Sheetal threw her lighter at Ashoka. The guy wouldn’t shut up. The lighter would have missed Ashoka by a foot, but he shot his hand out and caught the lighter effortlessly and looked at it. Sheetal shot Ashoka a dirty look and Ashoka glared right back at her.
“What’s your problem, girl?”
“I don’t have a problem, boy! You are the one with problems. Narcissistic sociopathic problems.”
“Those are not problems. Those are my character traits. Good ones. The kind that kept you alive right now.” Ashoka flung his hands in the air.
“No, my deodorant and my lighter kept me alive.”
“Really? Me fighting all those enthralled and taking out the woman didn’t save you?”
Sheetal growled “It did but then a blue faced creep wanted to eat me, breast first.”
Ashoka grimaced “Yeah that was creepy. But I had it under control.”
“You had nothing under control.” Sheetal shouted at Ashoka “If I hadn’t gotten my lighter out on time.”
“He would have smacked you. But you would have lived and then I would be on him.”
“Smacked me? And you were okay with that?” Sheetal glared daggers at Ashoka “Wait don’t answer that. I think I already know the answer to that. Thankfully I came up with a plan just in time.”
“A plan to burn the guy’s face off?” Ashoka threw his hands up in the air in frustration.
“He was trying to eat us.” Sheetal spat back.
“Exactly! You think your reactions are normal.”
“Yes!”
Ashoka looked at Sheetal in disgust “You normies are freaks. You act like you are the sensible ones then something happens and you get scared, angry and emotional and do horrible things. When I kill things I don’t go overboard. I don’t blind people and melt their faces. I just kill them. That is because I don’t feel things the way you all do. For me, they are just targets who deserve a clean kill.”
“Clean kill? Clean kill!” Sheetal shouted and pointed at Ashoka “Look at the way you are talking. And, you think I am the one with problems?”
“Yes.” Ashoka looked at Sheetal as if she was insane.
Sheetal opened her mouth and then shut it.
“I am not justifying myself to an…”
“Say it.” Ashoka urged her.
Sheetal growled “You want me to say it?”
“Yes. Say it!”
“An…An…” Sheetal stopped
“Yup, you can’t.” Ashoka responded with a smug smile.
Sheetal eyes widened and in a small voice she asked “Why can’t I swear?”
“You are not special, sweetie.” Ashoka rolled his eyes and then grumbled “Neither can I.”
“What’s going on?” Sheetal’s voice wavered.
“How would I know? You are the one with the big brains.” Ashoka flung his hands up in exasperation.
Sheetal closed her eyes.
“Oh, is the poor little baby going to cry now?” Ashoka needled her.
Sheetal opened her eyes and glared at Ashoka “You are doing this one purpose.”
“What?”
“Annoying me. Keeping me off kilter.”
“No, I am not.” Ashoka lied unconvincingly.
“You are!” Sheetal pointed at Ash’s expression.
“First of all, are you an old British lady that you would use the word kilter? Secondly, yes. Thirdly, you are going to thank me later for this.” Ashoka listed out the three responses on his fingers with his hips cocked to one side.
“I am going to thank you for annoying me?”
Ash cocked his hips to the side and made a heart his hands “Yes. And you will love me for it.”
Sheetal leaned back and didn’t take the bait. Not this time. Not even when he held his Japanese anime girl pose.
Ashoka was dreading this bit. The danger was gone and Sheetal’s adrenaline was coming down. If he didn’t get her emotions up, she would collapse in the middle of nowhere while they were still in danger.
Ash sighed “Dang it. Are you going to shut down on me, now? Or are you just going to vomit? If it's vomit, go ahead. I will just take a step back.”
Sheetal didn’t reply.
Ashoka danced to the glowing orb and pointed at it “Hey look, weird glowing thing. I bet it would make a nice night lamp.”
“It’s a speed shard.” Sheetal replied mechanically.
Ashoka looked down at the thing.
You have found
Speed Shard
Level 1
Integration Possible
“Ah… Okay.” Ashoka shrugged and then looked at his partner “You want it?”
Sheetal didn’t respond.
Ashoka walked to her and after a moment took a knee in front of her “Okay listen to me nerd. The first thing civis do when they get into combat is panic. The second thing they do is scream and shout. Then when the situation ends they are spent and shut down. That is why I have been needling you. And I will continue to do so.”
He waited for a reaction and when he didn’t get one, he continued “You see, you have already panicked, and then you did some more when the blue weirdos showed up. Now you are shutting down. Honestly, it is a wonder that you lasted so long and wonders of wonder, you didn’t piss yourself.”
Sheetal looked at Ashoka.
“Still nothing?” Ashoka asked.
Sheetal just deflated.
Ashoka moved closer “Hey. Hey. Geek! Come on. Say something. Call me an idiot. Do something, just don’t shut down on me.”
Sheetal raised her hand, looked at it.
“Okay? Don’t take this the wrong way but you are looking at your hand like a dumbo. But it's okay if you just want to. I won’t tell anyone. Just…”
Thwack!
Ashoka fell on his butt holding his face. He looked at Sheetal who had landed a thunderous slap on his face and was looking triumphant.
“Hey, that hurt.”
Sheetal groaned in delight “Damn, that felt good!”
Ashoka looked at Sheetal from the ground. He rubbed his face and shrugged “Okay, maybe I deserve that.”
“Yes, you do. Now explain.”
“Explain what?”
“How did you fight those zombies? How did you fight that woman? What do you mean that I died? How do you know how to operate a CNC machine? How did you use my 3D printer to make those grips on your battens? And, here is the most important question, why are you so calm?” Sheetal shot out one question after another.
“Oh, is that all? Do you want to know anything else darling?”
“Yeah, why are you suddenly more gay?”
Ashoka rolled his eyes “Okay. Those are a lot of questions. Let me think.” Ashoka took a moment to gather his thoughts in front of Sheetal’s insistent look.
He began “I am calm because I have been trained to be in dangerous situations. Think Rocky training montage, take out the chicken, and add actual brains to it. That’s how I was trained. In that same training, I was taught how to operate CNC machines and 3D printers. That’s how you make guns by the way. Especially, when you are in a country with corrupt officials. You know, countries like Bhutan.”
“You are a spy.” Sheetal muttered in realisation.
She kept forgetting his background with his over the top words and actions but now she was beginning to realise how he operated.
“No, I am a diplomat. An attaché’ to the Indian consulate. Or I was, before you sucked me into a mad world. And also, I am not gay. I am bi. I am just not down playing it like I do in front of others.”
“Bi?” Sheetal asked in disbelief.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yeah, bi. Like, I don’t care what sex you are, as long as you don’t have big jugs.”
Sheetal’s brain malfunctioned slightly “Jugs?”
“Yeah, tremendous massive jugs!” Ashoka pointed at Sheetal’s breast “Like the udders on your chest. They are like these big sweaty balloons hanging off your torso. They are disgusting.”
Sheetal watched Ashoka actually grimace at her breast. That was a first. Men usually tried to look down her chest. And he was grimacing?
“Okay.” Sheetal exhaled “Noted.”
“You are shutting down again.” Ashoka muttered and continued “I know it is hard but you need to focus on something.”
Sheetal nodded “Yeah, something more meaningful than your strange sexual preferences.”
Ashoka cocked his head to the side “Oh my god. You are a virgin.”
Sheetal pursed her lips “I am not a virgin.”
“Really? What’s your favourite position?”
“Ah, all of them.”
“Uh. Huh.” Ashoka said in a sarcastic tone.
“For your information. I have had three boyfriends.”
“Okay, then you must know what to do with these balls?” Ashoka grinned cheekily while pointing at the shard.
Sheetal looked at him and then at the floating shards “What do you mean? I will consume mine and you can suck on yours.”
“Nice double entendre, girl. If you go on like that I am sure in twenty years you might find someone to unclog your drain.”
Sheetal shoved Ashoka “Move. Just go and get your shard and leave me with mine.”
“Okay, don’t hold my awesome humour against me but can we discuss the shards. I have already got mine. Can we discuss yours?”
“What’s there to discuss? We need the shards to stay alive.”
“Yeah, I know but mine is stupid.”
“You want my shard, don’t you?” Sheetal squinted at Ashoka.
“Maybe?”
“Oh for god's sake. What’s your shard?”
Ashoka muttered something under his breath and flicked the sand with his fingers.
Sheetal watched him transform from the most annoying man she had ever met to a ten your old. She leaned back and asked “What did you say?”
“Puhl Bub.” Ashoka mumbled incoherently.
“Spit it out already.”
Ashoka chuckled and started “That's what she said.”
“Don’t! Just tell me the shards name or we are done with this conversation.”
“Fine.” Ashoka said dejectedly “It’s something called polar force.”
“That’s… That explains a lot.”
“What? No it doesn’t. So it’s polar and it can make ice? We are in a desert, for crying out loud.”
Sheetal blinked “Stop talking you idiot. Everything with polar doesn’t mean cold. It's… Oh why am I even explaining this to you? Just let me look at it.”
“So, I can have the speed shard?”
“Yes.”
“Really? Your’s is better, you know?”
“No. That’s how that woman picked you up.”
“Huh?”
Sheetal rolled her eyes and ordered “Just show it to me.”
Ashoka grinned and made a shard appear in his palm. He threw it at Sheetal and ran to get the speed shard.
He whooped, cheered, and danced “I am going to be fast. I'm going to buzz around and kick so many heads that I am going to make football players envious.”
Sheetal didn’t care. She tuned him out. She only had eyes for the shard spinning in her hand between hues of green and red. Back home shards barely pulsed. Here it was alive and zinging her fingers as it hovered just over her palm.
You have found a shard.
Polar Forces
Level 1
Integration Possible
Sheetal licked her lips and looked sideways at the box that had just opened up. It was asking her to put the shard just below her navel. Sheetal began to bring the shard to her midsection and then stopped.
What in the world was she doing? She was actually going to put something unknown inside her body. She was a scientist. She needed to test this thing out before she should even consider doing something with a glowing ball of plasma.
“Yeah baby!”
Sheetal looked up and saw Ashoka do a backflip and land on his feet.
“What?” She asked.
Ashoka looked at her and asked “Did I do that fast? Was I a blur?”
“Uh… No.”
Ashoka looked confused and then got a distant look in his eyes “Oh dang it! It says it needs to integrate before it is active.”
“You put it in already?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because it could be unsafe.”
Ashoka stopped and looked at her with an open mouth “Ah… Well I didn’t think of that. And I put it in my spine.” he shrugged “Feels pretty okay to me. But what if it gives me a tail? Do I have a tail?”
Ashoka spun around trying to look behind him.
Sheetal flung her hand up in the air “You don’t have a tail.”
Ashoka stopped and looked at her “Oh. Thank god?”
“Why would it give you a tail? Actually, I don’t want to know. Just tell me how it feels?”
Ashoka cocked his head to the side and thought about the answer for a moment “Uh… It doesn’t feel like anything.”
“What happens when it integrates?”
Ashoka’s shoulders drooped “It’s telling me that I need to read a manual to operate the speed shard. And I have to buy it using a creck.”
Sheetal saw Ashoka look sideways again and quickly started “Hold on. Don’t…”
“Aaaaooow!”
Ashoka held his head and squatted down into the dark desert sand.
“You clown. You did it, didn’t you? Well? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I am okay. It was just like a brain freeze.”
“A brain freeze?”
“You know when you have a half frozen mobster energy drink in a gulp? It was like that but instead of filling me with caffeine it left me with instructions, no, lessons, let’s just call it knowledge.”
“Knowledge? Like what?”
Ashoka opened his eyes and looked at Sheetal and in a bad Keanu Reeves impression answered “I know kung fu.”
“Oh I see. So you are still a dumb fud. So you are okay.”
“Hey! That’s hurtful.”
Sheetal smiled to herself and took in a breath. Then before she could overthink, she brought the shard to her navel. As it came closer the shards began to spin faster and faster and then with a suction it disappeared into her.
Analyzing.
You have consumed a Polar Force Shard.
Please choose a warder structure -
* Linear.
* Constellation.
* Ribboned.
Sheetal quickly went through the warder structures. Linear like the name suggested was a line and the most basic one common to warders and something called ascendents. Ribboned was an overcomplicated mess on intersecting spirals. She disregarded that immediately. Constellation was an empty space where she could put shards in like stars.
Congratulation you have chosen Constellation
Please wait while it is integrated.
Congratulations Warder.
You have taken the first step towards Ascension.
To know more about the shard and how to operate it please read the Polar Force shard Manual.
Buy the Polar Force Shard manual (Basic)?
Price - 1 Creck
Yes/No?
Sheetal gritted her teeth and hit yes.
Everything started slow. At first she felt words, thoughts and concepts stream into her head. Some she knew, others were new. Then there were others that were twisted on their heads. But on closer inspection they all began to make sense to her. When that was done, she was inundated with equations that morphed into geometrical shapes and concepts. Sheetal soaked it all in and was looking forward to more when the stream of knowledge abruptly ended.
Sheetal opened her eyes and saw Ashoka looking at her.
“What?”
“You were smiling? Why were you smiling?”
“Because, I know a little bit about how a planet works now.”
Ashoka rolled his eyes “Sounds boring.”
Sheetal grinned and then her eyes caught an insistent blinking to the side of her vision. It was the ball. It was blinking angrily. She looked at it and it expanded into a pop up window..
Please choose a name.
Names are important and have meaning, Warder.
Choose one wisely.
Sheetal began adding her name and stopped when the limit was reached.
“Why?”
A notification at the bottom of her vision responded to her words.
Warders initiates must start with a new identity. You have three character blocks. You have reached the limit of the characters assigned to you. You add more alphabets, numericals, or special characters when you earn a character block.
“Hey, She? What's wrong?”
“This thing is not letting me add my name?”
“Oh, that.”
Sheetal looked at Ash sharply and realised that she had thought of him as Ash “You too?”
“Yeah. It's cool though. As someone once said, what's in a name?”
“It’s my name!”
Ash raised his hands “Fine! Fine. Don’t go all laser beam eyes on me. Talk to the computer. I didn’t do anything.”
Sheetal sighed. He was right. She needed to see what this computer thing in their head wanted. How did it even get in there? Did it have some setting that she could exploit? She looked back the window.
Congratulation She
You have consumed a Level 1 shard.
Shard Type Polar Force
Category 1
You have unlocked an ability.
Hover.
This is a movement ability.
Allows shard host to hover from one place to another.
Sheetal looked out her screen in shock and mumbled “This can not be possible.”
“Uh… She?”
“Not now.”
Sheetal was annoyed and disgusted with the ability. She had a polar forces shard. The forces that governed every magnetic and electrical force on a planet. And this thing could only help her hover? She was not going to take this.
Ash shook her and looked past her at the desert.
“Umm… She, we need to go.”
“Why?” Sheetal shouted.
New Mission
Evade Capture
You have eliminated scouts of the Rakshasa Empire. Their superiors have sent out beasts to investigate the cause of their absence. Evade the beasts and the party following them.
Rewards -
10 Crecks
2 Character Blocks
Sheetal turned to her partner and his new name popped into her mind. Ash. It wasn’t just a name, it was a taste of charred something on her palate.
“You have an ability, right? Please tell me its something good.”
“It’s called Run.”
“Seriously, you had a speed shard and it gave you ‘Run’?”
Ash tore his eyes of the distant sand dunes and looked down at her “Yeah, its perfect because we really need to run.”
Sheetal looked at Ash and his stern expression and asked “What’s going on Ash.”
There, again, something had made her say that name. The same something that was stopping her from cursing.
Aawoooo!
“What was that?” Sheetal asked.
“Dogs. No. Angry dogs.”
She’s eyes widened and she looked at the dark desert. She couldn’t see anything but Ashoka had been able to see and feel things from the shards so maybe he could sense the must
She closed her eyes and reached inwards.
“She?”
Something cracked and unfolded deep inside her soul. With deep breath She used all the knowledge the manual had fed into her and as she released it a charge flowed from her core into her extremities. The sense was unusual and yet familiar. Familiar like the back of her screwdriver.
“She!” Ash ran to the back of her wheelchair and began digging its wheels out.
She opened her eyes and pushed against the charge all around her. Something below her belly responded and sparks flew out of her skin.
Ash scampered back “What the?”
He looked from her to the chair and back. She twirled to look at him and then her eyes flashed. A streak of lightning flew out of her and into the sky.
Garumb!
With squinted eyes he looked at She as the glow from her body subsided. Ash looked at her for a second and nodded in appreciation as Sheetal floated in the air.
“She. That’s fire and all but you just announced to everyone exactly where we are. And now, we really need to go.”
Sheetal scowled “I thought you were going to stop annoying me.”
“Fine! I lied.”
Aawoooo!
There it was again. And this time the howl was closer.
Aawoo! Aawoooooo!
Two more howls joined the first one and Ashoka looked at the shifting sand on the nearest sand dune.
Ash reached out to grab Sheetal’s wheelchair and thought better.
“Are you going to electrocute me?”
She heard something scrambling nearby and looked. As her head moved, her body followed her motions slowly. She tried to stop her turn and only resulted in slowing herself.”
Ash sighed “You have no sense of preservation, do you?”
Shel yelped “Is that a wolf?”
“Oh, you mean the one of the sand dunes?”
“Is there another one?”
“Yes. The one behind you?”
Shetaal turned the other way and slowly started turning.
“Why are they wolves here?”
“They are not wolves, They are dogs. Four feet tall and two feet wide giant dogs. They ever have collars on their necks.”
Sheetal finally got a look at the dog under the light from the galaxy of stars above them and began to move away from the mutated mut. It wasn’t fast but it was something.
Ashoka took a step and waited with an unamused look. Sheetal finally drifted past him.
“They have collars?”
“I just said so.”
“Wild dogs don’t have collars, Ash. Why do they have collars?” Sheetal in a panicking voice asked.
“Because dogs don’t belong in the desert. These dogs must be domesticated. I bet they are pets of the Nishachars. You know the people we killed.”
“You killed. I just defended myself.” Sheetal shot back.
“Yeah, try explaining it to them.”
Sheetal turned to glare at Ash and saw another one of the mutated monstrosities past him. The moonlight illuminated the creature for a moment, and She saw the large dog things chewing on something. It turned its strangely luminated eyes on her and Sheetal squeaked.
“There’s another one. This one has dark matted fur and red streaks on its face.”
Ash casually turned towards the creature and responded in a lower tone “Those are not red streaks. That is blood. It’s from the arm it is chewing on but that’s not the bad part.”
“That's not a bad part. Then what is?”
“That I recognise the camo on that arm. It’s from one of our guys.”
She gulped and then turned to look at Ashoka “Ash, what are we going to do?”
“First you are going to answer my question?”
“What question!?”
“If I touch you, are you going to electrocute me?”
“Oh? Not if I lower the volts.”
“Good.”
“They are giant dogs, Ash. There is nothing good about this.”
“She. Dogs don’t belong in the desert. They can’t survive in it. They need water, food and better ground to run in. So don’t panic.” Ash explained in a calm voice
“Have you seen them? They don’t look perturbed.”
“Of course I have seen them. I have been seeing them for a while now. Then you did the lightning thing and then they saw us.”
Sheetal snapped “Well if you told me about them earlier, I would have kept it down.”
“The computer thing told you. I didn’t think I needed to.” Ash snapped back.
Ash took in a breath to calm himself “Okay, they have this smoky stuff all over them. You know, like the night stalkers, only different.”
“Wait do you mean?”
“I mean that these dogs belong to the nishachars? They have the same aura or something. The one the earlier Nishachars had. The one that I could see and prepare so that I could fight them.”
“And that helps us how?”
“I don’t see that aura anywhere behind them. And these doggos are just standing there. Waiting for their masters. That means we have a chance.”
“Wait, does that mean you knew that we were going to be ambushed, and you left me alone at the mercy of that cannibal?”
“First of all, they weren’t cannibals. Whatever they were, they weren’t human. Secondly, I knew you were going to be okay. Your guy was a talker. Talker’s need to convince themselves to kill.”
Sheetal glared at him.
“What!? You had a screwdriver. You were going to be okay.”
“Do us both a favour. Don’t make plans next time.” Sheetal fired back.
Ash looked back and then at her “What if I said, I have a plan right now?”
She glared at him and then relented “What is your plan?”
Ash looked back “I will run ahead and look for the soldier's gun or something. Run back and when I am at my top speed I will shoot it at the dogs.”
“That is a horrible plan. What if you can’t find a gun?”
“I will find a rock.”
“That’s even worse. We are in a desert. It is full of sand. Not rocks. And that doesn’t even cover the fact, what happens if you miss?”
“I don’t miss, She!” Ash responded in an offended voice.
“And what about me?”
“You can slowly float here until I get back. The dogs are not in a hurry. They must have trained them. They won’t pounce just yet. They are waiting for their owners. Also, it looks like they are full. So, they will save you for their breakfast. They’ve already had dinner.”
She turned sharply to face ash and spun “Stop being annoying and making stupid plans.”
“My plan is not stupid.”
“Yes, it is. First of all, how can you be sure that these things won’t attack me as soon as you run?”
“Because they are hunters. They hunt. They will run after me, not you.”
“So, you are going to sacrifice yourself for me?”
Ashoka snorted “Heck no. I am going to kill them before they can even get within a meter of me.”
“That is if you get a gun.”
“Or rocks.” Ash added.
“Really? Do you see any rocks?”
“Um… They must be rocks here and there.”
“Yeah, buried six or seven feet under the sand you dunce! They are heavier sand. They sink.”
“Hey, you cursed. It wasn’t that good but…” Ashoka leaned back as Sheetal glared at him with angry eyes.
Shel growled “Just shut up and let me make the plan this time?”
Ashoka stopped next to her and spat out “Fine! What’s your plan?”
She looked at the three dogs slowly making their way down the sand dunes on both sides of their position and gulped.
She hovered behind Ashoka and grabbed Ash with both hands. One around his bony collar bone and the other around his chest.
“Now you run and drag me.”
Ash took a step and turned his head in surprise. “That’s your plan?”
“Yes.”
Ash bent his knee to take Sheetal’s weight, but it wasn’t there. In fact, he felt lighter. He looked down at his feet and saw the sand firming around his feet.
“Um… How did you do that?”
“Polar forces are electrostatic in nature. They exert a force that can bond and unbond atoms and molecules if the charge is right.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It exerts pressure.”
Ash took a step to get his balance and muttered mimicking Sheetal “Electrostatic nature. Bonding atoms. how would anyone who is not a nerd understand that?”
Shel grinned and shot back “All you need to do is think and learn, you know. But I know it’s hard for you. After all, you don’t like to think.”
“Ash looked at her from the corner of his eye “Did you just try to insult me?”
“Tried? I did insult you.”
“Seriously? Well, at least you are not thinking about the dogs stalking us.”
“You know. Thank you for bringing that up again you…you… Japanese cartoon wannabe.”
“It’s called anime. And please stop. You are not good at this thing.” Ashoka responded in a flat voice.
“Oh, and you can do better with this age restricted speech nonsense?”
“Hey, She, do you see any horns on the dogs stalking us?”
She turned to the nearest dog who had stood up from where it was sitting on the top of a sand dune. It was glaring down at them and was all ready to give them a chase.
She gulped and squeaked “No.”
“Oh, thank the heavens. We are saved.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you look like a subway for old horny dogs.”
Sheetal blinked and then hit Ash on his shoulder “Ash, I will find a way to punt you in your, avocadooooos!”
Sheetal's voice turned into a scream as Ashoka began to run and she heard a throaty chuckle erupt from his chest.
“You, ash hole.”
Ashoka responded with obnoxious laughter “Oh, it's on now, She. It's so on.”