I, Propitiator: "Chapter 19"

Chapter 19

When love is perfected, fear cannot co-exist with it. Remember that love generates light and fear resides in the darkness which has lost its power.

Oliver dived out of the way of the oncoming beast. Of all things to deal with in a ship, why did it have to be Zurui and Terrans at the same time? Zurui turned his horse around and charged at David. David shot at the horse, but had to also dodge as Zurui simply deflected the shots away with his whip-like staff. Oliver then said, “Let the armor of the Ies always be sufficient for me.”

A helmet of light formed around Oliver, next a chained set of panels made also of light covered his chest. From there armor formed around his waist and legs, completed off by cleats that were also made of light, allowing him to dig into the ground despite the metal floor. From there, the tipir illumined all the room all the more as the shield of energy surround Oliver. Zurui charged at Oliver and swinging his whip at Oliver, but Oliver did not move, just  blocking the strike, then as the horse was about to trample him, Oliver sliced out its legs and rolled under it, cutting its belly before shooting again at Zurui. David began to lay down crossfire, So Zurui attempted to shoot a replica of himself at David, but the shield around Oliver interfered, distorting the energy clone into a money. The monkey flew across the room at David, screaming with an insane laughter. It was like someone took the cackle Kakios had made earlier, upped the octave and crossed that sound with a screeching pterodactyl. David ran as he covered his ears to stop the sound from blowing out his ears. Oliver ran toward Zurui, and Zurui decided to run out into the hallway, so as Oliver followed, David was stuck battling the monkey that had just flew at him.

Now you may not think a energy monkey is really all that dangerous until you realize that he tipir that David was using had no effect on the monkey since it was altered by the same sort of energy that fueled David’s staff. So putting his tipir away, David prepared to fight the monkey using a mix of martial arts. David raised his arms, like a crane, but then as the monkey near, David turned his wing-like arms into razors as he struck down at the creature. This however was a mistake, for the monkey used his prehensile tail to grab onto the incoming attack, raise himself closer to David and attempted to maul his face. David used a roundhouse kick to knock the creature off his head. Then as the monkey ran back at him, he used a sweeping kick to try to inflict more damage. However the monkey leaped up and grabbed onto David’s hair trying to inflict more damage by straining his neck. David went with the pull though and rolled back ward, rolling over the monkey and effectually killing the annoying thing.

Meanwhile, Zurui and Oliver kept locking staves in an array of alternating strikes. A few times Oliver had tried to shoot at Zurui while they’re staves were locked, but Zurui managed to always dodge them or use the staff that wasn’t locked to block the shots. This continued to frustrate Oliver as the battle dragged on. David ran out into the hallway and shot a series of shots directly at Zurui. This however was to no real advantage because Zurui countered with another wave of energy that seriously compromised the structural integrity of the hallway as well as knock Oliver back a little. So seeing that Both David and Oliver were in the hallway and it was nearing collapse, Zurui sliced at a few supporting beams and ran down a different corridor.

Gabriela finally received a transmission back from the A.R.S. Zoelight, however when she called Oliver and received no answer, she realized he was in danger. So she had Ensign Kasana cover her position then teleported to Moms location.  David was laying on the bed in the room, apparently a falling beam had dealt a serious blow to his head and taken him out of the battle for the moment. Gabriela would have teleported over to Oliver, however, Zurui had adapted his staff so that if you were in close proximity to him, teleportation didn’t work very well. For this reason Oliver was the only one that had managed to teleport next to him because it was a random gap in the field, while no other help had come. So Gabriela ran through the hallways, trying to cut Zurui off before he got to wherever he was really trying to go.

At this same moment, Zurui kept firing shots behind him to slow Oliver down as he ran through the hallways. Eventually, he darted into the room Cheyenne was sleeping. Zurui looked at Cheyenne then he looked at me, and sealed the door behind him. Finally he ran to grab Cheyenne, so reason drew truth from my lips, saying, “Love protects, always hopes and comes to our rescue.”

My tipir glowed in the full assortment of colors possible as it cut under Zurui, then shot a variety of objects at him, like ninja stars, kunai, arrows, etc. then as Zurui was in midair, he moved his whip around and under him as if it were a jump rope, knocking most of the shots away. However, an arrow managed to snag the hem of his cape and fasten itto the ceiling. Zurui swung his whip and severed his own cape as he fell to the ground he also rolled toward Cheyenne. Before my mind could think of the next words to say that would cause the tipir to properly attack Zurui, he grabbed Cheyenne and teleported back to wherever he had come from, leaving behind a note.

Gabriela stopped min the middle of the hallway, realizing Zurui had left thanks to my telepathy, she then scanned the area of space in close teleportation range with a special device called a contrashadow reader and pinpointed the location of the enemy ship. She teleported over to Zurui’s ship just before they raised shields. When we had managed to get a lock on the ship, it jumped into hyperspace and was effectively out of range.

Cassandra screamed throughout the whole ship, “What?!? How can she be gone?”

Oliver read the note Zurui had left us as soon as he took it from my hand. He then said, “It sounds like the Kentallian Orb that Zurui was after is actually something inside Cheyenne.”

Mom squinted at the screen and then slapped her forehead. “Oh the Kentallian Orb! This whole time it didn’t register to me. It’s a rare development in about one in five billion Ies ever develop this.”

“Mom, what does this orb do? How is it formed?” Oliver inquired.

“Basically, it’s a random genetic mutation that doesn’t get passed down because the mutation forms an organ within the person which the mutation is contained in, removing it from the rest of the person’s DNA. The new organ is a ball of energy, which we still don’t fully understand, but it’s clearly very powerful. People that have this mutation usually get sick easier and are allergic to several things, but if they can learn to harness the power within, they don’t really need a tipir to help them channel their energy. The Prime I supposedly had this mutation originally, but somehow caused the organ to dematerialize while keeping all the power of it in his blood.”

We all stared at Mom, confused, with the exception of Auntie, who stared in disbelief. Eventually Oliver stated, “If what you’ve said is true, then Zurui might kill her to get the energy orb thing himself.”

Mom shook her head then countered, “No, the energy is stronger if the person is alive, so he’ll more likely hook her up to a series of wires and let the system drain her of everything until she dies from the shear torture of such a powerful torrent of energy ripping from the inside of her outwards.”

Ensign Alora kept to the shadows, listening carefully for any footsteps and trying to best determine where Zurui had placed Cheyenne. Then she telepathically heard Cheyenne’s developing telepathy trying to defend herself from Zurui. Gabriela hid herself in a cupboard as she closed her eyes to listen in on the details of what was going on around Cheyenne to get a better picture.

“Silly child,” Zurui said, “your newfound strength is no match for my years of experience.”

Cheyenne diagonally cut through the air with her right hand, projecting energy through it. Zurui twirled his energy staff to block the blade of energy coming at him as he continued to advance. Gabriela telepathically instructed Cheyenne, ‘Break the ceiling then run for the door.’

Cheyenne did as she was told. Zurui ran to avoid the falling debris then chased after her. Gabriela sprang out of the cupboard; seeing a guard coming toward her, she sliced the cupboard door off and hit him over the head with it. As the guard fell to the ground she kept the door and ran down a hallway trying to get to Cheyenne. Another guard tried to cut her off, but she threw the door ahead of her, then as the guard sliced the door, he was unprepared for the energy shot that was right behind it which effectually removed him from her path.

Cheyenne managed to get a good distance from Zurui, however he was clearly gaining on her. Cheyenne occasionally threw waves of energy behind her, but this did little to slow Zurui down as he was incredibly acrobatic that he could just dodge them without breaking pace. Cheyenne telepathically called out, ‘Now what should be done?’

Cheyenne had just turned a corner and Gabriela was coming from the other direction. She shouted, “Just keep running!”

Zurui stopped for half a second, stunned that another resistance member had gotten onboard. He cursed at himself for not raising shields sooner. Then Gabriela stood in front of him, her tipir glowing in a spectacular royal blue. Zurui let out a shout of rage, furious that the resistance was putting up so much of a fight in this part of space. Never had he been met with such a hidden obstacle in any of his goals. Gabriela stated, “A good steward of the riches of the Prime I always seeks to do his will.”

The bluish tipir flared a stripe of red as it formed a barrier between Zurui and Gabriela. Zurui struck at the transparent lavender wall with his energy whip trying to break through. Gabriela took her tipir and ran to catch up with Cheyenne, but as soon as she found Cheyenne, Decion 2.0 found them.