A Whateley Academy Tale
Revenge of The Alphas
By Maggie Finson, Bek D. Corbin, Starwolf. Babs Yerunkle and Dr. Bender
Melville Cottage October 5, Thursday
Don Sebastiano gave the group seated around the secure room
in Melville Cottage a long, searching examination with his lip curled in ill
concealed disgust. “We seem to have a problem here, wouldn’t you say, people?”
Hekate, sitting at his right,
had not been involved in the disastrous Breakfast Brawl with the freshman from
Poe cottage known as Team Kimba, so added her own coldly amused regard to the
discomfort the others were feeling at that moment. Not one of those assembled
had anything to say to his question. Which came as no surprise to him.
“First.” Raising one finger to
emphasize his point, the current leader of the Alphas at Whateley Academy told
the assembled group. “Our mystique as the elite in this school took a
very hard hit when you guys got your asses kicked -- IN PUBLIC --
by a bunch of freshmen. As Alphas, we’re supposed to be the best there is
here, an image that got pretty beat up in front of the Crystal Hall the other
day.”
None of those assembled had
anything to say about that either. Each of them avoided pointing out that they
had been involved in the fracas only because Don Sebastiano had told them to
be. They were afraid of him, and with the coolly observing Hekate seated
beside him, none were about to risk raising that point during this particular
meeting.
“You.” The Don gestured towards
Kodiak, a senior who manifested the spirit of the grizzly bear as his power.
“Let a skinny kid, even if he was a guy, put you down in ONE move, then allowed
a skinny little GIRL to deck you once you managed to get back up.”
Kodiak grimaced at that, but
said nothing. Instead he glared at the floor in front of him.
“Aries.” The Don moved to
another victim. “Even with your incredible speed, you allowed that Tennyo to
get hold of you and dangle you in the air like some useless piece of jewelry.
Then you let her throw you into one of the twins.”
The Speedster glowered, then
lowered his gaze without comment as both Hamper and Damper winced in memory of
that.
“You two.” He gestured at Hamper
and Damper, “guessed wrong the first time you attacked, but recovered well
enough until that refugee from an animé stepped in and put you down. Still,
you both allowed ONE person to take you out of the fight within seconds of each
other.”
Neither of the twins ventured a
comment about that. They had run up against this Tennyo twice and ended up on
the short end both times.
“Cavalier.” The Don turned his
attention to one of his more surprising sycophants with a shake of his head.
“You let that jumped-up martial arts freak take you out, then allowed the shout
she let out to shake your concentration. Then there was the indignity of
having that red headed magic user SAVE you when the tree you were sitting
against caught fire.”
“As long as we’re on that red headed
elf,” The Don turned to the dark haired girl waiting quietly behind him.
“Skybolt, you couldn’t hit her even before she kicked in with her power. Once
she did, you got knocked around like some rank amateur. “And what happened to
you?”
Bluejay grinned, leaning inside
a small alcove off to one side of the hall. The alcove had once held the bust
of a Melville alumnus, but the porcelain statue had been smashed in a scuffle
more than a year ago. The blue-haired American Indian scratched his chin
absently.
“Where were you?” Sebastiano
demanded.
“The king needs no jester when
he provides his own entertainment,” Bluejay shrugged, “I was busy with affairs
d’amour.”
The Don scowled, but left him
alone.
Not one of the others had any
kind of comment in response.
“Pathetic showing.” Don
Sebastiano shook his head in not-so-feigned disappointment with the others.
Not one of the people in the
room had any kind of comment in response. They had gotten their butts handed
to them, and every one of them knew it.
“Further.” Don Sebastiano
glared at them. “For the first time I’ve heard of, Alphas are going to do
detention. Unheard of until now, and another disgrace I won’t bother to beat
any of you with. You’ll do the detention, and do it with your heads up. You
all got caught, which is the one unforgivable sin an Alpha can commit.
Consider yourselves lucky I don’t put more on you than doing the detention.”
“And you.” He finally
acknowledged the presence of another Alpha in the meeting with a voice dripping
with scorn. “You caused all of this with your reaching for more than you could
handle. Worse, you did nothing to help the others when they rushed to your
defense.”
Tansy Walcutt, appearing very
tired, and bearing bruises that she had not completely hidden if one looked
closely, winced at the accusation.
“Well?” The Don questioned too
gently as the girl silently stared at the wall. “Do you have anything at all
to say for yourself? These others are going to do detention for your sake,
after all. Surely you have some kind of apology to give them.”
“I did what I thought would give
me a boost, and help the Alphas while I did it.” Tansy answered slowly. “I
have no regrets except that I got caught doing it and the others got dragged
into that disaster in front of Crystal Hall.”
“I see.” The Don gave her a
wintry smile. “And just how do you think that makes up for this mess we find
ourselves in?”
“It doesn’t, I suppose.” Tansy
shot back with irritation clear in her tone of voice. “So I won’t try and
justify it to any of you. I did what I did to gain an advantage. It didn’t
work and believe me, I am not happy about that. But I’m not finished
yet. Not by a long shot.”
“Oh, and just what is it you think
you might be able to do now?” Hekate purred, obviously enjoying the model’s
discomfort and fall from her usual haughty stance.
“Oh, don’t worry yourself about
that, dear.” Tansy answered with an edge to her voice. “Given the way things
have gone for all of us recently, the less any of you know, the better. And
don’t worry, I won’t drag anyone else into this one.”
“Ah, vengeance.” The Don
actually smiled at that. “We do need to discuss that. This can not go
unanswered, you all realize that, don’t you?”
The others stopped glaring at
Tansy long enough to nod their agreement to that sentiment.
“Then we need to decide who we
target and when it gets done.” He went on. “Coordinating attacks that can’t
be traced back to us on all of them is going to be impossible. So we need to
narrow our choices down to around three of them for the first round, I would
think.”
“Which three?” Hekate played the
part of feeding him the lines he wanted since no one else would do it.
“Ah, and that is the crux of
this meeting.” The Don nodded with a grim smile. “We can not allow
this drubbing to go unanswered. But to take direct action would get us into
more trouble than we are already in. So we do it indirectly, with hirelings
and dupes.”
The others nodded, then gave
Tansy expectant looks.
“Ah, I see the light dawns on
all of you.” With a slow, nasty smile, The Don regarded Tansy. “All of this is
your fault. So I’m offering you a chance to redeem yourself in our eyes. Will
you take it?”
“I’ve already said I’m working
on it.” The girl snapped back, then gave a smile of apology that just about
killed her to do.
“Good. Now we’re going to
decide who you target.”
“All right.” Tansy nodded.
“I’ll go with that. But I want the little bitch that shot me. That one
is non negotiable.”
“I have no problem with that.”
The Don nodded. “In fact, according to the assessments made by Cavalier here,
the little one called Jade would be one of the logical targets in a revenge
strike. She seems vulnerable providing her devisor gear is neutralized.
Consider her to be target number one.”
“Which brings us to target
number two.” The Don continued. “Their strong man, Hank, is out as a target.
He took Kodiak down with one move and spars with that damned Amazon Hippolyta
for fun. No one sane, or competent, would accept that one as a target. The
same goes for the black girl with the martial arts thing. She may be limited,
but has shown that no one is going to put one over on her easily. And she did
defeat that hairy mountain Montana in an open and very closely watched fight.”
Tansy winced at the mention of
Montana, something The Don noted with interest, but filed that away in his mind
for later probing.
“The redhead, their magic user
is a distinct possibility for a target.” Cavalier spoke up for the first time
in the meeting. “If taken unawares, close in, she would be helpless. She has
virtually no close in combat skills.”
“Ok, Nikki Reilly is target
number two, then.” The Don turned to Tansy. “I trust you will be able to find
someone capable of stalking and taking her out?”
“I already have someone in
mind.” Tansy agreed with a vicious light in her eyes. “That little elf bitch
is giving me too much competition at work, anyway. I need to get rid of her.”
“Good. Now on to target number
three. What about this new girl, Sara? She’s the second smallest member of
their team and the most inexperienced fighter from all accounts.”
“We don’t have any battle data
on her,” Cavalier informed, “our assets are still working on obtaining
sufficient information to create a file.”
They all turned towards the
alcove as Bluejay laughed, “I’d forget about her, my liege.”
The Don glared at him, about to
retort, when Hekate coughed lightly. He composed himself in a moment, “Why?”
“She eats puppies for
breakfast,” the Trickster smiled, “my Pandora would have your wolves for lunch,
Mon Empereur. Raven follows in her wake, for her appetite matches his.
Leave her to me, I shall repay her when it is time.”
Don looked across to Hekate, who
nodded imperceptibly, though she was not so sure of her decision.
“As odd as it sounds.” Cavalier
told them. “The logical one for that is the person called Tennyo, Billie
Wilson. Powerful as she is, her fighting ability seems to be hinged on those
powers. Should they be negated in any way, I feel she would be helpless.”
“Agreed.” Tansy pursed her lips,
thinking. “I know someone who could do that. And who could find some muscle
to finish that refugee from a Japanese cartoon off, once her powers are shut
down.”
“So, we have our three targets
picked.” The Don grinned with a pleasure that was not at all pleasant to see.
“I think none of us would be all that upset if these encounters turned out to
be fatal for them, would we?”
There were some signs of protest
at that, but those were quickly quelled by the group’s leader. “Listen to me.
We have been made to look like incompetent fools in front of the entire
school. That can not go unanswered, but if we hit them ourselves, it will just
make more trouble. Tansy, you make sure that none of these attacks can be
directly traced back to either you or the Alphas. People will know who
is responsible even while there is no proof for Security or the police to make
use of. We’ll regain our lost luster, and everyone will again know that it’s
not a good idea to mess with the Alphas.”
“I’ll make sure.” The blonde
model answered quietly. “Two of those are PERSONAL, so I’ll be very careful
not to leave tracks that can be followed. Trust me on that. I know how to do
it.”
“I’m sure you do, dear.” Hekate
replied coolly. “No mistakes this time, understand?”
“There won’t be.” Tansy showed
the other girl a slow, lazy smile.
“Make sure of that.”
“No worry, I said.” Tansy waved
off what Hekate was implying and gave The Don a direct stare. “You know I can
do this.”
“I have the utmost faith in your
abilities, Tansy.” That one nodded without expression. “Get it done, and
you’ll have gone a long way towards making up for the blunders that got us into
this. All right?”
“Sure.”
“Then I think we’ve discussed
all that needs to be talked about here.” The Don watched the tension between
Hekate and Tansy with no little interest, but was careful not to let either one
think he favored Tansy. “Let’s get on with our day’s activities then, shall
we?”
****
Unseen by the Alphas in the next
room, Alberta ‘Fireball’ Waldner pulled herself out of the cramped space next
to the ventilating shaft. The ventilation shaft hadn’t allowed Alberta - or
‘Alexis’ as she insisted being called - to pick up on a lot of the nuances of
the discussion, but she’d gotten the gist of it. So, the Alphas wanted some
payback on the Nightgown Nutcases, eh? Well, she was cool with that. If you’re
on top, you don’t let people push you around. That was basic Power-Mongering
101. And Alexis’ only problem with people with power was that they didn’t let
her in on the good stuff. But then, you hadda show the people with power that
you could do something for them. Alexis didn’t understand why the Alphas were
keeping her at arm’s length. She was an Exemplar, which was supposed to be,
like, a base requirement. She was a babe, she knew that, even if she did have
to dye her naturally strawberry blonde hair flame red to go with her green eyes
and Fire Manifestation powers. And POWER? She could not only create fire out of
nothing, but she could shape it and animate it to whatever she wanted!
Okay, so she got a little
carried away some times. She was taking medication for that.
What was she thinking about? Oh
yeah! The Poe Freshmen that everyone was talking about, Team Ranma, or
something. The Alphas wanted them slapped down. The Don was leaving that up to
Tansy, but Tansy was on low swing in her popularity with the Alphas. Maybe
she’d appreciate a little help in that direction? Like, if Alexis put a hurt on
one of the Unbound Bimbos? Alexis knew that killing one of them was out
of bounds, but then a nice nasty disfiguring burn was SO MUCH better than a dead
body.
*
* * *
Tansy sat in her room and fumed
for a few minutes after returning from that meeting. The others attending had
obviously enjoyed her discomfiture, and that bitch Hekate sitting so smugly
beside The Don and clearly enjoying every minute of it had just about sent her
over the edge. Not that she wanted to be all that close to Don Sebastiano just
now, but that girl was insufferable!
Calming herself with an effort,
Tansy was not at all used to being treated like some flunky by anyone,
she went over several possibilities for getting rid of those troublesome girls
who had caused this debacle and decided on what actions she would take.
Going through Thuban was out
this time. Especially following what that scaled monster on his throne of
coins had done to her in their last meeting. Besides, hiring people to do what
she intended couldn’t be done either directly or through anyone at Whateley.
That part would be simple enough even if she would have to go in a roundabout
path to get it done. Experience and contacts outside would take care of
obscuring her, and the Alpha’s trail in things.
Next, she considered who she
wanted to have contacted. Three names came to mind immediately and she checked
their in-school addresses just to make sure she had them right.
Once that had been thought
through, she steeled herself for the meetings, and mental massaging that
setting her chosen hit men up for the attacks would take. Only one of those
would be even close to easy to take, and even that one -- no, especially that
one, would require a lot of care not to be detected as she manipulated his
mind.
*
* * *
Jade admired the silver ring on
her finger for another few moments before latching on to Toni with another
tight hug. “I LOVE it! Thank you, Toni, this is the nicest gift I’ve ever
been given!”
“Hey!” The black girl grinned
while prying herself out of the girl’s grasp. “You’re welcome! I just thought
you’d had such a hard time recently that you needed something nice to give you
another little boost. Besides having Jinn back, I mean. We all -- as in the
rest of the team -- wanted you to have it.”
Jade grinned almost self
consciously as tears began coursing down her cheeks. “I -- I never really got
a nice gift from anyone before. I’ll always wear this, and never
forget who gave it to me.”
“Just enjoy it.” Nikki smiled
at the smaller girl and gave her a hug. “Toni tells me its real silver with a
plating of something called Moonsilver. It’s very rare, and powerful against
some kinds of spirits. Wear it well, little sister, and all of us will be
happy because you are.”
*
* * *
Cyril Huntly shook his head to
clear it. Tansy Walcutt was one fine looking girl, and she had just finished
giving him the best blow job he had ever dreamed of. A girl like that deserved
to be treated like a queen, he thought with no little satisfaction as the
previous hour replayed in his mind.
Only there were was one girl on
campus who absolutely refused to acknowledge Tansy’s position and give her the
adoration the girl deserved to have. He growled deep within his throat and
thought that it was time for Nex the merciless ninja to teach the inhuman
red-headed bitch what that kind of attitude deserved.
Nikki Reilly was a fairly
powerful magic user. He’d seen that during the fracas between the freshman
Team Kimba, and the older Alphas. But she was vulnerable to close attacks.
Close attacks, and deadly assaults with those had become Nex’s stock in trade,
and he had already earned a lot of money using them. This one he would do for free,
and if the Elf girl didn’t survive the lesson, that was too bad.
He began to watch Nikki’s
movements, working to decide when the best time to catch her alone and in the
dark would come.
*
* * *
Tansy took a long shower, and
brushed her teeth. Twice. Nex was not the kind of person she liked being
around. The boy was obviously bent towards violence and hurting people. Once
she had manipulated his relatively complex mind with her own abilities, that
trait would cause him to do exactly as she wanted.
“Red, you’re dead!” She laughed
to herself at the rhyme and the implications it held.
Now she would have to handle the
really unpleasant one. Bloodwolf, an avatar and real werewolf was someone who most
of the students at Whateley avoided if at all possible. But he would be the
one to get that little girl, the bitch, who had shot her.
*
* * *
Alex Hale, aka Bloodwolf savored
the feel of the girl who had approached him on the quiet and offered herself
for his pleasure. It wasn’t often that any girl, let alone one as good looking
as Tansy, approached him willingly. She didn’t seem to mind his rough play at
all, even moaning with pleasure when he intentionally bruised her.
Tansy endured the monster’s
touch, and the bruising with more than a little indifference. On the inside,
anyway. Outwardly, she was careful to moan in feigned pleasure at the right
times, and keep smiling as the boy abused her. The results would more than pay
for a few bruises, and the healer she had found to restore her hair and nails
would be able to fix her up anyway.
“Alex, I know of someone who
would be perfect for your particular tastes in playmates.” The model purred
while carefully matching the rhythms from her mind to those in his. “A real
little girl who would be really terrified of you.”
“Tell me more.” Alex nipped her
neck, drawing a little blood.
“Her name is Jade Sinclair, and
I’ll tell you where you can find her...” Tansy smiled while passing along the
information to the boy, though his mind seethed with violence and a passion for
murder that twisted even her guts. “She is the perfect little mouthfull for
someone like you.”
Ten minutes later, Bloodwolf had
no memory of her telling him anything about the Sinclair girl, but was firmly
set on a path that would have him stalking her. Tansy had taken special care
to give the ultra-violent fool the best time and place to find his new victim.
“Sickening, but useful.” Tansy
told herself once free of his company. “Easy to manipulate, too. I might just
keep him around for other jobs that come up, off and on.”
*
* * *
“This Billie Wilson is nothing
without her powers.” She told the scrawny kid with a slow, nasty grin. “Even
you could take her out once those have been suppressed. And I’ll pay you a
thousand dollars to do it for me.”
“Why?” Delwin Florian, also
known as Negator questioned simply.
“Because I want to try something
against her.” Tansy shrugged. “You can shut her power off, and someone I’ll have
with you will work her over a little. It’s simple, quick, and will make you an
easy grand. So, are you interested?”
“Sure.” Negator nodded. “I’m
always interested in making money.”
“Half now.” Tansy counted out
the bills and handed them to him while carefully making him think that taking
on this Tennyo was actually his own idea. “Half once you’ve done it.”
“Fine.” the boy answered.
“Consider it done.”
“I do.” Tansy smiled cheerfully
as she passed along the details of when, where, and with whom. While planting
the idea in his mind that all she was asking was if he could damp the target’s
powers down, and was paying him for giving her another few nights of uninterrupted
sleep, as she had when she held that demon spirit the Sinclair girl claimed was
her sister.
“Perfect!” humming a happy
little tune as the last of her plans meshed and began turn with the others, the
model allowed herself to feel the triumph she knew would be hers once the three
freshmen girls had been taken care of.
****
The secrets to a good ambush,
Fireball told herself, was to make sure that your target was alone and not
suspecting anything, and to make backup plans, in case something goes wrong.
And Fireball would know- she’d had more than her share of bad luck in that
line.
She’d heard the Alphas’ plans
and knew who The Don had decided that Tansy would have hit. Tansy would take
care of those three, but now Alexis had to figure out who she
would put the hurt on. So, of the three that were left, there was the
superstrong flying guy, the karate chick who took out Montana, and the punker
chick who seemed to be packing more in her panties than she ought to.
The superstrong flying guy? Even
if she could get to him, Alexis figured that she wouldn’t be able to hurt him.
The karate chick? Too fast, too
unpredictable, too likely to have some kind of ‘Ancient Chinese Secret’ up her
sleeve.
That left the punker freak. And
why not? Alexis had heard Tansy bad-mouthing ‘Ayla’ or ‘Trevor’ or something,
and everyone knew that Tansy hated fags with a passion. So, Tansy would be
particularly grateful if Alexis got rid of the Ayla freak. Briefly, Alexis
wondered if ‘Ayla’ was Russian for faggot, or something.
*
* * *
Nikki was returning to Poe
Cottage from a late modeling assignment with the nagging feeling that someone
was following her. That wasn’t so unusual with her looks and body -- something
she was still getting used to -- and that idiot Stalwart so intent on gaining
her ‘favor’ that he was nearly stalking her.
But Tansy Walcutt had been
wearing a really smug expression whenever she looked in the redhead’s direction
and thought Nikki wasn’t paying attention. That was an attitude that didn’t
fit at all with the trouble the lead model had found herself in recently, and
Nikki caught a flash of gleefully nasty anticipation from the girl whenever
Tansy was watching her.
All of which combined with the
uneasy feeling of being watched to equate into trouble on the way. Probably big
trouble, too. Tansy Walcutt was not one to even allow small slights go
unanswered, and her ego had taken a few rather nasty hits lately, mostly
courtesy of Team Kimba. Plus the information a now-free Jinn had given them
about the girl’s unpleasant activities along with the knowledge that the
spoiled little rich bitch already considered Nikki to be major competition in
the modeling group and the situation wasn’t all that pleasant to think about.
“I’d better talk this over with
the rest of the team.” Nikki told herself while repressing a shiver as the
flesh along her neck and scalp crawled yet again. “And get myself back to Poe
in a hurry. This is just too creepy.”
*
* * *
Cyril Huntley, or Nex, had
wrapped his psychic invisibility around his already black-clad form to follow
the elven beauty from Crystal Hall where she had been doing a late shoot. Nex
was already an accomplished artist where stealth and recon were concerned and
had no doubts the girl was completely unaware of his presence.
Of all the members of the often
disparaged Ninja Clique at Whateley, Nex was the one no one really teased about
being a ‘sneak up on someone in the dark’ wannabe. He was already well known
for having NO sense of humor about things like that, or much of anything else
for that matter. There was also the fact that people who made fun of him
seemed to get involved in accidents of one kind or another. No one had
been able to prove he was responsible for those, and Nex wasn’t about to go
around bragging up the things he had done. He knew what he had done and
so did his victims.
His current target had really
done nothing at all to him, personally, but after studying her as he did with
all his potential victims Nex was sure that she would be big trouble if not
taken care of early on. An empath and magic user of unknown strength
(unclassifiable according to the records he had managed to steal copies of) the
redhead had already made more trouble for some friends of his, one in
particular, than could be tolerated.
Not that he held any illusions
that Tansy Walcutt would ever become more than just an interesting roll in the
sheets. But if he was able to do something that would benefit the beautiful
blonde model, her family wealth and connections would help him a lot once he’d
graduated and was setting up for life in the real world. Tansy had hinted as
much when they had last gotten together, and would know who was responsible if
the stuck-up, inhuman redhead was to suffer another of those unfortunate
accidents.
I almost feel sorry for you
Red, he thought with building excitement as the moment of her downfall
neared. Almost. But you know how it is. Business is business, after all.
Now was the time. His target
was beginning to get a little jumpy, and it showed in the way her large violet
eyes peered into the darkness seeking something that she’d never find until it
was too late. Savoring her uneasiness, Nex moved in for what he anticipated to
be a very pleasurable bit of business.
*
* * *
The problem with detention was
that it left Jade with no time for her job. So when Saturday finally rolled
around, she shifted her afternoon detention duty to the evening instead,
running from 7:30 to 10 PM. That let her get in a full day of work, while
still meeting the terms of her detention. Of course, it only left a half-hour
to get back to Poe before lights out, but it wasn’t a long walk. Perhaps 600
yards. Still, it was dark out, and with the cloud cover there was no
moonlight. Jade wasn’t worried, though. Not only was Jinn following overhead
as Shroud, invisibly black against the night sky, but she also had Jann active
and charging the gizmos that Bunny had made her.
Her mind was preoccupied with
thoughts of attack and defense. Plans and contingencies. Ito sensei didn’t
cover these situations as much as Nakamura sensei had. Her original teacher
had drilled them endlessly on dangerous situation and planning for
contingencies. She thought that Ito sensei was probably trying to drill them
with the basics, before moving to more distracting issues.
Neither she nor Jann noticed the
huge animal that watched from afar. It watched with a patient animal cunning,
almost instinctively keeping its emotions blank and dull, blending with the
background. As for the animal (for that’s what it seemed to be), it kept a
careful eye on the barely visible black shape in the sky. Its senses were keen
enough to see the night sky, and pick out the even blacker silhouette of the
cloak. The beast hid from the flying shape, slipping carefully from tree to
tree, moving ever closer. Stalking its prey.
For now, Jade was pretty happy
with what she’d done for Jinn. Harry Wolfe looked fierce, but he was really
just a big softie. And he did such great work! The Sledge had been easy
enough, but the “Terminator arms” were works of art! The radius and ulna, the
finger bones, they all looked so accurate! And what sort of alloy was he using
to get black metal? She still needed to come up with a snazzy design and cool
name for the spikes – maybe “Shadow Spears” or some such thing. And what about
the bear trap? Harry claimed it was actually for wolves and coyotes. She’d
been half joking, but he’d come through for her.
What really bothered her was her.
Bunny’s inventive mind had already come through with two gizmos for
her. In less than a week! But it wasn’t enough to let her hold her own in the
big leagues, she knew that. Well, the first step was for her to get used to
keeping two spirits going at once. The problem was, it really drained her.
Her powers were growing, but the price was that she usually felt tired and
sluggish.
There was something at the
corner of her eye. She sighed. It was stupid for her to be jumping at shadows
when Jinn and Jann could see in the dark. Still… She reached into her pocket
and withdrew a pink plastic Hello Kitty makeup compact. At least, that’s what
it looked like. A pink plastic hockey puck with Hello Kitty’s face on the top.
“Kitty Compact: scan area.”
A trail of LED lights chased
around the circumference once. “Working!” came the rough robotic voice from
the device. A small jet of flame came from the underside and then the back, as
the plastic compact lifted into the air on its tiny rocket. It shot forward
toward the trees.
[Any trouble?] came Jinn’s voice over the earpiece
radio. [I don’t see anything – wait, ahead of you!]
Thirty feet ahead of her, two
large boys had just stepped out from behind trees. They were completely
blocking the path.
And as everyone’s attention
focused on the threat in front, the hairy creature behind the tree prepared to
spring.
*
* * *
It had been a fairly normal day
so far. The only real change had been that Hexette in flight class had asked if
she might be able to join in the ballroom dance class. She’d heard Tennyo
talking about it and although the girl wouldn’t have thought she was so shy,
she finally told her she wanted to learn but was afraid to try it unless she
knew someone there. Tennyo promised her that she would like it and that she
knew a guy in the class who would be glad to help out if asked. She was sure
that Harry would help and he was both good enough and new enough at it to not
make Hexette feel bad or clumsy.
Tennyo was headed back from the
library. Miss Henderson had been a little out of sorts, but she had been doing
a good enough job that Miss Henderson pretty much left her alone and took it
out on some boys who made the mistake of being rowdy in the wrong place at the
wrong time. She might not have a battle axe behind her desk. But after she was
finished chewing you out, you might wish she did and had used that instead.
Work was over at last and it was
time to see if some homework could be finished before lights out. One of the
things about the Whateley campus is that the trails to and from the buildings
can give you a sense of being in a park. Except when there are a lot of
students moving between classes, there are times when you can be alone and
comfortable.
The paths were dark now and the
lights had come on. The path was empty at this time except for two boys heading
her way. One was very stocky and about 5 feet 8 inches tall. The other was
thin and about five four. There wasn’t anything about them to draw any more
attention than that. Until they stopped in front of Tennyo and blocked the
path. The big one spoke first.
“Hey girl! Del here wants to
talk to you!”
“No names you idiot! You want
her and her friends after us?”
“Don’t worry, she won’t be
telling anyone about this. Now do your thing before someone comes by.”
“I didn’t sign on for this kind
of deal.”
“Do it you idiot! Before she
gets away!”
Tennyo had already figured that
she didn’t want to stick around. She was in enough trouble, and didn’t need
anything like this going on her record now. She was already about ten feet up
and moving back when she fell back to earth.
*
* * *
Nikki felt the surge of
triumphant, cruel pleasure from the darkness just before a black gloved hand
went over her mouth and a strong arm wrapped around her waist to yank her into
the nearby foliage. Too late to do anything but try and wrench herself free,
she nearly managed with a backwards kick and twist of her body.
“Nice try, red.” A soft, coldly
amused voice told her as her attacker shifted so her kick hit empty air and his
grip on her face and waist tightened to the point of being painful. “But both
of us know you aren’t any good with close-in fighting. Make it easy on
yourself and give up now.”
Nikki began seeing stars as the
air was squeezed out of her lungs and she found breathing nearly impossible
with the hand clamped over her mouth and nose like a strangling vise. Panic
threatened to overwhelm her as she frantically tried to free herself with more
twisting and thrashing. Finally, she sank her teeth into the hand that
tightened over her mouth during the struggles and was rewarded with the warm,
salty taste of blood.
“Bitch!” Her mouth was free, and
she pulled in huge gulps of air as the arm around her waist tightened even more
and her attacker cursed. “This could have been easy, you’d just have gone to
sleep and never felt what I’m going to do to mess you up so bad no one will
ever look at you without flinching again. Now I’m going to make you hurt.”
She gasped as the guy’s hand
punched one of her breasts, and opened her mouth to scream for help. Before
that could be accomplished, a hard punch to the side of her head tumbled the
girl deeper into the shrubbery and he was standing over her.
“Wanna play rough?” The black
clad and masked figure dispassionately regarded both her and the damage she had
managed to do to his hand. “That’s fine. I like rough. I don’t think
you’ll enjoy it much though.”
A kick to the ribs that was so
fast she didn’t see it coming drove the breath from her again. She felt ribs
crack under that impact, and fought the blackness that was threatening to close
in on her consciousness as her attacker landed even more kicks and punches with
bruising, bone breaking force.
She couldn’t concentrate enough
to draw on her own powers, and had never felt so helpless in her short life. A
life that was in very real danger of never getting any longer. Something
within her raged at the idea as a familiar internal voice screamed. Stand
up and fight the ill-visaged bastard, girl! Or at least get some distance
between the two of you!”
Nikki tried, actually managing
to reach her knees and begin pushing her pain-wracked body off the ground when
yet another kick connected with her partially exposed stomach, sending her
flying to land with a thump on her back with an explosive gasp of pain and
expelled air.
Cruel pleasure, bloodlust, and lust
for something else Nikki didn’t want to feel at all poured from the dark figure
as he advanced on her again, hands at ready for the attack she knew would bring
more agony and maybe even death. All she could do was lie there and wait for
it to come.
****
Ayla looked at the note and
shook her head. ‘I have information about Tansy Walcutt that you really need to
know. I’m willing to sell this information to you for $1,000. I’d prefer it if
we kept this between ourselves. Meet me at the cafeteria loading dock at 10
PM.’ The idiot note had, ‘I’m planning an ambush, please show up and get
wasted’ written all over it.
Even knowing that it was a trap,
Ayla didn’t feel very threatened. The person who wrote the note was obviously
an idiot. Ayla was positive that she could handle anything that the note-writer
threw at her. And, if she couldn’t, she could simply Phase out and walk through
a wall or something to get away.
*
* * *
[Look out!]
Jinn’s warning came at the same
time Jade saw the motion from the corner of her eye. She twisted and dodged,
but her exhaustion slowed her reflexes. She took the edge of the strike and it
practically knocked her unconscious. Her head and stomach both lurched
sickeningly, and as she blinked, she realized that if she hadn’t dodged the
main force of the blow, it might have snapped her neck.
As her head cleared, she
realized she was being held in the air. There was a hairy hand around each of
her arms, holding her aloft. She couldn’t see her attacker, but she could feel
his hot breath on the back of her neck.
Ahead of her, Shroud settled to
the ground, in cloak form, no hint of humanity showing in that dark hood or
black billowing cape.
And behind Shroud, the two large
figures approached. She saw that they were both at least six feet tall. She
didn’t need spirit vision to see the crazed lust on their face. But it wasn’t
a sexual lust. They both had splashes of blood on them. And one held the dead
and bloody carcass of a small bobcat.
“Say hello to my wolfpack,”
Jade’s captor said, from behind her. “We’ve already blooded ourselves. Now
it’s time for the real fun.”
Jade was proud of the voicebox
that Bunny had rigged for Shroud. The voice was more than creepy. It was
positively haunted: “Let the girl go, or I promise you’ll regret it.”
As the voice spoke, a silvery
pale face formed in the hood, as white as bone. It was Shroud’s face, the lips
moving as if over-enunciating each word.
Jade struggled, but in this hold
her arms were helpless. She kicked back with her feet, landing a solid thump,
but it didn’t budge her captor.
“The name’s Bloodwolf. I hold
the spirit of the werewolf, little girl. Even if you could harm
me, I heal faster than you’d believe!” There was a snort that parted the hair
in the back of her head. “Hear that, black spirit? I hope so, ‘cause you’re
what I came for. Word is, you’re nothing but a loose spirit. Whatever avatar
grabs you, sucks you up. That’s what I’m here for. That, and a little blood
sport. So you come forward and hand yourself over, or I play ‘make a wish’
with the little girl here.”
Jade’s mind raced. This guy had
to have been talking to Tansy! Tansy had sucked up Jade by stretching a glove
away, and reaching through the “spirit film.” No one else knew about that, not
the details. Well, no one except the girls, and Mongoose, and he’s the one
who’d proven that the “film” only existed between disconnected pieces.
Which meant that the werewolf
jerk probably couldn’t hurt Shroud – if she was careful.
But Jade had to get free first.
She looked at the two linebackers blocking her escape route. Perhaps one last
attempt at reason?
“That was a good scare guys, but
it’s time to let me go now, okay? That way, we can all have a laugh. Nobody
hurt, nobody gets in trouble, right?”
Linebacker One sniggered
sickly. “We won’t get in trouble. It was this bobcat that dragged you off
into the woods and killed you. Before he was killed by that spirit.”
Linebacker Two joined in the
amusement. “Yeah, before she suffered a freak supernatural accident and
vanished away.”
Time for the final calculations
before it hit the fan. Should she scream? Nikki or Toni might hear – their
room faced this way. But she’d need three seconds for a good scream, and she
wouldn’t get it. And help wouldn’t arrive soon enough. No, she made her plan.
“Kitty compact,” she ordered,
“attack!”
And as she said the last word,
she slammed her head backwards as hard as possible. She knew that a dog’s most
sensitive anatomy was its muzzle, particularly across the top where the
delicate nasal passages ran. From the whole werewolf story and the hairy hands
around her arm, and especially from the way his breath kept steaming up the
back of her head, she was guessing he had a wolf’s muzzle.
She hit hard and true. It
obviously hurt him a lot worse than it hurt her. He started to drop her, then
pressed down hard. She was standing, but her knees almost buckled. He had one
furred, clawed hand on her shoulder and another lunged for her neck, ready to
rip her throat open.
“You DIE for that, bitch!”
Virtually a classic in any
martial arts class was “mugger grabs you from behind; knife at your throat.”
This was the same. As the claw lunged for her throat, both of Jade’s arms flashed
up to grab his arm. Jade barely noticed Bloodwolf’s scream of pain as she used
the perfect timing of long practice. She pulled and dropped, pulling him
forward and off balance. Then, in the instant he toppled, she straightened
with all the power in her legs. Compared to her attacker, she was tiny and
weak. But she attacked his weakness (balance) and used her greatest strength
(the power of her legs). Bloodwolf flipped, spinning overhead to slam hard
against the ground. Jade had one moment to smile. It was a perfect example of
moving off the line, and the throw had been delightfully circular.
She also knew that he’d be up
and after her a second later. She sprinted, aiming for the gap between the
linebackers.
*
* * *
Tennyo was able to tuck and roll
out of the fall and end up on her feet facing them. The bigger one advanced on
her, popping his knuckles.
“Not so fast little girl. It’s
time we finished up this little job. Your not so hot without your powers. Beg
nicely and we might let you live.”
She kept backing up, shifting on
her feet as if trying to get a feel for the ground. She started to bounce a
little as she got her center of gravity settled. At that point she stopped
backing up and set herself in a defensive stance. She almost seemed to be
moving still though as the shadows seemed to start gathering around her. There
seemed to be a slight greenish blue glow to her eyes also. Her voice was closer
to a growl than might be expected from a girl her size.
“I don’t know what kind of deal
your trying to pull off here you two. But I’ll give you two seconds to do
something else or I’m not going to be responsible for what happens to you.”
“Hah! Tough talk for someone
without powers.”
The big guy grabbed at her.
Tennyo moved out of his way, it was obvious that she couldn’t fly. Some
movements of her hands showed that she had tried and failed to form an energy
bolt or sword. When he tried again she gave him a quick kick to the knee to
slow him down.
To her surprise, he seemed to
not be affected by the kick, except that he seemed faster when he tried to grab
her again. A few more strikes and he was moving much faster and still didn’t
show much effect of the strikes that had hit him. In fact, he wasn’t even
trying to dodge them. Tennyo decided to dodge him a bit and try to figure out
what was going on. Several more dodges and he seemed to be slowing down some.
She tried an experiment. Dodging his next grab, she ducked in and delivered a
punch to his short ribs.
“Ooff! Hey! That hurt a little.
Your gonna pay for that you little witch!”
Tennyo had to move fast to avoid
his next few attacks. Then he started to slow down again. It wasn’t like he was
getting tired either.
“Well, it seems you like this
hitting thing too much. I think we’ll have to do this another way.”
Tennyo started dodging and
tripping him up as she moved around him. The shadows seemed to be getting
darker around her too.
“Hold still you little tramp!
Del! Your supposed to be slowing her down. What are you doing? She’s as fast as
lightning and stronger than a bull! Some of those hits really hurt!”
Del was sweating and replied in
a whiney voice that just made you want to swat him.
“I AM! I don’t understand. Her
powers should be damped. She should only be at normal human strength and
abilities now.!”
“Got news for you two little
twerps. Fact is, I’M NOT HUMAN!”
With that statement, she broke
off from the big guy, Leaped over him, and landed past Del, She turned and
grabbed him by the shoulders, then looked into his eyes. Her eyes took on a
greener tinge and Del began struggling and screaming hysterically. The shadows
darkened around her even more.
*
* * *
At the time this happened,
several seemingly unrelated things occurred.
The Reverend Englund sensed a
disturbance that sent him running from the desk where he was preparing the next
days class schedule for his Comparative Religions Class, desperately calling
Security to find if there was something going on.
Miss Henderson and several
students in the school suddenly felt a terrible chill in their bones and a
depression like feeling that would haunt them for the rest of the evening and
bring them renewed nightmares for several days to come.
Two other beings, far away from
any place known to man, sensed something that they hadn’t expected to ever feel
again. It was only for a moment, but that moment was enough to gain their
attention and start a series of events that wouldn’t see fruition until much
later.
A girl called Sara felt a
strange pull in the recesses of her being and a chill ran through her
body.
*
* * *
“HOLD VILLAIN!” The shout
managed to pull Nikki out of the darkness she had started to embrace as a
glittering armored form interposed itself between her and the source of her
pain. She had a moment to realize her rescuer was none other than the annoying
Stalwart before her attacker gave a chilling laugh.
“Stay out of this you clanking
idiot.” The ninja warned. “I’ve no reason to hurt you here. Be smart and
don’t give me one.”
“Nay!” Stalwart brandished a
pretty impressive power sword that hummed as it activated while holding his
shield over the still prone Nikki. “What sort of cowardly knave would I be to
stand aside and allow you to ravish my own Lady! You need a good thrashing,
cur!”
“You talk too much.” Nex
answered as he launched into a flurry of motion that easily knocked the other’s
shield flying into the bushes, and deflected a sweeping attack from the
humming, and now glowing, blade that would have removed an arm had it
connected.
Nikki managed to rise shakily to
her feet during that exchange of blows, but was still unsteady and halfway
dazed. You have power child. Use it! This knight is no match for the
black one. Do not waste what the good fellow has given you.
Nikki’s head began clearing,
mostly from the pain her abused stomach, ribs, and head were frantically
sending messages about to her brain. The internal voice she usually chose to
ignore ranted at her to DO something other than wait for the fight between her
protector and the vicious black-clothed ninja to finish and face a repeat of
the nasty spot she had been in.
Stalwart’s sword went whirling
into the distance and Nikki saw the same hand she had bitten earlier take on an
unhealthy glow as her attacker moved to strike Stalwart himself. She rapidly
gathered in lines and tapped into them for strength, and again totally by accident,
healing as the ninja literally shredded her savior’s armor with his bare
hands. She saw blood flowing from those rents in the armor, and in a rage,
brought her own power up to help the boy who had more than likely quite
literally saved her life moments before.
They were right in the middle of
Whateley’s rose garden, with climbing vines filled with the fragrant blooms,
and thorns. As Stalwart collapsed from the blindingly rapid attacks an idea of
how to end this mess began forming in her mind.
*
* * *
Jade sprinted, but the pair of
linebackers blocked her path. BIG linebackers. The gap between them vanished
as the reached to intercept her. Until one of them crumpled. Behind him
hovered the blinking lights and pink plastic disk of Jade’s Hello Kitty makeup
compact.
“Killstench?” Linebacker Two
asked, in disbelief. “I don’t know what you did to him, you little rug rat, but
you’re going down hard. The name’s Maggot. My touch is like acid. It
dissolves flesh like salt on a slug!”
“Thanks for the warning.” Jade
closed her eyes hard, while pressing the activation detent on her moonsilver
ring. An instant later, the barrettes in her hair erupted with brilliant
strobes of lights that left the mind reeling, the stomach revolting, and balance
uncertain.
As Maggot staggered forward,
Jade closed with him in the sliding step that’s so common to Aikido moves.
Atemi wasn’t her favorite style but sometimes you had no choice. She started a
hop-kick to the crotch with her left foot, a sokuso-sokei kick, but it
was just a feint. As Maggot hunched forward, reaching to protect himself, her
momentum swung the true power into her other leg. It arced around and up,
going fully vertical. A perfect sokutei kick as her heel connected with
his chin.
Her only real question was
whether she’d killed him. A kick like that, full force to the skull, can
easily become lethal.
“Kitty compact: sedate.”
The obedient device extended a
needle and rocketed in to jab the unconscious attacker.
Behind her, Bloodwolf had risen
to his feet, only to face the empty billowing cloak of Shroud. Shroud spoke in
her hauntingly empty voice. “Surrender now, or I’ll hurt you. You may not
recover.”
The werewolf stood fully exposed
now. Except for the jeans he wore, he was the classic image of a movie monster
– a canine head and muzzle and the pointed ears of a half-man/half-wolf. A
fur-covered body and hands that had sharp claws. Even a wolf’s tail that waved
behind him.
“Human or spirit,” he half-growled
the words, “you’re dead meat now!”
And with that, he lashed forward
directly at Shroud’s face. Had she been human, his claws would have torn her
face off. Had she been the naive spirit of two weeks ago, he might have had an
opportunity to grab at her naked and unprotected spirit, absorbing it as Tansy
had.
But she’d learned a lot since
then. Her spirit was protected so long as it was inside an object – no
matter how complex the shape might be. The only danger lay in stretching her
form between two objects.
Further, she had learned to take
human form, but to switch to object form when needed. This was definitely a
time when she needed to be an object.
Lastly, she had finally learned
what Ito sensei had been trying to teach her, by refusing to teach her. She
had no ki. She had no body. She might fight in imitation of a person,
but she would be, at best, a pale imitation of her physical self. For a real
fight she needed to learn her own style – something completely unique to her
situation. Something that Ito sensei could not teach her. And since he
couldn’t, he refused to lead her farther down the wrong path, by instructing
her on how a human body moves.
Jinn-the-object, Jinn when she
acted as the black cloak, had no need of a head or face. For a moment she had
held up a talcum powder target – a lure. And he’d fallen for it completely.
She dropped contact with the million particles of talcum powder. They puffed
aside as Bloodwolf half-clawed, half-punched her “face.” His hand reached through
her face and brushed against the trigger plate of a genuine bear trap (a
“smooth jawed wolf trap”, Harry had insisted). It was set in place like some
obscene vertical mouth, and it snapped shut across his wrist with a force
strong enough to break bone.
*
* * *
Tennyo was ignoring the big guy.
Instead, she was trying to hold the smaller, screaming boy even closer. The
shadows seemed to be starting to move from her hands to his arms were she held
him.
“Get out of my way you little
pipsqueek!”
Suddenly, Del was torn from her
grasp. Tennyo looked up to see Del hanging by one arm from one of the big guy’s
hands. The big guy then tossed Del away. The arm broke with a loud snap as he
did it. Del landed about twenty feet away.
Tennyo growled and her eyes
flashed green blue, “That was MINE!”
“Got you now you little.....
urk!”
She had grabbed him in a
vise-like grip. The shadows seemed to be flowing around his head where she had
grabbed him. His spastic attempts to free himself from her grip were not
succeeding. Then his screams started.
About that time, the shadows
started to fade and her eyes took on a more familiar crimson hue. Startled by
his screams, she let him go.
He was staggering backwards with
a look of pure terror on his face. Tennyo backed off in confusion. She was now
floating about a foot off the ground and the shadows had faded away completely.
“MONSTER!! Get away from me!”
The big guy took one last
terrified look at her and ran away as if all the hounds of Hell were after him.
She looked around in confusion,
trying to find what had scared him so badly. All she could see was the crumpled
form of the guy that big one had called Del. Going over to him, she began
checking him over like she had been taught in Scouts. He was unconscious and
wouldn’t wake up if she yelled at him or shook him the little bit that she felt
safe doing with his injuries.
His right arm was obviously
broken. Other than that he didn’t seem to have any serious wounds that she
could find. He did appear to be in some form of shock.
Tennyo looked around and saw
one of those security emergency phones on a nearby light pole. She flew over to
that, opened the box, and lifted the phone. There was a ring on the other end
and a man answered immediately.
“Security. How can we help you?”
“My name is Billie Wilson and I
have an injured person here who I think is a student. He has a broken arm and
possibly some other wounds that I couldn’t determine under the circumstances.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m on the path that goes from
Dunn Hall to Poe Cottage. I’m not sure exactly where on the trail.”
“Is he close to you now?”
“Yeah, about forty feet or so.”
“Okay. We have a fix on your
phone. We’ll have someone there momentarily. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
She waited by the phone and soon
several security men came rushing from the direction of Administration.
Two men moved up and covered her
while the others set up an overwatch and one of them checked the prone figure
of Del.
That one pulled a walkie talkie
and started to speak into it. Not long after that an EMT showed up and started
to treat him. Soon after that a security SUV showed up and the kid was put on a
stretcher and driven away towards the hospital.
Tennyo just stood there until
Chief Delarose showed up and relieved the two who were watching her. He then
started to ask her some questions.
“Okay Billie. Did you do this?”
“No. It was the big guy with
him.”
“The big guy?”
“Yeah, about five feet eight and
really stocky. Dark complexion and short black hair. Took off running that
way.” She pointed in the direction that she’d seen him run.
“Why’d he run?”
“I think he was scared of me.”
“Why was he scared?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t do
anything to him.”
He scratched his head.
“I think you’re telling me the
truth Billie. I’m just not certain that it’s ALL the truth. Care to add
anything?”
“No.”
He smiled a little smile. “Good.
We’ll need to go to the station so you can file a report. Okay?”
“Okay. Is Del going to be
alright?”
“How do you know his name?”