The Watcher

Chapter 5: The Rebellion

I lied to Death, I absorbed Joel's soul but I couldn't bring myself to destroy it. My only option from here was to find the god or being who created Joel Scott, this way I could fix his life. If I just brought him back to life and stopped the communist government I'd have to face his god anyway. My plan as of now is to try and negotiate to give Joel a life worth living, but I am ready to kill the god if it doesn't comply. The power of this being is completely unknown so I moved Joel Scott's soul into a shadow portal to not be traceable. Getting to Joel's creator will be tricky but I have an idea that should work.
Forming a planet was hard. My planet was a simple moon made of stone carved with symbols and memorials of the fallen watchers as well as the other people that helped me get where I am today. Days were spent on the finishing touches of covering the planet with towers, art, and lights. After finishing it and naming it The Cenotaph I teleported it where the missing planet would've been teleported to. After just one minute a being with brown tattered monk robes and a green squid face silently teleported and floated down to me on the planet.
"You created the planets of which I inherited for my people. It was a gift from the Overgod but I realize it wasn't his to give. I've been trying to make the best of it but truth be told I'm no ruler."
"Clearly not, you've made my worlds filthy with injustice," I scoffed as I opened the shadow portal to Joel's soul. "Just give him a good life-, I pointed at all the worlds, "give them all good lives, and I'll let you live here."
The being opened its mouth, "Do it yourself."
"If you'll let me fix this place then why won't you do it yourself?" I asked concerned.
"I was gifted these planets and people for negotiating the Overgod out of a war. I am a pacifist, I couldn't wage war on injustice, even if I wanted to. I can't create anything, that power was stripped away from me, which makes me near useless in any conflict."
I questioned his integrity, "So you'll just let your people eat each other alive and suffer?"
"They aren't *my* people, they were given to me from the Overgod, I never wanted any of this! He snarled."
"They **are** *your* people to watch over. If you are too much of a bitch to do anything, then why are you even here?" I interrogated, ready to attack.
He shifted his feet back on the smooth stone, ready to defend. "I am here trying to halt The Marred's invasion of these worlds."
"I've never heard of The Marred," I mentioned.
He snapped, "Then how dare you insult me. They want to claim this entire galaxy and I'm trying to stop it from getting to my planets. All while you're distracting me with whines about how one guy's life isn't fair."
"I'd skin you alive before I let myself listen to you devalue the people living on those worlds," I sighed, "you aren't a pacifist you just know you're too wimpy to win any battle."
His arms crossed, "I don't have the ability to fix any of your problems and you're calling me useless. It sounds like you're the one devaluing life here."
*Fuck this guy.* I flew at him at full speed in a fury, he hopelessly dashed away in flight but there was no stopping me. My hand wrapped around his cloth-covered ankle and I ripped him back to grind his slimy squid face on the stone as I flew along the ground. His face was too strong for the stone to do much so I shocked him with soul lightning slowly. As his body gradually became fragile, blood painted the stone until my hands only grasped a coat of blood. It slid off as I angled my body up into the atmosphere. Warm air rushed along my face until I reached the freezing space.
The plan now is to find a healthy mind, take their soul, put Joel's soul in him, extract Joel's consciousness apart from his soul, then after clearing the soul and mind of the emperor, and put Joel's consciousness in the emperor's body, essentially giving him total power over my planets.
The wooden door creaked open of a building titled Lew Lab as I walked inside. The bubbly air tickled my nose, my feet tensed and my stride shortened. I shuffled through the narrow hallway created by shelves of supplies: metals, tools, flasks, and solutions. A yelling from the distance caused me to bump my back into a shelf and knock it over. The metal shelves boomed as they fell like dominoes. I froze still but was reanimated by a scientist who was running down the aisle at the end of the hallways.
The scientist turned and asked me frantically and terrified, "Is everyone alright?!"
"Yes everyone is fine-" I said
He interrupted, "oo thank goodness." He said with horrified relief as he started walking away to the end of the hallway.
I stopped him with a "Hey," and then asked, "Who is the most brilliant-minded person in this empire."
He quickly responded, "Well the emperor of course," and nervously turned away to run towards the end of the crashed shelves. I sighed and then strolled out of the building. The street life was depressingly quiet so I went into a shop across the road with a sign that read "Food Market". When I opened the door it rang a bell.
"Hello!" The storekeeper said with a smile. "What can I help you with?"
I went up to him, "Where does the emperor live?"
"Uhh? He lives in the Black Temple at the end of the city." The storekeeper said, expecting it to be some sort of riddle or joke.
"Thanks," I said as I left the store. A grueling set of growls haunted my attention. A monster as big as three tanks was right in the middle of the street in broad daylight. It was made of pure muscle with dark purple skin and a bone reptilian face. It drooled as It stood there on all fours with an arm that was made of tentacles.
"Are you one of The Marred?" I asked. Its head turned at me sideways then the monster started rampaging towards me. The stone of the street became rubble under the claws of this monster. I showered the beast in soul lightning. Nothing has ever been at the other end of my soul lightning and survived. Running into the map of death allowed me powers that'll help me achieve my goals lightyears ahead of what it previously would've taken me. I can literally make myself untouchable with the powers granted by the map of death.
"GAH!" I yelped as the beast leaped at me completely unfazed by my soul lightning. It slashed at me and when I went to make my body turn to smoke it smacked its claws against my chest like I didn't have powers. Blood splattered all over the ground as I was launched across town crashing through buildings. I flew high above all the buildings and noticed that all the schools were letting out. Kids poured down the streets like a tsunami, and many of them were headed right toward the beast. I dashed flashily at the street but the beast was gone and the footprints disappeared not far from the place we fought at. Kids rushed by me in a hurry to get home.
I overheard some kids talking "Are you going to go to the execution tonight?
"Hell yeah! I've wanted to see the smartest man alive my whole life."
"Yeah, I don't know why they're even killing him.."
*perfect.* I flew to the end of town where I saw a menacing execution stand, and right behind it was a huge temple as dark as night. On the very top of the temple, there was a cage with spikes going inwards that had a small white adult man with the arms and feet of a hawk.
I discreetly landed on the ground and asked a guard, "Who is that man up there in the cage?"
The guard laughed, "Why'd you come out from under a rock?" He started laughing an outrageous amount
"That's not even funny," said the other guard.
His laughter turned to a smile that quickly faded after a sigh "That man my good sir is Steven Hawkling. Many believe he is the smartest man in the empire."
"So how did he get his wings- and such?" I asked.
"He had this disease we didn't have a cure for and so he tried and tried to fix it. Eventually, he realized he couldn't really stop it so he did something to fix him in a different way. He made himself have hawk limbs somehow. Some people say they're mechanical but nobody really knows. And ever since he's been doing much better as far as anyone can tell."
"I- see," I stuttered while looking at the cell, "thanks." I flashed outside of the cage, reaching my hand onto his bloody wing and teleporting him onto a rooftop. He squabbled and flapped hopelessly in his blood. The noises he made made me want to throw up.
*Quiet,*I thought as I focused. I grabbed through his chest and ripped out his soul. My hands flooded with power as I absorbed the soul, then my hands reached to make a soul portal and Joel's soul wrapped around my hand.
"Fuck?!!" I yelled. Four zombie wraths launched out of the portal onto me and I had no choice but to shock them all into oblivion. One leaped at the body of Steven Hawkling and bit his wing off while slashing his torso. I ripped its head back and crushed it. With Steven writhing in pain and his wounds festering before my eye I realized I had a very short window to pull this off. Reaching the right portal this time, I plucked Joel's soul out and placed it inside Steven's body. He jolted and yelped as light shone from his eyes and mouth.
His eyes rolled and returned to normal, then he shrieked, "What the hell just happened! Why do I have hawk limbs?!"
"I'll explain everything later, now I need you to know that when you awake again you will be in the emperor's body. Don't make it obvious you aren't him, but I'm doing this so you can change things around here." I said.
"I will be the best emperor I can be," Joel said.
"I'll be right back," I said as I teleported away into the emperor's chambers. I dashed through the hallways until I found him all alone in his bathroom. I pulled his soul out and then teleported him to the rooftop after erasing his mind. Black blood oozed out of Joel's injuries, he was unconscious. I put Joel's consciousness into the emperor and then teleported him to bed.
Joel awoke to the sound of banging on the door and then guards poured into the room.
"Sir! Steven Hawkling has somehow escaped captivity! And we're supposed to be executing him in ten minutes!" A guard said.
"Escaped? He was trapped in a cage bleeding to death! How could he have escaped?!" Joel asked convincingly.
"Sir! We don't know sir!" Responded a guard.
"Damn you all! I'll tar and feather you all before I let you lose him. Don't come back here unless you've found him!" Joel yelled.
"Understood Sir!" The captain of the guards said as they left quivering in fear.
"Understood sir" Joel mocked the guards then flopped onto his bed.
"May I come in Emperor Stone?" A mysterious voice asked.
"Who is it?" Joel asked.
"We need to talk." The man said as he floated through the wooden door. The man was tall and bulky with a sophisticated look, evil eyebrows, and black wings. His armor was a dark black metallic stone that shone blue in the cracks. His helmet was nowhere to be seen which revealed his lustfully youthful face.
"Steven Hawkling couldn't have escaped on his own, which means **he** saved him." The man said.
"Why would *he* save him?" Joel asked.
"**He** can't help himself. These are his home worlds. I don't know how long he'll stay here so I'm going to make a move tonight. The Marred will attack and I'll have the rebel heroes hold them off until this watcher comes." The man said.
"Sounds delightful." Joel agreed in an evil tone. Then the man teleported out. "*What was that*?" Joel thought. "Does that make the man who saved me this "watcher?" What does that even mean? I'll have to tell him everything as soon as he gets back. I hope he comes before the invasion." Joel panicked as he watched the clock.
While Joel was asleep I went back to Lew Labs. My mind keeps flying around itself over one question. If the general public knew that Steven Hawkling was the smartest man, then a chemist of all people should know that the emperor isn't the smartest man. The only reason someone who dedicated their life to science would say the emperor is the smartest man alive is if he was in his presence, meaning that the emperor was at Lew Labs for some reason. Then "coincidentally" a monster appeared out of nowhere and attacked me on the streets even though nothing of that strength exists on this world.
Inspecting the street only confirmed my suspicions. A huge hole was being boarded up by a scientist on the side of Lew Labs.
Landing next to him silently then tapping his shoulder primed him to tell me everything I wanted to know.
"Oh uh, it's you..back so soon? Uh, is the Emperor alright?" He stuttered.
"No thanks to you, you're coming with me." I prompted him to walk with me. "Now tell me, what did you do to him?"
He articulated his words carefully, "Well. I am still unsure what got onto him or in him, but a bunch of things from the restricted section of my lab crashed into him. His transformation-"
The sky flashed red and boomed as ships rammed into the atmosphere to unleash an army. Demon-like beings fell out of the ship yelling war cries with jet packs. A shrilling noise chimed from the ships, while cannons shot down buildings in the streets. Rubble crushed the scientist next to me and I took flight. Unable to think I started raining lightning upon all the ships in the sky. The energy shields of the ships withstood my initial blasts but the fire of my rage rushed too much energy for the ships to handle. Slowly, hundreds of ships were crashing down into my planet. I blasted down to the temple to get to Joel. As I plummeted down I balled up and crashed through the stained glass window, right into his room, but he was not there. *Uh.. oh well, he'll be fine* I thought as I dashed out the window. My wings shot inside my back and my legs flew behind me over my head. I lost all control of everything and was completely powerless. I landed on my back, my head slammed to the ground and the air was knocked out of me. Blood poured out of me when I tried to breathe. A demon with green skin much bigger than the others carrying two khopeshes walked up to me. Behind him was a pillar of energy that must've been the causality of me losing my powers. Choking on blood, he lifted me in the air and stabbed me in the stomach. My hearing was fading but I heard the outcries of hundreds charging in. A beam of energy destroyed the pillar so I turned the demon to ash with soul lightning. Ships soared over my head and started crushing the demons. Hope was instantly restored as these people saved what was left of the city. The demons stood their ground until the very end except for three demons that were leading the others. One was a mage with a very long neck and mustard-yellow decaying skin. Another was a very small man with grey skin who had the power to create bombs out of thin air. And the very last one was a fat demon with skin that was stapled together. He sported a club with a spike ball on the end and spit acid.
After all the chaos was over the group that saved me started helping me rebuild the city. I swiftly rebuilt the city but the people who died, I didn't bring back.
As I was rebuilding I got approached by one of the heroes, "Hey, I'm Finnegan Strike, the leader of the M.A.M., the men against The Marred. We could really use your help to stop the Marred, can you join us?"
"I'll help you defeat the Marred, but I want to be filled in on what they can do so I don't find another sword stabbing through me."
"Yes of course. After this place is cleaned up I'll fill you in on the ship. Here is your retreat card," Finnegan said as he handed me a metal card with a button on it, "If you ever need to retreat or get on the ship quickly, just press the button on this card and it'll teleport you back to the ship. You'll get the rest of your gear once we leave." Finnegan pressed down on the retreat card and was gone after a shine of blue light. I spent the next ten minutes repairing the city and healing citizens, then I pressed the button on the retreat card. The ships had a long triangular main deck with smooth edges, then two smaller decks on each side that also acted as boosters.
Finnegan was waiting for me on a bench, "Hey, there you are. What was your name I forgot to ask.
"I am the Watcher"
"Do you have a real name?" Finnegan asked.
"Yes, though nobody has called me it since my people all died. It's Baraqiel." I told him
"I'll just call you Bar. Alright come on let me show you everything," he said as I followed him, "This is the main deck, everything you need all your gear and such will be here. This is also where we jump out of the ship; the entire ground of this deck lowers down out of the ship. The gear is located in these lockers along the walls, they do not lower when the deck lowers, so you have to be ready before we enter an atmosphere." He walked over and opened a locker, "Inside your locker, you'll find everything you'd need for any mission. You got your armor, heavy-plated shit that covers the entire body, your helmet, heavy-plated shit with helpful vision augments, your rifle, heavy-plated shit that shoots energy beams, a compact jet pack, little heavy-plated attachment that lets you fly, a sword made for killing The Marred up close, sticky grenades for whatever you want to do with them, there is even a small gun embedded in the armor that lets you shoot them too. Uhhh, here is a lightning stick, only for the mission leaders because they are really hard to get; it's a staff that can be switched to emit a circular field of about fifty feet. This field is a powerless zone, so no magic or any powers can be used in it. Honestly not too many of The Marred rely on powers, so it's mainly for taking care of their commanders. That's basically everything that everyone is going to carry, you can use other weapons you have if you think they're better, but don't rely on them if they're magic-based. You can request specific weapons or items by asking me to make them. We also have classes for combat training and tactician training that we require people to take if they don't have powers. Any questions?"
"How many of The Marred are there and how many M.A.M. Are there?" I asked.
"Well the numbers sure aren't on our side, there might be 2 trillion Marred and 5 billion M.A.M." my eyes widened "; however, we aren't the only group fighting The Marred by any means. " Finnegan finished.
"So how long will it take to beat them?" I asked, still shocked.
"Well, it is a war spanning across the whole galaxy. It could take a hundred thousand years." He said, trying to hide his total dread of the idea.
"You're ready to fight for that, trillions will be raised to die for a hundred thousand years," I asked
"I swore it, and besides, I'd rather fight than be killed, even if I have to create whole cultures and planets that live for contributing to this war. It wasn't our choice to start the war, but it was our choice to fight. I know it's unfair to the people born into this war, but ultimately it's for the better good, I have to believe that." Finnegan expressed.
"I get it. But I know you must think of all the pain you'd be sparing if you just let them win. It'd be over in a couple of years and no one would have to be born to suffer a life in war. Their lives would be finite anyway and ultimately meaningless in the grand scale of it all."
"Let me ask you something. Would you have rather never lived at all? Finnegan asked.
I sighed and looked down at my palm, "There aren't any reasons for us to live," I looked up at him, "other than the reasons we give ourselves. And that's why it's so special."
"So, what is your special reason to keep living?" Finnegan asked.
"I think I'm still figuring it out," I laughed.
"I suppose we all are," he looked down and smiled.
"I want to be strong enough to defeat any god, I guess that's a goal to live for." I declared.
"I want to see the end of this war, that's my life goal," Finnegan said.
"Can you live that long?" I asked almost jokingly.
"I'm immortal, probably stronger than you, don't think you're the only one strong enough to face against gods in the M.A.M... " Finnegan said.
"what is your power?" I asked
"I can emit and control very potent energy, but my real power comes from my determination. It's something you have to see in action to really understand" Finnegan said.
"When will we get to fight again?" I asked.
"It should be a day or two, but after that it'll be about a month." replied Finnegan.
"Gah, what do you do with all your extra time?"
"Train in the simulators, it slows down time as well so you can train for months before we getting to the next mission. It's revolutionary technology that's giving us the edge. You aren't required to train, but I think it'd be a really good idea, you haven't fought against some of their tactics, which could be life or death." Finnegan explained.
"Where are they?" I asked
"The Arcade Room, it's in the right wing, I'll show you." We walked down the grey hallways until we came across an automatic door with a plaque on the side that read "Arcade Room" in red text. When the door slid open I was hit with a sweet aroma and cold air.
"Why does it smell like candy in here?" I asked
"In the simulation, you are submerged in a liquid that shocks you slightly, it increases blood flow and works muscles. This liquid also has a distinct sweet smell. Many soldiers become subconsciously addicted to the liquid and drink themselves to death while in the simulator."
"That's a tragic way to die, I'm sorry."
"The messed up part is that I'd rather see them die on the battlefield."
"I think they'd rather die on the battlefields too, nobody wants to be remembered for dying from something like addiction." I said
"That's the thing, most of them won't be remembered, even they know that. So when a friend dies the soldiers get reminded that they are next. Mortals fighting in this war right now will not be alive to see it's end, it's the cold hard truth." Finnegan said. Sirens broke the short-lived silence, "Everyone report to the main deck ready to jump now!" a soldier yelled over the intercom.
"Shit." Finnegan said, running to the control room.
I scurried to the main deck very unsure of myself, "Do you know which armor set I can use?" I yelled to a soldier trying to speak over the pandemonium. He ignored me and ran away somewhere. Soldiers were weaving through each other with such precision it almost didn't seem like total chaos. I started awkwardly throwing on gear frantically, then the main deck started dropping down. I threw the rest of my gear into the locker and got ready. The only armor I managed to get on was the armored leggings and the armored undershirt. I also grabbed a sword and a rifle which I had in sleeves along the side of my legs. My mind was still racing and second guessing itself, *is my armor on right? Why does it feel like everyone is watching me and making fun of me in their head? Am I ready for this?* Waves of heat started washing over the main deck as it lowered down outside the ship. The smell of ash stained my nose. Soldiers started hopping out with their jet packs, shooting demons on the ground. Over the war cries of thousands of people I took a deep breath and plunged into the ocean of flames that was the ground. The ground caved and crushed itself under my crackling lightning as I spun. I flew by graciously, obliterating everything on the ground. *"They don't stand a fucking chance"*, I laughed to myself. The demons started forming a front line miles ahead of me out of pillars to produce powerless energy fields. Millions roared bashing their swords and shields behind the lines. My body turned to lightning as I bolted to the front lines. Spreading my arms out I blasted all my energy towards the front line. Miles of front line faced against miles of relentless lightning. The powerless zone absorbed much of the lightning into nothing but the rest of it caved in the ground and crippled all air support. I shot through the powerless zone and my body immediately exploded from the speed. My blood splattered out the other end of the zone and I came rolled back to normal into the endless field of demons. I swept thousands into dust with soul lightning. My peripheral vision was besmirched by the long necked mage. A Marred soldier pounded out of the ground and launched a spear into the ground near my feet. Recognizing this spear as something that could summon the powerless pillars, I dashed away but was too late. The pillar was going to claim me and I was going to fall into a horde of demons. Despite all my efforts to stay alive, I was going to die fighting in a war that should've never started.