StarGirl vs. The Crocell - Prologue

John walks into the temple and finds Chieko standing there. John stares intently at him, and Chieko stares back. After a few seconds, Chieko breaks the silence.
“You cannot stay here.”
John thinks he knows, but asks the question anyway.
“Why not?”
“You know why.”
John becomes sad, but then looks at Chieko with resolve.
“And suppose I refuse to leave? What then?”
Chieko folds his arms, then responds.
“Well, you're Hercules. I can't make you do anything. But do you really want to stay somewhere you're not wanted?”
Much like a balloon being popped, John's stubbornness deflates. He looks at Chieko with both sadness and disdain.
“Fine, I'll go.”
John turns and walks out of the temple. As he does, StarGirl gently flies down and lands in front of him.
“Hey, what's going on?” she asks.
“I have to go.”
“What? Why?”
“It's complicated. But I don't belong here anymore.”
“Of course you do. What are you talking about?”
“Listen, they told me I have to go, so I have to go.”
Beth looks deeply into John's eyes.
“Is this about what happened to Pandora?” she asks him.
John lowers his head in both sadness and shame. He feels tremendous guilt over what happened to his fallen friend. He blames himself.
“Yeah, a little, I....”
A sense of loyalty and righteousness fills Beth.
“Well, I'll just go talk to them!”
Beth starts to go around John and walk into the temple when John stops her.
“Beth, listen, it's complicated. You see....”
Just then five metallic silver balls come flying out of the air and land at John and Beth's feet. The balls are roughly the size of tennis balls, and have flashing blue lights on them.
“What the hell are those things?” John asks.
Beth gasps as she suddenly realizes what they are.
“Look out!” she cries.
Beth grabs John and tries to fly away, but the balls explode. The blast knocks John through a wall, and Beth up in the air. Both are stunned. Beth is the first to regain her senses. As her costume begins to repair itself, she flies down to check on John. She lands where the balls exploded and John slowly climbs out of the hole in the wall.
“What the fuck?!?! What the hell was that?” John cries as he looks at Beth. She looks around and sees movement in some trees in the distance. She quickly flies to them, with John slowly jumping behind her.
Thanks to the training provided by Pandora, Beth agilely navigates through the trees and approaches her attackers. What she finds comes as quite a shock. Her assailants have gray skin and square heads. Their eyes are large and black, and roughly the shape of almonds. They are dressed dark blue robes and shiny black boots. Although she is surprised at what she finds, they don't seem to be surprised to see her. They pull silver guns out from underneath their robes and begin firing at her. Bright blue lasers fire from the metallic weapons and strike Beth. They burn holes in her clothes and begin burning her skin.
Beth cries out and falls back against a tree. She screams in pain as the lasers burn her and she begins sliding down the tree to the ground. The creatures mercilessly continue their assault. Beth is about to pass out when she hears a familiar voice.
“Hey! Why don't you try your toys on me?”
The creatures turn and fire their weapons on Hercules. John looks down at the lasers hitting his chest, then back up at his mysterious foes. He slowly walks up to them. A quiet rage fills him and he punches one of them in the head, causing its head to shatter. The other creature fears for its life and begins to run. John watches it run for a moment, and then reaches down and picks up a rock. He throws it at the fleeing creature, and the rock easily flies through its back and out the front, causing the creature's chest to explode. Its lifeless body drops to the ground. John then turns to Beth.
“Are you ok?”
“I think so.” Beth says as she slowly rises to her feet.
“What were those things? Demons?” she asks.
“I don't think so.” John says “Demons don't usually carry laser guns.”
“Besides,” he says “look at that.”
John points to his left and Beth sees a spaceship! It's large and circular, much like the ones you’d find in old sci fi magazines. It's silver with glowing lights. It has three legs sticking out supporting the craft.
“Holy crap!” she says.
“Come on,” John says “let's go check it out.”
John and Beth walk across the clearing and begin examining the spaceship.
“Have you ever seen one of these things before?” John asks.
“Just once.” Beth says.
“Wow, a round spaceship with glowing lights. This thing could not be more of a stereotype if it tried.” John says.
“Well, maybe this is why. They say there's a little truth in all stereotypes, maybe the 'round spaceship with glowing lights' became one because they really exist.” Beth says.
“Yeah, maybe. How do we get inside?” John asks.
“I don't know.” Beth says.
Beth then flies over to one of the dead aliens and examines him. She finds a small device about half the size of a remote control. She returns to John.
“Look what I found.” she says.
She hands the device to John. He looks it over, then points it at the spaceship and begins shaking it.
“What are you doing? It's not a controller for a Wii. Give me that.”
Beth takes the device from John and looks it over. She then notices imprints on the device. She presses them, but nothing happens.
“Maybe it's broken.” she says.
“Wait a minute, I have an idea.” John says.
He goes over to one of the aliens, and drags its body over to the ship. He then takes the device from Beth and puts one of the alien's fingers in one of the imprints. There's a sound, and then a ramp slowly descends from the ship.
“You think there's any more of them in there?” Beth asks.
“Only one way to find out.” John says.
John starts to walk toward the ramp, but Beth stops him.
“Hold on,” she says “we don't know what's in there.”
“I'm Hercules, I don't care.”
Beth looks at John unimpressed.
“Oooo,” she says “I'm Hercules, I'm a god, I'm all-powerful.”
“Come on,” John says “let's check it out.”
John and Beth walk up the ramp with Beth cautiously looking around, and John boldly walking in. The first room they come to is dark, with small blue lights gently pulsing on the walls near the ceiling. In the back there is a door. John and Beth walk over and look for a way to enter.
“There doesn't appear to be a way to open it.” John says.
“It probably opens up automatically for them.” Beth says.
“So how do we get in?” John asks.
“You're Hercules.” Beth answers sarcastically “Why don't you just bash it down?”
John looks at Beth and smiles scornfully, then flicks his finger and the door flies inward and crashes to the ground, revealing a hallway.
“Oooo,” Beth says “you're such a macho man.”
“Did you want to stand in the other room all day?” John asks.
“No,” Beth says “I want to get the hell out of here!”
“Hey, listen,” John says “maybe this ship has some information.”
“What kind of information?” Beth asks.
“Information about you, and your powers, and your costume.”
Beth realizes he's right.
“Yeah, ok,” she says “let's go.”
The two of them walk down the hallway. It's lit with the same blue lights. The hallway goes on for a little bit, then turns to the right. In the corner of the hallway where it turns is the door John smashed. He picks it up and tosses it back down the hallway. They turn to the right and walk for a few seconds, then the hallway ends and to the left is a door. John is about to break this one down too when it suddenly opens.
The inside of this room is much different from the rest of the ship. For one thing, it’s well lit. There are many silver panels with gages and lights, and several computer screens in front of two chairs.
“This must be the cockpit.” Beth says.
“So it would seem.” John says while he looks around. He walks up to the control panel in front of the chairs, and stares at all the buttons, switches, and dials. Beth walks up behind him.
“Which one do you want to press?” John asks.
“What? None of them! We don't know what they do.”
“Come on, they could tell us a lot about these guys.”
“Yeah, or fly us into a star!” Beth says.
“I'm a god. I think I could survive it.”
“Yeah? Well, I'm not a god and I don't think I could survive it!”
“Listen...” John starts to say. As he does, he leans up against the control panel and sits on a few buttons. There's a sound like an engine turning on, and then the ship starts to shake. Beth looks around, and then turns back to John.
“What did you do?” she asks.
“Nothing! I just....”
The ship tilts to the left, and then to the right, and both John and Beth lose their balance. As John slowly rises to his feet, Beth gets up and rushes over to the computer screens. The screens light up and show what's going on outside. Beth stares at the screens, and then turns to John in a panic.
“Is that outside? Are we moving?”
“I don't know! I'm sure we're not. I'm sure....”
“Then why is everything getting smaller?”
“Well, maybe if we....”
John presses a button on the control panel. Two blue beams go shooting out from the ship and strike the ground, destroying a tree and catching several others on fire. John turns to Beth.
“Found the lasers.” he says.
“We have to get out of here!”
“I think we're too high up.”
“I can fly! And you're a god remember? We'll be fine.”
John and Beth start to head out of the cockpit, but the ship suddenly shifts again, knocking both of them back to the floor. Beth is once again the first to her feet. She grabs John by the arm.
“Come on, let's go!”
As Beth is dragging him out, John turns and looks at the screens behind him.
“Beth, wait. Look.”
Beth stops and looks at the computer screens. The ship has reached incredible speeds, and is now in outer space. The earth can be seen on one of the screens behind them. Beth stares at the screen, and then turns and pushes John up against a wall.
“You idiot! Look what you did!”
John's feelings get hurt, and he yells back at Beth.
“Hey! I'm getting tired of the way you're treating me! I didn't do this on purpose! I was trying to be a good friend.”
Beth calms down. She realizes he was just trying to help.
“Ok, you're right, I'm sorry. But what are we going to do?”
“I don't know. But whatever it is, we'll do it together.”
Beth stares in John's eyes. She smiles, looks down, and then back up.
“Yeah, ok. Moron.”
“Think we should press more buttons?”
“I will beat the hell out of you if you do.”
______________________________________________________________________
Back on earth, two alien souls approach an old mausoleum. They walk in, and the guardian, who is lying on his bench against the wall, addresses them. He does not rise. He doesn't even turn his head. He remains motionless.
“Did they board the ship?” Kane asks.
“Yes.” one of the aliens answers.
“Where is the ship heading?” Kane asks.
“Home.” the other alien replies.
Kane slowly nods his head.
“Very good.” Kane says “You may now go to your new home.”
Kane waves his hand, and the portal to the land of the dead opens. The aliens say no more, and silently walk into the abyss.
“Well, we better go sit down.” John says “We don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
John and Beth walk over and sit down in the two chairs facing the computer screens. Several lights are flashing on the control panels, and the ship is making sounds and displaying information on the side of the computer screens.
“What do you think it’s doing?” Beth asks.
“I….think it’s making calculations of some kind. The information on the side of the screen looks to be in the form of some kind of algorithm.
Beth’s heart races. She’s afraid of what John’s suggesting.
“Do you think it’s calculating a way to get us home?” Beth says hopefully.
John looks at Beth sternly.
“I think it’s calculating a way to get itself home.”
There is dead silence, and then Beth speaks.
“We need to get the fuck out of here now.”
Before anything else can be said, the ship stops making sound. It spins around and shoots four tiny blue beams into space. The beams are shot at an angle, and when all four finally hit each other, the effect produces a wormhole. Beth eyes widen as she stares at the screen.
“I do not want to go into that!”
“Then it looks like you and I are about to find out if we can breathe in outer space. Come on, let’s hit the exit!”
Too late. The ship rockets itself into the wormhole. Intense pressure fills the cabin of the ship. John and Beth sit helpless as the ship appears to bounce off the sides of the wormhole. The inside of the hole changes from dark, to light, and back to dark, as various colors spin in circles on the sides of the hole. After a few minutes, she ship comes out, the wormhole disappears, and the ship once again begins making calculations.
“Well, that was....not fun.” John says.
“Where do you think we are?”
“I don't know. Do you want me to press some buttons?”
“Didn't we already cover that?”
“Well what do you want to do? Just sit here?”
“Well, I'm sure that...”
The ship suddenly blasts off and begins making twists and turns. It then slows down and levels itself, and then rockets through space straight for a far planet. The planet gets closer and closer, and as it does, the details of the planet's surface comes into view. There's a large amount of ice covering the surface. There are several large cities, and they too appear to have a great deal of ice covering them. As the ship gets closer and begins to enter orbit, several large holes can be seen. There appears to be fires lit all around the holes, and as the ship comes even closer, several landing pads can be seen. The pads are round, and appear to be metallic, and as the snow and ice hits them, it immediately melts, indicating that they are heated. The ship heads toward one of the pads, makes a circle around it, and then gently lands.