The Fall of Anur Phaetos

The series premiere of Kurt 10: BTAS.

Episode
With a harsh jump, George Negason awoke in his bed. With a sigh, he shook his head, before getting out of his bed. He stumbled out into the hall, feeling like something was off in the Tower.

“Hey Kurt, you’d never believe the dream I had.” George said, opening the door to his brother’s room. “I think I need to see a therapist or something, I keep dreaming like I’m dying.”

As he finished the sentence, he realized that his brother wasn’t in the room. His scythe was missing, though, which he would never leave behind. Pausing,, confused that his brother would leave without saying anything to him or even waking him up.

Instead of brewing on it, he instead went to see if anyone else was in the tower. Searching for an hour, he didn’t find the rest of his team. Instead, Rex’s entire room was missing, like it had been teleported out in its entirety. Charmcaster had left a note saying that she had left, returning to her uncle Hex’s home for unknown reasons. And Kevin…. he had never trusted the mutant. No note, no explanation, just an empty room for him.

“…where is everyone?” George asked, forlornly.

5 YEARS LATERGeorge walked into a large conference room, made of basalt stone and dark metals. Now older, George stood a foot or two taller, and the armor he wore made him appear grey, copper and black instead of the normal talpaedan yellow. As the adult talpaedan took his seat, he gazed into the other residents of the room.

To his left sat a large cloaked figure, with their billowy black cloak obscuring any detail about his identity. While it was hard to tell where they were looking without being able to see their eyes or face, it appeared that the figure was staring at the dead center of the table, where the symbol of Anur Phaetos was emblazoned in purple quartz.

To his right sat Viteză, who still looked rather thin and pale, even for him. It was easy for George to tell where he was looking – right at him with some hatred. As soon as George made eye contact, Viteză narrowed his eyes, grunted and then started messing with something below the table.

In front of him sat the true power in the room – Khaos. He radiated power, although all He was doing was sitting in his seat at the table. Both His elbows were on the table, His armored hands messing with a small device. As George turned his gaze to Him, Khaos looked up from the device and grinned, his impossibly white teeth gleaming in the faint light of the distant sun.

“I am happy you joined us,” Khaos chuckled faintly, slowly rising to His feet. “you will definitely be important in this plan.”

“And what plan is that?” George grunted. “I was searching for Paradox, and you called me away. What could be so important that you called me to this dismal place?”

While Viteză frowned at the perceived insult to his homeland, Khaos merely shook His head. He held up the comparatively small device in His hand and pushed a button, causing the symbol of Anur to glow faintly. A moment later, a hologram of Anur Phaetos glimmered up, swiftly zooming into Zs’Skayr’s tower. Standing tall above the dismal ruins surrounding it, the tower looked dilapidated and abandoned itself, if it wasn’t for the ectonurites swarming around it.

“Zs’Skayr has returned, bringing his son along with him. While that would be a problem in and of itself, Zs’Skayr seems to be gathering power for some kind of ritual in there.” Khaos pressed another button on the device, causing the hologram to fizzle out. “That’s where you come in. I cannot enter the tower, for ancient reasons. However, you three can.

“I will distract the servants of Zs’Skayr, so you three can enter the tower unmolested.” Khaos grinned “And then I hope you can defeat the two empowered royal ectonurites. While they have absorbed your friends, speedster, they still have the weaknesses correlating to their kind. Good luck.”

Viteză and the cloaked figure nodded, getting up and moving towards the teleportation pads that would bring them planetside. The cloaked figure moved with an odd grace, but their cloak somehow managed to still contain their identity despite all the movement.

Viteză moved with the speed natural to the kinecelarans, but his movements had a kind of shambling awkwardness that betrayed his slightly undead nature. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the final member of their band to take the final place.

As George got up and walked, he felt Khaos’ hand on his shoulder. Despite his increased height due to his age, Khaos still seemed to tower over George. He moved George over to the side, leaning down to whisper.

“Young one, I have a gift for you. You might find this device rather useful in your fight against Zs’Skayr, and hopefully this makes up for you missing time on your quest for your brother.” Khaos pulled out a small crystal from the shadows of His cloak. “This is the core of what Kurt called the ‘Goditrix’. If you wish, I can implant it within you and you can utilize its abilities.”

“Uh…yeah, I’ll take that.” George stammers. “I mean…how would I use it? It’s not in a watch, and the Snackatrix broke ages ago.”

Khaos merely winked and put the hand with the crystal in it on the middle of George’s chest. Without any apparent resistance, He pushed it within the hero’s chest via a small portal that leaked a dark red light. After a moment, His hand retracted out, the portal closing with no crystal in hand.

“When you wish to use the power of these entities, think about them. Focus on what you wish to use. And focus. Focus as hard as you can, and try not to lose that focus.” Khaos patted George’s shoulder. “I believe in you, kid.”

With that Khaos and George took their places on the teleportation pads. George, Viteză and the cloaked figure teleported into the tower that Zs’Skayr called home.

Khaos was nowhere to be seen, but a dull explosion’s rumble shaking the tower itself gave away what He was doing. George nodded to the others, and all three soon started heading up as fast as they could.

With Viteză being the fastest, he scouted ahead, while George and the cloaked figure moved more slowly and carefully. After an hour of silence, it seemed that the tower was empty. While that did make their mission a lot easier, all three knew that that meant that Khaos was facing hordes and hordes of ectonurites. George was confident in his ally, but anyone can be overrun and smothered, so they had to cherish every second of silence.

“The room is right here.” Whispered Viteză to his allies “Prepare yourself. I doubt Zs’Skayr and his son would be caught by surprise.”

“Of course.” George nodded. “I have a feeling he’s known we were here this entire time, unfortunately…”

After a moment of preparation, George charged forward into a black granite wall, shattering it with a jackhammer-powered punch. With another two lightning quick punches, a hole was torn open large enough to accommodate his large frame. Hopping onto his back and backflipping over his head, Viteză was the first to enter the room itself. However, as the alien looked up and into the room itself he instantly regretted not letting his big durable ally enter first.

In the ectonurite king’s throne room was King Zs’Skayr himself, floating in his mutated form and cackling. His head resembled an upside down loboan’s, while two transylian conductors stuck out of his back. His body appeared to have been stitched together and wrapped in thep khufan wrappings like bandages, his ectonurite tentacles hanging out of his stomach. In one claw he held his scythe, while in the other he held a tome.

On the other side of the room floated his son, Ghast, who was far less mutated than his father. His torso and head were a galvanic mechamorph’s, with purple lines instead of green. He had two transylian conductors sticking out of his back as well, while the rest of his body was a normal ectonurite’s.

On the ground of the throne room was a large and complex magical circle, that glowed a dark red and slowly pulsed every few seconds. In the center sat a large ruby with a dark black bead in the centre, that slowly seemed to seep into the rest of the ruby, almost like it was being corrupted from the inside out.

“So, our guests finally join us…” Zs’Skayr chuckled, his lupine face grinning in pleasure “you shall make wonderful sacrifices to complete the ritual.”

“Yeah, no.” George growled “Whatever ritual you’re concocting, it’s done.”

He raised his arm into the air and prepared to jackhammer his fist into the ground. A split second before he hit the ground George was hit in the chest by a large bolt of dark purple lightning, causing him to screech in pain and take a step back. Viteză zipped forward and leapt into the air, kicking Ghast full in the chest before the young mutated ectonurite could fully react to the heroes’ presence.

While George staggered back the cloaked figure shot forward, a claw coming out of the robes. It was a five-fingered monstrosity, with three gleaming silver blades on top of a golden metal hand with two smaller thumbs near the bottom of the hand. While Zs’Skayr turned intangible, when the claws slashed at the king’s form it still cut him as if he didn’t. The king screeched in pain, green flames licking out of his wounds as he took a deep breath and screeched at the figure with his stolen loboan powers.

The sonic blast shredded the cloak, revealing the figure’s identity. He stood as tall as George, and appeared to be made of gold and steel. His torso was in the shape of a golden ribcage, with two dinosaur skulls as shoulders and arms like bones. His left hand had the claw, while his right ended in a large dark scimitar instead, topped with golden spikes resembling vertebrae. His lower half was all steel armor and machinery, with backwards knees and ending in talons resembling a velociraptor. Behind him a large steel tail hung, also topped with golden spikes resembling vertebrae. And the top of his neck didn’t sit a golden skull, but instead a steel mask with glowing orange eyes.

“Oh…that’s where you have been Saccularius.” Zs’Skayr chuckled “Of course you’d be here.”

“As if I’d miss a chance to tear you down.” Saccularius growled, before slashing out at the ghostly king with his scimitar.

Instead of going intangible Zs’Skayr floated up to dodge, before firing a dark purple blast from his chest at the construct. When it hit Saccularius seemed to fizzle out instead of truly being hit, before reappearing behind Zs’Skayr. With a snarl Saccularius swung his scimitar down, slashing through Zs’Skayr’s shoulder with ease and burying it into the king’s chest. He swung his head around and glared at Saccularius in the eyes.

“You’re a dead traitor.” Zs’Skayr hissed “I will make you wish you stayed dead.”

Zs’Skayr opened his jaws, ready to blast Saccularius in the face with another sonic blast. As he charged it up, two hands grabbed his jaws and tore back. Zs’Skayr let out a small scream as a recovered George tore off his lower jaw with a growl. After dropping the jawbones, he reached for the conductors, but the king reacted first and grabbed the talpaedan in his telepathy and flung him across the room. He collided with the ruby, with a grunt which was now halfway corrupted. As he stood to his feet again his eyes glowed with firey power, his armor changing from midnight blue and bronze to molten gold in an instant.

“Good morning, Zs’Skayr.” George charged, wrapped his arms around Zs’Skayr and then shone bright like the sun.

“No….no!” Zs’Skayr screamed in agony before dissolving into ash and smoke.

With a burst of light Negrox and Lup collapsed on either side of the small ash pile, Negrox groaning a little while Lup was completely unconscious. On the other side of the room Ghast hissed in pain as his back smoldered but he was far enough away to not completely burst into fire and ash. He reached out and grabbed Viteză by the throat, throwing him back into the hole in the wall with as much strength as he could muster. He then flew to the crystal, wrapping his arms around it and then using some of the magic contained within to teleport himself and it away in a flash of red and black energy.

With the ruby and Ghast gone and Zs’Skayr dead, the magic circle’s light faded, the circle itself swiftly fading away. After a moment Viteză zipped over and helped his boss to his feet.

“I thank you for your service.” Viteză nodded at the two “But I can take it from here. Once he is up and healed, I am sure Lord Negrox will reward you handsomely.”

Saccularius and George nodded before heading out, with the last of the firey light radiating from George dying out.

George stood on the roof, gazing out at the Bellwood skyline. He couldn’t help but sigh a little to himself. He got a piece of his brother’s legacy, but still didn’t feel any closer to his brother himself.

“You know, you don’t have to go alone.”

George immediately turned around, his hand going to the small laspistol on his hip. Standing on the roof, several dozen feet away, was Saccularius himself. He had his arms folded and was still wearing the tattered cloak, and was looking the young talpaedan straight in the eyes.

“What do you mean?” George asked, cautiously. “Are you proposing an alliance?”

“Duh.” Saccularius shook his head, almost mockingly. “I owe Kurt. I wish to repay him. What better way than helping you find him?”

George thought for a moment, before nodding “…very well.”

The End

Heroes

 * George Negason
 * Viteza
 * Negrox
 * Lup
 * Khaos

Villains

 * Zs'Skayr (deceased)
 * Ghast