“Why hello, young man,” Burke walked up to Nigel. Q pulled him back instantly.
“Hey,” Burke complained, “what’s the big idea?”
Nigel started to grow right in front of Burke. In a few seconds he was the full scale monster Q knew and loved.
“I’m BIG, and I have an IDEA,” Nigel yelled out.
Burke chuckled at the silly joke. Q glared at him.
“What? It was clever,” he said.
Nigel used that fraction of a second to whack Q with his club. Q flew a few meters and fell hard into the snow. He had never really understood where the club magically appeared from. Nigel probably stored it in an alternate dimension or something.
Q got up and charged at the giant. He didn’t have his sword, so he knew he would have to improvise.
“Swordless,” Nigel noticed. “Quite daring I must say,” and he charged as well.
For every step Q covered, Nigel covered ten. To Burke, who was watching from the sidelines, it probably looked like an eighteen-wheeler was charging at a minivan.
Q dropped his arm to the side like he had an imaginary sword in his grasp, “C’mon, just this once,” he wished. A bright glow radiated from his hand and morphed into a sword made of light. Q wasted no time and dug his sword into Nigel, pushing it in up to the hilt before losing his grip and sliding away.
The big giant roared out in pain and knelt to the ground. He pulled out the sword and threw it to the ground. Its glowing blade though, kept his attention, and he finally understood what had attacked him.
“The Elementa of Light,” his eyes widened and he turned to Q. “You’re a light user.”
“You bit off more than you can chew, buddy boy.”
The giant’s wound seemed to mend itself, and in seconds there was not even a scar left of Q’s mauling attack.
“Great, he can heal himself as well,” Q muttered. “How come I never get any of that?” he yelled out, looking above him. He didn’t know who he was asking though.
“Well you do have your own fair share of power you know,” Burke said.
“Not helping, Burke,” Q yelled out.
“If you guys are finished talking, I’d like to kill you now,” Nigel said. “They’re serving pizza at the cafeteria today and I really need to get ahead in line.”
Q was hurtling onto him before he finished his sentence. He was swordless again, but this time he had a better idea. He imagined a small knife and instantly light collected around him, morphing into a knife in his hand. He carefully aimed at Nigel and threw it straight at his thigh. The knife cut into the giant’s skin but he didn't seem to be fazed in the least. He pulled out the knife, just like he had done to the sword, and threw it away.
“That isn’t going to work, boy,” he laughed out loud.
Q momentum made him slide across the ground before coming to a stop. His hands were shivering from the cold. His energy suit was flickering. He needed more energy, but he had none to spare. The Elementa of Light was a power-hungry form of sorcery. He couldn’t use it more than a handful of times.
Even though he was exhausted, he forced himself to hang on. He could feel his heart burning from fatigue. His head started spinning and his arms were as heavy as lead but he somehow managed to maintain consciousness and face Nigel.
Nigel walked over to Q triumphantly, “It’s sad that it has to end like this, Q,” he said, and raised his club over Q’s head.
Q smirked, “It’s sad indeed.”
Nigel’s body trembled and his club dropped to the floor. His hand just hung limp by his side like it had gone numb. His other hand became limp as well, and his skin turned from human-pink to fireboy-red.
“W-what’s going on?” he stuttered.
“Your body’s going haywire,” Q said.
“H-h-haywire?” he trembled. His voice weakened.
“The Elementa of Light isn’t my only Elementa you know,” Q’s fingers sizzled with electricity. “That knife had a powerful charge infused in it. I’ve paralyzed your brain for a bit. You’ll regain your senses in a while, don’t worry.”
“I’ll kill you,” Nigel managed to say before he fell to the ground as still as a statue.
“Nice meeting you too.”
“So how do you two know each other?” Burke asked him.
“He’s tries to assassinate me every once in a while,” Q said.
With the gatekeeper now taken out, they walked over to the castle door, a wooden door a hundred feet high.
“What do you think we should do?” Q asked.
“Open Sesame!” Burke chuckled. The huge door slowly creaked open.
“How?” Q stared at Burke.
“Don't look at me, I don't know either,” Burke laughed. “That has got to be the most clichéd passcode ever.”
“Isn’t that horrible security?” Q asked.
“Yeah, it kind of is,” Burke said. “We should just head inside. We can worry about security later.”
“After you,” Q said.
Burke stood with his arms crossed and his foot tapping the floor.
“Fine,” Q couldn't help laughing. He entered the door, with Burke following him at close quarters. The inside of the palace was amazing. It was made of a white marble with red tapering across the walls and similar colored carpeting streaking along the floors. Q heard a few dull voices come from inside. He hid behind one of the marble pillars and tried to listen into the conversation.
“You fools, we must ready the device.”
“Yes, sire.”
“What device?” Burke asked, but Q ignored him. He didn't want to miss out on a single word from this conversation.
“Bunch of fools,” the man they called ‘sire’ said. “Come, my pet,” he called out.
Q heard a shrill cry run through the air. A huge griffin flew above them and landed a little deeper into the hall. The creature looked a bit like Ruby, with its golden-brown feathers and all. Its eyes though, were different. They were a bright emerald green, radiant and beautiful.
“Those earthlings are very insistent.” he seemed to be talking to his griffin. “The Dark Knights are no party either.”
“True,” A deep rumbling voice entered his head. Q’s spine shivered so terribly that he was afraid he would collapse.
He remembered that a griffin could communicate telepathically. This voice had to be the griffin’s then. It sounded old and ancient, like it had existed since the beginning of time itself.
“Well, their loss if they do not wish to join our cause,” the man said, then chuckled himself “I must retire and become a poet don’t you think?”
“Yes, Sire,” the griffin said in a monotone. Q realized it was a male griffin.
“Very well. You may leave, I’ve matters to attend to,” Q heard footsteps fade away into the distance. The ‘Sire’ seemed to have left.
Q prepared to follow the man but the griffin landed smack in front of him, its wings summoning gusts of wind that pushed Q back.
“Whoa! An actual griffin!” Burke ran up to the beast but Q managed to pull him back before something dangerous happened.
“What are you doing here?” the griffin asked them.
“Are you using telepathy?” Burke asked excitedly, “Just how does that work?”
Q ignored him and turned to the griffin, “Hi, Mr.Griffin,” he waved. “We were just touring this place, you know, looking at the tapestries and stuff.”
“Silence,” he bellowed. “Do not take me lightly.”
“You look like you don't like this place,” Burke interrupted them.
The griffin stood still for a moment, “Another mind reader,” he said.
“No mind reading,” Burke said. “I’m an expert in behavioral psychology though. Pretty easy to see you’re not exactly fond of this place.”
“And just what would you do,” he crouched down to their level. “If that were the case?”
“I would take you along with us and ask you to help us,” Q said.
“Because your master possesses a device that he plans to use to enforce calamity. A device that we need to take home to bring peace to my planet.”
“Very well then,” the griffin said as though it were a very simple decision for him. “I have never liked my master to begin with. The only reason I serve him is because I had no purpose elsewhere, and a griffin must always have a purpose.”
“Awesome!” Q said excitedly, “So you’ll help us?”
The griffin nodded. Q found it kind of unsettling that the griffin could be persuaded so easily, but he understood the whole ‘I need a purpose’ idea.
“We must make haste,” the griffin said. “It won’t be soon before-”
“DIE,” bellowed a voice from the end of the corridor. The griffin froze.
In front of them stood the man, the one they called ‘Sire’. He was dressed in plain white armor and a snow-white cape. His short gray hair didn't seem like the ‘old’ kind of gray, but more of the ‘magical’ kind. His long face was wrought with anger and hatred, his silver eyes showing his pure intent to kill.
“Thou hast betrayed me,” he pulled out a whip from his belt, one with a glowing white aura that Q figured was not for safety purposes. He whipped the floor with a thundering crack, “And you shall pay.”
***
2-4
“You must really like the taste of pain, Jade,” the White Knight walked towards the griffin.
Q looked at the whip the Knight was holding. It was definitely infused with great levels of energy.
“Beware of the might of Windalf,” the man yelled out.
“Who’s Windalf?”
“I’m Windalf,” the man said.
“Oh, Sorry, dude” Q said.
The man looked around the room as though he were searching for somebody. “Who is this ‘Dude’ you speak of?” he asked.
Windalf suddenly glowed as white as his whip, “My lord! Why now?!” he yelled. Q shielded their eyes from the harsh bright light. When the light died down, Windalf had disappeared.
Teleportation, he realized. What in the world is going on?
Jade also seemed to have disappeared. Q wondered if the griffin had meant it when he said he would help them obtain the Lambda Driver.
“T-minus 20 seconds to departure,” a feminine voice echoed from within the palace.
Burke tensed up, “It’s the Lambda Driver,” he said.
“Let’s go get it,” Q said but Burke stopped him.
“It’s too late. It’s started its initiation procedure.”
“So what’s supposed to happen now?”
“The Lambda Driver isn’t in its optimal conditions. If we’re too close to it we’ll get torn apart by the explosion it creates.”
“I think we should definitely run.”
“Definitely,” Burke agreed and they both ran for their lives.
“T-minus 5…4…3”
Q grabbed Burke and dragged him towards the water.
“2….1…..ZERO.”
They dived into the water, going down as deep as possible. Q used all his extra life energy to strengthen the energy suits and protect them from the blast. For a second they couldn't hear anything but the water pass by.
Was Burke wrong about the explosion? Q thought.
As though in response to Q’s query a huge blast sounded inside the palace and shook the entire cave, sending powerful torrents through the water. They braved through the mini twisters the explosion set off underwater. A few minutes later, after everything had calmed down, they swam up to the surface to look at what damage the Lambda Driver had caused. The most obvious change was that the castle seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
Q gasped, “Where did it go?” he asked.
“My guess is the Lambda Driver absorbed all the matter from the castle, using it as energy for its teleportation,” Burke said. “The same thing would have happened to us if we got too close to it.”
“So where’s the Lambda Driver then?”
“It probably teleported itself to some other part of the Universe.”
“Great, so how do we find it then?”
“I think I just found a friend who can help us,” Burke grinned.
A gust of wind blew through the air, and a shrill cry followed. Q looked up just as a huge griffin landed next to him, its golden-brown wings gracefully folding into its sides.
“I am most obliged.”
***
Kai was still aboard the mothership. He was still right under the clutches of the enemy. And yet, he was as excited as he could be.
He had always believed that nothing was ever completely perfect. Every machine had a breaking point, every system had a loophole, every person had an Achilles’ heel. And the enemy?
He knew it had to be Trisha. She was perfect for the role, a high ranking executive inside the enemy’s organization, someone who happened to hate the entire ideology of her team. She was a person that he could tip over to his side pretty easily. He would finally have someone to help him take the enemy down. Excitement bubbled up within him.
A door slid open and, he and Trisha walked into the sick bay. Hundreds of cadets lay in their beds with bandages around their arms and legs. All of them were injured, with brutal cuts and bruises all over their bodies. Kai realized that the injuries were from the harsh weather outside, from all the ice that was flying at near bullet speeds.
“Do we have to heal all of them?” he asked Trisha.
She raised her eyebrow and shot a look that said, “What do you think?”
“Yes ma’am,” Kai saluted and hustled around while trying to figure out how he could heal these cadets.
“No we don’t, silly,” she laughed. “You don't have to do anything. Just let me take care of it.”
She thrust her hand forward, her palm facing towards the ground. A green aura emerged from it and flowed across the floor, flooding it with light. Kai stared in awe at the amazing sight. The aura created networks and channels, like it was a river of light, and soaked into every injured body in the bay.
The injured cadets glowed a bright green for a few seconds and then turned back to normal. Their cuts and bruises disappeared and most of them were up and about, their faces filled with wonder about how they had healed so fast. Kai was pretty surprised himself.
Trisha turned around, “And that’s how you-” she stumbled, her legs collapsing beneath her.
Kai caught her just as she was about to hit the floor. He lifted her up and rushed to her office. All the cadets made way as he raced through the corridors and past the doors, carrying Trisha.
All the way to the Infirmary office, he wondered what had happened to her. He could feel her chest strain as she breathed, her face scrunching up with each breath. The infirmary door automatically slid open, which was a relief to Kai because if it needed some sort of identification he didn't have any.
He lay Trisha down on a bed and made sure she was comfortable. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. Her skin was pale and sickly. Her entire body lay limp, her hands trembling as though she were having a horrible nightmare. He placed his hands over hers and gripped them tightly, “You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered.
He still couldn't figure out what had happened to her. She had been perfectly fine until she healed all the injured cadets. Her body didn't show any signs of injury, so a bit of rest would certainly bring her back to normal. Time was the only medicine right now.
He turned his attention to his personal problems. Just how was he going to get her on his side? It would be extremely difficult if he didn't take the right approach. One wrong move and he would be a goner. The biggest risk he faced with trying to get her on his side was that he would have to reveal his true identity and intentions. If she didn't side with him after that she could use all that information against him.
He spent the next hour thinking up a plan, stopping only when he saw Trisha stir. She opened her eyes
in a daze and looked around drowsily, “I was unconscious wasn't I?” she asked and Kai nodded promptly.
Trisha sighed, “I still haven't got the hang of it,” she stretched out her still trembling hands and pressed them into her thighs to hold them still.
“What happened to you?” Kai asked.
“It’s my healing power,” she sat up. “It completely saps me of my energy.”
“Why use it if it’s so dangerous?” he was pretty confused right now. Why would you do that to yourself willingly?
Her face changed, “Sometimes you have to do things whether you like it or not,” she said and walked out the room.
Kai caught her hand just as she was about to leave, “You can’t leave in the state you’re in,” he said.
Trisha ruffled his hair, “I’m fine,” she said and walked out.
Kai watched as the door slid closed. I guess she knows what she’s doing, he thought. He lay down on a bed after she left, his mind more confused than before. He wondered what she had meant when she said that one had to do things whether one liked them or not. Maybe she didn't like doing this either. But then what exactly was motivating her to actually heal everyone when the side effects were so severe?
He heard the door open. He sat up to see Trisha’s head poke out of the edge of the doorway. She had come back almost instantly.
“Hello again,” she smiled mischievously. “Just dropped by to tell you that I usually recognize an Aliea Academy cadet when I see one.”
Kai lay there on the bed with his mouth wide open. He jumped onto the floor and charged at her. He had to immobilize her. Fast. It didn't matter if she was going to help or not. He had to make sure she didn't blow his cover.
Trisha stood there calmly and watched him charge at her. Just as he was about to knock her to the floor, she disappeared.
“You have to do better than that,” he heard her laugh come from behind him.
He turned around and saw her standing next to the bed. He ran at her again. This time Trisha didn't disappear. She stood her ground, and in a flurry of moves, pinned Kai to the floor.
“Just because I’m a healer doesn’t mean I don't know how to fight.”
AcQuest: A Space Opera Military Technothriller (The Quest Saga Science Fiction Adventure Series Book 3) Page 11
