Twenty-One Years Later–Now

  The light of the murdered sun threatened to burn her eyes. It blazed out of history from that bloody day, hinting at a history that was indescribable. Harleen Bawa, the deviant known as the Grandmaster, floated through the void of outer space. The young woman was surrounded by an aura of ambient and intense heat, glowing blood red and bright orange, glittering like molten sunlight, as she stared down at the planet that threatened to explode and wipe out the planet.

  The process of this sun going supernova was greatly accelerated when it began to release the incredible heat that built up into its core. The plasma that spewed forth changed the chemical composition of the small star, creating countless new compounds and releasing even more complex particles into the air to become part of the atmosphere on this solar system when eight planets–three of which were teeming with life.

  The planet closest to the sun was known as Kalload and it was home to a serpentine humanoid race called the Thrashu–one of the many planets that existed in the Thrashu Galaxy. And this sun, the harbinger of life for over eight million people in this solar system, was reaching the end of its life. Grandmaster’s spiritual perception spread out, and she could see the radiant bursts of life that spewed forth from the sun’s surface. In approximately eight point six nine minutes, the sun was going to explode, and extinguish eight billion lives like candles snuffed out.

  Darkness drenched the streets of Kalload, plunging the planet into waking night terrors. People screamed, tripping over their long chitons and robes, elbowing each other to get out of the way. The braver ones reached for weapons, while the sensible ones dove for cover. The end is nigh–they whispered. We are all dead–the Afterlife is upon us–

  And then, a swelling light like the first spark of creation. The Grandmaster blazed as bright as the supernova itself, and floated into the atmosphere

  “Aetherstorm!” one cried out. “Aetherstorm of the Cosmos!”

  “She had come to end us all!” another wept with terror.

  Grandmaster materialized in the streets, her newfound light dancing and sputtering in patterns around her, taking on two different shapes in harmony with each other: a scarlet phoenix with bleeding fires for feathers; and an elegant, golden dragon with rippling scales like a waterfall. Together, the shapes merged together into a brilliant, blazing creature with snakes and a beak. It represented the spark that ignited creation and the flame that consumed it: a phoenix dragon.

  “I am not here to harm you,” Aetherstorm said to the people of the solar system, her voice echoing through the void of space to every planet. “Your sun is dying, and it will take your people with it. I will not let that happen.”

  The time that these people spent with Grandmaster, the Messiah of the Multiverse, considered themselves to be lucky to be even a tiny fragment of her story. Her abilities to manipulate the fabric of reality itself were jolted into existence when she was just a baby, born with scales and fangs and claws. Death would haunt her and help her forge her primal connection with this universe. One moment in young Harleen Bawa’s life determined the course of her existence, altering her path and her relationship with everyone she had ever encountered. Everyone she had ever met or would ever meet would be forever altered by just her mere presence.

  In order to save this sun, the Grandmaster stirred up the sun with a metaphorical mixing spoon. She created another star, a mass of red and orange and white hot gas that mixed and threatened to explode with the sun. She delivered one star, then two, then three. More and more and more. An endless stream of infant stars to add excess material to this sun. She force-fed it her own power, chemical compounds and extra elements to stabilize this sun.

  The entire universe paused at the work of this goddess, then stilled. The Thrashu paused. Their planet paused. Worlds beyond their own paused.

  On this night of exceptional darkness, a faint shooting star cut through the void, trailing a long tail of light, then fell behind the marvelous line of the horizon, its glow becoming an unfaded scar–the only remnant of the cosmic tragedy that was avoided.

  Gradually, colorful constellations took their place–white stars took the place of blue stars, yellow stars took the place of orange, each making their way to the next as they slid past each other to create a new tapestry of elegant, endless shapes in the sky.

  Tidal wave in, tidal wave out. Tidal wave in. Tidal wave out. Time that knew no bounds, no limits, flowed over the waves as the star rolled in and rolled out, through night and day and into night again.

  When Grandmaster first saw the signs of light and thriving darkness in her own childhood, she had become lost within the prison of grief and pain in her own mind. It was only much, much later in her life did she understand that it was not because of these experiences, but rather in spite of them that Harleen was able to build a connection to the universe that was unlike anything the mortal mind could comprehend.

  How fortunate, then, that Grandmaster was no mere human. She had a connection born from fire and creation.

  And that is where our story begins. A connection born from fire…from creation…and a heart of flames.

  …

  Grandmaster adjusted to her role among the stars. She responded to every psychic cry for help, no matter where in the universe it took her. Although Grandmaster the cosmic entity did not require the necessities that maintain life like oxygen, food or water…

  Maggie Bawa the woman was exhausted. But she still persisted.

  Seven thousand light years away from Kalload, Grandmaster responded to a distress call in another galaxy home to a people known as the Quittan. The Black Hole Prison was home to some of the most dangerous entities in the galaxy, from god butchers to beasts to animals. As the prison destabilized, the inmates wailed and pounded against their cell walls in cries for help.

  “They’re going to let us die…I don’t want to die!” a prisoner whose name was Perit cried out. “They can’t do this! They can’t let us die! I don’t have a death sentence! I don’t–I don’t want to die!” He clasped his hands together and bent down on his knees in prayer. “Great Throne, hear me…”

  There was a whoosh and a blast of fire, and Perit cried out again, this time in pain, as an enforced punch rang throughout his mind like the splashy toll of a bell. As he hit the glass wall of his cell and it shattered with a loud crack, a melodious, clipped voice said, “You don’t need a god. At least, not that one.”

  “Fire!” Perit gasped and staggered to his feet. “You have to help me get out of here. You have to! Please–”

  There was a loud boom, and the cell walls came shattering down like ancient iron walls crumbling into nothing but rest, and the entire prison cracked open like a sphere and shifted to the left as alarms wailed and prisoners escaped from their cells.

  “My prayers! My prayers worked!” Perit gasped as he tugged on Fire’s hand. “We are not far from the launch bay! We can call for help, or better yet escape–”

  The Fire Source tapped its talons together in thought and followed Perit out of the cell, glass crunching beneath its feet. “That is good. The launch bay is not far, you said?” Then it lashed out with its power as the control collars around its neck clicked and fell to the ground. Its power was now roaming free like a beast on the prowl, and the Fire Source lifted Perit with telekinesis and twisted the alien’s body at an unnatural angle. “That will make my escape easier.”

  With a ferocious crack, the Fire Source cracked Perit’s neck. Wings made of fire spread out of its back as it took flight and raced down the hallway of the cell block.

  …

  “Grandmaster! You got my message!” the armored man known as Bronze said in relief. He clasped his hand to hers briefly in greeting before letting go.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “It was hard not to,” Grandmaster replied, grinning. “It was very loud.”

  Bronze grimaced slightly. “Sorry about that,” Stephen Richards said. “I’m still getting used to the whole psychic alarm bells thing. I guess I should get you up to speed.”

  “This black hole is destabilizing, threatening to swallow the entire galaxy and this prison along with it. And you are trying to get hundreds of the most dangerous criminals in the universe to safety before this entire prison falls apart,” Grandmaster summarized.

  Bronze looked taken aback, then pressed the sides of his face into his hands. “I can’t just leave them to die,” he whispered.

  “You don’t have to,” Grandmaster said. “I will stabilize the black hole.”

  Bronze’s eyes widened; he was stunned. “You can do that?” he asked.

  Grandmaster smiled slightly at his incredulity. “I am the Grandmaster, Mr. Richards. I can do anything.” She grinned again. “Besides, I just stopped a sun from going supernova. How hard can it be to stop a black hole from destabilizing?”

  And with a great flash of light, she manifested wings and rose to the air, flying off.

  …

  A guard in the Black Hole Prison pressed her hand to the palm scanner of the launch bay and entered, quickly surveying the rows of escape pods. She opened the hatch of one and was about to rush off to safety in the depths of space when a soft voice crooned, “I am so sorry, Miss. But this escape is already spoken for.”

  A chill rushed down her spine as the guard wheeled around. Her heart thudded with terror and her eyes widened when she saw the swirling shape of the red phoenix–perhaps their most dangerous prisoner. “You!” she cried.

  “Me,” the Fire Source agreed.

  The guard fumbled for her gun in her holster with trembling fingers to blast the Fire Source, but it simply clicked its teeth together in disapproval. “There is no need for that,” it said, and sliced downwards with a claw. The gun was sliced in half and the guard was set ablaze in colorful red fire. Her screams of pain were cut short as the Fire Source tossed her into the vacuum of space like a broken doll and took control of the escape pod.

  …

  The Grandmaster, also known as Aetherstorm, had her abilities tested that day.

  Her power erupted out of her like a volcano and swirled in a maelstrom of fire and heat around her. She caught a bit of brilliant light and burned, burned as bright as the fires of creation. The black hole was not stable because its singularity–its center–had reached the limits of its density and could not collapse any further, so it was going to explode outwards, destroying and consuming everything in its path, sucking into its eternal void.

  So the Grandmaster said, It must be done to the universe in such a commanding voice, it shook the fabric of reality itself. A disk of hot gas exploded out of her outstretched palms and swirled around the black hole. The stream of gas stretched to what remained of a star–the first thing to be pulled apart by the black hole. A cloud of hot plasma had its electrons stripped away in a corona. The corona created a flare of x-rays that exploded upwards, racing around Grandmaster as she consumed them.

  No human could have done what Grandmaster did that day. Not with a serum or science or even ancient magics. Grandmaster became the black hole. She gave every part of herself to the stars. Feeling the fabric of reality, the raw electrons and tachyons minging in aether currents as they surged and receded…surged and receded.

  Time was of no consequence. Time had always stood still around her, because she and the universe were one.

  She could feel the cosmos as it surged and rippled around her, until it eventually joined in on her cosmic dance and mimicked her movements, copying them and repeating it until they were one. Grandmaster rose with the movements of the universe to tame a beast from the beginnings of time itself.

  She did not fight. She did not throw a punch or spin a kick or launch herself forward. Because she willed it…and the cosmos said, So be it.

  The phoenix dragon called the Aetherstorm had always been a part of Maggie. From the first moment she retreated from reality, sobbing and holding her own soul in the face of all the death she would ever be confronted with, the universe knew she was the one. Knew she was the Grandmaster.

  She knew so much and knew too little. Blissfully unaware of her true identity.

  But the universe knew she was the one who could make planets stop spinning as she changed form. The one who could turn water into fire. The one who could never be spared from her own pain. Maggie had always been and will always be the Grandmaster.

  And at that moment, she showed the entire galaxy what that meant.

  “Grandmaster!” Bronze yelled aloud, then his thoughts cried out even louder: A prisoner escaped!

  Grandmaster paused and the black hole stilled for a moment, writhing under her. She saw an escape pod hurtling through the air. “I see the ship,” she reported, “who is in it?”

  “It’s the Fire Source! The dark god who once–”

  “Destroyed an entire planetary system. I’m familiar.” Grandmaster spun and began flying toward the pod. “It will not get away. I will stop them from–”

  She screamed and then clutched the sides of her head as a loud psychic wail filled her mind. The agony and fear of hundreds of thousands of people filled her mind. “No!” she shouted. “I have to stop it!”

  The prison! Whatever just happened, Grandmaster…I think this place is about to explode! And take that Quittan planet with it!

  Agonized, Grandmaster glanced toward the escape pod, which was now a pinprick of light on the distant horizon, then back toward the Black Hole Prison. Her phoenix dragon screeched at the sky, but she rushed back to the prison.

  At that moment, Grandmaster made the only decision she thought she could make.

  The Fire Source escaped from captivity into the cosmos so that the Black Hole Prison and millions of other lives would be spared. Grandmaster’s humanity made that decision.

  She chose to act like a mortal instead of a goddess…and would not even begin to conceive the consequences.

  …

  The Academy for the Empowered–Rochester, New York

  Grandmaster meditated in outer space, her legs folded in a lotus position, her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes, it was to stare down at her home planet of Earth. She could hear the buzzing and clicking of military satellites and space stations that she avoided by cloaking herself telepathically.

  “They were afraid of me, Arkady,” she said.

  Her best friend, Arkady Chernovik, also known as Shadowstalker, pressed a button on the espresso machine in the kitchen of the mansion to fill up a coffee cup. Even though he couldn’t see her, she could see him: see that he was wearing pajama bottoms but his T-shirt was off, and Grandmaster’s pulse beat a little faster when she noticed the muscles rippling in his chest as he moved, filled out and impressive as he cocked his head and considered her statement.

  “They weren’t afraid of you, Maggie. They were afraid of the Aetherstorm. Of the phoenix dragon.”

  “But I am the Aetherstorm. I am the phoenix dragon.”

  “Right. Yes.” Shadowstalker acknowledged this and took a sip of his coffee. “But they only know about the corruption of cosmic entities and have probably only heard of you through stories and legends. But you are the deviant messiah, remember? Destined to save our people from destruction. Keep that in mind.”

  “Yes, but I don’t just want to save deviants. I want to save everyone.” Grandmaster sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but I guess I wasn’t prepared on how to feel when I was trying to save a planet filled with people who were more afraid of me than their sun going supernova.”

  “Wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute,” Shadowstalker interrupted, making Grandmaster pause. “You stopped a sun from going supernova?”

  “I fed the sun extra energy by creating more stars to expand its lifespan,” Grandmaster explained to him. “That sun should be stable for another five or so billion years.”

  “You are amazing,” Shadowstalker breathed. Grandmaster’s face flushed from the praise.

  “Your heart rate just spiked,” she said from outer space, grinning.

  “You can feel that?”

  “You can too. Just close your eyes and focus.”

  Shadowstalker closed his eyes. “I–I feel warm. It feels intimate.”

  “Yes. Our minds right now are intertwined. Linked.”

  “And as amazing you are in your mind, Grandmaster, I love experiencing you in person. So I suppose I wanted to ask…” he paused, careful with his words. “You, taking this time for yourself–you never really talked about a timeline.”

  Grandmaster stilled and thought about that for a moment. In the last few weeks, she thought she had adjusted to her new role very well, here among the stars. But she had to leave the team. Had to leave Arkady behind, in hopes that it would go away. But it didn’t. No matter how many cries for help she had responded to, no matter where in the universe she went…nothing had changed. She doubted that it would ever change.

  So stop running from it and confront it, she told herself.

  Grandmaster gazed at her home planet and she knew. It was time to go home.