Sun of Zartha/18

"So if we have this superchild, he could do that too?" Jason asked. "MY kids will be able to have light blast out of them like nuclear warheads and create galaxies, moons, stars, planets, the whole nine yards?"

"Damn straight, baby," Laura replied. "And that may be the LEAST they'll be able to do."

With that, Jay felt a smile of deep pride and love form on his lips. A tear ran down his cheek. His eyes began to glow a dull red.

"Hey, Laura?"

"Yes, baby?"

"You know, I think I could get used to this after all."

"Well, you better, Jason Edwards. You and me, we're cosmic superheroes now. We're not even mortal anymore."

"Is that right? Damn..." Jay mused with a slight chuckle. "This shit is pretty damn cool."

“Now that's what I'M talkin' about,” Laura said with a feeling of strong love and pride.

Unbeknownst to Jay or Laura, a massive space freighter was hovering nearby. It was cloaked in an invisible force field. On this freighter were the captain, Serleena, Scrad and a crew full of the goofiest goons you ever saw. And joining them were some of the rebel S'aa pilots who had tried to shoot Jay and Laura down the day before.

Serleena had witnessed the entire creation of Laura’s galaxy.

“Well, well”, she sneered. She had the most explosively wicked grin on her face. 25 years of scheming and her greatest dream had fallen right in her lap.

“Looks like the Light of Zartha is up to some rather OLD tricks. Scrad!” Serleena yelled.

“Yeah, boss?”

“Engage sensor scan. Find that woman. BOTH of you!”

The smaller of the two heads spoke up. “She’s in the area, boss!”

“Bring her in.” Serleena had a devilish smile on her lips.

"Let's go home, baby," Jay said from inside his egg-shaped ship.

"OK, stay there and I'll join you in a second." Laura ran her hand over the control circle, but the egg would not move. She thought she ran the startup procedure wrong. She tried again. Nothing.

"Jay, I can't move my ship!"

Jay frowned slightly. "What do you mean you can't move your ship?"

"It won't go," Laura replied. "That's strange."

"Did you wave your hand over that control dome thing?"

"Yeah, but nothin's happening."

Then the ship began to move backwards and did not respond to her commands. Jay's ship was no longer connected to hers, either. "I'm not liking what I'm seeing," Jay said, and his heart began to race. Somehow Laura's ship was out of control - or being controlled by something else. He began to fly his ship over to try and connect it to Laura's again and tow it back home.

Then a message ring came on the small screens of both ships. Laura’s heart fell at what she saw. Jay's heart stopped.

“Hello, dolly. Boy, you’re pretty creative, toots.”

Jay slammed his fists onto the dash of his ship on hearing Serleena's voice. "Damn. No, no, no. Not this, not my worst damn nightmare."

“Let me go, Serleena. NOW.” Laura's voice was strong and clear.

“Not so fast, there, Miss Universe. I think you have something I want. Something I really, really, REALLY want. You. Anyone who can create an entire galaxy in just 30 seconds is just the queen-to-be I’m looking for. In fact, I’ve been looking for you for 25 DAMN YEARS!

“Prepare to board my vessel, Vasquez. You are my hostage.”

Laura closed her eyes and tried to use her energy to explode the transport and break free. She could become pure light, fly into Jay's ship as a shooting star, and reassemble.

Jay saw Laura's ship glow a bright starry white with the force of her Light energy.

"Come on baby, Break free! Break free!" he said softly.

But the tractor beam from Serleena's freighter held the ship in a unbreakable grip, and Laura’s energy just made the beam stronger.

“Ha! You fool! Foolish girl! Your damn Light is making my energy stronger. Give it up, toots!”

Laura got scared now.

“Jay,” she called over the radio, “help me baby, I’m in trouble.”

"I'm right here, baby. Stay calm. I'll get us out of this." Jay's voice was stoic and resolute, but deep inside he panicked. Just what he didn't want! This was exactly what Momma and Shakita warned them about! He’d be damned if Serleena was trying to hurt Laura. On his watch. He ran his hand on the viewscreen controller and his cousin answered from her office back in the palace.

“Shakita, call my mom. Now. Serleena's got Laura.” His voice was clipped, direct and to the point. His old police instincts were back in full force.

“What? What are you talking about, Jay? Where is she?”

“We're in sector 11."

"What the hell are y'all doing way the hell out there?" Shakita said. "We TOLD y'all not to go into deep space!"

Jay continued. "We got into an argument after we left your office, and she wanted to come out here to make a galaxy. She was going to come out here by herself, but I came along. She was trying to get me to realize some things about myself. I tried to stop her but she insisted. She proved her point, but Serleena was out here and took her hostage.”

“You never know how much someone loves you until you lose 'em," Shakita said. She wanted to scold and berate Jay for all this, but she thought better of it. "I’ll put the battle cruisers on alert. I'm callin' your mom right now.”

Serleena hailed Jay on his viewscreen. "Jason Edwards! This is Serleena calling!"

"Let my fiancee go NOW, Serleena! I mean it!" Jay shouted.

"I will do no such thing, you fool! She's MINE now! Prepare to say goodbye to your GIRLFRIEND. Prepare to say goodbye to the Earth! I want you to meet me for lunch in Manhattan. The main item on the menu will be YOU, JASON. Times Square, Sun of Zartha! Meet me there at high noon!"

"I defeated you once, Chlorophyll breath, and I'll do it again!"

"We'll see about that, copper! I found a way to transfer the Light of Zartha's cosmic energy to MY body. When I absorb her power, in the middle of Times Square for all to watch and witness, I will use her as an explosive device to detonate and destroy your beloved city of New York. Live on CNN, CNBC and FOX News! It'll be their FINAL broadcast! They won't even have time to go to commercial!"

Two of the same S'aa rebel pilots from the day before brought Laura up to the bridge of the ship. Her hands were tied up with a cord of electromagnetic light energy which shimmered and sparked as she walked.

Serleena continued. "Then Senator T'Loria'an and I will rule the universe and YOU won't have to worry about your impending coronation as King of Zartha. Your so-called royal subjects will immediately become my personal SLAVES!"

"Over my DEAD body, Serleena!"

"That's PRECISELY my INTENT, dumbass!"

"We'll see about that - you damn WEED!"

"Ha ha ha haaa! Weed, eh? well this WEED's takin' over the whole damn garden, pallie! If you want to have a final gaze on the Light of Zartha before I put the Light out for good, then you WILL join me for the lunchtime festivities. Can I count on you to attend, JASON?"

Jay was silent.

"The correct answer is, 'Yes Serleena, I'll be there,'" Serleena sneered.

"Yes, Serleena, I'll be there. With enough firepower to obliterate your overgrown thorn-bush ass for good!"

"HA HA HAAA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA! You are so noble it's SICKENING! See you there, Prince Valiant. But first I have to slow you down a bit - I want Anne of Green Gables here to help me do a little shopping at Macy's before our showdown. It's gonna be a going-out-of-business sale. Going out of business FOREVER! HA HA HAAA!"

Serleena fired a blast of light onto Jay's egg-shaped transport. Then she swung the freighter around, with Laura in it, and sped away. She had just shot an electromagnetic pulse which incapacitated the small ship.

Jay saw a flash of grayish-white light hit his ship. The lights on the dash went out and the air conditioning stopped. An emergency beacon began to flash. There was a reserve tank of oxygen which would last five hours, but that was it. Either the ship had to be externally restarted or Jay would need to be rescued by one of the Zarthan battle cruisers.

"DAMN! she pulsed me out!"

Jay just sat there for about 20 seconds, pissed at himself that he let all this happen by disobeying Momma. Damn, what a fool he was!

"Think, man, think," Jay said frantically to himself. "Maybe I can make a bunch of energy, like Laura did, and turn this ship back on..."

So Jay now tried to focus and concentrate his energy on creating a huge amount of light. In his stressed out state he could only remember a few Zarthan commands. The ones he knew since he was four years old.

Jay took off his T-shirt. He was only in his Wrangler jeans, his Timbos and his medallion. He closed his eyes. He took a deep breath.

"T'ola'a. S'aa. T'ola'a. S'aa. T'ola'a. S'aa. T'ola'a. S'aa..."Jay kept the chant up for about three minutes. The medallion began to glow, just as it did back in Brooklyn, at MIB and at the royal palace. Jay's entire body began to glow, and he began to sweat. Steam was beginning to fog up the canopy of the ship.

Jay began to feel more and more filled with tingling, bouncing, sparkling energy. His whole being began to feel as if it were smoldering and sizzling like a hot coal.

Suddenly, Jay felt it. Deep in the pit of his stomach. This was unmistakable. It was almost exactly how he felt when he and Angie did the necklace prayer back in New Orleans, but this was a deeper, stronger, much more intense feeling - this must be the "adult" version, the way it feels when the sun person is full grown. This was a different energy than what he felt with Laura in the bedroom, too.

It wasn't painful but it was so intense he yelled out at the top of his lungs. That's when the reddish, fiery, nuclear-like light blew out of Jay's stomach and it radiated out of the ship in all directions, showering the area with fiery shreds and sparks, with a rapidly growing reddish yellow light at the center. Jay had just created a star, unbeknownst to him.

The lights on the craft came back on, and the air conditioner began to blow again.

Jay was sweating profusely and was panting hard, gasping for breath. He even coughed a couple of times. He looked all around the ship at the gaseous mass, shining brightly all around him. It was a beautiful sight. "Holy..." Jay looked down at the medallion, still glowing red-hot. "This stuff really does work. Laura's right. She's exactly right. I am a sun-god."

Jay slammed his hand on the control circle and ran his hand rapidly counter-clockwise over it. "Hang on, baby, I'm comin' to save you," Jay said. He set the coordinates for New York. He didn't want to fly the transport directly into Times Square for obvious reasons. He would go to MIB HQ, get his favorite motorcycle, and ride that uptown.

For a second, he thought, what if MIB won't cooperate? What if they won't even let me in the building 'cause I'm a "former employee"? Then Jason said, "They damn well better help us, if they want New York to get through the afternoon without being vaporized."

He sent a radio message to Kay on the secure frequency. "Kay, it's Jay. Listen, we got a 101 Red. Serleena's got Laura. She took Laura's little ship up in her freighter. She's headed to Manhattan. Serleena wants to use Laura as a bomb to detonate and destroy New York. Serleena wants to meet me in Times Square at 12 noon. I'm coming to headquarters. I should be there in 20 minutes. Tell the fellas to get my Ninja ready and a clean T-shirt from the laundry room. I'm out."

Meanwhile, Angie also heard and felt Jay and Laura's frantic thoughts and got the hotline call from Shakita. When she got off with Shakita she immediately pressed down on the “H” button on the faucet on her sink. The button lit up and flashed rapidly. No sound was made. But in about 15 seconds six female guards came and quickly unlocked her cell. Angie’s voice was clipped, direct and to the point. Her old military commander instincts - and her MIB agent training - were back in full force.

“Ladies, this is not a drill. I have a Code 101 Red. Fire up C-Block and get New York on the line STAT.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Three of the six guards took off on a dead run down the corridor. The remaining three respectfully stood at attention as Angie grabbed a headset from under her bed. One of the guards was wearing black sunglasses. MIB-issue sunglasses.

Angelique was not cuffed or shackled. She was whisked into another cell in C-block, the solitary confinement wing. This cell contained several millions of dollars worth of surveillance and communications equipment - some of Earth design and some of Zarthan design. 10 minutes later, she called Kay in his office New York on a secure land telephone line.

“Laura has been kidnapped. I can track her essence. I can feel her, Kevin, she’s scared out of her mind. She’s headed for Earth.” She sounded like a frantic mom, but tinged with the steely resolve of the commander-in-chief of a major interplanetary power in the midst of a crisis.

She always addressed Kay by his real name. Kay and Angelique had dealings with each other, long before Jay or Laura were even born.

Kay could only imagine one thing at this point. “Serleena’s got her.”

“Our battle cruisers are on full alert, Kevin. We have 15 of them in Earth orbit and 40 in deep space. We ALREADY took out a couple of Kylothian cruisers that fired on us, trying as they always do to take advantage of the situation. I just gave their king a little what-for a minute ago. He denies any knowledge of Serleena’s actions. But he ain’t gonna mess with us any more today. You can be for DAMN sure about that.”

Kay knew the stakes were sky-high on this one and Angelique’s usual “diplomacy” kept the Kylothians off Earth’s back one MORE time. “Understood, Angie. Thanks for holding the Kylothian fleet off. Again.”

“Kevin, you owe me big time, baby.”

“I know, Angie. I’ll make it up to you. We’ve got everything all tracked. We’re monitoring the entire situation. Don’t worry. We’ll handle it. We’ll set up a command post. Laura’ll be just fine.”

“Baby, I’m worried about Jason, too. He’s on his way down.”

“I just got a message from him about a minute ago. I'm gonna get things ready for him right now. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from Jay, Angie. That’s the way we trained him.”

“Look, listen to me. Senator T'Loria'an's probably in on this too. Some of his rebels already tried to shoot Jason and Laura down yesterday."

"Holy crap...T'Loria'an AND Serleena...working together on this one, huh? Well, that's a dynamic duo if there ever was one," Kay said gravely.

"Kevin, I'm serious, sweetie, listen to me. If y’all mess this one up you won’t need me or the Kylothians to launch an attack. It’ll be all over and WE will be the only ones left to start your civilization all over again IF we don't destroy ourselves in a civil war first. Y’all know that.”

“I know. We’ll get it done, Angie. I promise. We will get this done. All of us. Together.”

And Serleena's freighter hurtled towards Earth at 125 times the speed of light.

next chapter: Kidnapped! | The Sun of Zartha | back to Men In Black