Adam fell to one knee spear clattering to the deck before him. All around bodies hit the floor in a cascade of agony.
He reached up to his head covering his ears as the horrible horrific sound rolled inside his head, hissing in his brain, and driving deep into a skull with a probe that was not entirely physical sound and not entirely mind spike. As he knelt there hands to his ears, he felt a sudden push back against the noise feeling the brush of Conn's mind for just a moment as the starborn attempted to shield them with a bubble of his own mind.
For a moment his head was clear, and he could think.
Beside him, Conn had a hand on his shoulder, eyes closed his fingers trembling with strain.
And then the bubble collapsed, crushed like an aluminum can under a giant's fist.
Conn fell to the deck clutching his own head. Adam howled in agony hands over his own ears, but still he managed to craw forward, pulling his body over Conn's prone, unconscious form, shielding his friend from what? He didn't know.
Two spots of dark red appeared on the starborn's skin and Adam pulled back in shock.
More dark red spots appeared.
First on Conn's cheek, and then on his neck, and then on the front of that annoying plaid shirt he always wore.
It was only after a few seconds of fumbling thought did Adam realize.
That wasn't coming from Conn.
It was coming from him.
Ears still screaming, vision still flashing , he held his hands out before him, only to see that they were covered in blood, a droplet traced a slow trail down one of his wrists and into the crook of his elbow where it pooled in ruby streaks in the folds of his skin.
He reached up to his face, feeling wetness against his skin, and pulled back with more blood.
His nice was bleeding.
The incomprehensible babbling grew louder and he screamed again covering his ears to no use.
Beside him the others where in similar states of agony. Sunny lifted her head, and orange tears were rolling down her face. He reached a hand out to her, and she did the same but before their fingers could touch the sound morphed, turning form a spike and into a spear pushing itself like a rod into his brain.
Adam screamed falling to his back and convulsing as the incomprehensible being clawed its way through the inside of his mind.
He was sure he would go mad.
His entire sense of self cracking like ice.
And then the spoke was gone,
He lay on the floor amidst a slow carpet of his own blood drops, and over him Stood Adham. All of the lights had gone out now, but for the burning glow that emanated from the man's skin, rolling out through the room and casting them all into a sharp white light, soft and soothing. His feet were planted against the ground, and his head was lifted. From where he lay on the floor, Adam could look up and see Adham's silhouette, and the thing that stood against him.
It was completely black.
But no, black was not a good approximation of what this thing was.
It was the absence of light, a darkness so profound that his brain could comprehend it as nothing other than an entrance to a void. Its body was..... incomprehensible, indescribable. It looked like a thousand things all at once, never quite entering one form or another, it shed tentacles and pieces of itself which writhed across the floor and then sizzled up in the presence of the light.
It had no eyes, but the sense of malice that dripped from the creature was so strong it almost stopped Adam's hear in his chest.
It dowered over Adham, dwarfing the first man by almost ten feet in height threatening to fall upon him and consume him whole.
Adham didn't flinch .
"Scream all you want beast, but you will not touch them."
The creature howled, its void like body so black against the already black room that Adam could still ake out its shifting form.
"You are not welcome here."
It howled, and as it howled Adam felt a sudden dizziness in his head, a lightness that rang through his skull, made him feel off. He knew what was coming. He clutched at his head begging the mental link that allowed him to hear it better than others to close up.
His body was beginning to feel distant.
He rolled onto his side.
The creature responded.
"THEY WILL FALL!"
Adam's light headedness turned on itself. He rolled onto his side clutching his head, and then he was gone, taken away by the convulsions as the thing's voice filled his head turning his brain into a panic of electrical signals all at once as his body began to twitch and spasm.
He Didn't know how long he had been unaware, and when he woke up, he felt as if he was still not attached to his own body, outside himself as he stared at the room around him and the writhing tentacles of blackness on the floor. Adham standing between him and the creature glowing as bright as the noon day sun.
"First legion requesting backup."
Hs voice was muffled and far away.
His head was spinning.
Then something appeared in his field of vision, a foot that was also glowing.
When he lifted his head he saw a woman he had not seen before stepping up beside him. She resembled Adham in that she was likely the most perfect physical specimen of a human that could ever be conceived, and in her hand she held a rod of pure light.
The room was filled with light.
Outside the viewing windows countless figures appeared floating against the blackness.
Together they started to glow .
The woman stepped up beside Adham and lunged forward. The tip of the light struck the creature and it pulled back with a scream. Outside the others began to glow, and Adam had to turn his head away as the light began to build seeing his eyes.
And with an eruption, he was lost again.
***
When he awoke, he lay cradled in someone's arms
His head rested against a soft shoulder, and a hand clutched him around the chest while another hand stroked his hair.
"Its alright." A voice crooned, "You're going to be alright, little one."
His head spun.
"Are they alright, are they going to be ok?"
"I think so that sort of exposure to the malevolence is...."
Their voices died away and then returned.
"This one is awake."
"That doesn't surprise me, she has more experience than most."
A hand rubbed against his chest, "come on, wake up, you're alright." The voice was soft and feminine, speaking as if to a child, coaxing, encouraging .
"Its horrible.... I can't.... I can't see them like this."
"We have to be strong for them."
"Its not easy seeing our children like this!"
"I KNOW which is why we have to help them."
He felt his body sagging again raised by the arms that were holding him, "You're going to be ok. We can fix this, just open your eyes."
When he finally did, his human eyes was almost completely overloaded by the amount of ight that surrounded him, he had to close it and open the mechanical eye, which adjusted automatically to the brightness. He could see they were in the same room from before, the council chamber, accept for everything inside had been bleached completely white.
The walls, the floors, the ceiling, the lecterns.
And all around them lay the bodies of the GA council.
And around those bodies knelt other forms, mostly human and Drev, but some Vrul, Celzex and others crouching over prone bodies, their forms..... glowing, shedding a radiance that filled the room from top to bottom with light.
Beside him, a massive figure held Sunny Cradled in his four arms, the carapace on his body glowing with a primal golden glow as pure as the most refined of metal.
Adam lifted his eyes, falling on a face above his head.
The woman from before.
She was not unlike Adham as he remembered, with a perfect face and body. She had features that, like Adham, could not be placed in any one category of person. Her skin was a shade darker than Adham's her lips fuller her nose thinner, her hair a halo of tight curls around her head.
"There you are." She rested a hand on his cheek , "You'll be alright, just breathe."
"Let me guess." He managed to choke out through a raspy throat, "Eve?"
"Shhh, shhh." She said, brushing a hand through his hair, "don't speak."
"Someone hurry over here."
He didn't have to wait long before another body was crouched before him, smiling, two warm hands took him by either side of the face, and his body was filled with warmth the pain in his throat and ears and head dying away on the instant as if being burned off.
"There we go, does that feel better?"
Still to groggy to answer, he was gently lain on the floor where he sat dazed and disoriented as feet stepped past him.
"We can't keep them here for long."
"You know I had to protect them."
"And I am not angry about that, but you understand the Architect's orders. Having them here is.... Well it is highly unusual."
"They won't be here for long."
Adam shifted and crawled to his hands and knees.
Off to his side Conn was curled up in the fetal position as if taking a nap. Beyond that Sunny was in a similar state as him, rising up on one arm.
A few feet past her maberick was actually on her feet, seeming less the worse for ware than the rest of them, eyes narrowed as she stared at the speakers clustered on the far end of the room.
Adam turned watching the Makers in their tight huddle speaking with each other in whispers that were still easy enough to hear.
"We had to bring them here. They are too young and helpless to defend themselves. You saw what being in its Mere presence did to them."
The argument continued.
"Sunny got to her feet, and so did Adam.
Conn was beginning to shift at their feet rolling to one side and then the other, the gravity belt allowing him to spin slowly on the spot
Adam had to shake his head.
He turned, and outside the viewing window he saw nothing but the same glowing white.
His senses were coming back to him now, and he looked down at his clothing, finding that his once grey uniform had been bleached completely white.
Looking around he could see the same had happened to everyone in the room, a fact that he was grateful for when he saw that horrible plaid shirt of Conn's had not been spared.
Krill floated over seeming a bit dazed but mostly whole.
Lord Celzex was close behind .
The crew of the Omen seemed to be the only group that had managed to regain consciousness.
Maverick, Adam, Sunny, Conn, Lord Celex and his son, and to all of their surprise, Ramirez who wobbled to his feet like he was drunk. Maverick took the other marine by the arms, "Angel, are you alright."
"Always loved the way you called me angel." He winked and she scoffed.
"yeah, he's fine."
"We have to get them back."
With a nod the makers broke ranks and walked towards the prone figures grabbing them by unconscious limbs and then vanishing into thin air.
Adam frowned,
"What are you doing."
Adham turned to look at him, "Taking you home."
Adam approached back straightening; arms crossed. He had retrieved his fallen cap from the floor and shoved it onto his head at some point, though he assumed now that this uniform would have to be decommissioned seeing that all his ribbons and badges had been turned the wrong color, "Taking us home, after.... After that, THING attacked us. No explanation no nothing."
The Maker sighed, "You're too young to be involved in this."
Adam laughed, "You know that's funny because people have been giving me that line my entire life but its never stopped me. I understand you are powerful beings thousands of years old and we are somehow just.... Pupating larvae or whatever in comparison, but this has gone too far. That THING showed up in my GA council room, and I want to know what is going on. I think we all have a right to know what is going on. Who knows, maybe we can help you."
Adham smiled, it WAS a genuine smile. He wasn't trying to be condescending or anything fo the sort, but Adam got the distinct feeling like the man was smiling to a child, finding his attempt cute and endearing, but knowing he would be worthless.
"You are brave, I will give you that, but perhaps it is best if you return to your own-"
"Don't patronize me. You made us, so you should know that we are perfectly capable of understanding what's going on, and if you don't damn well tell us than we are going to find out on our own and we are going to fuck it up while doing so...." He crossed his arms trying to shake the feeling of a small child stamping his foot in a tantrum.
Adham took him by the shoulder, "Yes, Adam, I understand you want to help. I understand ou THINK you can help, but this is beyond the power of even your strongest men. At the end of the day you are exactly what you think you are. You are perfectly capable of understanding that, which is why I need tou to understand this. You are not powerful enough to take it on, simply being in the same room with it can drive you to madness. No matter how brave you are, or clever you are, you are no match. So please go home, take care of your people, and accept that you are going to have to wait a little while to join this war."
Adam was almost incredulous, "Join this war, this war showed up on our doorstep and rang the doorbell. We didn't have a choice in this matter."
"Adam." The Maker said in exasperation, but a call from one of the others of it's kind pulled him away.
The rest of the GA council l was gone leaving only him and his friends left having refused to go while Adam was arguing with the first man.
They crowded in a circle watching as the Makers argued, whispering to each other now in words they could not hear.
Adam looked around in annoyance.
"What was that all about?"
"They aren't being helpful."
Sunny sighed, "we aren't just going to listen to them are we."
Conn huffed, through his translation gloves which were, surprisingly, working, "Do we ever."
Adam's eyes fell on one of the doorways out of the room, "I have a feeling here isn't where we think here is, and if they won't give us answers, we are just going to have to go looking for them ourselves.
***
For powerful mystic beings who had created the universe, it was a bit of a shock to discover that they had lost at least Seven juvenile Deus, all of them standing and staring at an open doorway, and knowing that they would be in big trouble if the architect found out.