by W. M. Martin
“Oh, thank the Nexus! Maggie, she was trying to kill me!” exclaimed a seriously distraught Sara.
“I know, I saw that! Why though? What's going on?!” asked an exasperated Maggie.
“Hold on a second, we have to tie her up, Maggie. She's not herself. Mikey, bind Lucy! Hurry!” ordered Sara.
Her small kiwi totem melted away and shifted into an ethereal mist and wrapped himself around Lucy’s entire body like a cocoon concocted from a dense and heavy fog.
“I shall help Sara’s totem, Mags,” Elliot offered, without invitation or hesitation, before flying down to stand guard over Lucy.
“Thank you, Elliot,” said Sara before explaining to Maggie what she had overheard and what exactly had transpired.
Maggie was in a state of shock and disbelief at what Sara told her. Lucy was mean to be sure, but murderous? Maggie simply would not have believed it if she had not seen it for herself.
“And you're sure that Lucy was talking to Mr. Evans?” asked Maggie.
“I am one hundred percent sure that she was talking to him. We need to find Ms. Decker and let her know, now!” insisted Sara.
Maggie agreed and walked over to Lucy who was still unconscious and bound by Sara’s totem. She knelt down, cautiously, to check on her roommate and as she did, Lucy’s cold, black and empty eyes flew open.
CHAPTER TWELVE
With the concussive shockwave of Maggie’s arrow having rocked the seaside Haven, everyone who had been gathered in the town’s substantial plaza stopped what they were doing and turned their shaken attentions toward the sound of the impact. Sapka Strato sauntered calmly to the edge of the stage on which he had been performing and announced to the audience whose fixation on his thespianism had been stolen abruptly by the peal of the detonation.
“Good people of Plimpkins, I hereby serve you notice on behalf of the Lady of the Fallen. We are here to take control of this town. Your Haven has been infiltrated by our operatives for sometime now, and as such, you can all plainly see that we mean none of you any harm. That is unless you refuse our Master’s orders. Her orders are thus: The soon to be promoted First Years from the academy are to come with us and all must serve our Lady Okeaous, the one true Fallen or be executed forthwith!” exclaimed Sapka Strato.
Many of the men and women in the crowded town square whispered amongst themselves, trying to gauge whether or not Sapka was serious or if this was all a part of the play. Some hissed their disapproval at what must have certainly been a bad joke for the show. Still others laughed at Sapka with his angular frame and his funny mustache, issuing threats on pain of death.
Sapka continued unhindered, “I know that you all believe that Lady Okeaous is long dead. You are all equally wrong. She is alive, now, in this time, to offer each and every one of you peace and unity under her rule. This unification of which I speak shall be between all of you, the citizens of Plimpkins, and your self-righteous Guardians with their dogmatic view of how we all should use our gifts and those of us who have chosen the path of the Fallen for our desire, fortitude, and strength of will to fight against their truly oppressive ideology. After all, why should we have to hide from the humans when in reality we should rule over them? They are all beneath us. We should tower over them as gods. The subjugation of mankind shall be done out of a deep caring for them, because in all reality, they have never been capable of properly governing themselves. No, my brothers and sisters, we must join together, as one, for the survival and propagation of our kind and to lead the humans to order. If the peace that we seek is only achievable by force, then so be it! First Years from the Kindred Academy, step forward and come with me. You all belong to the Dark Lady now. Come and take your rightful places under her tutelage!”
At this, the citizenry of Plimpkins turned sour and began booing and throwing whatever they had available at the flamboyant orator, who only moments ago had their applause in abundance. Sapka deftly dodged a half-eaten apple and faced the jeering townsfolk. His eyes, which earlier had been full of mirth and laughter turned as black as pitch and an oily armor that matched his eyes oozed over his body. His head was covered by a helmet in the shape of a viper’s head with the mouth open and poised to strike. Sapka’s visage was nestled firmly between the viper’s sharp fangs. His eyes returned to their original state, but his body remained entombed inside of his inky protective plating.
Sapka snarled at everyone in attendance and shouted angrily, “You insignificant fools! Lady Okeaous offers you her hand which holds true freedom and unlimited power, and you slap it away? You will join us, or you will all die!”
Jax had heard enough of Sapka’s threats and stood up, fully adorned in his armor which glistened with hints of the most pure emeralds. He braced his bearded axes and stood, resolute and flanked by his totem, Clara. Jax mounted the great horse and issued a warning of his own.
“You talk way too much for a fighting man! I'm gonna shut your mouth for you!” threatened Jax.
Sapka Strato’s laugh mirrored the oleaginous appearance of his armor and he braced a long, black, scourge whip with two extremely sharp blades on the end which were reminiscent of a pair of viper’s fangs. Sapka summoned his totem, and it slithered around his shoulders.
“Whenever you're ready, clown,” Jax invited.
Sapka flipped off of the stage and made towards his challenger with murder in his eyes. Klaus, Lester, Thomas, Stephanie, Nigel, Oliver, and Callum all surrounded Sapka Strato, armed and prepared to defend their friend. Sapka stopped dead in his tracks and eyed each First Year, appraising them thoroughly. He raised one hand high into the air, thus signaling his Fallen comrades to join in to the fast approaching brawl. No less than twenty Fallen, hidden amongst the crowd, stepped forward to aid their dark general.
“Take the First Years and destroy all who get in our way!” ordered Sapka.
The entire square, once alive with the sounds of commerce and laughter, had now erupted into the din of battle. Many of the townspeople with children had sought shelter, while others braced their mystical weapons and led their totems into a fight for the survival of their beautiful little town.
*
Nancy and Edgar were enjoying their time alone while the students were still off exploring Plimpkins when an explosion jarred them to their feet.
“What was that?” asked Nancy while looking around shocked and bewildered.
Edgar pointed his large finger towards a group of buildings at the rear of the Haven and answered, “I don't know, but it came from over there. Let's go.”
Nancy was wringing her hands with worry and said, “Oh, Edgar, I hope that the students are all alright.”
Edgar comforted her and said, “I'm sure they're fine, Nancy. Hurry.”
Nancy opened an omniport and she and Edgar ran headlong into it. When the omniport blazed to life in the alley where Sara and Maggie were kneeling beside Lucy, Maggie gasped, exhaled heavily and took solace at the sight of Nancy and Edgar running towards her. Nancy shrieked accusingly at Maggie and Sara in equal measure.
“What happened here? What have you girls done? Why is Lucy bound by a totem? Well?! Speak!” ordered Nancy.
Both Maggie and Sara blurted out at the same time what had happened, but their excitable voices were incredibly shrill, and their tale was so disjointed that neither Nancy nor Edgar could understand either of them.
“Quiet! Now, one at a time, what happened here?” barked Edgar who had no desire to hide his rising anger.
Sara explained as calmly as she could to Nancy what had transpired, “Ms. Decker, it all started when I saw Lucy running out of the artifacts shop in the Square...”
Edgar stood up quickly from Lucy’s side, interrupting Sara’s recounting of events and waved for her to be silent before snapping, “Quiet! Do you hear that?”
Maggie asked, “Hear what, Edgar? What is it?”
Edgar brought forth a crackling omniport and he rushed inside of it without a single moment’s hesitation, and as his body w
as being covered in his emerald armor, Edgar called back from his omniport to answer Maggie’s question, “It’s the Fallen! They’re here in Plimpkins!”
Nancy wanted to go through with him, but she had to stay, for the time being, with Lucy. Sara looked over to Maggie with a noticeable expression of anxiety on her face, but when she saw the resolve in Maggie’s eyes, she took heart. This is the moment that they had trained for, every single day at the academy, and whether either of them believed it or not, Maggie and Sara were both ready; they had to be. Whatever was happening, the two young Kindred would face it together; they were Aviors.
*
Callum was down on one knee and holding his side which was bleeding. His totem, Ada, an electric eel, had surrounded him with an electrified shield so as to keep him from further harm. She lashed out viciously at anyone, Fallen or otherwise, who got too close to Callum. She had rendered unconscious the Fallen who had sliced through Callum’s armor when he went in for the death blow. Ada shot a bolt of electricity with so much force and raw power into the Fallen’s chest that it caused the assassin to flip over backwards and crash-land onto his back. The Fallen was crumpled on the ground near Callum in an insentient, smoldering heap.
Stephanie was fending off a Fallen warrior with grace and with great zeal and so precise was she, with her exquisitely bejeweled jumonji yari, that she almost had the appearance of one dancing amidst the fray. She was shielded in what appeared to be blue butterfly’s wings which matched perfectly with those of her totem, Max. Stephanie’s grace in the heat of battle was a sight to behold. She swung her polearm with apparent effortlessness and precision. Her dance’s elegance was matched only by its ferocity. Max flittered by Stephanie’s side, enhancing each step that she took with every flap of his magical wings.
“You're gonna have to try a whole lot harder if you think you can catch me!” Stephanie laughed.
Her sable opponent could not, for all of his efforts, strike the balletic moves of the First Year from Clan Secarn. She spun her weapon in her hand and shifted her weight onto her back foot to dodge an incoming blow before rocking forward and allowing her weight to bring the momentum of her great spear across her enemy’s helmed face. The blow struck true and relieved the Fallen of his ability to stand.
Oliver’s Tiger, Cammy, was in the grip of an enormous polar bear totem and was struggling to free herself. Oliver parried an incoming attack from a Fallen priestess and rolled away to strike at the massive totem that was attacking his precious Cammy. The great bear turned ethereal as Oliver swung his longsword at its face, and Cammy reengaged her assailant without a moment’s hesitation. Oliver returned his attention to his attacker and stood ready for her. The priestess in Fallen armor charged at Oliver, and as he reared back to swing at her, she slid past him and turned to slam the back of his head with a spiked staff. The sound of her mystical weapon connecting with his helmet rang out into the plaza which was alive with shouts from victorious warriors and the cries of the vanquished. As Oliver fell to his knees, the black priestess swiped at him with a short sword that she had braced. The small, black blade had sliced cleanly across Oliver’s helmet and pierced his left eye, causing permanent blindness.
Nigel struck fast against the dark warrior who had singled him out for battle, his whip wrapped tightly around the aggressor’s neck. As he tensed his muscles to jerk hard on his weapon to end the strangling enemy, he felt a sharp sting followed immediately by a throbbing, burning sensation in his right shoulder blade. A dazed look washed over Nigel’s face, and he fell forward onto the hard ground. His totem Cersei, amplified her size and coiled herself around him and shook the rattles on her tail as a warning to anyone who would dare approach them.
Thomas had been thrown from his feet by a mountainous assassin with fearsome spiked gauntlets, and just before he careened into the waiting blade of a nearby Fallen, he disappeared into an omniport, of his own conjuration, which rematerialized just above the black knight who had initially struck him. Thomas’ morningstar came crashing down violently, just ahead of himself and brought the dark creature to his knees.
“You aren't so tough are you, big guy?” Thomas jeered.
Thomas’ arrogance and constant desire to make light of any situation had gotten the better of him when the ebony giant sprung towards him with surprising speed for someone of that size and pummeled him into unconsciousness.
Klaus was caught in a net and was being kicked by multiple Fallen. He tried valiantly to break free but it was of little use.
“Take him. The Master wants the students alive,” ordered a lithe warrior with a woman’s voice and who was hidden inside of an oily, sable carapace which held the semblance of an ominous-looking barracuda.
One of the dark monsters replied, “Yes, Ara. It will be so,” before digging the heel of his spiked boot into Klaus’ shoulder.
The warrior called by the name Ara swiped at her subordinate and blasted him off of his feet with a swell of water that erupted from the ground beneath him.
Ara stood over him and said, “You'll address me as ‘Lieutenant Ara’ or you won't address me at all.”
An omniport blasted open beside them and Lieutenant Ara ordered coldly, “Throw him in and retrieve the rest. Notify General Strato that I’m crossing the Veil to oversee the arrival of our guests per the Dark Queen’s orders. Now!”
Klaus was struggling violently to escape. His efforts were met with laughs and even more kicks. He was thrown carelessly into the omniport by two of the Fallen soldiers as though he were little more than trash.
Jax and Sapka Strato were in the center of the plaza dueling furiously, Sapka, for fun and for dominance and Jax for his very survival.
“You can't possibly hope to defeat me, boy! I've been one with my totem for years, and you're still on training wheels,” laughed Sapka.
Jax swiped his axe at his opponent’s face and came up short. Sapka mirrored Jax’s stances perfectly as though he were a reverse image and by so doing was capable of dodging almost every attack without even having to block. It was clear to Jax that Sapka was simply toying with him and as the Fallen’s mockery persisted, Jax’s focus was diminished, and his anger rose to a fevered pitch.
“Come now, child. Surely you can do better! A boy of your size should have no trouble defeating me,” taunted Sapka Strato.
Jax responded angrily through gritted teeth, “You better hope I don't get my hands on you, little man. Because if I do, I'm gonna smash that pretentious grin off of your boney face!”
Sapka roared with laughter at the threat which Jax leveled against him. He spun his twin-bladed whip in a circle over his head and snapped it sharply in Jax’s direction.
“Let’s go! Show me what you can do, young one!” Sapka said with a rage-provoking and twisted sneer.
Jax charged at Sapka like a great battering ram, heedless of the dangerous being standing before him. He was blind with rage and struck at Sapka with concussive force, but each strike connected only with the air. Jax rotated his furious swings from his right hand to the left. Regardless of how hard he fought, he simply could not match Sapka’s speed and agility. The sadistic general slashed Jax across the cheek with his whip and the blades on the end of his fearsome weapon left two indelible gashes deep in Jax’s flesh. Jax cried out in pain from the strike which was delivered with malicious glee. Sapka circled Jax, who was knelt down and holding his face together.
“Surrender you fool. You are no match for my power. You need not die here today. My master seeks only your servitude and allegiance, not your life. If I had wanted you dead then I would have braced my weapon with an incurable neurotoxin of my own design. Of course, I save that for a real challenge, which sadly you are not,” stated Sapka flatly.
Jax stood up, slowly, and released his face giving Sapka a good view of his handiwork.
Jax looked at the blood which was on his gauntlet and replied in a worn and winded voice, “Never. I'll never surrender to you or the filth that you serve. Let'
s finish this.”
Sapka Strato giggled maniacally, bowed to Jax and said, “My, you are brave! Wanting to die so young are you? Very well, I shall accommodate you.”
Sapka readied himself for the fight to be rejoined, and Jax took in a deep breath and blasted forward into the range of Sapka’s cruel weapon and its impressive reach. Jax threw one of his axes at Sapka, and it very nearly struck its mark. In the time it took Sapka to maneuver out of the way of the incoming projectile and refocus on the large First Year, Jax had managed to get in close enough to Sapka to strike him violently in the knee, causing the vile sadist to stumble and fall backwards. Jax, without a moment’s thought or hesitation, threw himself on top of Sapka and proceeded to throttle him with a fiery and singular purpose.
Jax and Sapka’s totems, obviously sensing the now inevitable outcome of their respective Kindred’s deadly brawl, untangled themselves from each other and shot towards the two combatants who were on the ground attempting to kill one another. Jax released his iron grip on Sapka’s windpipe and grabbed an axe that he had released at his side. He was still straddling Sapka so that the villainous Fallen could not escape. As Jax raised his serrated axe to bring it down onto his enemy, Sapka braced his whip and transformed it into a kukri knife.
Clara, Jax’s totem, whinnied in horror because as quick as she was, she would fail to reach her Kindred in time to shield him from the Fallen’s razor sharp blade. In the heat of battle, Clara and Jax had allowed themselves to stray too far from each other and now they would both face the consequences of that foolhardy and potentially lethal decision. Jax had been wholly unprepared for Sapka's last-ditch effort to preserve his own life, and was caught off guard by the exquisite pain of the curved blade of the kukri carving a murderous path through the tissue and muscles of his side. Jax lost all of his cognitive abilities, and the only thing that his body was able to register was breathtaking and unyielding agony.
Sapka twisted the knife which was jammed deep inside of Jax’s emerald cuirass, and he giggled with an acrimonious fervor at the pain and suffering of the wounded Terran student. Jax began to slump over onto his side as his consciousness was fading quickly from him like stars retreating from the morning sun. Sapka shoved Jax off of himself and onto the ground which had now been painted red with the young Kindred’s blood. Sapka knelt down beside Jax, and his viper-shaped helmet’s visor melted into itself just enough for the skinny visage of Sapka Strato to be revealed between the fangs.
