Chapter XIX - These Things
Work Themselves Out ~Multehx
The Zealot held the young man by the wrist, flipping through some book with the other hand. The young man raised a brow and looked over.
"Good book?" he asked.
"Hrrmgh," the warrior grunted in reply.
Ian shrugged, and half winced as
a metallic ring echoed through the chamber. The zealot grunted, then fell over
on his lap. His grip went limp. Ian pulled his hand free and inspected the
fallen body. It still had a pulse, so he was still alive, just unconscious.
Getting up, he walked over to a
door leading into the area where the cells had been taken. Seeing the back of a
burly Zealot, he threw that idea out of the question, and frowned in thought, glancing
to the wall on the other side of the bench he had been sitting on. Grinning
slightly, he walked over to it. Knocking gently on it, the echo revealed that
it was probably hollow, or might be very thin.
Stepping back, he waited for a
moment. Several thin slash marks appeared in the wall, where something cleaved
into it deeply. As soon as it had left a good amount of the wall scratched and
scarred, he pulled back a leg and kicked the wall. There was a crash as the
material collapsed, creating a tannish cloud in it's wake.
He stepped through the hole, and walked on for a bit. A Scout rounded a corner, spotted him, and started to blare an alarm for a bit, before being cleaved in two and falling to the ground. Moving on, he noticed there seemed to be several hollow "cells": rooms comprised of the wall and two other walls coming out from it where the stasis cells were held. The first few were empty, but the next one had a modified cell with its occupant, CR. It also had several guards, who stepped forward aggressively.
"Halt, intruder!" they yelled.
There was a flash of light, and
Ian fell back against the opposite wall. He felt like a truck had hit him,
knocking his wind out.
He felt a pain in his mouth, and moved a finger to touch the sore area. Drawing it away, he found it glistened with blood. His surprise turned to anger, and he forced himself to stand, glaring balefully at his assailants.
"You..made...me..BLEED!" he growled.
There was a rush of wind, and the
light in the "cell" glinted as it reflected off of a metallic
surface, but only momentarily. The wind died down, and Ian glared at the
zealots. They stood, motionless, before falling to the ground, split in two
across the waists.
He heaved a breath before walking over to the cell, and, with a moment's study of it, disabled it. The glow of the cell faded and CR blinked, adjusting to the dim light. He looked down.
"Well, that wasn't very
pleasant. Rather rough blokes, eh?" He took a few steps forward, and fixed
his jacket. "Hmm, my estimations say we should go bail out the others, then address the issue of Mr. Havoc."
Ian nodded, and the two walked to the next cell, finding Scilas in it. CR disabled the device in seconds, and slightly disoriented, the assassin stepped out.
"Look, we don't have time to talk now, I'll explain on the train - we need to get out the others, then go bail Havoc out," CR instructed.
Scilas nodded, and the three ran towards unvisited cells.
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The Archons groaned in frustration. Their methods had failed to work again, as they had once more tried a mind unlocking technique on the accused. Zeratul groaned from his stand, but he didn't have long to complain. The room's doors burst open, and the crew of "heroes" strode in, CR in the lead. The Protoss all stepped towards them, but CR narrowed his eyes.
"That's quite far enough,
gentlemen. Why not return to your places?"
All the Archons moved back to where they had stood, and Zeratul sat back down. The Dark Archon looked to be straining his muscles.
"What...what is this?! I cannot move!" Zeratul groaned in response, as he was trying to make his limbs respond in vain.
CR shook his head. "A simple
trick, but it's useless to try and fight it. And, by the way…" je moved over to Ratch and
snapped a finger, returning him to a clear mental state.
As the robot was reorienting himself, CR waved a hand, and produced a metallic half square, handing it to Ratch. The robot grinned, snapping the new jaw into place. He looked complete, and demonstrated he felt it too by a pose, flexing his arms. Zeratul started to protest as the group moved out of the room, and CR chuckled slightly as he stopped somehow.
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As the group clambered back into
the Spectrum, the last in, Ratch, paused. He signaled
to Omega, who was standing in the doorway, waiting, to wait a moment longer. He
turned, facing a carrier on the far side of the field. He raised an arm, firing
off a blue laser beam. It struck and penetrated the wall of the carrier, and
was followed by another, with set off a chain reaction inside the vessel,
causing it to self-destruct. Ratch sneered and
climbed into the Spectrum.
Omega shrugged, then followed suit, and moments later, it took off, and with a flash, was gone.
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It was night, and slightly
chilly. The gang had stopped at a rather barren, plant covered planet to let
the engine of the Spectrum cool down,
and was now seated around a camp fire. The men were around the fire, polishing
or readying their weapons for the fights ahead, while the girls had gone off to
get food from berry-bearing bushes.
It was a bit after
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It wasn't long till he had
discovered what he was looking for. The girls had been gone rather long, and
now he knew why. Several large insectoid beasts had
them trapped. One had Saph by the arms in its sleek
forehands, one holding Rynn with one, Jade with the
other. Kaye had one of the hands around her neck, choking her, and Prism was
pinned to the ground, held like a butterfly with a hand on each wing. All were
struggling, but none had a hand free or enough focus to attack.
Ian cursed and rustled in his
pocket, producing a small grenade, blackened with age. He wound up, pulled the
pin, and threw. It quite inexpertly clattered to the ground beneath the monster
holding Prism down, and exploded, incinerating it instantly. He turned, removed
the pin from another, and threw. It rebounded off a tree, exploding in mid air.
It was enough to force the monsters holding Saph and
Kaye to panic and flee.
A third grenade landed on the
ground between the last two, and the explosion scarred them off into the night.
The girls all looked to each other, and wordlessly ran back towards camp.
Ian shrugged, and headed back as
well. A roar from behind a few moments later made him stop and turn.
Apparently, the beasts were back, and ready for round two. The young man drew
the Quicksilver, aimed, and fired it with dead-eye aim. The
massive blast that resulted, since it was near maximum, enveloped one of the
insects and vaporized it.
The other two bugs hesitated,
then charged still, thirsty for the blood of the one who killed their others.
Ian was about to fire again, when one was cleaved in two, spilling blue blood
on the ground, and the second had its head lopped clean off. Both bodies fell
to the ground, motionless. Between them, appeared the form of Scilas. He slid his bloodstained katana into its sheath,
and turned.
The two simply smirked at each
other, and Scilas shrugged. They then set about on
returning to the camp, and did so rather silently, blending in with the group.
No one but CR would have noticed, though, as the guys were fast asleep, and the
girls had apparently become exhausted by their terror and hit the hay.
A cloaked form leaned against a tree and narrowed it's green, glowing eyes.
"Intriguing..." it muttered, before vanishing in a burst of green smoke.