When Malcorchus and his team returned to the king's palace in the Shimmering Plane, fresh from their victory over The Viper, he immediately got to work on nursing the others back to health. To that end, he had everyone besides himself and Caspian place themselves in a series of separate healing baths in two side chambers connected to the main throne room; Shocker, Herman, and Mitchell were in one room, while Nic'qura and the other four members of the Opulent were in the other. Caspian himself, however, did not suffer significant injuries during the fight on the deck---barring one solid kick from Nightclaw, that is---so he did not need one, and neither did Malcorchus. He did lose both of his hands to the werewolf, but the king did not see that as being worthy of a lengthy healing bath, so he simply used his magic to quickly restore his aide's hands in seconds.
Instead, while Shocker, Herman, Mitchell, Nic'qura, and the Opulent were recovering, Malcorchus and Caspian regrouped in the main throne room, and the First Blade took out the four transport pylons once more before also taking the Control Pylon out and placing it in the middle.
"I still can't believe we actually did it, sire....." Caspian mused. "After all this time.....she's finally gone....."
Malcorchus smiled. "Did I not inform everyone that we would be successful if we worked as one? We made mistakes before; we initially only sent two people at a time to take on The Viper and her allies rather than simply rushing them all at once to begin with; first Shocker and Herman, then Nic'qura and Sin'lazo, then you and Mitchell. But all that matters is that we came out on top eventually. And now, with The Viper out of the way, we can finally move on to the second stage."
The First Blade nodded understandably. "That would be.....to save the Shimmering Plane, then."
"Exactly. If all goes well.....our peoples' suffering may finally be at an end." Malcorchus gazed tentatively at the five energy pylons laid out in front of him. "Are you sure that these are going to work?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. They should be able to transport our entire dimension within range of Earth's orbit in a matter of hours, provided we can defend them as they do so. There is one thing I neglected to mention, however....."
"What's that?"
"The pylons need to be placed at the destination, not at the origin," Caspian elaborated. "We'll have to venture out on another mission to Earth soon, and find a good location to set up all five pylons. Once all of them are in place and the Control Pylon is activated, the entirety of the Shimmering Plane should, slowly but surely, begin making its way towards the planet." Then, he got an idea. "Might I suggest Mercury Heights as our staging ground, sire? It would be delicious irony if the invasion were to begin in The Viper's home city."
But Malcorchus shook his head. "As tempting as that sounds, First Blade, we might want to aim for an area that's very populated.....somewhere that our threat will really be made known. Mercury Heights is definitely a vast, sprawling, populous city.....but we can do even better. How about Times Square?"
Caspian's eyes widened. "That's perfect, Your Majesty! The tall buildings will provide a way for us to position the pylons in a high position, where they'll be out of reach and difficult to destroy. The winding streets will give Herman lots of room to maneuver on his motorcycle, the large electronic screens will give Shocker an effective method of communicating our presence to the civilians, and the vast airspace will be just right for my jet to move around in! As for Nic'qura and the Opulent.....they can take care of any resistance we may face on the ground."
YOU ARE READING
The Paragons
Teen Fiction~PARAGON CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: PHASE 1, BOOK 6~ *This novel serves as the culmination of all five PCU novels that have come before it, and it is the 6th and final novel of Phase 1 of the PCU. You will get the most out of it if you've read all of them...
