Reaper Read online

  The Reaper

  By

  Wesley F. Brown

  Chapter One:

  Long Shot

  The world was dying. Dust and fire covered the Earth. The great terror called Death had been unleashed. His power was only growing as he fed on the death of others. This immortal being reveled in the pain and destruction he caused. Hope seemed lost. In the darkest hour hope took form in one last hero.

  They called him Blink. He was sixty-three at the time, with more scars and burns than skin. His left eye had been—to put it lightly—removed, and the story behind this could be told with the Y-shaped scar slashing under the black eyepatch that had replaced the missing eye, through his brow, and down his cheek. His hair was gray and feathered, but his jaw was still strong and his arms still strapping despite his age. Blink had been fighting for a very long time, trying to stop the world from ending the way it was in danger of doing now, and he was running out of both ideas and time.

  Blink was working on a solution, forging a magic bullet of sorts. He only needed a little more time. Something he once had an abundance of. As he worked in his subterranean passed from one generation of heroes to the next, other heroes laid their lives down in the fight against Death, simply to buy Blink time.

  Blink was not totally alone, though. He has been working for quite some time with a female named Entity, who lived within the digital realm and projected herself as a blue hologram. She no longer possessed a physical body but this did not hinder her ability to fight. Lately, she had been giving aid to Blink, mostly in the form of doing calculations and calibrations on Blink’s power suit.

  The two of them worked well together. She was the only friend he had left. Even those above only sided with him because they had a common enemy in Death. She had been alive for so long and had seen so many people that she cared about that she was about as hollow as her body. He had this in common with her. Blink trusted her.

  The two of them had invested years into Project B.C. After years of fighting a losing war against Death. The one last chance to stop Death before his rise could ever begin. Blink and Entity devised a plan. Blink would go back in time and kill the man who would become the Reaper and later be overtaken by the influence of Death. If Blink could stop the scythe from passing hands, the future could be saved.

  The mission: change the past; protect the future.

  Blink’s body was worn with battle scars and withering of age. What he once could do with the power that naturally flowed through him he now needed machines to fill in the gaps. So for years, Blink—with Entity’s help—had built a power suit. Someone as suave as Blink would believe that for any occasion, you want to wear the proper suit.

  In this instance, that “proper suit” is a state-of-the-art power suit. It enhances strength more than anything else, is incredibly durable, and can harness Blink’s power into a blast that is fired out of the forearm cannon on either arm. To be clear, the forearm cannon is circular, going around the forearm. The suit is a metallic cobalt on the more heavily armored areas. The softer areas are black, and the eyes light up orange.

  That would be the last day that his future would lie in ruins.

  Fluorescent lights dangled from above as Blink walked down a cold metal hall toward the chamber with the power armor. He stood on the center platform, and the suit was put on him by Entity’s robotic arms.

  “Are you sure about this?” Entity asked. “It will kill you, even with the suit. You’ve seen the numbers.”

  “What difference does it make? The apocalypse is finally on us. This is our last chance.” Blink growled. He walked over to a table with an arsenal lying on it and began to strap on weapons—a grenade launcher with four more grenades strapped on his chest, a machine-gun that carried five hundred rounds, a double barrel pistol with an extended clip of up to twenty-four rounds. He also carried a blade on his back, which was engulfed in an electric field when activated. The source of the sword’s electric power is mystic in nature.

  Blink raised his right arm and blast a glowing blue portal in front of him.

  “Good luck.” Entity whispered. Her voice echoed off of the metal walls. Blink was gone.

  The plane of Phantasm—a maleficent, all-powerful ruler—was just as hellish as one would expect from a monster with a name like Phantasm. This plane existed in the same universe as Earth. Caves, fire, and molten rock crept over the surface. The Specter was kneeling before a wall of fire, speaking to the Phantasm, who resided on the other side of the wall.

  “Master, there is a man of superior strength in the plane of Earth,” Specter said. “I believe that he may be able to wield the scythe. With your permission, I would present it to him. He may be our greatest ally. With his aid, I may be able to free you so that you may have your vengeance on your brothers.”

  The Phantasm growled from beyond the wall of fire. “Go,” the Phantasm said. The shimmering black scythe floated through the wall of fire and fell into Specter’s hands. “Take the scythe to him.” There was a silver skull at the top of the scythe where the blade met the staff. This was the Death scythe.

  “It will be done, Lord Phantasm.” The Specter stood and turned, walking away from the wall of fire.

  The last piece of the puzzle. The man that would be the Reaper. He was a Spartan who had defected to Thebes with his wife and son not long before Sparta had lost its standing to the rest of the world. He did not want his family to be there when Sparta inevitably fell, so one day, he went to his house, took his young boy and his wife, and left. For almost three months, they lived well in Thebes. As things began to break down socially, Alexander of Macedonia—more commonly known as Alexander the Great—brought his army to Thebes. Due to riots in the area, Alexander the Great came to make an example out of the people of Thebes. The man who would become the Reaper fell to a thousand swords.

  The man reawakened in a strange, empty, barren field. He was lying on his back, the position he’d been in when he died, but the swords that had slain him were gone. His wounds were not, though. He was mangled and bloody, his limbs dripping with gore, his head sticky and throbbing.

  “I should be dead,” he thought to himself, “Why aren’t I dead?

  “You are.” The cold, bodiless voice would have startled the man if he had the strength to move. “There was a battle. You did die.”

  “W-who’s there?” The man’s voice cracked as he asked the question.

  “I am the one who will offer you a second chance at life,” the Specter said.

  “M-my legs, I cannot feel them. I cannot see. My stomach hurts,” the man lying on the ground gasped, his voice quivering in fear.

  “You had died; it is by my power that you are back.” The mangled corpse of the man that would become the Reaper began to reanimate and heal.

  “How can you bring me back from the dead? Are you a god?” the man asked. His left leg had formed well enough to stand. He took a thick stick to lean on with his partly formed hands.

  “I am no god, I assure you,” the Specter said. “I am simply a powerful being, and there are many gifts I wish to bestow upon you.” The man’s eyes were now fully formed, though the flesh around them was still healing slowly. Though he was still too weak to even shake with fear, the man was so terrified of Specter that he half-wished he really was dead, so he wouldn’t have to look at him.

  “What are you?” the man asked. “Are you not Hades?”

  “No, neither Hades nor the rest of the Olympians have been seen for many years.” The Specter spoke even the simplest words from a place of mighty command and power. His voice was like a boom that extended down and shook the deepest reaches of your soul.

  “Where is my family?” the man asked.

  “Dead or enslaved,” the Specter answered.

  “I
must find them,” the man said, and went limping off past Specter.

  “I can help you,” the Specter said.

  The man stopped and turned. “How?”

  Specter was silent for a moment. The man limped quickly toward the Specter. “Speak it; how can you help me?” he shouted.

  “With this,” the Specter said, and held the scythe out toward the man.

  “How will that help me find my family?”

  “If they are among the dead, this will let you find them simply by thinking about them. If they are among the living, then with this you could search to the ends of the Earth for them.” The Specter spoke kindly, an act only ever done when he wanted something from someone else. He could tell that the man was contemplating the offer. “If I were to give you the scythe and the power to cripple nations became yours; if your family lived and you found them with their captors, what would you do?”

  “I would kill every last person who kept my family from me,” the man growled

  “I can give you the power to do it. Just extend your hand and take the scythe for yourself,” the Specter’s voice echoed in the man’s head, and his vision blurred slightly.

  “It will restore my strength?” the man asked.

  “And grant you more strength and power than you would ever know without it,” the Specter said.

  The man shook his head. He looked down at his bony left leg, the muscles forming around his femur and patella.

  “I’ll take it to find them,” the man said and reached out one hand while leaning on the stick with the other. Flesh and muscle spun onto his fingertips as he reached for the scythe.

  Suddenly, there was a flash in the sky. A great blue light shone out. The man and Specter looked. The man nearly fell at the sight. Blink burst from the void gripping a lethal-looking grenade launcher, the orange eyes of his power suit glowing like twin coals. He shouted as he fell forward, then fired a portal blast from his left forearm cannon. Specter lunged out of the way of the blue blast that erupted behind him but wasn’t fast enough to outmaneuver the grenade Blink threw next. The force of the blast threw the man to the ground, and he shouted in fear.

  The Specter dropped the scythe, and Blink swung the grenade launcher around to his back. Blink plowed into the Specter, knocking him into the portal. The two of them came out of the portal on the other side, with Blink holding Specter down with his left hand and punching him repeatedly while crashing down the side of an office skyscraper in the San Francisco in a dystopia in the year 2021.

  The Specter grabbed Blink by the throat and turned them so that he was on top just before they landed in the street. They destroyed the road on impact, as well as several cars. They each stood to their feet. Specter charged at Blink, but Blink had fought the Specter before, at what was in that world his strongest. Blink shot a portal at the ground and teleported away as the Specter went to tackle. Specter stopped before falling in the portal. He looked around frantically to see where Blink was. People were screaming in terror as they ran from the fight. Blink called to the Specter. He looked up to see where the call had come from. Blink was falling toward him, and he again shot a grenade. The grenade struck Specter again in the chest. He fell back into the portal, followed by Blink. This time, they came out at a farm in France in the year 1942.

  The Specter hit in the middle of the crop and seemed to bounce back. As Blink came down, he shot a third grenade, blasting the Specter into the farmhouse at a downward angle, taking out most of the second floor and part of the first. Blink landed at the edge of the crop and took a huge leap over the house, landing on the other side. Specter was immobilized for the moment, lying on the truck in front of the house. The man that lived there came out with a shotgun, shouting a series of ill-conceived curses in French. Blink turned to the man and pointed to the house.

  “Go inside, old man; it isn’t safe out here,” Blink stated (in French, of course). The man continued shouting. Specter stood and spat a blast of flames out of his mouth. Blink lifted his left arm, blocking the attack. “Inside, go!” he shouted, again in French.

  The old man rushed back in and told his wife to get down. The man came back to the hole that was made by Specter crashing down. He mounted his shotgun and fired a shot at Specter. The Specter stopped and looked at the man in surprise. He turned his attention to the man and lifted him via telekinesis. A cloudy orange field surrounded the man. He began to panic. Blink fired his last grenade at the Specter. The Specter caught the grenade, also with telekinesis. The same field surrounded the grenade. Blink’s face dropped.

  “No!” Blink shouted, running to get between the man and the Specter. He was too late. Specter threw the man inside, and the grenade followed close after. The blast took out the center beam, and the house collapsed. Blink could hear the old man’s wife screaming in pain.

  “What’s happening?” the Specter demanded.

  “I’m saving the world,” Blink said. He shot another blast, and a portal opened in the sky behind the Specter. The two charged at one another. Specter jumped, and Blink slid under. While sliding under the Specter, Blink took hold of Specter’s right ankle and jerked him back. Specter came down on the ground in front of Blink. One after another, Blink shot portals all around them, in every direction but down.

  “Where to, Specter?” Blink smiled as he pulled the machine gun around and unloaded on the Specter. The Specter put his arms up, trying to block the bullets. It was a fool’s effort. The bullets dented the Specter’s metal skin and pushed him back with impressive force. Blink swung the gun around to his back. He took three powerful steps forward and, with Specter on his knees, kicked his chest. The Specter went flying backward into another portal.

  Blink followed. This time, upon exiting the portal, they were falling into the mouth of Mount St. Helens on the eighteenth of May, in the year 1980. As they fell through the ash and toxic gases, Blink began to cough. This being the natural habitat of the Specter, he tried to take advantage of the situation.

  He grabbed Blink’s chest piece and swung him so that he would be the first to hit the lava. Blink would not have it. Blink took the Specter by the mouth and pulled so that the Specter was now back where he had started. As they came closer to the rising molten rock and the heat was too much Blink shot a portal down. He and the Specter fell through.

  They came out falling into the Caribbean atop a pirate raid on a Spanish merchant ship in the early 1700s. Blink stood on the Specter’s chest and jumped, plunging him into the water. Blink fell, landing on the pirate ship. The fighting came to a halt for a moment while the crew of either ship stared at the armor. Blink looked down and scanned for the Specter’s current location. The pirates looked down at the deck, wondering what this stranger was looking at. Blink pulled his machine gun back around and braced. As he saw the Specter rising quickly, he waited. Finally, Blink let the bullets fly.

  The pirates and merchants panicked and ran. The bullets tore through the wooden ship and beat down into the water. The Specter let out a roar as he broke through the ship’s hall and up to the deck. He came out right under Blink, knocking him back. The pirates and merchants began firing on the two of them as the pirate ship sunk. The pirates shot off what they had on them while they went to the Spanish merchant ship. Blink leaned on the mast.

  “Take me back,” the Specter commanded. Blink just tilted his head. He took a stance, punched out the mast on the side facing the Specter, then held it up.

  “Tell ya’ what, Specter. If you can catch this, I’ll take you back,” Blink said. He stepped aside, and the mast snapped. The Specter readied himself to catch it. Before he could, Blink shot a portal under the Specter. Before he could adjust to the new situation, the mast struck the Specter down into the portal. Blink ran in after.

  On the other side, the Specter shot out, and with his force, he collapsed a tyrannosaurus rex’s skull, killing it instantly. Blink came through and landed in a tree. He drew his sword and called to Specter. The Specter looked up from where he lay o
n the dead tyrannosaurus. At this time, the Specter had had enough of being thrown around. He uprooted the tree, and Blink fell off. Before hitting the ground, Blink teleported away. He came up behind the Specter and thrust the sword through the back of Specter’s hood. The blade came out between the Specter’s glowing, fiery red eyes. The two just stood still for a moment.

  “At first, I thought you might actually kill me,” the Specter said. He gripped the electric blade and broke it. “Why don’t you go back to your own time?”

  “How is this possible?” Blink was shocked. This was the same sword that had been used to kill the Specter from his time.

  “Let’s talk,” the Specter turned to Blink, then put his right hand on Blink’s chest and pushed.

  Blink flew back for what might actually have been a mile, then crashed into a boulder. Rock flew in all directions. He started to get out, but the Specter pinned him there. The Specter let out claws and slashed away at Blink’s power suit. Sparks flew as shards of metal were ripped away. Blink blocked on the right and kicked the Specter off. He shot another blast. A portal opened behind the Specter. Blink went for a dive in an attempt to tackle Specter in. It nearly worked, but the Specter took Blink, and instead of going into the portal Blink had shot, Specter opened his own portal. They fell into his Plane.

  Realizing where they were, Blink shot open another portal, and they tumbled into Thebes 335 B.C., right in front of the healing man.] Blink slid past the man, then took the man by his bony lower left leg, pulled from the ankle, and kicked his knee in. The leg snapped, and the man fell screaming, blood spraying out of his leg. Blink snatched up the bone and lunged to use it as a club on the Specter, but it snapped instantly upon colliding with the Specter’s arms.

  By now, the Specter had become irritated with this meddler. He lifted Blink with his telekinesis, and the orange cloud surrounded him. Blink’s armor was ripped off piece by piece. As the armor was torn off, Blink struggled to get free. It was no use; his efforts were pointless. Blink did, however, manage to reach his pistol. He fired, and the two bullets struck the Specter’s chest. The Specter dropped Blink, who immediately fired at the man’s legs, shattering one kneecap as the man attempted to stand. He cried out in agony.