Karnu ran for the most obvious exit, the lobby’s doors. Samrid was already there, having found a shorter way to get there. That prompted Karnu to race up the stairs, Takeshi at his heels. The door to the third floor practically sprang out of its frame, and Ryder appeared with his plasma rifle in hand. He took a shot that struck Karnu in his free shoulder. As the ronin fell, Ryder zipped over and pulled Josiah from his grasp before ascending.
Karnu got to his feet and made as if to jump.
“Stop!” Takeshi yelled.
The shout made Karnu freeze. “Stop what?”
“Stop doing what you are about to do.”
“Why?”
“Because it involves spoilers.”
A look of understanding passed over Karnu’s face. “Right, I nearly forgot. You have my thanks. I suppose we shall have to carry on by foot, then.”
Takeshi shrugged. “It’s not ideal, but it’s for the good of our readers.”
With that, the two of them continued to run up the stairs.
In the meantime, Ryder entered the top floor. He looked around for an exit so that he could get a better handle on the situation. All of a sudden, a giant anchor crashed through the ceiling mere yards from he was. The Dark Master entered through the hole, twin swords eager for blood. “I believe you have something I want.”
Members of the Shadow Gang dropped down behind him until a small force was gathered. “These odds aren’t looking too good, big guy,” Selah said. When she didn’t get a response, she added, “That’s the part where you say, ‘Never tell me the odds.’”
“Now’s not the time for—”
Someone rammed into him from behind. It was Dauthi, who slid his claws back into his fingers until they resembled regular fingernails. Then he lifted Josiah. “Your time to lose is today, boy,” he growled.
The Dark Master gestured, and Dauthi joined him on the anchor. It lifted back into the sky, but the gang members stayed where they were. Ryder stood and readied his rifle, but he was severely outnumbered.
A giant metal claw rammed through the ceiling between him and the gang. Byron slid down via his own chain, and the Iron Crew followed suit. “Keep them busy, lads,” he ordered.
The pirates engaged the gang in combat. Byron turned to Ryder. “Your assistance is needed above the hotel.”
Ryder nodded his thanks and blasted into the open air, Byron right behind him. Things were crazier here. Two airships were firing cannons at each other, beams from energy guns flying alongside the cannonballs. Whereas it had been sunny earlier, it was now storming like mad. Maalen was responsible for that, standing at the bow of the Shadow Gang’s flagship.
As the claw from the
Gauntlet, Byron’s warship, lifted, Ryder noticed that it now carried two extra passengers. Takeshi and Karnu were dueling with katanas. None of them could get the upper hand with the anchor blowing in the wind.
“Surrender now, Karnu!” Takeshi yelled.
Instead, Karnu closed his eyes for a moment. Seconds later, a trumpeting roar sounded. A serpentine, purple-black dragon rushed toward the anchor. Karnu leaped onto its back. “Excellent work, Thorn. Let’s rid ourselves of these pests.”
Thorn snorted in response.
Meanwhile, aboard the
Gauntlet, many of the heroes were preparing fleet transport boats to combat the antagonists on their boat. Tyren and Bronx boarded one with Captain Brixton and his crew. “Greetings,” Brixton said. “I hope you two are ready for a fight.”
They shoved off and aimed for the flagship. “Most peculiar,” Tyren muttered. “In all my years as a Legend, I have never encountered anything like this.”
Brixton grinned. “Well, it just so happens that I’m a great legend myself.”
Tyren frowned at him. “You are not in our Book of Legends.”
“There’s a book for that? They must have forgotten about me.”
“He’s nothing more than a dirty, glory-seeking pirate,” Bronx said.
“Excuse me! If you want to be so rude, you can just get off my ship.”
Bronx clenched his fists, and Brixton paled a shade. “On second thought, feel free to stay.”
Suddenly, thick purple mist stalled their boat. Clouse was nearby, standing on one arm of Chen’s throne. He was whispering sorcerous words that kept the aircraft in place. Chen laughed like mad. “You won’t see the end of your stories. I am putting an end to them today!”
“You’re one to talk,” Gideon said. “You’re not even an original character.”
Chen spluttered. “How rude of you!” He slammed one of the buttons, and Gatling guns appeared on his throne. “You’ll make a fool of me no longer.”
It was at that moment that Selyth, a SkyRing racer, appeared. He zipped past the throne with a sword extended. The blade bit into the chair and spun it around, disrupting the Dark Magic and preventing Chen from shooting. Brixton saluted Selyth and zoomed away.
Chaos was dominating the flagship. Twilight faced off against the Magistrate. Her Enforcers, with their gray kill mode eyes, made a grab for the young girl. She summoned her Starstriker abilities and ran one through with a glowing green sword, but she couldn’t pull it out. Right before the second struck, Ceinwen showed up with Emiko. The android jumped and spun at the same time, kicking the Enforcer in the face. It staggered back, right into Emiko’s katana.
Darlinja gaped at the three girls. “How is that possible?”
“Quite simply,” Ceinwen said. “I have defensive and offensive measures programmed into my code, allowing me to perform some martial arts like I just did. Twilight is one of Starstrikers from your story world, which is why she could create a weapon out of thin air. The Imperial Princess Emiko has been trained with the sword because that is how her society operates.”
Darlinja cursed and whipped out a gun, but a swift punch from Ceinwen had her slumping to the deck.
Kayne, on the other hand, was trying to avoid the gang members. He had no weapon aside from his fists, and they were coming at him with cutlasses and energy pistols. So he ran, and he was ashamed of it. Adrian was a little braver and tackled some of the enemy troops. Then Jav appeared at the helm, with his eyes glowing a dangerous red. “I shall melt you fleshbags like the scum you are,” the android said. Laser beams scorched the deck, racing after Kayne.
“Somebody help!” Kayne screamed.
Takeshi and Bella arrived on the scene to witness what was taking place. “Boost me up!” Bella said.
Takeshi sheathed his katana and cupped his hands together. Bella stepped into the net his hands made, and he thrust up. She pounced into the air and stabbed the rogue android with her saber. His beams shut down, and he let loose a scream before tumbling down to the main deck. Bella let go of her saber just before she would’ve gone down with him.
Viper wrapped his arms around Takeshi and squeezed. “I don’t know about you, but I think suffocation is a great way to go. I’m excellent at administering it.”
Morbus crept up behind the snake-man and stabbed him with a dagger. Viper howled and let go, allowing Takeshi to punch him in the throat. The samurai prince nodded at Morbus. “Thank you for your assistance.”
Morbus tipped his head. “I try to help every now and then.” He casually threw the dagger behind him so that the hilt whacked Vortex, who had been sneaking up on them to use his powers and attack, right in the forehead. The man fell to the deck face-first, unconscious.
On the crow’s nest of the flagship, Jarek and Cronus watched what had started off as a great chase before turning into an epic fan service battle unfold. Byron and Karnu dueled on top of Thorn, who was attacking the
Gauntlet, which had to stave off both it and the flagship. The rain continued to pour, and now two massive robot battlesuit things were attacking each other while flying up to join the fray. Both were incredibly fuzzy, showing the Author’s lack of thought on the matter.
Speaking of the Author, he was also with the two leaders. “Look, guys, let’s work this out. There’s gotta be a better way to solve whatever beef you have with me.”
Before either one of them could respond to him, Mark, David, and Warren showed up on their own skiff. “Well, well, well,” Warren said.
“That’s a deep subject,” Mark interjected.
Warren glared at him. “Seriously, bro?”
“Do you three seriously think you can beat us?” Jarek asked.
“We could tear you apart,” Cronus added.
“We’re not letting you big baddies get away with this,” David said. “Let us show you our inner power.”
Josiah frowned. “What’s all this about? I never gave you any—”
There was a flash of light, and suddenly the three teens had become adult soldiers. “Whoa, look at us!” Mark said. “I feel so much more immature, for some reason.”
Warren flexed. “At least I’ve got all my guns.”
Mark flexed as well, but nothing happened, which set them all off in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
Cronus furrowed his brow. “Am I missing something? What are they so amused by?”
Jarek looked over at Josiah, who was cringing like you wouldn’t believe. “This isn’t canon, I assure you.”
“You want final forms?” Jarek asked. “Let us show you ours!”
Another flash of light, and Jarek and Cronus had become a massive dragon and ox, respectively. “I am Leviathan!” Jarek trumpeted.
“And I am Behemoth!” Cronus boomed—or at least he would’ve if he hadn’t broken the crow’s nest and fallen to the deck below, taking most of the mast with him and rending a huge hole in the deck. Jarek/Leviathan barely had enough time to grab Josiah and fly into the air.
“This ends now!” David shouted.
“Agreed,” Jarek/Leviathan said.
But before fire could spew or guns could be shot, a demonic whistle blasted the atmosphere around them. The
Hellrider appeared, with Frayen and Jasper standing on the roof. “Now you have made us look foolish two times,” Jarek growled. “Do it a third time and I shall not hesitate to behead you.”
“I waited five minutes this time,” Frayen said, “and you’re still not satisfied.”
“Because that was longer than five minutes!” Jasper realized where they were aiming for. “Why is the conductor targeting the
Gauntlet? He’ll kill us all!”
“In case you didn’t know, genius, conductors don’t control trains. That’s the engineer’s job. And considering we are on some supernatural locomotive that can fly, I suspect there is no engineer and that the train has a mind of its own.”
Jasper growled. “Wonderful. We are going to die.”
Seconds later, the
Hellrider struck. The timing was perfect, as the
Gauntlet, Thorn, the flagship, the robot battlesuits, Jarek/Leviathan, and all of the transport boats happened to be in one straight line that the train careened into. A deafening explosion filled the air, and debris plummeted down, decimating the entire hotel in seconds.
Moments later, a third flash of light ignited, this one brighter than the other two. All of the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, were crowded together outside the hotel—what remained of it, anyway. Josiah stood at the center with five of his oldest characters: Mark, David, Warren, Jarek, and Cronus.
“Okay, let’s go about this peacefully.” Josiah folded his arms after his hands stopped glowing from the use of his writerly power. “Why did you ruin the party?”
“It’s because you’ve abandoned us!” Jarek snarled.
“You start our stories, then abandon them for others,” Karnu said.
“You leave us unimagined,” Maalen growled, pointing at his vague form.
“And it’s all because you blog too much,” the Dark Master said.
“You even went so far as to promise a choose your own adventure series on your blog that hasn’t been started yet,” Viper pointed out.
Jasper folded his arms. “So we wanted to capture you and get you to stop this madness.”
“But why should he continue writing?” Kayne hollered. Every eye was instantly aimed at him. “I mean, he causes so much pain and trauma. Do we want him to keep doing so?”
Josiah lowered his gaze to the ground, and when he lifted it again, tears slid down his face. “I am sorry that you all feel that way. Allow me to explain some things.”
He turned to Jarek. “You’re absolutely right. There have been times where I give up writing so that I may blog, and it kills me inside. I’m torn between my blogging and my writing, and it is such a struggle sometimes. Especially when it feels like neither yields desirable results. So for that, I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
He looked at Kayne next. “As for the pain . . . well, I have also given you joy to combat that pain. I always want to reflect both reality and hope. Sometimes people don’t get happy endings, and other times everything works out. Know this, though: your pain is my pain. Kayne, your longing for your dreams to come to pass, your loneliness, your heartache . . . those are all mine.”
Josiah faced Ryder. “And Ryder, the lessons you had to learn about loving and letting go . . . those were very relevant to me. That was me working out my struggles on the pages of a story.”
He spun around. “You are all a piece of me: my lights, my shadows, my joy, my suffering, my dreams, my failures. Know that you are
always important to me.”
There was a moment of near-quiet. Sniffling could be heard from both the protagonists’ and the antagonists’ sides. Mark stepped forward, this time not shrinking back as everyone stared at him. “I think I understand. You don’t do this just for us, or for yourself.” He pointed at you. “You do it for that reader too. You want them to be entertained, to experience that hunger for more after the story is over, and to ponder things once the book is closed. But most importantly, you want them to be changed for the better. Your desire is for God to touch them through your words and inspire them in whatever way they need.”
Josiah nodded. “You hit the nail right on the head, Mark.” He turned to you now. “You see, this blogoversary is about me. This is a celebration of us. Look how far we’ve all come together. There’re so many more miles to go on this journey, but if we go together, the trip will be that much richer. You have deeply touched me, and I hope and pray I do the same for you, through my posts and my stories. Thanks for two great years.” He smiled, the tears now truly flowing. “Happy blogoversary to us.”
Mark wrapped Josiah in a hug. David and Warren joined in, followed by—surprise!—Jarek and Cronus. Then came Byron and Bella, Takeshi and Emiko, Ryder with Selah and Ceinwen. Kayne and Adrian joined in, as did the Dark Master, Karnu, and Jasper. Soon, every single character present was hugging each other in the biggest group hug ever seen.
They were broken and dysfunctional. They each had their own hopes and fears. They had times where they felt like they were on a glorious mountaintop, and times when they crawled through torturous valleys. But they were all connected through their Author. They were one.
They were family.
And you are part of that family, too.
Thanks for reading, and for sticking with me for two years. You have blessed me more than you may know.
Here’s to what the future holds. Happy blogoversary to us, indeed!
