The power tore through the blackness. A rippling purple and black lightning bolt with wicked intent that silently approached the floating blue orb, tendrils forking off to strike things in the dark.
"Another one. Dammit," Bedrive said into his comms. "I'll stop this one and then see where it came from, ok Control?."
"Roger. Let me know when you've identified the target, and if you need backup. Over." The tinny voice replied into his ear.
Bedrive lowered his hand to his empty hip, and, with a fluid motion, drew a shining sword that illuminated the darkness around him. It was as bright as the lightning bolt was dark, and the poetry of that was not lost on Bedrive. The violet of his eyes was washed out in the brilliance of his sword, but he didn't squint or look away. He swung the sword casually towards the deeper blackness, a great arc of power was released in it's wake. Resembling a molten white spear, the energy gained speed as it approached the dark bolt.
There was no sound. There never is in space, but the collision of these opposing forces created a ripple of power that Bedrive sensed, even hundreds of thousands of kilometres away. Where two powers had been, there was now an expanding ring of dust and small debris, and, in the distance, a diminishing shining spear.
"Attack neutralized. Searching for a combatant now Control."
"Copy, Knight Bedrive."
"Don't call me Knight, Control, you know I hate that," Bedrive said, his hands shaking a little while he spoke and his eyes narrowed. He engaged his OHUD, which created an interactive display a metre ahead of the visor on his Vacuum suit. Some people preferred the OHUD closer, like a visor, but in Space, he needed a larger area to work with. "Where did you come from, you dark jerk?"
"Was that a question for me Bedrive?" Control said through the comms.
"No, but if you can layer the telemetry data of that attack and calculate the origin onto my OHUD, that would be pretty useful." No sooner had he said it, than a bright purple line appeared on the screen, with a dotted line connecting where it exploded to Earth. Using that endpoint, Control gave him a region of space it had likely come from. "That is close. They are getting bolder, aren't they Control?"
"That is why you and the other Knights are so important Bedrive. Earth is both a beacon of hope, and as fragile as spun glass."
'Jupiter, here I come,' thought Bedrive while looking at the dot on his display. At that distance, they would have fired the blast less than an hour ago. If they didn't care to see if they were successful, then they are long gone. If they are waiting to see if the Earth blows up, then he has a small window to get the drop on them. Humanity's science was so rooted in classical physics and singular universe theories, that they wouldn't understand what Bedrive was about to do.
"Control, I'm isolating now," Bedrive said. He shut down all comms and connections to Earth, and changed his Vacuum suit to ghost mode which made him undetectable. Completely adrift in space. Unobservable. Just observing quantum interactions affects the outcome of the experiment. The frame of reference narrows to include the observer and changes the context. Objects in space, unobserved and contextless, sometimes behave like macro quantum particles, appearing in new locations as determined by a complex function of probability.
He closed his eyes, held his breath, and disappeared.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Destroying planets was nothing, especially in this largely empty universe. It was no different than kicking a stone or cutting down a tree. The blue orb was different though, there were over a billion sentient lives there. The intelligence of humans was debatable, but sentient for sure.
'A billion souls at once. Will their pathetic God take notice? He couldn't stop me, but perhaps he would cry where I could see,' Hychron thought to himself. He seemed small framed against the super massive Jupiter, but, by Earth standards, he was massive at 2.5 metres tall and 250kg. He wore dark clothing with silver highlights throughout, and didn't seem to carry any weapons. His skin was harsh like poorly finished dark wood, and his hair was a deep purple.
His eyes swirled with a deep red fog as he gazed after the dark bolt he sent to Earth. 'It took me a year to harness that much dark energy. It will snuff out Earth and anything else along its path to the ends of this universe,' Hychron smiled, his father would be pleased. He chose the point of attack to be far enough that Earth couldn't detect him, but close enough that he could see the results quickly. Earth was defenseless, he wondered why the Pantheon had let it exist for so long?
A small flash caught Hychron's attention, towards Jupiter. He turned to see a tiny being there, only distinguishable as an outline against the light reflected from Jupiter.
"Aren't you an ugly bugger," Bedrive said, though of course he couldn't hear him.
"I can hear you just fine, Earthman," Hychron said directly into Bedrive's head.
'Telepathy? Shit, this could be bad,' Bedrive thought.
"Hahah, your mind is wide open to me. Have you come to watch the death of your planet from the vantage of its destruction?" Hychron said. He was curious how anyone from Earth could be here, and survive, but he wasn't worried. Compared to these primitives, he might as well be a god. "If you beg, perhaps I'll bring you back with me to be studied. We haven't had Earth samples in a long time, and you're about to be one of a kind."
"Well man, before we go away on a vacation together, I need to know a few things. Who sent you, and, will they care if you don't return?" Bedrive asked. The words were glib, but it was true, they needed to know if this was the first of many attacks or an isolated incident. Earth had stayed under the radar for a long time, but they weren't ready yet.
"I don't know whether to celebrate your bravado, or teach you a lesson right now," Hychron said. He turned towards Earth again. 'It should disappear any second now.'
"You must be impressively strong if you so casually turn your back to an enemy. This interests me, since I dealt with your doomsday ray so easily," Bedrive said, tilting his head to look at the monster, as if studying a strange animal. "No visible weapons, and you don't give off the casual world destroying vibe I was expecting. I think you used some sort of device to channel that energy? How long did it take to unleash it?"
"Who are you to ask questions of Hychron," He said, and charged towards the knight. How he moved was a mystery, as he wasn't wearing a vacuum suit, and had no propulsion. He just started flying towards him.
'Telekinesis?' Wondered Bedrive, but he had to worry about the giant monster speeding towards him to, apparently, punch him. His own vacuum suit produced impressive propulsion, as well as some field generation for electrical and magnetic effects. He vectored away, but the monster changed direction with ease, as if he was a hummingbird. The punch landed with more force than should be possible in zero gravity, and he was rocketed towards the gas giant.
While he tried to reorient himself in zero gravity, he could see the giant start to glow, a purple and silver aura surrounding him. 'This doesn't look good,' though Bedrive. Yet, it clearly wasn't the same as that black lightning bolt, so maybe he was overestimating this guy.
"Overestimate this Earthman," the giant roared. The aura shimmered around the monster, and then formed a shape in his hands. He swung it a few times, and the shape became more defined. Suddenly the misty shape was a battle axe, the head easily as big as Bedrive's entire torso. It's metal was purple with silver veins throughout, and a silver spike at the top. The haft was a purple so dark it seemed to absorb all the nearby light.
'That could hurt,' Bedrive thought. The monster flew towards him, axe raised. "I didn't want to have to do this big guy, but you don't seem like the talking type." Bedrive suddenly stopped his rapid trajectory towards Jupiter. Everything seemed to stop, including the monster, though the red of his eyes continued to swirl.
"Hmm, they didn't send their best I guess. Lucky for me. Not so much for you," he said, now moving towards the monster who was arrested in place. "You can see me, can't you? Amazing. Well, watch this." For a moment, he looked to be covered in a bright golden light, shaped like the finest wrought armour. At his hip was an empty sword scabbard that shone even brighter. He pulled the sword from the empty scabbard, and held it in front of the monster. "Not many beings get to see Hard Lightning even once, and I've had to draw it twice for you."
He gently swung the shining beam of sword, and then the universe breathed and resumed motion. Bedrive deftly side stepped as the two halves of his enemy continued on past at their original speed, heading to Jupiter.
'I wonder if he'll burn up on entry, or maybe get caught up in the great eye?' Bedrive thought as, now unobserved, he flickered back to Earth in a moment.
----------------------------------