The door shuttered from a heavy blow.

It meant the Shades, people possessed by a form of alien entity, had made it past the outer defenses. It was expected they would; but the swarm of possessed individuals had breached the building sooner than planned.

Priest’s shoulder ached from the force of the impact. Regardless, he kept on pushing against the heavy door to Solar Flare’s lab.
“Flare!” Priest yelled. There was no point in hiding their location now. “We have company and I’m out of dip!”

“I need a few more minutes!” Solar Flare shouted back.

Another heavy blow hit the door. It rattles and the hinges strained from the impact.

“We don’t have a few minutes.” Priest thought to himself. “God help us.”

Priest thought back to how they arrived in their present predicament. They couldn’t be sure but it likely had to do with time portal opened by the telekinetic villain Tek-Lo. The man had been obsessed with the superhero Titan and wanted Titan’s nephew dead. Priest and Solar Flare had stopped Tek-Lo once before. Tek-Lo attacked the hospital where Titan’s young nephew was getting a heart transplant. He was just a 5 year old boy. Fortunately Priest and Solar Flare were around. Titan has been lured away by an apparent alien attack but it was just a distraction. Tek-Lo planned to attack the boy when Titan was around but had not considered the interference of two other superheroes. Titan filled them in on the details afterwards. His nephew has great potential and Priest and Solar Flare kept a a watch on the boy when Titan was away.

The military told them the portal had been closed and only residual radiation remained so the location had to be quarantined. Solar Flare had been skeptical but it did appear the time portal had been closed when he investigated. Apparently something else was there and had come into their world.

It started without warning.

One night a dark dome formed over the building. The military lost contact with its personnel inside. Local police and rescue personnel bravely went in but didn’t reemerge and communication was lost once they crossed into the darkness. Slowly the dome expanded out and up. The expansion stopped at dawn.

By that time the military had arrived in force. Drones were sent in but once they crossed over they went silent.

The decision was made for a full on assault but Priest and Solar Flare arrived. They convinced the commander to wait and move their perimeter back with the expansion of the dome.

Solar Flare brought some equipment and set up while Priest observed the dome. The inky blackness swirled around. Something was wrong with this darkness. It wasn’t natural. I felt empty, devoid of life. As Priest watched the surface become more agitated. The swirling started to become large vortexes.

Priest turned to warn Solar Flare. “Flare! Something is happening!”

Solar Flare looked up and shouted a warning. “Priest! Get back!”

A stream of darkness shot out from the dome headed straight at Priest. Priest instinctively went for his sword, the Hand of God, as the dark mass hurdled towards him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to block the blast and braced for the hit.

Just as the blast was about to hit a bright beam of light intercepted it. The two forces struggled against each other. Dark and Light pushing back and forth.

Solar Flare saw the darkness blast and was able to block it with his own light blast. The darkness physically pushed against his light beam. He poured more power into the light ray but the darkness countered and increased its intensity.

Priest stepped back from the opposing forces. The soldiers around began firing at the dome. Ripples formed in the dome where billets struck. A sinking feeling came over Priest. Looking West he watched as the sun dropped below the horizon.

An unnatural dusk fell over the entire city. Black bolts shot out from the dome in all directions striking the many troops, emergency personnel, and media present.

Once struck men and women fell down to the ground writhing in pain. And then they all went still.

Priest dodged several blasts but finally one connected. A bone chilling cold fell over him and he staggered weakly. It was as if the darkness was drawing the very light out of him.

Solar Flare saw the barrage of blasts and changed tactics. He was starting to feel the strain of keeping up such a powerful blast.

He dropped the blast and threw up his energy force field. The darkness struck and Solar Flare could feel the energy draining cold but the darkness couldn’t grab hold. Solar Flare shot into the air shaking off the darkness. More bolts shot out at him but he barrel rolled away. He has to circle back for Priest.

“Hang on Priest! I’m coming!” Solar Flare shouted and noticed things were eerily quiet. The dark blasts made no noise.

Back on the ground another blast struck Priest and knocked him over. A black ink snaked over his skin. The cold burned his skin.

Priest grimaced through the pain and shouted “The Divine Light can conquer any darkness!”

He drew Hand of God and touched the blunt side of the blade to his arm. He didn’t know why but he just knew it would work. A warm fire erupted and the inky darkness burned away. The holy fire spread over his body. As it did he felt his strength return.

“Back away darkness. Sacred steel and divine power does not fear you!”

The darkness retracted from Priest. The dome actually withdrew back from him resulting in it taking on a curved shape.

Solar Flare landed next to him. “Wow, when did you learn to do that?”

“Just now…” Priest looked at his sword. He did not expect that to happen.

“Oh no, we have a problem.”

Priest turned following Solar Flare’s gaze. All of the people struck by the darkness were standing and staring at them. They all stared with jet black eyes. The veins of their faces were traced by black lines.

In unison every armed individual raised their weapons and aimed at Priest and Solar Flare.

“That’s not good.” The pair said at the same time.

Gun fire erupted but Solar Flare had already begun to form a energy field. Bullets struck the shield and sparks erupted.

“Flare,” Priest said. “We have to get out of here.”

Any f the possessed people who didn’t have a weapon picked up anything they could and moved towards Priest and Solar Flare.

Solar Flare looked around the crowd. “Any chance your new found darkness burning power would work on these people?”

Priest knew if these people were possessed they couldn’t help themselves. “Maybe but not before they either shoot us, club us to death, or the darkness dome vomits life sucking goo at us. We gotta run.”

“Agreed, we need to get to my lab, I’ll try and figure out what it is we are dealing with here.” Solar Flare said. “We’ll also need to evacuate the city. Hang on.”

Priest grabbed Solar Flare’s arm and the two rocketed up into the night.

The dome continued to steadily grow. It consumed nearby the buildings, vehicles, and possessed people.

Back in the present, the lab door groaned under another blow. The hinges bulked from the strain. Priest looked back at the small door to the inner lab and observatory.

Inside Solar Flare raced to align the jury-rigged broadcasting dish he had mounted to his observatory’s large telescope. There would be no second chances, no time to read-calibrate. He had to get this right the first time or all was lost. They needed help, desperately. Solar Flare needed to contact someone who had encountered and hopefully defeated the Shades. He surmised they came from different dimension which meant there might be others who could help.

Solar Flare smiled. “If I survive this I might win a Nobel Prize.”

The calibrations were more complex than anything he had attempted before. The plan was direct a high power communications pulse in the direction of the portal location. With the right frequency Solar Flare should be able to a message through. Realtime communications wouldn’t be possible but he could broadcast a message.

The power needed was incredible and it would fry every circuit in the system but if this didn’t work it wouldn’t matter anyway.

“I’m almost ready to broadcast!” Solar Flare yelled to Priest. The pounding on the lab door was deafening.

Priest appeared in the doorway to the outer lab.

“I’m going to barricade you in.” Priest said.

Solar Flare replied sternly. “You mean barricade us in? Okay, sounds like a plan…”

“No just you Flare.”

“Priest, no. We stick together.”

“Sorry, not this time. That door is coming down. We’ll be swarmed. This door,” Priest pointed the light inner door, “won’t stop them. They steamroll in here. I’ll cause a distraction and hold them as long as I can. Get the message out.”

There was another thunderous impact on the main door. One of the top hinges broke free of the stone wall.

“Time’s up.” Priest said grimly.

Solar Flare looked at his equipment. Priest was right and they were wasting precious seconds debating it. Solar Flare turned to Priest.

“Go with God my friend.”

“You too Flare, God speed and good luck.” Priest closed the door.

Solar Flare could hear heavy furniture being dragged across the floor and got back to his own work. As the main drive motor initiated Solar Flare recorded his message.

“My name is Solar Flare. Our world is under attack by a trans-dimensional species of alien. This species thrives on darkness. It can possess sentient beings and is resistant to chemical and physical deterrents. We know of no way to stop them short of killing their host. I am reaching out in hopes of making contact with anyone that can help us or at least has experience with this alien species. This message, coordinate to and frequencies I will monitor are encoded in a mathematical matrix in the event you are unable to comprehend my vocal patterns.”

Solar Flare finished the recording and began keying in the matrix code to allow an intelligent species to mathematically decipher his message.

Solar Flare was reviewing the calculations when a loud bang rang out followed by creaking metal and a crash that shook the floor. The main door had finally given out and had, from the sound of it, collapsed.

Solar Flare could hear Priest yell defiantly. Snarls and feral screams followed. It sounded like Priest was putting up quite the fight.

Solar Flare retuned to his work. The main drive motor had initiated. He consulted his note
Sand started entering the directional coordinates for the device.

The large telescope started to move. A satellite dish was mounted on the end of the telescope. It was a painfully slow process but finally the device settled on the proper coordinates. If he had been accurate the dish was now aimed at the exact point of the dimensional portal across town.

The other room went quiet…

The fighting stopped. For a few moments there was silence, then shuffling followed by pounding and crashing. The shades were breaking down the barricade Priest piled in front of the lab door.

“System initialization is complete.” The lab computer announced.

Solar Flare stared keying in the frequency to transmit his. Solar Flare paused to consider what it was he was transmitting.

“It’s not a message.” He thought to himself. “This is a distress call.”

The computer indicated it was ready to begin. The broadcast would take a couple of minutes. Solar Flare keyed in the authorization code and the lab’s lights flickered. The lab’s emergency generator was being pushed past its limit. The city’s power grid had been down for days. Any source of light was targeted by the Shades. Solar Flare started to think of families trapped in their homes, under siege by Shades.

A loud bang drew Solar Flare’s attention to the lab door. He saw a crack form in the door.

The message was being broadcast and would continue to repeat as long as possible.

Solar Flare thought of Priest. His friend valiantly stood against this darkness. He may be dead or worse. What if Priest had been possessed by one of these things?

There wasn’t going to be time to worry about it.

With a splintering of wood and creaking metal the Shades broke into the lab.

Black veins leeched from inky black eyes. The faces were all contorted in rage. Shades didn’t speak. The only sounds the possessed people made were shrieks and hisses.

Shades were able to move quickly and didn’t appear to suffer from fatigue. Pain didn’t slow them. Many of the Shades Solar Flare saw had serious injuries. Several had broken bones and hobbled along but injuries seemed to be nothing more than a nuisance for these creatures.

Shades weren’t unintelligent. They had a raptorial intelligence. A seemingly endless stream of the creatures entered the room. Cautiously they approached Solar Flare.

He scanned the mob and not seeing Priest called out. “Priest! Are you there!?!”

There was no answer. Solar Flare clenched his fists and they began to glow a bright white.

The Shades changed in unison letting loose a deafening howl.

Solar Flare replied with his own defiant battery and let loose a wave of energy. He spun around and crouched. A wave of “hard light” shot out from his hands. The wave struck the front line of Shades and bowled them over.

More Shades came forward. They spread out to flank him.

With a thought a shimmering light formed around Solar Flare. A field of solid light would block physical attacks but it had its limits.

To slow the charge Solar Flare field light pulses into the lead Shades on his left and right. The blasts knocked them over and tripped up the Shades pushing forward.

Even though they were possessed these were still people. Priest and Solar Flare needed to find a way to save them. Solar Flare didn’t even know if they could kill them. Pain, after all, had no apparent effect on the creatures. Either way Solar Flare wouldn’t kill any them.

Several more light pulses knocked down Shades but their numbers kept growing. More and more of them poured into the lab.

Finally the fist Shades got close enough to grab Solar Flare. His protective field foiled their attempts to grapple him but he was running out of time.

Shades started to climb over each other. They would bury Solar Flare in a pile of bodies and the it would only be a matter of time.

Solar Flare drew in his arms, closed his eyes and focused his energy on strengthening his force field. He had one more trick up his sleeve.

Building up the energy field Solar Flare poured more willpower into it. The field became brighter and brighter. Then he released the pent up power.

A thunderous blast of energy shot out. Shades were thrown away in every directions.

As the noise echoed away Solar Flare stood in the middle of the lab. The shades had been. Thrown against the walls and were already struggling to stand up.

The blast had damaged the transmitter too. A quick check of the equipment confirmed the message had gotten out and was even repeated several times.

His mission completed Solar Flare called out to Priest. “Priest! Can you hear me?”

There was no reply.

The Shades were already regrouping. The flow of Shades into the room had been slowed by the ones thrown back into the doorway.

“Priest! I’ll be back for you! If you can hear me, I will be back!”

Solar Flare hovered off the ground and then rocketed up and out of the open observatory dome. He flew straight up and glanced back.

The entire city was dark. Only the light of the Observatory could be seen. As he looked down that final light went dark.

Solar Flare turned forward. Looking up he couldn’t see a single star in the night sky. He accelerated his accent.

The dome was a semi-solid mass. As he passed through it was as if the darkness tried to snare him. An oppressive cold enveloped him. Solar Flare’s focus began to blur but he poured willpower into forming a shield around him. It was a weak field but pushed enough of the darkness to let him focus. With an effort of will Solar Flare accelerated even more.

Breaking through the dome of darkness the night sky came into view. The full moon was practically blinding. Solar Flare looked down at the dome. He couldn’t see it but he knew it was expanding. Somewhere down there Priest needed help.

Solar Flare turned West and flew away. He had a secondary lab and needed to continue his work.

But he swore he would return. To save city. To save Priest.