89. Jimi & the Galactic Empire
I’ve been through this torture
I’ve walked through this fire
I’ve seen this, your desire
Which flames with the lake of fire
Zero had rearranged the title track to start at the chorus. The violence that erupted from Killa’s lungs sent shockwaves into the auditorium of stars. Unlucky bystanders in his voice’s path, like Shu’ rHall, exploded. Suzie was shocked. Her husband is a monster. But he is not. He doesn’t think he is. He is just doing the instinctual. He is part something else after all; and to a being like him, death isn’t the end. It is not that bad a thing.
The spiders formed an offence, but Killa’s vocals short-circuited half of them. The other half was set ablaze by Turbo’s sonic booms. The Cybernetic Priest’s forces regrouped. They managed to shoot down and web out a few of the stage speakers, reducing Zero’s volume, but unbeknownst, the band’s vitriolic lyrics and music were the source of their own firepower. They didn’t actually need amplification.
Flanking from the right and left, the Shasha Siztaz, now ronin without a leader, attacked. Kazoom, who was hurt the most, for she was closest to her master, made an accelerated beeline for Killa, holding the very spear her master had killed his mother with. She raised and flashed it for a strike but lightning zapped out from Yvper’s sticks - never missing a beat - incinerating the speedster to ash.
Shasha Kaloom moved in magical formations, as though drawing circles, squares and triangles in the air, but if they were supposed to provide any kind of protection, they completely misfired. Vince van Vobo shot missiles from his bass, and though a few missed, perhaps courtesy of the magical shield, the last one hit Kaloom on the spot and she was obliterated to oblivion.
Kaboom and Kadoom faced Turbo, but the guitarist’s axe morphed into a fiery roadster and a flaming dragon. One need not describe the karmic fate of one who loves explosives and the face of death on death herself.
Killa stared the Cybernetic Priest down. By verbal will he crushed the machines to tesseracts, Melki finishing them off in the Cosmic Ring of Fire.
All around the band was odoriferous carnage. They didn’t even pass one song. This will go down as the greatest and shortest concert in galactic history. There wasn’t even the One Song, less the One Note. In a way they understood that every song was the One Song and every note that One Note. And Killa needed not sing sappy love songs with his zipper down and erect as an intruder in Meta like Brother Stanley advised.
Leper stepped out of the rubble to give an applause. He could rule now; but what was there to rule? Suzie with baby came out to stand next to Killa. She asked, “Where do we go?” Was there a future for her child? Space is empty. Reset. “We could start again,” someone replied.
“But I think with nothing here, I’ll rather return,” Turbo spoke his mind. Vince and Yvper concurred.
It was also time to retire Melki. Killa removed the shades and handed it over to Turbo. Goodbyes are hard, but it’s not that they haven’t done this before. They waved with no sentiments lost and the musicians of Zero together with the dark spectacles disappeared. They were very near the Dimensional Gate; they could feel the pull of Meta.
“What about you?” Killa asked Leper, “Your dreams dashed of ruling an empire; what are you gonna do? Perpetual fucking or boring mundane life?”
“Neither. I’ll just float around till another opportunity presents itself. You?”
“He has a wife and a kid,” Suzie answered.
“I guess we’ll go back to Earth. See what this little critter gets up to.” Killa noses the baby, “Who knows, he may be the male child of the god of suns.”
“Then we’ll meet again.”
“Then we’ll meet again,” Killa repeated slowly, looking into the eyes of his child, then into Suzie’s.
The End of 35 Billion 69
AI generated art prompted by author
This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons and events are coincidental. Use of names of public figures, places and events are purely fictional and are not representative of them.