KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
“UM… HOW CAN I HELP YOU TWO,” sixty-five-year-old local ‘keokukian’ hermit Castor Lucas awkwardly asked the two Guardinian refugees, Lieutenant/Blue Guardian Dexius Solas and the Lady-Princess Ashanna Pronos, as they stood out the porch to his self-built (and remote) wooden log cabin.
“CASTRON???” Dexius uttered aloud in a breathless tone as both he and the Princess stood in slumped states in front of the old hermit, exhausted from their long walk all the way from their ‘Sugar Creek submerged’ Escape Shuttle Pod.
“Uh… Who?” Castor stammered as he looked at the two bronze-skinned, glowing turquoise eyed teenagers in confusion (and slight fear).
“LORD Castron Lakarias. Huff… Huf… Formerly of the planet Guardinas,” Dexius recited between breathless pants. “Huff… Huff… Thought to be ‘lost forever’ in the Grand Void whilst on an exploration mission for other ‘habitable worlds’ for the Guardinian People. Huff… Huff… Huff… ARE YOU HIM???”
“I… I,” Castor continued to stammer as he looked over the two oddly dressed ‘Alien Humanoid Teenagers’.
Once he had eyed Dexius’s Guardian Energy Shifter, which he still had strapped around his waist, Castor’s physical state and facial features changed from confused/cautious… TO VERY SERIOUS.
“What is our creed,” Castor asked in a firm, more ‘elegant sounding’ tone as he kept his eyes locked with Dexius’s.
“PEACE, RESPECT, KINDNESS, PROSPERITY, SERVICE, SOUL,” Dexius sternly recited.
“And love,” Princess Ashanna followed as Castor drew his aged eyes back over towards her.
“Tis correct,” Castor nodded whilst looking back over at Dexius. “Welcome to my dwelling… LORD-GUARDIAN.”
Realizing that they had found the lost Guardinian Explorer, Lord Castron Lakarias, Dexius and Ashanna’s moods instantly changed from hopelessness to moderate joy.
“Grandest greetings… my Lord,” Dexius nodded as he gave a ‘formal Guardinian bow’ to Castor, now known by his true name of ‘Castron’.
“Grandest greetings, Lord-Guardian,” Castron nodded in return as he looked back over at Princess Ashanna. “And who might you be, my dear?”
“I am the Lady-Princess Ashanna Pronos… Daughter of the Lord-King Luxor and Lady-Queen Andridia… SUPREME-RULERS OF PLANET GUARDINAS,” the sixteen-cycles-old royal said in her own ‘elegant voice’ as she gave a ‘formal Guardinian curtsy’ to Lord Lakarias.
“BY THE HIGH-ELDERS,” Castron gasped as he immediately gave a ‘formal royal Guardinian bow’ to Princess Ashanna. “Tis a grand honor and an even grander privilege to be in your presence… Your Highness.”
Princess Ashanna gave a curtsy and grin to Castron before permitting him to ‘rise’.
“And I am Dexius Solas… LIUETENANT DEXIUS SOLAS,” the eighteen-cycles-old alien soldier announced in a gruff tone to Castron. “I am the Blue Guardian Warrior.”
“Grandest greetings to you as well, Lord-Guardian,” Castron nodded to Dexius as he nodded back.
Looking over the two once more, but with ‘brand new eyes’, Castron asked, “If you don’t mind my questions, what are you both doing here… ON EAR-- I mean, ‘Aeshlara’?”
“GUARDINAS HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER,” Dexius stated in a bitter tone whilst Princess Ashanna lowered her head in sadness.
“Taken over?” Castron repeated in a vexed tone. “By whom???”
“By the Vexans,” Princess Ashanna answered after raising up her head to reveal glowing turquoise colored tears streaming down her cheeks.
“The Lord-King Luxor sent myself and the Royal Lady-Princess to Aeshlara… EARTH just as the accursed Brothers Vexas and their Wartrooper dregs were breaching the Royal Palace,” Dexius explained. “We barely escaped with our life-forces still ignited as we ‘Quantum Warp Jumped’ to this sector… And world.”
“I see,” Castron replied. “Is it just the ‘two’ of you?”
“Yuh-Yes, my Lord,” Princess Ashanna replied in a saddened tone.
“I see,” Castron said again, but in a more grim tone whilst nodding. “Here. Join me inside my dwelling. Quickly now… Tis too grandly cold for you both to be standing out here in your current wellness states.”
“Grand thanks, Lord Lakarias,” Dexius nodded as he allowed the Lady-Princess to first walk inside of the cabin after Castron had stepped aside from its opened entrance.
_
“So… WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS?” Castron asked inquisitively as both he and Dexius sat in rather comfortable reclining chairs in the Living Area of his Remote Cabin.
“Intentions???” Dexius asked curiously whilst Princess Ashanna warmed herself on the floor in front of Lord Lakarias’s lit fireplace bundled in one of his red, flannel-pattern blankets.
“Yes… YOUR INTENTIONS,” Castron restated whilst smoking on a long wooden pipe filled with Tobacco. “Now that you and the Princess are here and safe on Aeshlara… the Earth, what are your intentions? Surely the Lord-King did not send you here just to reside within my dwelling for the rest of your day-cycles.”
“No… HE DID NOT,” Dexius replied with his brow brutishly lowered. “King Luxor intended for us to ‘integrate’ ourselves with the Aeshlarans and their culture.”
“Humans, you mean?”
“Wha-- Yes. HUMANS.”
Taking this in, Dexius looked back down at the fireplace with a stern expression on his battle hardened face.
“Before we go on any further, could I treat you two to a fresh meal, perhaps,” Castron asked the young Guardinian Refugees. “You both must be awfully famished after your harrowing escape and trek all the way from your wrecked astro-vessel.”
“I am quite famished, actually,” Princess Ashanna stated after pulling herself away from the fireplace. “My Lord, I would like freshly cut Calamor with Evian Spring Water and Reevus Beans please!”
Castron chuckled slightly whilst the Lady-Princess asked, “What? Is there something wrong?”
“Your Majesty… I do not think that this world has ‘Calamor’ or ‘Evian Spring Water’,” Dexius stated in a brooding tone.
“It doesn’t?” Princess Ashanna asked in surprise.
“No. I am afraid that it does not, Your Highness,” Castron regretfully informed. “But fret not, for I have something even better.”
“Better?”
“Just a moment, Princess. I shall return shortly.”
The old hermit then rose out of his chair and hobbled over to the kitchen area of his cottage.
Once he had left the room, Princess Ashanna whispered to Dexius, “What could possibly be better than Calamor and Reevus Beans?”
“I am not quite sure, Your Majesty,” Dexius replied aloud whilst shrugging his shoulders.
A couple of minutes later, Castron entered the room with two bowls of Microwavable Ramen Noodles.
Handing the bowls of Ramen over to the Guardinian Refugees, the old Guardinian Scientific Explorer said, “Here you go. The finest dish in all of Keokuk.”
Dexius and Ashanna looked down at their bowls with disgust lingering heavily in their strange colored eyes.
Looking over his bowl of noodles, Dexius said, “Tis resembles…”
“RAXX,” Princess Ashanna said aloud in utter disgust.
“PRINCESS!”
“What, Dex? Tis looks like a pile of raxx. Ugh... Smells like it too.”
Dexius glared at her now as Castron smirked, “No, no. All is well, Lord-Guardian. I assure you. Princess Ashanna, at least try it before you swear it off completely. Just one bite, yes?”
“Ugh… Fine. One bite,” Princess Ashanna sighed distastefully. “But I'm only doing this because I have not eaten anything in nearly over a day-cycle.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Resting the bowl down on her knees, Princess Ashanna picked up the fork that was sticking out of the noodles, twisted it around to the point where its head was fully wrapped in noodles, pulled it out of the bowl, and placed it in her mouth.
The Lady-Princess then chewed them in her mouth and tried to figure out if she liked it or not.
“Well???” Dexius asked after his charge swallowed the wound fork of ramen noodles.
“Prendekumous! Tis tastes prendekumous,” Princess Ashanna raved joyously, causing Dexius’s brow to raise and Castron to briefly snicker.
“Heh, heh… That it does, Princess. That it does,” Castron smirked whilst Dexius started to eat from his own bowl.
Eyes widened in shock of just how the ramen noodles were, Dexius turned to Castron and asked after swallowing his first of many bites, “Lord Lakarias… You MUST tell us what this dish is called.”
“Tis called ‘Ramen Noodles’,” Castron replied.
“Ramen Noodles?” Princess Ashanna repeated with her mouth full of another more heaping bite, to which Castron nodded.
“Well, tis grand, my Lord! Very grand,” Princess Ashanna cheerfully addressed before going back to ravenously devour her noodles whilst Dexius did the very same.
_
“Tis amazes me, Lord Lakarias… TRULY,” Dexius remarked as he and Castron both looked out across the whole township of Keokuk off the wooden, back deck of the latter’s Remote Cabin.
“What, Lord-Guardian… Dexius,” Castron asked as Princess Ashanna was now fast asleep on the very comfy couch in the living room area inside of his cozy dwelling.
“How peaceful this place is. There seems to be no violence, death, pain… OR CHAOS.”
“Trust me, Lieutenant, there are more than enough of those things on this world. You just don’t see them here… Fortunately.”
“Well, nevertheless, I believe that this ‘village’ shall be a grand enough setting for the Princess and I to… WAIT. What are these ‘lands’ called again?”
“Keokuk, Iowa.”
“Keokuk… Iowa.”
The Last Guardian Warrior then went back to looking down at the small, rural community whilst Castron asked, “Tell me, how did you escape?”
“We fled in an Escape Shuttle Pod.” Dexius started to explain while keeping his glowing eyes locked on Keokuk. “At the last possible milli-cycle, I hit a Quantum Warp Jump before a squadron of Vexan Ravager Astro-Fighters could destroy our astro-vessel.”
“I see,” Castron nodded. “Now, answer me this, Dexius… Do you believe that the Vexans will come after both you and the Princess?”
“I am not certain, my Lord,” Dexius answered in a hard tone.
“Say that they do come, what makes you think that they won’t do to Earth what they have already done to Guardinas???”
“Nothing makes me think that, Castron. Ugh… Besides, I would think that with a planet as massive as this one that its defenses would be more than enough to contend with the Vexan Horde’s accursed might.”
“No. I am afraid it is not, Lord-Guardian,” Castron regretfully said. “Unfortunately, the Earth’s armies are NO COMPARISON the Guardinian Royal Defense Military… OR THE GUARDIANS.”
“Really?”
“REALLY. The Humans have been fighting with one another for centuries. Their technology and intelligence are vastly primitive compared to the Guardinians’. NOW THAT YOU KNOW THIS, what makes you even think that they could fight against something as massive and menacing as the thracking Vexan Empire???”
Dexius went silent.
“So, say they come. Say they… INVADE Earth,” Castron started again. “How do you think Humanity will fair?”
“VERY LITTLE… After what you have just told me, my Lord,” Dexius stated through gritted teeth before looking back at Castron. “But fret not… For I have brought something along with the Lady-Princess and I that may give… the ‘humans’ a morsel of a chance against a ‘possible’ Vexan Invasion.”
“And what could that possibly be,” Castron asked with his wrinkled brow furled.
Pulling down the slinged, leather-like bag that he had draped over his back, Dexius unfastened its locking seals (which were coded to his biometrics) and retrieved a rectangular, impenametal box from within it.
Dexius then displayed the box to Castron, who asked, “What is that?”
“HOPE,” Dexius replied with a straight and serious face after unsnapping the box’s locks (which were also coded to his biometrics) allowing its lid to automatically raise, revealing the six brightly glowing, individually colored objects that lay nestled inside.
“By the High-Elders,” Castron gasped as he stared down at the brightly glowing white, black, gold, yellow, green, and red ‘belt buckle’ looking metallic objects… ‘Devices’ that were laid side by side within the impenametal box.
“THE GUARDIAN ENERGY SHIFTERS,” the Lieutenant stated sternly and emotionlessly as Castron stared at the six ‘mystical devices’ that were created by the Pyramid of Power itself.
“You… You brought them here? TO EARTH???” Castron asked as he now looked back up at Dexius’s stern, battle-hardened face once more with widened eyes.
“AYE,” Dexius nodded in confirmation. “‘Twas King Luxor’s FINAL ORDERS he gave to before the Lady-Princess and I’s escape from Guardinas. He tasked me with finding six other ‘champions’ who were brave, strong, courageous, and FEARLESS enough to wield the now ‘ownerless’ Energy Shifts… Along with ‘something else’.”
“What else,” Castron asked as Dexius dug right hand within one of the compartments on the sides of his black, leather-like combat pants whilst keeping the impenametal box held in his left hand/arm.
“THE PYRAMID OF POWER,” Castron said aloud in grander shock after Dexius pulled out the still ‘jewel-sized’ Unlimited Power Source.
Setting the box that contained the Guardian Energy Shifters off to the side on the wooden plank floor of the back deck, Dexius then, through the temporary mental bond that he gained from the Pyramid whilst holding it now with both of his hands, ‘willed’ it to grow to the size of a basketball in milli-cycles.
Approaching the Pyramid, Castron’s dark blue eyes instantly started to glow their original turquoise color upon being struck by its godly rays of golden light energy.
“You brought it with you?” Castron asked as his eyes started to glow a golden color from the reflection of the godly, golden light rays that emitted from the Unlimited Power Source.
“King Luxor entrusted me with it along with the Energy Shifters… AND HIS LAST LIVING HEIR,” Dexius stated. “As long as the Pyramid is here, away from the Vexans, then the Known Universe and ALL SENTIENT LIFE that exists within it are safe.”
“You kroone… You THRACKING kroone!”
“HUH? What???”
“As long as the Pyramid is here then the Vexans CAN find it, you skogger! Lord-Guardian, you have just put this world and the entire human race in danger… GRAVE DANGER.”
“What else was I to do, my Lord? The King… The THRACKING KING ordered me to take it along with the Energy Shifters to Aeshlara along with Ashanna. What was I to do? DISOBEY HIS DIRECT ORDERS???”
“KROONISH ORDERS, you mean,” Castron coldly corrected. “I cannot believe that our ‘grand, gracious, and immensely wise’ Lord-King would allow such a KROONISH thing to carry under the guise of his HOLY word and in his SACRED name. How would he… How COULD he possibly be willing to sacrifice ANOTHER race to the Vexan Dreadnought? HOW???"
“MIND YOUR WORDS, YOU OLD THRACK!” Dexius thunderously cursed at Castron, causing the old Scientific Explorer to simmer down in his own rage.
“Forgive me if what I have just said does not sit ‘grand’ with you, Lord-Guardian,” Castron restarted in a more calm tone. “But this is my world now. EARTH IS MY WORLD… And the humans are my people. I have been here for the past thirty years… CYCLES. And I intend to keep on living in freedom here upon THIS WORLD rather than IN CHAINS on another. You should not have brought the Pyramid here. No matter what you or the King has said, you should NOT have brought it here. With the cursed, ‘Infernal Device’ being here now then you, the Princess, and the King have put the fate of the entire human race in jeopardy.”
Still angry with Castron and his words, Dexius spurted, “Tis why I have also brought the power of the Guardians with me as well, you kroone! TO DEFEND THE HUMANS AND THE EARTH FROM A POSSIBLE VEXAN INVASION!!!”
“And what of the ‘other’ Guardians? What has become of them, Dexius,” Castron inquisitively asked.
Dexius’s eyes then widened as his blue Guardinian blood immediately started to run icy cold… DEAD COLD in his veins.
“I see the Energy Shifters do not have ‘current’ wielders… CHAMPIONS,” Castron continued to state whilst looking down at what gave the Guardians their mighty powers, weapons, battle suits before looking back up at Dexius again. “Where are they now? What has become of them???”
“They were slaughtered,” Dexius replied chokingly. “They… fell. They all fell in battle… AGAINST THE BROTHERS VEXAS.”
Looking directly at Castron now with glowing tears beginning to form in his past-weary eyes, Dexius shimmered, “I was the only survivor.”
“Forgive me,” Castron replied in a somber voice. “I am sorry for your losses, Dexius… But if the Guardians didn’t fare well against the Vexans, then what possible chance do the humans have?”
“I do not know, Castron… I do not know. All that I wish for is to be free from all the chaos… THE MADNESS… But I cannot… For I am a Guardian Warrior. Until the day-cycle when my life-cycle has ended and my life-force has been extinguished, a Guardian I shall be and as a Guardian my sole duty is to serve and protect every innocent life-cycle that exists within the Known Twenty-Four Galactic Sectors… AND KNOWN UNIVERSE. Tis my duty… MY SOLE DUTY.”
Looking back down at the impenametal box, Dexius stated, “However, I cannot carry out my duty alone. A Guardian Warrior’s power alone is grand… But when joined together with the other six… AS ONE then it is even grander.
“With the Guardian Energy Shifters of my fallen brethren now in my possession, I shall journey across these new ‘lands’ of Keokuk, Iowa and seek out six other champions who are brave and worthy enough to wield their mythic and almighty powers.”
“And where will you find these ‘Champions’ that you speak so highly of, Lieutenant,” Castron asked the Blue Guardian Warrior.
“I am not quite sure of that, Castron. Not yet… BUT THEY ARE OUT THERE,” Dexius confirmed whilst looking down upon the township of Keokuk again with a more ‘hopeful’ look in his glowing eyes. “They are out there, Castron… WAITING. Waiting for fate and destiny to come upon them and change their life-cycles... FOREVER.”
