Kyle:
Xao directed Jaden as we basically cut across Death Valley towards the place where we could contact the trickster council... were Jessica awake I was certain she would have been joking about the very idea of crossing a desert covered in snow.
I bit my lip looking over at her. Judith held her gently against her chest, Bartholomew moving quickly at every bump, eager to steady her. I should have been encouraged that they both cared so much, but I felt uneasy. Bart was eleven and Judith sixteen. I was one hundred and eleven years old. It was like watching infants handle my best friend as she was hanging on the- I held my tongue.
"Stop the car," Xao said.
"We're there?" Jaden said, scanning the area around. "I don't see anything."
"You know we pharaohs have cloaking technology Jaden, why are you even looking?" I asked.
"I just figured... is it cloaked?"
Xao shook his head. "Would probably stand out more if it was. The Tricksters have stations all over the world, but none are above ground and cloaked- all it would take is one person running into them. They're all underneath shacks in the middle of nowhere. They see this car and they'll shut down all entrances till it's off their radar. After all, it's distinctly normal human tech. They tell humans about themselves verbally, but make sure there's no real evidence of their existence."
I processed what he was saying. "So... we're on foot?"
"For the next quarter-mile, yep," he replied. I sighed and pushed open my door. The others followed in short order.
Jaden gently took Jessica as we all marched after Xao.
"Xao," Bartholomew started. "You were telling me the story of... I think your people rebelling a while back?"
Xao paused. He sighed and gave a small smile. "Guess we all need a distraction." He chuckled. "A while ago... more like twenty-five hundred years ago..." He looked around as if to see if anyone else really wanted to hear this story- Bart was the only one who didn't know it. No one bothered to object though. "The way some pharaohs will tell it, Triad saved the Greeks from the evil oppressive Olympians, but they were being oppressed too, the freedom of the humans was just used as a rally point. A few of the leaders of the Triad resistance called the conquering of Greece a "crime against the mother race", seeing as humanity is our origin." He shook his head. "Pharaohs have always had a love/look down on relationship with humans. I think the way Triad won was the real fun part of this story. You see, propagandists for Triad rose and fell, the Olympian upper class silencing them each in turn, however, the allure of the forbidden made their message spread far and wide."
He continued. "A clever man named Recheon, kind of a Spanish rr by the way," Xao emphasized his tongue roll. "Began to organize a number of different cells to fight the Olympus army. He had a strategy from the beginning. He never told anyone he talked to just how many people he was talking to, who or where just introducing people individually. He directed his followers to do the same as well spreading the word until... possibly thousands of independent military cells were formed."
"Possibly?" Bart asked.
"No one knows how many cells there were. All we do know, even to this day, is that one day, Recheon gave his followers a date by word of mouth, them having to spread the word to their own followers. In sixty years each cell was assigned to attack military or civilian targets- they chose- they chose entirely who they would attack or how in fact, only the date was chosen for them. Over the next sixty years, they planned, invented, documented troop movements- you name it. A few were captured- for all the good it did, after all, no one knew what anyone else was doing, and only a few knew a few names. Intelligence was so sparse, the attack date came and across the empire on the homeworld, thousands of attacks rocked the ruling class with barely anyone knowing a thing. Ships were destroyed, military outposts fell, monuments were torn down, royal families were killed... it all happened so quickly and randomly. Thousands on our side died in the attacks, but the damage had been done. The Jenaids were in complete disarray and they had no idea how much more was coming- and more was coming. Much more."
"The Triads had actually spread their ideas, many cells seeding further cells, continuing to use Recheon's strategy of disconnection. There were now even different attack dates for thousands of new groups. The survivors of the first attacks continued to plague royals, and new groups kept popping up all over. Those loyal to Olympus saw the military crumbling and the royal families living in fear from an unknowable enemy. Rumors spread that Triad was bigger than Olympus with more advanced technology... it wasn't true but that didn't matter. Being more powerful than your opponent rarely matters as much as people think."
"Probably helps," Bart commented.
Judith grabbed Bart's head from behind and messed up his hair. "Naive humans eh?" she asked. I rolled my eyes at the human saying this to a human. Yes, she was a banshee mutation, but she was still- sixteen. "Ever heard of Sun Tzu? Let's see. "If you know yourself and your enemy, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles. If you know only yourself and not your enemy, for every victory you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every battle."."
"So..." Bart replied.
"So what if an enemy is unknowable?" Xao finished for him. "You could even win, but you wouldn't know you won."
"That's not fair," Bart noted with a smile.
"Not much in life is," I noted.
"No- not much is," came a voice. Around us a group of six biped creatures seemed to shimmer into existence, light suddenly bending around them as they appeared. They were not humanoid, however. They had long reptilian tales, bodies that extended diagonally from their hips and lizard-like heads with extended snouts. There were six of them, each holding weapons. The weapons had a simple design, two handles somehow attached by a green energy beam.
My eyes went wide. Where had they come from? My heart was racing... 'no... bite it down... you are in control.' "Why reveal yourselves leprechauns?" I asked. I held my hands in front of my stomach, not touching my weapons.
One of them spoke, his lips moving perfectly for human speech, with a kind of unnatural nasal quality. "Well first off, we were waiting for you to check your radar- we thought you already had and thus already knew about us."
Interesting that we had been discussing Triad history. I hadn't checked- but I wasn't telling them that. "Yep, coulda picked you guys off at any point. You sure you want this fight? We're all armed and trained fighters." Well, Jaden, myself, and Xao were armed but as to trained- probably true for everyone but Bart.
The speaker pointed at Bart. "Bluffing on him at least," he noted.
"I'm not bluffing on this, if we fight, pharaoh speed is far better than Leprechaun speed and werewolves are harder to kill than you'd think. We fight, some of you will die." I turned my right hand over, holding my left hand causally under it- I was really programming my magnet weapon as I spoke, but making sure to move so nonchalantly one wouldn't guess my movements had an intention. It would look to the normal person like I was just tapping the screen.
I did have a feeling my fingers were moving too fast- but I ignored it.
"If we fight ALL of you will die," the leprechaun leader retorted.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"The child we came for in the first place. He's ours by right of harvest. Had you not shown up..."
"The answer is no," I interrupted.
"Please?" The leprechaun said. "One or two of us MAY die if we fight. I know that. But the odds aren't in your favor pharaoh. Truth is, the meat of any or all of you can be traded back on our homeworld. We will harvest one of you- or all."
Bart started to look around nervously, holding his arms to himself, shaking not just because of the cold. 'Pitiful child. I've got this- he'll see.'
I shrugged and waved my right hand at Bart. "You want him right?" The leprechaun nodded and licked his lips, Bartholomew's eyes growing wide. All around the speaker, his soldiers started shifting and he looked at them.
"What is..." the lead lizard man looked at his weapon. The beam was gone as the top half hung off his handle by a cord.
"EMP-Bart get down, everyone move!" I shouted. (An emp wouldn't affect mutant powers, but simple computerized technology was another story.)
I quickly unsheathed my two swords, one a scimitar blade, the other a double-bladed short sword. I faced our left flank as Judith quickly did a heel turn to our right. On both flanks, the Leprechauns glared at us and extended small claws from their fingers. On the left, they launched at Judith as she let out a scream that shook the whole area, a powerful pulse of energy erupting from her mouth and tossing away the lizardmen.
Everyone in our group and that of the Leprechauns hit the ground, many of us holding our stomachs or heads- all except for Judith. My ears were ringing and tears were forcing themselves from my eyes. Judith opened her hands, blades slipping out of each of her fingers as she ran and stood in front of Bart.
On our right flank, three enemies staggered forward even as everyone's ears continued to ring. I went low and sloppily shot around them, swinging my scimitar wide, forcing two of the creatures to fall on their backs to avoid my blade. 'Darn, was hoping to run the little freaks through...'
Recovering some of my senses, I saw the remaining pair had almost managed to jump on Judith as her back was turned- save Xao fired a pulse and forcing them to be tossed away.
This opening salvo took care of our opponents or at least knocked them away for the moment. But as the three of us quickly routed the currently unarmed enemies, Jaden was in a tough spot with the lizard man I had barely missed. He had to handle Jessica with one hand and fight with the other. He was able to grab the one leprechaun by the head forcing it down and jumping over it, but a second was staggering towards him, recovering from Xao's attack. It sloppily ran at Jaden, slashing his arm and forcing the teenager to drop Jessica. The monster reached back to slice into Jaden again as the teen glared- BANG! A bullet ripped through the creature's midsection. The creature fell off.
I didn't know if Jaden had just killed or not- probably no one did, but the act caused everyone to stop mid-step in whatever they were doing.
It was like two people were fighting inside of me. As my heart raced, I looked at the leprechaun. He was an enemy of my people, he had stolen an innocent child, he wanted to sell us all for food... I wanted him dead- he deserved it and one less monster to worry about. My normal self, I was worried about what could happen to all of us if this continued. Even innocent little Jaden could be forced to kill.
'Kill him!' a voice said. 'Make it easier.'
'But... no that won't work.'
'So what do you want to do?'
''Use some sense and don't draw first blood, not a good pattern no matter who draws it.'
I looked at the lizardmen, them just as shocked and frozen as the rest of us... Well, save for the three that had been directly hit by Judith's "banshee howl". One of them had had to drag his two companions back, himself staggering.
Jaden gingerly picked Jessica back up, glaring at the monsters around him.
"You're weapons and cloaks may reactivate, that was just an EMP, but face it guys, you lost your advantage. We may even kill all of you..." I closed my eyes. I had to get control somehow- 'maybe if they knew what they were dealing with.' "I am a pharaoh- a- a citizen of Triad..." I reached up. I stood up straight and glared, speaking in the deepest and loudest voice I could manage. "Know your place you filthy insects. Nothing would please me or my people more than to crush you underfoot. You really think you can just hunt and kill MY people? You know what we've done, what we're capable of... or rather, you don't, you've only ever seen samples." None of them moved. "I promise, even if you do kill us, ALL of you, WILL die."
"Th-th-the secret societies here on earth can't pursue us into space-we're from another world," said one of the leprechauns nervously.
I turned and looked him dead in the eyes. Actually talking down to him felt good. This was control. "Pharaohs don't live on earth you deformed lizard. There's nowhere you can run, nowhere you can hide and no one who can help you when you scream... And you know it."
The leprechaun broke eye contact, looking at the ground. "You're right, we can't hurt you... and honestly, long as we're grounded, probably best not to mess with the societies... still..." he lifted a hand, a bag of something in it. I quickly started to maneuver my swords as he crushed it, a gas spewing out.
(***)
I slowly pushed myself to my feet, the cold snow already soaking through my clothes. I was freezing.
Normally my electric power allowed me to regulate my body temperature but I was now envying the coats Jaden and Judith were wearing since when we joined Allen and Nadine. I looked around, seeing we had not been moved from the place of our conflict. My friends were still there, one or two of them waking a little before me, but just sitting in the snow as they recovered- I felt the same way.
"Je-Je-Jessica," I said.
Jaden picked her up out of the snow. My eyes went wide. "She... she's not dead," Jaden said, after listening to her chest. "By some miracle." He gently held her in his arms as he slowly got up." He looked around and then closed his eyes. "Where's Bart?"
I checked around myself, then held my head in my hands. "Gone," I said.
I looked ahead seeing Xao getting up too. "Well... everyone up?" he asked. "We have no idea what's happening with Bart, but Jessica's condition probably got no favors from all that. We haven't got much time left to save her."
"We're not just leaving that kid... I mean... you guys are the Finders, lost kids are your whole job and... and..." Judith let her words trail off.
"I'm not just letting my best friend die Judith. If there's any way to track them when we're done making a deal... I promise, we'll get him back," I said.
Xao looked ready to keep going when Judith spoke up again. "We- we should split. Kyle, you and I can hunt the leprechauns, Xao and Jaden will go to the tricksters and-"
I clenched my fists. 'Is she trying to get us all killed?' "Test our luck like idiots?!" I didn't let her finish. "The four of us barely fought that group for a few seconds and they won't fall for the same tricks twice."
"Verily- we can not just let them take him!" she said, stomping her foot. "They art looking to take him home and eat him like an animal."
We were all moving forward at the moment. I looked down at my scanner, counting life signs. We weren't alone. "I KNOW what they're planning to do Judith. Your people only discovered leprechauns two and a half centuries ago- we had to tell you."
As my pulse quickened, talking to her, it was like something speaking through me... it felt in control. It wasn't wrong... it wasn't wrong... I didn't like what it was saying... but it wasn't wrong.
"I care not! Thou art not better than us, and even if you were- I do not like how you are talking and-"
I pointed my scimitar at her, electricity dancing up and down the blade. "Go and I will kill you myself!" Jaden grabbed her and threw her back, staring me down. Everyone froze.
'What am I doing?!'
'Taking control.'
I kept speaking. "My point wasn't whose better. It was who knows what they're talking about. Those monsters farm humans like animals, if you're lucky they'll slaughter you like a pig because otherwise, they'll keep you alive to... to..." I clenched my eyes shut, lowering my weapon. 'This is not what she needs to hear.' "We'll do what we can Judith, but we will not split up."
Everyone kept looking at me, all of us paused. Judith looked down, looking like she was almost shaking.
Xao clapped his hands. "C'mon everyone. Kyle, get it together. We'll work out whatever that was later."
We were underway again with that, Judith with a look of defeat. She did try to continue though. "But... do you not have that DNA scanner still? You Finders used to rely on it. All traces within two miles are-"
"Sure-we'll use it." I tried to give her a gentle smile but- "We done talking?" I asked, head snapping forward.
Still, I could just feel her spirit breaking... this was the fault of the leprechauns. I would make them pay.
She looked down. "I-I guess."
Minutes went by, the scout leaving us, only myself knowing. My powers warmed me and dried my clothes as we went. I noticed those without my powers shivering in the cold, and in Jessica's condition... there was nothing to be done for it now.
I looked up, quickening my pace and smacking Xao's leg. He looked down. "I don't like how you handled-" I pointed ahead and to the left.
There he stood- Xao's old best friend. The last person any of us wanted to see.
"Darius," I said, handling my blade in its sheath. Turned out me and my pride were fairly unified on a certain point right now. "This will not be a friendly conversation. Leave."
The freckle-faced teenage pharaoh walked forward carrying his eagle head cane.
I cleared my throat. "Leave."
"Hear him out," Xao said.
"He's tried to hurt Jessica before, and after that, he tried to kill us all," I said. I took out and held my scimitar in his direction, electricity dancing again.
Judith looked at the blade with fear, instead of preparing a scream which would have been a nice asset.
I just glared. "He's leaving or we're ending this." I looked up at Xao's face. He was biting his lip, nervously looking between the two of us. "Can you give me a reason not to?"