speed, it rushed forward, which triggered instant uncontrollable fright from everyone. The creature slashed at the students, its massive claw raking across the back of two very unfortunate freshman, who let out loud but horrifyingly short yells from the pain as they fell.

“YES! RUN!” Students and teachers followed Pt’ron’s command as he bellowed, scanning the backs of the humans for a very specific feature: Red hair. He located Shanna, running alongside John and Jim as they each held tightly to one of Claire’s arms, almost dragging her away from the true image of her now ex-boyfriend. “I SEE YOU, SHANNA! YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH ALIENS? HERE I AM!” She had turned her head at the loud call of her name, then turned back to the front and ran faster, but suddenly to the left of her friends. She wasn’t going to see anyone hurt because of her.

To the Marconian, the human with the unique colored hair was easy to track, and as he moved around the parking lot, smaller bodies scattering out of his way desperately trying to avoid his legs and the sharp death-dealing claws at the end of them, his eye never left her. One leg crashed into the top of a red sports car, his claw penetrating the top and embedding itself in it’s floor. He stopped, looking down at what had gotten trapped, and Pt’ron began to shake his leg wildly. After three shakes, the car finally was freed, flying through the air and shedding metal everywhere as it landed harshly, rolling off into the grass. He watched it roll with satisfaction, turning back to continue the pursuit of the one human that he knew for certain had been instrumental in assisting Critock. All of humanity would learn the horrible fate of the girl that had tried to prevent his ascension! He moved forward but was stopped by a voice that he should have expected.

“PT’RONNNN!!!” Critock had landed very soon after Pt’ron, but wasn’t able to reach him in time before he had injured the two poor children. Freely cursing in his own language without pain, he moved to a better position, trying to get to a point where he could cut off his enemy without further bloodshed, and somehow move him back within the school. If Pt’ron was outside when the first missile came into sight range, he would see it coming, and be able to get to the Shard, and stop it in its tracks, defeating the entire plan. Inside, there was no way he would know it was coming. One missile would destroy both shards and Pt’ron at the same time. While the school would be destroyed, the world would live on. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the only one Critock had left. Seeing Pt’ron going after Shanna however had Critock forgetting the plan completely, and charging at his enemy. The two Marconians crashed together, sending them both to the ground. Where before there was a kind of finesse to the battle between the two, now that they were outside, Critock desperately trying to prevent anything happening to his friend and Pt’ron willing to do anything to harm her, any kind of strategy or planning was out the window. It was now two monstrous beings rolling around, each trying to tear the other one apart.

Shanna had retreated behind a nearby station wagon, hiding with her back against the drivers side door and hoping that she hadn’t been spotted. She knew running would just make her a easier target to spot. She heard crunching, grunting and guttural yells as the two fought each other, and once she saw a claw seemingly reaching for her over the top of the car. It didn’t reach her, but she could hear the claw scraping back on the roof of the car as it hit metal, and realized that her hiding place wasn’t as secure as she had hoped.

Pt’ron saw Shanna dart out from the car, racing towards the grassy area on the right side of the school, and struggled free from Critock’s grasp, trying to quickly gallop towards the teenager. From behind him he heard a roar and quickly felt two legs land on top of him, Critock having jumped and now digging his claws deep into Pt’ron’s legs. With a roar, the two collapsed again. This time, however, Critock was prepared for the fall and extricated himself, landing and rolling and picking himself back up, Quickly looking back at Shanna, seeing her still run to safety, he saw a large pole with a light on the top of it. If it was in the capacity for a Marconian to smile in this form, he would have. With one mighty grasp, Critock wrenched the pole free from the ground, sparks flying from the exposed wiring. Balancing himself carefully to not lose his new weapon as he moved back towards Pt’ron, he let his rage take him.

Pt’ron rose to his feet, looking around quickly for his enemy and his prey in order to quickly formulate his next move. Instead, all he saw was a black light pole striking him directly on his eye, the force from the swing sending him flying back towards the main road that led into the school. He landed still on the school property but only just, and he tried to shake off the blow, feeling liquid trickle down his orb, and a horrible pain behind his eye. He looked up and, though his vision was fuzzy, he could make out Critock coming at him, still swinging the pole, ready to strike him again. Pt’ron wasn’t sure if he could take another one of his strikes, but still had an advantage. Critock had some kind of empathy for the innocence of the beings on this planet. Pt’ron did not.

Summoning what strength he still had, Pt’ron leapt backwards slightly, landing directly in the middle of the busy four-lane road. The lights were green, and the cars typically had been moving too fast to catch more than a glimpse of the monsters battling in front of the school. But now, the fight had come to them. A car smashed into Pt’ron’s leg, and he bellowed in new pain, but he had been expecting this. He saw Critock moving at him, slightly more panicked than he had seemed before, but still with the pole.

Critock hadn’t expected any of this, but least of all now Pt’ron willingly throwing himself into traffic. The students and Shanna forgotten for the moment, he had to get his enemy out of the road before more people died. If he could swing just right… As he tried to strategize, his planning was cut short by the car that had struck Pt’ron, amongst the others slamming their brakes and sliding to a stop or trying to rush past him, flying through the air. He tried to dodge it, but it was a perfect toss, and it struck the leg that was holding the pole. The sudden pain of the impact caused him to drop the pole, but Critock refused to let it stop his momentum. He had to get to him before anyone else died! No one else on this planet would die because of his failures!

Critock lunged into the road as careful as he could be considering his goal. Pt’ron just grunted, and moved to grab another car. An unexpected jump from the bounty hunter caught him off guard, and they fell down together, narrowly avoiding crushing a small Beetle that had paused in stunned amazement. Pt’ron rolled away quickly, and the two faced off against each other.

“WHAT’S IT TO BE, CRITOCK?” Pt’ron snarled loudly at his foe. “SHALL WE KEEP FIGHTING UNTIL THEY’RE ALL DEAD? OR WILL IT JUST BE YOUR DEATH THAT ENDS IT?” A quick flick from his leg sent another car spinning off the road, and the smarter drivers were now backing off from the scene. Critock made a move to attack, but Pt’ron held his ground, a leg extending over the roof over one of the cars that had been disabled from the quick fight rolling over its hood, crushing the engine. The electronic locks were engaged, trapping the driver and their passenger inside. A single claw hovered like a guillotine over their heads. “I’d much rather rule these people than kill them all. Make a choice.”

Critock felt trapped. He had been led out here like a fool where there were countless victims for Pt’ron to threaten and harm. He didn’t think for a moment about sacrificing himself, as he knew at this point that would be pointless. But what was the other choice? Continuing the fight? More innocent humans dying just out of a false hope that somehow Pt’ron could be distracted from a large fiery missile bearing down upon him?

Then it hit him. While he was in a standoff against someone who had waited to long to be defeated now, the missiles would not be coming to him. They’d be going to the school, where the Shards lay safely in the soulless body of Daniel. Critock knew that the instant Pt’ron saw the missile in the sky he would beat it to its target and use the power of the Shards to stop it before it could accomplish its mission. So even keeping him away from the school wasn’t an option.

But if he could get there first…

Pt’ron was expecting a lunge, a kick, something from his enemy to attempt to save these pitiful beings cowering beneath him. What happened instead shocked him enough that he didn’t even notice when the driver and the passenger crawled out of the front seat and into the back, safe from Pt’ron’s wrath for the time being. Instead of attacking, Critock jumped back, turned, and ran. He sprinted as fast as he could, which wasn’t super fast but it was certainly outpacing Pt’ron, who stood stock still trying to figure out when Critock had become a coward until he realized the direction that he was headed. Straight back to the school. Straight back to the Shards.

With a roar, the claw came down, missing the inhabitants of the vehicle. Pt’ron couldn’t have cared less. He moved quickly into a gallop, his claw wrenching free of the ruined metal, putting all his thoughts of the last thousand years into one single focus, to catch Critock before he collected the fruits of Pt’ron’s labor.

The two Marconians ran past panicked students and teachers who were too scared to have moved far from the school. To them, they weren’t there. Each had their own focus, each had their own goal, which were culminating in the same location. Critock didn’t slow down as he reached the doors, instead barreling through as quickly as he could. Smashing through the doors and surrounding walls slowed him down just enough to refocus, seeing Daniel’s lifeless body discarded to the side as though it was never human to Pt’ron, only a means to the end.

Pt’ron came in right behind Critock. Just before he reached the Shards, Pt’ron reached out with one leg desperately and tripped the bounty hunter. Out of control he smashed to the ground and slid just past Daniel, unable to control his momentum. Pt’ron, now as out of control as Critock had been, moved past Daniel as well. The only way to protect his Shards was to finally eliminate his former friend. There was no other way that this was going to end now. He would not be a slave, he would not be around to witness the end of this planet and the beginning of the new Empire. No, it was time for Critock to die.

Critock used his legs to stop himself, and attempted to turn, but Pt’ron was too fast, and too focused on his task. Before Critock could react, Pt’ron was on him, slashing and kicking with his legs and claws, each blow connecting fiercely with a grunt of pain. Pt’ron was beyond hearing, beyond caring, to the point that when his legs tired, he reached out close to him, grasping a stray wooden beam that had thus far gone unused, and began slamming it into his weakened foe, so damaged at this point that he could not even left a leg to try and block the hard wood from impacting his orb body.

Pt’ron was roaring now, uncaring about anything in the world but accomplishing this bloody mission, and likely would have succeeded in splitting his enemy’s orb wide open with just a few more blows when a loud shrill scream filled the room. It was not painful nor sharp enough to cause him pain, but it caused him pause just the same, one leg holding the beam straight up and preparing for another strike. He recognized that sound. He turned, his eye traipsing over the still comet-like essence of Tomkari, still knocked out against the wall, and settling on Shanna Ewing, who along with a protesting Phelps and Jim had slowly crept back in the door to attempt to see what was happening, and help if they could. Shanna had not been expecting to witness what may have been the final moments of Critock, and indeed the world as she knew it. The scream came unbidden to her before she could stop it, and if Pt’ron’s form could smile he would have. He glanced back at his fallen foe, still alive but only just, and tossed the beam aside. Yes, Critock would still die, but he would experience one last failure before he did.

Pt’ron stared at Shanna, shocked stock still with the sight. “Was this your champion?” Then he used his legs to turn Critock’s orb around, so that his half-open eye, filled with blue blood, was focused on the girl. Pt’ron then leaned down and hissed at his former friend. “You will watch this.” Before Shanna could react, and before anyone else could be done, Pt’ron moved with a quickness that belied his size, and before Shanna could come to her senses and escape, she was grabbed by the monstrous being, carefully for the moment pinned between a claw and the rest of the leg, and was brought up to Pt’ron’s eye.

He stared at her, and she knew her life was over. Surprisingly to her, the fear lessened. After all she had been through in the last day, she assumed she had just reached her limit. What else could be done to her? Below she heard her friends yell but she knew there was nothing they could do. Critock was defeated and dying. Kyle would probably follow, if he wasn’t dead already. Better to accept it and maybe if she could distract him enough the missile would hit and end this for everyone. That didn’t mean she had to go quietly, though.

Staring at his giant eye, she spit at him, the saliva impacting right in the middle of the retina and causing him to blink, but the surprise didn’t cause him to lose his grip on her, and in fact he tightened it, causing discomfort as she struggled. He chuckled. “A fighter to the end. On a more evolved planet you would have been a warrior. You would have flourished in my empire.” His orb dipped slightly. “But it is not to be.” He raised his head back up. “Your death is on your champion’s hands, Shanna. He will die knowing that you went first because of him.”

She didn’t close her eyes. She would have missed what happened. While Pt’ron was making his last statement and preparing to cleave the young cheerleader neatly in two, he missed the blue flash from behind him. His focus was so strong he missed the slight noises and rustling. Shanna missed nothing. She watched as Kyle, or more accurately a Critock who had used the last energy that holding the Shards had given him to move back into Kyle’s body, leapt in the air holding the extended Sword of Kon, orange light flaring and electric arcs sparking in every direction. The orange blade of the sword impacted the black orb and pierced it thoroughly, digging deep into Pt’ron’s body. The unexpected searing unimaginable pain shocked him thoroughly, and as he flailed his leg out Shanna slipped from his grasp, landing painfully but safely on the floor below, though she quickly moved to rejoin her friends who were staring at the sight. Critock held on to the hilt of the sword tightly, yelling in anger and rage, as Pt’ron tried in vein to shake him off. The rodeo lasted for merely a minute before Pt’ron’s roaring screams lessened, and his movements became slower. Finally, after what seemed to Critock to be an eternity, Pt’ron dropped to the floor, his body now empty and useless. The monster had been defeated.