Legacy of Power One-Shot *HF*
By Daemon
The throne room of the Caiphas Emperial Palace shook violently as another pulse of energy bombarded the blue-green planet. The king stood from his elaborately decorated seat at the head of the large room as one of his aids rushed in, clutching a gold-encrusted box of ancient design. The monarch's anxious hands reached out to the container even before the young aid had reached his throne.
The man kneeled and held the box to his king. "My lord, I bring the sacred jewel as you commanded."
The king took the box slowly, almost reverently despite the convulsing of the palace at another explosion. His eyes widened just slightly on his red-scaled face as he tipped back the hinged top of the box. An eerie light bathed him in its luminescence. Other court officials moved in closer to see as did some of the royal guards. They had all heard the stories told to them as children, but never had they imagined they would see it, nor have the need to use it.
A clawed hand reached into the box and removed the object of everyone's gaze. The jewel was huge and brilliant as its smooth surface seemed to channel all the light in the room. The rounded blue diamond sat within an enclosure of curving solid gold rods. All present seemed to be frozen in time as they looked upon one of the most coveted pieces in the galaxy. Indeed the Eye of Ra was a most masterfully crafted thing.
"Is the projector ready?" the King asked as he finally tore his eyes from the jewel.
"Yes, m'lord," one of his servants answered as they brought in a huge machine buoyed on an anti-grav platform. "We wait only for the Eye."
The King brought the Eye to the machine and placed it at what appeared to be a slot designed for the jewel. The machine latched onto the diamond and lights blinked on and off in readiness for the next phase. Looking down to his right hand on which he wore the ring of the royal house, he put his fist up against the machine so that the ring fit into the locking mechanism. With the turn of his hand, the machine hummed fully to life. Electrical impulses danced about in an increasingly chaotic pattern. The King raised his arms above his head and looked to the open sky of the retracting roof and began to chant in an ancient dialect. His chanting and the electric storm reached a crescendo simultaneously as a blue beam of unknown energy shot through the Eye and into the sky high above.
Hundreds of miles above the surface of the planet, the beam reached the zenith of its accent and exploded as though it were once solid, sending a wave of energy through hyperspace.
The King looked to his subjects as one of the colums in the throne room collapsed from another explosion. "Now we wait for him to save us," he said solemly.
***
Across the galaxy, traveling at four or five times the speed of light, the figure of a man streaked across the black void of space. His name is Daemon-Ra, avatar of the Power Cosmic, Defender of the Galaxy as his father was before him, and his father before him. "It is a legacy of power that I give you, my son," the man called Jalon-Ra had said to him only a few months ago. And indeed it was. As the Power Cosmic flowed from father to son on that day, the boy once calling himself Gabriel Strong, had learned much of his lineage.
Though the Ra entity had no consciousness of its own, it did carry basic instinctual memories, like lingering emotions from one avatar to the next. And when fully bonded, could be heard to the avatar as a voice in his mind. So it was that day that Gabriel D. Strong realized what his middle name meant and what how far his line had come.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Ra entity had bonded to a beggar on the streets of a primitive city on a planet called Pharaoh. Having temporarily suspended the power that was his to command, the avatar suffered a brutal beating at the hand of a group of thugs. He found salvation in a defender, however. He was an average man by most definitions of the term, but in him Ra saw that which he had been searching for for millenia - a truly noble heart. So it was to this man, Talun Phortis, that Ra gave the blessing that would fall upon the first born son of every generation - the honor and privelege of becoming the avatar of Ra and defender of the galaxy. And the man became Talun-Ra.
Daemon learned all this at once, as Ra formed a bond with his mind, body and spirit. He leared of the many battles that each successive avatar endured and triumphed over. He learned of the time centuries ago when his ancestor, Ammon-Ra visited the planet called Earth for the first time, making contact with the people of the Nile River who thought him a god. He learned that the ancient glyph symbol used to make the "n" sound once meant "mighty spirit" and this is why all first-born are named as they are. He learned that with the blessing upon Talun's line, that the Phortis line could now only produce male children. He learned of the time when his parents decided to live on Earth taking on the Terran translation of their surname Phortis. Daemon became aware of many things that day. Most of all, however, he became aware of the calling upon his life to be the defender. The insatiable desire to protect life and uphold the liberty of every sentient being. Daemon knew what he was born to do that day, and it fulfilled his life.
As he approached the Caiphas system, Daemon saw with vision like none other, the hundreds of Watoo-an battleships pummeling the surface of Caiphas prime with immense energy weapons. The Caiphas people were generally peaceful reptilian humanoids, one visited by Daemon-Ra's ancestor, Edon. Despite tremendous leaps in dimensional travel and energy-based technology, the small planet-bound military of the Caiphasians was no match for the Watoo-an death force. If the mammoth ships were allowed to continue their attack, the entire civilisation would be wiped out.
"Not on my watch," Daemon-Ra thought to himself. Flying directly into the path of the one of the energy pulses, Daemon-Ra deflected the attack and began broadcasting his voice onto the Watoo-an transmission channels through electromagnetic manipulations. "This is Daemon-Ra. Hear me Watoo-an fleet. Cease your attack on Caiphas and leave this system at once or suffer at the hands of the Defender."
There was a brief pause in the bombardment, and Daemon-Ra could "hear" them speaking across their communications links, though he could not decipher the language as of yet. "Well?" he broadcast to the ships.
His answer came in the form of a simultaneous attack with planetary bombardment weapons from all the ships. The hundreds of pulses of energy caught the young guardian off guard and sent him tumbling towards Caiphas Prime. The Watoo-ans let out a collective shout of victory as they watched the small form plummet towards the planet on an uncontrolled spin, losing the dark figure in the clouds. Their celebration was short-lived, however, as Daemon-Ra returned from among the white vapor of Caiphas Prime's upper atmosphere. And though they could not see the scowl on his face, they knew they were in trouble.
With planet destroying strength, Daemon-Ra tore into some of the ships with his bare hands. Alien metal shrieked as it buckled under his powerful fists, and Watoo-an soldiers were sent flying into deep space as explosive decompression finished what Daemon-Ra's fists had started. As the reserve ships moved in with gun batteries blazing, Daemon-Ra unleashed a hail of energy bolts one could only see at a super nova. Within a few minutes, the Watoo-an fleet had been decimated. What few ships remained, limped off with sputtering sub-light engines and dwindling power. Daemon-Ra floated amidst the wreckage and decompressed bodies, pleased with his handy-work.
***
When the victory festivities had at last began to come to a close, the King of the Caiphasian Empire silenced the huge dining hall at the refurbished palace.
"Great Guardian Daemon-Ra," the King addressed him formally, "It is with honor and thanks that I present to you a gift to your grace in our time of dire need. Indeed we cannot completely repay you for rescuing our very civilization, but we can give you a small token of our humble thanks."
The King took a long recangular box from one of his aids and handed it to Daemon-Ra. Opening the gloriously decorated case, he removed the beautiful sword that lie within. As his hand gripped the carved handle and he gazed at the sharp, curved blade, Daemon-Ra felt an exchange of energy that seemed strange and soothing at once.
"The sword has now been bonded to your very life-essence and therefore can be used by none save yourself," the King explained. "With your own will, you can send it to a pocket dimension where it awaits your call."
Daemon-Ra stared at the sword strangely and it dissappeared with the flash of dimensional energy. And just as quickly as it had vanished, it appeared again. Though with his powers he had no real use for a sword, he valued the gift nonetheless. A smile grew on his face and he shot the sword into the air triumphantly and the people cheered.
The King silenced the crowd again as he brought his golden goblet up in a toast. "May your legacy of power, live for all eternity. To Daemon-Ra."
Daemon-Ra accepted the toast, and drank of his own goblet before bidding the people of Caiphas farewell and flying into the far reaches of the galaxy seeking whomever may need his help.
~~End~~