Chapter Six: The First Daughter

A horrible smell wafted in from the door and Jane clenched her nose in disgust.

"That is horrible, the first place you take me in a cesspool?" She asked, pinching her nose to stop the smell from getting in, Beth on the other hand smiled, seemingly undisturbed by the smell. Balance, however, was not so immune, and wrinkled his nose.

“Not even the Kabals could sleep through this stench” he commented, wafting his hand in front of his nose.

"Well this is not where we are stopping - you should have been out for this part - but Sean had to make a quick stop to pick someone up" She told Jane, the rest of the people in Eliot's house appeared to be waking up - something Satyr noted with interest - and gathering around the door, trying to find out what the horrid smell was and what a new planet was like. Several of the people on the street where looking into the house with mixed emotions, greed and lust where the predominant ones but they quickly scurried away as Balance appeared in the doorway.

"This is not the safest of places to be, we should find Sean quickly and move on" Balance suggested in a tone that sounded more like an order than a suggestion.

"Yes, your right. Let's go" Beth said with a sigh, stepping out of the house with everyone else in tow.

"Wait" Jane said, stopping in her tracks "Where are Nehvna and Avrion?" she asked, not wanting to leave them alone in the house in this place.

"Don't worry about them, no one could get into that house and they probably went back to sleep as they were woken up by the car, just let them sleep a while" Beth said, continuing to walk away from the house. Jane's stomach growled and Balance pulled a sandwich from his pocket, how it had gotten there - and how it had stayed in such a pristine condition - was beyond Jane but she was happy for the food so she took it from him with a quick "Thanks" and bit into it, the sandwich tasted so good and it filed her up a fair bit. She guessed that it was more of the weird stuff that had been going on so much recently and decided not to think any more of it. Silverfang broke off from the pack and moved down to Jane at the back. He smiled softly at her as she ate the sandwich.

"How are you holding up?" He asked, referring to all the craziness that had happened.

"I'm doing alright" she replied, finishing her sandwich and taking his hand, a smile appeared on her own lips as she walked down the street with her Silverfang. The only thing that made this scenario bad was the terrible smell and leers of passerbys. "I hate how they are looking at me" Jane said to Silverfang quietly, clutching to his arm tighter.

"Don't worry, I will protect you" He said, secretly he liked how Jane clung to him, Jane - for her part - realized that she was pressed tightly to him and blushed.

"Where are we going Beth?" She asked to change the subject before it got too much for her to handle.

"To Sean, we are going to meet up with him and then get off this place, I just hope he has done what he needs to do by the time we get there" Beth told Jane, before slightly picking up the pace. The small band walked along the road and nine out of ten people glared at them or leered in some way, Jane got used to it eventually as it just became common place. Eventually they arrived at a large and sinister looking building, Beth was not put off by the look and opened the door, the sounds of gunshots echoed from within so she shut the door again.

"He isn't done yet" She said simply, as un-put-off by the gunshots as the sinister look of the building. The rest of the group however had varied reactions, Eliot and Silverfang looked shocked, Jane looked shocked but also looked accepting, as if it was just par with how her life had been going so far and Balance looked as if he had seen this situation far too many times.

"Those…those…those where gunshots!" Eliot eventually managed to shout, getting over his surprise and managing to be vocal again.

"Yep, they were, one of the two things you get when you fire a gun, the other being a bullet" Beth said sarcastically, leaning against the building with a sigh. While Eliot was panicking and Silverfang was trying to look protective Jane looked up at the sign above the building. The letters where in some foreign alien language but somehow Jane knew what they said.

"The Human House?" She read aloud, making the tone into a questioning tone. Beth was shocked at the speed in which Jane was progressing and Balance had to speak up before she noticed.

"Yes, it is a place where people are sold to other people - the name is just a base translation, it doesn't exclusively sell humans - one of the many stains on this planet" he explained, scorn entering his voice at the end of it. Whatever reply Jane was going to make was cut off by Silverfang, who had begun sniffing the air.

"Is that…smoke?" He asked, causing the others to sniff the air as well. Beth sighed and started counting.

"Five…four…three" as she got to zero the doors crashed open and Sean walked out, a large revolver in each hand and a tall, green haired girl next to him, she looked about eighteen or so and was wearing ragged, old clothing.

"I hate the clothes these places give you, so itchy" The green haired girl said, scratching herself in several places, the sub-standard clothes appeared to strain against the girl's large breasts and looked as if it was going to split at any moment.

"Well, Nena, you will get yourself into these messes" Sean said, a large amount of smoke pouring throughthe building behind him and the fire not far behind. "Now, if no one objects I suggest we move on before we all burn to death" He said cheerfully, discarding the revolvers and stalking off down the street without waiting for anyone.

The green haired girl - Nena, Sean had called her - walked off after him. A man leered obviously at her large breasts and so Nena swiftly head-butted him and carried on.

"Do you know her?" Jane asked Beth as the rest of the people carried on at a slower rate so they didn't seem to be a part of the same group.

"Ohh yes, I know all about Nenatalev" Beth said smiling but not revealing anything else despite Jane's repeated probing.

Sean strolled into the 'Human House' and looked around. It took quite a bit of constraint not to pull out the obscenely large .500 revolver he had in his jacket and start firing off rounds at everyone in the building. He really hated these places and the only reason he was blending in was before if he started on a rampage right now was that he was not sure what he was looking for was actually here, and would never find it if he started just randomly killing instead of waiting. He was intercepted by a man - all smiles and fine clothes - who led him to a large hall, the sign marked it the 'Auction hall' and Sean knew this was where he was going to find her. He was led to an empty seat and given a handle with a number painted on it, then instructed to raise the handle when he wished to buy the person appearing on the stage. Sean forced a smile and thanked the man, it was the hardest thing he had done in a while. But then he made up for it by thinking about how he was going to set fire to this place and mercilessly massacre everyone who took part in this heinous market.

The auction started and Sean gritted his teeth as people were dragged onto the stage and the man announced what race they were, what planet they came from and if they were famous or not. With his deep green eyes he could see the fear, anguish and unbridled horror on most of the people's faces. One man however, did not have any of that. He had the face of a man who was not going to give in to the overwhelming odds he was faced with and would stand defiant until his life was extinguished. The man was introduced as 'Captain Zann of the Khani military' which peaked Sean's interest.

The Khani where old friends of his and he couldn't allow such a man to be bought. He was going to blow the hell out of everyone anyway, but it was a principle thing, little more than that. He raised his handle - feeling very dirty at doing so; regardless of the reason he was doing it - and another man in the crowd raised his. Sean had to raise his own four more times before his opponent gave up, deeming the man too expensive. A thought occured that Sean should have pulled that for all of them, but it was in the past now.

The auction went on until it came to the last one. The 'best for last' as the announcer said and then a girl - barely 18 by the looks of her - was dragged on stage. The chains where very thick, the handcuffs and ankles reduced her movement speed to a crawl and she nearly fell over when the chain around her neck was yanked, dragging her on stage. The announcer appealed to the crowd a bit with his rather effluent skills before telling them who she is.

"This one, our greatest catch in a decade, is Nenatalev Woodhouse. She is known to be one of the much sort after Deimos and a prize for any collector. She will be difficult to tame, but we believe that it is worth the challenge to have one of these rare beauties. Bidding starts at 100 million" He announced.

Sean thought that was quite a good price, considering her flaws. But then the seller wouldn't tell them until they had received none-refundable payment. At any rate, Sean now saw who he had come for and stood up. A few people behind him complained that their bidding sticks would not be visible, as many people where raising their own sticks in hopes of bagging this magnificent opportunity.

Sean, however, had a different idea. He drew the revolver from his jacket and fired it at the announcer; the mammoth round flew from the barrel of the equally mammoth revolver with hollowpoint rounds, just in case getting hit by nearly a hundred and fifty grams of bullet wasn't enough to blow a person apart. Overkill was invented for these kinds of people.

However, it never made impact, as the bullet smashed into a protective shield, a red ripple flung out around the impact area before dissipating. Sean had expected something like that and so had fired the bullet with expectations of failure, now his expectations had been met; he had properly gauged the gaps in the shield. He stomped the ground and a stalagmite ripped out of the wooden stage that the announcer and Nenatalev where standing on, ascending upwards until it caught on Nena's handcuffs. Nena quickly gripped the stalagmite and her whole body started glowing a deep earthen green. She then quickly parted her hands - the cuffs that where restricting her movement snapped like wet paper - she then parted her feet and they followed in the footsteps of their wrist-kin, pieces of chain scattered across the stage as she reached up and pulled the metal collar off.

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Sufficiently de-chained, Nena turned to the announcer with a smile. It was clear she was going to kill him from the smile, and enjoy the act immensely. The man pulled a gun from his coat - it was a very small gun compared to Sean's - and fired it at Nena. Either he was a poor shot or Nena moved out of the way of every bullet, since she was not hit once on her slow approach. His cylinder ran dry just as Nena arrived at him.

"I don't like being chained like that. I think I'll show you what happens to people that try" she told the announcer, punching him in the ribs. The force of the punch rippled through his entire torso and rib shards ripped their way through his opposite side, killing him quickly and very, very painfully.

She watched the man crumple to the floor and smiled, glad that another one of them was not to see the light of day again, they would be more, there always was more, but this one at least was finished. She then stretched, the chains had cramped her muscles and it felt good to give them some exercise again. With her business out of the way, she looked over to the audience stand and saw her dad, firing his gun into the crowd, shooting security and patrons alike. He was also splaying his free hand and stamping the ground, balls of compact earth where smashing into several people, stalagmites where hewing threw dozens of patrons with a single rupture and large walls rose up, then fell down again, crushing even more people under its stony embrace.

A group of people reached the door and the man at the head frantically reached for the handle, but as his hand gripped it sharp spikes fired out, impaling the fleeing patrons. Nena had not seen Sean do such a vindictive thing like that in quite a while and that look in his father's eyes was not something she had seen often. It was determination and hatred, two things that did not suit Sean in any way. The hatred was understandable - even for Sean, despite his usually calm demeanour - but that determination to end life for someone that worshipped Gaia and respected all life, was unnerving. But then, worship was a strong word, it was rather more respectful acknowledgment. However, it was still scary to see him go all out like this. Nena sighed, she needed to get in there and start lightening the load, so he could get back to his smiles quicker. Nena didn't want his father to be like this, it was not right. She may have claimed to dislike him, and tried to show that dislike in everything she did, but sub-consciously she cared for him. He was her father after all.

Nena approached the shield and looked at it, this close she could see a faint crackle in front of her, so she punched it. The red ripple flung out from the point of impact again, but the shield failed to maintain itself under this impact and so it shattered. Nena heard the generator explode from behind the stage, which made sure that the shield really was down.

She hopped off the stage and slightly-faster-than-walked over to Sean; however by the time she had gotten there nobody was left alive. He had drawn a second mammoth revolver and added a second gun to his lead wall of death, mowing down the people before Nena could get to him.

"Well, that was…bracing" Nena said as Sean smiled, but it lacked any warmth.

"Just wait, it gets better" He told her, twelve red glyphs appeared around him and then flew away, slapping themselves onto the walls of the building. "Well, then. Time to go" he said, dropping the sheen on the door and kicking it open, he still held his two revolvers in his hands and Nena saw the reason why as a few security guards that were locked out of the Auction Room ran at him. Sean fired his two guns at them and they impact caused the areas where the bullets hit them to explode.

She then heard the activation of the glyphs in the auction room and could immediately smell the smoke, thick and acrid as it roared through the building. Sean didn't seem to care about the fire or the dead bodies he stepped over as he walked towards the front door, when he had arrived there he kicked open the door and looked at the confused, somewhat scared looks of the group surrounding the now burning Human House. Nena decided to defuse the situation with an off-hand comment.

"I hate the clothes these places give me, they are so itchy" She said, scratching herself to further reinforce her point. Sean picked up on what she was doing and decided to throw his bit in.

"Well, Nena, you will get yourself into these messes" Sean said, the building was really going up in flames now and so he added some more. "Now, if no one objects I suggest we move on before we all burn to death" He said cheerfully - a disconcerting thought considering what he had just done - discarding the revolvers and stalking off down the street without waiting for anyone.

Sean and Nena had a considerable head start on the rest of the group and it took them a fair amount of time to arrive at the house, when they did they heard the sounds of a shower coming from a bathroom that did not exist when they set out, which must have meant that Sean had been doing his odd stuff again. Jane entered first and decided to make a joke, since Sean was looking a bit down; he had another cup of tea in his hands, which was half empty. She was sure they were not that far behind, but then he was strange so it was possible.

"So you can do pluming then?" Jane jokingly asked.

"Yep, I’m also Italian" He replied, equally as jokefully. He was obviously not going to let anyone see how he was really feeling and so was covering up with jokes.

"Well then go jump on Shadow's head" Beth told him, rather exasperated with his antics. Beth didn't seem to catch on to Sean's mood, or probably thought that Sean couldn't feel down, that he was simply immune to negative emotions. Sean could wear a person out just by being more than a ten mile run. Jane laughed at Beth's comment, she wasn't usually so grumpy. It must be her brother.

"So, is this that Klass person's planet?" Silverfang asked, hoping it wasn't.

"Nope" Sean replied, making Silverfang sigh in relief. "I just had to pick up my daughter, she is a nightmare sometimes but hey, she is family" He continued, shrugging casually. However casual he was acting, Jane was staring at him with a look of pure shock.

"You have a daughter?" she asked, nearly screeching in surprise.

"Yes, I have a daughter, hell I have three daughters. Why is everyone surprised to learn that? I am a lot of other things, and no one is surprised to hear them. Well, most of them. And mostly not surprised" Sean replied in comically annoyed tone.

"I don't know any of the other things!" Jane shouted.

"Well then, stop shouting" Sean told her softly before draining his cup and throwing it over his shoulder; it sank into the wall and vanished a few seconds later. Jane looked like she was getting ready to throw another crazy shouting fit but Silverfang stepped in.

"So, how did that hallway and shower, get here?" He asked, changing the subject and trying to control Jane who had suddenly developed a temper.

"I made it, the shower as well. Not very complex really, just convinced reality that there was a hallway and shower there" Sean said with a nonchalant tone as if what he had just said made perfect sense.

"You….you convinced reality?" Silverfang repeated, not quite sure that was what Sean had said. After all, it made no sense at all to say you convinced reality of something.

"Well of course I convinced reality, who else am I going to convince? Chaoz sucks at plumbing, unlike me" Sean told Silverfang, piquing Eliot's previously uninterested curiosity.

"Who's Chaos?" He asked Sean, who raised a finger.

"It isn't Chaos, it is Chaoz. More of a zed towards the end rather than an ess" Sean told Eliot, pronouncing his name more clearly.

"But that just makes no sense at all" Eliot replied, Sean simply shrugged.

"I don't make up the rules. Or rather I do, but I don't make them make sense" Sean said, shrugging again before walking over to a couch and lying down.

"There is no time to be lying around Sean, we have a ship to catch" Beth told him, causing him to groan. He sighed and got up from the couch.

"Fine, let's go" he said, heading to the door. Balance coughed to get everyone's attention.

"Are you forgetting someone?" He asked. A look of realization slowly dawned on Sean's face.

"Ohh yea. Nena. Forgot about her" Sean laughed as the shower cut off. Nena walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed and with shining, slightly wet hair. The hallway closed off when Nena exited it as if it had never existed. Everyone didn’t seem as shocked at the sudden disappearance of the hallway however, like they were getting used to the rampant disregard for normality.

"We off then?" She asked, flicking her hair out of the shirt she had pulled over it and joining the group.

"We are" Sean confirmed, opening the door and ushering everyone out before shutting the door behind him.

The walk to the Space port was stinky but otherwise uneventful, people usually avoided a large group on this planet - Nena’s glares reinforced this avoidance - aside from Nehvna and Avrion catching up to the group and grumbling about being left behind.

Sean snapped his fingers and announced that he knew he had forgotten something then blamed Beth for not reminding him. She shrugged and replied it that it was not her responsibility to act as his memory. As the group arrived at their ship - a rather small thing, designed to carry only a few dozen people at most - a mountain of a man was waiting there for them and a tall, but not nearly as large man was stood next to him.

"Hey Niall, come to see us off?" Sean asked, smiling, to which Niall nodded.

"Not exactly, I am coming with you. I got Orders from Her" He said, before gesturing to the small ship behind him.

"Her 'aye? Well, that's cool, but how are we all going to fit in that?" He asked, to which Niall stared for a few seconds, and then deflated.

"I have no idea. My apologies" He told Sean, who waved his concerns away.

"It's cool, I'll contact Scarlet, see what she can do for us" Sean replied. He then looked to Nena, and smiled in what he tried to make a fatherly smile"So, how's school?" Sean asked Nena awkwardly, his skills rather lacking in this sort of thing.

"How's school? How's school?! We haven't seen each other in nearly a thousand years and you ask the crappiest, most overused and over-rated question in the entirety of creation! If you ever cared to take notice of my life, I finished school a long time ago" She shouted at him, getting off all the frustrations she had since the last time she saw her father. The rest of them tried to make themselves scarce as the shouting began, leaving the two to get on with it.

"Well I was just trying to break the ice. I suck that that sort of thing, usually I am great at breaking things which makes this a lot more difficult to understand" Sean replied, shrugging. Nena simply sighed exasperated and walked off. "Try not to get captured again" Sean called after her.

"Try not to go on another murdering spree" she shouted back, feeling bad as soon as she had said it, but there was nothing to do, so she simply stormed into the space-port. Sean then looked at Balance, who had been eyeing him as if he wanted to ask something but didn't want to interrupt the family chat.

"What are you planning?" Balance asked, causing Sean to smile.

"A more apt question is what am I not planning, which would be breakfast tomorrow" He paused for a few seconds before continuing. "I have decided. Pancakes" he told Balance, who shook his head in despair.

"I'm going to do stuff" Balance told Sean vaguely. before he faded from view, simply not being there a few seconds later.