Several minutes later, while the party was standing around awkwardly, Nena having stormed off and Balance simply fading away, Eliot and Silverfang had wandered off, exploring the grounds, when they saw a young looking girl, with tail much like Silverfang's but pure white of fur rather than the gray fur that Silverfang's tail sported. She was looking around sporadically, as if looking for someone. She also sported a look of bored determination, like she had been standing around for hours, but was not going to leave until she had done what she had came here to do.
Once her eyes fell on Silverfang, the wolf-girl's entire face lit up, and she hurried over to the two.
"My King. I am at your service from this day hence, until my death" She said, bowing before Silverfang, whose own visage was one of complete confusion.
"Err….huh?" Silver asked, to confused for words. The girl did not let it hinder her, however.
"I pledge my blade to your cause, and shall go where you command, until the ends of the universe itself" She replied, drawing a long polished blade, the drawing of such caused Silver to back away slightly.
"Whoa-ok, let's put the swords away and calm the hell down" He told the slightly crazed girl. Whatever Silver thought of her, she did sheath the sword and stepped away.
"I am sorry to have startled you my King. It seems you have lost your former glory. The humans have dulled your senses and your blade. It will be difficult to retrieve them, but I shall persevere for all Lupus Kind" She told him, holding her head high.
"Why…why are you calling me King, I’m not part of any hierarchy.I'm just a guy with a magic trick" Silver told that rather crazy girl.
"You mean you do not even know what you are? I have some work ahead of me, Agnaet lend me the strength to persevere" The wolf girl muttered, too low for the others to hear.
Several minutes later, after managing to get the wolf girl to promise not to stab anyone, Eliot and Silverfang hastily returned to Sean. He was stood facing a shirtless man who had a buckler shield on his forearm and a sword fitted through his belt on the shield side. He appeared to have the muscle and the skill to use them both flawlessly and Silver would not like to get on the wrong side of him, it would probably turn out like his fight - if that is what you could call it - with Shadow.
The man's hair was short and brown but with a touch of grey in it, showing his age. He also had a thick beard the same colour of his hair. He had a pair of brown-grey wolf ears on his head and a tail sprouting out of his back. They were conversing about something Eliot couldn't hear and stopped when he came close.
"Sorry we left. Just went to explore. We...found a wolf girl, with a long and shiny blade" Eliot told him, before getting in close and whispering to Sean. "She scares me" Eliot then looked around, to make sure nobody had heard him, other than Sean. the wolf man was more interested in the young girl they had just found, however, so he was safe. The Wolf Man smiled and walked over to the girl, giving her a tight hug.
"Hey dad" the wolf girl said, snuggling into his dad's chest.
"Hey Nailah. I got a ship. You find the one you where looking for?" He asked, to which Nailah nodded.
"He's a bit dense though" Nailah replied, giggling softly. Silverfang heard the way they where talking about him, and so turned to Sean, trying to find something else to do, other than listen to the people he had dissapointed just by being.
"So, who's the big guy?" Silverfang asked, referring to the wolf man.
"That's Takanuva - Tak, or Taka to most people - he is a good friend of mine, but I hadn't expected to see him here. Apparently Scarlet is out, or busy, or something like that. So we are hitching a ride on the ship he is picking up" Sean replied, Silverfang looked at the large man, and wondered if he was mad as well.
"So you're the King of Wolves then eh? You don't look like much, but then Nailah has told me you have lost your glory. Don't worry about that, we will get that back" Takanuva told him, a solid, determined look in his eyes.
"That…that's what Nailah says, I didn't really know until she told me; still don't understand what it really means either" Silverfang told Takanuva, stammering slightly at the sight of the large wolf man.
"So, is this ship going to take long to get here?" Eliot asked, curious to see how long they were going to stand around here displaying their muscles. Niall and Bliss where already showing their muscles to Jane who looked rather overwhelmed and was clinging to Beth. However, Sean simply waved his hand.
"Pah, it will be here in a small while, which I will use to find my daughter and you lot could use getting acquainted with each other. See you in some Earth minutes" Sean told the group before tipping a hat that was not there - or was possibly invisible, it was hard to tell with Sean - and walking off towards the entrance of the space port. He vanished as he walked through the doors however, obviously wanting a bit more speed than walking would provide. Silverfang stood for several minutes in silence, listening to Takanuva go on about how great the Hierarchy of the Wolf was, but then there was a break, and Silverfang tried to get a question in. however an ear-shattering explosion roared from the city, the cloud of fire and debris rose up in the air and cutting off what he was going to say. The flaming debris fell back to the floor with a clatter and the smoke rose up until it disappeared in the atmosphere.
Sean and Nena appeared from thin air at the star-port doors a few seconds later. Sean was slightly amused as he had a small smirk on his face, Nena looked irritated but pleased. It was clear even before they arrived that they had caused the explosion and as they did arrive they smelt heavily of smoke and ash clung to their clothes.
"Our ride is here; let's get out on with the awesome chase scene that isn't really going to be that awesome unless you like to stare at the stars, and probably won't be a chase since we will be gone before they realize" Sean told the large group. As Silver turned around to see what Sean was gesturing at, a ship had landed, relatively large, and able to hold the group with ease. Sean and Nena walked in with a touch of haste to their gait and were followed by Eliot and everyone else. Sean headed directly for the cockpit and after a few seconds the ship started humming and then it took off and flew towards the sky, building up the speed necessary to escape the planet's gravitational pull. The group of people filled out in the ship, Beth having a disturbing knowledge of space-ship layout, but was followed anyway by Jane. Biss and Niall took to a large room, and began to talk amongst themselves. The girls, Nehvna, Avrion and Nenatalev, all followed Beth to her little room, while Nailah stuck with Silverfang and Eliot, who were in turn followed by Takanuva. It took about a minute to arrive in Space and those few minutes where rather amazing for Eliot and Silverfang, they had never been in Space before and the whole thing was quite exciting. However, the glamour quickly wore off as they realized that most of Space was just that - empty space - and there was little to see apart from the planet they had just been on, which was covered in a brown coloured cloud and looked generally unwell.
Sean looked back at the people on board, and grinned, it was always nice to speak to people.
"That planet's air tastes really bad and their Ley-Lines are coated in some foul sticky…bleeh" he finished his sentence with a grimace, sticking his tongue out to reinforce the show of his displeasure.
"Well, we are off it now and unless someone - "Tak started, before looking at Nena, who had suddenly arrived in the cockpit - and continuing "Makes us go back, we will give it a wide berth" He finished.
"It wasn't entirely my fault, I heard that the Demios had fractured, so I came to investigate and then got captured by someone who knew what they were doing far too much for it to be coincidental" She explained, Sean sighed and rolled his eyes in reply.
"Great. So someone is playing silly buggers with the way the Universe works. I guess it is only expected, considering, but I still don't like the extra work this entails" Sean said, again speaking generally.
"Who are...?" Eliot started before the ship lurched, putting Silverfang and Eliot on the respective arses; however it didn't seem to affect anyone else. Nena had vanished again, as if she was only here for the quick conversation that had her in it, but everyone else in the cockpit seemed fine.
"What the hell was that?" Eliot demanded to know from the floor. Sean frowned as he looked at Eliot, obviously confused to find him on the floor. Then he worked out what had happened and answered Eliot's question.
"Ahh yes. Sorry about that. That's the Hyperdrive kicking in, most of us are used to that pre-jump lurch and so it doesn't affect us and it didn't occur to me to warn you about it" Sean finished with a shrug but he helped the two up all the same.
"Well please warn us next time something like that is going to happen" Silverfang told Sean and then fell over again as the ship lurched a second time.
"Hmm, that was quick" Sean mused before looking out of the window.
"Let me guess, that was the Hyperdrive stopping?" Eliot asked rhetorically, but he was still answered, sarcastically, but answered none the less.
"Indeed it was, very astute judgement" Taka's voice was layered with sarcasm but he helped the two off the floor anyway.
"Huh, we aren't meant to be here. Must be something wrong with the Hyper-drive" he muttered, before Nena arrived again - this time walking in, not just appearing - with Jane, who looked frantic and guilty.
"I'm really sorry, and I didn't mean to and I never could before and I don't know where it even came from!" Jane yammered, with some important looking piece of Ship in her hand.
"And I felt like I was being over-shadowed" Nena told Sean, a lot more calmly, with an equally important piece of ship in her hand.
"Great, between 'ya you have dismantled the Hyper-drive navigation system. We could be anywhere" she scoffed, before shaking her head. "Nena, you tell Jane about what's going to be happening to her now, I'll land and look around" he said, taking the 'wheel' of the ship and directing into the ground. Nena then lead Jane out of the cock-pit again, seemingly not wanting to stay there for any period of time, while Eliot and Silverfang were talking vaguely to Nailah and Takanuva.
Nena sat Jane down on one of the seats in an unoccupied booth, and smiled.
"Right, you got to be careful now. Something happened recently, and you are going to have flushes of power that will allow you to break pretty much any mortally created object with little problem. A lot more things will come flushing to you as well, like a mental ability to discern any language, and a combat instinct to put a Reaver to shame" she explained, to Jane's glared eyes.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
"Ok.." Jane replied, in her best understanding voice, not even trying to understand what or who the Reavers where.
"Glad you understand. A few other things might be happening later, but I don't know too much about them. To be fair, I don't know too much about what is going on right now, but then I really kinda know just enough to explain it to you. It's weird like that" Nena told Jane, before looking at that brain-dead expression and giving the girl a hug. "Just, be careful, ok?" Nena asked.
"Now that, I can do" Jane replied, grinning before the ship shook slightly.
"Ahh, we're here, let’s go see where we are" Nena suggested, leading Jane out of the ship, and down the ramp. They were the last ones out, which was odd, considering they only took a few seconds to get out of the room themselves, but then everything was odd these days.
"Royos, the purple district. Not a bad place to get robbed" Sean said, having deduced the planets identity and where they were. He then took a large swig from his Thermos.
"So, why are we staying here then?" Eliot asked, confused.
"Well, the girls broke the Hyper-drive, so we gotta get new parts, or failing that a nice place to stand" He replied, before walking towards the doors of the space-port, with the trail of people behind him. Sean led the group down streets, and up alleys, with each looking as safe as the other. During this time, Jane got a strange feeling, followed by a slightly larger party than their own. Which was an unnerving thought, considering they numbered near twelve. But then, Sean could survive getting stabbed in the head, and Niall looked like he could take a fair beating as well. Still, even with all these people, she didn't like the idea, and so she stuck close to Silverfang, and Nailah and Takanuva as a result.
"Something wrong Jane?" Silverfang asked, seeing her a bit wary, and constantly looking around.
"I just get a feeling we are being followed. By a fair few people" she muttered, to which Taka growled softly.
"Probably. Everyone follows someone around here. And with us being the new faces, we are very likely suspects for being followed" He explained, seemingly unphased by the idea as Jane was.
"But, isn't being followed a bit creepy? What if they try to rob us?" Jane asked, and as if to answer her question, a few men appeared in front of Sean, brandishing second, or third hand weaponry that looked like it would crumble to dust when fired. The man in the front smiled at Sean, who aptly returned the favour.
"G'd day mate. You look rather new to this place, can we 'elp ya at all?" The front man asked, in a horrible accent, mangling every other word he said. However, it didn't seem to bother Sean.
"Ahh, hello. I believe you can. See, we have just docked here after some unfortunate malfunction with our Hyper-drive, and now we are looking for a shop to buy a replacement for it" He explained, as if oblivious to the intention of these would-be robbers.
"Ahh, we 'ave just the thing you need my friend. If your group o' peeps will just follow me" the man offered, to which Sean accepted gracefully.
"Well thank you. So nice to see friendly people around here" Sean replied, with a stupidity that everyone knew he didn't have.
"Why is he doing this?" Jane asked, as Sean set off following the men, and then everyone else followed for their own reason, from curiosity, to despair, and even not wanting to be left behind.
"Because he is Sean. And Sean thinks on a different level to us. It is possible he has created a plan and this is it in action. Be prepared for anything, it could turn into a barbeque as much as a blood-bath" Takanuva told Jane, who quickly took on a look of surprise.
"Blood bath?" She asked, but restrained her voice, to not alert the people in the front. "I don't want to be in a blood-bath. It'd ruin my hair for one" she exclaimed, not quite sure where the last part had come from, but it was still valid.
"Ahh, don't worry. I'll protect you and the young pup. But get used to death girl, the universe is full of it. Every planet, sector and galaxy is one big blood-bath waiting to happen. Any Empire getting to full of itself can tell you that. Why, humans where originally-" He was then suddenly cut off by Beth, who started a complete new topic.
"Well, this ought to prove interesting. Nena has procured a Trench coat from somewhere, and looks pretty good in it" She commented hastily, grinning.
"Humans where originally what?" Jane prompted, not wanting to let the comment go.
"Indeed she does. I wonder how they manage to procure clothes out of thin air like that" Taka replied, overtly ignoring Jane. The group was moving at quite the gruelling pace, and so he hoped to get where they were going before Jane cracked him. Jane didn't seem to like being ignored like that, and took a few seconds to concentrate. Didn't Nena say she would be able to do things?
"Answer me, Takanuva" Jane commanded, her voice resonating with power that even the stout wolf man found hard to resist.
"Well, you see, the thing is..." he stuttered, trying his hardest to not reveal what he had accidentally started. Luckily, before he could spit anything out, Sean spoke up loudly.
"Is that your shop? Doesn't look very shop like, does it?" He asked, looking at the warehouse they were being led to.
"Ohh, we can't really afford a shop and a warehouse, but just a shop won't fit all the parts in, so we joined the two ideas together. It worked marvellously" The man replied, obviously having practiced the line.
"Well, aren't you intelligent?" Sean exclaimed, still playing the dopey tourist.
The party was ushered through a relatively small door for the size of the building, and the door was then shut behind them. Inside, there was nearly three dozen men, all with the same merciless, vindictive look.
"I’m no expert, but this doesn't look to be a Hyper-drive store" Sean said, looking around and making a show of not seeing the intentions of the men.
"Yea, well. We are robbing you, so hand over all your money and valuables" The man said bluntly.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that. But, sorry, we don't have many of them. You are welcome to search us, if you want" He replied, his tone very calm, and but had lost the dopey undertone. The now-obvious thief frowned for a second, before jerking his head, clearly the ring leader.
"Well go on then" He prompted, snapping several people out of their daze and making them hurry over to the party, with Sean, Nena and Nehvna being near the front, with a large man, over six foot and covered in scars starting to pat down Sean, not that there was much to pat down. Once the man had finished patting Sean's chest, an odd aura blossomed from Sean, and the man backed away, clearly terrified. But, Sean hadn't done anything, he was just taking the frisk with a smile.
"What the fuck are you doing?" The leader demanded, placing a hand on the large man's back to push him forwards again. Before that could happen, a sickening crunch was heard, followed by a choked gargle. Every eye turned to Nena, who had her hand in the man's chest, ironically very near where the man's own hand still laid, cupped across Nena's considerable breast, and with every intention of giving it a squeeze. When Nena saw everyone else looking at her, she casually pushed the man away, pulling out his heart which was quickly discarded. Jane buried her face into Silverfang's chest, trying to avoid looking at the grotesque sight.
"He groped my boob" she stated simply. While Sean seemed to take it as an acceptable reason, the men in the shop did not. Guns were drawn - much better quality than the ones first displayed - and the thieves glared with hatred. On Sean's side, Taka and Nailah drew their sword, while Taka also withdrew his shield. Beth used the power of glaring, and the Earthlings panicked.
However, out of all of them, the two most resounding reactions where Sean and Nena. Sean drew his giant revolver from its usual place - nowhere - and grinned at the people.
".500 Revolver, hollow-point round. 8 pounds empty, power of a Earth-made Civil era smooth-bore cannon" He read off, a description which disturbed a few of the men, but not all of them. There was no way he could kill them all with five bullets. Nena, after looking at Sean's revolver, and then reached into her trench coat, and brought out a monster of a firearm.
"Ten gauge, triple barrelled leaver action shotgun, incendiary rounds. A hell of a lot of pounds empty, power of...well, probably an Ampyras Main Battle Tank hitting you at 60 miles an hour" Nena exclaimed, directing it more towards Sean than anyone else.
"Dam, I think my E-peen has shrunk three sizes just now" Sean muttered. The brigands seemed very shocked by Nena's new gun, as did Sean's Party, and decided not to give them a chance to fire, releasing a wave of lead at them, some firing automatic rifles, the others semi-auto pistols. However, each and every bullet stopped dead, an inch from Sean, something not even Taka was expecting, since he had raised his shield in defence of Jane and Silver. A near-transparent haze expanded beyond the edge of his shield, but Jane had no time to wonder what it was.
"Oi, that was rude" Sean exclaimed, looking out to the floating field of stationary bullets. The ominous, Fear Aura - as Jane pictured it, considering what it did to the man - expanded from Sean again, and the pupils of every thief dilated, before they dropped, one by one, and didn't move. It seemed like all their organs had stopped working, or something similar.
"Wow" Jane muttered, at the same time as Nena rounded on him, replacing her shotgun.
"Hey! That was cheating, plus, what ever happened to staying stealthy? Every bugger within a million miles would have felt that" She exclaimed, before looking back to the stunned faces of the group, and sighing. "Just, get us out of here" she muttered, shaking her head.
Sean laughed softly, and shook his head. "Anyone who saw that wouldn't be telling anyone, either for now, or forever, depends how strong they are" he replied.
"What the hell was that?" Eliot asked, shaking his head.
"Yea, I'm curious as well" Jane put in.
"I'll tell you later" Sean told them, before turning, replacing his gun, and staring into space. After small while, Jane frowned.
"Has he fallen asleep?" She asked as a large, pitch black hole opened up in front of Sean.
"Na, just making a hole. It’s a whole hole, not half a hole" Sean replied, grinning.
"You expect us to go through that thing?" Jane asked sceptically with a raised eyebrow, to which Sean nodded.
"Yes, I do. And this hole is a she, not a thing. Don't hurt her feelings or she might drop you in a volcano" He commented, nodding approvingly in the direction of the hole. "Or, you might get dropped into some strange other place where this whole thing is just a creation of someone else, a work of literature, to be enjoyed and the person creating this is having a lot of fun making all this stuff up" He droned, but most people had ignored him by this point.
"If someone was making this stuff up, he must be the craziest kind of person" Jane commented before taking the lead and walking up to, and through, the hole. A few seconds of trepidation passed, and a few less than trusting glances where shared, but the rest of the group followed Jane through the hole anyway. Sean then went through last, the hole closing behind him.