BROTHERS TOGETHER: US AGAINST DOOM

The Way Forward

It was in the dead of night and the streets of Boston were completely silent, with not a soul to be found. Right now, the night was a dangerous place to be in, with countless nonhuman entities prowling the streets and alleys looking for prey to feed on.

Occasionally, one could make out the distant sounds of sirens ringing out in the night sky. Usually, sirens were used as a warning signal by the military to warn residents in the area to stay in their rooms and not come out because of a Doom or some other malevolent creature was found in the area.

Constantine lay awake in his bed right now and he listened to the distant sounds of fighting that came from a long-distance away.

Pricking up his ear, the sounds that a normal person wouldn't be able to make out from his location entered his ears clearly, as if he was present on the scene. This just proved that Constantine was no longer an ordinary human.

It had been some time since Constantine spoke to Ruger. After a very long and grueling time spent with Ruger, where Constantine felt like he was going to die of disgust, he finally couldn't stand seeing him and decided to call it a night.

Constantine came back from the mysterious white space filled with clouds he suspected to be his consciousness, intending to get a good night's sleep before tackling his problems at first light. But after leaving his consciousness space, Constantine found that he could not go to sleep at all.

Much to Constantine's dismay, he found that his body was full of energy and his mind was extremely clear. No matter how much he tried to force himself to sleep, it just seemed to elude him. Left with no choice, Constantine was forced to stay awake and think about the direction his life was heading in.

With more time on his hands than he wanted, Constantine's mind drifted to his conversation with Ruger. Annoying as he was, Constantine had to admit that Ruger was here to stay. For the next unforeseeable future, Ruger would become an integral part of Constantine's life. This that whether they liked it or not, the two of them would have to get along until a time when they were able to separate their souls from each other.

As Constantine thought in the middle of the night, he also started to consider the things he had learned tonight.

Ruger had not told Constantine much about where he was from or the world outside earth. Although Constantine had Ruger's memories, they were ultimately not his own.

To Constantine's Ruger's, memories were like an external file or published biography of another person's life. It detailed everything the person had experienced in their life and from it, one could see what they had gone through and the challenges they had faced.

But it wasn't the same as actually experiencing those challenges for yourself. Although you may know what that person experienced and how they felt at the time because you were not the one who actually had that experience, the impact on you from just reading and watching another person's life was not the same.

Take, for example, in some parts of Ruger's memories, there were a lot of things that he felt were very important to him. These things left a lasting impression on Ruger, causing them to be heavily imprinted in his memories. This way, Constantine understood what they were clearly. but there were also things in Ruger's memories that he did not care about. These things did not have any impression of Ruger, so his memories of them were very limited. Because of this, Constantine could not get a detailed understanding of those things in particular.

It was just like that...

Most of Ruger's life was spent in the ascended star firmament with very little spent in the outside universe, so Constantine only understood the firmament well, but not the whole universe in general. But in the end, this was not important because, with earth's current level of technology, humans on earth did not have the qualifications to leave their own planet not to talk of exploring the universe.

The only reason Constantine was concerned about the universe is that he wanted to understand what the dooms were.

During the time since he woke up from his coma, Constantine had checked the internet to understand the changes that were happening on earth. This included investigating the mysterious mutations that happened on earth and most especially the dooms that were invading.

On the internet, the government had long since given up on banning topics about the changes on earth, so there was a lot of discussion going on in many forums online. There were a lot of speculations made by a lot of people about the reason for the changes on earth and the nature of the dooms.

Not surprisingly, most of these speculations were made on the rich fantasy culture of earth that was depicted in most online literature, including novels, manga, and anime.

Most of the denizens on earth speculated things like the revival of spiritual energy leading to mutations on earth, which caused invaders from another realm to appear on earth. Others said that the gates of hell had opened and the dooms were demons from a hell that had come to punish humans for their sins.

There were even some that speculated that some creatures from a higher dimension were treating humans and earth as a game and they sent the dooms to eradicate us as a form of entertainment for their amusement.

On the internet, there were a lot of speculations going on, most of which were highly pessimistic and some downright ridiculous.

Out of all the speculations on the internet, only a few thought that the dooms were a race of aliens that had come to conquer earth for themselves. This was the only running theory that Constantine felt was him closer to the truth.

Naturally, Constantine, who had Ruger's memory, knew that the dooms were just one of many races that populated the universe and they were simply the first of many that would be drawn to the earth.

Right now, the earth was like a piece of gold that shone brightly on a beach. Before, due to it being buried in sand and dirt for a very long time, nobody had paid any attention to that piece of gold, nor had it been noticed at all. But after years, the dirt and sand were finally washed away by the ocean water and the bright luster of gold was finally revealed to the world for all to see.

This was an analogy that perfectly explained earth's current situation...

Before, the earth was unknown because it was located in a remote corner of the universe, but Ruger and his friend Vader had suddenly exposed earth's location to the whole universe after their fight. This naturally attracted other races in the universe to come and conquer earth.

The dooms were but the first of many, but in the future, more races and civilizations from all over the universe would come to vie for the earth. At that time, the earth would be sitting in the middle of a huge universal conflict. With their strength, the humans on earth would have the ability to resist and they would only be at the mercy of others while waiting to be culled and conquered.

The only way to avoid this outcome was if earth could use the limited amount of time it had to grow stronger in the shortest time possible so that it would have the power to defend itself.

Time was short and Constantine knew this, that was why he could afford to waste any more time. He to grow as powerful as possible to be able to protect himself and his family.

No longer bothered to lie in bed anymore, Constantine stood and went to the balcony. He felt the night breeze blow against his cheeks and heard the distant sirens slowly vanish. It seemed like whatever had happened over there was finally resolved and peace returned once more to the world.

But Constantine knew that this was only the beginning...

"I have already slept for one year and I have rested enough. It is time for me to do something now that I am awake." Constantine said to himself.

Looking into the night sky, Constantine felt an urgency in his heart.

Not only did he have to grow stronger to protect himself and his family, but he also had to do so in order to find his friend who was missing.

Thinking of his friend, Constantine clenched his hand tightly into a fist and whispered in his heart.

"Don't worry Baron... wherever you are, I will find you, and I will bring you back."

"I promise!"

Within his clenched fists, faint sparks of electricity appeared and flowed around his fist.