The Guardian Chapter 8

Draco and Alexander terminated their link with Doctor Jason and continued their conversation.

“I hope he’s all right, Draco.”

“Use your mind, and you’ll be able to feel that he got away. Concentrate, can you feel him?”

Alexander cleared his mind and concentrated. Much to his amazement, he felt Jason’s feet pounding the ground as he fled the Jikininki. His eighteen- year-old mind swirled with sensory overload. He wanted to help the doctor, but had no idea how, until mysteriously, the solution came to him. The Jikininki were, at one time, fully functioning humans. Alexander and all the other children at the Citadel were taught that it was the Beast Masters who transformed their human captors into zombie-like creatures. The only portion of the Jikininki brain that remained functioning controlled motion, balance, and their insatiable hunger. The remaining sections were placed in stasis and could be turned on and off as needed. It only seemed logical to the young mindreader that if Beast Masters could access the Jikininki brain, then so could he.

Alexander closed his eyes and refocused his mind from the Doctor to a Jikininki who was quickly closing in for the kill. The speed at which his mind gained access to the creature's mind astounded Alexander; however, access was one thing, control would be a totally different story. As much as he wanted to take his time and examine this marginally functional mind, he knew time was critical. He wasn’t sure if the beast was able to be controlled by someone as new to telekinesis as he was. The one thing he knew for sure, standing motionless staring into space wasn’t going to provide him with any answers. It was time for action.

Alexander took in a deep breath, formed a command in his mind, and forced it out onto the neural network he had formed between himself and the lead Jikininki. Stop, was the one-word message. The beast immediately froze in his tracks, as did the band he was leading. If they had the capability to show expression, it would have been complete confusion. The Beast Masters had dispatched the leader and his platoon to attack a particular target, and now a different voice shouted an opposing command. Nothing like this had ever happened before. All the Jikininki could do was remain completely immobile in anticipation of further orders.

At the other end of the neural link, Alexander was overwhelmed with excitement and joy. He had just saved his friend, as well as discovering how to control the Jikininki plague that had wreaked havoc on his planet for decades. He needed to tell Dr. Jason, Leo, Actos, Cronos, and most importantly, Draco. Alexander’s celebration came to a crashing halt when an ominous voice, which sounded as though it originated from the fires of hell itself, burst into his mind.

“Who are you to dare interfere with my followers as they carry out my commands? I will not tolerate such insolence.”

The shock of hearing this malevolent voice reverberate in his mind caught Alexander temporarily off guard, but he recovered quickly. Mustering a false sense of vibrato that only a stunned teenager is capable of gathering, he defiantly responded.

“I am Alexander, defender of the weak and sworn enemy of the Beast Masters.”

Where that response came from, he had no idea, but it sounded impressive to him and hopefully intimidating enough to cause the intruder to reconsider his aggressive behavior. It did not.

“You are an arrogant piece of detritus; I’ll give you that. My kind and I have battled and defeated the majority of humankind, but you, a mere child, have the temerity to attempt to intimidate me. Let me show you what real power feels like, Boy.”

In the beginning, the mental force pushed against his body, similar to a gentle spring breeze. Alexander decided two could play this game and conjured up a breeze of his own, directing it towards where he thought his opponent stood. The breeze steadily built into a bluster which in turn morphed into an unrelenting gale. The battle raged persistently with neither man offering nor seeking quarter.

Much has been said about the resilience of youth, but in the end, experience will always prevail, unless youth finds allies. Fortunately for Alexander, help came from a most astonishing source. An unexpected surge of energy flashed across the field of battle, the way lightning streaks across the night sky, and struck the Beast Master full in his chest. His psychic winds abruptly stopped, leaving him momentarily dazed and vulnerable.

Alexander scoured the area with his mind to find who was responsible for this unexpected and most welcome help. He was expecting to see Draco, but to his amazement, his benefactor was Cronos. As if the shock of seeing the leader of the Citadel assisting him wasn’t enough, the conversation he heard next nearly fried his brain.

“Cronos, you have broken our two-hundred-year-old truce. Is this child so important that you are willing to place the Citadel in harm’s way?”

“I have stayed silent for much too long watching you destroy the world, brother. No more, Hades, no more. It’s time I make our parents proud.”