Excelsior Read Online Free PDF Page A

look that reminded him why Kelly was nicknamed “The Kraken.” He pointed at the bus and instructed, “Go home and do your cartoons, freak.”
    Matthew wanted to scream out, “It’s not a cartoon, asshole! It’s a webcomic!” But he turned and walked away, leaving Thomas to his fate.
    *  *  *
    As Semminex held onto the sword's handle, he watched the jewel in the centerpiece begin to glow and hum even louder than before. Nervous, he tried to pull his hand away, but he couldn't release his grip. His hand fused to the handle as energy pulsated from the sword into his hand and up his arm. His eyes widened with fear, and he looked beseechingly at the Elders.
    “It's all right, Semminex,” Ducera encouraged. “Just allow it to happen.”
    The energy continued to move slowly through Semminex's body and, in spite of his fear, he couldn't feel any pain. In fact, there was a cooling sensation as it traveled up to his head and concentrated on his brain.
    Semminex saw sudden flashes before his eyes, flashes of another lifetime, of another person wielding the sword of Excelsior and lashing out at his enemy. He couldn't see the enemy since his face hid in the shadows, but as these moments passed, Semminex started to feel both more and less like himself. A stronger man. A warrior. A leader.
As the energy bathed his body, his muscles began to tighten and enlarge. His cuts, bruises and scars disappeared along with the dirt and ash from his cell.
    In the space of a few seconds, the wiry young Denarian became a powerful warrior of glowing health. The locks on the metallic sheath opened freeing the sword. Semminex looked down at his hand pulled the sword from the sheath.
    Semminex looked down at the sword and saw himself in the metal’s reflection. His eyes were the same pale blue that they were before; only now they emitted a glow that matched the sword’s jewel.
    Acerus walked up to Semminex and placed a hand on his muscular shoulder. “Excelsior. It is good to have you back, old friend,” he said with a smile.
    Denab IV's guardian smiled back and responded. “It is good to be back.”
     
     
    CHAPTER 2
     
    “You did it!”
    Katherine stifled a yelp of surprise as Dr. Ritgen threw open her office door and ran inside. Now completely shocked out of her slumber, she sat up in her swivel chair and squeezed her eyes shut as the outside light shone like a spotlight because of Ritgen's dramatic entrance.
    Minutes before he burst in, she was staring at a photo of a team of excavators holding up a sword that shone in spite of a thick layer of dust. As she continued to stare, a wave of exhaustion came over her and her eyelids became as heavy as anvils.
    Ritgen didn’t help Katherine regain her composure as he turned on the light switch, causing her to cover her face for a moment. Even with her specially made sunglasses blocking the glare, she still found it disorienting whenever the lights came on so abruptly.
    “What’d I do?” Katherine asked as she pulled her hands away from her face and ran her fingers through her short red hair. Her words stopped Ritgen in his tracks, and she could see in his eyes that his mind had suddenly drifted.
    Katherine chose not to smile at him, since she knew that would fluster him even more. Instead, she sat stone-faced while he tried to find the words that made up the good news. “All that time that our team's been putting into digging in the Greenland area, as you kept requesting...”
    Katherine nodded as she began leaning forward at her desk in anticipation. “Our people found something, didn't they?”
    “This is big, Dr. Sierra. Really big,” Ritgen answered. “Otzi big.” The word “Otzi” reverberated in Katherine's mind as soon as it entered her ears, and her smile only grew broader.
    As Katherine heard Ritgen bringing up the mysterious Otzi iceman excavated from the early 1990s dig, she quickly put two and two together on her own and stood up. “SomeONE,” she corrected herself